The Brazilian cooks onboard the Captain´s boat destroy the food they make, so for 5 or 6 weeks the Captain barely eats. They also serve an unusual amount of chicken onboard- dry chicken. So when the Captain comes home he begs me to not make chicken for at least the first couple weeks. However, chicken is a popular dinner here as it´s healthy and good. So last night I told the Captain to brace himself because I was preparing chicken. He kinda rolled his eyes but said ok...it wasn´t being made by the cooks on his boat so there was hope....and sure enough, he wasn´t disappointed...
First thing out of his mouth after he closed his eyes and made a very satisfied sound was, "how do you make it so juicy and tender? Give me some tips so I can tell the cooks onboard" So I began to tell him what I did.
I put some olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish, then laid five chicken breasts on top and sprinkled a little more olive oil on top along with some garlic pepper and chicken spice which is basically some paprika, onion, rosemary, salt, parsley, and white pepper. My oven was set at 200C. Meanwhile we made some jasmine rice with chicken bullion in the water to give it a little more flavor. In another pan I fried up some chopped garlic and onion and aroma mushrooms. I spiced them up with some dry dill and garlic pepper and a tiny dash of salt. Here I used about 50grams of butter to fry these up in...and once the mushrooms looked slightly browned and the onions and garlic were softened, I added the whole thing to the chicken which had been in the oven for about 20 minutes. I also poured about 1/3 liter whole cream over the top and again seasoned with more garlic pepper and back in the oven for another 10 minutes...a quick check of the chicken before I covered it with the sauce told me it was almost done and another ten minutes would make it perfectly juicy and tender....
Truth be told, I don´t really time things....I know I probably should, but I simply pay attention to whatever I´m doing in the oven, I check the chicken and see when it stops being pink inside...and just as it is done being pink, I give it maybe 5-10 minutes more and voila...it´s done. Wish I had more exact times to give you but that´s how the cookie rolls here...still....it seems to be working...
The Captain and I are headed to a place about 30 minutes south of Oslo today on a secret mission. If everything goes as planned, I´ll fill you in tomorrow...or Wednesday as I´m working tomorrow and have my Easylife class, so might be kinda busy tomorrow. Oh....perhaps you´d like an update on my Easylife? My weight is now the lowest it´s been in the entire course so far. Which is great. I´ve lost a total of 10kg so far since September. It´s slow going but I´m hoping it means it will be gone for life. As you can see above, I´m trying to eat NORMAL food but smaller portions. I promise you, I could have had a LOT more rice with this dish and a lot more sauce, but I kept the rice and sauce to a minimum and filled up on the mushrooms and chicken. I´m also trying to exercise more and that has been really up and down. However, after we get back from our trip to Paris the end of this month....
...I will no longer work on Fridays, so I plan to take Spinning classes on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and walk dogs the other days...find the balance with exercise and food intake is the key here I think...and it´s a work in progress but I`m motivated and positive it´s going to work out! How are your New Year resolutions going?
Until next time my friends....
This morning my dogs took their normal positions in the backyard where they could easily survey the field by our home and watch for any sort of unusual activity. Sure enough they began barking madly like they had seen something but we couldn´t see anything....told them to be quiet and they were....for a few minutes...then they went nutty again....again, a quick look over the field and we saw nothing...but the dogs were determined they saw something!!! After this little round dance between the dogs barking and our asking them to be quiet, we finally saw the source of their irritation....
This funny fox sat there for a long time in this position... every now and then he would yawn...but he mostly just sat there...watching our yard...and then he laid down...and watched our yard....
His head would peek out from behind the tiny tree he hid behind and he would be scanning my yard when the dogs would run back and forth....he was almost as entertained by my dogs as I am sure they were by him....and he sat there for a long time...
....before he finally got up and slowly wandered off toward the pond near my home....
Never straying too far from a safe view of our home and our dogs....
What a funny funny fox.....I love where we live and the chance to see beautiful wildlife like this guy ;-) What kind of wildlife can you see around your house?
Until next time my friends....
Tonight´s dinner is Crispy Cajun Shrimp with fettucine pasta. The recipe is HERE. I haven´t made mine yet, so no photos to show you yet so I´ll borrow the one from the website where I found the recipe.
Here is how I plan to tweek this so it´s a tad healthier...first of all, less pasta when I serve it up...more shrimp. Second, I´ll use whole wheat pasta instead of regular pasta. I feel very passionate about the fact that you should enjoy what you eat and not be fanatical about everything. With that said, obviously when you use a fat sauce like this will be, it´s best to eat less of it. But less is better then nothing, don´t ya think? You live only once as far as we all know and this is something I hear all the time when people are trying to lose weight, they talk about all the salads they are eating and how they won´t eat sauces and won´t eat this and won´t eat that....and I think to myself, they won´t make it. The majority of them won´t at least. Most of us don´t like to be denied things we like...would be one thing if these sauces and fattening food wasn´t good but it is...so in my opinion, it´s better to eat less of it and work it off then to deny yourself and end up wanting it so badly you gorge yourself with it, feel badly for doing that, beat yourself up and tell yourself you´ll always be a fat blob and what´s the point in exercising....you know...that bad cycle one can get in when one is depressed over one´s self....I know I´m a much happier camper if I´m not denied anything...and more likely to stick with something.
I´m having more fun with this new budget of ours then I thought. I´ve never been so aware of what we´re buying before and I´m finding myself actually asking myself, do we really need it? Where as before I would just say, ooooooo, I like...I buy!!! So it´s very interesting but I notice I have to be very aware when I shop because I think the old habits are still very much there and it would be easy to slip back into buying things without thinking. I assume it´s like any change in life, you have to be aware and totally there in the moment in order to make the changes successful.
What is your best advice for making changes successful?
Until next time my friends...
On New Year´s Eve, Julia, Thomas and I drove down to the church here on Helgøya to take photos of the fireworks that everyone shoots off at midnight. Unfortunately there was a ton of fog...which made the church look even more eery then normal....
There was one house next to the church that began shooting off fireworks and I got one photo and then they stopped!!!
The rest of the time we were there I desperately tried to get a photo of the fireworks but with the fog I couldn´t see anything, only hear them and every now and then see a faint color through the fog...so we packed it up and headed home...next year´s celebration will be better, the Captain will be home and we will have our own fireworks I can hopefully shoot :-)
So the new year has begun and this year one of our goals (the Captain and I) is to make a budget and stick to it. We´ve never ever tried a budget before but the experts say it´s the first step to financial freedom. So we´re giving it a try and part of having a successful budget is planning meals so you can stay within your food budget. Another tactic of mine is to use the stuff in my freezer before buying anything new. Have a lot of stuff in the freezer we hardly ever use because when you think of it, you want dinner quickly and the food is frozen, so you end up buying something fresh and frozen stuff just stays there. Awhile back I had a freezer challenge, using up everything in my freezer before buying anything new. You can really save a lot of money this way. Anyways, back to our weekly menu. This month started technically on Wednesday so the week isn´t a full week but this is/was on the menu this week:
Wednesday:
Fried Saith fish with cream sauce, boiled new potatoes and carrots.
Thursday:
Sesame Chicken (See photos below)
Friday: Mini meat pizzas
Saturday: Kebab in pita bread with loads of veggies
Sunday: Spring rolls with chicken
Next week´s menu looks like this:
Monday: Crispy Cajun Shrimp with fettucine.
Tuesday: Crepes. (I´ll be gone this day so the kids will be in charge of their dinner and this was their wish)
Wednesday: Homemade Tomato Soup
Thursday: White Fish balls (Like a meatball only made with fish) from my mother in law, served with bacon and cooked potatoes and carrots.
Friday: Chicken Alfredo Pizza
Satuday: ???? (Any suggestions???)
Sunday: Salmon Teriyaki with zucchini pasta.
Here was tonight´s dinner: Sesame Chicken with rice noodles. Super simple...fry up chicken pieces, sautèe red, yellow, and orange pepper and red onion....
Cook up the rice noodles (I buy mine in the foreign shop in Hamar) and drain them and add to the chicken and peppers...add 1TBSP Sesame Oil, 2 TBSP Soy Sauce and mix well. Serve :-) Super good.
Until next time my friends....
