Recipe of the Day

So, like pretty much everyone else in the world, I've made the New Year's Resolution to lose weight. Luckily, Trevor is doing it right along with me. This makes it much easier for me, because it helps me overcome my biggest obstacle in dieting: DINNER. I eat fine all day, and then when dinner comes along, I can't think of anything to cook that's healthy because, of course, I haven't planned ahead. Well, it's now 7:23 p.m. of the first day of my diet. I'm doing pretty good, I must say. It will be nice to have at least ONE healthy day under my belt after months and months of totally not caring. It actually feels good--mostly because a little of the guilt is lifted and I can think to myself, "Well, I may be fat, and all my clothes are tight, but at least I'm DOING something about it."

I have two tools I use in measuring food. One is my Weight Watchers slider. Though I have no intention of rejoining WW, I find their point idea is the easiest for me to follow and stay on. So I use it for everything. My other tool is FitDay. The website, Fitday.com, has been a great help to me over the years and was instrumental in my loosing 25 lbs in 2004. I long ago bought the CD for my computer so I don't have to use the website--highly recommended! Now I can enter every ingredient in a recipe and get the number of calories, fat grams, fiber, etc. Then I use my slider, and I know how many calories it is, and how many points.

Which leads me to today's post. For dinner tonight I made a FABULOUS meal, and it was healthy too! It's actually not the first time I've had it--we found it over the summer doing a search for healthy recipes on laaloosh.com. They SAY it has only six points, but I wanted to be sure. So here's the stats, and then the recipe.

WW Points - 8 (but a FILLING 8 points, let me tell you!)
Calories - 352
Fat - 15 (but it's GOOD fat!)
Protien - 37
Carbs - 58

It IS a little higher in fat. The original recipe calls for 2 tsp of Peanut Oil, but I had to add a little more or burn the bottom of my pan, so I used at least 1 Tbl spoon. Here's the recipe! This is for TWO SERVINGS.

Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

1 lb uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 2-inch strips
1 C brown rice (1/2 c for each person, cooked)
Rind of a small orange, sliced into thin strips
1 1/2 Tbsp Cornstarch
3/4 C canned chicken broth
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp peanut oil
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp soy sauce (the recipe called for low sodium, I didn't have it.)
2 medium scallions, chopped
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (the recipe called for 1/2, but we found that was too much for us.)
1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Directions:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, broth, sugar, cornstarch, ginger, and vinegar, then set aside.
2. In large skillet, heat peanut oil on medium-high heat. Add orange rinds, scallions, garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook for about 2 minutes. Add in the chicken and cook for approximately 6 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown.
3. Now mix in the sauce and let simmer until the chicken is cooked all the way through and the sauce starts to get thick; this should take approximately 3-4 minutes. On a plate, serve chicken and sauce over rice and garnish with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.


So there's my recipe! Love it! Day one down--the rest of my life to go!

P.S. I made this new background for my blog. Isn't it pretty??