Sweet and Sour Chicken

I have been a bad blogger :/
I have been out of town for the past three weeks and now that I'm back in Savannah, I'm doing an internship and classes which have kept me busy. However here is a delicious recipe that I made for my mother when she came in town a couple weeks ago. It's healthy because it's baked instead of fried and it was pretty simple and doesn't require a ton of ingredients even for the sauce! I got the recipe from this site (Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken) and I didn't tweak it but I do have a few hints for you and some pictures!
Hints

• Don't go too heavy on the cornstarch when dipping. and do dip cornstarch then eggs but shake off excess egg
• Like the recipe says, DON'T cook the chicken all the way in the pan, look at my picture if you need help with when to take it out of the pan
• Don't forget to turn your chicken every 15 minutes so that it cooks evenly

Enjoy!

Assembly line: chicken, cornstarch, eggs

Chicken in pan

chicken just out of oven :)

Served with rice and salad with balsamic dressing! YUM!

I was in SPAIN!

Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I had finals, then graduation, then I went to Spain! I have a new recipe to post but it will have to wait for a couple weeks for technical difficulties.
However! In the meantime, I just got back from a trip to Barcelona and Granada Spain so I'm going to make a list of my impressions of spanish food.

•  When in Spain you should probably stick to Italian food. 
•  They have really good pizza and pasta if you can find it. I had a pizza with onion, pear, tomatoes, goat cheese and honey. I know it sounds disgusting but I'm going to try to make it here because it was delicious!
• Spanish food is actually not very good at all haha or healthy. The don't have a lot of fresh stuff and they eat a lot of meat and fried things! Who would've thought?!
• When in Spain, go to Granada and do a "tapas crawl"
• I invented this word, but basically Granada, Spain was one of the coolest places I've ever been and if you go to a restaurant or cafe and order anything (even just a water!) they bring you a free tapas. You don't get to pick but normally it's pretty good and it's free!
• So basically just go around to different cafe's ordering drinks and you will be full after about 4 free tapas!
• When in Spain, expect to eat a lot of ham.
• These people love their ham. It's on everything: pizza, toast, vegetables, it's even served by itself on a plate as a tapa.
• I witnessed a small child point at a dead pig hanging outside a restaurant and the server smiled and chopped off a piece and handed it to the delighted child like it was a lollipop. The whole thing was very strange. I don't get it, but if you go to spain, I hope you like ham.
• When in Spain, Tapa and Sangria yourself.
• Sangria is delicious. It tastes actually a little spiced cider-ish. But really I drank Sangria at ever meal and they have cool straws with spoons on the end to eat the fruit with.
• Tapas are the best invention for a picky eater like me. They're basically like small appetizers and you just order a bunch and share. You get to try a bit of whatever and you get to share it so if you don't like something hopefully your companion does, and it helps you avoid ordering a bunch of stuff you'll never eat. I was a big fan of tapas.
• When in Spain (or really anywhere in Europe), eat Ketchup Chips and gelato daily.
• Ketchup chips- I love them, you will love them. They taste like french fries, just trust me. 
• Gelato- I don't need to explain this concept but you will get fat if you do this daily probably but I really happen to think that once you explain to people the 50 extra pounds is from daily gelato they will just be extremely jealous.
• When in Granada, try a Churro
• but not just anywhere or it may suck. There are key places that have the best ones so ask around. 

Cauliflower Pizza Crust (low carb AND delicious!)

So my boyfriend is on this new low carb diet. Wait, excuse me "it's not a low-carb diet. It's the PALEO diet and he's doing it to be more healthy".
Anyways regardless, the boy is basically only eating meat fruit and veggies (no dairy, no grains, no fun deliciousness basically). However the other day he was craving pizza and because I am such an amazing girlfriend I looked up a recipe for some sort of no-wheat pizza crust and found this!
Cauliflower Pizza Crust.
I know it sounds absolutely disgusting but it was actually really good! And it's healthy! It had dairy in it (cheese) but he relaxed his diet so he could try it just this once. I found the recipe from the blog above and followed it exactly however I have a few hints for how to make this.

Tips:

1. This is probably much easier if you have a food processor of some sort for the cauliflower but I did it with the cheese grater and it didn't actually take THAT long. 
2. You want your cauliflower to be as dry as possible so I poured mine on a paper towel and tried to squeeze the moisture out of it that way.
3. DO NOT overcook your cauliflower in the microwave. Make sure you cook it altogether. If you split it into smaller batches it will burn into a little black crisp (I am speaking from experience).
4.  I greased my pan before I put the dough on it but it still stuck to it like glue and I had to get it up with a knife :/ I'm not sure if this is because I let it sit for awhile before putting the toppings on and putting it under the broiler or if I pressed my dough too thin but just be aware of this and try to use a super non-stick pan and grease it well!
5. Pre-cook your ingredients before you put them on the pizza. I put spinach, mozzarella, goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes on mine so that wasn't necessary, but I did saute some onions before hand and then put them on.
6. Watch it carefully under the broiler! It will start to burn the edges but the dark edges on mine didn't taste particularly burnt and I'd rather have that then a soggy center

Eat Right, Now. or Eat. Right Now.

I’m a small girl, I don’t think I’m fat, but I have a confession...

I am hungry or eating all the time and it used to be unhealthy food. So here are a few of my tips on How to eat mostly right on a small budget with a large appetite and a bit of a sugar addiction (like me):

1.  Instead of drinking sodas (or in my case straight lemonade 24/7) buy powdered drink mix (i get country time lemonade at Sam’s Club but that's definitely not the best health-wise haha, i do make it weak though so technically less sugar) then buy POM juice or straight no sugar added all natural cranberry juice. Pour yourself a glass of your juice and add a splash of cranberry or POM. It’s yummy and it has lots of antioxidants and other good stuff that's in pomegranate and cranberry juice. You also save a bunch of money because one thing of POM will last you for awhile depending on how much you mix and powdered drink mix is pretty cheap as well.
2.  Make your own trail mix. I take mine to class for break. I love freeze dried peaches or strawberries and you can get them in bulk from this great company Provident Pantry. They may seem expensive but they are so good and there are a ton in one can. Because they are just the pure fruit there are no additives and they last forever and have just as much vitamin c as the fresh fruit. I also add pecans and (because I have chocolate cravings 24/7) I bought almonds covered in cocoa powder. They’re healthier than chocolate covered ones and they’re really good and have protein. You can get them in a big jar for cheap at Sam’s.
3.  Organic milk. I always used to avoid organic milk because as I insisted “I like my milk with as many preservatives as possible so it's not gross”…and don't worry I realized how stupid I sounded. However, one day I noticed the sell by date on the organic milk versus the super-fake-not-even-from-a-real-cow milk and decided I was only drinking organic milk from now on (it lasts sooo much longer.)
4.  Snacks. I snack all the time. Like I said I'm always hungry and so instead of trying to just stop snacking (which I realized was too much effort and made me grumpy ) I just decided to snack healthier. Here are some of my favorites (I am not paid by any of these companies although they really should): 

• cherry tomatoes- dip them in balsamic and they're delicious. Don't put them in the fridge though (they get gross and wrinkly)
• Soy crisps- like mini rice cakes only better for you and only 230 calories if you eat 1/3 of the entire bag! I know…awesome. And they come in flavors like ranch (my favorite), salt and vinegar, barbecue and original. Organic Section in Kroger
• Pop chips- they're not fried and they have no preservatives yet they're not baked so they still have taste. They're literally "popped".  You can find them in some convenience stores now but definitely in the organic section in Kroger.
• Snikiddy all natural baked fries- they’re baked. they’re organic. they’re cheesy. and I eat a whole bag if I dont watch myself. They are so good I have to keep checking to make sure they’re actually not normal junk food. Organic section in Kroger.
• hummus and pita-classic. hummus does have a lot of fat in it though so if you're worried about this switch it out with an organic salsa or a homemade one!
• organic chocolate bars- I like the brand “Endangered Species” They are a little pricey but so good and they help save endangered species!! My favorite is the cranberry and almond one partly because that's a delicious combination and partly because it has a picture of a wolf and wolves are my favorite.
• Snapea Crisps- I like the original, but they have “Caesar” as well. It says to put them on a salad but I eat them by themselves. At first I didn't like them but then I found them strangely addicting. They have a lot less calories than potato chips and they are snap peas so they’re good for you and the method in which they're preserved also preserves the nutrients in them.

Roasted Carrots

These were delicious. This was the first recipe I got creative enough with to call my own.

sorry for the poor picture quality. they don't look very pretty anyways but they taste delicious!

What you need:

• 4 to 5 medium to large carrots
• Cinnamon
• Honey
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Olive oil
• salt and pepper
• brown sugar

Steps 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Wash and peel carrots then cut in half and cut down the middle. 
3. Place curve side down on a baking pan
4. combine a drop of honey, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, mix together
5. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil then mix together. 
6. Brush (if you have one) olive oil over carrots, if you don't have a brush then just sprinkle and try to coat it with your clean finger
7. sprinkle on cinnamon salt and pepper
8. Cook 25-35 minutes depending on thickness of carrots

Sour Cream Chicken

I'm a big fan of chicken breasts in case you didn't notice. Chicken is tasty, easy and you can easily cook it for one. However I used to hate chicken because I always seemed to be eating really dry chicken. Lately I've been baking my chicken cause I've found I have more luck keeping it moist that way. So here's a great EASY quick recipe for baked chicken with sour cream and breadcrumbs. If I did it again I'd sprinkle on a little more seasoning or maybe use Italian dressing instead of simply seasoning. I also made rice and served it with that. Because I have an obsession with balsamic vinegar I sprinkled some balsamic on the rice and the chicken once it was cooked and like it but then again, I'd probably eat dirt if it had balsamic vinegar on it.

Also most of this recipe came from loveintheoven.com and was only slightly modified by yours truly.

 Ingredients:

• chicken breasts
• italian seasoning or italian dressing
• sour cream
• bread crumbs (or just toast bread and crumble it)
• shredded cheese (parmesan is best)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Put chicken breast on it
3. Sprinkle on italian seasoning, salt and pepper or italian dressing
4. Cover with sour cream (spread pretty thick)
5. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of the sour cream.
6. Sprinkle cheese on top
7. Bake for 35-45 minutes

Strawberry Jam: diabetes in a jar

So this post may be a long one but it's worth it. if you like jam, which everyone does. By the way in case you wanted to know, the difference between jam, jelly and preserves is the form of the fruit.

• jelly-the fruit is in juice form
• jam-the fruit is a pulp or crushed
• preserves-the fruit has big chunks in a jam

Anyways! On Wednesday I woke up at 8am and dragged my boyfriend to the strawberry patch with me to go strawberry picking before my 11am class. IT WAS WORTH IT. I think even he would say so. I knew I wanted to make jam with the strawberries because that's what every mom, aunt, and grandma does with fruit (or maybe that's just my awesome family) and i knew i wanted to freeze some and eat some fresh so I thought we'd need a lot...we picked 5 buckets worth. Turned out, that was a lot more strawberries than we needed, but it was really fun and the weather was cool because we went early and it only took about an hour to pick that many. If you have never been fruit picking of any kind I highly suggest you go and then i highly suggest you follow the rest of my blog and make JAM! you could probably pick about 2 buckets and have enough to eat, freeze and make jam :)


Ok so now the part where I tell you how to make jam...that's not going to happen. you know why? because I called my mother to get her super delicious homemade recipe and this is what she told me "buy sure-jell near the canning supplies at the store and look at the recipe inside the box". This happens often, I used to brag about my mom's awesome chocolate chip cookies and how amazing and special they were and when I asked her for the recipe she said "it's on the back of the chocolate chip package". So here's some advice: if you want a delicious recipe, it's probably on the packaging of the key ingredient. and it's probably better than all the recipes that you have to actually buy out of a book.

But my experiences with jam making were good and it paid off, but here's a few tips...

Preparing your fruit:

• dump fruit in a bowl of room temperature water to clean it. Move the berries around gently with your fingers then take berries out and put in a strainer. This is the best way to clean them without bruising them and it also helps you notice the gross crushed berries.
• Put in a strainer to drain for 10 minutes. 
• Cut off all the tops
• I then sorted my berries into 3 Tupperware containers: those to freeze, those to keep fresh, and those to make into jam. The jam ones were the most ripe ones or the ones that were bruised. 
• *technically you shouldn't wash berries until you're ready to eat them because they could mold but I did and mine stayed fresh in a Tupperware container for at least 5 days in the fridge. I think you just need to make sure you give them plenty of time to dry off before closing them up.
• For the strawberries you freeze make sure you use a freezer bag and when you thaw them the best way is to do it in the fridge for a day and then they won't get that nasty soggy texture.
  

Making your jam:

• Make freezer jam. It's much easier and quicker to make. You don't have to seal the jars in a hot water bath afterwards which requires special pots and things. I also think it tastes better just make sure you have enough room in your freezer to store it. When you want to use it put a jar in your fridge and it will last a month there.
• I made ten jars of jam. This required me running to the store multiple times and I ended up using almost 2 entire bags of sugar and 4 packages of sure-jell. So keep in mind if you got 5 buckets of strawberries haha you'll probably need more than 1 pack of sure-jell and more than one bag of sugar.
• My Kroger did not carry any kind of fruit pectin so I had to go to Publix. I would call ahead and ask if you live in a stupid anti-jam city.
• Buy new jars (or if you already own canning jars buy new lids) even though it's freezer jam everything needs to be pretty sterilized. I boiled my lids for 2 minutes on the stove and ran the glass jars through the dishwasher alone. 
• Follow the sure-jell instructions exactly (or your other brand of pectin such as Certo). They're really helpful and detailed. Make sure you measure your fruit (after its crushed) and your sugar exactly or else it may not "jam" right. I think the technical term is "set" but I really like the word jam haha
• You will be alarmed by the amount of sugar. There's about 4 cups of sugar and 2 cups of fruit for every jar of jam. If you want a less sugar recipe (although come on, it's jam- live a little) you can buy the reduced sugar sure-jell packets and follow those directions. 
• INVEST IN A FUNNEL. I didn't and my entire kitchen was a disaster zone from trying to pour the jam into jars. 
• My way may be a hard way. But I didn't try to make several batches of jam at once because I was worried about my measurements etc so I just made my four batches one after the other. It took a while, but once I got rolling and put on some music it was relaxing.
• clean off your jar tops before screwing on the lids. The jam can get really funky if you don't. I used a hot damp paper towel.  

Good Luck! Happy Jamming!