Recipe: 30 Days to Fit: What's for Dinner Tonight? - Asian Sweet & Sour Chicken

That is the question many people ask on a daily basis.  Especially for those on an eating plan like me who have given up the acidic foods such as gluten, dairy and sugar.  What can I feed my family of 8 that is tasty and healthy?

So the next couple of days I'm going to post some of the recipes I've been cooking for my family.  And I have some pretty picky eaters including an ex-orphan from Ukraine.

The first is a take on an Asian dish that we love.  A sort of sweet and sour chicken.

Now I want to warn you that I'm a chef so I don't measure a lot when cooking, only when baking so I'm going to throw some things out there.  The most important thing is taste as you go and add more seasoning.  I also like things on the somewhat spicy side.  AND...I'm cooking for 8 plus having some left over for the next day lunch.  I'm scaling that down here.  This should easily feed 4.

1 pound of organic free range boneless skinless chicken thighs - I like thighs because they tend to have a lot of flavor compared to breasts plus they are less expensive.
Sea salt, freshly ground black pepper
Coconut flour for dusting
Coconut oil

1 cup organic brown rice
3 cups organic low sodium chicken stock (I make my own stock - easy peasy)  I'll post the recipe for that one of these day.

1/2 each large dice green, yellow, red bell pepper
1/2 large yellow onion large dice
4 medium carrots, large dice
1 cup pineapple chunks (fresh is best but you can use canned in own juice - no added sugar)

Sauce

1/4 cup Bragg's apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup pineapple chunks and juice (be sure to use pineapple in own juice, not sweetened)
2 oranges, peeled
Fresh ginger, about 3 inches, peeled
Siracha (hot chili pepper sauce)
Red pepper flakes
1/2 cup raw honey

So to make this dish (is your mouth watering yet?) is pretty simple.

First I put my rice on to cook. Bring your stock to a slight boil (I use home made so it is already seasoned the way I like it.  If you buy store bought you'll want to add some fresh pepper, a few flakes of red pepper, some sea salt and a little thyme).  Add the brown rice and bring back to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 45 minutes.  Be patient and leave the lid on.  The steam is important and when you remove the lid ... well there goes the steam.

Meanwhile sanitize your cutting board with white vinegar and you are ready to chop.  First do all of the veggies.  Why?  Because if you do the chicken first you will have to use two cutting boards, or stop everything you are doing to wash and re-sanitize the board before you can do the veggies.  So do veggies first then do your chicken.

Cut the veggies into large dice.  Pieces should be uniform size in order to cook evenly.  Pieces should be about 1" x 1".  (I should really do a you tube on how easy it is to cut veggies - someday).

Anyway, cut your peppers, carrots and onions and if you have fresh pineapple, cut that too.  Enough for both the chunks and your sauce. 

Then cut your chicken into chunks.  By now you should have a pan on (I use a large cast iron skillet) on medium high heat.  Put about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in the pan to heat up.

Spread your chicken over your cutting board, then season with sea salt and pepper then sprinkle on a little coconut flour.  This adds a yummy taste and bit of crisp to your chicken pieces.  Be sure to do both sides.  Chicken doesn't come flavored.

Place chicken in pan and let cook for a few minutes until nicely browned.  Turn and cook on other side.  If you have a lot of chicken, cook in two batches.  Do NOT try to save time by adding globs of chicken to the pan.  You will be disappointed in the result.  Dry, ugly white pieces of chicken instead of juicy and nicely browned chunks of deliciousness.

So now your chicken is done so remove it from the pan and onto a plate covered in paper towel.  This will soak up excess drippings.

In the same pan add a bit more coconut oil if necessary.  Once hot add the carrots, peppers and onions.  Let brown and stir, let brown and stir, let brown and stir.  That brown (caramelization) tastes great so let it have a chance to brown before stirring.  You do not want these veggies soggy so keep your heat medium high and don't over cook.  They should still be slightly crispy.

Remove from heat and add to plate with chicken.  Now to the pan add your pineapple chunks.  You just want these golden brown as it brings out the natural sugars in the pineapples and makes them so delicious.  This will only take a few moments.  Remove them from the heat and add to the holding plate.

In the meantime you can have your sauce going. (I usually start this before I start cooking my chicken so it can start cooking down while I cook everything else).  In a food processor or blender put the oranges, pineapple with juice and ginger.  Be sure to peel your oranges first.  (I know, you are not stupid.  But believe me, someone would ask me about the peel, just to be sure).  Blend or process until smooth.  Then add the rest of the ingredients.  Taste and see if you want to add any more of anything.  If your sauce tastes good now, it will taste good when mixed with your dish.  So taste, add, taste, add, etc until you are happy with it.

IF, and only IF, your oranges are organic you can zest some of the rind before peeling to add to your sauce.  If you oranges are NOT organic do NOT do this.

Put your sauce into a saucepan and put on medium heat.  Let softly bubble until reduced.  Reducing it with time will make it thick without adding thickeners like cornstarch.  

Once everything is cooked now is the time to enjoy.  In your cast iron pan mix together your cooked veggies and pineapple plus the chicken.  Add the reduced sauce and mix thoroughly.  Now plate your rice and dish the chicken mixture on top.

You will wonder why you even go out for Asian when you can make something this good at home.  And no MSG, natural flavorings, processed sugar/starch, etc.  Just good wholesome food.

So make this and then write a comment with your feedback.  I'd love to know how you liked it!

Bon Appetite    Kathe

Is A Calorie Really A Calorie?

I've heard the saying, a calorie in, a calorie out.  Meaning if you exercise and burn more calories during your day than you eat in food that you should lose weight.  Is that true?  In a word - No!  All calories are not the same.

According to Dr. Robert Lustig, M.D. author of the book, "Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Foods, Obesity, and Disease", the QUALITY of the calories determines the quantity your body burns or stores.

For example:

FIBER - Fiber delays the absorption of calories.  For example, when you eat a 160-calorie portion of almonds, you absorb only 130 because some calories are delivered to your intestin, where your gut bacteria burn them for their own energy.

PROTEIN - You use twice as much energy to metabolize protein as carbohydrate due to the thermic effect of food.  Protein also reduces hunger hormones more than carbs do.

CARBS - Starches (like potatoes) contain mainly glucose, which every cell in your body uses for energy.  Fructose - found in soda and candy and added to most processed food - is metabolized in your liver as fat, which drives chronic diseases such as diabetes.

This is one reason our 30-Day to Fit plan works so well.  It teaches to eliminate those foods which are high in calories but low in quality.  It replaces empty fructose carbs with healthy, life sustaining ones and gives your body the highest quality protein to help your body burn more calories and grow your cells healthy.

I highly recommend an Arbonne protein shake mixed with the Fiber Boost at least once a day.  You will feel fuller longer and your body will have the nutrients it needs to be healthy.

And remember, the goal is health, not to lose weight.  You don't lose weight to be healthy - you get healthy and then your body will naturally lose the weight and normalize it to where it should be.

And if you are hanging around your local library anytime soon, pick up Dr. Lustig's book and give it a read.  The more we educate ourselves on what to and what not to eat, the longer and healthier we will live.

Migraine Headaches

I realized a few months ago that I had a problem.  I was getting nasty migraines and couldn't figure out what was causing them.  I knew they were food related and I thought I had taken everything out of my diet that could be the culprit.

I have a background as a chef and most especially a baker.  That means sugar is a food group all by itself. 

I had been eating healthy for 16 years but still ate a good amount of sugar.  I guess I figured since I was home baking it was better.  One day I was teaching a bunch of home school teenagers how to make English Trifle.  This really is one of my top 10 desserts.  The base is freshly made pastry cream which I seriously could eat a gallon.  After the class was over and the teens left I made myself a bowl of pastry cream with fruit on top.  YUM!  Well, two hours later I didn't feel so hot and the next morning woke up at 3 a.m. with a raging migraine. 

It hit me.  Sugar.  Oh no!  The next two days were a fog of pain and a lot of soul searching.  I thought back to the last few migraines and knew they were all sugar related.  I taught 30-Days to Fit.  I want to be healthy myself.  And I was poisoning myself with sugar on a daily basis. 

That day I decided to do 30-Days to Fit totally and completely.  Up to then I picked at it.  Thinking that I was already pretty healthy except for those darn migraines.  Yes, stupid!

So I went full force on the plan.  No gluten, no sugar, no dairy, etc.  I haven't had one migraine since.  In fact I have been eating things I previously thought might have caused the migraines with no ill effects.  I've not even had a twinge of a headache.

If you are not feeling 100% then I'm asking you what are you eating?  Something in your diet is poisoning you. 

By the way, the two weeks off of sugar was NOT fun!  I was exhausted and dragging my sorry self around.  I got a nasty headache, which I knew was my body going waaa-waaa where is my sugar.  Instead of giving it what it wanted, what I really wanted, I drank a lot of water, drank the Herbal Detox tea and on the second week, did a 7-Day Body Cleanse detox.  By the end of the second week I felt better than I ever did on any sugar high.

And best of all, I wrote the above about the pastry cream and I didn't run to the kitchen to make some.  In fact, I didn't even salivate or think about having it at all.  My cravings are GONE! 

So give yourself two weeks before you cave into your cravings.  Muscle through the detox that your body will go through.  Then take stock of how you feel.  I realized that my joints didn't hurt anymore.  My neck pain was gone.  I really had a lot more energy over all.

What else is sugar doing to you?  

Recipe: 30 Days to Fit: Oven Baked Fajitas

OK this is beyond easy and makes great left-over lunches.  You could even put a large batch together on the weekend and divide it up into smaller baggies to freeze and bake later.  Since I have 3 voracious teenagers and a total of 7 in my house right now I made an extra large batch (X3) for dinner and hopefully some leftovers tomorrow.   I'm not counting on that though.  Ha! 

Delicious Oven Baked Fajitas

*gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, soy free, no artificial ingredients

Ingredients:

1 pound organic boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
2 T. olive oil plus more for coating pan
2 tsp. chili powder (mild or hot - your choice)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried cilantro
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 can organic diced tomatoes
1 can green chili's (mild or hot - your choice)
1 large yellow onion, sliced into strips
1 green pepper, sliced into strips
1 red pepper, sliced into strips
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Place chicken strips in a 13 x 9 pan that has been coated with olive oil.  In a small bowl combine the oil, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, cilantro, sea salt and pepper.  Drizzle the mixture over the chicken and stir until well coated.

Add the tomatoes, chili's, onion and peppers and stir until combined.
Bake uncovered for 20 - 25 minutes (longer if a bigger batch) until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender.  Again if you are making a larger batch you may want to stir halfway through the cooking time so everything cooks evenly.

Serve with organic seasoned brown rice* and black beans.

*When cooking my brown rice for Mexican dishes I cook it in organic chicken stock and add pepper, a dash of chili powder, some cilantro and a dash of lime juice.

If you want a tortilla you can make or buy gluten free tortilla's at most grocery stores.  I like to wrap mine in a lettuce wrap or just eat from a bowl.

Top with your favorite salsa!  Enjoy!

NOTE:  If you want the veggies to be more "crunchy" then I suggest doing this and then finishing it up the last 5 minutes in a very hot pan (I use cast iron) on the stove top.  It makes the veggies just like they are in restaurants.

NOTE:  I took the leftovers (yes there were a few) and put them in a quart size freezer baggie.  When I want them for lunch or dinner I can take them out of the freezer and let them thaw and then throw them in a pan for 5 minutes to crisp up and voila' - a quick and delicious (and most importantly healthy lunch or dinner).

NOTE:  I put a portion of them layered with the black beans and rice in a glass bowl and sent it to work with my husband this morning.  He can heat it up at work and have a nutritious lunch!

My Story

16 years ago my darling husband Tom and I decided to start eating better.  We didn't really know what that meant and we didn't know much about good nutrition.  We started by eating at home more and I started reading, researching and taking nutrition classes.  

Until then we never really made the connection on just how important food was to our health - duh!  In fact, today most MD's don't see the connection.  ???

So the more I learned, the more changes we made in our home.  We ate out less, we bought less processed foods and we bought more organic, which, at that time, was hard to find and very expensive.

I started researching different companies and what they had to offer in the nutritional supplement area.  I found out some interesting facts:


1. Many vitamins and supplements are not made from real food.  They are synthetic and don't digest well. 

I met a woman who worked for a port-a-potty company (I guess someone has to) and she showed me an article from their trade magazine (never would have thought) and it showed literally heaps of vitamins (like you would see snow piled up in the winter from snow plows).  They were all vitamins that had been eliminated and had to be disposed of by the company.  The names of companies could easily be read.  Millions of dollars are being spend on vitamins that do not absorb into our bodies.  They are being eliminated right out every single day.  


2. Many vitamins and supplements contain ingredients that are actually damaging to our bodies at the cellular level.  Things like artificial flavors, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, etc.  Studies are showing that these ingredients are wrecking havoc in our intestinal tract.  Our entire digestive system is disrupted and not able to function properly.  GERD, IBS, Acid Reflux, Crohn's and more are the results many are dealing with today.  Not to say that the vitamins are causing it, but they contribute to it and certainly don't help fix the problem like they should be doing.

For something to work it must be absorbed and it must have the nutritional power to do the job.  

In my search (which was very long and exhausting), reading hundreds of ingredient lists, researching different ingredients and how formulations are made I came to this conclusion.  In order for a product to actually have a positive effect on your body is must have these two factors:

1.  Ingredients.  There are differences in ingredients in even the same plant.  Take for instance the St. John's Wort plant.  The plant is huge yet only a small portion of the plant is considered effective.  When you purchase a supplement that contains St. John's Wort you really have no idea what part of the plant it comes from and unless it comes from that small part, then it has no actual value to your body.  

Ingredients, to be absorbed and used by your body, should be pure and of the highest quality.  

Seriously - does anyone think that spending $10 on a jar of 60 capsules that it has anything good in them?  Especially when you take into consideration all of the costs involved the company is probably only spending about 50 cents on the actual ingredients.  

2.  Formulation.  I never knew or thought much about how things are put together.  But formulation is huge.  How ingredients work together.  Do some actually work if they aren't put with other ingredients?  If you are using good quality plant extracts does the company go to the expense of cold pressing or do they just use heat extraction which kills the nutrients?  These are questions that I researched.  

If I'm going to buy nutritional supplements for my family I want them to actually work!  What a concept!

After all of these long hours I was at a loss.  I didn't think I would ever find a company that did things right.  It seemed that all that was important to them was making money and using the cheapest ingredients to make the highest profits.  I refused to spend my hard-earned money on junk so we used nothing.

Finally one day I stumbled upon a company called Arbonne.  Doing my due diligence I set to work to prove they were just like all the rest.  What I found was they set their standards according to European standards, not U.S. (which, sad to say, is one of the worst in the world when it comes to anything food related).  

They used the finest ingredients from around the world formulating them with the highest standards anywhere in the world.  

Finally - a company that did what I wanted!  I was thrilled beyond anything! 

They even taught me some things such as petroleum ingredients and how manufacturers and formulators put it in a lot of American skin care AND in our food as well.  YUCK!

So now that I've told you my life story.....bottom line is that you have a choice to make.  What are you willing to put into your body?  What are you going to do today to give your body the nutrition it needs?  To give your gut what it needs to keep you healthy and strong?

Every bite you take is a decision for or against your health.  

I know you are going to make the right choice today!  

 

Get Your Head In The Game

 

Anyone can do anything for 30 days.  It's true.  Even you.  Even me.  30 days builds a new habit and lets you try it on for size enough to know whether you want to keep it or not.  

This applies to anything.  Want to do better at brushing your teeth?  Do it consistently for 30 days and after that it won't be something you even think about, you will just do it.

Want to be more even-tempered?  Work to not snap at anyone for 30 days.  After that it won't be so much work and people around you will be so thankful.

Want to get healthy?  Find a plan that makes sense and do it for 30 days.  Your body will tell you to just keep doing it.  You'll feel better, have more energy and look better, too.

So get your head in the game.  Decide.  Yup, that's what it takes - a decision.  You deciding to do something different.  

Have you decided?  I mean really decided.  Choose which path you want for the rest of your life.  Health and vitality.  Energy to do the things you want to do.  Or the opposite.  Make the choice and decide to do what it takes to make it happen.

We can all do anything we set our minds to do.  We are all busy.  Seriously I don't know one person who isn't busy.  As my husband, Tom, likes to say we put 10 pounds of flour in a 5 pound sack.  We all do it, every day, every week.  So putting that aside and just assuming that you are one of those busy people, now what? 

Do you allow your busy life to run your life?  Or do you make a choice and a decision to get healthy in spite of your life.  Knowing that being busy you need to be healthy even more.

So look yourself in the mirror and take a good look.  Yes, you are nice to look at but that isn't what I mean.  Look at yourself and think about how you want to look and feel 5 years from now.  10, 20, 30 years from now.  The choices you make today will either support or defeat that future self.  

It's much harder to reverse damage to your body than to prevent it in the first place.  

So make the choice and the decision TODAY to, from this moment forward, be healthy!

This blog will hopefully help in some small way.  

Success tips, recipes, testimonials and more to support your goal of getting healthy! 

Welcome to 30 Days to Fit!  

It's cheesy but welcome to the first day of the rest of your life!  

Kathe