Second Day Chicken – 1 chicken, 3 meals, great deal!

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Cilantro-Lime Chicken

Cilantro-Lime Chicken

Last night I posted about how to easily let a chicken roast in the crock pot while you are away at work or just busy at home doing things other than worrying about cooking dinner. Today, I’ll share a few ideas on how to use the leftover chicken for equally delicious meals.My first recipe is something anyone can do and has done, Chicken Salad. If course it’s easy to chop up chicken and throw some mayonnaise in it and call it chicken salad, but I’ll share my favorite preparation of it; if you’re allergic to nuts or opposed to some of the ingredients leave them out and/or substitute them with something you do like.

Chicken Salad ~ Dawn’s Cape Cod Style

2 cups chicken shredded with a fork

1/8 – 1/4 of a small onion, diced

small handful dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

small handful walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped

1 stalk celery, diced

dash salt and ground black pepper

1 teaspoon lemon juice-or juice of half a lemon

1-3 tablespoons mayonnaise or if you prefer not to use mayo. you can mix plain Greek yogurt with 1/4 to 1/2 an avocado until creamy, it will make your chicken salad greenish but that’s fine, it will be delicious.

Gently mix all ingredients together until well blended. Serve immediately or cover and chill overnight so flavors meld.

This would be great to mix the night you roast the chicken once it’s cooled. Before you sit to eat, take 2 cups of it out of the heat and set it aside – it will be cooled by the time you finish your dinner and are ready to clean up the kitchen – which by the way is a breeze because dinner was so simple!

Serve the chicken salad atop a salad, in a sandwich or Pita pocket. This will make enough for several sandwiches/meals.

A dinner idea for the rest of the leftover chicken is a simple chicken and fresh vegetable soup using a good quality pre-made organic chicken broth and your choice of in-season vegetables cut up and simmered till tender and warmed or if the weather is too hot for soup make Cilantro-Lime Chicken with a side salad and fresh veggies and/or steamed red potatoes or brown rice. Veggies and chicken alone is truly all you need for a healthy, filling dinner.

Cilantro-Lime Chicken – cooling and simple for a warm summer evening

Use the remaining chicken from roasting night, tear it into big chunks

Sprinkle well with salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 large handful cilantro chopped – I was short on cilantro in my garden so I added fresh dill and parsley with the cialntro I had

juice of 2 limes or 2-3 Tablespoons lime juice

1/4 cup olive oil

Mix all ingredients together and gently toss, set aside while you prepare the vegetables and/or salad.

Serve on plate alongside your salad and veggies of choice.

Don’t get stuck, get creative!

Chicken Salad - Dawn's Cape Cod style

Chicken Salad – Dawn’s Cape Cod style

Chicken Salad w/Avocado-Yogurt Dressing

Chicken Salad w/Avocado-Yogurt Dressing

Fast, Cheap and Easy! (and healthy)

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Who doesn’t like fast, cheap and easy especially when it’s healthy?

I get many requests and confessions from people about not wanting to spend a lot of time cooking, not wanting to eat processed box food and fast food take-out meals. Are you one of them? I have many tips up my sleeve and I plan to share them with you often.

For the Crockpot lovers out there here’s a fast, cheap and easy dinner with plenty to feed a larger family or for more than one meal. I respect that everyone is busy and wants to get the rules and not the fluff so here goes; there are no rules! :)

Crockpot Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken, one chicken cut up, or chicken breast, boneless chicken pieces – whichever you prefer

favorite herb/spice mixture – I used poultry seasoning with a low salt content

I also used 1/2 cup white wine you can use your favorite beer too or just water

Put the chicken in the pot, pour wine or beer over the top, sprinkle generously with your choice seasoning. Turn crockpot to low if cooking for 8+ hours or high for 4-5 hours.

Sides: I used leftover quinoa-wild rice mixture from the night before, I didn’t heat it, I just added olive oil, a little salt & pepper and chopped tomatoes from my garden. I also sautéed yellow summer squash and cut up string beans from the garden. You can make a salad, simmer up some quinoa in just 15 minutes; while it’s cooking you can set the table or slow down, breathe deeply and slowly to unwind and de-stress a little bit after your busy day.

The chicken will fall of the bones so carving isn’t even necessary – just be sure to pick the bones out ;)

After you eat, work for 10 minutes to de-bone all the chicken and put it into the refrigerator for another meal. Set a little aside for lunch the next day alongside some leftover salad and quinoa. Healthy dinner, healthy lunch, happy you!

Crockpot chicken 8-5-14

Are You Missing Out on Your Life?

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Are you a people pleaser? Do you try your hardest to do for others only to feel that you’re never good enough? Are you waiting for the people who you try so hard to please to change and accept you as you are and set you free from their mental grip? Does the thought of self-care make you feel selfish and uncomfortable? If you answered yes to any of these questions you could be missing out on your own life and life is too short and too precious to put on hold.

If you continue to desperately try to earn their approval while the very act eats away at your core, you’ll learn maybe too late that you’ve wasted a portion of your life that you can never reclaim. Trying to please others is fine if you are doing it as a nice gesture and the recipient isn’t expecting it. Trying to please those who expect it isn’t healthy for you because you will learn as time goes by that if you accomplish to please someone, it will be short-lived leaving you back at the beginning trying to please them again; ultimately trying to make them happy. The long and short of it, we cannot make anyone happy, their happiness is up to them and our happiness is up to us; our happiness should never ride on the coattails of other’s happiness.

Finally letting go and allowing yourself to live your life as others you’ve been trying so hard to please have allowed themselves to live theirs isn’t an easy thing to do. You will go through several emotions including feelings of selfishness, maybe even worthlessness, that it’s not okay, fear, sadness, anger, frustration, loneliness, and a number of other unexpected feelings but that is part of the healing process and hopefully they will soon be followed by peacefulness, calm, joy and fulfillment.

Decide that your life is worth living now not later and that you deserve to live life just as these people who you work so hard to please do. There are no guarantees that we will have later just as there are no guarantees that we can make anyone happy. Make small changes and do it at your own comfortable pace. Acknowledge your feelings and face them. Use a support system, a friend, a group, a relative, a spouse; get support from someone who sees you as you are and can be. Accept that you are not perfect because nobody is perfect and that is exactly as it should be. Expect from yourself what you expect for yourself when you try to please others.

Just because you choose to live your life instead of putting it on hold doesn’t make you a bad person, selfish or careless. While it’s extremely difficult to let go of what others might think of you it’s something you must do in order to survive in a healthy state of being. It’s time to let go of your dependency of making others happy and just be. Imagine living your life on your terms just as others around you do – what a level of peace that brings!

Live ~ Love ~ Laugh ~ Be

Cook Once, Eat Twice (or four times w/a breakfast and lunch)!

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2014-07-23 18.18.26Let me help you break the habit of ordering take-out or frozen dinners when you’re too tired to cook.

Last night I roasted a pork tenderloin with savory and bold spices. Alongside it I baked sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli. The sweet potatoes were large!

I put enough food on my plate for my dinner and my other half did the same which left us with half a tenderloin, some broccoli and half of my sweet potato. We were pleasantly filled to the brim! The night before I had made a side-dish of couscous with our grilled chicken breast and had plenty left over from that too.

Breakfast this morning consisted of 2 scrambled eggs, half of my sweet potato and about a cup of broccoli tossed together which kept me full far into the day. I made a simple turkey breast roll up with lots of arugula for lunch.

Today the weather was pretty hot and pretty humid; the kind of weather that makes you not want to cook and not very hungry – enter leftovers.

For a cooling and quick dinner tonight I made a garden salad with romaine, my own tomatoes, sundried tomatoes and almond slivers with an olive oil and pomegranate dressing, a couscous salad with tomatoes, sliced raw string beans from the garden, black beans, corn, scallions, parsley and the leftover couscous; then I sliced the cold pork tenderloin thinly and dinner was done! This all took no more than 15 minutes to pull together and it was deliciously filling and healthy.

Leftovers make great breakfasts, lunches and dinners. When you cook, make extra with another meal in mind. It’s fine if you don’t know what you will do with it immediately; when the time comes to use it inspiration will strike.

Get creative and have fun with food! Bon Appetite!

Outside Wellness Matters too!

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Initiate Wellness inside and outside has become my catch phrase; not to sell more of anything but because wellness throughout matters. What is wellness inside and out? Inside wellness includes the foods we eat and how they affect us. Whole  foods in their natural state are healing and nutrient dense which help feed our cells. There is no one particular food that is absolutely perfect for everyone because every one of us is uniquely different and we each react to foods differently. Finding what works for you personally keeping your weight, organs and blood optimal is the place of perfection for you.

Outside wellness involves things you do that help you experience happiness, inspiration, calm, confidence, joy, peace, stress-free, care-free and clean environment and similar things which brings me to my point in this post, the environment around me (and you).

I live in a spot that is pretty, lush, wooded, hilly, quiet and damp. Everything is good except the dampness. I would never have thought a wooded rolling area would be damp but the spot I am in is and that isn’t healthy for me personally. I have had only slight breathing issues due to exercise and moldy-mildew(y) induced asthma. When I moved here almost five years ago I didn’t realize it was as damp as it is and because of the environment I live in, my asthma inhaler has become my best friend, unfortunately.

This past weekend I had an opportunity to take a few days down the Cape, where my heart truly is and has been since I was a child, with my sister-in-law. One would assume the cape is damp and mildew(y) because it’s surrounded on three sides by ocean but I didn’t have any breathing issues and boy-oh-boy was my head draining and clear. The air felt clean and fresh and my inhaler never got to see the light of day! I walked….a lot. I slept well. I felt peaceful and inspired and I felt healthy.

I returned home last night, not saying good-bye to my Cape Cod, but saying until I see you again. Surprisingly and sadly within about an hour of being home my chest got heavy and wheezing began. I was heading to bed so I chose to try sleeping without taking any inhaler because it keeps me awake and leaves my body feeling like it was plugged into an electric socket, well, what I imagine it might feel like if it were charging up like a cellphone.

Outside wellness is not just the things we do to make us happy but it involves how and where we live that make us feel truly healthy. The air we breathe and the full environment around us makes a difference in how we feel and how we react to life in general. Our environment can make us happy, inspired and healthy or it can leave us feeling lethargic, sad and depressed, sluggish, labored and toxic.

Take the necessary steps that lead you to your healthiest on the inside and on the outside!

Down to earth juicing

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Earthy Beet juice blendI love smoothies but sometimes I like the smooth thinness of a juice. I have a great blender that can almost build a house, ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it is pretty helpful in many ways. My juicer on the other hand is just a cheap but equally handy piece of equipment; it does its job and makes a very nice juice.

I’m not in the habit of juicing every day but I’d like to be. I juice when I have fresh veggies and fruit on hand…I’m more of a veggie lover than a fruit lover but fruit helps break the deep earthy flavor to a slightly more naturally sweet earthiness.

Today’s juice is deliciously earthy. The recipe I concocted includes a beet-peeled, 3 ribs celery, 4″ piece of cucumber, 2 carrots, a handful of spinach, 1 green apple-cored, 2″ piece of ginger-peeled, splash of water in the end to get every last bit of juice out of the machine.

Beets help detoxify, improve heart health, anti-oxidant, and have shown to reduce tumor size among several other health benefits.

Looking to increase your veggie intake and feed your cells as well as possible? Try juicing and smoothie making, all homemade of course so that you have full control and knowledge of what you are putting into your body!

Cheers, bottoms up!

My Novice Garden

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Garlic while still growing and scapes attached

I’m just a novice gardener, I’m not a farmer like several of my friends but I’m not doing too badly either. This year is my third year having a vegetable garden in this location, I did have a successful garden years ago at another home which had plenty of sun unlike my spot here.

The endless shade in my yard throughout the day is a great thing when you want to sit outside enjoying spring, summer and fall but it’s not so great for my garden as you can imagine. Considering this, growing an abundance of produce has been challenging. I can grow kale from spring through fall, I have also had good luck with string beans and certain herbs, very small bell peppers, tiny cucumbers if any and if the frogs stay away from them. Yup, I have a brook running beside my house and it seems to attract some type of pointy nosed frogs who love to eat the insides of my cucumbers leaving the skins fully intact; it’s not such a great  moment when you think you have this beautiful cucumber and as you pick it up it’s just a shell! Heartbreaking.

One thing that my good friend Clem down the street who is a farmer in every sense of the word taught me how to grow last year was garlic. I planted eleven bulbs and had a successful crop of eleven garlic scapes which I used in several different ways and garlic scape hummus was the biggest hit, especially to my cousin’s 3-year-old son, he absolutely loved it! When it was time to harvest the garlic bulbs I of course had eleven which I saved every one of to plant in the fall.

Last fall my oldest son was around so he helped me plant 83 cloves of garlic then we covered them with hay until spring. As the last bit of snow melted in April I removed the hay to find small sprouts stretching their arms up toward sunlight – once again I was elated!

A few weeks ago I snapped off all the garlic scapes, I had enough this year to share so I did and I kept some too. I will freeze whatever I don’t use this week after making more hummus and a garlic scape & herb pesto.

Today I harvested all 83 garlic bulbs and laid them on an unused child gate to dry. I’m drying them in my cellar which is light enough and has very dry air all the time. I only pulled two sets of twins this year which I will not plant next year per instructions of farmer Clem; but they will make good eating!

I thoroughly enjoy planting, growing, and cooking with garlic scapes and garlic so come fall, I’ll plant more than 83. I’m going to plant the largest of my bulbs and look for larger bulbs at the local farm stand to plant.

If you feel even slightly interested in trying to grow your own garlic I say go for it!

Just harvested today and laid on a screened gate to dry

Just harvested today and laid on a screened gate to dry

Garlic scapes & kale

Garlic scapes & kale

 

 

 

Summer BBQ Picnic Tips

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The 4th of July is upon us. This week will be a short work-week for many and you might be preparing foods for your celebration. I have a few small tips to keep in mind for this weekend and every BBQ and picnic in your future.
While prepping for your parties keep healthy snacks, drinks and foods in mind and at hand.

Healthy means lower fats, more fruits and veggies, less sugar laden goodies (yes, have dessert, just don’t over-do it). Just because it’s diet does NOT mean it’s healthy! Many diet food and drink options are sweetened with chemicals and are no better for you than the regular choice. Soda and diet soda isn’t exempt from this list! Diet soda doesn’t help you lose weight, and it doesn’t necessarily help if you are a diabetic. The best choice is no soda.

Choose water and unsweetened tea over soda. You can easily flavor water with lemon, mint, cucumber, lime, basil, lemon balm, oranges, apple, pear, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and many other fruit and herbs.

Choose regular salad dressings over low-fat or reduced fat options including mayonnaise…why? Low-fat and reduced fat foods add sugar, sodium, and chemicals to compensate for removed fats, often the good fats like omega 3’s and many people end up taking more because it seems healthier so they too overcompensate. You don’t need extra sugar to feed fat cells, or added salt for increased blood pressure. Go with as close to natural/nature as possible.

To sum it up:

1 – more veggies and fruit as close to their natural state as possible

2 – healthy vegetable proteins, smaller portions of meat and choose lean over fatty

3 – less sweets

4 – less soda, more water, tea, and natural juices

5 – portion control, smaller servings of healthy choices

These tips will help you get on track and stay on track. You can still have fun while you eat healthy and lose or maintain a healthy weight at the same time!

Celebrate, have fun, just eat smart while you’re out enjoying life so that you can enjoy life in a healthy, happy, energetic way for many more years!

Food Addiction & How to Control It

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Our body is greatly affected by what we put in it. If we treat it to processed, un-natural, chemically treated, high fat foods it will go through high processes to digest these so-called foods, we will look and feel un-natural, we will suffer symptoms of chemical overload and we will have a high fat content to our body.

What is food addiction and how do we become addicted?

Food addiction is basically compulsive overeating. There are many reasons for this kind of behavior. Some compulsively overeat for comfort, out of loneliness, depression, as a control issue (as in it’s the only thing they have control over, but then it gets out of control and so begins a cycle), some binge out of boredom, or not being satiated with healthy food choices, for many it’s for emotional reasons. Overall, the kind of food you consume can lead you to being addicted to it. Whatever the reason, it can be stopped!

First, let’s look at the addicting foods.

Caffeine – Caffeine is a drug. Caffeine is defined as a drug because it stimulates the central nervous system, causing increased alertness. Caffeine gives most people a temporary energy boost and elevates mood. It’s found in coffee, tea, soda and chocolate.

Sugar – Sugar is an additive and in its many forms can lead to many diseases, the most well-known being Type 2 Diabetes.

Salt – Salt is added in large amounts to processed foods. This makes that particular food addicting.

Fat – Fatty foods such as meats dairy and sweets are addicting because they stimulate the “pleasure centers” of the brain causing the compulsion to repeat the experience. We can also develop a tolerance to the pleasure the food gave and need more of it.

Casein – Casein is a protein found in cow’s milk and is therefore in cheese and other dairy products. Casein breaks down during digestion into casomorphins, which are opiates that make the eater “feel good” after eating. They create cravings and cause withdrawal when given up. Casein is more concentrated in cheese than milk.

Artificial Sweeteners – Most of what you hear about artificial sweeteners comes from the companies themselves. Unfortunately, you don’t hear the downside of these chemical additives. You most likely use these so-called sweeteners either to lose weight or to satisfy your sugar craving. But artificial sweeteners do neither; they don’t help you lose weight and they actually make your cravings worse causing you to have ‘one more’. They’re also dangerous to your health because they are chemicals that you should not be putting into your body as your body has a difficult time getting rid of them. Studies have proven artificial sweeteners are linked to potential cancer risks, negative effects on the liver, kidneys and other organs, gastrointestinal problems, developmental problems in children and fetuses, headaches and they stimulate cravings. Artificial sweeteners may also lessen the body’s ability to regulate glucose levels. Studies have also shown that people who consume artificial sweeteners eat more calories than those who don’t.

Chemicals in our food – This includes MSG, food dyes/colorings, as well as preservatives. Over 12,000 chemicals are used in the production of our food; many are used intentionally as “direct additives” but some are “indirect’ contaminants or used accidentally. The food industry uses roughly 3,000 different additives in various packaged, processed and preserved food. They include preservatives, emulsifiers, natural and artificial colorings and flavorings. Two common chemicals we create are Trans-fats and hydrogenated fats.

So, how can you eat-to-lose, and win?

1- Eliminate junk food from your diet. This includes artificially sweetened foods, processed dry or frozen foods (with the exception of plain, frozen vegetables or fruits); foods labeled low-fat or fat-free as these usually have added sugar (with the exception of low-fat dairy products where the fat is simply removed). Junk and processed foods have little to no nutritional value.

2 – Eat lots of produce. A fruit or vegetable should be added to every meal and eaten as snacks between meals. They provide abundant amounts of nutrients without a lot of calories which make them a perfect food for supporting weight loss.

3 – Eat lean protein. Protein helps your body maintain muscle mass and helps you stay full. Don’t stick to meats only. There are many great sources of protein including fish, eggs, beans, nuts, and dairy products such as Greek yogurt and cheese.

4- Eat fiber with every meal. Fiber helps you feel full and stay full. It’s also beneficial to the digestive tract. It can be found in a wide variety of foods including most vegetables such as sweet potatoes, broccoli, kale, spinach, eggplant and whole grains breads, pastas, brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa, millet, barley, bulgur wheat and more.

5- Get moving. Get outside. Walk, bike, run, play catch, Frisbee, hike, anything. Just get some exercise every day. It will burn fat and relax your mind, body and lift your spirits.

Our ancestors ate whole grain breads; we eat white bread, stripped of all its nutrients.  Native Americans ate corn: we eat corn syrup which has no nutritional value.

By omitting processed and junk foods as previously mentioned, and replacing them with whole foods in correct portion sizes and with at least a little bit of physical activity daily you will lose weight and win your body back.

 

How You Think will Become Truth

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I once read: “emotions are the result of your thinking”. What are you thinking on a regular basis? Are you thinking things will never get better, you’re not good enough, there’s no other place to turn, you’re at a dead-end? Or are you thinking, I can, I will, things will get better, things could be worse, No one can make me feel bad or hurt me because I won’t let them?

Are your thoughts: Positive? Happy? Calm? Do you think you can, or do you think you can’t?

Even if you have failed in the past don’t let it be your mantra. Think and believe, “so what, I didn’t succeed, finish, or even follow thorough in the past but it doesn’t mean I can’t at all; I will try – I will succeed”.

Start with the first step. Change your negative thinking and negative self-talk. Believe you are that person you always dreamed of being and it will flow through you soon making it real.

Change your way of thinking and you can change your emotions and ultimately with practice and doing you can change your life.