Saturday, February 28, 2009

Super Food...

This is the most nutrient dense meal I eat. I don't eat it enough, and decided to have this for dessert tonight:

Jenn's Oatmeal Supernova

1 packet Quaker Simple Harvest oatmeal (prepared with water)
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin seeds
2 tsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp almond butter
1 tbsp dried fruit mix
1 scoop vanilla protein powder



Mix and dig in! This meal would be the ultimate pre-workout meal, or BREAKFAST. Please remember to eat a nice, healthy, nutrient dense breakfast. Carbs and protein. This fuels up your metabolism and gives you energy for the day. Plus you'll be less likely to binge, eat badly, cheat, or snack throughout the day. :)

May 25, 2008

In a study conducted by the American Heart Association (AHA), researchers found that among the 2,831 study volunteers, those who ate breakfast were less likely to be obese and to develop type 2 diabetes than those who did not eat breakfast.


Nutrient Analysis:
682 calories
35g fat (all good fats!) (40-50g per day is recommended)
3mg cholesterol
175mg sodium (2400 US recommended 1600 UK recommended per day)
75g carbohydrate (130 g per day is recommended)
33g sugar (no more than 50g per day of refined sugars recommended)
15g fiber (25g per day is recommended)
41g protein (84 g per day is recommended)


*I think this estimation of nutrient info is a little high - I couldn't find exact information on the dried fruit mix I use and I don't measure it, and I also think the estimation on the nuts is a bit high because I don't measure them in grams.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Use The Force, Luke!...... to lose weight!

Super thanks to my friend John McIntire for sending this article my way.


SO... if you're a fan of light sabers, Luke Skywalker, or how hot Princess Leia looked in that one outfit...



...you might want to give this a shot.

The newest trend in weightloss is lightsabering to the oldies. Well, okay, not to the oldies. But you do get to wear costumes and stuff.



Don't laugh though. People have come in looking like butter balls and wind up looking like sexy, ripped slabs of hotness.

It's also been an intro for a lot of people to start in martial arts. And a majority of the participants are female. I know a martial arts workout is a killer one... I used to do Krav Maga (Thanks, Andrew!) and that workout nearly left me passing out after each class.

I might need to get me one of these light saber things. Maybe Dan would participate in my workouts then. :)

~J

Watch It.

http://www.meat.org/


I had to stop at the prodding of the cattle part. I'll have to revisit it later, but seriously you guys, just visit this website and watch the video. It'll automatically start playing when you visit the site.

Or if not, you can just watch it here:


Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days!


~J

Caloric Intake Wakeup Call

I saw this on a thread at Livestrong.com where I frequently lurk. It is quite eye opening and somewhat confusing, particularly to me... someone who obsesses to stay between 1400-1800 calories a day. I know I've posted about this issue before, but my daily caloric maintenance is something around 2200 calories, and should still be around 1400 a day to lose two lbs per week. That means I should be consuming the amount of calories it takes to feed a healthy, growing child.

----------------------------------------------------------

Although it was inspired by a recent post, I don't want anyone to think that I might be bashing those who ask about relatively low caloric goals. Rather, I think that some real-world examples might just give you an idea of where you stay above, calorie-wise.

All of these recommendations are straight from doctors, or where applicable, vets.

A 22 pound cat


Calorie recommendation for weight maintenance - 660 cals

Moderately active 1 year old human child


Calorie recommendation for healthy growth - 1300 cals

Average adult coma patient


Calorie recommendation for weight/health maintenance - 2400 cals
(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)


Alehmer (the guy in the middle)


Exercise Days - 4692
Rest Days - 3942
(Based on John Berardi's calculator, set for maintenance)

189lbs lean mass
2x exercise sessions daily


While you probably won't need as much as me, please eat more than a housecat or small child!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


So! For those of you who are counting or recording calories... what is your intake? I'm just curious. And does this information sway your decision? For me, it still doesn't change what my eating looks like.

On that note, here's my little chartadoodle for lately:

I almost just died.

Yeah. I bought Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred - that one is in the mail. That's the one I have heard hell stories about. So, I figured that I should warm up and do some of her earlier workouts to prepare myself.

Netflix has this awesome streaming video thing, where you can watch certain DVD's immediately instead of waiting for them in the mail. (My arms hurt so much right now, it's actually difficult to type.) So anyway, with Dan's xBox 360 I can watch them on our big TV. So, I added a few of her various workouts and decided to start with Shape Up - Front. This is what it looks like:




This workout is NOT for the faint of heart. She has professional dancers as her crew in the video, and they were all dying. It's up and down, up and down (as in doing shoulder press jumping jacks, then down for crunches, then up for alternating lunges with arm raises, then down for mountain climbers, then up for reverse lunges with weights and front kicks, then down for push ups and planks, then up for lunges, etc). There are no wimpy warm ups. It was hand touch high kicks, side skaters and plyometrics for WARM UPS. This was insane.

I got 1/2 way through the video and I was sweating more than I knew I could sweat. I've done lots of different types of workouts, and I can hang for an hour on an elliptical, but this was the worst ass kicking I've gotten in a long time. I think I'll have to have lost 20 lbs before I can get through this whole video. I'm doing it at least twice a week. And this is one of three or four other videos like it - she targets other areas of the body, but to be honest I don't know if I'll wake up tomorrow with anything NOT sore, so unless she has a brain bruiser and tongue push-up exercise video, I don't know what else is left to work out.

It makes sense to me that Jillian says that you should lose 20 lbs in 30 days doing the 30 Day Shred DVD. I'm terrified to get it, because that means I'll have to try it.

I have a new found respect for the contestants on The Biggest Loser, and honestly, I don't know if I could have done better than Joelle, even though I think she sucks. Jillian is freakin' tough.

So anyway. I just thought I'd share my terrible pain with you all, and encourage you to stream it or buy it if you want a really tough work out and want to whine about it with me after you try it.

~Jenn

Self Sabotage and Other Oddities...

So, every time I go to the gym, it's packed. The gym I go to is very nice, and hugely popular. And every time I go, I see people drive in, and circle the parking lot several times trying to find the closest parking space to the gym.

... Why is that? Seriously. We're coming to the gym to work out, move around and get healthy. So what is a walk worth a dozen or two car widths to get through the front doors? I pull into the first open parking space within a reasonable distance (not the furthest from the front doors, but I don't do the rounds.) And... I just don't get why people make a close parking space such a big deal.

So, the other part of this post is about self sabotage. I know I've blogged previously about how a waitress sabotaged me with free carrot cake, but I'm talking about my willing and clear reach to Dan's bowl of starburst jelly beans when I know full damn well I should NOT be eating sugar. Why do I do that? I had a whole list a few weeks ago of things I "don't" eat. That included sugar and white flour. Yet, today, I had a big handful of pretzels. Yeah, those few snack bits in and of themselves aren't a huge deal. But I only crave sugar and white flour products when I eat them. When I cut them out, I don't WANT them all the time. And it's a mindless grabbing of a bite here, and a bite there, that make things worse for me in the long run. I'm not eating those things because I really want them. I'm not like, jonesing for a handful of banana chips. But after I eat them, a day or two passes, and I see them sitting there on the coffee table, and I'm like "ooh, yum! Banana chips!" And I eat a few more.

I need to quit that shit.

I have a small selection of "healthy" snacks in the house. I'm not inclined to make a quick salad instead of grabbing a handful of yogurt covered raisins or shoving my grubby fist down into a box of pops. But, I should be eating a yogurt or a kashi bar instead.

I'm a slave to my mindless noshing, and I need to break free.


~J

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Meat Loaf

I loved this. Really juicy and flavorful! I added a few things to zest it up a bit. :)

3/4 cup oatmeal or oat bran
3/4 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup egg substitute or one egg
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp ground mustard (omitted for ours)
1 tsp salt (optional, omitted for ours)
1/2 tsp chopped garlic (I doubled this for ours)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
*I added 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (I substituted 1 tbsp dried onion flakes)
1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper or celery (I did green pepper)
1.5 lbs extra lean ground beef or ground turkey (7% fat), (I did ground turkey!)


Mix everything all together, put into a loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour.

Voila!



I LOVE how easy meatloaf is. And this was delicious.

Makes 6 servings


Nutritional Analysis
244 calories
9g fat
3g saturated fat
341g sodium
16g carbohydrate
2g dietary fiber
7g sugars
26g protein

And served with yummy salads :)

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Umumumumumummmm!!!!!!

So, I was just going through key word searches for my blog, and found out someone came through here trying to get my brother's digits.

Yeah, dude. He's a cutie, and apparently all the chicks are all over trying to get some.





Well, all I can say is "WATCH OUT" to any chick trying her luck. His girlfriend Mischa might kill you with an axe.

~J

Confessions of a + sized girl...

Yeah, I have to... HAVE to plug for this girl. She added me to her blogroll, and I just found her on my little way through the blogosphere. She's AWESOME. I really enjoy her blog, and her writing style is fabulous. After all, it reminds me of mine.

Plus, she's uber honest and I DIG that.

Check her out. Blogroll her. Yeah.

That's all.

~J

Wes...

You need to keep an eye out for this delicious man. Christopher Egan:



He's the star of a new show called "Kings" --- I don't know when it debuts, but he's gorgeous. He's like a mix of Matt Damon and Wentworth Miller.


Carry on.

Pre Lent Before Photos

So, some of the bloggers are doing pre-lent before photos. :)

So, this is my before set, and my stats (with the weight I took yesterday.) I can't find my measuring tape so I did these measurements with a string and a yard stick. I'm sure I'll have some more accurate numbers in April! :)~

~Jenn

Friggin Yummy Enchiladas

We totally dug these enchiladas last night. I forgot to take a picture again, so I decided to take a picture of the leftovers. :)

Chicken Enchiladas
2 cups cooked and cubed chicken
1 cup chopped onion (I omitted this for ours)
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese or Ricotta cheese
1 cup fat-free plain yogurt
1/2 cup (2 oz) grated, reduced fat cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
1/2 cup (2 oz) grated, reduced fat mozzarella cheese
2 cans (10 oz each) enchilada sauce, divided
12 corn tortillas (6 inch)

*note: You can buy pre cooked, cubed chicken, but I cooked and cubed my own to avoid preservatives and sugars.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray a 9x13 in ch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Pour 1/2 can of enchilada sauce in bottom of pan.

Place about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of filling on each tortilla and roll gently to enclose. (cracks in tortillas are not as noticeable after cooking.) Place seam side down in baking dish. Top with remaining sauce.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until heated thoroughly.



Makes 8 servings.

Nutrient Analysis:
237 calories
6g fat
2g saturated fat
757mg sodium
26g carbohydrate
3g dietary fiber
4g sugar
19g protein

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Obama's Address to the Nation.

Two months in, Obama delivered all this: (Click here to read his speech)


Employment Plan - Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90% of these jobs will be in the private sector – jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges; constructing wind turbines and solar panels; laying broadband and expanding mass transit.

Education cost assistance - families who are struggling to pay tuition costs will receive a $2,500 tax credit for all four years of college.

Tax cuts - Because of this plan, 95% of the working households in America will receive a tax cut – a tax cut that you will see in your paychecks beginning on April 1st.

Holding banks accountable for assistance - And this time, they will have to clearly demonstrate how taxpayer dollars result in more lending for the American taxpayer. This time, CEOs won’t be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over.

Energy Plan - Will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. Also will support that innovation, we will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.

Pledged to cut deficit by 50% by the end of first term - already identified two trillion dollars in savings over the next decade and will cut tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas.

Increasing number of soldiers in the military

Increasing Soldier's Pay

Extending Veteran's health care benefits


Closing Guantanamo Bay
- Without exception or equivocation, the United States of America does not torture.



I'm sorry, but what the FLOCK was George Bush doing for EIGHT YEARS???

It's like the movie "Dave" - (If you haven't seen it, you should) - where he sits down and cuts a billion dollars from the budget, and he's just a regular ol' guy. It's inspiring, and to be honest, after feeling so disheartened and angry with our government for so long, it feels like a gulldurned miracle.

God Bless President Obama. (Sigh, I LOVE saying "President Obama.")


~J xoxo

What the crap is Zumba???

I've gotten this question a few times since mentioning it.

It's this ridiculously fun class that involves dance, aerobics, and great music.

Here's a You Tube clip that goes into what a Zumba class looks like. Get thee to one pronto.

It's really high energy and fun. I went through a whole bottle of water at my first class this morning. At the 1/2 hour point I was thinking "How am I ever gonna get through a whole hour of this???" But you know what? I did. One hour of jumping, grooving, shaking and tapping my fat away. It was a blast. I want to go twice a week now. :)

I'm not Catholic, but....

I'm giving up Laziness for Lent.

So, right about now I'm formally working out about 2-3 times a week and doing the Wii once or twice a week. I need to kick it into high gear. A bunch of bloggers are doing this Lent Challenge, giving up laziness and being active (I'm doing 30 minutes minimum each day) from tomorrow, Wed March 23rd, through April 12th (Easter.)

40+ Days of Exercise Awesomeness for Lent.

That means through my cruise and vacation, too y'all. Thankfully, the hotel I'm staying at from the 21st-24th has a fitness center, and there is one on the boat as well. So, for the inbetween time I'll have to take nice long walks on the beach! :)~

My plan for doing this at home? I will do ZUMBA Tuesday mornings and Thursday nights. I will do weight training twice a week (Monday and Friday) and I will do Pilates and/or the Wii on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

I can do this.

I WILL do this.

I want a tinier ass.


~J

HYC Weigh In

213.2. That's a loss of .4 lbs from my previous recorded weigh-in day low of 213.6.

And it's period week, people. So, that is okay with me, I guess. How much weight does a woman retain on average during that TOM?

Maybe a lady can help me out on that one. 'Cause I've been working out and eating right and I really don't want to see any more of the 213's. I have a nice vacation coming up at the end of March, and it includes a cruise. I would love to drop 8 lbs by then, but the 2 pounds per week thing just doesn't seem to apply to me. It fucking sucks, and I'm getting angry.

Speaking of working out, I'm off to Zumba,


~J

Monday, February 23, 2009

Love Shout Outs...

My good friend John Mcintire gave me a bit of a shout out today and I wanted to send you photo loving people over to his blog. He's got a very sweet, raw style and photography very sweet, raw women.



Yo.

~J

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Congratulations!

To Kate Winslet (the GODDESS) and Sean Penn.

This makes me sad I didn't see Kate Winslet walking down the street at the DNC. But, here's a snap I took of Sean in Denver last year.




"Homo-loving sons of guns" - that was hilarious! :)


...Have I mentioned I still haven't seen Milk OR The Reader yet?

I suck.

Andi's Headshots

This was a great shoot! Click here to see the images from today's shoot with Andi. Hair and Makeup by Lindsay DesPlaines.

(Another ringflash shot):

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Baked BBQ Chicken Dinner and Baked Apple Dessert

Tonight I basically did my own thing for dinner. I started out following the recipe in the book, but wound up doing my own version. :)

Jenn's BBQ Chicken

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
1/4 cup fat-free beef broth (low sodium)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp BBQ sauce of your choice

Put the chicken pieces into a dish. Pour mixture of beef broth, soy sauce and ginger over the chicken. Refrigerate and let chicken marinate in the mixture for 1-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain and discard marinade. Transfer chicken to a baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Put dollops of BBQ sauce over the chicken breasts and spread with the back of a spoon to make coverage even. Bake for 20-40 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

I served this with corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and wheat rolls.



Makes 4 servings, each roughly 120 calories. (Just the chicken.)
Total calories estimated to be ~ 375 calories
(With 2/3 corn on the cob, 1/2 cup mashed potatoes and 1 80 calorie wheat roll.) :)


Baked Apples

4 granny smith apples
3 tbsp brown sugar
60 grams chopped walnuts (roughly 1/3 cup)
4 tsp raisins
Cinnamon and nutmeg to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 350. Core each apple (make sure to get the entire core and all seeds out, but be careful not to poke through the bottom of the apples.) Place into a baking dish.



In a separate small bowl mix together raisins, brown sugar and walnuts. Spoon the mixture into each apple. Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over the top of each apple.



Put about 1/2 inch of water into the bottom of the dish. Bake apples between 20-30 minutes, until fork soft. Serve and enjoy!

Cross-section:


Makes 4 servings (each serving is one apple.)

Calories roughly 215 each. :)

Friday, February 20, 2009

Orange Hair

Dan would LOVE for me to dye my hair orange. Though he'd settle for this:



He really wants this:



I say I have to wait until at least November, so I'm as close as possible to having Mila Jovavich's body. Which will be never, but at least I won't feel like this:

Drag Queen becomes Homecoming Queen

This is awesome! A High School in Washington DC elected a guy who does drag as their Homecoming Queen.

Despite the fact that some things don't always make me feel like this world of ours is moving in the right direction... this story lifts my spirits. It says worlds of words about our generation, and it makes me really eager for those words to come true... "One day our generation is gonna rule the population."

This totally reminds me of this scene from the movie "Flawless." Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a drag queen, and Robert Dinero's character asks him how long he has been a drag queen.

"...We were all on stage, and they had made these dry ice kettles so the smoke could come out of them, you know? And uh, one night, all of a sudden, one dry ice kettle exploded, and dry ice flew everywhere. Well, pretty little miss no talent who was playing the snow queen, dashed off the stage screaming and pulling her hair out. Well the play must go on, I believe, and she had dropped a crown. Well honey, I just picked up that crown, put it on my head... and I was the GREATEST goddamn snow queen in the history of PS 11 Paramus New Jersey."

NOooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SNOWFALL TOTALS OF 6 TO 8 INCHES ARE EXPECTED OVER THE MILWAUKEE METROPOLITAN AREA

MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN OVER FAR SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH SATURDAY. SNOWFALL TOTALS OF 5 TO 8 INCHES ARE EXPECTED. BRISK NORTH WINDS WILL CREATE AREAS OF BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW FROM LATE SATURDAY MORNING INTO SATURDAY NIGHT.

I am SO ready for spring. Seriously, I hate the snow and cold!


~J

The Real Life Benjamin Buttons

Though there aren't people born as old men and women and grow young... I found out today about these kids who are born with a condition known as Progeria, which causes the body to age seven to eight times faster than normal.



At eight years old, they have the bodies of 75 year olds. The average life span is 13 years.



These little children die of heart attacks and similar age-typical diseases and ailments at very young ages.

Visit the website to learn more.

~J

Three-Bean Soup

This one is a vegetarian meal - no chicken or beef stock, and no meat! It's a nice, tasty mild soup. It doesn't have an overwhelming amount of flavor, but was very pleasant and nice on a cold day. :) We omit a few ingredients in ours because Dan hates onions and mustard. I'm sure with those ingredients in the soup, it would be a lot more flavorful.

Three-Bean Soup

3 cups water
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, not drained (low sodium)
1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste (I forgot this in mine!)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard (omitted for mine)
1 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/3 cups frozen whole-kernel corn (forgot this too)
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped zucchini or celery
1 medium onion, chopped (omitted for mine)


Combine the first set of ingredients in a large stockpot.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Stir in remaining vegetables and simmer, covered, for an additional 10 minutes.



Nutritional Information:
124 calories
1g fat
125mg sodium
25g carbohydrate
8g dietary fiber
7g sugar
7g protein

I served this with some whole wheat rolls and a nice salad, as well as our leftover fingerling potatoes. :)

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Attention ALL Blog Writers!!!!

I have noticed a bunch of y'all have lovingly and graciously added me to your blog rolls. For this, I thank you!

But... for some of you, I am not able to come check out your blog in return because of your settings.

Please make sure you either:
1) Make your blog public, or
2) Send me an invite to read it.

(Tomato Experiment, I'm talkin' to you...) ;)


Thanks! :)

Love Shout Outs...

Mike Zume is just the MAN over at zumewalk.com.

Check out the awesome shout out he gave me for not only my blog here, but my photography as well:





We love you Mike! *(Crowd cheers)*

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Grilled Salmon with Corn Salsa

Deeelicious! This combination of flavor is awesome, and totally refreshing.

Grilled Salmon with Corn Salsa

Corn Salsa:
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (low sodium), not drained
2/3 cup frozen whole-kernel corn
1 cup chopped cucumber, not peeled
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper, red or green (I used yellow)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder and ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 lbs salmon fillets
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1/8 tsp ground black pepper


Combine salsa ingredients and set aside.

Serve over cooked fish.

OVEN METHOD to cook fish: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange fish in a 9x13 inch baking pan that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Season with salt and pepper. Bake, uncovered, for 4-5 minutes per half inch thickness of fish. Drain any liquids.

Makes 8 servings (4 cups salsa and fish for 8)

Nutrient Analysis:
189 calories
7g fat
1g saturated fat
59mg sodium
6g carbohydrate
1g dietary fiber
4g sugar
24g protein


I served this with roasted fingerling potatoes.

(Jenn's Recipe):
1 lb fingerling potatoes, cut in half lengthwise
1/4 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp dried onion flakes
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp herbs de province

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Line a baking pan or cookie sheet with tin foil. Arrange fingerling potato halves (insides up) on sheet. Spray the potatoes with non stick cooking spray. Sprinkle herbs over potatoes. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes or until tender.

Delicious Sweet and Sour Chicken

For all you Zume-tastic chinese food fans out there! This one is really good, and trust me... you won't miss the deep fried gunk on the chicken. :)

Sweet and Sour Chicken

1 can (8 oz) unsweetened pineapple chunks, in juice
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup fat-free chicken broth (low sodium)
1/4 cup cider or apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used 3 tbsp molasses)
2 tsp lite soy sauce
1/2 tsp chopped garlic
1 cup sliced celery
1 medium green pepper, sliced
1 small onion, quartered
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water

Drain pineapple, reserving the juice.

Cut chicken into bite-size pieces and place in a medium saucepan. Add reserved pineapple juice, broth, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce and garlic. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Add vegetables and pineapple. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine cornstarch and water. Gradually stir into hot mixture. Continue to cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

Serve with brown rice.

((If you prefer to use artificial sweetener in place of brown sugar or molasses, add it after you put in the corn starch.))

Makes 5 servings.

Nutrient Analysis (Not including brown rice):
193 calories
1g fat
239mg sodium
23g carbohydrate (with artificial sweetener 12g)
2g dietary fiber
16g sugar (with artificial sweetener 5g)
22g protein



Sorry I don't have a picture... I accidentally deleted it when I was clearing card space for my shoot yesterday. But trust me, it's delicious. :)

~J

Not to get all political on you...

But this makes me really sad.


I'm sure my friend Rob will be thrilled though.

Now Available...





...Images from the shoot with Gena tonight!

Click here for pictures from the shoot. :)


J

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

HYC Weigh In

Back down to 213.6. So, essentially I've had two weeks of nothing.

I realized I haven't been cooking those meals for all of last week, and part of the week before. I had been losing weight while using that book, so I'm going back to it. I actually made sweet and sour chicken last night - I'll post the recipe soon. ;)

~J

Monday, February 16, 2009

Warning: GROSS.

Okay, so I'm on the verge of becoming a fishatarian.

I just finished reading "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. I highly, HIGHLY recommend reading this book. I'm going to share with you guys a few things that are incredibly disturbing about the meat packing industry, and... it just might put you off beef the way it has for me.

I honestly don't know if I'll be able to eat beef again, and I struggled to buy chicken yesterday. I got free range, steroid and hormone free and it made me feel a little better.

There are two things to remember when you read this.
1. The facts in this book were meticulously researched, recorded and reported. They have not been proven false despite many attacks against the author.
2. Since the publishing in this book, through the Bush administration, the conditions have worsened. This was discovered by follow up visits to the plants and allowed to happen by the Bush Administration reversing public health safety bills due to large donations to his campaign from interested parties such as The American Meat Institute and The National Restaurant Association. A quote from the book: "One of the Bush administration's first food safety decisions was to stop testing the National School Lunch Program's ground beef for Salmonella."


Okay, so here we go. I'm just going to spew out a bunch of stuff here - if you have a weak stomach you might not want to read this.

"Behind them [the medical literature on the causes of food poisoning] lies a simple explanation for why eating a hamburger can now make you seriously ill: There is shit in the meat.

"Some herds of American cattle may have been infected with E. coli decades ago. But the recent changes in how cattle are raised, slaughtered, and processed have created an ideal means for the pathogen to spread. ... The cattle now packed into feedlots get little exercise and live amid pools of manure. "You shouldn't eat dirty food and dirty water," the official told me. "But we still think we can give animals dirty food and dirty water." Feedlots have become an extremely efficient mechanism for "recirculating the manure," which is unfortunate, since E.coli can replicate in cattle troughs and survive in manure for up to 90 days.

"About 75 percent of the cattle in the US were routinely fed livestock wastes - the rendered remains of dead sheep and dead cattle - until August of '97. They were also fed millions of dead cats and dead dogs every year, purchased from animal shelters. The FDA banned such practices after evidence from Great Britain suggested that they were responsible for a widespread outbreak of ..."mad cow disease." Nevertheless, current FDA regulations allow dead pigs and dead horses to be rendered into cattle feed, along with dead poultry. ...cattle blood is still put into the feed given to American cattle. 'They're designed to eat grass and, maybe, grain. I mean, they have four stomachs for a reason - to eat products that have a high cellulose content. They are not designed to eat other animals.'

"The waste products from poultry plants, including the sawdust and old newspapers used as litter, are also being fed to cattle. ...chicken manure may contain dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, parasites such as tapeworms and Giardia lamblia, antibiotic residues, arsenic, and heavy metals.




I'm going to paraphrase here because there's too much to type. A big disease spreader in the butchering of cattle is with the removal of the innards. That's where all the nasty bacteria live, and these workers have to remove the stomach and intestines, tie them off and discard of them without spilling the contents. It takes an average worker 6 months to learn how to do it right, and the best among them can't do more than 200 in a row. Inexperienced gutters spill a lot more often. So, one mistake's consequences multiply really quickly as the carcass moves down the line - contaminated knives aren't sterilized regularly enough, and spread the disease to the next carcass it cuts.

The huge number of cattle processed in each slaughterhouse, each day (by hand) are due to the extreme demands of beef from large fast food companies such as McDonald, Burger King and Wendy's. Some plants slaughter up to 400 cattle an hour.

The estimation is that up to 50 percent of cattle in large slaughterhouses are infected by the microbe.

"Even if you assume that only 1 percent are infected, that means three or four cattle bearing the E coli microbe are eviscerated at a large slaughterhouse every hour. The odds of widespread contamination are raised exponentially when the meat is processed into ground beef.

"...the animals used to make about one-quarter of the nation's ground beef - worn-out dairy cattle - are the animals most likely to be diseased and riddled with antibiotic residues. ...Like the multiple sex partners that helped spread the AIDS epidemic, the huge admixture of animals in most American ground beef plants has played a crucial role in spreading E. coli. A single fast food hamburger now contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of different cattle.

"This is no fairy story and no joke," Upton Sinclair wrote in 1906, "the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one - there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit." Sinclair described a long list of practices in the meatpacking industry that threatened the health of consumers: the routine slaughter of diseased animals, the use of chemicals such as borax and glycerine to disguise the smell of spoiled beef, the deliberate mislabeling of canned meat, the tendency of worker to urinate and defecate on the kill floor.

"A 1992 USDA study of the Streamlined Inspection System for Cattle concluded that beef produced under the program was no dirtier than beef produced at slaughterhouses fully staffed by federal inspectors. But the accuracy of that study was thrown into doubt by the revelation that meatpacking firms had sometimes been told in advance when USDA investigators would be arriving at SIS-C slaughterhouses. The Monfort beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, was one of the original participants int he program. According to federal inspectors there, the meat produced under the SIS "had never been filthier." At SIS-C slaughterhouses, visibly diseased animals - cattle infected with measles and tapeworms, covered with abscesses - were being slaughtered. Poorly trained company inspectors were allowing the shipment of beef contaminated with fecal material, hair, insects, metal shavings, urine, and vomit.


Aside from all of that, the book discusses the high injury rate in the meatpacking industry, along with the terrible way the injuries are handled. The "fine" to the company for someone dying on the job is $441. The meatpacking industry requires individuals to sign waivers directly after being injured. If they're rushed to a hospital, they are followed by a representative. There was a woman who had both her hands crushed, and they talked her into signing the waiver with the pen in her mouth. The waiver states that they will hold the meatpacking company harmless and only see the doctors they want them to see, along with not reporting the injury, or they'll lose their jobs. They also hire a great deal of illegal immigrants, so if something goes wrong, or they get tired of the brutal conditions of the job, they can only take it so far because they're not legal to work in this country.


Seriously, go pick up the book. It'll change your life.

~J

I Freakin' HEART Diet Coke!

I saw this display at the Pick and Save, and had to get a snap of it with my cell phone. Thank-you to Wes over at Swish Embassy for uploading it for me! :)

Friday, February 13, 2009

mywedding.com




Pretty cool! :)


~J

Yeah, I Suck.

Sorry about the little lack 'o posting going on lately.

I was down a pound this morning from my most recent low weight. I think the appropriate recipe for weight loss is:

Tuesday: Carrot Cake from Rock Bottom
+ Wednesday: Eating normal (healthy) + 1 hour on elliptical
+ Thursday: 2 venti cups of Starbucks coffee (stomach killer)
______________________________________________________________
1 pound weight loss from Tuesday.


I might be able to live with that.

~J

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Oh Johnnnnnn

Yeah, I saw this on Perezhilton.com and my heart jumped a little. I know that's lame, but my name is spelled with two n's, so come on now! This CAN'T be in reference to that Jen Aniston chick. ;)

Ugh, I'm pathetic. But do I ever love him.

*Edit* - This is John Mayer in case anyone didn't recognize him. He cut his hair really short. :)




~Jenn

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Headshots for Photographers

I did a photoshoot today with Linda and Amanda - they are two local photographers in Milwaukee.

This was a BLAST.







I was sabotaged by a waitress tonight.

She brought us carrot cake and said, "It's on me."

And this wasn't any old carrot cake. This was the MONSTROUS, amazing carrot cake from Rock Bottom Brewery. The carrot cake that has got to pack at least 2000 calories in one serving.

I didn't have my camera on me but found this photo with a quick Google search. It's accurate.




I had a really lovely salad with roasted chicken, walnuts, Gorgonzola, grapes, celery, arugula, cranberries and balsamic vinaigrette. I did a quick calculation of my caloric intake for the day and I had to have been around 900 already. At least.

So, I am probably around 1900 calories for the day after my 1/2 of that carrot cake.

Pretty hilarious considering I just did a post about how I don't eat cookies anymore. Holy crap. But I will tell you two things:

1. I savored every single bite. To the point that Dan was saying, "Would you stop the theatrics???" I said, "NO!! It's SOOOoooo GOOD!"

2. I feel so jittery after eating that sugar (after not having sugar like that since roughly December 1st) -- I think I might explode.

I left her an $11 tip. Though she sabotaged, me, it wasn't intentional... and who gets free carrot cake at a restaurant anyway? We didn't complain about anything, we were really nice and the service was great.

If you're in the Milwaukee area, go eat at the Rock Bottom downtown and ask for Courtney. Don't expect free carrot cake, and don't say I said she'd give you some. What you can expect is great food and even better service. :)

~J

HYC Weigh In

There is too much water.

I woke up with my ring so tight on my finger it left a butterfly imprint on my finger.

215.6.

I must have been eating way too much salt the last few days. >:(


Me not happy.

Off now to do some headshots for a few photographers. I'll post later today.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Dessert Changes

I used to eat this:



Now I eat this:




I still want cookies. But the fruit is really yummy. :)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Sushi

Have I mentioned I love it?

Crazy Roll, Salmon Nigiri, Yellowtail Nigiri, and a delicious Unagi (eel) hand roll. Mmm...





And the place we went for lunch (Sushi Haya) was in this plaza, and I thought the sign said "Fuckin' Dumpster Plaza"--- I'm like, "Maybe we shouldn't eat here?" -- We had a good laugh about it. And the sushi was excellent.

Here's Linda:



~Jenn

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Friday, February 6, 2009

The Burning Times

I'm watching a documentary on "The Witch." It talks about the progression of the witch, the concept of the witch in the Bible, mythology, the Burning times in Europe and the witch hunts here in America (The New World.)

Now, I didn't realize this, but in the Burning Times in Europe, scholars estimate that 60,000 to 300,000 people were killed. I had no idea the numbers were so high. There was a town in Germany called Wurzburg where they condemned 600 people to death. The magistrates decided that almost the entire town was possessed by the devil. 19 were priests, 41 were children.

Women were primarily the targets of these crazy killings. In Europe, it was illegal to kill a witch unless they confessed to being one. They used torture methods to get the confessions... those methods I can't even type here; just reading about it makes me sick. It is absolutely horrifying.

Just thought I'd share. It's crazy to think how things used to be.



On a related note, one of my favorite books is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. If you haven't read it, you should. :)


~J

Thursday, February 5, 2009

A few new photos

Taken by Dan, in my studio! :)



I needed them for my website. This is my favorite little thing I made:

Regular studio website intro:


Wedding website intro:



Tee-hee! I'm silly. :)

~J