Ramen with Shrimp and Vegetables

It's been one wild and crazy ride here in my house. Lots of long distance traveling (which is made even longer by having a 6 month old with ya) and just lots of events going on. All this while, I'm trying desperatly to stay on my life change plan. Eh...it didn't go so well while we were traveling, but now that I'm back and our traveling is pretty much done for awhile (save for an anniversary get away this weekend) I've gotten back into the habit of things.

After doing some thinking and looking over some stuff, I've decided that I needed to bump my calorie count down from 1480 a day to 1200. I'm not going to freak out if I go a little bit over, but I think this will really help me lose weight. My goal is to lose 2 pounds a week, but if I'm over, that's awesome; if I'm under, oh well, a loss is a loss.

So, while I'm dealing with all this craziness, I'm also trying to find fast foods I can cook which are (somewhat) healthy for me. I came across this recipe in one of my cookbooks and thought I would give it a try. I'm usually not a huge ramen fan, but this tasted really good. More after the recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 lb uncooked peeled deveined medium shrimp, thawed if frozen and tails peeled.
• 2 cups water
• 1 package (3 oz) Oriental-flavor ramen noodle soup mix
• 1 bag (1 lb) fresh stir-fry vegetables
• 1/4 cup stir-fry sauce

Directions

• Heat 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook shrimp in skillet 2 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pink and firm. Remove shrimp from skillet; keep warm.
• Heat water to boiling in same skillet. Break up noodles from soup mix into water; stir until slightly softened. Stir in vegetables.
• Heat to boiling. Boil 4 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in seasoning packet from soup mix and stir-fry sauce. Cook 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until hot. Stir in shrimp.

Soon after this picture was taken, this bowl was empty

My Take

All in all, I loved this recipe. It's quick and easy to do, and, maybe for the shrimp, you may have everything on hand. There were a few things I changed, but they were very minor, and probably didn't change the taste of it too much.

First of all, I didn't read the ingredients carefully when I went shopping so I bought pre-cooked shrimp. It wasn't that big of a deal, though. I just heated them up in the skillet and took off the tails. It might make it a bit quicker, but just make sure you don't cook them for too long.

Secondly, I already had some frozen asparagus stir-fry in the freezer, so I used that and just cooked it the same. It had some little noodles in it as well, but I didn't mind as I felt that there was a lot of shrimp and it needed more noodles any ways. I think it had to cook for a little bit longer, but it wasn't terribly long.

Also, I didn't have any stir-fry sauce (didn't even know there was such a thing) so instead I added a little bit of soy sauce and a few sprinkles of sesame seed oil. I didn't want to add too much, because I didn't want to overpower the taste from the seasoning packet. 

This recipe makes 4 servings, but since it was all I was eating, I ate 2 servings at a time. Each serving is 210 calories with 4 grams of fat. Pretty cook for a quick, yummy, Asian meal. This will definitely be on my "make again" list.

Until next time, kiddos: Eat healthy, Exercise, and Have Fun!

Healthy Eating

I need to get into shape. Okay, so I've made this statement several times before, but I really need to get on the ball of this. Not only because it would be awesome to have a hott rockin' bod, but it's a major health reason for me as well. On one side of my family, heart disease is the main issue, while on both sides, diabetes is a problem. It's not just for me anymore, I have a kid I have to watch out for. Soon she'll be cooking with me, and I want to teach her healthy eating habits, not just eat whatever you want whenever. Maybe she'll get lucky and have Dylan's energy and metabolism.

My overall goal is to drop from 192 lbs to 135 pounds. That sounds like a ton, and it is, but if I just do it 10 lbs at a time, then it may be easier. I've been on diets before, but I really need to do a whole life change. There are some things which I have been doing for awhile which have helped me be a tad bit healthier, such as using low-fat margarine instead of butter (I don't ever remember buying butter since, like, ever), eating whole wheat bread, using ground turkey instead of ground beef in recipes, and trying to get as much low-fat stuff as possible.

I think one thing I really need to do is eat more fruits and veggies. As it is now, I barely eat any, so that's one thing I really need to change. I just went grocery shopping today and bought some yellow squash, frozen blueberries, and some red potatoes. Not a whole lot, granted, but in my opinion, it's a step in the right direction.

Another thing I really need to work on is doing some sort of exercise. I hate exercise, so I think this will be the hardest thing for me. I think running/jogging will be out of the picture for awhile, because 1) I hate running for anything and 2) because of my weight, it puts a lot of strain on my joints and I think it's doing more harm than good. There's some exercises I've found on Pinterest which I think I may try and start off with in addition with maybe walking a bit with Lucy. She seems to enjoy them, but we may hold off until this extreme heat wave passes us.

I'll still be posting recipes and the like, but I'm going to try and post healthy ones or ones that I've adapted as healthy. I need to stick to serving sizes, as that's another down-fall for me. Hopefully some of you readers will find this helpful and maybe we can walk on this journey together. Feel free to contact me by either commenting or by e-mailing me.

Baked Buffalo Wings

I personally do not like buffalo wings. I think it's because of the hot sauce used in them, but whatever the reason, I've never been a big fan. Dylan, however, is. So when I came across this recipe for baking buffalo wings as opposed to frying them, I was intrigued. This was something I could make at home and it would be healthier than the fried version (not that Dylan cares. :p) The recipe that I'm going to give is the original recipe for 20 wings. I adjusted it for 8 wings (as that's all I had, since just one person was going to be eating them). Also, I did a few things that aren't in the original recipe, so after I do the recipe and "My Take", I'm going to post an adjusted recipe with all my changes (except for the serving size change). So, here we go!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 20 chicken wings
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's RedHot®)

Directions

• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and lightly grease with cooking spray. Place the flour, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and salt into a resealable plastic bag, and shake to mix. Add the chicken wings, seal, and toss until well coated with the flour mixture. Place the wings onto the prepared baking sheet, and place into the refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
• Whisk together the melted butter and hot sauce in a small bowl. Dip the wings into the butter mixture, and place back on the baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and crispy on the outside, about 45 minutes. Turn the wings over halfway during cooking so they cook evenly.

My Take


As stated above, I don't like buffalo wings, so I didn't even try these. Just the smell of the sauce was just icky to me. But, I feed them to Dylan (my taste-tester) and he loved them. I was worried about them being soggy, but he said that the texture was perfect. I was also worried about them drying out, but he said they were fine.


So here's what I changed in the recipe to make them all good:

• I made sure that the wings were nice and dry by squeezing them with a paper towel before I dredged them in the flour mixture.
• Instead of cooking them on a baking sheet, I baked them on a cooling rack over a baking sheet to keep them out of the juices to keep them from getting soggy.
• Instead of immediatly putting the sauce on them, I first baked one side for 25 minutes, flipped them and cooked them an additional 25 minutes. Then I put the sauce on them and baked them for 5 additional minutes. 

I didn't change any of the ingredients, so I'll just list the "new" directions.

Revised Directions

• Squeeze and pat the chicken wings dry with a paper towel, making sure all excess moisture is gone.
• Mix the flour, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and salt into a resealable plastic bag and shake to mix. Add the chicken wings, seal, and toss until well coated with the flour mixture. Place the wings onto a baking sheet and place in the refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
• Spray a cooling rack with cooking spray and place over a cooking sheet. Place the wings on the cooling rack and place in the oven. Cook on one side for 25 minutes. Flip and cook for another 25 minutes.
• Whisk together the melted butter and hot sauce in a small bowl. Dip the wings into the butter mixture and place back on the cooling rack. Bake for an additional 5 minutes. If desired, drizzle or coat the wings with remaining sauce.

As always, lemme know if you try out this recipe. Comments are always appreciated! :)