Fried "rice"

Have I told you all about my love of Chinese food? Yeah, it pretty much rocks my world. As a matter of fact my first "official" job at the ripe old age of 14 was as a waitress in a Chinese food restaurant. I know that was young to get a job as a waitress but my friend's parent owned the restaurant and I would hang out there all the time and just help out so as soon as I was old enough to legally be employed I had a job. I guess my love of Chinese food runs deep huh?

This recipe is special though because it doesn't actually have rice in it. How do you make fried rice without rice you ask? Well with the most versatile vegetable in the world, cauliflower. Yep cauliflower not only does it make a knock out replacement for potatoes but it also makes a great replacement for rice, let me show you how. 

Fried "Rice" (makes 2 generous meal size servings or 4 side servings)
1/2 head of cauliflower
peas/snap peas (I used both)
carrots
1/4 of an onion
Canadian Bacon or cooked diced chicken (optional, I ate this as a meal so I added in Canadian bacon for my protein but if you are serving this as a side dish, just leave out the protein)
1 egg
dash of almond milk
1/2 tsp minced garlic
green onions or chives
1-2 tbsp of low sodium soy or Bragg's Aminos
Olive oil

Method 

Start by making scrambled eggs by adding a little almond milk to an egg and whisking together.

Ignore my pan, I burnt the crud out of it the other day, it is ugly but still usable

Cook your egg until it is scrambled, then remove from the pan and set a side until later.

Remove the florets from the head of cauliflower and add the florets to the blender or food processor

Pulse until the cauliflower resembles rice

Chop your carrots, green onions, onion, garlic and snap peas if you are using them

Saute them in a mist of olive oil until they begin to soften

When they soften slightly add another mist of olive oil to your pan then add in your cauliflower "rice" and cooked chicken or Canadian bacon

Continue to cook until the cauliflower has softened and cooked through, then add in your scrambled egg and green onions

Stir to combine and then add in your Bragg's or low sodium soy sauce to the mixture. I actually used half and half, 1 tbsp Bragg's 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce.

Serve and Enjoy!

Finished with Phase 2 on to Phase 3

I am finished with phase 2 and start phase 3 today, time to check in and report my progress. First I must say I am having to give myself and attitude adjustment today because I am disappointed in my progress on phase 2. Yes, I lost weight and inches during phase 2 ( 7 lbs. and 5 inches), just not as many as I wanted. I seem to have hit a plateau the last week or so and just can't get past this weight. I have dieted in the past and been successful but I stalled out last time at this exact weight got frustrated and gave up. I am determined that this time I will bust through this plateau and not give up. Hopefully the phase 3 exercises will help with that. I must admit that I also have gotten lacked with my water intake during phase 2 which I am sure contributed to my lower weight loss numbers. I will do this and hopefully I will have bigger numbers to report next time.

	Before Reset	After Reset	After Phase 1	After Phase 2	Total loss
Waist	48 inches	45 inches	41.5 inches	40 inches	8 inches
Bust	47 inches	45 inches	42 inches	41 inches	6 inches
Hips	45 inches	44 inches	41.5 inches	41 inches	4 inches
Thigh	27 inches	26 inches	25 inches	23 inches	4 inches
Totals	167 inches	160 inches	150 inches	145 inches	22 inches

Company Worthy Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This is one of those meals that sort of came together with the last of the produce hanging out in my refrigerator. For it being bottom of the barrel, use what you got on hand, it was excellent, even company worthy if I do say so myself. I happen to have a few mushrooms, a few mini bell peppers and 1 yellow squash hanging out in the produce bin but use what you have. If you only have a zucchini use that, no bell pepper, try a carrot. I really would have loved onion in this also but I was all out. Do you get what I'm saying, use what you have.

Company Worthy Stuffed Chicken Breasts
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
3 white mushrooms
3-4 mini bell peppers or half of a large one
1/2 yellow squash
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp minced garlic
Dash of Balsamic Vinegar
Dash of salt
Dash of pepper

Method

Start by filleting your chicken breast but stop before you cut all the way through. You want to form a pocket of sorts.

Chop your vegetables in your food processor until fairly fine, it will hold together better if it is a fine chop but you certainly don't want a paste.

Saute your vegetables in a mist of olive oil

When they start to soften add in your thyme, garlic, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar and let cook a minute or so longer just so the flavors meld

Take your filling and stuff your chicken where you created your pocket

Fold over your chicken so that the stuffing is sandwiched between your chicken

Return the stuffed chicken breast to the pan and saute until both sides are lightly brown (I totally got busy helping with homework and burned the snot out of my pan but the chicken was saved, just a little more brown than most people like)

Then place in a oven safe dish and finish baking your chicken breast in the oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. I also added some brussel sprouts to my pan with a dash of balsamic vinegar and allowed them to roast right along side my chicken.

Remove from the oven and enjoy!

Swedish Meatballs

I am back on reset before I start phase 3 of the PINK method...I never thought I would stick to it this long but it truly has become a lifestyle change for me. In all honesty, I still walk by all the awful stuff in the grocery store and think, "Oh, I bet that would taste good or Oh, I used to love those" but it doesn't really go beyond that. I no longer feel deprived or find myself craving things like I did in the beginning and I can easily walk away and be okay. I will admit I do like to sniff things occasionally, yesterday at Costco it was the cinnamon swirl bread, I picked it up, sniffed it and walked away, that is okay right? It is a good thing sniffing doesn't add calories because I sniffed that bread a good long time.

Now that you are all grossed out by my sniffing habit, back to reset. I started reset on Friday and made up a huge batch of meatballs and have pretty much been living off of them the last few days. I know I have shared with you my meatball recipe before in my very first post but I have since tweeked it ever so slightly and I don't think I have ever done a step by step picture tutorial so I thought I would share again. I also made up a big batch of marinara sauce and had spaghetti and meatballs for lunch or dinner at least 3 times over the weekend. Come Sunday night, I needed a change to my meatball routine and my sweet hubby suggested I make a swedish style meatball using my vegan alfredo recipe. He is a genius I tell you...Thanks for the inspiration!

Turkey Meatballs
1 package lean ground turkey (I got mine from Costco and it was about 1 1/2 pounds, in the standard grocery store they are usually about 20 ounces so just over a pound)
1 cup loosely packed spinach
1/3 large red onion
2 carrots
1/2 red bell pepper
Dash of Original Mrs. Dash
Dash of  Pepper
1 tbsp Bragg's (you could omit, or simply sub in a little low sodium soy sauce, it adds a little flavor to the meatballs)
1 tsp minced garlic

Method

Start by dicing up your vegetables in your blender of food processor until they are finely diced

Add your vegetables to your ground turkey along with your seasonings, Bragg's and garlic to the meat

Stir to combine...I always use my hands it just works better to incorporate it all.

At this point we need to do a little math to figure out what a serving is. Here is how I figure it out. Start by looking at your package to see how many ounces there are. In my case it was 1 pound 8 ounces. There are 16 ounces in a pound so the 16 plus the 8 gives me 24 ounces. I know that on PINK I am allowed 4 ounces of protein so if you divide 24 by 4 I should get 6 servings out of my meat/vegetable concoction. You can now start forming your meatballs to whatever size you want, just know that you need 6 equal portions if you have 24 ounces of meat, if you have a standard 20 ounce package you would get 5 servings. I like a smaller one bite size meatball so I ended up making 48 small meatballs which gives you 8 meatballs per serving. If you want bigger meatballs, make them bigger and aim for 6 meatballs per serving in which case you would want to get 36 meatballs. Again remember, I had a larger package of ground turkey so if you are using the standard 20 ounce package, you will only get 5 servings not six. I hope that helps.

Form small meatballs using your hands and place on a lined baking sheet. I use a silicone baking sheet but parchment paper would work fine also or you could just spray your pan with some olive oil. As you will see, the vegetables give off a lot of juice and the meatballs will want to stick so use something.

Bake in the over at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, again the time will vary depending on how large you make your meatballs. I also like my meat very well done so to some of you, you may say they look burnt to me they are perfect.

These freeze great and are great to have on hand for a quick meal. I've used them for my protein in a salad, made zucchini noodle spaghetti and meatballs and last night I made a quick vegan alfredo/white sauce to make Swedish meatballs that my entire family ate without complaint not know how healthy their dinner was. Here is the link to the alfredo/white sauce recipe.

Simply make the white sauce add to a pan and heat until it thickens. I added a little more almond milk to my sauce last night because I didn't want it as thick.

When your meatballs are done, simply add them to the sauce pan, stir to coat with sauce and you are ready to serve. I served mine with cauliflower mash and a little vegan summer squash gratain, made by smearing some of the vegan alfredo/white sauce on the bottom of the pan, laying out your squash and drizzling over a little more sauce and seasoning and baking in the oven along side the meatballs. My husband and kids had normal mashed potatoes and the gratain.

Enjoy!