Happy New Year!

We're trying to start the new year with new eating and exercise habits. Mostly we will be deciding to eat in instead of out.  This will be good to both our wallets and our tummys, both of which have not been happy lately.  I've had food poisoning twice before but whatever bug I got this time was violent!  I will not go into details but it was horrible and lasted 5 days (after which I got a respiratory infection like the flu and was out of order for another 7 days).  M's belly has also been acting up, but for different reasons.  I think his belly is sensitive towards unhealthy foods.  For the immediate future, we both have different diet plans for ourselves.  He'll try to cut out carbs 6 days out of the week and I'm going to incorporate a brownie into my afternoon snacks everyday (this is how I gained 10 lbs in a hurry a few years ago).  Hopefully we will see results before we get tired and go back to our old ways.  We're also going to use Wii Fit and Wii Just Dance whenever we can for some extra exercise.  M will go to NYSC 1-2x a week along with aikido 1-2x a week and I stick to my wii fit until I have money to join the gym.  Sigh, I'm too poor to exercise!  I'm going to focus on strength training on my legs because the left one has been feeling funny lately and these types of exercises seem to be helping a great deal.  M had a pretty good explanation about how disuse causes bones and joints to go out of place when you use them again and push on nerves they shouldn't.  That tells you how much exercise I've been getting for the past few months, SIGH again.  On a happier note, FOOD!

Low sugar Blueberry lemon bars 

(adapted from Sweet Peas Kitchen, which adapted from smitten kitchen, which adapted from Ina Garten)

Mix the dry goods:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the wet stuff:

1 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Mix the dry stuff with the wet stuff

Fold in:

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Oven 350C for 40 minutes in an 8x8 pan

Poke holes on break and brush on Lemon Syrup:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

Pour on Lemon Glaze:
0.3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice


Notes: We eliminated the sugar in the cake completely because the syrup will penetrate through and add the sweetness. The result is a much healthier version and good to eat for breakfast too.  Also, we cut down the sugar in the glaze by 70% so it's not the usual white glaze, but a transparent one.  The taste of the bars is more tart and sweet and is very refreshing!

Mike's Simple Boiled Chicken, which somehow turned into yummy Chicken Marsala

He didn't write the recipe down so this is what I got from him through IM:

"let's see

marinated with soy sauce, cyanne pepper, sesame oil...

two of your little peppers

rice wine!

after two hours or so i seared the chicken on both side and return to marinating bowl

then i cooked down 1 onion with 3 slices of bacon chopped up and those mushrooms your mom prepared

after the mushrooms and onions were sorta soft i transfered back into marinating bowl and filled half way with beer

put in oven to braise"

I think the keywords are "rice wine" and beer".
The peppers are from my aerogarden plant which gave me 2 cups of little red peppers before I retired it. The mushroom are regular white mushrooms you get from the store.


Another successful weekend of cooking!  Our stomachs are happy now.