Pampered Chef "Cool and Crunchy Tacos" - PCOS style!

Cool & Crunchy Chicken Tacos - Pampered Chef Season's best spring/summer 2010

12 - Hard yellow corn taco shells - Butter leaf lettuce for PCOS or a LC version
1 - small Head romaine lettuce (about 2cups or 500mL shredded)
1-2  -Limes, divided
1/2 Cup (125mL) - Mayonnaise
2 tsp (10mL) - ground cumin
1/4 tsp (1mL) Cayenne pepper (optional)
3 Cups (750 mL) - diced grilled chicken breasts
1/2 - small jicama
1 - small mango
1/2 Cup (125mL) - Loosely packed fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp (mL) - Salt
1 - Avocado, peeled and sliced (optional)


1 - Prepare taco shells according to package directions (Immediately here is the swap, use butter-leaf lettuce to make warps instead of hard corn taco shells), set aside. Shred lettuce. Zest Limes to measure 1 tsp (5mL). Juice limes to measure 3 Tbsp (45mL). Plase zest, 1 Tbsp (15mL) of the juice, mayonnaise, cumin and cayenne pepper, in mixing bowl, mix well.  Spoon about 1/3 Cup (75mL) of the sauce into resealable plastic bag, twist to secure and set aside. Add chicken to remaining sauce, mix well.

2- Peel Jicama and Mango. Slice jicama into 1/4 in strips. (I like making more like salsa and just chopping it all into bits and pieces, not slices) Chop cilantro (if you are not a fan, skip this step and ingredient).  Combine jicama, mango, cilantro, salt and remaining juice, mix well.

3- Place lettuce into taco shells (butter-leaf lettuce wraps). Top evenly with chicken mixture, jicama mixture, and avocado, if desired (which I always do). Trim corner of sauce-filled bag; drizzle over tacos.

yields: 6 servings.


Live well, and eat well.
Living with PCOS and eating Low Carb (LC) does not have to be tasteless, or a difficult way to adjust your recipes.

Eliminating Plastic from my life

What to do without plastic? How will I store my left over’s? How will I take things to parties? And why should I care to change?

These are some very good questions. I’m sure that you’ve all heard the talk about BPA, both hype for fear and the down-play of BPA’s affects.
Here are some links to look at in your research to learn more about the subject.
Incyst Part One: BPA PCOS What to do?
Incyst Part Two: BPA PCOS What to do?
Incyst Part Three: BPA PCOS What to do?

My primary concern is not brain development, but it’s affect on my hormones. For those who are not planning families and are not in the major brain development cycle of life, maybe the affects of BPA are not a primary concern of yours, and that makes sense. Ease and convenience will be a huge factor in your decision making. These also affect mine, but I’ve decided to look for ways to make the transition work for me in the most easy and convenient way possible.

I’m a creature of habit, and habits have been hard for me to break. So, this task was taken with a fervor, but in the understanding that I would have to commit to it. I know, fervor and commitment in the same sentence? Who are you kidding? Tupperware and Rubbermaid are an part of everyday life, storing leftovers to save money and time preparing meals throughout the week. How do you replace such an integral part of life?

Slowly, and one step at a time was what I found to be most effective, along with throwing out a piece of plastic every time I purchased a glass replacement. This tossing out of the old really helps in sticking with the commitment. I only have three pieces left, hiding under our food storage, because I’m going to be giving them away to a friend. I have not used them in over a year, they are difficult to get to and I have pieces to replace them.

 I do have one thing that I have not swapped out, my Brita water pitcher. But I did swap it for the water trucked in by our company, we ran out the other week and I brought it my pitcher, so I could filter the tap water. I have not been drinking the other bottled water since. I’m not sure about the levels of BPA in their product, but my water at home is filtered through our fridge directly so there is no storage of water in containers, until I fill up my water bottles.

I have found that the Pampered chef prep bowls work wonderfully for taking food to work.

I have also love the Arc bowls, but I have not found them online yet. This is the closest I have found to what I actually purchased at Costco.

I have also found some glass through Crate and Barrell.  These have proven invaluable to me as I make the transition to glass storage rather than plastic.  For any of you who are thinking of making the transition, but have little kids, I would find other bamboo alternatives for things they can play with and toss around.  I will also begin looking to see what other non-breakables are out there that are BPA free for when I need to child proof some of my everyday food things as well.

How to keep a food diary, or maybe how not too....

 (picture found here)

7:00 am - wake up (or hit the snooze until the last possible moment)
 
8:00 am - eat breakfast (usually on the go - so it's usually the Atkins shakes, if I can I've had one slice of LC toast with butter)

11:00 am - snack  (I've had LF Mozerella, or SF Jello, some times  handful of nuts)

1:30 pm - Lunch (I've been able to be more flexible with this one, having one LC tortilla with cheese and meat, and a salad)

4:30 - I have been making a ricotta pudding for this time slot, and I like it.

Then after I get home from work, I work out, and then usually I eat a lean meat and vegetables.  It's become a habit, and I have lots of options to choose from. This is generally around 7:00pm, but lately I've been  walking at 7:30 so I've just been grabbing what I can.  Not the best way to eat.

Then some time after I get back from my hour and a half walk I remember that I need to eat again, this could be just before I crawl back into bed.

I was better at this, and now I'm having a more difficult time remembering.  I've also forgotten to take my flax and fish oil, you know the things that actually help your memory.  Yep, this is going to be fun.

So, I've been making things ahead.  I'm not quite there for the week, but I have some egg cups and the 5X5 Brownies made from the Metabolism Miracle book.  I'm just waiting for the cook book to come out now.  The Brownies are alright, nothing to jump up and down about, but since I'm not supposed to have cake these are better than nothing.  I'll try them with the whipping cream on them next time, for a bit of extra sweetness.

I'm pretty sure I can't focus on more than one thing at a time, which is funny because I do multi-task, but I get distracted easily.  The "oh, shiny" takes over and I'm off to the next distraction.  This would be fine but I have two goals this year.  One is to complete a new piece of art each week, and that hasn't happened for a while.  The other goal is to loose weight and get my health back.  I've been consumed with this one for the past couple of weeks.  I've been told by other well meaning people that I can do both, but what they don't get is that I really can't.  I may have to adjust my art goal, to completing one every other week.

I still need to work out tonight, and paint.  It's 11pm and I'm not sure that I will work out tonight, my head is pounding and I'm not feeling well.  I think I will take a stab at another sumi-ink painting and take it easy before I crawl into bed and wish I could be cuddling with my hubby.

I will try to post one of the recipes soon.  I plan to try them all out in this book.  I'm going to win, and I will be back to myself.  Hopefully soon I'll be funny again too, I'm starting to really miss my sense of humor.  I'm out to nurse my head ache have a great night.

About Work....

It's hot and stuffy here in my office.  I have a lovely view, but I roast in the summer.  

Usually Fridays are a catch up for the week, but not today.  Today all of our clients decided that it was time to send in everything that I have been asking for, oh joy.  

I'm so excited.  

I thought I would send a shout out to the universe for help, but no one wanted to assist, so now I'm whining.  I'm glad that I have what I needed, but now I'm swamped.  If only these blessings would come spaced out a bit, but no, it's all in one lump sum.

Have a great weekend all, I'll be starting mine a bit late today.

Lime, the taste of summer

I love the taste of lime, and I love fish tacos, so the combination is just fabulous.  Lime infused water, Tilapia on corn tortillas with shredded cabbage.  The first time I made this I used Lemonaise on the tortilla.  I have since decided to use coleslaw dressing for the second batch.  I might not use any sauce except squeezed lime the next time I prepare these.  There is really no other prep to this dinner, and I love it.

So, dinner was fun and the work out was a beast.  I will have to post reviews of all my work outs some time.  Today's work out was new, and it really pushed me beyond my comfort level.  Brazil Butt Lift is tough, and he believes in squats, as many of my work outs do, but this guy takes it to a whole new level. 

So, that's the goal.  To get back to my normal size and be lifted and toned.  hmm...soon I will be adding Zumba routines into the mix. 

My work out buddy had better not say that I'm not working her out enough.  Between these two the only reason some one would not get a good work out is because they did not put their whole effort into it.

Summer in all it's glory is here, and halfway through, if you haven't gotten your beach body yet get started and have a great one going into the fall. 

Diet and lifestyle changes

I have learned many things over the years, and I have focused on my weight for the majority of my life.  This has been a sad an uncomfortable battle, not that my weight has always been out of control, only twice in my life have I been overweight in a dramatic and very real sense.  Currently I am in that second time period, and I am working to get myself out of here, and back into my normal size body.  The fist time I had to loose weight, I was terribly afraid of beginning to slip into an eating disorder, and so I was very happy when I was introduced to the Weigh Down book and program.  I only read the book, and did not get into the movement any further than that.  I would recommend others who are afraid of eating disorders or those who have a difficult time with religion or understanding of God's grace to not delve any farther either.  Recently I did get other CD's and books, and found that my head was becoming filled with thoughts that I normally never consider.  I believe that God's grace covers many things, and that your body size is not a main concern of God. These feelings were difficult to shake after listening to some of these CD's, so just read the book take the principles and move on.  I would love to interject humor into this little posting of mine, but really I'm not finding much humor in the situation myself.  Maybe later on I will find the humor and type away with a funny little story.

So, this last time I found myself spiraling out of control, which was very unusual and frightening, I was unable to actually follow the principles I learned in Weigh Down, this was very disturbing to me.  I had lost control, and I felt like a horrible person.  That is until I was diagnosed with PCOS, and understood that this is a hormone imbalance and that others have the same struggle, and that my body was not using food like it should.  That is when I began Medifast, and lost some massive amount of weight. But that only worked for so long when I got tired and gave up for a bit.

I am currently learning how to live my life in balance, and continue to loose weight at a reasonable rate and in better balance by following the Metabolism Miracle, this has been a challenge for me to actually stick with the step one process but I am getting there. Okay, I'll be honest I have not yet completed one full week on Step One of the program, but next week is my week! I'm sure of it. 

Through both of these programs I have been doing better at getting control of my life and now I can begin to incorporate the Weigh Down principle of eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied, along with eating the proper foods spaced out over the whole day as I have learned is necessary with Metabolism Miracle.  So, I'm still doing small portions so that I'm hungry when I need to be, but I will be eating the right foods so that my body does actually get hungry.

For the love of Gadgets - part two

First off, I am having a Pamered Chef party at the end of this month.  I've invited friends and family in hopes of celebrating life and cooking, and just having fun.  At my friends party the other day I kept saying that I had that, and that I love this other product and I thought "I wonder if I can remember everything Pampered Chef that I own?"  So, here are some photos of the things I found and that I know are Pampered Chef.

I am a huge fan of Pampered Chef.

These are just some of the items I have.  I had forgotten things, and so I compiled the list in another little photo shoot.

I have some more prep bowls that are currently busy, being useful. Oh, I forgot to add the can opener, one of my most favorite and used items.  See, I have many things and I am just so used to using them I forget where they came from.

I have other cook books, but these are the two that I am currently using right now.

If you are interested in buying things from the website just click here Pampered Chef, and Cindy will hook you up.

Fur babies!

Bear

Mandy

Baby & Momma

Summer weekends, sun tea, beaches, and friends

My favorite sun tea is Market Spice, actually it's just my favorite tea in general.  I have many others that I love as well, but there is an absolute decadence with this particular tea.

We went to celebrate a friends after work graduation party! Finally done with her BA, now for her Masters!

Group shot from the 4th of July weekend

I was unable to correct the red eye in my poor husbands picture, it took me all night, and it still only wanted to correct his nose.
I can not post the ones with my niece, so this is the best one with out the kids.  Our little doggies did not come with us, they stayed home and barked at the noise of the fireworks until we came home.

4th of July with friends and family

 

The 3rd of July we went to San Francisco

 

My sister in-law, and two girl friends, and baby girl.  Celebrating at another friends house.

 

Julie, myself, and Rachel.  The focus on the camera is still something I need to get figured out.

 

Our guys hanging outside, watching the kids cooking the food, and taking annoying pictures.

 

Here are most of the kids playing. I can't post my niece online, so she is the missing child.

 

This little cutie gave us all a scare when she jumped into the pool, luckily her mom saw her floating on her back and dove in to rescue her.  We were all quite shaken up, but everything ended up good.

Fireworks that night, yep my niece is running up and down the street in front of the house.  We all had a good eye on her though.
holiday

Things that make me go, hmmm?

This movie was a real eye opener.  It made me think, which was the whole point, and I had to take action. You can pull up their website here Food Inc. and get involved.  There are things to think about beyond just obesity and pesticides.  Do you want to eat cloned food? How does genetically altered food affect our bodies, our hormones, our children?

This combined with my issues with PCOS have fueled my need for change in the way we eat and live. I'm sure that I will be posting more in the future, I plan to tour some farms in the area and I have begun to buy organic foods, and soon I will be buying local organic foods. I have found many new sources through Local Harvest.  They have links for small farms, co-ops, and other sources through out America.

These changes have led me to really seek to find ways to save money in other areas of my life.  I have not switched to all organic everything else, so things like soap, toothpaste, deodorant etc. These things i am learning how to save a bundle on from the Domestic frugalista and the The Krazy Coupon Lady.  There are other sources to learn from, but these have been good for me in finding things that are not only national coupons, but local bargains as well.

We need to remember that legislation only goes so far.  We can not expect big business to look out for our health and well being, we have to look out for our own health.  The way we spend will make the greatest impact, money speaks, this is what big business hears.  If they no longer hear the sound of big dollars, they will begin to listen.

Whatever is the catalyst for the changes made in your life, remember it hold onto it, and stay strong in your convictions.  I want to be a mother, therefore I have to change things in my life to achieve that goal.  I have friends with diabetes who also have to change their life so they do not loose their quality of life.  I'm seeing where there may even be links to autism in the use of pesticides, and that is just scary and sad.  Pick things you can change now, and work to set goals to change the bigger things in your life.  Small steps that you continue for a life time make a big difference.