Herbed Potatoes and Bikini Bodies

Quite the title isn’t it.

Mr. Gaunt and I went on a long hilly walk today, I’m kind of hating the gym lately, too hot and stuffy. I’m loving the nice weather, and feel awful not taking advantage of it, so we have been walking a lot. Today we walked to the Post Office, the Library, and strolled through Maritime Heritage Park (which is a beautiful park that unfortunately ends up being kind of sketchy with all the homeless that hang out there). Needless to say our walk ended up being exactly three miles. So that’s nice.

I did have a little breakdown on our walk. I feel so unhappy about my weight right now. My physical fitness has to pick up, and my decadent splurges have to go down stop. I need way more veggies, and way less cheese and bread. I just know how much better I would feel minus 30 pounds. Lordy. It’s never-ending is it? I feel like my ass and stomach are larger than they have been in a while though, which is just so unpleasant. Consider me on a diet!

For dinner we had grilled chicken sausage, asparagus, and herb potatoes.

The potatoes were leftover from Mothers Day that I sliced up. Then I just cut some thyme, dill and oregano from my garden, tossed with some olive oil, pepper and salt, and baked at 425 for 15 minutes. Super yummy, and not too bad for you.

Also in super exciting news!!!! Mr. Gaunt got a promotion today! He will now be a supervisor, which is more responsibility, but also more money! Yay! We really could use more money. I also have taken up a twice a week cleaning gig at my moms wine bar via our other business, which will be bringing in a nice little monthly paycheck. I have also sold 3 paintings this month, and booked our largest wedding yet for November! Mr. Gaunt has also started a used media shop on Amazon that he is done really well at so far. You would think with all our little business adventures that we wouldn’t be nearly so poor. The funny thing is, all this money will be coming in later on, so far now we just have to keep treading water and hope for the best. HARD WORK! HARD WORK! HARD WORK!

Mr. Gaunt and I spent time the other night talking about our jobs, and how hard we are working, and our dreams. We have a philosophy that it is better to work our butts off trying to work for ourselves, and have freedom, then to just work a basic 9-5 for someone else. The saying “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life” rings so loud for me. The passion and desire I have to build a career around my life, and not build my life around a job, will continue to fuel me through the hard times. We will make it. We will work for ourselves. We will be able to do the things we want to do. We will get everything we need.

On that note, I did ZuzkaLights ZWOW #19 video tonight. I did it the best I could, and my abs feel it. She says its to prepare me for my bikini body…yeah…uh huh. You should really do it too! It’s not to bad, and its super fast.

http://www.youtube.com/zuzkalight#p/a

 

Fall Harvest and Eats

On Sunday Mr. Gaunt and I tended to our (MUCH) neglected garden. I wont lie, with the hub of wedding and work and schedules and dieting, the garden was the first thing we let go. I’m still processing how I feel about the garden. Next year I wont do quite as big, but I will plan more for what I want to grow (NO LETTUCE!). So Sunday we trimmed things up and picked the ripe tomatoes (sauce will be canned tonight) the acorn squash, a few jalapeno, Zucchini and Cucumbers too.

I bought a beef roast for the Crockpot too. I cut up an onion, a few leftover potatoes from the wedding, a baby acorn squash and threw them in the crockpot and in the fridge. Then in the  morning I got up early and threw the roast in whole, with 2 cups of water and seasoning packet. Set the cooker to low and left for work. 8 hours later the house smelled amazing and dinner was done. Me and the crockpot are going to be good friends this winter. Oh and Pear Cider is the Beer Haters best friend!

Using The Beets!

Beet and Potato Roesti

I got Beets in my Door to Door Organics box last week. We have never cooked Beets, nor had I eaten many Beets as a kid. Both Mr. Gaunt and I weren’t sure if we even liked Beets all that much. I searched around Food Gawker for a Beet Recipe, and this one stood out “The Only Way I Can Get My Husband To Eat Beets” Well if it works for her husband, it should work for my boyfriend!

The recipe was pretty easy to follow and pretty quick too. Even the “flipping” of the Beets wasnt to scary (and I usually HATE flipping things). The only thing that I would mention was that her recipe say to use 4-6 Beets that make 1/2 a cup of shredded Beet, but I used 4 (maybe kinda big?) Beets and it made about 2.5 cups. I didn’t want to waste the rest of the shredded Beets so I threw them in a ziplock bag in the freezer. I’ve never frozen any starch product like that, so who knows if it will keep.

Pink Beet Hands!

I used low-fat butter and Fat Free Sour Cream to reduce the calories.I also used Whole Wheat Flour, because that’s all we even have anymore. My feeling is if I can’t make it with Whole Wheat Flour, why bother.  I still thought they had a definite Beet taste (which isn’t bad, just unique) but Mr. Gaunt freaking LOVED these, he ate almost the whole thing! He thought they tasted like a big potato pancake. I was thrilled to see him gobbling up Beets, and I’ll definitely make this again. It says its more of a “side dish” but we just had two slices with a big salad and we were full.

This recipe could also easily be made vegan, just use vegan Butter and vegan Sour Cream!

The recipe is as followed (taken from Dinosaur Dishes: Delicious easy, healthy meals on a shoestring budget):

______________________________________________________________________

Beet and Potato Roesti

serves 4-6 as a side

Ingredients

4-6 medium beets, About a 1/2C when grated
2 small potatoes, scrubbed
salt and pepper
4 scallions, chopped
½ cup flour
2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

Trim and scrub the beets then peel them. Grate them into a medium bowl. Start preheating a large (12″) skillet over medium heat. Working fast, so they don’t discolour, grate the potatoes into the same bowl as well. Add the salt, pepper, and scallions and combine well. Then add the flour a few tablespoons at a time until well combined.

Melt the butter into the skillet until it foams. Put the mixture into the middle of the pan and flatten out with a spatula. It should be a centimeter or thinner. Cook for 8-10 minutes until nice and crispy.

You will need to flip it over. To do this place a large plate over top and flip the frying pan over then slide the roesti back into the pan. Cook until the other side is crispy about another 8 -10 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature with green onions on top.  We also like to dollop some sour cream or plain yogurt on each slice.

___________________________________________________________________

Shredding Beets. Be careful because it's so red you can't tell if you cut yourself.

In the pan.

Like a Beet Pizza!

Yukon Gold and Sweet Potato Au Gratin

I bought  a big bag of Yukon gold potatoes at Costco last week so Im trying to use them before they grow eyes. While searching FoodGawker for Potato recipes I found this yummy looking Sweet Potato and Yukon Gold Gratin, which is PERFECT because I also had a large sweet potato that I had yet to decide what to do with. Of course this recipe uses heavy cream and major cheese, to things I dont do. To revamp this into a healthier recipe I used Fat Free Half and Half instead of Heavy Cream, and I Low Fat Margarin instead of butter (and I only did about 2 tablespoons). I also used Mozzarella cheese and only about a cup (not packed like they say). Overall yes it is still a cheesey potato concoction, but it’s not too bad for you, especially if you watch your serving size. I also think this will keep pretty well to take for lunches over the week.

Thin sliced potatoes soak in water

Layer Potatoes and cheese

Sprinkle each layer with salt and seasonings

Pour boiling garlic cream over layers. Bake!

Let cool and enjoy!

******************************************************************************************************

HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:

Weight Watchers Eggnog

******************************************************************************************************