Bad diet = bad skin

No weight loss this week. I'm not surprised because of this weekend's pretty damn close to binge eating. This week's plan is to really focus back on the fruits and veggies and cook some healthy meals. 

So side effects, other than no weight loss, of my poor diet this week has been some super dry skin. My face is coming off in chunks. Not really, but it is really flaky and gross. All the salt and grease has me retaining fluid. So while I'm trying to get rehydrated by drinking more water, I'm getting really bloated too. More incentive for a healthy lifestyle!

Have you ever noticed how being dehydrated affects your skin? How do you get it back in shape?

Chicken Meatballs and Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce

This week I decided to do all of the cooking in one day! It was refreshing to know that I didn't have to cook every night of the week. I can't wait to get my deep freezer so I can prep meals in advance and actually have a place to store them.

On the menu this week:
Bucatini with chicken meatballs
Chicken meatball subs
Beef Barley Soup
Ree Drummond's Banana Bread Bundt Cake

I started off my marathon cooking session with the tomato sauce that is going to be used for the bucatini and subs. Marcella Hazan was an Italian chef and cookbook author. Her focus was on simple, authentic Italian recipes. Marcella passed away this past September. In her honor I decided to try her simple tomato sauce recipe. It only has 3 ingredients. It was either going to be awesome, or very disappointing. In the end the sauce was pretty mediocre.

Tomato sauce
28oz can Italian whole tomatoes, undrained
1 onion, cut in halfa
5 Tbsp butter

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add can of tomatoes and onion halves. Add a pinch of salt. Simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, mash any large tomatoes with the back of your spoon. Discard your onion before tossing with pasta.

Voila! Doesn't get more simple than that. I just want to throw out there that I love tomatoes. The promise of this sauce is the clear tomato flavor. Well that is definitely a true statement. I found the sauce to be very acidic and I missed the traditional flavors of layered herbs and garlic. It was also a bit runny for my taste. While I wouldn't make it again, it was definitely worth making once!

Tummy Aches

I did not make the best diet choices this weekend. We had company this weekend, and we had to take them out to all the best Pittsburgh restaurants. Obvi. I ate a lot of cheese and grease, and now my tummy hurts. Obvi.

It's a shame that Primanti's kielbasa and cheese, little donuts, movie popcorn, Hofbrauhaus pretzels and beer cheese and German sausage is so bad for you, BECAUSE IT TASTES SO GOOD. 

In the words of Jennifer Lawrence, "I can name a lot of things that taste better than skinny feels."

Almost 10

Just a quick update cuz I'm at work and shouldn't be writing a blog post! I'm 0.8lbs away from losing my first 10lbs. It's taken me about 6 weeks, that's about 1 and 1/2 lbs per week. I'm subtracting the week I was on vacation, since I didn't actively diet that week.

This is the song I'm listening to right now, thinking that I'm pretty much a badass (and that I really need a pedicure!!)

Oktoberfest....Or Halloween?

September and October were two very busy months! I missed a third of October while I was traveling. This week I felt like I had to make up for lost time by indulging in all things Oktoberfest.

We had dinner at this wonderful little family restaurant called Hoover's. They specialize in traditional German food and every October they host an Oktoberfest buffet. They have red cabbage and regular sauerkraut, sauerbraten (a vinegary beef dish), hot German potato salad, knockwurst, traditional bratwurst, kartoffelpfannkuchen (potato pancakes), spatzle, and a whole mess of other delicious things. Of course I had one of everything, and topped my meal off with a slice of homemade German chocolate cake. This is one of the hubs and my yearly traditions. Usually we manage to go more than once!

Halloween was Thursday. I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen making treats for my family! On the menu was beer bread, Oktoberfest stew, and gooey eyeball cookies. My parents only live two roads down from our house, and it's where I grew up. But we never get any trick or treaters! Our road doesn't have any street lights, and the houses are more spread out. So my parents were just as excited as we were to pass out candy! Unfortunately, it was really windy and it started raining an hour before trick or treat started, so we didn't get that many kids. Oh well, because dinner was delicious!

Oktoberfest Stew

1 Tbsp olive oil

14oz package of Kielbasa (beef or turkey), cut into slices

2 medium yellow onions, cut into slices

1/2 head of small cabbage, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp whole caraway seeds

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 cup Oktoberfest beer (lager)

2 medium Russet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 1/2 cups hot chicken stock

1 1/2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (or more for taste)

I used this artisinal kielbasa (pronounced keel-boss-ee), mostly because it looked delicious, and also because my husband begged for it like a kid in the candy store.

In a frying pan I added the kielbasa and cooked it til both sides had a nice brown going on. I removed the sausage, and added the olive oil to that same pan and caramelized my onions.

I transferred my onions to my stock pot and added my sliced cabbage. I let the cabbage cook down until it was soft and had no bite left to it. Think halushki or sauerkraut consistency. I then added the spices, including the caraway seeds. A little bit goes a long way with those, btw. Then add your beer. I used Yuengling, but any lager will do. I let the beer come to a simmer, then added in my diced potatoes. I then poured my hot stock on top. You want to heat your stock before you add it so it doesn't drastically drop the heat of your pan. 

Let your mixture come to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer. Cover your soup at this point and allow it to simmer for 45 minutes. You want your potatoes to be nice and soft. At this point you can add in your apple cider vinegar. Now I know that my dad doesn't care much for vinegar. So I skipped this step, but let everyone add about a teaspoon to their bowl before we ate. I think it adds to the soup and shouldn't be left out!

Our first Halloween in our new house!

Of course Faith had to dress up!