Shrimp, Broccoli and Fiddlehead Stirfry

I bought some fiddlehead ferns (cuz they look so cool!) but then waited too long to use them—so I needed a quick way to incorporate them into a meal and figured stir fry was a pretty safe bet. Luckily, it turned out halfway decent!

You'll need:
1 clove of garlic
Lemongrass
1 tsp. ginger (fresh or candied)
1 bunch of broccoli
1c fiddlehead ferns
1 onion
1 red bell pepper
14 shrimp
Fish sauce
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Mirin
Red chili pepper flakes

Thoroughly clean the fiddleheads, chop the broccoli and onion, mince the garlic, and prep your shrimp. In a wok, heat up a small amount of oil and add in the garlic, stirring for 30 seconds. Toss in the onion, lemongrass and ginger and cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly. (Once stuff begins to stick, you can add a splash of the sauces or water, so as not to go overboard with oil.) Then, add in your fiddleheads—you need to make sure these cook all the way through, so give them a few minutes, covered if needed, to get them cooked most of the way before adding in your broccoli. Once the fiddleheads are almost fork tender, add in the broccoli and red bell pepper and cook just until they get that bright color, but still have a bit of crunch. Add in the shrimp, the sauces if you haven't added them yet, and a couple shakes of red chili pepper flakes for kick. Cook until the shrimp is done (4 minutes tops) and enjoy! Makes two 27g servings.

Garlic Scallion Eggplant

Whenever possible, it's good to keep your recipes simple and from scratch—that way there are no hidden calorie bombs. This is super basic, easy and fast.

You'll need:
1 eggplant
1 scallion
1 clove of garlic
1 T. olive oil or sesame oil
Salt & pepper or soy sauce

Chop your eggplant into bite-sized pieces, mince your garlic, and slice your scallions. Heat up a wok or sautée pan with oil and add in the garlic and scallions; stir constantly for about a minute. Add in the eggplant and stir to coat, season with some salt and pepper, and cover, stirring every minute or two. Once the eggplant is cooked all the way through (about 10 minutes), serve it up. Feel free to season with a little soy sauce or similar, if this is a little to bare for you. This isn't 27g of protein, but it's lite and easy, so I say roll with it!

Dual Salads

Weeknights can be tough, especially if you're challenged with accommodating different dietary restrictions and personal tastes. That's where these delicious salads come in—everybody adds their own toppings, chooses or makes their own dressing, and everyone has something they actually like. We kept this one pretty simple.

For both salads, you'll need:
Mixed field greens
Scallions
Red bell pepper
Salt & Pepper

Tuna Steak Salad:
1 Tuna steak
Lemon pepper
1/2c. fat free Greek yogurt
Dill
Juice of 1 lemon

Chicken & Bleu Cheese Salad:
1 Chicken breast

Bleu cheese
Ken's Lite Honey Mustard dressing

Chop your scallions and red bell peppers and sprinkle onto bowls full of field greens.

For the 27g dressing, mix together the Greek yogurt, juice of 1 lemon, and dill, salt and pepper to taste.

Cook your chicken (we get the marinated organic chicken from Wegmans) in a pan on the stovetop, on medium-high, about 7 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, broil the tuna, seasoned with lemon pepper, for about 4 to 5 minutes each side. Allow the chicken and tuna to cool for a couple minutes, then chop up into bite-sized pieces.

Top one salad with chicken, bleu cheese crumbles, and your store-bought dressing. Top the other (27g) salad with the tuna and as much of the dressing as you like. (Which is the best part of this dressing, no need to go easy on it, go ahead and load it up!) Enjoy!

Back on the wagon

So, it turns out that the only thing worse than getting fat, is getting fat again. Which is bound to happen when you go back to your same old tricks. No excuses, just the reality that life happens and sometimes that leads to a lack of focus, and plates piled too high and full of the wrong things. So back on the wagon again (hopefully without breaking it) and more new healthy recipes coming soon! 

Purple Chocolate Shake

If you're looking for a super fast meal, try this tasty beverage on for size. While not quite as low sugar as most of our recipes, it's still pretty reasonable in the scheme of things, and you'll be surprise to know the real secret purple ingredient is not a sugary fruit mess—and it'll still give you almost half your daily requirement of Vitamin C, some potassium, vitamin A and fiber. Trust me, Sunny D's got nothin' on this "purple stuff."

You'll need:
1 scoop of a chocolate protein shake mix
1/4c fat free ricotta
1c cold water
1c ice
a handful of raspberries
1/2c chopped purple cabbage (yes, really)

Simply add all the ingredients to your blender to combine, and enjoy a full glass. This bad boy is packed with about 27g protein, and enough fiber to stave off hunger for several hours. Bottoms up!

Food-Free Indulgence

A while back, at the prompting of a friend, I read the book, "Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating" by Geneen Roth. Now, I am not a fan of self-help books usually, but I do enjoy reading about nutrition and the science of food, so I was pretty easily swayed into this. It was actually a pretty good read—a lot of it was spot on, while some of the uber self-help-ish exercises were a bit much for me. But there was one exercise that I thought was a total no brainer, easy enough to actually do, and good enough to share.

The premise is this: if you overeat, chances are, you use eating as a relaxation technique. You're not good at giving yourself a break, permission to relax, and you don't want others to see you doing nothing. But eating, well, hey—ya gotta eat! No one would fault you for taking a lunch break, right? Or a dinner break? Or a snack break, I mean, if you're hungry, right? So food quickly becomes our only allowable indulgence. The only thing we can do to take a break without looking lazy or feeling like a slacker.

But there are a million ways to take a break, and indulge, take care of yourself, relax for ten minutes, without stuffing your face. So as Geneen Roth recommends, write a list of the many other things you could do to treat yourself—sans food. Here's mine:

Do yoga.
Or just stretch and breathe, even if only for ten minutes.
Walk the dog.
Take a nap.
Read a magazine.
Take a bubble bath.
Lay out in the sun (with sunscreen of course...)
Paint my nails.
Give myself a home facial.
Enjoy a cup of tea in absolute silence.
Listen to a podcast.
Go for a walk alone. Yes alone. Not even with the dog.
Garden.
Get a massage.
Go to the gym.
Go to a park and people watch.
Write in a journal or blog.
Do something creative (but non-work), like photography, painting or drawing.
Listen to music.

Give myself a pedicure.
Light candles and meditate for 10 minutes.
Call a friend and catch up.


All of these things can take 5 minutes, or half an hour. The best part is, you choose when, where, for how long. And don't feel guilty about it. In fact, you'll probably feel awesome about it. Because it's good for your soul, and good for your waistline. Let me know what your alternative indulgences are!

Dodging the Camera

If you're reading this blog, you've likely done this many times before.....you're at a family gathering, your snap-happiest family member breaks out her camera phone and wants you to smile like you're thrilled to have your current weight captured on film and spread across facebook like wildfire. What she doesn't know is that, while you love the time with your family, and would love a way to remember it, all you can think about is how fat you'll look next to your petite cousin or your stick-figure sister, that you feel like a stuffed pepper in this damn outfit, and all you really want to do is duck into the bathroom for a few minutes until the flashes die down. (Or go home and put on your comfiest pajama pants...whatever.)

We've all been there. But I want to share with you this perspective from another blogger. Thanks to her, no matter what my size, next time I will do my best to man up, and enjoy the opportunity to have my favorite moments captured—with me in them.