Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Another Perfectly Portioned Meal

by Meghann on October 14, 2008

Good Evening Everyone!

I had such a great response from my Perfectly Portioned Meal for One on Saturday that I decided to make a series out of it. Each week I will come up with a meal that is fit for one person, with no worries of any leftovers. I always hear how much individuals hate cooking for just themselves, but I want to show that it really is no big deal. These will be full meals that are healthy, fun and easy to cook I will also provide quick tips each week that I feel always saves me from over doing it.

This week’s Perfectly Portioned Meal for One is brought to you by this already portioned out hunk of frozen ground chicken.

Tip for the day –

When I buy meat of any kind I like to portion it out and save the rest in the freezer for another time. If I were to cook a whole pound of meat in one sitting I would have a TON of leftovers that I would never get to. This original pound of ground chicken was separated into three equal parts as soon as it was brought to the kitchen. One was used that week while the others were left to freeze. The other two portions have already been used to create a BBQ Chicken Sloppy Joe and a BBQ Apple Chicken Burger. (I guess I like BBQ sauce with my chicken?)

Tonight I decided to make a traditional favorite of mine that I used to make individual servings of all the time in college. Meatloaf! When someone refers to meatloaf others automatically assume a huge family meal, but I have modified the recipe to produce one single serving of the classic family dish that is both nutritious and delicious.

Single Serving Chicken Meatloaf

What you’ll need:

1/3 pound of Ground Chicken Breast
¼ cup Rolled Oats
2 tablespoons Egg Whites
2 tablespoons Tomato Sauce
½ tablespoon of tomato paste
1 tablespoon Honey Mustard
¼ of small onion, chopped
1/4 cup Diced Tomato
Garlic Salt
Onion Powder
S&P
Chili Power
Oregano
Ketchup

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. Combine all of the ingredients (except the ketchup) and form into a loaf. Add more oats if the mixture isn’t holding together

3. Spray a 8×8 baking pan with Pam and place the loaf in the pan

4. ZigZag Ketchup on top

5. Bake in the oven for 20 minute or until inside is done.

This actually ended up making a little bit more then what I could eat so I gave the butt end to Abbie (minus the onions)

On the side I made some Mashed Sweet Potato

I peeled a sweet potato, cubed it and steamed it for about 10 minutes. I then took a hand blender to the steamed sweet potato and fat free milk until it was the consistency I wanted. I purposely ended up with some extra sweet potato to incorporate into a meal I’m planning for later in the week.

I also microwaved a half a cup of Green Beans, some left over chopped onion, mushrooms, garlic salt and pepper until it was all heated through.

I loved the addition to the flavors of the green beans, it really took the frozen beans up a notch.

Lastly, I had the butt of the Dave’s Killer Bread! The butt of this bread was definitely the best part. I love all of those seeds… yum!!!

I almost forgot about the amazing Frozen Yogurt I bought on Saturday! I saw it when I digging for the frozen green beans and knew I had to have it tonight.

I had 1/2 cup of the Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt on top of some Puffed Brown Rice. The Puffed Brown Rice added a nice crispiness to the Ice cream. I love having a little crunch in my dessert.

This afternoon I had a hodge podge snack of Annie’s Bunnies, Kashi Vegetable Crackers and 2 meringues.

I ALWAYS crave something sweet in the afternoon so this was perfect to calm my craving.

I’m happy to say that after my warm walk with Abbie yesterday, today’s was surprisingly cool and fall like. Florida weather is really weird! I hope everyone else is experiencing great fall weather! Enjoy the leaves changing on my behalf (we don’t get that here!)

{ 12 comments }

Event Planning

by Meghann on October 14, 2008

My work has been so much fun the last couple of weeks planning for our huge conference in April. I have done small event planning in the past, but nothing on this scale or at such a great distance (the conference will be in Long Beach, CA!). Of course it’s not until April, but there is a lot of prep work. So far I have opened registration for the event, selected the gift (we’re doing tote bags, beach towels, and water bottles), and have assisted with the launch of our blog. This year instead of doing a normal web site for the event we have decided to go interactive and created a blog that where our clients can respond directly to the info we provide. My supervisor had asked me if I had any blog experience and I kind of broke down and showed her my blog. Thankfully she loved it! In fact it’s been kind of making its way around the office (Hi Co-Workers!). In our blog brainstorming session yesterday I was asked if there was anything I could contribute to the blog as a guest writer and of course I knew exactly what I wanted to blog about. Health, exercise and food! Duh!

I know the first thing I did when we selected the hotel was look at the amenities the hotel offered. There was the standard gym, but I also noticed the hotel had posted amazing running routes that ran along the beach and through popular Long Beach areas. Way to go hotel! I can’t wait to try some of the runs and I am so glad the hotel was kind enough to post that info. So, for my blog entry I am going to invite all attendees to join me on an early morning run along the beach using some of these predesigned routes. I will also give tips on how to stay healthy and active at the conference. I’m brainstorming right now on what to say and I was hoping you guys would have some great ideas on how to keep it in check while away on business. Let me know any great tips I can pass along to my conference attendees! J

Last night I ended up baking the whole block of extra firm tofu so I could have some left overs to use up for lunches throughout the week. I always find my lunches lack protein since I never have any on hand. So I figure if I prepare a bunch at the beginning of the week, then I could something quick to grab for my meals.

Today the star of my lunch was this AMAZING Tofu Wrap.

I have never actually used tofu as a wrap or sandwich filler before and I have to say it works perfectly. It’s the right amount of chew that blends well with the bread and veggies. For the wrap I used ¼ of a block of Tofu, Multigrain Flat Out Wrap, 1 tablespoon Annie’s Organic BBQ sauce, 1 slice Fat Free Swiss Cheese, mushrooms, tomato & Spinach. I grilled the wrap slightly on the George Foreman. I find it hard to make a wrap or sandwich now that doesn’t include my trusty George Foreman. J

On the side I had some leftover Stir-Fry Veggies from last night’s dinner. I LOVE left over stir-fry. I think the overnight slumber in the fridge really lets the yummy sauce soke into the veggie so they’re always so much more flavorful the next day.

I also had a few grapes to satisfy my sweet tooth.

For my midmorning snack I slowly devoured this Apple Kashi Cereal Bar while enjoying a nice cup of Peppermint Tea.

I have to dash off to a meeting now. For dinner I have another Perfectly Portioned for One Meal planned! Get excited!

{ 11 comments }

Sore Tummy

October 14, 2008

Ouch. I woke up this morning with a very sore tummy. At first I thought I just had very bad cramps (which is weird because I haven’t had cramps since I discovered the magic pill), but then I did my morning stretch and realize it was my abs that were sore. Whatever I did yesterday more »

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