Dear Diary Thai Curry Dishes are Yummy

Here is a recipe that I got from my friend Carol's Blog but I adapted it for our tastes and feel free to do the same but here is the basic recipe...

Garlic Curry Chicken and Spinach (With Sweet Potatoes!)

Yummy for my tummy

(Serves 4)

2tbsp olive oil
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch wide strips
1 medium sweet potato diced into 1 inch cubes
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion cut into thin slices
1 tbsp of curry (I love curry!)
2 tsp of cayenne (you can adjust to your taste but I love spicy things)
1 14-15oz can of light coconut milk
4 cups of baby spinach
Hot cooked Rice, (I use Basmati Rice since it is low glycemic, yes lower then Brown Rice)

Directions
Prepare Rice, if desired
In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium high heat until hot but not smoking.  Add chicken and cook for about 4 minutes, then add sweet potatoes and onion and cook for another 5 minutes.  Then add garlic, cayenne and curry and cook for 30 seconds or until you can smell the garlic.  Then add the coconut milk and I let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes covered until potatoes are done and you will get a thick sauce from it. Add Spinach and cook until it is wilted.  I don't add salt or pepper because it is so delicious with the spices without, but feel free to add salt and pepper to taste.  And serve over rice.

Dear Diary It Only Took 7 years....

Look at these, makes me want to wear an old timey unitard
 and grow a mustache!

For me to finally give in and do Kettlebells with my husband.  If my sister in law is reading this, she is probably laughing her a** off riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight now!  Now let me take you back (Cue Wayne's World back in time waviness)...Jonathan and I had one of our first Christmas' together and I honestly don't recall what I bought him but I am sure it was awesome.  However, I do remember what he got me....I was there as my husband's family looked upon me as I ripped open his carefully wrapped gift(if you count duct taping a paperbag as carefully wrapped), the anticipation was high and then tada there it was...a kettlebell workout book for Women, in all it's homemade spiral bound glory!  Seriously it looked like it was "published" at Kinko's.  Jonathan's mom and sister looked on in horror after this and yelled at him for getting me this present.  Now anyone who knows my husband knows he meant well because I was saying how I wanted to get into an exercise routine buuuuuuuuuuuut advice to all you newlywed husbandsor boyfriends out there DO NOT GET YOUR WIFE/GIRLFRIEND A WORKOUT BOOK OR DVD FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!  I know intentions are good but just spend your  money on other things like diamonds or more diamonds.  So ever since that fiasco I have resisted jumping on the kettlebell band wagon.  My husband has done it for 7 years and I think he pretty much is the hipster of workouts, he always does things before it becomes popular, hence kettlebells and tire flipping and sledgehammering, yeah he is not normal, nor does he do normal workouts.  So I decided to amp up my workouts because its important to not only do cardio but strength training, its important!  So FINALLY I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Diary I am making changes for the better!!!!

Well not all at once but one step at a time.  I am excited about trying to lose 10 lbs in 12 weeks!   First off when I started this challege, I learned my favorite southern buttery goodness cook has Diabeetus (posting coming soon!), so of course that motivated me more to challenge myself to not only lose weight but live a healthier lifestyle.  I decided not to just sit down and give up.  I am making more meals and looking at what I am eating and LISTENING TO MY BODY.  I am moving now, whether it be Zumba or Circuit Training (hilarious post coming) or walking, its important to move.  Damn you sedentary lifestyle!!! Anyways just letting people know I am very serious about this.  So check out the little ways I am switching up my food intake. I will post recipes soon!

Chicken, Spinach and Garlic Curry so good!

Homemade Granola! 

Dear Diary I joined the 10-pound Challenge, hosted by Newlyweds on a Budget.

Thanks to my friend Carol, I decided to join a contest for losing weight and nothing like prizes to get you going. We are all still kids at heart wanting to get our gold stars.  (Now it makes sense why at weight watchers meetings they literally gave you stars when you lost weight.)  So I hope I got in on time, even if I didn't make the cut for entry I am still going to do it so I can keep myself motivated!  Wish me luck folks! I joined the 10-pound Challenge hosted by Newlyweds on a Budget. Lose 10 pounds in 12 weeks, win $$$. Are you in?

Dear Diary Cauliflower Crust Pizza is......

DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So I decided to try a recipe I pinned on my Pinterest (and if you don't have a Pinterest you are better off its ADDICTIVE).  I started off by going to Trader Joe's and grabbing some ingredients for my ZA (oh yeah busting out more douchey words).  First off the cashier at Trader Joe's was dogging my home state of Texas, he said and I quote "There ain't nuthin good about Texas except Austin, outside of Austin it ain't good..."  I was about to bust out my Texas ID to show him oh WHAT I am from Texas and its not AUSTIN, in yo Face but alas I got a Georgia License now and it says Atlanta on it, UGH!  So much for my argument.  Turns out the guy was really nice FOILED AGAIN, I wanted him to be a pretentious ass munch but he was just a Georgian ill-informed about the other GREATER Texas cities other then Austin.  Austin can keep their weirdness.  AAaaaaanwHays onto the Pizza!  I was unsure about it at first.  As you know one thing I like to do is listen to my body and my body says eating tons of bread makes you a fattymcbutter pants, and I mean white yummy bread that is so refined and processed it makes you go into insulin shock, not really but you catch my drift.  Well I thought I would try this GLUTEN free recipe and reduce my refined flour intake.  First, you chop up a whole cauliflower and put it in the food processor and chop until it looks mealy or if you don't have that you can grate the cauliflower, this is called riced cauliflower and it kind of looks like little baby rice or really couscous.  Then you mix it with tons of CHEESE and other ingredients and well judge for yourself....

Here is the "crust" before it's cooked

Here is the cooked crust!  Look at it, it is so CHEESY

Then I put on some serious toppings, Chicken Sausage, Spinach and Garlic!

So apparently I didn't get a picture of the finished product cooked whoops, I thought I did, well it was AWESOME!  I wasn't sure if Jonathan would like it and he said "I ate four slices, I would say I like it"  Then he said, "It's exactly how I thought it would taste being what it is, it just tastes like a weird hippie pizza crust but its a good crust."  Ugh thanks I guess, well I thought it was great, feel free to try it.  So here is the recipe from the blog Eat.Drink.Smile

Dear Diary "I don't eat until I am full, I eat until I hate myself!"

Below is a clip for a Louis CK comedy special CD and its NSFW, lots of colorful language but its hilarious and spot on about me and my eating habits.  It made me laugh out loud and cry because it was so true.

Dear Diary OKAY WHAT FOODS SHOULD I EAT??? (not Hot Pockets)

Yeah I am old you can tell now!

So I have been on every nimbly bimbly diet or weight loss fad since I was 10.  Yeah you read right.  Well part of it was my mom was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabeetus at the time, so my dad and I were forced to do her low fat diet.  She even typed up the weekly menu plan on her Apple IIe.  I remember that menu plan printed on her DOT MATRIX printer (all my nerdie tech friends are virtual high fiving me for mentioning sh*tty old technology but at the time was cutting edge, next blog post COLECOVISION!)  Anyways I vividly remember those print outs on those perforated pages, each little perforation so perfect so intense, okay WHOA WHOA WHOA, sorry this is a blog post not a novel, a bad novel at that.  Well these meal plans were blandy pants city, I mean super bland.  One steamed vegetable, one baked protein (seasoned with Mrs. Dash-hello preservatives) and one piece of bread.  Yeah it was awful!  I mean come on I was used to rich Tex-Mex meals for dinner.  I almost wanted to say "Mom, seriously where are the enchiladas, what is this crap.  And I am not seeing the Carne Guisada or Arroz con Pollo, you can't mean to deny me those with some bland chicken and vegetables!"  Well she did and well that diet did not last.  I think I gained more weight sneaking food or eating two dinners (Thanks Tia Frances).  So here I am 32 and I am at a loss.  What should I eat, what shouldn't I eat???????