Usually when I cook these scallopini-style breasts I pan-fry them and then make a caper sauce but I didn't want capers yesterday. I still pan-fried the breasts but this time, I made a very light sauce out of dry sherry, chicken broth, and a touch of half-n-half. It was so good! I forget how good sherry is for cooking until I use it. It just adds a layer of taste that is so unexpected. What I did was season the chicken with kosher salt, freshly cracked pepper and garlic powder on both sides while 2 Tbs of olive oil was heating in my pan. Then I quickly cooked the chicken (there was a lot) and layered the breasts on a plate while I got out the ingredients for the sauce. Into the still hot pan I poured a 1/2 cup of good chicken broth, 1/2 cup of sherry and brought it to a boil and reduced it by half, stirring occasionally to be sure all those yummy brown bits released from the bottom of the pan. Once the liquids had reduced I added about a 1/4 cup of half-n-half over low heat. I tasted it and added a pinch of salt and a couple of turns from the pepper mill and the sauce was ready.
While all this was going on, I put my microwave to work on my side dishes which were leftover rice and green beans. My meal was absolutely delicious and light!
I still have plenty of leftovers so it will be repeated today.
Last night for dinner, my sister fixed homemade steak and cheese sandwiches which were out of this world. They weren't heavy or greasy and were seasoned very well also. On the side, she fixed a salad which I topped with 1 1/2 tsp of light ranch dressing. It was so good! After dinner, we had some chocolate chip cookies which really hit the spot, too. I needed that chocolate! As I said earlier, yesterday was a good eats day for me. I felt really satisfied with it.
I don't know if I've ever said anything about my dieting past on here but a few years ago, I followed a low-carb regime and lost quite a bit of weight. I actually enjoyed eating low carb and because of choosing that lifestyle, I fell in love with a lot of vegetables that I had never tried before and still love to this day. However, when I hit a bump on the road of life, I fell off the wagon and used food to try and make me feel better and the weight piled on pretty quickly. That is pretty common for me, I gain fast and lose fast. At any rate, I didn't go back to low carb and I've been trying to lose weight ever since. That was in 2003. I was pretty bitter for a long time and blamed the low carb diet for my weight gain, which would have happened no matter what regimen I was following. Why am I telling you all this? Yesterday, I was reading the news on the internet and came across the following article:
Low Carb Beats Low Fat on Weight Loss
It is an interesting read which basically states that low carb, low fat, and low cal diets all produce weight loss but out of the three, low carb provides the best results in both weight loss and improved cholesterol. Check it out for yourself. What are your thoughts on that?
Not sure what today brings in the way of food but I'm going to do my best to make it healthful and delicious!!
5 comments:
I had some major issues with the whole low-carb craze when it first hit, primarily because my inlaws would down a bunch of red meat and cheese and claim their low-carb diet was sooo good for them. I go with the whole-foods mindset - eat foods in their original form as much as possible. Any step away from original (starting with raw) is a step in the wrong direction, but obviously there are acceptable degrees of this. Smoothies and applesauce and steamed veggies - fine. Apple jacks - not fine. :-)
My doc says to shop in the outer aisles of the grocery store and stay away from the inner aisles. That's a pretty easy rule of thumb! That gives you produce, meat and dairy and eggs. I have qualms about dairy though we do a small bit of it. Dairy is for baby cows! We use almond milk here, but also use cheese sparingly.
You always come up with the most interesting dishes! You seem to have a real knack for cooking.
I lost your email address - wanted to send an email this morning. Can you contact me?
I am really a pretty firm believer in the South Beach Diet and its ability to get off the weight and keep it off if you stick to it. I don't think we're meant to eat as much carbs as we do as certainly not the processed kinds we eat in America for the most part. After the babe is born I plan on doing South Beach to get off the weight...and maybe some of this other weight I've been carrying around!!
Yeah, Laura, a lot of people thought low-carb meant eat all the meat and cheese you want, which is not at all what Dr. Atkins said. He was a big proponent of outer aisle shopping and whole, organic foods before it became the hot topic it is now.
I may post more about it in the coming days because I do believe it's possible to do it and be extremely healthy and happy.
V-Dub! It's funny because I have studied so many eating lifestyles over the years and South Beach is the one I really didn't "get". I have no idea why that is either. that said, I do believe as you do that if done properly it will produce great results and will have you leading a healthy lifestyle. It is one of the methods my doctor recommended to me a month or so ago for losing weight. If you need any South Beach books, let me know! I have three that I'm not using and I'd love to send them to you if you need them!
evie
It's funny you mention that article b/c it was a hot topic on The Today Show this morning. Of course you know, I'm a firm believer in people should do whatever works to help them live a healthy lifestyle but I also am not a believer in the low-carb lifestyle for me personally. I really wish we could erase the word "diet" from our vocabularies. It's an eating lifestyle we are all searching for not diet. You have to pick an eating lifestyle that works for you and stick with it. If it's low-carb, then that's great. If it's eating in moderation then good for you. The one thing that should remain constant in all of these "lifestyle" choices is to remain active. Personally I tried Atkins and it made me very sick so I try my best to just eat what I like in moderation and try to remain active.
Well, I think that's the beauty of what the article says. All of them will provide you with results, but the low-carb and mediterranean lifestyles gave slightly better results overall.
You're right, everyone must choose what works for them or else it won't work. LOL If it's something you can't stick to forever then what's the point? Atkins makes many people sick in the beginning by the way. Your body is going through sugar withdrawal and it brings on headaches, nausea, fatigue. It takes about a week to get past that.
Everything in moderation is a great way to live. If you know how to moderate anyway. :) I'm not sure I can really do that. I'm beginning to feel like I'm going to have to treat my outlook on food like an addiction. Things seem to go better for me when I do that.
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