Fit Fridays: These Flats are Made for Walking

*Side note: This post was meant for LAST Friday, but when I didn't have time to finish it, I saved it for this Friday. The first part was done last Thursday night (10/11/12) and the final part was done today Thursday (10/18/12). That might help some of it make sense. Enjoy!

Is this a blast from anyone else's past?

Hey guys. So sorry I have not been around this week (last week). It's been a busy one, only to get more busy the next couple of days. We've been eating chicken soup all week (the gift that keeps on giving) and L did not want to eat dinner . So now I'm just busy hoping she's a picky toddler and that I don't have a middle of the night wake up call from a sick baby (update: she was just teething. totally fine). Tonight is a quick, yet important, topic. And when have I really made anything quick? The correct answer: never. (It is. I didn't make this quick.) Since we've had a few Fattening Fridays already, I thought we'd try out a Fit Friday.

I'm going to level with you... I HATE to work out. I like the idea of loving it, and really enjoy the walk/runs that L and I go on, but if you were like "here is this free gym membership I bought for you." I would maybe go to some yoga classes and then give the gym card to Landon to add to her collection of play card sized things that she puts in the pretend wallet I gave her.

The thing I love about our little walks is that we are together and we are outside. We kept them up through 100 degree summer days (although any bit of running that was involved stopped) and now we are back at a quicker pace with more jogging and fall air making life more comfortable.

Race Walking... Daily training regiment to follow.

So somewhere at some time in life, someone decided that we should all take AT LEAST 10,000 steps per day. I looked for the history of this, it appears it originated in Japan and people think we should all be doing this as a minimum to not be a bunch of lazy, fat jerks. It also appears (from my google research) that inactive people only take about 3000 steps per day in their normal activities. Then I was all "How many steps a day is 10000?" and google said, "don't be a lazy jerk, it's 10000 steps." Not very conclusive. So get this, I did my own research. I strapped on the fat suit and I went for a walk to feel bad about not being obese, and then I cried.... or I just wore a pedometer.

WHAT a jerk

Side note: people who wear fat suits to show you how "real" it is to be overweight/obese are assholes. I wore a pedometer from wake up to getting into bed on three different kind of days. Pay attention kids, this is how you do a controlled study. It's not, but just go with it.

Day 1 - I was home with Landon and we did our 2 mile walk.
Day 2 - I was home with Landon and we didn't do our normal "workout."
Day 3 - I went to work.

BIG eye opener. I think before I had a child, I might have been around 3000 steps her day. Let's walk through these few days....

Day 1
I'm living the dream. I wake up and strap on my pedometer before taking one step. I am serious about this. I do my general morning things, make breakfast for L and myself, clean up breakfast, brush teeth, and get both of us dressed for our walk. It was REALLY hot this day, so it was only a walk.

At 9am we are heading out the door and I have taken 2,362 steps. I was all "this is easy" and "I am awesome." We did our two mile walk around the neighborhood and I think I had some side effect from wearing the pedometer. I decided when we got back that I should trim my rosebushes. So L and I stayed in the back yard while I trimmed and she played. Then I made her lunch and she went down for her nap.

Noon - 9,035 steps. I have roughly ten hours to do 1,000 more steps. In my head I am thinking something like: people are so lazy that they can't walk 10,000 steps a day. I am killing this. I think my confidence in my stepping ability was causing me to over achieve. I had some furniture I needed to move around so I decided to do it during nap time. Landon was up at 2:30 and I hit 12,106 steps.

The rest of the day was pretty low key. We played inside (it was getting REALLY hot) did dinner, bath time, bed, and sat back down at 7pm. 15,646 steps. Between 7pm and 9:30pm I was apparently very lazy. I got into bed early to read and my final log at 9:30pm was 16,648 steps. I went to bed thinking "I wonder if Arya stark will marry Gendry" and "if people don't take at least 10,000 steps per day, I feel bad for them."

Day 2
I'm ready to take the challenge again. And kill it, again. Same sort of morning, making breakfast, cleaning breakfast, etc. After Landy is dressed we play in the back yard for about 15 minutes. At 10am I hit 2,979 steps.

We walked to the park a few blocks away and did some swinging and general park things. When we got back I cleaned up some of the rose branches from the previous day, moved a bit more furniture, lunch, then nap. 12pm = 7,572 steps. I was down from the day before, but I didn't do a 2 mile walk, so I was fine with that. On this day during nap time, I did what I usually do... not a ton. Filling my energy stores for the afternoon. At 2:30 when Landy was up I was only at 8,856 steps.

We made a run to the store, had some play time, and I made dinner for L. 5:30 log = 11,768 steps. I was really happy about this. I met my minimum and was  moving on. L and I had a small dance party and she was in bed shortly after. I cooked dinner, read, blogged, and got ready for bed. Final step count was 14,117 steps. Once again, I get cocky. My head is all "people are LAAAAZZZZZYYYY." This is the easiest thing ever.

Day 3
On day three I went to work. My mornings look much the same as far as getting Landy fed, cleaning up her meal, getting us both ready and then I'm out the door about 8:30. When I saw I had already hit 2,437 steps, I was really confident that this day, much like the other two, would prove how physically fit and amazing I am. Right.

I get to the office and sit down at my desk to.. you know, do work and stuff. I walk back and forth to other offices and the printer and the kitchen. This is the extent of my physical activity. I check out the pedometer at noon expecting fireworks and there it is.... 3,530 steps. So I decided I might eat my own previous words for lunch. But instead I had a real lunch out. When I saw it was 2:30, I checked the pedometer again... 4,286 steps. This was not going well.

I had the goal originally of not letting me wearing the pedometer affect my behavior, but I took a few extra laps around the office. It really didn't help. By the time I got home at 5:30 I was only half way to my MINIMUM amount of steps. 5,000 steps. This wasn't going well.

L went down for bed at 7pm and I had only increased to 6,278 steps. After cooking dinner and doing normal night time things, I got into bed at 10:30pm completely defeated. After being such a jerk about how easy it was to do this, I had only walked 7,567 steps, AND I had been aware of the pedometer and active about it.

Results:
My super scientific pedometer study got me thinking... If I only walked 7,567 steps on a day when I went to work (and didn't "work out") but still had to take care of a toddler in the morning and evening, I must have walked 3,000 steps a day prior to having a baby. Holy steps. When I'm home with Landon I usually have no choice but to be active because she is on the move and I've got chores and things to do. I never realized how sedentary I was at work. Even when I tried to not be. Maybe I need a treadmill at my desk.

This is why everyone should try this out:
If you are aware of how much you are moving, you move more. Once you have a sense of your habits, you can change them for the better. Now, on days when I go to work, I get home and Landon and I go for a short walk around the block. It's bonus time to spend with her and it's active outside time. When I run errands during the day I try to park a little farther away. It has changed the way I act and move, for the better.

I wouldn't call myself a competitive person in sports, but wearing this dumb pedometer made me competitive against myself. I wanted to beat previous numbers. I wanted to hit high ones.

A pedometer costs $5 - $15. If anything, it's an entertaining way to spend a very small amount of money. It's time... GET IN SHAPE GIRL! Or just walk 10,000 steps a day. Because the Internet told me you should.

-RT

One more time for fun.

Bean There, Done That

One of my most favorite things to cook is a pot of beans when the weather is cool. 1. It's easy. 2. You can make it healthy. 3. It's tasty. Please hold any 4th grade "magical fruit"/"good for your heart" jokes until the end of this blog post. 

Last week I put up a pot of black beans and they were fantastic. Someone asked me once what it means to "put up a pot" of something. I was kind of perplexed. I've always used that expression. I'm fairly certain it's southern if not Texan. I never really questioned its exact meaning and always use it to talk about cooking beans, peas, or other things you would cook for a long period of time in a pot on the stove. If someone has a proper history for this expression please fill me in... any linguist expert type people? No? Shocking.

The sorted life of black beans....

SO, I made black beans. I used dried beans, so they required some soaking. Step one in bean management involves sorting and picking through the dried beans to make sure there aren't any rocks or other non bean type items in there. Some people skip this step. I used to. Then I bit into a rock. Lesson learned. 

Bean Rinse aka Clean yo Bean

After you finish sorting, you want to give the beans a rinse in a colander. Then you have a few options.  All options start with you putting the beans in a pot (or large bowl) and covering them with LOTS of water. Specific amounts will likely be on your bean bag - mine said six cups. If you did the large bowl, make sure it is very large and cover it with a dishtowel to keep random mishmash from getting in there. Then leave the beans on the counter overnight or for at least 6-8 hours. You can do this same thing in a pot. I personally prefer the quick boil method. Mostly because I get tired at night and forget to soak the beans. For a quick soak, the beans need to be in a pot. Bring the water to a full, rolling boil, turn the heat of, cover them, and leave them to sit for 2-3 hours. 

 

Water Covered Beans

Boiling Beans

I did this first thing in the morning since I was making the beans for dinner that night. My plan was to have everything in the pot simmering by 4pm. When L went down for her nap I got to chopping. 

Back to the Grid Method.

Finished Product

I chopped one VERY large onion, sliced about six cloves of garlic (If you don't like garlic you should leave now before one of us gets hurt), and took the beans out of the pot to do one last rinse. I make this one a quick rinse so that I don't lose a lot of the goodness that is naturally in the beans. Next I got out my cast iron pot and turned the stove to medium to heat it up. Once it was nice and hot I added about a tablespoon of EV Olive Oil and tossed in the onions and garlic. 

My Garlic Friends

My lovely garlic press that has a slicing mechanism. Thanks wedding registry! 

Once in the pot, I stirred the onions and garlic until my house smelled amazing and the onions were soft and becoming "clear" in appearance. 

Clear Onions, Full Heart, Can't Lose...... it's late. shut up. 

I put a smoked ham hock in the pot and gave it a little browning on the sides before adding in about 4 cups of chicken stock. You can always add in water, but I prefer to use stock if I have it.  

Stock

Stock and Hock

 After bringing that up to a boil, I added the beans back in along with two more cups of water and two Goya Ham seasoning packets. It's like Ham bouillon. It's magical. 

Ham Flavah.

Full pot.

 I wanted the broth to cook off of the beans so they would be less like soup, so while I boiled them I left the top off and checked in on the broth level. I cooked them over a low boil for about 2.5 hours. You'll want to check the beans after two hours to check the consistency and see if they are getting to what you prefer. I like mine to still be firm, so 2.5 hour timing works well. 

Low boil, badly captured.

 After a couple of hours my beans looked like this. I took out a spoonful to sample.

Taste Test

 This is the point where I see if my beans need added salt. Because I am cooking with broth and a ham hock, and ham seasoning, I like to see how much natural flavor and saltiness I can get out before adding more in. I also (just to remind you again) don't really salt things that can be easily salted to taste after they are cooked. 

I love chopped tomatoes in my black beans. BUT tomatoes and cast iron are not friends. Also, if you put the tomatoes in too early, they wilt into nothing. I took about four roma tomatoes, gave them a rough chop, and put them in to cook for about 15 minutes with the beans. 

Tomato Party

Now  I want this again.

 The last thing I do, right before serving, is take an entire bushel of washed cilantro and tear it into pieces over the pot, dropping it all in but the stems. You have a couple of options with the ham hock. I usually leave it in and then add it to the leftovers, keeping it until all of the beans are gone. You can also pick all of the meat off of the hock and add it in with the beans and throw the non meat rest of the hock away. Do as you please. 

Up close and personal.

Finished product.

 We are usually a brown rice family. I like brown rice and if it's better for me, then bonus. I happened to have the brown and wild rice I used with the chicken soup that is fantastic, so I decided to try that out with the beans. WINNER. Here is a photo op in case any of you want to seek it out and try it. 

You know it's good because it says "Arroz"

Cooked to perfection, even though I need a new rice cooker. Suggestions appreciated. 

Things that are great to serve with this meal include: sliced avocado, Mexican cotija cheese, sour cream (or non fat plain greek yogurt), salsa, or pico de gallo. We did avocados and Cotija cheese. 

The final product. Perfection in a bowl! 

Because I was making this for us AND Landy, I didn't add jalapenos, which I usually do and love. If you want to do that, I like to add in one jalapeno (deseeded then chopped) with the onions and garlic, and then take a second jalapeno, chop the top off of it to expose the seeds and insides, and drop it into the water to boil with the beans. I remove the remaining whole jalapeno before serving. 

Cooking in pots is the best thing about cool weather. And if you happen to be home with the kids or on a Saturday or Sunday, you can work on it little by little throughout the day and still have plenty of time with your kiddos. This is also something you might be able to adapt to a slow cooker if you work during the day. I'm not great at slow cooking, but it's one of my goals to figure that out this cool weather season. Here's a quick recap of my ingredients:

1 16oz package of dried black beans

1 T EV Olive Oil

1 very large white or yellow onion

6 cloves of garlic

1 smoked ham hock

4-6 cups of chicken broth or water

1-3 packets of goya ham seasoning (to taste)

4 large roma tomatoes

1 bunch of cilantro

rice

Optional:

Jalapeno

Avocado

Cotija Cheese

Sour Cream (not really optional)

pico de gallo

This is one of my absolute favorites. I think I make it twice a month during the fall and winter. It is another warm, filling dish that is actually pretty healthy and simple. It is also EXTREMELY cost effective. On the health front, just remember, you are in charge of your own sour cream intake. I love sour cream, so I try to sub it out for plain, non fat greek yogurt. Can't even tell. Share your beans with someone you love. They are magical, after all. 

-RT

Recipe Review: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce

OH my Gravy. Or sauce, but WoW. This was a good one. Again, thank you Cooking Light for making recipes with gravy. Let's get started...

Fancy Photo Courtesy of Cooking Light

I didn't feel like skinning the chicken thighs and have yet to find bone in, skinless thighs at our HEB. Due to that, I picked up boneless, skinless thighs and will tell you how I edited the recipe to make up for the fact that the boneless meat would be more thin, therefore cooking faster. We roasted some new potatoes in the oven as well so we had a lot of oven time tied up.

Small red potatoes, salt, pepper, EV Olive Oil and sliced garlic

Chicken Thighs are being browned

Other side

Out of the oven

In the recipe it calls for you to brown the chicken thighs for 4 minutes per side. I just did 2.5 minutes per side with the boneless thighs. After that, we put them in a baking dish and instead of baking them at 425 for 16 minutes, I did them for 12 minutes. We pulled the thighs out and put them in the microwave to stay warm. We put the potatoes in the oven next and started working on the green beans and the gravy. 

I used the frozen haricots verts that were leftover from last week, defrosted them in the microwave for 3 - 4 minutes and dressed them with EV Olive Oil, a splash of White Wine Vinegar, a bit of honey, and a bit of rooster sauce. It was basically the same dressing I use on my salads, just on a smaller scale.

Frozen = Easier

Green beans ready while I mix up the flour and chicken stock.

We chopped the onions and thyme for the gravy/sauce and prepped the chicken stock & flour mixture. The pan had lots of stuck on bits and then, in a glorious bonus, we got to use the cooking juices from baking the thighs. This was all heading in a very good direction.

Sauce goes from here...

To here!! Gravy/Sauce is born.

The potatoes were ready to go just as we were finishing up the gravy. It didn't call for this, but we took the chicken thighs and put them in with the gravy and tossed them for a moment to both warm them up and also TO COAT THEM IN GRAVY. Here is what the final plate looked like:

I borrowed Landy's new place mat so I would know where my silverware went

Up close and personal and delicious. Every bit.

If you are from the South (especially the Louisiana area) then you know what it means when something is smothered. It is fabulous and not so healthy. These thighs tasted like they were SOUTHERN SMOTHERED DELISH. And they are from Cooking Light!!! You are saving calories and sodium and fat, but you are getting this amazing flavor. I really recommend this when you feel like eating something that tastes bad for you, but is actually good for you. You can also just cook it whenever you want because it is fantastic. Here is another on the side tip: The Gravy/Sauce tastes amazing on the potatoes. 

The full original recipe is below, or you can pull it up online here. This was great for the new bit of fall weather we got. We need to get back outside though. I miss by grill friend! What do you love to cook when the weather starts to cool down? 

Happy Gravy Day! 

-RT

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce
by Cooking Light

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned (about 2 1/2 pounds)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 1 cup no-salt-added chicken stock (such as Swanson), divided
• 4 teaspoons flour
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove chicken from pan; place in an 11 x 7–inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Bake at 425° for 16 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°. Remove chicken from dish; reserve drippings.

3. Return skillet to medium-high heat. Add butter; swirl to coat. Add onion and thyme; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Combine 3 tablespoons stock and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture, remaining stock, and reserved drippings to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, and add mustard, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, stirring with a whisk. Serve sauce with chicken.

Winner Winner, Pork for Dinner!

The fancy people at Cooking Light have redeemed themselves! You really can't go wrong when you cook whatever is on the cover of a cooking magazine. The thing is, usually what is on the cover is not quick, inexpensive, or easy. This time it was all of the above, and delicious!

I dogear pages.

Last night we made Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Pearl Onions and a side of Green Beans with Mustard Vinaigrette.  The recipe was from our newest Cooking Light. To recap, chosen because it was fast, easy, and inexpensive. 

Assembled Ingredients

For the mustard vinegarette we just needed EV Olive Oil, Fresh Pepper, Kosher Salt, Cider Vinegar, and Mustard Powder. I couldn't find frozen Haricots Verts so I just went with some extra fine whole green beans.

Part of the speed of this recipe that I really enjoyed was that it used frozen pearl onions and frozen green beans. It saved time in washing and prepping and often times frozen vegetables taste better than what is in the produce section. The things you buy fresh at grocery stores are picked before they are ripe to make up for the travel time. Frozen vegetables are picked at the peak of their ripeness and then frozen right away to preserve their state. A great time saver all around and I use them ALL of the time with Landon.

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees, took out the pork chops to come to room temperature, chopped the apples, thawed the onions, and measured out the flour and oils. I put a pan on the stove to warm up with the olive oil. Then added the onions. It's important to only stir them once while they cook so that they get nice and brown bringing out a bit of carmelization. You use canola oil in this pan because it is going in the oven and unlike olive oil, and some others, will not go rancid at very high temperatures.

Then we added the apples and stirred before putting the pan in the oven for ten minutes. 

While the apples and onions cooked, I chopped the thyme and put a pan on the stove to warm up for the pork chops.

Pork Chop pan. Sprinkled with Salt and Pepper and the pan is coated with Olive Oil.

The thyme mixture ready to stir in the onions and apples.

The apples and onions came out perfectly and I stirred in the thyme mixture while S finished the pork chops. 

With everything mixed in together. Smelling fabulous!

Pork chops ready to come off.

Here's a handy tip... try not to forget that the pan that is currently on the stove with the apples and onions was formerly in the oven. I grabbed the handle. Smart girl. It hurt. So if you can remember, my advice is to put one of those handy little oven mitt sleeves on the handle. Then when you grab it you won't burn your hand off. I don't have one of those, so I used this:

Hard to tell, but it's just a giant regular valentine's day oven mitt. Not a gift from S, don't worry.

I had already mixed up the chicken broth and flour so when Seth pulled off the pork chops, we were ready to make the gravy/sauce in the pan. 

Boom. Gravy.

Gravy is best when you are supposed to "scrape up the bits" from the bottom of the pan. YUMMMMM! 

Then we got to the green beans. I had already thawed them in the microwave and patted them dry. I eyeballed the vinaigrette and probably shouldn't have. They were too "mustardy" for S and the flavors weren't exactly subtle. I think it was just fine though and would have been better if I would have used the correct measurements. 

Vinaigrette

Coated Green Beans

Finally we assembled the plates. Prior to the gravy:

 And with added gravy deliciousness:

This was fantastic. The onions and apples were so sweet and flavorful with the thyme. The gravy on the pork chops was so savory. The green beans were a nice added crunch and vegetable. It was also very fast and very easy. Also, again THE GRAVY... OMG. Fantastic. When is gravy not fantastic?

There are lots of different ways you could do this. Possibly with a pork loin all baked at once. While eating I was thinking mostly yum yum yum, and nom nom nom, and how can we cook fast, easy and gravy every night. It was really a wonderful flavor combination and something that would taste delicious year round.

Here is an update on the Orzo from Monday: Even Landon won't eat it. She tried it and cleaned off her tongue with her hands. I have decided to give it up. No use trying to reinvent the plain, boring, orzo pasta that had no flavor. 

So go ahead and cook this. NOW or next week. But soon. It was delicious. If you cook as a couple it will only take you 30 minutes from start to finish. If cooking as a couple makes you want to murder each other, then it will take you 40 minutes and tell your second chef to leave you alone. 

We had the leftovers today. Then I had a skinny cow cookies and cream ice cream sandwich. Sorry. Just needed to get that off of my chest. 

- RT

PS Shameless self promotion: Have you "liked" the Raising Texas facebook page yet? You should!

Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Pearl Onions

Ingredients:

    2 1/2 teaspoons canola oil, divided
    1 1/2 cups frozen pearl onions, thawed
    2 cups Gala apple wedges
    1 tablespoon butter, divided
    2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
    1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
    1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
    4 (6-ounce) bone-in center-cut pork loin chops (about 1/2 inch thick)
    1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
    1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Pat onions dry with a paper towel. Add onions to pan; cook 2 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring once. Add apple to pan; place in oven. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until onions and apple are tender. Stir in 2 teaspoons butter, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle pork with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add pork to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove pork from pan; keep warm. Combine broth and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add broth mixture to pan; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook 1 minute or until reduced to 1/4 cup. Stir in vinegar and remaining 1 teaspoon butter. Serve sauce with pork and apple mixture.