Currently Browsing: Food Finds
Jun 10, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Jun 10, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, Dinner Idea, Food Finds | 4 comments
Normally I make a home made dinner just about every night. But sometimes I even don’t feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen and I’d rather just have something prepared. I did most of my shopping for the week at Trader Joe’s and when walking down the frozen aisle I found these:
Fish fillets from Trader Joe’s. I never bought them before and when I got home to put them in the oven, they were a little smaller than I thought – you get 4 for 190 calories and 8 grams of fat. BUT, it was plenty! With a side dish of roasted potatoes and green beans, it was a great dinner!
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I can’t believe I have worked out 6 days in a row! Yesterday I couldn’t ride my bike to work so my daughter suggested I go to the library (which is across the street from my office) and get a new work out DVD! Nice suggestion Claire and I was going to do that, but I forgot my wallet at home, so I didn’t have my library card or ID. So I got a ride to work since it was pouring and I walked half way home because I got a ride half way. That wasn’t going to be enough to count as exercise so I got my workout clothes on after dinner and started to check out Exercise TV on demand. Guess who worked out with me?
Yep, my baby Claire got her sweat on with me! We chose a 25 minute kick boxing workout followed by a 20 minute sculpting workout and I used 8 pound weights (Claire didn’t do the strength one – she was my cheerleader for that one!). I was so glad I did that!!
So we’ll see if I can keep this going. It’s cooled off a ton in Chicago. It went from mid 90′s to the low 50′s yesterday, I actually had to put my jacket on walking home – how crazy is that?
Have an awesome day – I have summer hours at work so I only have to work 4 hours today!! Wahoo!!!
What do you have going on this weekend? I have 2 softball games for my daughter, my oldest son is playing in the high school orchestra graduation on Sunday, and in between that, I want a great grocery shop and exercise!!:)
Oh yeah – other things I did this week that were successful – no cookies at work, no pastries at work, didn’t eat after dinner most nights and the one night I did, I made oatmeal with blueberries! 
Apr 27, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Apr 27, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, breakfast, eggs, Food Finds | 8 comments
I receive the monthly catalog from Penzey’s spices. I am lucky enough to have one in my town . With the catalog are tons of recipes, learning about new spices plus they give you a coupon to try a free spice.
One of the spices I saw was for breakfast sausage seasoning! You could make it with Italian sausage, but seeing is I am trying to be healthier, I thought what if I tried making breakfast sausages using ground turkey?
According to the ground turkey package, 4 oz. of meat was only 110 calories. I was able to make 4 good sized patty’s with the package I bought. The only thing I did was add about 1/4 cup bread crumbs (the meat is so moist!) and 1 tablespoon of the sausage seasoning. I did spray the skillet with Pam cooking spray. And I also sprinkled a little seasoning on the top and bottom before cooking.
I cooked it in a non stick skillet for about 4 minutes per side. The result?? Amazing!!! (It tasted like eating real breakfast sausage
So for breakfast I had the “sausage” patty, 1 serving of red potatoes (which I also cooked in the skillet after the turkey sausage) and 1 egg. Super deluxe breakfast for under 300 calories!!
Have you tried that spice before or something similar??
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On another note, I have to give a shout out to my daughter Claire. Our town is hosting a fun run in early May and each student in all the elementary schools were asked to draw a poster for it. Out of her whole school – she won! So last night we attended her awards ceremony, where she got a t-shirt a copy of the poster and the superintendant of schools was there to shake hands too! Great job Claire – super proud of you!
Hope everyone is having a great week so far!
Apr 19, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Apr 19, 2011 in chicken, Food Finds, sauces | 5 comments
Over the weekend, I had recorded a new show from The Cooking Channel called the Urban Grocer. I had no idea what the show was about, but it sounded interesting. The host of the show is Caitlin Zaino. After reading her bio, she is a foodie, turned food blogger, world traveler and now has a show on the Cooking Channel (I’m only a little jealous ).
The episode highlighted foods from Buenos Aires and one of the things that was made was chimichurri. I’ve never made it before and went to my friend Google to search for recipes. Wow, there are tons of different variations of this recipe! I took some ideas from some, and combined together what I thought sounded good.
Isn’t that a gorgeous color??
What I did:
In my blender I threw in
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 fresh lime juice
few sprigs of fresh rosemary
few sprigs of fresh thyme
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
4 cloves of garlic
Blend until its smooth like in the picture above.
Then, all I did was dice up some chicken, pour the sauce on it and that’s it! I served it with rice, although you could throw it in a tortilla. I had a little left over so I served some over pasta for my lunch today.
Have you made Chimichurri before? What do you put it on?
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On another note, how come I live 8 miles from downtown Chicago and I’ve never heard of this place?
Kenmore LIVE!
It’s highlights Kenmore appliances, but also has this:
Launched last year at the corner of Wells and Huron, the venue offers patrons an interactive experience with Kenmore products and often has scheduled presentations, including cooking demonstrations, new product unveilings and appearances by well-known Chicago talent.
Entry is free and open to the public from Thursday through Sunday, 6 to 9 p.m., as well as 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the weekends. Visit Kenmore’s Facebook page for more information and upcoming events.
Any Chicago locals been there? I’m totally going to check it out the next time a celebrity chef is there!
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I would also like to invite you to subscribe to my blog. On the upper right hand corner, enter your e-mail address and then you’ll never miss a post. I’ve been super busy lately so I may not post every day.
Apr 15, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Apr 15, 2011 in Food Finds, fruit, smoothies | 9 comments
So, I’m at the store last night picking up some milk and such when I headed into the produce dept. I was thinking about picking up a baby seedless watermelon. My son Mark and I saw them and when I saw the price ($4.99!) I said to my son, that’s way too much for such a tiny watermelon. So we started to look for other things, my son noticed the GIANT seedless watermelons and yells “Hey Mom – this gigantic one is also $4.99!!” So we got it. I’ll talk more about that in a minute.
As we were walking by the apples, I noticed a brand of apples I had never seen before called JAZZ. Jazz apples? I’ve never heard of them! So we decided to put some in our basket. When we got home, I immediately cut one up to see what it tasted like. I am a huge fan of crunchy and very sweet apples and this is exactly what the JAZZ apple is. After reading more about the company who is growing them, it turns out these are a breed of Braeburn apples and the Royal Gala apple. Originally grown in New Zealand, it’s now grown in Washington state here in the U.S.
If you happen across them at your store, I highly recommend picking some up! You can find out more about the growers of Jazz apples HERE. In the Chicago-land area I bought these at Jewel Food Stores.
So, now to continue on with the watermelon. Mark and I each took a half and started scooping out with a melon baller. In the end we had 2 gallon sized ziploc bags full!
Mark asked if we could freeze some for smoothies the next day, so we threw one in the freezer and kept one in the fridge.
For Mark’s super deluxe smoothie? 1 cup frozen watermelon and 1 cup orange juice and mix in a blender or magic bullet. Since the watermelon was frozen, it was kind of like a slushy – so good!
So, have you tried jazz apples, or am I the last one to find out about them?
Mar 25, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Mar 25, 2011 in chicken, Dinner Idea, Food Finds, grocery store ideas, party food!, potluck | 10 comments
This is the first time I’ve made enchiladas this way, and I think I’ll make them this way again they were so good! I started with 4 frozen chicken breasts (boneless and skinless), an enchilada sauce packet, mixed with a can of tomato sauce. Cook on low all day.
When I got home from work, I took the chicken out, it was super tender and shredded easily. Take a tortilla, fill it with the shredded chicken (for my 2, I weighed out 2 oz. of chicken each). Roll up and place seam side down in a 9×13 inch casserole dish.
I actually poured all the sauce leftover from the crock pot over the enchiladas and sprinkled with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. YUM!!
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Food find. Most of you know I love to save money at the grocery store and I frequently shop at Aldi Foods. Imagine my surprise when I saw that their brand “Millville” now makes Kashi look alike cereals for half the price of Kashi! This box was only $2.49.
It tastes exactly like Kashi and has the same nutritional info: 190 calories per serving and 8 grams of fiber.
Also, I’d like share a site that is relatively new to me, but I’ve been enjoying reading. Tiffany from The Gracious Pantry has lost 50 pounds so far and has a great blog about eating clean as well as great recipes. Tiffany you are a great inspiration to many!
What weekend plans do you have? It’s going to be another chilly weekend in Chicago. I had to drop my son Mark off at school today at 5:30 a.m to go on his 7th grade trip to Springfield – he’ll be gone until 9:30 tonight – I’m sure he’ll have a great day!
