a clean home.
I do a little cleaning every day, but it was nice to spend the entire day working around the house. Call me a big weirdo, but I love to clean and organize around the house. Decluttering calms me and using elbow grease is great stress relief. At the end of the day, looking around at a clean home makes me very, very happy.
Let me rewind a little bit. I got out of bed all geared up to run. The weatherman had predicted sun & warm temperatures so it looked like a perfect day…until I looked out the window. It was grey, cloudy and drizzling rain. Weatherman = dirty liar. I don’t mind running in a little rain, but there was no way I could take Peanut out in the elements with me.
I didn’t forgo exercise altogether, though. I did a little strength training (320 calories burned in 50ish minutes) with this DVD:
The post-workout hungries hit me pretty hard and I whipped up a little pasta dish:
~whole wheat penne
~can of diced tomatoes
~mushrooms
~splash of white cooking wine
~spinach & asiago chicken sausage (review coming soon)
I watched Food Revolution last Friday and was in tears. Yep. I cried. Huntington, West Virginia is only about 2 hours south of where I live. The mentalities I saw in the show are mirror images of the attitudes I encounter on a daily basis. The show brought out every frustration I have with trying to eat healthy in a small town culture that just doesn’t get it. It’s not that people are stupid. They’ve just never been taught any different. I’m so glad that Jamie Oliver is finally stepping up and saying what needs to be said, regardless of whether or not people like it.
Dinner last night was inspired by the show.
Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Posh Ham
Ingredients
~2 sprigs fresh thyme
~2 skinless chicken breasts (I used boneless, skinless.)
~Freshly ground black pepper
~1 lemon
~1 1/4 ounces grated Parmesan
~6 slices prosciutto (I only used 4.)
~Olive oil (I used EVOO.)
Preparation: Grate your Parmesan. Pick the thyme leaves off the stalks. Carefully score the underside of the chicken breasts in a criss-cross fashion with a small knife. Season with a little pepper (you don’t need salt as the prosciutto is quite salty). Lay your breasts next to each other and sprinkle over most of the thyme leaves. Grate a little lemon zest over them, then sprinkle with the Parmesan. Lay 3 prosciutto slices on each chicken breast, overlapping them slightly. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining thyme leaves. Put a square of plastic wrap over each breast and give them a few really good bashes with the bottom of a pan until they’re about 1/2 inch thick.
Cooking: Put a frying pan over a medium heat. Remove the plastic wrap and carefully transfer the chicken breasts, prosciutto side down, into the pan. Drizzle over some olive oil. Cook for 3 minutes on each side, turning halfway through, giving the ham side an extra 30 seconds to crisp up.
SOOOO good. A definite keeper. My husband and I were both in absolute heaven. Besides tasting great, this only took about 15 minutes start to finish. It’s the perfect example of how good, healthy food can be prepared at home in the same amount of time it takes to make a frozen pizza. We cut each chicken breast in half which was a perfect portion. Mr. Oliver recommends serving with “mash and green veggies or a crunchy salad.” We served ours with baked potatoes (sweet for the husband, Yukon gold for me) and steamed broccoli.
Do you think the area where you live impacts your efforts at a healthy lifestyle? How? Is it in a positive or negative way?