Farmer's Market and Consignment Shops!

Hey guys!

Well holy comments, Batman!  Thank you for all your input on my birthday outfit. :)  It looks like the top winners are dress #3 and #4.  And for me, that works.  I think it might depend on where we go, so my plan is to wear dress #3 if we go bar hopping or to the clubs.  If we do something like jazz or a wine bar, dress #4 it is!  Thanks again for your help, all. :)

So!  Today I wanted to show you my take from the Farmer's Market today!

Potatoes, jalapenos,eggplant, bell pepper, two cucumbers, a vidalia onion, dill and three types of tomato: yellow, red and pink.  

Here are the salads I made Dan and I for lunch:

His is just lettuce, chicken, tomato, cucumber and feta.  Mine I added avocado (he doesn't like it.)  :)

So, I know some of you are overwhelmed by farmer's markets, so I thought I'd give you a little rundown on how I approach it.  There is inevitably a lot of stuff that you might not know how to use, or that you might not even know what it is.  For me, I mainly buy what I would normally buy at a grocery store:

-Cucumber

-Lettuce

-Tomato

-Bell Peppers

-Zucchini

-Yellow Squash

-Onion

-Broccoli and Cauliflower

-Jalapeños

-Potatoes (for Dan)

I will occasionally buy other things, and do so with last-minute intention to make something special.  For this trip, that includes:

- Dill

-Eggplant

I saw they had these two things, and immediately thought, "What kind of recipes do I usually hear of with these ingredients?"  The ones that came to mind were:  Eggplant Parmesan and Grilled Eggplant.  I also figured I could use fresh dill for the recipe Wes posted over at Gay Weigh.  And of course I got the jalapeños because I tried the jalapeño popper recipe Beth posted over at the B.E.T.H. approach and HAD to make it again.  /bliss.

So, Dan is going to be grilling steak tonight and I'll be grilling the Eggplant for myself!  I'll post a recipe later for you guys to follow if you want to.

Really, the trick is to not overthink it too much. There's no need to buy beets or endive if you don't usually buy or eat it.  Don't sweat the stuff you don't recognize... just buy the stuff you recognize and enjoy eating.  Just remember you can use fresh veggies in your salads and omelets! :)

On another note, I went to a few Consignment shops in the Third Ward yesterday and tried on a few pieces.  I love that they pretty much have Thrift Store prices but it's way more boutique-ish than a Thrift store.  Here are a few items I got:

A pair of size 6 Banana Republic slacks.  Holy crap, they fit.  Stoked!  

Oh, and they were $7.

I saw this cute blue dress and thought it looked kind of vintage.  It fits me like a glove.  Sort of tight around the bust/ribcage area (usual for me,) but I love it!  Size 10, $9.

This cute blue shirt was only $4.99.  I saw the detail on the sleeves and had to have it!

Last but not least, if you guys would like to take a look at what's been keeping me so busy...

Click here to see the recent shots of the studio.

Click here for Colleen or Megan or Haley's boudoir shoots.

You can check out these gorgeous weddings here... 

Milwaukee Art Museum

Lake Park Bistro

Osthoff Resort

At Home and Fabulous

Oh, and this engagement session at the Lakefront Brewery.

:)

~Jenn

Shove a baguette in my pants.

A lot of people have asked about my weight loss... what I'm doing, eating, etc. I'll straight up tell you guys that I hate working out. I have a gym membership and I love Zumba, and I used to go twice a week. I will be full on honest and admit I haven't been to the gym in over six weeks. Part of that was because of a chest cold, and part of that was because I was traveling. But still, I haven't gone, and my $80/month membership is just laughing in my face because of it.

I tried the healthy balanced diet plus working out thing. I was losing around 1 pound a week or so. My diet was excellent, no more than 1600 calories a day, and I was working out for around an hour four times a week with aerobic exercise and weight training (I had a personal trainer.) I got sick and tired of putting in so much work and not seeing results.

See? This is me pretending to be all riled up about working out, but really my face just looks all pissed off:



I've tried lots of diets:

Cabbage soup (several times)
6 Week Body Makeover (really worked for my parents)
Atkins
Calorie restriction
Pineapple Diet (I have no idea, just heard pineapple burned calories and so I ate a ton of it.)
Raw Diet
Weight Watchers

I've always been too cheap to shell out cash for anything like Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig or Slimfast. I'm glad though... I probably wouldn't have had success with those either. I also haven't tried Kimkins or the Master Cleanse.

Sidenote: I've heard of some really crazy ones, and a reader once told me about the "Diet Coke and crackers" diet. I might be interested in that, 'cause I love both of those things. If you know what it is, I might be crazy enough to try it. Then I'll tell you guys how it goes. Seriously.


My recent weight loss (214-192 in 40 days) was pretty much strictly because of my eating plan. I did Zumba for the beginning of that timeframe, once or twice a week, but that was about it. My body reacts very specifically to what I eat. I lost 50 pounds the first go-round with Atkins. I didn't work out a single day at ALL, and I lost a load of weight:





My body hates carbs. I'll clarify by saying I LOVE carbs... as Sean said tonight on The Biggest Loser, I want to take a cupcake and rub it all over my body. Not so much cupcakes, actually, but I'd take a bath in pasta, pour fries on my head and shove a baguette in my pants. I love bread, potatoes and pasta so much that I didn't even notice I was ballooning up to 225 pounds because I was too busy making moon eyes at the bread sticks at Olive Garden. That's part of why I was so successful with the Atkins diet.

What I do now includes only eating bread related carbs in the morning. I do NOT eat potatoes, bread or pasta anymore during the day or evening. That means I eat:

Breakfast: Either a Nature's Valley granola bar, or a packet of oatmeal. With that I have a Dannon Light and Fit (or cheapo equivalent, as long as it's 80 calories) and coffee or Diet Coke.
Lunch: I do some kind of protein (usually a can of water packed tuna) with lots of veggies mixed in. Through the day I drink water, coffee, Diet Coke depending on the day. (Always around 50 oz water in the evenings faithfully.)
Dinner: Meat and veggies (ie: grilled kabobs with veggies and meat or spaghetti squash with canned tomatoes and a Parmesan cheese) or I'll just do a huge salad. And salad means leafy greens (not iceberg) with veggies and sometimes chicken with a light vinaigrette dressing. It does NOT mean croutons, ranch and a crapton of cheese.

There ya have it... that's my spiffyriffic weight loss plan, and it steadily drops 2-3 pounds a week for me. I've been slacking the last 30 days or so but I'm back on with a dirty vengeance and already can feel a huge difference!

So! Don't forget to tell me what the Diet Coke and Crackers diet is. I love all things cracker. Please, share the info.

Also if you have a favorite diet, or you've tried a crazy one, I wanna hear about that too.


~Jenn

A Week In Food - Part I

So, I'm in love with this UK show called "You Are What You Eat."



They take these people's entire week's worth of food intake and analyze it. They also put the equivalent on a big table for them to look at in hopes it will scare the crap out of them, or at least embarrass them.

I'm going to do this for my diet. I'm taking the last week, and analyzing it tonight. I will be putting together a table and doing a photo of it tomorrow.

Jenn's Nutritional Information for the Week of 1/27-2/4
Calories = 10,950 (average 1565/day)
Sugar = 476 grams - 247 from fruits/veggies = 229 (average 33g /day) (no more than 50g per day of refined sugars recommended)
Carbohydrates = 1392 grams (average 199 / day) (130 g per day is recommended)
Fat = 310 grams (average 44 / day) (40-50g per day is recommended)
Protein = 650 grams (average 93/day) (84 g recommended)
Sodium = 11614 mg (average 1659/day) (2400 US recommended 1600 UK recommended)
Fiber = 272 grams (average 39/day) (25g per day is recommended)

Overall, I'd say that looks pretty damn good. I could be eating less in the way of carbs, but all of them come from whole grains, brown rice, fruits and veggies.

The calories on here are taking into account pure consumption, not counting the calories I burned off through exercise.

:)

Tomorrow I'll be putting down a full list of what I eat in the same way the show does, ie:

1 large slice chocolate cake
6 large lagers
3 fry ups
4 curries
4 packs of crisps
8 orders of chips

...etc. Except mine won't be bad food, nor will it be British.

And I'll do my best to come up with as close of a visual representation as possible of the food I take in. :)

~J

Frickin' Delicious Hamburgers

Also known as "Meat Patties," which sounds disgusting... these hamburgers rocked our faces off.



I served these on Natural Ovens Better Wheat Buns:
Serving Size: 1 Bun

Calories 170
Total Fat 2.5g
Saturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 140mg
Total Carbohydrate 30g
Dietary Fiber 3g
Sugars 5g
Protein 7g

Meat Patties:
1/2 cup oatmeal or oat bran
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup egg substitute (I forgot this, but they came out fine)
1/2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp ground mustard (omitted for mine)
1 tsp dried or 1 tbsp fresh minced onion
1/2 tsp salt (omitted for mine)
1/4 tsp chopped garlic
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 lb extra-lean ground beef or ground turkey (7% fat)

Mix the first 9 ingredients. Add ground meat and mix well. Shape into four patties. Cook in the microwave, in the conventional oven, or on the grill.

Conventional Oven:
Preheat to 425 degrees. Arrange patties on a baking pan that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes.

Microwave Oven: Arrange meat patties in a circle, on a microwave-safe dish, leaving the center empty. Cover with wax paper and cook on high for 7-8 minutes, rotating 1/4 turn halfway through cooking time.

Grill: Cook over hot coals, turning once, until done. *I used my George Forman. Because I forgot the egg, it was super juicy and didn't stick together 100%, so I just sprayed the grill with nonstick cooking spray and it was fine. They were delicious and I saved a bit of calories too! :)

Nutritional Info:
(makes 4 servings)
222 calories
9g fat
3g saturated fat
71mg cholesterol
127mg sodium
9g carbohydrate
1g dietary fiber
2g sugar
26g protein


With these kinds of nutrition numbers... you just can't beat a delicious, juicy, healthy burger with the kind of staying power that hungry guys (and girls) need! :)




Oh, and don't forget a nice salad! :)

Chicken Breasts in Mushroom Sauce

Deeeelicious! If you like juicy chicken and mushrooms, this one is for you.

Chicken Breasts in Mushroom Sauce
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped green onion (omitted for mine)
2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt
2 tbs dry sherry or water (I used water)
1 tsp instant chicken bouillon (low sodium!)
1/4 tsp salt (omitted for mine)
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/4 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Saute mushrooms and onion in a skillet that has been sprayed with a nonstick cooking spray.



Meanwhile, mix flour and water in a covered container and shake well to prevent lumps. Add to mushrooms along with next five ingredients. Cook, stirring constantly until thickened.



Arrange chicken in a 9x9 baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Pour mushroom sauce over chicken and sprinkle with paprika. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.



Voila!

Nutrition Analysis:
170 calories
2g fat
152mg sodium
8g carbohydrate
1g dietary fiber
3g sugar
29g protein


I served mine with a nice salad:



And notice the portion size - this is a side plate. :)



Here are my leftovers:



My trainer gave me a great idea to scramble eggs with spinach and put them in a container for breakfasts through the week. I took her advice and it looks great. I did 2 whole eggs and 6 egg whites. :)



Also I got these really cool tupperware containers (tupperware.com) - they expand, so you can have a container to fit whatever kind of leftovers you've got! :)~ Plus, they're in bright, fun colors.



Also, this is what I had for lunch:



2 slices of flax fiber bread, turkey, lettuce, light mayo, mustard, reduced fat Swiss cheese and some fat free cottage cheese with paprika on top. Yum!


~J

Footie Pajamas and Food.

It was so cold yesterday I just couldn't get warm. I was wearing socks, footie pajamas, pants over the footie pajamas, a shirt under and a jacket over the footie pajamas.

Yeah.



I had a nice sandwich and soup:



And this morning tried to emulate the uber healthy morning breakfast I see on all of your health blogs... oatmeal, flaxseed, banana and almond butter. I didn't have any walnuts. ;)




So, what else is new? Today I will be buying a new battery for my car.

I think the cold brings out my car problems. Grrrrr! >:(


J

Dessert - Organic Yogurt

With a dash of muesli and some ground up flaxseed (3 tsp) as well as fresh bluebs!


I found out that your body doesn't digest flaxseed as is, so you have to grind it up. I love any excuse to use my mortar and pestle. :)~

Quick Lasanga

Yum! The Italian in me was really happy about this. :)~

Quick Lasagna
3 cups low-fat cottage cheese or low-fat Ricotta cheese (I used cottage cheese)
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon chopped garlic (I used 2 tablespoons by mistake, but I love garlic so it was great.)
4 cups spaghetti sauce (less than 4 grams fat per 4 ounces)
3/4 pound uncooked lasagna noodles (12 noodles) -- ((I used whole grain noodles))

1 cup (4 ounces) grated, reduced fat mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch by 13 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix cottage cheese, parsley, and garlic.


Pour 1 cup of sauce in the bottom of the pan. Layer in this order: 4 noodles, 1/2 cheese mixture, 1/2 mozzarella, 1 cup sauce, 4 noodles, 1/2 cheese mixture, 1/2 mozzarella, 1 cup sauce, 4 noodles and the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.


Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. Increase baking time by 15 minutes if it has been refrigerated (if you made it the day before or something.)



Makes 12 servings.

Nutrient Analysis:
218 calories
5g fat
2g saturated fat
28g carbohydrate
2g dietary fiber
6g sugar
15g protein


I served this with a nice salad and put some sliced strawberries on top. :)

Hmmm... Confession.

Though you're probably expecting some awesome confession like "I ate three bags of chips last night" or "I made out with my ex boyfriend" or "I do heroin"...

It's really going to be about the fact that I let the scale run my life.

I weighed in at 217.8 this morning. I feel much, much, MUCH happier than I did yesterday. Yesterday I was sulking and pouting and pissed off because I felt like this wasn't working.

And who knows? Maybe it will.

I e-mailed my personal trainer and she was really responsive; we're going to review my diet and exercise and make sure I'm doing what I should be doing to drop the weight.

Woo-hoo!

~J

Corn Bread Taco Bake

Okay, so I was going to make lasagna for dinner tonight, but apparently I relied too heavily on the "shopping list" from the book, because it didn't include lasagna noodles, even though the recipe calls for them. I'm sure I should have been smart enough to remember "duh, I need noodles" but I was working from the list.

So, I'm making the ungodly Corn Bread Taco Bake for dinner. This is a recipe I got from Dan's sister Christina; ever since she made this for dinner one night when we were over, Dan's been begging me to make it. (How she stays soooo beautiful and thin while eating this kind of food, I'll never know and will be eternally jealous.) :)~

It's totally unhealthy. I calculated 514 calories per serving, and that's with substituting ground turkey for the ground beef and organic corn for regular.

So, here's the recipe and photos.

Corn Bread Taco Bake

Prep 20 minutes / Bake 25 minutes

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (I used ground lean turkey)

1 can whole kernel corn, drained (I used organic canned corn)
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chopped green pepper (omitted for my recipe)
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 package (8.5 oz) corn bread/muffin mix
1 can (2.8 oz) french-fried onions, divided
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400.

In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink. Stir in the corn, tomato sauce, water, green peppers and taco seasoning. Mix well. Spoon into a greased 2-quart baking dish.



Prepare corn bread mix according to package directions for corn bread. Stir in half of the onions. Spread over beef mixture.



Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and remaining onions. Bake 3-5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and a toothpick inserted into corn bread layer comes out clean. (Corn bread will be golden brown.)



Makes 6 servings.

Each serving = 514 calories (when prepared my way) :)~

My serving (These are the small sandwich sized plates, by the way):


Dan's serving (plus another plate):


Because this is a pretty darn unhealthy dish, I had a nice salad:


Here are the portions compared:


Did I mention Dan was REALLY happy to have this? He's asked for it for his birthday. :)~



~Jenn

Who puts the "Work" in Workout?

Okay. So this little blog entry is dedicated to the "work" in workout.

My Dad tells me that he can see that I work hard on the machines at the gym instead of just leisurely sailing through my 30 minutes. I was on the bike next to another girl today at the gym and she got on about 5 minutes after I did. In 30 minutes I burned 165 calories on the bike, and that was with my not breathing very heavily, just sweating a bit and my legs being pretty sore (from yesterday specifically). I looked over at her screen (does anyone else do this? I'm so bad.) -- and she had burned 70 calories in 30 minutes.

So why is that? There are people who get next to me on a machine and they really bust their butts and kick my bootie on calorie burning. What's the "correct" amount of exertion? I try to keep my heart rate between 150-180 (a wide range, I know) - and I guess I know also that when you're heavier, you burn calories quicker while working out. (Is that right? Oops, maybe that's not right.)

I guess I don't really know what my question is.

But I should say that spending my 30 minutes on a stationary bike is NOT my favorite. I spend 30 minutes on an elliptical and burn around 300 calories. I much prefer the elliptical, but I went at 5:15 and all of them were taken. That's nuts. There are about 20 ellipticals at my gym. I just need to go at 7 or at 3. ;)~

By the by, I'm starting to get really frustrated with my weight loss. I'm so used to seeing the dramatic weight loss numbers on the scale with Atkins, that this eating healthy + working out = almost no change in the scale. I'm sticking around 1200 calories a day, sometimes a tiny bit more, and it's starting to piss me off.

I do not have patience.

And as a little visual picture, here is my calorie chart for the last 10 days.




~J

Chicken Breasts Florentine

Dan gobbled this chicken right up, even though it was on a bed of spinach!

Chicken Breasts Florentine
2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fat-free milk
3/4 cup fat-free chicken broth
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt (omitted for my recipe)
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 packages (10 oz each) frozen spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed

1 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips (I didn't cut mine up)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Shake flour with milk in a covered container to prevent lumps. Mix flour mixture with chicken broth in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until thickened. Take off heat and stir in parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg.



Mix spinach with 1/2 of the sauce and spread in a 9x13 baking pan that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange chicken over spinach. Pour remainder of sauce over chicken. Sprinkle with additional nutmeg. (I also sprinkled more pepper on mine, and forgot to cut it into strips.)





Bake, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.


I served this with a nice side salad (left the organic pea and bean spouts off of Dan's, but put them on mine) and wheat rolls. :)~




Makes 6 servings

Nutrient Info:
164 calories
2g fat
205 mg sodium
6g carbohydrate
2g dietary fiber
1g sugar
29 g protien


~J