E&W Recipe: Spicy Baked Chicken Breast and Pasta

We love food here. But healthy tasty food is even better. And healthy tasty spicy food is much much better. I could keep going but I'll just get to the recipe :)

Valentine's Day Couple Fitness Tips

It is Love day. And while we celebrate our significant others, family, and friends, let's also take some time out to celebrate our bodies. We only each have one body, and yet, sometimes we forget and use and abuse them. Today, take a moment to treat your body right by eating right and exercising. 

Of course, Valentine's day gives us a great excuse to have a steamy workout session with our partners. So here are a few tips:

Healthier Oatmeal Cranberry Almond Cookies

Well, Christmas was yesterday, so Merry Christmas!!! The year is almost over...gosh. Why do I feel like it just started? Anyway, before I start to reminisce, let's talk about some Christmas treats!

Yesterday, I'm pretty sure everyone ate more than we usually do. Hopefully, you tried to burn some off as well? No? Just me? Is that why folks made fun of me on Twitter and Instagram for sharing details of my Christmas run? at least I was happy afterward!

Even with all that, in the spirit of the holidays, I thought I'd do some baking and share. I know, I know, what recipe do I have to share that you'd like? Well, everyone loves cookies! I baked my healthier version of oatmeal cranberry cookies with almonds. Here goes.

Ingredients:

1/2 a cup of flour

2 cups of old-fashioned oatmeal

1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk (or any other kind of milk)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of almonds (sliced would be best)

1 cup of cranberries

2 eggs

1/2 cup olive oil or 1/2 stick of butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

Some water

Directions:

1. Put the oil and eggs in a bowl and beat them or use a mixer till you get an even consistency.

2. Add in the salt.

3. Throw in the flour and baking soda and mix until it is even.

4. Throw all the oatmeal in. This may mean it gets a little hard.

5. Put the milk in so it gets back to that creamy texture.

6. The almonds and cranberries are the last to go in.

7. If you find it is way to hard, add in some water. Some folks like their cookies harder, and some like it crumbly.

8. However, if it is too soft, add in some more oatmeal.

9. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees while the dough sits. I like to let it rest for a while, I may even put it in the fridge for a few hours.

10. Put the dough in a cookie tray making each individual cookie the size you desire.

11. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the cookie browns.

12. Viola! I hope you enjoy in as much as we did!

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Chicken: To Skin or Not to Skin?

When I cook chicken that I didn't already buy skinless, I usually go through the motions of skinning the chicken. Yes, people have varying opinions of this is really necessary or not. My position is that it is not particularly necessary, but it definitely helps to reduce the temptation to eat the skin when I'm done cooking the chicken.

Okay, that just broke a lot of people's hearts, right? Well, here's a little fact to help you understand how many calories you are cutting down. Unlike other kinds of meat, most of the fat in chicken is in the skin. A 4oz regular chicken breast with skin has about 188 calories, and 3g of saturated fat. If you skinned that same chicken, it would have about 118 calories, and 0.4 grams of saturated fat. Multiply that to the amount you may actually be eating and you see how much of a difference that is!

So you're probably now wondering why I'm all for skinning it BEFORE you cook the chicken. Isn't it the same as just cooking it and then peeling it off? Plus, isn't it way easier that way? I'm not sure about you, but I don't always have the most control in the world when it comes to food, and so it's easier for me to avoid stuffing my face when the food is not on my plate or in my pot. I'm pretty sure some of you are the same. So I skin before I cook so I don't have to look at the juicy piece of skin and then will myself to not eat it.

Also, you may not know this, but the skin actually absorbs most of the spices when you cook the chicken. So peeling it off after you cook it sometimes means losing the flavor of what you just cooked. If you peel it off before, you allow the meat to absorb the spices.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

In the Kitchen: Sweet Potato and Liver Pottage

Don’t pretend; you know you like my cooking :) Well, even though it’s never mostly the traditional food you expect. Today, we’re getting our iron in with sweet potatoes and liver. No, don’t flip over to yesterday’s post. Work with me here.

For those of you reading this recipe who are not from one of the British colonies, you probably have no idea what a pottage is. It’s basically like a stew with a combination of ingredients, usually tomato based, that lasts for a few days and can be heated and reheated. Basically, the perfect idea for daily left-overs. I like vegetables in everything, so you’ll always see some vegetables in any recipe on here.

So let’s cook shall we? (Oh, and by the way, I have to apologize for my amateur photography before you read this)

Ingredients (serves 4):
4 sweet potatoes
½ lb okras
½ teaspoon dry hot pepper
1 teaspoon curry
1 lb broccoli
6 oz tomato paste (or tomato sauce)
1 lb chicken liver
8 oz spinach
1 seasoning cube (my preference is Knorr)
Some salt
1 tbsp palm oil
Lots of water!

Directions:
Peel your sweet potatoes, season them with a dash of salt, and bring them to a boil with about 1 cup of water. Let them cook for about 15 minutes or to your desired texture.
 

While the sweet potatoes cook, chop up the liver, season it with a dash of salt, and bring to a boil for about 10 minutes. 

While those are cooking, you can chop up the spinach, broccoli, and okra. I had chopped and frozen the okra beforehand.

Once the sweet potatoes and the liver are cooked, dice up the sweet potatoes like you would if you were making soup.

Put the palm oil in a fresh pan. You only need the oil so the food does not stick, and to give it a tad bit of flavor, so do not overdo the dish with oil. I tried to stick to 1 tablespoon only. A great way to make the most of your oil is to throw in about a tablespoon, and use the spoon to spread the oil around the pan. Bring the oil to the stove.

When the palm oil is hot enough, throw in the tomato paste. I only use tomato paste because it makes the pottage thicker, so you can use blended tomatoes or tomato sauce. However, because it is a paste, and because you have virtually no oil, it could start to burn up pretty quickly. To keep it fluid, I throw in the liver and the liver stock. Add in a dash of salt, the seasoning cube, the pepper, and the curry. Stir, and let it cook for about 10 minutes.

Time for the veggies! Don’t add them all at once though because they have varying absorption speeds. Put the okra in first, and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Next, throw in the sweet potatoes and stir.

After about 5 minutes, throw in the broccoli. If your pottage is thick by now, the broccoli should provide enough juice to water it down a bit. You can throw in the broccoli and spinach at the same time, or wait 5 minutes and then put the spinach in. 

Everything is in now, so you can stir and let it cook for about 5 minutes. You’re done!

Because it is a tomato based stew, it usually tastes better once you’ve let it sit for a few hours. Try the recipe and let me know what you think. I know some folks would be adding more pepper in there.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Healthy Cooking with Fish

Fried fish is yummy when prepared well; I can’t deny that. And in a lot of cultures, fried or boiled fish are the only two options most people know. And considering that a lot of folks prefer fried fish to boiled fish, nothing more needs to be said on the subject.

However, fish in itself is pretty healthy as it is a great low-fat protein option to meat, and it contains omega-3 fatty acids, which help promote heart health. So rather than smothering our fish and concealing most of its great qualities in a not-so-great way, let’s try other ways of preparing the fish to get the same great taste and retain the positive benefits. How, you ask? How can you do this besides boiling it?

Grilling: Well, most of you are probably familiar with grilled fish. To do this, you’d need a grill and your spices to give the fish some flavor. Grilling does require some non-stick spray or a dash of oil to prevent the fish from sticking to the grill.
Steaming: Steaming is very similar to boiling, but the food isn’t bathed in the actual water. When you steam fish, you spice up the fish like you would for any other cooking method, but rather than put it in a pot of water, you put it in a steam basket in the pot over the water. This way, when the water turns to steam, that is actually what cooks the fish. This is a method, you can’t really use with meat because it would take forever, but since fish is delicate, you can cook it this way and still retain the nutrients.
Baking: If you want some crust on your fish, this is one good way to keep the crust without frying it. However, if you are trying to balance out your calories, it is important to consider what ingredients go into your crust as well. Baking is usually in a dish in the oven or in foil. Foil is great for baking fish as it helps retain the juices, especially for drier fish like cod.
Broiling: Broiling is not so different from grilling. The major difference is that while the heat comes from the bottom when you grill, the heat comes from the top when you broil. So if you are broiling fish in your home oven, make sure you adjust the oven tray a few levels down so that the fish doesn’t get too dry.
Poaching: Poaching is a specialized form of cooking. Poaching fish is similar to boiling except that you spice up the water or liquid the fish will be poached in, make sure the level of the spiced water is just high enough to cover the fish, and cook at a particular temperature (usually 165 to 180 degrees) for the specified amount of time.

So while I agree that fried fish is delicious, there are other ways to cook fish to keep it healthy and still retain the flavor. Try one of these methods today!

Cheers Eights & Weights! 

Photo credit: ehow.com