Last night's dinner: Sesame Encrusted Baked Chicken

Browsing Skinnytaste at work always puts me in the mood to cook, so here's what I whipped up last night for dinner. Gina's recipe called for chicken tenderloins, but I used chicken thighs and adjusted my points accordingly. I also made it 4 even servings instead of 4.5, so my points were a little higher per serving.

Sesame Encrusted Baked Chicken Tenders
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 1/2 • Serving Size: 2 chicken tenders • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 5 pts
Calories: 196.9 • Fat: 9.1 g • Protein: 22.9 g • Carb: 5.7 g • Fiber: 1.5 g • Sugar: 0.3 g  Sodium: 400 mg

Ingredients:

• 18 oz chicken tenderloins
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
• 6 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 4 tbsp panko
• olive oil spray (I used Pam)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick oil spray.

Combine the sesame oil and soy sauce in a bowl, and the sesame seeds, salt, pepper and panko in another.

Place chicken in the bowl with the oil and soy sauce, then into the sesame seed mixture to coat well. Place on the baking sheet; lightly spray the top of the chicken with oil spray and bake 8 - 10 minutes. Turn over and cook another 4 - 5 minutes longer or until cooked through. 

I served mine with a side of fried rice, which I adapted from Gina's Spicy Shrimp Fried Rice recipe. My version is as follows:

Fried Rice
Servings: 4 • Size: 1/4 of recipe • Points+: 5 pts

• 3 cups brown rice cooked (I use Trader Joe's frozen rice pouches)
• 2 egg whites, scrambled
• 1 whole egg, scrambled
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
• 5 scallions, chopped, whites and greens separated
• oil spray
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 tsp soy sauce (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp Asian fish sauce
• salt and fresh pepper

Scramble eggs with a drop of water and season with salt and pepper. In a hot wok, spray a little oil and cook the eggs. When cooked, remove from pan and set aside.

Let the wok get really hot. Add sesame oil and saute onions, scallion whites, garlic and ginger for about 1-2 minutes. Add rice and cooked egg along with soy sauce and fish sauce, mixing well for about 2 minutes. Add greens of the scallions and serve.

 With my edits to the chicken recipe plus the rice, my dinner came out to a delicious 12pts (if you follow Gina's recipe exactly and serve with my rice, it'll be a 10pt total). And there's plenty of leftovers for lunch!

A little late

A little behind, but let me tell you about my weigh in on Friday morning.

It was a little déjà vu of my "What the Weigh In?" experience before vacation. Aka...I LOST! Lost weight on vacation!! Is that the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard???

Starting weight: 226.4 lbs

Prevacation weight: 214.6 lbs

Friday's weight: 211.2 lbs

Total loss: 15.2 lbs

I can't tell you how ridiculous it is to me to have lost 3.2 lbs while eating carelessly on vacation. I did no tracking whatsoever, and definitely had days of feeling guilty after eating gyros, fries, sandwiches and ice cream. 

But no one can say we sat on our asses and did nothing. Everyday was an adventure. In Amsterdam, we were on our feet walking or biking for hours on end, and Greece was days of swimming, hiking to isolated beaches, and walking up and down the cobblestone roads of Skyros town. Imagine if I had be tracking??

Sigh. Losing weight on vacation - Just another reason I want to go back.

I'm back!

Hi all! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you, or about my weightloss journey.

The last two weeks were spent gloriously on vacation in Amsterdam and Greece, where there was lots of naughty food, but also lots and lots of walking, swimming, hiking, and exploring to cancel it out.

I'm back on the plan and ready to lose any lb's I may have put on while abroad. I'll be weighing in on Friday as usual to see the final damage. Even if I did put on of a few pounds, can you tell I'm not that upset about it? Everyone deserves a vacation and a break from stress, and that includes diet induced stress as well as work and every other type of stress. I did not track in anyway during my two weeks away, but somehow found a balance between indulging and not overeating. According to the way my pants are fitting, I did pretty OK!

We'll see on Friday! See you then :)

What the weigh in?

Let's recap, shall we?

Starting weight:

226.4

Last week's weight:

216.8

So I really wasn't expecting the scale to move much this week, if anything, it'd be going up. It wasn't anywhere near my best week food wise: I drank a ton on Saturday, had chinese twice (though I will give myself credit that my order both times was steamed shrimp and steamed veggies with brown rice and diet brown sauce on the side, and both times I saved half for the next day's lunch), plus I know that I've been snacking without tracking, which has the potential to be disastrous.

That's why when I stepped on the scale this morning, it went something like this:

"What the what??"

After hopping on and off again about three times to make sure, it changed to this:

"Yaaaay!"

This week's weight:

214.6

This week's loss:

-2.2

Total loss:

-11.8

I can't tell you how happy I am to not only have finally hit the -10lb mark, but to have surpassed it by almost 2lbs! I was dancing around it for probably three weeks, gaining and losing the same pesky 1.5lbs. It feels so good to be under the 215lb mark for the first time in probably 2 years!

Now I just need to keep the momentum up. I'm leaving for a two week vacation tomorrow and I am sort of nervous about it. I do feel that I've become more willing and able to make healthy decisions even when I'm out of my element, so I'm hoping eating responsibly paired with all the swimming, walking, and hiking I'll be doing will at the very least keep me at the same weight. Wish me luck! 

Checking in

It's been a few days, and a crazy few days at that! I'm heading off to Greece on Saturday so I've been running around doing lots of last minute things. I've still made time to go to the gym three times since Friday - and I definitely need to get one more work out in before this Friday considering the amounts of sangria I drank at the banger of a barbecue I threw on Saturday. In all honestly, it was such a great time and I got to see so many faces I haven't seen in ages that I wouldn't take it back even for the price of a small gain!

That being said, I've been really good with food and exercise this week, so maybe I'll get lucky and I'll at least stay the same weight wise.

I'll be back with results on Friday!

TGIF and weekly weigh in

Thank GOD it's Friday!

This morning was weigh in time and I was weirdly a little bit excited about it. I did well all week and I definitely expected the scale to move down, it was just a question of how much.

Short recap since Tuesday:

I went to my usual Body Pump class on Wednesday night. I always say it but I really can't say enough how much I enjoy that classes. It's definitely a challenge but it's a great atmosphere and I always feel great coming out of it.

Yesterday (Thursday) I was planning to give Body Attack a second try. Cardio classes are obviously more of a challenge, and though I remember wanting to give up halfway through the first time, I made it to the end and I want to try again. Circumstances were not on my side unfortunately. I'm having 20somthing people over for a barbecue on Saturday, so Thursday was spent running around non stop to the grocery story for all the food, then doing my best to clean the house as much as possible.

I had to do all that last night because tonight I'm heading to the Bronx for a Yankee game! Yay! I made sure to pack a light lunch so I have enough points to enjoy the hot dog and beer that I believe is required at a baseball game!

So that's two days past that I won't have worked out. Now that I'm in the groove I really don't like going longer than that without exercising. Who would have ever thought that I, Ariana, would ever say that? I have tons of  last minute things to do Saturday morning for this barbecue, but I'm going to go to the gym early to at least do a bit of elliptical.

Back to the point; I got in three workouts this week and did very well with points, only used 2 of my weekly allowance. Results:

Starting weight:

226.4

Last week's weight:

218

This week's weight:

216.8

This week's loss:

-1.2

Total loss:

-9.6

-1.2 is not bad. Not what I was hoping for but still not bad. It's so frustrating to be dancing around this -10 mark and not to have hit it yet. I'm only -.4 away and I am determined to hit it next Friday! It'll be a great victory to send me off on vacation the next day!

How did you do this week?

Well, hi!

I maybe have been a lazy blogger these last few days, but I was not all around lazy!

It's only Tuesday and I've already got in two workouts and am planning a third, my usual Tuesday Body Pump, tonight. Jen of Prior Fat Girl had a Eureka! moment recently, and it really got me thinking about my own habits and body signals. Jen realized that working out on Sunday gave her the momentum to continue working out through the week. I notice myself that it's always hard to get back in the groove after the weekend, when plans with friends and Sunday family obligations usually stop me from hitting the gym (ok, maybe I just don't want to go because it's the weekend!). So Saturday morning I got up earlier than I normally would and headed to the gym to spend some time with my old friend, the elliptical.

The elliptical and I go way back. We've had an on and off relationship for years, but I always get bored with it, and that's when my gym-going end up at a screeching halt. This time around, I hope things will be different. I'm not using the elliptical as my primacy source of exercise as I have in the past. I'm enjoying the fitness classes I've been taking much more, and I'm planning to use the elliptical as a sort of supplement to those classes, on days when my schedule is out of sync with the gym's.

Both Saturday morning and Monday evening I ran about 2.5 miles in 28 minutes on the "weightloss" setting of my gym's ellipticals, which is just 4 minute intervals of lower and higher resistance. I feel good afterward, and burned over 300 calories (and earned 7 activity points) each run!

 As Jen says, "Sweat is beautiful!"

I've been doing good with food too. Sunday dinner with my grandparents usually sets me a little bit over my points, but this week I've managed to only use 2 of my 49 weekly point allowance since Friday. Yay for small victories!

Speaking of food, here's a quick easy salad recipe I came up with (Trader Joe's helped!) that I've been chowing down on nonstop.

                   

1 1/2 cups green of your choice; I've been using Trader Joe's Champs Elysees Green Leap Lettuce
1/2 cup Broccoli Slaw (not with mayo and all, just the dry broccoli blend - TJ's sells it bagged)
5 oz (one can) Tuna, drained; I used Trader Joe's Solid White Tuna in Water (half salt)
4tbsp Trader Joe's Corn & Chile Salsa
6pp

The salsa is sweet and tangy enough that you don't need any dressing, and the broccoli slaw gives this salad an awesome crunch. I know the tuna sounds kind of weird, believe me, I was skeptical, but I've been loving this salad for the past few days. Low in points but delicious, very filling, and a great source of protein :)