Take that, stinky face!

So the stinky AcneFree Redness Solutions stuff I've been using was a major waste of money. I know it's only been a few days, but my mild redness has gotten MORE red and that blemish that popped up due to feminine housekeeping, yeah, it hasn't been touched by the stuff. On my way home I made a stop at Sephora and with the help of the sales woman, picked up some Murad Redness Therapy cleansing gel and a jar of Ole Henriksen's Nurture Me moisturizer, which I LOVE. It smells good and made my face really soft and the burning I was feeling during the day has lessened as well with just two applications. Note, I had been using a moisturizer with the AcneFree system too because it did dry my already dry skin out even more. I think after I finish the Murad cleanser, I might stick with all Ole Henriksen products. At least now I'm not walking around smelling like sulphur! Anyone want a free AcneFree kit to try? :)

On different note, last night I made another recipe from Relish Magazine. Chicken Saltimbocca to be exact, which is a fancier, slightly lower calorie version of chicken cordon bleu. Although this recipe wasn't quite as "light" as I would have liked it (around 420 calories per serving), it was still fun to try, albeit a little expensive to make due to high quality ingredients. Hubby found a good sale on chicken breasts at the store at least. If you haven't checked out Relish before (namely because you aren't a Richmond local), then take a look at their website:  http://www.relishmag.com/. If you are local, you'll find it in the Times Dispatch on the first of every month.

I hope that Jeff has been enjoying my new recipes lately because once I start the Master Cleanse, I'll be back to fixing the boys crap, like Hamburger Helper and tacos...things that I can easily turn my head to and not be tempted. The hardest part will be weekends. That's when we go out. Guess I'll be staying home for a weekend and working on the house. I have a tentative start date for Monday. My friend at work encouraged me to get it done and over with before Jan 22nd as we're having a girls night out at James River Cellars that night. Something tells me it would not be good to break the cleanse with a bottle of wine! Why have I not started it already? Because I felt it was necessary to cut down from the massive quantities of rich foods that were consumed over the holidays by eating lighter and fresher foods this week so as not to upset my system too badly. It's the pre-detox detoxing I guess you could say. Hey it's helping, I lost 2 lbs already! (Don't laugh, it's still something.)

Bon Appétit!

Even though we have a subscription to Netflix, during our holiday vacation, Jeff and I had the opportunity to try out Redbox. Jeff rented 7 movies from various Redboxes. I didn't watch them all because he's a history buff and I'm not really into a lot of the war movies that he enjoys. Occasionally, I get suckered into watching one, like Inglourious Basterds, which turned out to be really good! We also watched Up!, The Ugly Truth, and Julie & Julia, all of which I highly recommend.

Julie & Julia of course was probably my favorite only because I love cooking and it was inspiring. After I watched it, I told Jeff I wanted to buy Julia's original cookbook and make her beef bourguignon if nothing else. I didn't run out and buy it though, but I did find the original recipe via Barnes & Noble's take-a-peek version of the cookbook online.

Then the Saturday newspaper came and included an insert called Relish. I'd never seen it before, but it was loaded with some great classic recipes that had been slimmed down from the original versions. I flipped through it making notes of the recipes I wanted to try when lo and behold, there it was, Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon - the slimmed down version!

I made it last night with my own modifications. It was much less time consuming than the original recipe, which takes 5 hours plus an hour prep time to make. This version of the recipe only took about 3 hours. The result was AMAZING. It was so so good. Similar to a pot roast, but in the format of a beef stew (minus the beef stew flavor). I don't think I'll ever make regular pot roast again after eating this. The best part: I researched nutrition information on Julia's original recipe. Ready for this.....

913 calories per serving and 54.2 grams of fat!!!!
My version: 250 calories per serving and only 8 grams of fat. I'll take it!

So if you're feeling adventurous and still want to watch your waistline, you're in luck because I've posted the recipe below.

Beef Bourguignon (Modified)
Makes 6 Servings
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 lbs lean stew beef (don't go cheap on this, go for quality! I used premium Angus beef)
2 cups of sliced onions
2 cups of sliced carrots
1 (10-12oz) pkg of sliced portobello mushrooms
1 (14oz) can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (14oz) can of beef consumme plus 1/2 can of water
1 1/2 cups of dry red wine (I used a cabernet sauvignon)
2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 bay leaf
4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme, strip leaves from stems or 1/2 tsp of dried thyme leaves
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp coursely ground black pepper
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp butter, softened

1. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and add beef, in batches if needed. Do not crowd it. Sear until brown on most sides. Remove to a plate and set aside.

2. Add carrots, onion, and mushrooms to the pan, stirring occasionally until starting to tenderize, about 5 minutes. Add beef and juices back to the pan. Add tomatoes and next 8 ingredients (through black pepper). Cover and allow to simmer. Cook for 2 hours or until beef is tender. Discard bay leaf.

3. Before beginning this step, make sure you de-bling as your fingers will get messy!
In a small bowl, combine flour and butter with your fingers until mixture becomes a paste. Ladle about 1/2 cups of the pan juice into the flour mixture and whisk until very smooth. Add to the pan and stir well. Adjust salt/seasoning to taste.
 (NOTE: I found that a lot of the juices had cooked down, so I added about a 3/4 cup of hot water to the beef mixture before adding any liquid to the flour and butter mixture...you may need to do the same)

4. Ladle into soup plates and sprinkle with fresh parsley if desired. Enjoy!

Seafood Chowder On a Budget

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post, but I just had to brag about this amazing seafood chowder I made the other night...completely thought up in my head, then executed beautifully.
I bought a 1 pint bottle of heavy cream a while back with the intention of trying out my new fondue pot, but never got around to it. Since it was about to expire, I had to think of something to use it with and quick. Heavy cream is too beautiful and fattening to let go to waste. At first I thought of doing an alfredo, but then saw a recipe for corn chowder one day on the internets. Somehow that got me thinking of seafood chowder and I thought up this whole great recipe in my head. Once completed, I had a perfectly seasoned, deliciously bad for you chowder that I could have eaten for days, but it didn't last that long.
So here it is folks, I give you my seafood chowder recipe. Treasure it and hey, make it your own! You can throw ANYTHING into the pot!

Jenny's Seafood Chowder

1 stick of butter
1 pint of heavy cream
5-6 cups of chicken broth
1 medium onion chopped
4 ribs of celery diced
1 cup of grated or chopped carrot (I use the prepackaged kind)
1-2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste
2-3 shakes of Old Bay Seasoning
1 can of clams
1 1/2 cups of shrimp, roughly chopped
1 pkg of imitation crab meat (I get the Ukrops pre-spiced kind, but you could use the real thing)
1 large potato, diced
1 cup of frozen or fresh corn kernals
1 tablespoon of corn starch
1 tablespoon of cold water

(*The key to perfect seasoning here is to season in layers as you go)

Melt butter in a dutch oven or stock pot on the stove. Add garlic, onion, celery, and carrots. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until softened, about 10-15 minutes. Add potato. Cook for another 10 minutes. Stir often.

Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add corn. Continue cooking at a light boil until potatoes are soft. Season with salt and pepper.

Add in heavy cream, clams, shrimp, and crab meat. Add in Old Bay. Bring back to a light boil.

In a small bowl, mix together corn starch and cold water. Add to the chowder. This should thicken it slightly. Boil for another 10 minutes or until chowder thickens slightly more and shrimp are cooked through. Taste for seasoning and add more if needed.

Serve with cornbread or oyster crackers. (I prefer the cornbread!)

This is even better the next day when reheated!

Now remember, play with your recipes! You can add or subtract anything to/from this. If you don't like clams, add oysters, or just leave them out all together. If you use oysters, you will need to cook it longer to ensure oyster doneness. You could even make this a creamy vegetable chowder instead of seafood. You could lighten it up with half and half instead of heavy cream, or use light butter (like I did). The possibilities are endless!