Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Feeling Good After Dinner Success

I've tried several new recipes since getting married because, like I've mentioned recently, I want to build our recipe choices. I want to have meals that I know how to make. Preferably meals that don't come from a box.

One of my favorite go to meals is plain and simple and comes from all sorts of packages... tacos. I love taco night! Tacos are a food that I don't really get tired of. At least, not tacos the way I like them! I like my beef tacos crunchy and my chicken tacos soft. When we have taco night, which we do ALMOST once a week, I make crunchy beef tacos. Well actually, turkey tacos. I buy the Jenny-O lean (not extra lean because it's $7-$8 a pound... who can afford that??? Not me!) ground turkey and just mix it with Kroger brand taco seasoning and I am in heaven! I usually top them with lettuce, cheese and Pace mild salsa. Usually served with Rice-a-roni Spanish rice. See what I mean by all sorts of packages? Even the lettuce comes wrapped in plastic... sheesh!

But this weekend when I said that I was ready for another taco night and Brett seemed less than enthused, I said that I could do quesadillas instead and he suggested using the chicken we were already planning to buy. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I saw it as an opportunity for a new recipe so I said sure thing!

I know that you can buy chicken taco seasoning just like you can buy beef taco seasoning, but at work today I decided that fajitas would be easier and that we probably had all of the ingredients we need to make our own rub. So I googled "chicken fajita rub" and ended up going with the first recipe that I found.

Umm... insert "We Are The Champions" here. It was SO good! A really easy marinade, and I sliced the chicken just right and cooked it just long enough (I tend to overcook chicken because I am paranoid about under cooking it...). The marinade was just a mixture of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, corn starch, oil and water. I put it all in a Ziploc bag, tossed in the three small chicken breasts that I had sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices, and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes while I cooked some peppers and onions!

I'm just so pleased! Most of the new recipes I have tried have been just okay, but this feels like a winner. Brett wasn't as enthusiastic as I was, (he's a beef guy, I'm totally a chicken girl!) but he was definitely positive. I think that I could make it again and even use it for all sorts of tasty Mexican chicken needs!

I did spend more calories than was necessary though because I used tortillas instead of taco shells... I am just not a fan of crunchy chicken tacos. It just doesn't work for me!

I ate my two tacos and rice and was still hungry. So I ate about a third of a too ripe banana and chunked it, and was still hungry. But I waited for about 45 minutes, then I did a couple of chores and now I am chugging some water and feeling much better. I may make a cup of tea and watch Brett play some Assassin's Creed before I go to bed... I think my tummy would be just right with a cup of tea!

So overall, this was a good food day. I am thinking about what I can do differently next week... we, thankfully, will have a bigger grocery budget this weekend!

I am also thinking about what my actual calorie intake per day goal should be. Goodness, that's a mouthful. On Weight Watchers, a point is approximately 50 calories, and if I were doing WW right now, I would be allowed 30 points a day. So that is 1500 calories. That is the number that I have been trying to stay under since I started my original food journal this summer, but really, I like to be closer to 1300. I don't know why. I just like that number better. I need to put some real thought into it and set a concrete goal. Not a strict rule, just a goal.

Okay, off for a nice cup of tea in my new Snuggie (which kind of makes me look like a Jedi. Nice =-)

2 comments:

Emily said...

I love using the CalorieKing.com program. It recommends all the targets for you and it even walks you through the program as you go. Really, it's just eating healthy (calorie counting) and exercising.

It's not free though, but its not as expensive as WW.

Kim said...

I LOVE me some Calorie King! I look up food on it all the time! And now that I have a food scale I will be looking up actual amounts and not estimates... thank goodness!