I thought I'd try and start 2011 off with a bang. This included cleaning the entire house and preparing a healthy dinner for the family. On the menu today was stir fried chicken with on brown rice all housed in a lettuce bowl.
First off I prepared the hoisin sauce which was home made and I MUST say yummy. Yes, you can buy it prepared but it is so easy to make that I wouldn't bother.
- 4 tbsp of sodium reduced soy sauce
- 3 tbsp of smooth peanut butter
- 1-1/2 tsp of honey
- 2 tsp of sesame oil
- 1/4 tsp of freshly chopped garlic or garlic powder
- dash of pepper (preferably white pepper)
- 2 tsp white vinegar
Whisk together and set aside. For the adults add hot sauce. About 2 tsp to give it some bite. The stuff is good enough to drink. I separated the bowls as my little ones haven't become accustomed to spicy foods.
Next I took both chicken breast and thighs and sliced them thinly. The thighs provide a nice consistency over the drier breast. Either can be used, or, do as I did and use them both.
Heat up a skillet to the point where you can feel the heat rising from the pan. Add a drizzle of olive oil onto the pan. You don't want the oil to bounce out of the pan. If it does turn it down slightly. Add the chicken into the pan and roll to coat it with the olive oil.
After a few minutes the chicken will slowly change color (3 to 4 minutes depending on the thickness of the cuts) and should be almost cooked through. At this point add your Hoisin sauce and be sure to roll and coat the chicken. Crack some black peppercorns overtop and stir in. Let the sauce set in.
Note this is only half the chicken as this sauce contains the hot sauce :)
From here set it aside and sprinkle some sesame seeds for some visual appeal.
I also sliced some thin carrot strips and quickly fried them in the pan with the leftover sauce.
In another pot I made some brown rice which I will use as a bed. Ideally if you have enough sauce leftover in the pan (it doesnt take much) I would through the rice in the pan to pick up on the delicious flavor of the Hoisin sauce.
From here take some iceburg lettuce and use the outer layers to try and make bowls out of. This takes a bit of practice to get the right pieces and you'll probably find yourself going through most of the lettuce head to make this right.
Add the rice into the lettuce bowl, add your chicken and carrots for garnish and you're done!
Not the prettiest presentation but the taste was amazing!
OK....so how about the nutritional value? Per serving this has:
- 638 Calories
- 21.1g Total Fat
- 4.3g Saturated
- 2.8g Polyunsaturated
- 3.3g Monounsaturated
- 0g Trans
- 143mg Cholesterol
- 997mg Sodium
- 104.2mg Potassium
- 57.8g Total Carbs
- 3.5g Dietary Fiber
- 6.7g Sugars
- 54.2g Protein
The Protein count on this meal was high due to the fact that I had a full breast and thigh. Halving these servings would cut down the protein and cholesterol counts by almost half.
Easy to make and the entire family enjoyed it. Even our picky little eater Sophia ate it all :)
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WOD (Workout of the Day)
For those of you checking out this blog for the first time, no, this isn't a NY resolution. This stems from a challenge started over 4 weeks ago with the help of my friends at Fitness Town.
As of this morning I'm down just over 10 pounds in 4 weeks. I started at 215 and am now down to 204.8.
I'll leave the discussion on how, why, what, for another time. Just know that I'm eating non stop and exercising with my family daily.
Today's exercise consisted of a few things.
7 sets of abdominal and oblique crunches
3 sets of heavy dumbbell presses
3 sets of lateral arm raises
20 minutes of a moderate speed run on the treadmill
I'm really feeling like I need to add more to this routine (as far as quantity goes). I've received some great advice from Patrick over at FT and also from many people that i've contacted via Twitter.
Jodie and I are considering a personal trainer but we are going to wait and see how things go with our vibration plate when it comes in a few weeks. Jason who works with FT will be giving us a few pointers when he comes and does an orientation with us at our house. Can't wait!
The girls at different times all went on the treadmill. Jodie first, then Sophia and finally Georgia. All supervised of course. Jodie is complaining about the impact of the treadmill on her feet. She's had issues in the past which she probably doesn't want me to talk about :). Anyways...we might need to do something about it as the new runners we bought didn't seem to help her.
At some point while I was making dinner both of my little ones decided to break free and go downstairs to finish their workout. I'm not sure what they did but when they came upstairs Georgia was rubbing her arms and Sophia collapsed on the couch with a big *sigh*.
Cheers
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