Marketing, Cooking, Eating

SPOILER ALERT:  I didn't get in any exercise this weekend and I went over on calories on Sunday.
However, those two facts do not negate a good weekend.

Saturday morning I got the weekend off to a fun start with a trip to the farmers' market...well actually two markets in two separate towns.  I like different things about each market. Here is my bounty....

I wanted to get more of of the Northeast Pole Beans I bought last week at the first market - got their last bag! I like the way the flatness looks.

Bought two of these pretties - only $1 each!

I went to the second market mostly to meet up with my mom, niece and her grandniece (I know, I don't think I am old enough for that either).

I bought a few more tomatoes. I felt so badly for one of the vendors. She had the last of her tomatoes because a hail storm wiped her out..."total loss" she said. She did have other items for sale, but I think her tomatoes were the majority of her business.

My niece had asked me the other day for zucchini ideas.  I had completely forgotten about my zucchini pies of previous summers. I decided to make this Sweet Corn and Zucchini Pie. I've made it before and remembered liking it.

I am a bit obsessed with corn on the cob. I love to grill it and eat it with nothing on it - seriously no butter/salt needed. I also cut it off the cob to use in all sorts of dishes. For this recipe I am starting with raw corn. My favorite part is how some of the kernels stick together. I can never resist nibbling.

 All the veggies are sauteed until tender before mixing in the cheese and eggs.

Ready for the oven! The recipe said to line the pan with parchment paper. I did in hopes it will be easier to get out and hold together better for pretty portions. Let's see how it worked.

I did make two tiny revisions to the recipe. I reduced the butter by 2 tablespoons and the cheese by 4 ounces. Divided into 6 servings, my modifications will save about 100 calories per serving (322 per serving). I don't think it is quite a meal on its own, so a few less calories will give me a little wiggle room for "sides".

I ate a piece for lunch, took a sample piece to my niece and have four servings ready for meals this week.  Saturday's lunch was delicious with a side of cherries and cherry tomatoes.

I' made one of the Cooking Light recipes I mentioned the other day - Grilled Romaine with Feta and Nuoc Cham  Nuoc Cham is a Vietnamese sauce (super simple to make). Yes, that is me grilling lettuce! It isn't on the grill long but enough to wilt a bit and get some grill flavor.

While I grilled Millie stationed herself between the garden and the shed. She has dreams of catching a rabbit or squirrel one day. She chases them out of the garden and they run under the shed or up the tree by the shed.

I finished off my salmon with a bit of peach salsa.  The romaine was very tasty. The Nuoc Chom sauce has great flavor (salty/sweet/tangy) and the feta is a nice complement or the crunchy lettuce texture. (Look closely and you can see the pretty grill marks.) The lettuce retained much of its crunch. I ate two servings!  I think I will save this sauce recipe for my upcoming summer roll plans.

Maybe I am the absolute last to know this, but just in case...MyFitnessPal will do all the work for you when entering a new recipe!! All you have to do is copy the URL and voila!!  I thought I was just going to have to quick add some calories for things not in the database because I was too lazy to enter ALL the ingredients. You have a chance to edit the ingredients before logging it. When I made my zucchini pie I edited it to reflect less butter and cheese. For the recipe title I did mark it less butter and cheese so future users would know it had been modified.

Sunday morning my husband had a group of friends over to play nerd games. It was a brunch potluck. I have never made chicken and waffles and decided Sunday was the day. I used this recipe.
It was pretty straightforward and called for boneless skinless chicken thighs. Not only did it reduce extra calories by being skinless, it reduced my anxiety about properly frying the chicken by being boneless. Win/Win.  They turned out very well. I ate two waffles and two small pieces of chicken. Because I made a batch and a half and didn't really keep track of how many waffles it made and didn't weigh portions of chicken. The recipe came out to about 450 per serving (my educated guess with MFP). I had two delicious servings just like below. The syrup was a supposed to be a mix of maple syrup and hot sauce. However, my maple syrup had gone bad (I didn't know it did that), so I had to scramble and make my homemade syrup, to which I added the hot sauce. It sounds strange, but the hot sauce really makes the dish. I could have eaten several more servings. The boys all tried it as chicken and waffles and then ended up eating up all the chicken plain - I even had to fry them more. They played and I cooked another win/win :)

I did track my brunch, but that was it for the day. I had planned on a nice salad or something for late lunch, but we ended up going to our Mexican place. I didn't even begin to guess the calories, but I had about half of my steak fajita nachos (subbed chips for tortillas), so it was not a calorie disaster by any means. It does bother me not to be able to be exact, but I am not letting that trip me up from the big picture.

I ended up not being hungry at dinner time, so I just skipped it. I confess I was a bit hungry before bed, but decided to just sleep it off. So overall, I am not at all unhappy with the day. I am working very hard to keep balanced this time around. It has to be something I can do forever. And now that I know about these chicken and waffles I have to be able to work them into my lifestyle.


Good weekend behind me and back to 100%  tracking today :)

I spy corn and zucchini pie...can't wait until lunch. I also have some Rosemary Sea Salt hummus I am looking forward to. I promise I will eat it with the carrots...not my fingers.

And so starts a new week. I might be faking it until I make it, but I am ready for you, Monday!