Slow-Grilled Mojo Chicken

The one fast food exception I make is a place called Pollo Tropical. It specializes in "chicken on the grill" and the website states;  "Pollo Tropical® is one of the most unique and popular quick-service restaurant concepts. Our chicken is fresh, never frozen, and is free of hormones and trans-fats.  Our menu started with a simple recipe for citrus-marinated chicken grilled on an open flame and has grown to offer a variety that is unsurpassed.  From our signature grilled chicken to our mojo pork, guava barbecue ribs and world-famous TropiChops®, Pollo Tropical® enjoys an audience of more than 20 million people that dine at 120 locations throughout Florida, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Trinidad, Honduras and Ecuador."

We always stop in Miami on the way to the Keys and grab some of their grilled chicken, yellow rice and veggies to go.  And I was so excited when Pollo Tropical recently opened here in Jacksonville but I haven't been able to get there so I thought why not make it myself with organic free range chicken, selected so I know exactly where the meat came from?

I rarely work with whole chickens so I found the idea to be a bit daunting; however, my fears were unfounded as this was SUPER easy and the results were awesome.  Low in fat, super citrusy char-grilled flavor.  This is definitely going to become a regular.

Slow-Grilled Mojo Chicken

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 organic, free range whole chicken

1 bottle Mojo (or you can make your own but I used Goya brand)

1 lime

Sea salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder

Olive oil

Directions

1. Cut the backbone of the chicken out using kitchen scissors and gently pull the skin off.  There may be some spots you will need to use the scissors for this as well.

*** see note below

2. Pour the marinade in a large bowl and gently add the chicken, turn to coat.  Zest some of the lime over the marinade and chicken, quarter the lime, squeeze the juice and throw the entire lime in there.  Marinate for 1 hour.

3. Preheat grill to about 350 degrees and rub a bit of oil on the grates before it gets too hot.  Place the marinated chicken on a large platter, season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and rub some of the oil over all surfaces of the chicken.  Place the chicken on the grill, breast side down for 30 to 45 minutes; brush additional oil and add some more garlic powder.   Turn and cook an additional 45 minutes to an hour or until breast meat is just cooked through.  Remove from grill and cover with foil to rest for about 10 minutes.

(See this USDA website for proper internal temps.)

Notes:

***To cut the backbone of the chicken out, simply place the chicken breast side down on a cutting board. Place your kitchen scissors as close to the backbone as possible and cut along the line about 1/3 the way down.  Do the same on the other side; alternating sides until the backbone is completely removed. 

Where the Quest for Natural Appetite Suppressants Led Me and a Massaged Kale Salad with Peanut Dressing.

If you are here for the food scroll directly down to the bottom.  Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. (Who knows what that saying is from?)

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Where the Quest for Natural Appetite Suppressants Led Me


After a particularly gluttonous buffet recently, I found myself googling "natural appetite suppressants" and came across a really eye opening article written by Mike Adams that struck a cord with me because no one ever says this in weight loss articles.  He didn't restate that you just need to eat less calories and work out more (yeah we all know that, DUH). Or try to sell me an appetite suppressant or even an herbal remedy.  He said I could take Hoodia gordonii and it would help a little but it won't turn off the hunger.


What he said was....if you want to lose weight without drugs you are going to have to experience some hunger and learn how to manage it.  I thought, well that was really refreshing.  It's not easy to tell someone they will be uncomfortable.


He went on to suggest five ways he combats severe hunger pangs with minimal calorie intake if you are about to cave and eat an entire cheesecake or something.  He calls them "Emergency Appetite Controls".  He listed:


1. Lots of water
2. A carton of organic broth that you would eat as a soup (I assume it would need to be low sodium too.  I came up with an option using miso which I will post soon.)
3. A huge salad with only 100 calories of dressing or a large amount of veggies stir "fried" with only water, soy sauce, onions and garlic
4. A type of banana pudding made with soy milk and banana-flavored simply natural spirutein soy protein powder.
5. NATURAL pickles (I like this one!  I need to check at Native Sun because the conventional pickles have ingredients I can't pronounce.)
6. Apples (wait that was six items but even better!)


Ha! That sounds easy!  I can totally do this. 


I thought to myself wait, when was the last time you were hungry? 
Oh my God.  I can't remember.


And I'm not talking "Yeah I could eat" hunger.  I'm talking STOMACH GROWLING, have-no-doubt-I'm-hungry hunger.


A light bulb went off in my head.  I don't ever let myself actually get hungry. On a hunger scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is full I let myself get no less than a 6.  No wonder why I'm not losing the last bit of weight.  I just continue to maintain, which is great, BUT, I'm not losing. And for my own self satisfaction I need to lose that weight.


I had started out well that morning considering I had to go to the doctor for blood work so I HAD to fast. I passed through a bit of a nauseous stage and then seemed to do ok.
Weeeeell then I actually got hungry. Really hungry. And I realize that I suck at being hungry. I think I almost had a panic attack. Going forward I can't let myself get quite to a hunger level of "1" then.


I feel like I have lost touch with listening to my body.  I love Weight Watchers mind you, but when I think of how many times I ate just because I knew I had left over points for the day and because it was "time" to eat I realized it is all the time.  What scares me about not keeping tally of what I ate and giving up control, is that the times I did that I gained. 


When I wasn't restricted by the points system or calorie counting, the foods I was eating slowly changed.  Though I probably didn't feel any less or more full than when I was counting, a few more cookies slipped in instead of that celery I would munch on before dinner.


I'm not ready to give up on my security blankie right now so I will stick with the Weight Watcher for now but I also want to learn how to listen to my body again.  This is what I want:


1. Don't eat when simply bored.
2. Don't eat when not hungry even if it is "time" to eat.
3. Stop eating when full. Wait, not even then, BEFORE I'm full.


I look at my two year old daughter who sometimes just isn't hungry at breakfast. Or sometimes lunch. Or sometimes dinner.


BUT!! My brain screams. It's the most important meal of the day! She HAS to eat or....she will be hungry.


When it comes down to it, it's ok though.  She eats when she is hungry, doesn't when she is not and stops when she is satisfied and then goes out to play.  Even if it is gummy bears. Even if it is rice pasta.  She doesn't care about wasting very expensive rice yogurt.  All she knows is that she isn't hungry any more.


When do we lose this? I guess in between a mortgage, laundry, phone bills and general responsibility.


As adults a lot of us have those tapes that run through our head.  The breakfast tape I just mentioned above, the one that says "You have to eat or your body will start storing fat and you won't be able to lose it.";  "Eat small meals all day long to keep your metabolism up."; "You need to eat everything on your plate. There are starving children in Africa. "; "You can't WASTE food.".....and all the other ones that run through and essentially tell me to eat when I'm not hungry. 


I guess this is what they are talking about when you hear "intuitive eating". 


So here were the questions that quickly ran through my head like my life was flashing before my eyes.....


Can I shift my whole mind set and move away from the waste-not-want-not, skipping-meals-is-bad, but-you-have-points-left-and-HAVE-to-eat-all-your-points mindset?


What do I do on the weekends when I want a few glasses of wine and suddenly eating five cookies sounds like a fabulous idea?


What will I do when presented with a buffet on the weekend?


Will I EVER be able to stop tracking points or calories?


Will everyone hold me accountable if I post this?  Hmmm, yes, probably so.


Day 1 of "Mindful Eating" and Massaged Kale Salad with Peanut Dressing:  

I did really well until the evening. I caved. I was hungry when I got home; ate some shrimp and Swiss chard then a dessert of farmer cheese some blueberries and Greek yogurt and then I made this kale salad and kept eating as I was making it because I love anything with nut butter on it.  Even kale.  Or broccoli.

The original recipe was made by my friend Megi at Linden Tea and she used sunflower seed butter. Just looking at this photo you can see why I wanted to try this. I swear it is more drool-worthy than some of the desserts I have seen and who can say that about BROCCOLI?

Source Linden Tea

That had been my original plan but I was out so I tried it with good old peanut butter.  I loved the nut butter and the tang of the apple cider vinegar and the crunch of the nuts.  Next time I might even try a variation with soy sauce and peanut butter. 

Massaged Kale with Peanut Dressing

Altered from Linden Tea's Broccoli with Sunflower Seed Dressing

About 6 (1 cup) servings

***3 WW Pts Plus

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 Bunch Kale

2 Tbsp natural peanut butter

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
Splash of water (to thin)
1 garlic clove, grated
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
Handful of peanuts, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

Directions

1. Mix the peanut butter, vinegar, water and garlic with a whisk or small blender (such as a Magic Bullet).

2. Season kale with salt and pepper; pour dressing over kale and massage for about 3 minutes until kale begins to break down a bit.

3. Toss handful of chopped peanuts over mixture.

Nutrition Facts
6 (estimated 1-cup) Servings
***3 WW Pts Plus
Amount Per Serving
Calories 104.3
Total Fat 6.3 g
Saturated Fat 1.0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.9 g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.8 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 81.1 mg
Potassium 377.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 10.0 g
Dietary Fiber 3.4 g
Sugars 2.2 g
Protein 5.3 g

Vitamin A 354.1 %
Vitamin C 88.8 %
Manganese 35.2 %

Green Lentils with Ginger, Coconut Milk, Sweet Potato and Cabbage and Eat. Live. Be. for a better 2011

Today’s Eat. Live. Be. for a better 2011 is about lunch; which actually ties into my new little poll (look over there to the left). Is lunch your favorite meal? 

I have to admit I love lunch because this one is easy for me. I work out on my lunch break four days a week so each prior weekend I make a big salad or pot of soup to bring with me. It is perfect, no planning or thinking. I already have it done! Today is a perfect example. This week I will bring a cup of lentils with me as well as a few snacks such as sliced veggies with hummus, a fresh apple, an egg or even a few squares of dark chocolate.

The day I do go out to lunch is another story. I usually tend to splurge a bit more on that day, but, within reason. We go to a local Mediterranean restaurant called Mandaloun a lot. I typically get the fattoush salad and order a side of hummus. Sounds pretty virtuous right? Nope. Restaurants go above and beyond to make the food taste good; typically without regard to your waistline. Even though the salad is super fresh with tons of aromatic herbs, it has a very generous amount of dressing as well as little crispy fried pita strips. And boy, are they oh so good. On top of that I might eat an entire pita with the hummus. This all adds up to far more than I would typically eat at lunch, but it is my once a week treat so I figure every now and then is ok.

What is your typical lunch?

 I was on a quest to do something with my CSA cabbage that I would actually look forward to.  I figured I was just not a fan.  I mean, it is OK but I'm never really like Yes!  We are having CABBAGE TONIGHT!  In fact, I had already used half the head on fish tacos with cabbage slaw but I didn't post that one as I wasn't really excited about it.

This, on the other hand, is a cabbage recipe I can really look forward too.  Yes it is labor intensive but you will not be disappointed if you like spicy and flavorful Indian food.  I promise.

Green Lentils with Ginger, Coconut Milk, Sweet Potato and Cabbage

Altered from Smitten Kitchen and Madhur Jaffrey, Indian Cooking

Estimated 10 (1-cup) Servings

**4 WW Pts Plus

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups lentils, rinsed and drained if necessary (truRoots Organic Sprouted)

6 cups water or broth (I used 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth 2 cups water)

1 sweet potato, chopped (Organic unpeeled)

1/2 heaping tsp ground turmeric

3 Tbsp vegetable oil, 1 Tbsp butter

1 heaping tsp cumin seeds

2 to 4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped (or 3/4 Tbsp dried minced)

1 medium onion, peeled and cut into fine slices

1/2 head finely shredded cabbage

1 to 2 fresh, hot green chilies, finely sliced

3/4 tsp salt

14.5oz can peeled to whole un-drained, tomatoes chopped (Muir Glen)

1 heaping tsp peeled, finely grated fresh ginger

3/4 cup light coconut milk

Directions

1. Pour water and/or broth, sweet potato and lentils into a heavy pot and bring to a boil. Add turmeric; stir to mix. Cover, leaving the lid slightly ajar to vent, turn heat down to low; simmer gently for 1 1/4 hours. Stir several times during the last 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. When hot, put in the cumin seeds; allow to sizzle for 3 to 4 seconds. Add garlic; stir to combine and cook a few more seconds. Add the onion, cabbage and green chilies. Stir the cabbage mixture for about 10 minutes or until it begins to brown and turn slightly crisp. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Turn off the heat under the frying pan.

3. Stir remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, the tomato and ginger to the lentil pot (after the initial cooking time); stir to mix. Cover and cook an additional 10 minutes. Add the cabbage mixture; stir to mix and bring to a simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in coconut milk.

Nutrition Facts

Estimated 10 (1-cup) Servings
**4 WW Pts Plus
Amount Per Serving


Calories 159.8
Total Fat 6.0 g
Saturated Fat 1.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3.4 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 325.5 mg
Potassium 303.6 mg
Total Carbohydrate 22.2 g
Dietary Fiber 4.9 g
Sugars 2.3 g
Protein 4.7 g


Vitamin A 55.6 %
Vitamin C 68.2 %
Folate 19.8 %

A Low Calorie Chef Salad with Farm Fresh Eggs, Sliced Herbed Turkey and Crumbled Farmer Cheese and Results from Last Week's Poll

My soon to be world famous Chef Salad with Farm Fresh Eggs, Sliced Herbed Turkey and Crumbled Farmer Cheese. 

Here is a photo to entice you to scroll down to the recipe.

Thanks to those who participated in last week's poll.  Here are the poll results for the question; Would you join a CSA/Farm Share?

Yes! I belong to a CSA and love it. (40%)
Awesome. Please spread the good word!

I don’t know what it is. (10%)
A farm share, also called Community Supported Agriculture or CSA, is where you buy a “share” of the expected crop from a local farm in your area as well as a possible variety of other food items such as farm fresh eggs, artisan breads, meats, etc.

In my case, my daughter and I go to the actual farm every other Thursday to select my specified number of veggies separated in bins, visit the chickens and talk to the actual farmers growing the food we eat who we now consider to be friends. Some additional alternatives that may be offered by the farm are to pick up pre-selected boxes of vegetables and food items dropped off at specified places throughout the community that may be more convenient for you than going to the actual farm. Additionally, mine offers events such as Farm-to-Table member pot lucks and you-pick opportunities to pick your own produce.

It is too expensive. (30%)
Try a half share.  Mine works out to about $15 per week for organically grown vegetables that I can't get fresher anywhere else (other than possibly my own garden but I wouldn't be able to beat the variety I get from my farm).

The pickup is inconvenient. (10%)
Call your closest farm share to see if the farmer might be able to arrange something more convenient for you. You might be surprised how flexible they are.

I don’t know what to do with some of the veggies. (10%)
Get in touch with me and we will figure something out each week.  I love this kind of stuff.

The prep work takes too much time. (0%)

I want to join a CSA but don't know where one is. (10%)
I found mine by asking around and I happened to find one through a woman I work with.  I suggest doing the same as well as googling "CSA farm share [type your city and state here]"

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This salad was the one I randomly made for breakfast on Friday (Yes I'm not kidding. a salad for breakfast can be good too).  It was one of those unplanned recipes that turned out so well I knew I had to have it again soon.  I didn't put any dressing on this, just a bit of balsamic vinegar and some seasonings; my usual coarse sea salt, fresh cracked pepper and garlic powder.  With the fat in the egg and farmer cheese I really didn't need a rich oily dressing.  The farmer cheese was almost an afterthought but I absolutely loved the mild creaminess it added.  I think you will love this one!  As for the chopsticks...my quirky self uses them to eat pretty much everything other than soup.

Chef Salad with Farm Fresh Eggs, Sliced Herbed Turkey and Crumbled Farmer Cheese

Serves 1
**5 WW Pts Plus

Printable recipe

Ingredient

3 cups baby lettuce, (Earthbound Farm)

1 tomato, sliced

Balsamic vinegar spray (Gourme Mist)

1 hard boiled egg, sliced (farm fresh from KYV Farm)

2 slice herbed deli turkey (Applegate farms)

1 oz farmer cheese (Friendship....God I love this stuff)

Coarse salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder, to taste

Directions

1. Layer lettuce and tomato on a plate; spray with balsamic vinegar.  Top with egg, turkey, farmer cheese and season, to taste.

Nutrition Facts

1 Serving

**5 WW Pts Plus

Amount Per Serving

Calories 192.4

Total Fat 8.5 g

Saturated Fat 3.2 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g

Monounsaturated Fat 2.1 g

Cholesterol 237.0 mg

Sodium 436.5 mg

Potassium 823.3 mg

Total Carbohydrate 12.3 g

Dietary Fiber 4.2 g

Sugars 0.0 g

Protein 20.1 g

Vitamin A 108.3 %

Vitamin C 87.7 %

Calcium 9.2 %

Folate 67.2 %

Manganese 60.6 %

Riboflavin 28.4 %

Selenium 23.2 %

Fabulous Friday!

I leave you with a very happy story before the weekend comes.

A local woman here in Florida, Kathleen Damiano, won the St. Johns County School District's School Related Employee of the Year award. She was selected out of nominees from 34 schools and I had the privilege of talking to her this morning on the way to work. She is the food manager at a school right near my house called Timberlin Creek Elementary and she started a school garden with little help and almost no funds in order to incorporate fresh produce into the school lunches and to increase awareness about farming. She provides recipes to parents, uses games to make food and nutrition FUN and she strives to create appealing breakfast and lunch presentation to entice children to want to try new foods and eat healthier.

What a concept!

Why isn’t this done everywhere? It sounds so simple. The problem is schools have no money and it is getting worse. Programs are being cut like athletics and music etc. and schools are just trying to squeak by. The winners for food suppliers go the cheapest bidder which is SCARY. We are putting the cheapest food possible into our little children’s bodies? GAH! On top of that gardening takes time and patience and care. Kudos to Kathleen for going above and beyond and not settling for feeding our children the cheap and easy way.

How can we help? Talk about this. Spread the word. Volunteer to help. If you can’t volunteer time then send money or donate plants. Every little bit helps.

Don’t have this at your child’s school? Talk to your school leaders and get one started with a group of other parents who care!

If you live in the area and would like to volunteer, donate or even provide comments or suggestions please email me at chefdawn@hotmail.com

Let’s make ourselves, our children and our environment healthy by working together!

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This was my very random and totally impromptu breakfast that was just so good I have to share. Better late than never right?  I will do a photo redo later.

(I apologize for the particularly horrible iPhone photo.)

Dawn's Breakfast Chef Salad

Ingredients

3 cups baby lettuce, (Earthbound)
Balsamic vinegar spray
Coarse salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder, to taste
1 hard boiled egg, sliced (farm fresh from KYV)
1 slice Applegate farms herbed deli turkey
1 oz farmer cheese (Friendship....God I love this stuff)
2 slices tomato, sliced


XOXOXO,

Have an amazing Friday and and even better weekend.
Thank you for visiting me!

Peanuty-Chocolaty Granola Parfait. A Weight Watcher friendly breakfast idea and a way to get your healthy oil in!

This is a true statement for all of us. We need some fat in our lives. Especially monounsaturated fats such as extra virgin olive oil. Also called ”MUFA”.

Granted, new studies may show tomorrow that MUFA causes us to actually grow an extra arm and our liver to wilt and fall out. But for now, monounsaturated is, like, the IN thing. You want to be cool right? Everyone is eating it. Plus fat tastes good.

But! Yes there is a “but” for everything. You need to eat fats in moderation. As a society, we Americans seem to have forgotten that we need to eat in moderation. It’s tough right? On one hand you to have healthy fat but overall, but for those of us who want to lose weight, we need to manage what we are eating. Ideally we want some fat, high fiber, lean protein etc.

So here is my take on how to do this. For this breakfast I used PB2 which gives me the taste of peanut butter but also manages the amount of calories. I reconstitute it with a bit of olive oil (that healthy fat check) and with the calorie savings from this I can add the protein and calcium from the Greek yogurt as well as the health benefits of the sunflower seeds, chia and flax which contain Omega-3, lots of fiber, vitamins and anti inflammatory properties.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you just say screw it and eat the peanut butter? Trust me. I do that sometimes too but most of the time I’d rather eat a bit more for breakfast than 2 Tbsp of peanut butter. It’s just so GOOD.

 Peanuty-Chocolaty Granola Parfait

Serves 1

**5 WW Pts Plus

Printable Recipe

 
Ingredients

2 Tbsp PB2 Powder (Bell Plantation)

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

3 tsp hot coffee

Dash of Special Dark Cocoa Powder (Hershey)

1/2 cup non fat plain Greek yogurt (Chobani)

1 Tbsp rolled oats (Bobs Red Mill)

1 tsp sunflower seeds

1/2 tsp each, chia and flax seed

Dash each, coarse sea salt and cinnamon

Directions

1. Mix the PB2 through coffee in a small bowl and pour into the bottom of a small glass.  Top with Greek yogurt then oats, seeds, sea salt and cinnamon.

Nutrition Facts

***5 Pts Plus

1 4oz yogurt Serving

Amount Per Serving

Calories 198.4

Total Fat 9.9 g

Saturated Fat 1.0 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 1.9 g

Monounsaturated Fat 3.9 g

Cholesterol 0.0 mg

Sodium 206.0 mg

Potassium 82.1 mg

Total Carbohydrate 12.6 g

Dietary Fiber 2.5 g

Sugars 4.1 g

Protein 16.1 g

Vitamin B-6 3.0 %

Calcium 20.1 %

Manganese 27.1 %

Phosphorus 21.5 %

Nutrition Facts

**6 Pts Plus

1 6oz yogurt Serving

Amount Per Serving

Calories 225.0

Total Fat 9.9 g

Saturated Fat 1.0 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 1.9 g

Monounsaturated Fat 3.9 g

Cholesterol 0.0 mg

Sodium 226.0 mg

Potassium 82.1 mg

Total Carbohydrate 14.6 g

Dietary Fiber 2.5 g

Sugars 6.1 g

Protein 21.1 g

Pan Seared Shrimp Taco with Avocado-Honey Sauce and Fresh Cilantro

What I love about blogging recipes is the daily challenges and wins.

The challenges make the wins so much sweeter. There are days when a recipe I fully expect to come out perfectly is just not that great and other times when a recipe turns out so much better than expected. Those are the days that get a food blogger super excited about posting and sharing. All I can hope for is that one person be inspired to eat healthier or try something new or enjoy one of my recipes. We bloggers are people lovers.

I even dream food and cooking now. It's better than laying awake at night thinking about global warming or nuclear reactors or tsunamis or, what used to be my big one, dog fighting. (I'm still very angry at Michael Vick and conspirators.) Ok, so granted I do have a few nightmares about Monsanto and pushing their genetically modified garbage on us in the name of "feeding the world" when it's really about big business and how they can make the most money and hold our government in a vice but at least I feel like I can use my small space of the internet to stand on my soap box about it.

I digress; here is what we had for dinner.
For this one I would love to share what went into each taco and the exact serving size but it's so hard to judge since my hubby and I both use different size tortillas, like different toppings etc. I very rarely do this any more but I'll just give you the general idea and leave it to you to be creative.  The only thing I did measure out was the avocado-honey sauce.  A little sweet, a little tart and really creamy.  Enjoy!

Pan Seared Shrimp Taco with

Avocado-Honey Sauce and Fresh Cilantro

Ingredients

Avocado-Honey Sauce:

1 Avocado
1 Tbsp honey, or to taste

1/3 cup non fat plain Greek yogurt

2 Tbsp sour cream

1 lime, juiced

Water (to thin)

1 lb fresh shrimp

Cooking spray

Jerk lime seasoning

Fresh lime

Splash of beer

Tortillas
Topping Ideas:
Cilantro
1 tomato, chopped
Shredded, reduced fat Mexican blend cheese
Additional sour cream


Directions


1. Blend the avocado honey sauce ingredients in a small blender. 


2. Season shrimp with jerk lime seasoning and squeeze juice of half lime over.  Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, spray with cooking spray.  Add shrimp and cook 2 minutes per side or until outside is golden and shrimp is just cooked through.  If needed, add a splash of beer to degalze pan and prevent burning.


3. On each tortilla place shrimp, 2 Tbsp avocado honey sauce and optional toppings desired.

Grilled Chicken Salad with Fresh Dill and Kohlrabi and Eat. Live. Be. for a Better 2011

Today's Eat. Live. Be. topic is "A Day In Our Lives" aka. How we've changed our day-to-day habits in order to achieve our goals. 

I can’t say my weekday schedule is very exciting but here goes..

5:45AM Shower, eat breakfast, get remaining bits of lunch ready, make daughter’s breakfast.

7AM Get daughter up, get breakfast ready while hubbs gets her dressed. Sit with her for a minute while she eats and then I get her lunch ready.

8AM Drop daughter off at school, drive to work while yapping with my mom or friend Justine.

8:30AM-11:45 Work
11:45 to 12:45 Gym. It’s different every day (and this is where the change in my day to day habits has helped me reach my goals). I used to not work out at lunch but then once I had the baby I had to make time to get to the gym. Yes I miss out on lunches out with the girls from work or errands, but, I put my health as a top priority. No excuses.
12:45 to 5:00 Work
5:00 Drive home (pick up daughter if hubbs can’t by 5:30)
5:30-6:00 Unpack ungodly amount of crap stuffed into my car from that morning, pee, change, feed dogs
6:00-7:30 Start dinner, take picture for blog post if necessary, eat, clean up.
7:30 Daughter into bath then bed.
8:00 Blog or do what I need to get done.
8:30 Get most of lunch ready for next day and any other necessary routine duties such as empty dishwasher.
9:00 or 9:30 collapse into bed. Read or watch a show I have DVR’d such as Grey’s, Off the Map, V (I am a sci fi junkie), Modern family or No Reservations.
REPEAT.
The weekends I sleep in to maybe 6:30 if I’m lucky. Saturday, Power Yoga is at 8AM to 9:45 and then we do whatever we had planned for the rest of the weekend. Last weekend was a typical one. Jam-packed to the last minute!
 

Grilled Chicken Salad with Fresh Dill and Kohlrabi

 Remember those cute owl plates I just bought?  I had to make something I could put in them.

   

After we spent some time blowing bubbles, of course.

This salad was born from grilled chicken breast left over from the pizza we made Friday night and the red onion and gigantic kohlrabi from my CSA on Thursday.

I love it when spur of the moment recipes come out better than I had hoped.  This is one of those.  The Vegenaise adds such a tasty creaminess to the juicy grilled chicken, the unique, fresh flavor of dill and the firm texture of the kohlrabi.

I urge you to try kohlrabi if you see it at the grocery store. Even though, fairly recently, I had an unfortunate mishap with a recipe involving this unique vegetable I am most definitely not giving up on it. When cut fresh, the texture reminds me of a very firm cucumber with moist flesh but a satisfying crunch. The flavor reminds me of a very mild, sweet broccoli. I have read several places now, to buy small kohlrabi; but after chopping this monster (below) from the farm I realized it was just as mild as the other smaller ones I have received and when it comes down to it I prefer it raw or lightly steamed.

Additionally, look at all these positives per ½ cup or 4.7 oz 

(Verified through Calorie King)

Low in calories: 18

High in fiber: 2.4 grams

Lots of potassium: 236.3mg

 I also found that it has vitamin content for that same one-half cup of 25 I.U Vitamin A, 43.4 mg. vitamin C, 11.3 mcg folic acid, and 16.8 mg calcium.

A tip for left over kohlrabi: Slice it into a French Fry shape and use them to dip into hummus.

Grilled Chicken Salad with Fresh Dill and Kohlrabi

Serves 4 (1 cup) servings

***3 WW Pts Plus

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

3 small grilled chicken breasts, chopped (about 9 ounces)

1/4 red onion, diced

1 rib celery, chopped

1/2 cup chopped kohlrabi

1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped

1/4 cup reduced fat Vegenaise (yes I realize I'm using this with chicken but the taste is vastly better than traditional reduced fat mayo.)

Coarse sea salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder, to taste

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Nutrition Facts

4 (1 cup) Servings

***3 WW Pts Plus

Amount Per Serving

Calories 125.1

Total Fat 5.8 g

Saturated Fat 0.2 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 1.2 g

Monounsaturated Fat 3.7 g

Cholesterol 37.0 mg

Sodium 174.6 mg

Potassium 189.6 mg

Total Carbohydrate 3.2 g

Dietary Fiber 0.8 g

Sugars 0.7 g

Protein 15.2 g

Vitamin B-6 19.1 %

Niacin 35.8 %