Lean Spicy Chicken

Recipe for Lean Spicy Chicken

Nutritional facts per 100 grs
Calories: 125 kcal
Carbohydrates: 1,8 grs
Protein: 22,1 grs
Fat: 3,4 grs
Fibre: 0,6 grs



Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, boneless and with all the fat removed (this can be around 500 gramms to 800 grams depending on the size of the chicken, and yields two servings at least, but can easily yield four.)
• 4 tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp chopped thyme
• 1/2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 2 cloves of garlic (each clove of garlic contains 4 kcals, so if you add more cloves and are counting your calories, add up to the calorie content 4 kcals for each additional clove)
• Salt and pepper
• water (around 2 cups)

Preparation:

1. Chop the garlic cloves as finely as you can (and want), as well as the thyme, and parsley. If you have a mortar, you can much the herbs and the garlic in it. Chop the garlic first into three-four pieces, to make the mashing easier.
2. Wash well the chicken breasts, and remove all the fatty parts you can find. You can cut the breasts in two along the joint of the left and right side, to make easier portions. If the pieces are large, you can quarter it as well. If you like, flatten the pieces a bit with a maller. The point of this would be to allow the breasts to cook through faster, so you don't have to wait too much for them to be ready. (If you don't have a maller (which is a meat hammer or meat tenderizer), you can use a rolling pin or a skillet. All you have to do is put the meat between two foils of clinging wrap or parchment paper and smack it evenly a couple of times.)
3. Put in a resealable bag the chopped herbs, the garlic, the curry and the dill. Put in the breasts and add salt and pepper as you like. Close the bag and roll well the breasts in the seasoning, massaging it into the meat. Then open the bag and add a little bit of water, a table spoon or two depending of the amount of chicken breasts. The amount should be just enough to allow the seasoning to be around the meat, but not so much that it would swim in it. You should be able to close the bag and wrap it around the meat.
4. Toss it into the fridge for one hour, or for whenever you are going to cook it.
5. When you want to cook the breasts, take a non-stick pan, and heat it without any oil on high. On a gas stove it should take you a couple of seconds. Really, no oil, no nothing, just heat the pan. When you put your hand over the pan and you can feel it's hot, place in the breasts in it and turn them a couple of times duting the first minutes (one-two minutes), then pour half a cup of water into the pan with the liquid and seasoning left in the bag.
6. The water you poured into the pan would evaporate quickly, so cover the pan with a lid, but check on the breasts frequently and turn them  a couple of times. Believe it or not, it will take a nice toasted color. Don't pour too much water at once, or you'll drown the meat. The point is to keep the pan from ruining and the chicken from burning onto the pan, while the moist heat allows the inside of the chicken to cook as well. Also check often, so whwn you see that there's no more water, you add a quarter of a cup at the time.
7. Depending on the thickness of the breasts, cook them for 15 minutes to 30 minutes to make sure they are well cooked, turning them several times and making sure that there's always enough water.
8. They are done when they get a nice, toasted brown color and they are cooked through.

Enjoy!

Yes, as you can guess, I lost weight again. Not much, just 100 gramms. However, unlike predicted, I decided to finish the diet. Yes, I was two days away from finishing it, and I was doing so well, and I kept losing weight. However, today as I woke up, I felt dizzy and very drained. The day was sunny and perfect, but I couldn't bring myself to go out and jog. My legs felt like made of jelly, and there was a lingering feeling of fainting. I got out of bed, got to the scale, measured myself, and then dragged my body back to the bed. I though "I can't move today, what the hell will I do?". The very thought horrified me. I debated a few minutes, and then decided to still put on my tracking clothes and go out to walk. No running, no jogging, just walk. However, to do so and avoid collapsing on the street, I went to the pantry and popped a piece of chocolate covered, chocolate filled wafer (it's like the Yippy, in Costa Rica) and a piece of Schoco Bananen (banana shaped sweet banana foam covered with chocolate). With that in I felt a bit more alive, and so I went to take a walk along my regular jogging path.

I had a little bit more energy, but I felt terribly, terribly hungry. Not that hunger of "wanting to eat", but rather the type where your stomach actually hurts and feels really hard and about to digest itself. Add to it, after the walk I was again completely drained of energy, so as I got home I fell back in bed and could hardly pull myself up.

I debated about the diet, and my byofriend said that I had gone so far with it (5 days out of 7), so it would be the best to finish it, but no, I wouldn't have it. Honestly, losing weight shouldn't be before your own health, and no diet that makes you feel drained and weak worths the effort. So, with 72% of the diet done, I walkd out of it, ate like a regular, real human being and felt much better. Yes, probably I'll gain weight again, but I decided that I won't do another diet again. Not like that. So, I'll be looking for a nutritionist to get on the right path, and make sure not that I lose weight to become a supermodel, but that I keep my healthy, normal weight.

In five days I dropped around 1,6 kg (around 3,5 pounds), which isn't really normal, nor healthy (the healthy ratio when losing weight is 1 kg per week), though this is still very low a ratio compared with the 7 kg (15,5 pounds) someone I know lost, and the average 5 kg (11 pounds) you are supposed to lose with the regime.

At first I was still filling sick, as my body was getting used to normal food again, and normal tastes, but as the day went by and I had some pizza, and a piece of Black Forest cake (also bought some Eszterházy cake and Lemon cake), my energy came back to me.

This got me thinking about a lesson I learned a long time ago, and which my friends Trish and Dragonfly know better than me: don't fall for the "there's a thin person trapped inside you who wants to go out" crap. Be happy with your body, but when you feel need a change for health-related reasons, then go with the professionals - meaning nutritionists, not your local gym trainer! - and get a plan that adjusts to your personal needs and conditions. Remember that losing weight should be a slow process, so that your body can adjust normally, and finally, if you feel ill, drained, tired or sick in any way, STOP and go back to the nutritionist, because the process should make you feel better, get healthier, not to push you an inch away from inanition.

Of Eggplants and Similars

Eggplants are the kind of veggie that are hard on me. I'd love to like it, but so far all attempts at making something good out of them have miserably failed. Recipe after recipe, the freaking vegetable -  though spreading a heavenly aroma - tastes really foul. I've tried all sorts of recipes I could find, and I was really tempted by the scent, but finally ended up booking the veggie as the sort of thing I would never be able to work with.

Recently, after spending some time with Mommy, I learned a few things about eggplants that changed my mind. She got recently hooked on eggplants, and at my concern about the bitter taste, she told me that the trick to make it taste better is to cut the eggplant in slices and sprinkle them generously with salt. You let the salted slices sit for a little while and then wash the salt away. (A similar method can be found here.) The salt basically sucks the bitter out of the eggplant, so when you cook the eggplant after the procedure, you get a taste much more similar to the wonderful scent it produces.

One of the things she got to love about eggplants is the eggplant cream. With much gusto she told me about how she loved to eat eggplant cream with bread. While I'm sure it must be really healthy, I couldn't picture the eggplant cream as anything I would really like to taste. That until today.

It happens that I had to make some errands and these errands took me close to a commercial center where there's a Leroy restaurant. My boyfriend and I are planning on getting a printer, and after I've seen one that fit our requirements, I called him for us to meet at the commercial center, if possible (we were also fixing a few things around the house and the carpenter was up the flat with my boyfriend getting some of those things done). Well, it was possible, but he would take some time to get there, so I decided to wait for him at Leroy. I'm trying to control my expenses, but I'm also watching what I eat - particularly after picking up some weight with Mommy's cooking - so I was carefull about what I ordered. In the menu I saw eggplant cream with toasted pita chips. "Well, know or never", I thought, and though I have had tasted horrible things at the same place (like a foul poppyseed custard), I ordered the eggplant cream.

It was delicious. Just like with before with the chickpeas - which I never managed to like until I tasted hummus - the eggplant world opened before my eyes with a delighful, amazing universe of smooth taste and texture, and also quite similar to hummus. ^_^

With this experience I've got the chance to learn again, that things aren't always what they seem the first time, first impressions can be deceiving, and if we give things a second chance and have patience, we might be very gladly surprised. Sometimes that dress you thought looks so bad on you, turns out to be the one that flatters you the most, or maybe the old stool you couldn't wait to get rid of, with a bit of painting and a good scrubbing becomes an wonderful piece of your livingroom. And so is with people. The annoying kid might turn out to be a very bright, interesting person, if you give it the chance, the ugly girl can turn out to be far better than a runaway full of models, and the awkward guy with weird hair and scary laugher could end up being your best friend. 

Though there are a lot of eggplants and chickpeas among us - people you need to give a second chance, allow yourself to know them better - sadly there are also a few rotten, poisonous mushrooms that no tenderness, no patience, to chance can call forward the brighter side. Thus yes, when you don't like someone, treat them first like the eggplant, but if it doesn't work, cast them out as a poisonous mushroom before they end up messing up your life.