Cattiatore, Vitamin D, and Massive Carrot Cake

We're half way through the week!

Here are some updates since last time:

- I was asked to do another segment for NBC4 on Monday. This time I got to answer some questions about the Taco Bell Drive Thru diet. I actually went through and re-looked at many of your comments on my blog from this post, and got some great insight for creative answers. Of course the interview was about 30 minutes, but with the lack of time I only got about a 30 second sound-bite. Lovely.

- Nick and I celebrated his birthday on Monday, even though his birthday was really yesterday. Yeah, he played poker on Tuesday like he always does, so we celebrated a day early (recap below!).

NEW DINNER
Dinner #3; Chicken Cattiatore

The other night my mom and I decided to make chicken cattiatore, our own way.

Ingredients
(Serves 4)

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 9 ounces total)
2 T EVOO
1 cup green and red pepper
1 cup mushroom
1 can diced tomato
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
Salt, pepper, garlic, and dried basil
** Use as little or as much spice as you want. We went heavy on the garlic and basil**

Instructions
Get the oil hot on a skillet, then add the chicken and cook until not longer pink inside (about 4 minutes on each side). Take the chicken off the skillet and add the full cans of tomatoes and tomato paste. Add about 2/3 cup of water. Add all the spices. Last, add the chicken and cover the chicken with all the yummy sauce. Let simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes.

Nutrition
(this is if the entire recipe is divided into 4 servings, and therefore this is for 1 serving)

We had sweet potatoes that needed consumed, therefore on this particular night we filled our plates half way full with the chicken cattiatore, and then the other half was filled with our sweet potato (starchy vegetable) and Nick had some broccoli (he has a healthy obsession with it).

Possible Modifications

• Serve over brown rice or whole wheat pasta.
  
• Use a regular potato and dress it up with the chicken cattiatore (put the cattiatore on top)
  
• Use any other non-starchy vegetable in the chicken cattiatore recipe, other than the ones we used.
• Instead of water, use rice vinegar!
• Use low sodium varieties of the canned tomatoes (oops, I didn't!)
• Add other spices, such as cinnamon. Sound strange? I did this once and it was delicious.
  

Other Uses
This recipe will make at least 4 large servings. Use the leftovers for next day's lunch or dinner!

Supplement Update

I recently realized that I was forcing myself to take my Viactiv supplement everyday, whereas I used to look forward to taking it. I decided I have become sick of their taste, so I found some new Vitamin D supplements at Trader Joes!

These have 1000 IU vitaminD, compared to the Viactiv, which have 500 IU. The Viactiv also have calcium, which is missing from the TJ supplements, but I get plenty of calcium so I'm not worried. These were cheap, considering you get 6 months worth. I would even argue that you could take these every other day (The Daily Value is 400 IU, but the upper limit is 2000 IU, although I've read that even up to 20,000 is probably ok!)

Click here for more information on Vitamin D and supplements.



Monday Night's Celebration Dinner

Buffalo Style Pizza!
(notice the crust stuck to the pan, oops, forgot to put down flour first! This was whole wheat pizza crust. It was delicious, and even Nick loved it.)


Carrot Cake :)


This cake was HUGE, in case you can't tell. I'd be willing to bet this one piece had about 1000 calories, if not more. We ate it all, except for most of the icing on this side (below), as there was plenty of icing embedded in between the layers!

Yes, I did eat tons of wheat on Monday, clearly. We also each had a beer :) I woke up with a stomachache, and I know it wasn't because I ate too much, as I did not go too overboard. I really think my body was reacting to all the wheat, which is not surprising.

Coming Up
Stay tuned for my next post, which will include some new soy eats, and my Biggest Loser review! Thanks for reading, and have a great day.