French Country Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

Boy was this a hit!! I always get nervous trying new recipes because I never know how they will come out, but this one was fantastic. Jim says it needs to be my new "company meal" :)

The meal can be served any way you like, but I chose to serve it over fettuccine and it was perfect!

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 shallots, thinly chopped
1/4 pound mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon all-purpose (plain) flour
1/4 cup white wine (I used Pinot Grigio, and the flavor was awesome)
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Directions

Place the chicken breasts between wax paper and pound with a mallet to flatten. Cut each piece in half lengthwise. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

When the chicken is ready, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the chicken and sauté until no longer pink or until a thermometer inserted into the chicken reads 170 F.

While the chicken cooks, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a small frying pan. Add the shallots and saute for about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring occasionally.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and wine until all the lumps are gone. Add the flour mixture to the shallots and mushrooms. Stir in the chicken stock and cook over medium-high heat. Stir until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add the rosemary.

To serve, transfer 2 chicken breast halves onto each plate. Spoon mushroom sauce over the chicken and garnish with parsley. Serve immediately.

A New Lifestyle and Yummy Recipe

So last Friday Jim had his yearly physical. Usually he comes back being lightly scolded by the doctor for being a little overweight, but this time was a little different. Jim has high blood pressure, and at 30 years old, its not a good place to be. So the doctor said that they could put him on medicine, but at 30 years old, he should be able to take care of this himself. So we have 6 weeks to lower his BP. This means our entire diet needs to change. I typically cook pretty healthy but there is almost always SOMETHING not-so-great-for-you in the house that Jim will gladly eat in its entirety in one sitting. Cheese is an example. Jim is very content eating an entire pound of cheese with bread in one sitting. Now, I'm not making fun of him, and please don't laugh, but this is seriously the root of our problem.

So I decided that if he's going to do this and do it right, I better do some research. I learned the best way to lower high blood pressure is to lower sodium intake, but you also need to cut back on fats, eat lots of fruit and veggies, and get lots of exercise. Some of Jim's favorites like pickles, chips, and cheese are no-nos. Friday night we had friends over for dinner, and it was Jim's last night of junk food so we had brownie sundaes, and then I sent our guests home with the leftover brownies, and all the chips, pretzels, and crackers in our house..haha. (Good night for them!)

If you've ever met my husband, you'll know that he hates fruit and veggies, they are like little devils staring him in the face. So I knew that if he were to live on just that for the next six weeks, we'd all be in a living hell, even our poor cats. So I did some more research and learned that there are actually lots of foods he can eat..just in moderation. Besides fruit and veggies, I got him fat free frozen yogurt (its chocolate!), dark chocolate bars, animal crackers, whole wheat bread and whole wheat english muffins, and even low-sodium roast beef. Yesterday I sent him to work with a roast beef sandwich with light mayo, tomato and lettuce on whole wheat bread; fruit salad (yes, ladies and gentlemen he ate fruit and LIKED it!), yogurt, a banana, and some peppers to snack on. From what I was told it wasn't miserable and he was a pretty chipper guy when I got home so it was a successful start!

So now on to the recipe. Because we need a low sodium diet, I researched some low sodium recipes and found this one. It was pretty yummy..I ended up adding a little parmesan on top, but I also used too much pasta, so I think had I used the amount of pasta in the recipe it would have been more flavorful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Broccoli, Garlic, and Rigatoni

Ingredients:

1/3 pound rigatoni noodles
1 cup broccoli florets (tops)
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Fill a large pot 3/4 full with water and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente (tender), 10 to 12 minutes, or according to the package directions. Drain the pasta thoroughly.

While the pasta is cooking, in a pot fitted with a steamer basket, bring 1 inch of water to a boil. Add the broccoli, cover and steam until tender, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked pasta and broccoli. Toss with Parmesan cheese, olive oil and garlic. Season with pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

If anyone tries this and has some suggestions on how to spice it up (without salt), please do comment to let me know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonight I'm trying a french country chicken with mushroom sauce. If all goes well, check out the blog tomorrow for the recipe!

I'll be sure to post on Jim's progress, (with his permission of course, as I had today). We also need to get out walking, but if any of you live in Southern Maine you know the past week straight has been nothing but rain in the afternoon, so as soon as its nice again we will get out.

Shout Outs!

Sometimes I just get so excited about the wonderful things going on in our friends' lives that I have to share. Today I have two fun things to put out there.

As many of you know, last spring, all three of Jim's best guy friends welcomed their first borns, (all within just a few weeks of each other)! As a gift, we bought them a package deal with our wedding photographer, Amy Salerno. In the package, they got free photo sessions with Amy at 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year. Matt and Tanya took full advantage of the gift, and last week Amy photographed Sydney for her 1 year photos. They are just too cute for words. Here's a little preview (and my personal favorite of the bunch), and the link to her blog entry: http://amysphotonews.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-grown-up.html



Also, with exciting news is Jim's cousin, Kevin. I just recently learned that Kevin is an interior designer, and until I saw his feature article on Boston.com I had no clue how talented he really is. Check out this house...amazing! Click here!

Fun with the Fam

So last weekend Jim and I went home for Rick's 8th grade graduation Friday night. If you've never been to an 8th grade graduation before, its quite a sight. Its easy to think that its silly, but I remember back to when I was in 8th grade and what a huge deal it was, so it was really exciting that we got to be a part of the night with Rick. Rick got all dressed up, in new pants, a new shirt, and some spiffy suspenders. If you know Rick at all, you know that's 110% his style and he looked great. I think he had a good time at graduation. Rion and Jim were sure to send him plenty of inappropriate text messages to keep him occupied. Jim's cousin Maeve also graduated. We didn't get to catch up with her but we did see his aunt, uncle, and cousin Sam, so that was good.

Saturday I decided to take the boys to the beach and they wanted to go to Bar Harbor. We hung out at Sand Beach, got stuck going 20 miles an hour behind tourists from Mass and CT (which I just cannot understand seeing as every time I'm in THEIR state they practically run me over), and walked around downtown for a bit. It was really fun to be able to hang out with just the two of them..we don't get to do that very often and every time we do hang out I am just constantly amazed at how much they have grown up. They're amazing kids, and I'm lucky to have them around!

Sunday for Father's Day Jim hung out with his parents and I hung out with Mom and Wayno. We went to a wicked dive restaurant in Brewer where we waited an hour and a half for THE BEST clam roll I've ever had (and yes, folks, I'm a Mainer so that says something). It was worth the wait, and just like it was fun to just hang out with the boys on Saturday, it was just as fun to go to lunch with just Mom and Wayne.

Overall the weekend was eventful but a good one. Jim and I look forward to getting home to see our families and it was definitely worth the trip north!

For the Love of Sox

When Jim and I lived in Boston we were very spoiled by good friends and family who treated us to (or helped us sneak into) lots of Red Sox games. When we moved to Maine in July 2006, we found it to be much more difficult to get tickets and couldn't get to a game until this April. We're both pretty big Red Sox fans, so we feel so lucky to have already been to two games this year!

My mom turned 50 a few weeks ago, and had never in her life been to Fenway Park, or any other major league baseball game for that matter. For a while now we've been wanting to get her Red Sox tickets. She's a huge fan herself, and drools over her boy Mike Lowell on a daily basis :) So this year we had no wedding to pay for or house to buy so we decided what better time to treat mom to her first Red Sox game. She was thrilled to get the tickets and decided to bring along me and Jim (ok, I may have begged to go), and her best friend Lynn.

The day was excruciatingly hot!! It was 95 degrees at game time and we thought for sure we'd all fry to death. We got to the gates at Yawkey Way around 11 and hung out until 11:30 when the gates finally opened. After checking out the scene at Yawkey, we headed inside the park. I swear there is nothing like walking up that ramp into the park..it almost takes my breath away every time, even though I've been in several times. Mom was thrilled to watch batting practice and quickly walked her way around the park, taking it all in. It was awesome.

When we decided to go find our seats, I realized that they were a bit higher up than I had thought. In fact they were SO high that we were all the way up UNDERNEATH the jumbotron!! I was initially really disappointed. I wanted Mom to be able to see the screen, but I have to tell you it was such a blessing in disguise. We were in the shade and had a constant breeze the whole time. I don't think we would have had much fun had we been stuck in the sun.

The game was a good one and yippee! the Sox won it! Mom had a sign that we made the night before to hopefully get on NESN, but I don't think she ever got on. Maybe next time mom!

Overall the day was so fun, and it was really special to be able to treat Mom to her first game and hang out with her and Lynn for the weekend. I hope she looks back on it as a great day and an awesome 50th birthday present.

New Address

So with the change to the blog, my web address doesn't make much sense anymore, so I will be changing it. I'll wait a few days, but probably by the end of the week I will be changing it to

http://www.jimandkristina.blogspot.com

So creative isn't it? :)

A Change to the Blog

So, I've decided to switch things up a bit on here. The weight loss thing comes and goes in spurts and its great while it lasts, but its an ongoing process for me. I really like this whole blogging thing, so I've decided to kind of transition this blog into something that is more about life happenings. I'll probably still talk about the weight loss, but it won't be the major focus. Instead, I'll share the stories and happenings of what's going on with me and Jim. For those of you who don't know us, get to know us..(we're kinda cool :) ), and for those of you who do, you know that I am awful at keeping in touch, so this is my way of letting you all know what's going on with us. I'll share recipes, stories, and probably a hundred pictures taken with my trusty cybershot..haha. I hope people don't mind the change, and I hope that people still read (if anyone was reading to begin with!) and comment!