Chili Lime Shrimp

Yum! Dinner tonight turned out really good. Napa cabbage salad with asian dressing, grilled veggies and chili lime shrimp, brown rice with plain yogurt, and fresh cut pear and papaya.

Cabbage Salad

1 small head napa cabbage, coarsely diced

2 small tomatoes, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

handful cilantro, shredded

Asian salad spritzer or dressing of choice
This is one of my most common side dishes. Cut up fresh fruit, whatever is on sale. Wednesday is super cheap produce sale day and the ethnic market I go to, so I'm all stocked up right now! Today papaya and pears were some of the great deals. This is just 2 pears and about 1/8 of a papaya.

The grilled veggies are really easy too, and make a great versatile side dish. I slice up what I have, spray with Pam and put them on the George Forman grill. Leftovers make great scrambled eggs, omelets, salad toppers or pita sandwiches.

This is 2 zucchini, 2 green and 2 red bell peppers, and 1 medium/small onion.

Chili Lime Shrimp

1 lb shrimp

1 lime, zest and juice

1/4 tsp chili powder

pepper to taste

1 tbsp canola or olive oil

Combine lime juice, about 2/3 of the zest, chili powder, pepper and oil. Clean shrimp well and coat them in marinade. Cook the rest of dinner while they marinade, doesn't take long.

To cook, just place on George Forman grill until pink through and curled up. I bought precooked shrimp this time since it was on sale, and just put on the grill long enough to warm them, works a lot better with raw shrimp.

Brown Rice with Lime Yogurt

per serving:

1/2 cup cooked brown rice

1 tbsp plain fat free yogurt

couple pinches lime zest

Top rice with yogurt, sprinkle with lime zest.

First harvest of the year

Yay! I harvested the very first of my container garden today. Just a salad made of thinnings from my big dish of radishes and some baby spinach, but still good! Only about 10 minutes from growing to served up. All I did was pull up any of the baby radishes that were too close together, break off the root end and wash them well. The baby spinach I pulled larger leaves off all my plants. I need to plant more spinach, I eat a ton of salads and fresh right off the plant is so much better than the junk at the grocery store! There's something primal and intensely satisfying about eating something you grew yourself, even if it's just a little salad!

I added half a chopped up roasted chicken breast on top of the salad and a little light ranch and made lunch of it. Yum :D

On a related note, I think the potting soil I'm using has too much nitrogen. The root veggies don't seem to be getting plump roots, just lots of greens. My baby carrots should have some thickening by now, but nothing. Same with the radishes. At least the radish greens are edible (and yummy!) but the carrots may be a flop. Worst case scenario I toss them to the worms and start over with some garden soil or some plain ol' dirt. Until then - my greenery stuff is all doing really well!

Conscious eating

One of the more helpful weightloss tips I've heard is being conscious of what and how you're eating.

Something I've tried that really seems to help is taking just 1 bite or small portion of foods you eat all the time and really experiencing it. Feel, closely look at, slowly taste and chew the item. Notice the smell, texture, mouth feel, taste and aftertaste. You might discover that something you frequently eat and thought you really liked isn't so good. I discovered I actually don't like most milk chocolate, like Hershey's chocolate. They just tasted flat, waxy and had a sour rancid breath aftertaste.

Try the same thing with whatever food you often crave. Most fast food, if you take some time with it, just tastes like lots of salt and half rancid grease. When you have that in mind, it's much less tempting!

You can use this technique to understand what it really is about that item that you want. Are you after something sweet, salty, savory, sour, crunchy, creamy, or just something you can pop in your mouth? Once you know what it is you find satisfying about that food, it's easier to find a healthy food option that fills the same niche, and you may find that you enjoy the healthy alternative even more when you truly experience the food instead of just chowing down.

Really experiencing your food also works to help find healthy options more appealing. I love to take a perfect ripe apple and really enjoy it. The crispness on the first bite, the almost creamy crisp texture of the interior and the sweet aftertaste are wonderful. Some of them are so sweet it's almost like honey. I actually crave many healthy foods now, knowing how good they really taste!

My Meal Plan

The most common question I get about my weightloss is "what do you eat?"

So here it is, plain & simple :) I just choose one option from each category, or something similar. I eat about 6 times daily, 3 meals and 3 snacks.

Breakfast:
1. fat free cottage cheese with a spoonful low sugar or sugar free preserves, or a handful fruit
2. scrambled egg with 1 slice cheese on toasted double fiber english muffin
3. Light & Fit yogurt with 1 piece fruit (an apple or something)
4. a 2- egg omelet with cheese and sauted veggies

Snack:
1. a piece of fresh fruit
2. a handful of almonds
3. Any fresh veggies
4. celery with natural peanut butter
5. a slice of cheese and Ak Mak or All Bran crackers
6. a reduced fat string cheese
7. a light yogurt
8. a sliced apple with natural peanut butter or a slice of cheese
9. fresh cut fruit with yogurt to dip it in
10. fresh cut veggies with yogurt or hummus to dip
11. sunflower seeds
12. pumpkin seeds

Lunch:
1. a large salad of romaine or leaf lettuce (not iceburg! it's nutritionally worthless), with about 1/4 cup protein like a handful nuts, leftover cooked chicken or other meat, a slice of cheese or a string cheese. Any veggie toppers I feel like, maybe some oranges, and a little light dressing or salad spritzer, or salsa for a taco salad
2. veggie soup, just broth with any combo of veggies and maybe a can of tomatoes. Add cheese & crackers for some protein
3. Dinner leftovers
4. a small whole wheat pita stuffed with grilled chicken and veggies, with light mayo or fat free sour cream

another snack

Dinner:
I cook dinner, and try to make planned leftovers so I have some side dishes ready to go that I can just reheat. Some common menus I make (next time I make them I'll share pics & recipes, or sooner by request):
1. fish tacos with beans and sauted greens or zucchini
2. turkey tacos (same sides)
3. grilled or broiled chicken sandwich, fresh fruit and cooked veggies
4. burger on whole wheat english muffin, baked fries or sweet potato fries, or baked sweet potato and veggies
5. simple chili or soup and many variations, with biscuits or toast and fresh fruit
6. baked chicken tenders, veggies and fresh fruit
7. stir-fry over brown rice with oranges
8. stuffed cabbage rolls, broccoli and fruit
9. sauted turkey smoked sausage & peppers, brown rice, fruit
10. grilled sausage or chicken, veggies and fruit
11. low carb "hot dogs" of smoked sausage on romaine "buns" with baked fries and fruit
12. baked packets of cod, mushrooms & asian seasonings on brown rice, broccoli and fruit

Dessert/after dinner snack:
any of the day snacks, or
1. sugar free pudding made with fat free milk, sometimes with peanut butter or fat free cool whip
2. sugar free jello with cool whip free
3. apple, cored and filled with raisins then baked until tender
4. frozen green grapes

I try to buy lots of produce, fresh fruit and veggies, whatever is on sale. We end up eating a lot of broccoli, cabbage, zucchini or mexican squash, oranges, apples, berries, peaches, nectarines, melon, grapes, onions, greens, lettuce - tons of others, but those I always seem to have around!

I don't usually measure portions very accurately, but I do keep an eye on meat and fat and try to limit them. I try to get healthy fat sources like avocado, almonds and canola oil. Other than that, I just try to eat lots of fresh fruit & veggies, enough lean meat, and a few servings of whole grain. That seems to be the basis of every diet on the market, no gimmicks just common knowledge that really works!

Of course diet alone isn't enough and you'd need to do some kind of exercise, and check with your doctor and all that we all know already! I'm breastfeeding too so that speeds up the weightloss a bit, it lets me have a bit more calories daily than someone who isn't. I take a multivitamin when I remember too, just to cover any bases I missed :)