Today I Made: Pesto Shrimp & Pasta

I don't have a fancy camera, but I promise you it looked (and tasted) good.

So today I had a craving for pasta. I haven't eaten very much pasta in the last 6 months or so - mostly because I just seem to have lost the nagging desire for it (this is a good thing, I promise you). I don't get cravings for pasta too frequently, so I decided to pay it some mind tonight instead of shoving it under a rug. 

I had some shrimp on hand, a bag of frozen broccoli florets, and some fresh mushrooms, so I went to work. The result was a satisfying and delicious meal that didn't take a whole lot of time or effort. I'm going to warn you now that I'm sort of a "make it up as I go" cook so I don't measure anything unless I'm baking or trying something that I'm completely unfamiliar with. So in my recipe write-ups you should expect a lot of ingredients with a lot of fairly inaccurate guesstimates of amounts of ingredients used. But if you're comfortable with eye-balling things yourself, then you should have no problem making my "recipes" taste as good as I intended them to. Let your hungry little heart guide you.

With that in mind:

Pesto Shrimp & Pasta

1 pound peeled, deveined shrimp (I used the pre-cooked shrimp)

Olive oil

Frozen chopped onions, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup 

Minced garlic

Fresh mushrooms, sliced

Frozen baby broccoli florets (I used a bag of the Pictsweet)

Angel hair pasta (I would have used whole wheat, but I was out)

Your favorite jar of pesto (I used maybe 2/3 of a bottle)

Salt

Pepper

Parsley (I used dried)

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Put some water in a pot to boil for the broccoli and pasta. Add some salt - it's the only chance you got to flavor the pasta while it cooks! You don't need oil in the water, I read somewhere that it doesn't actually do a thing for you, just stir the pasta after you add it to avoid sticking. 

Anyway! Water on the stove to boil. 

While the water is doing it's thing, you want to make sure your shrimp are clean and devoid of any tail/shell pieces. I peeled off all the ends and gave them a good rinse. Set those aside for right now. Add a splash of olive oil into a non-stick pan so you can sautee your ingredients. Add the frozen chopped onion (I hate cutting onion and will avoid it at all costs - I'm not sorry) and a few generous squeezes of minced garlic (I am also guilty of using bottled minced garlic when I'm lazy... again I'm not sorry). Add some salt and cook that over medium heat until the onion turns translucent. Slice up your mushrooms into quarter-sized pieces and toss them into the pan with the onions and garlic. Add some ground black peppers and dried parsley to the party.  

The mushrooms will initially suck up all the moisture in the pan, but don't panic! Give it a minute and they'll ease up and stop being selfish. Don't add any additional moisture, you really won't need it!

Cook all the ingredients until they're acceptably soft (always taste your food!) and toss in the shrimp and a generous amount of pesto. At this point, your water should be boiling. Add the bag of frozen broccoli florets and cover to return to a boil. Cook the broccoli just for a couple minutes, remove from the water with a wire skimmer and toss that into the pesto concoction. Give it a good stir, cover and let that simmer while you cook the pasta. 

Add the angel hair pasta to the pot of boiling water, and cook for about 2 minutes or al-dente. Remove from the water and add into the shrimp pesto pan (try not to get pasta all over the stove like I did tonight. Proper tools are key.)

Stir and mix it all up until the pasta is coated. Add more pesto if you need it, simmer it for another couple minutes to marry all the flavors and enjoy!

Top with some Parmesan cheese if you're into that sort of thing and eat the hell out of it. 

My mom inhaled her bowl of pasta and nearly choked... that's how I know she liked it. She's a far fussier eater than I am, so that's a good sign.

My (Un)Healthy Obsession With Tea

So I have to say that my biggest issue with controlling my weight and maintaining weight loss has always been drinking enough water throughout the day. I love water as much as the next person, but day after day it just tastes so... plain. I know a big rule about being able to shed pounds is "don't drink your calories", but with so many other seemingly "healthy" drinks out there that taste so good, it's hard to remember to stick to my guns and drink my water. 

And then there is tea. 

Do you see that? That's only some of the tea that we have in this house.

Tea is pretty excellent. It adds a scant handful of calories at worst if you're using some fancy, naturally sweet tea blend, and it makes your water interesting again. It works for me anyway. In the summer I drink mostly iced teas, but in the winter I will easily drink more than a normal person's fair share of hot brewed tea throughout the day, if only to try and keep the chill away. There's something so comforting about tea...

When I'm being lazy, I like to head on over to my local coffee shop and get a nice 32 oz size of unsweetened iced tea with lemon. It'll get me through most of the work day and it'll keep me hydrated. When I go home I'll switch to plain water, or brew my own. 1 family size Cold Brew Lipton Tea bag for a 32 oz Nalgene bottle will serve me well for the rest of my day, and I'll get my 8 glasses in. 

Now I know some people will say that tea is a diuretic and will make you pee a whole lot and may even dehydrate you, but I'm over that. If it makes me pee, well I just think of it as my body's chance to get all the bad stuff out faster. Not very scientific of me, I know. I don't really care though - I feel hydrated and I feel less hungry throughout the day so I'm going to stick with it. If you don't want or like black tea then try some greens, whites, reds, herbals, or tisanes.

Explore the vast world of tea and see if it helps you out with your water intake goals/habits. 

When your "Fat Pants" Become Your "Every Day Pants"

For years I have struggled with my weight. Since 5th grade when the hormones started raging and now until my late 20's I have bounced my weight around back and forth like a cheap yo-yo you might find at a tag sale or a vending machine. You know the kind. The kind of yo-yo made with cheap string that frays and tangles, where one bump against the ground or some other solid object causes the whole thing to fall apart until you get so frustrated you say "screw it!" and find something else to distract yourself. 

That kind of struggle. 

I've never been a particularly active person. Sedentary describes me pretty well - but that's just such an ugly word, isn't it? I don't like to run, the elliptical makes me crazy, and I'm overwhelmed by weight machines and aerobics classes. I like using my 15 pound kettlebell, but convincing myself that I should do some swings tonight, or any number of other acrobatics with the painted cannonball is always a test of strength in and of itself. 

I like to eat. I grew up half Italian and half Hispanic. Pasta, rice, cheese, tortillas, cream sauces, MSG. The combinations of foods that I ate routinely did nothing to help me maintain a "normal" weight, and I always ate in excess. Why? Because I learned from a young age that food is comforting and social and an "all-day" event. This was often the case on Sundays when my Italian grandparents would prepare a feast where we would lazily graze from 2pm until about 6 or 7pm when coffee and confections were served. There was no such thing as portion control or mindfulness. You ate because it made you happy, and turning down food from your grandparents just wasn't something you did. 

And so I ate. 

And ate.

And ate some more. 

And then I went to college. 

I bet you can imagine what happened there. Freshman 15? Try Freshman 25.

I tried, time and again, to convince myself that I was going to go on a diet, and that I was somehow going to succeed. No plan, no real knowledge about what I was doing. I set myself up for failure a number of times and always gained whatever handful of pounds I had lost. 

When I got to graduate school I tried the 4 Hour Body Diet and lost about 40 pounds (38 if we're going to be fussy). I was back to my high school weight and I felt great! But I got sick of the restrictive eating plan and decided to try and go it alone. Well I decided to try and do my own thing around the holidays. Thanksgiving, a couple of birthdays, Christmas, New Year's and then my birthday. Between November and February I packed on maybe 25 to 30 of the 40 pounds that took me almost 2 years to lose. 

Well now here I am. 

I'm not really sure what to make of this blog. I'm not sure where it's going or what I'm doing. All I do know is that I need a place where I can write. A place where I can vent, share my struggles, celebrate my successes, and talk about food. Glorious food. 

I've made a concerted effort to be mindful about what I eat. Don't drink your calories (unless it's Happy Hour, then the calories don't count), eat this - not that, portion control, more veggies and fruit, fewer carbs (but don't cut them out because they're good for you!), lean(er) meats, legumes, multivitamins (when I remember to take them), lots of water (I prefer a teabag in my water - lemon is also delicious), less fat, etc. 

This is where I will post recipes, food ideas, struggles, exercise attempts and failures, weight loss milestones, whatever.

This is my new safe place.

I hope I can inspire some of you to try something new for yourself, and maybe you can inspire me or help contribute to this page. I've lost about 7 pounds in the last month with my newest approach, so I must be doing something right - right?

Here goes nothing.