Jalapeno’s! Jalapeno Chicken Sandwich

You might think that your diet needs to be bland, filled with stuff like, you know, fiber twigs. Well it doesn’t have to be that way.

You only get so much food to work with, so make every meal count by adding a bit of spice or easy twists to make it memorable.

I’m not sure how it took me until my mid-thirties to discover jalapenos but I’ve been putting them on just about everything, including:

• Cheeseburgers
• Chicken sandwiches
• Breakfast burritos

In fact, I thought I’d share a recipe I adapted from Men’s Health magazine, a jalapeno chicken sandwich:

Ingredients:

• 4oz boneless skinless chicken breast
• 4 Tablespoons Newman’s Own Teriyaki Marinade (it was the only one I could find that didn’t have lots of artificial-ish ingredients)
• 1 slice Swiss cheese
• jalapenos (I used the generic ones in a jar)
• 1 pineapple ring
• 1 Flatout Artisan Foldit Flatbread (found at Hy-Vee on Edgewood)

Preparation:

1. Marinate the meat for a couple of hours in the fridge.
2. Fire up your grill, and grill the chicken normally.
3. When the chicken is almost done, grill the pineapple ring right on the grill for a minute or two.
4. Put jalapenos on your chicken breast while it’s still on the grill, and put the cheese on top. Let it melt.
5. Toast the flatbread on the grill for a minute or so until its crispy.
6. Stack everything together on the flatbread and enjoy!

Nutrition Information (estimated):

NOTE that I assume that you wind up eating only half the marinade. You could skip the marinade altogether, or use less, if you wanted to cut out some carbs.

Try it and let me know if you like it!

 

Week 8, Session 2 Checkpoint: 8/21/2010

Beginning weight (6/28/10): 204.6

Current weight (8/21/10): 196.6

Weight lost this week: 1.8 lbs.

Weight lost this session: 8 lbs.

Weight lost since beginning Farrell’s: 16.4 lbs.

Summary

Much better, though given last week’s showing it puts me right back in line with the 1lb/week average. I guess I won’t complain.

I fell off the wagon a couple of days in there but also made up some ground on a few too, with 1500 calorie deficits in there. 

Food Review: Dannon Greek Yogurt, Strawberry

	OLD STUFF	NEW STUFF
Product	Dannon All Natural Vanilla Yogurt	Dannon Greek Yogurt – Strawberry
Serving Size	6 oz.	5.3 oz
Carbs	26g	17g
Protein	7g	12g
Calories	150	120
Taste	5 out of 6	5 out of 6
The winner:	NOT THAT	EAT THIS

I like yogurt, but the usual stuff I get, vanilla yogurt, is pretty high in carbs. I was looking for something with more protein and/or less carbs and ran across (at Hy-Vee on Edgewood) Dannon Greek Yogurt, which has 120 calories, 12g protein and 17g carbs. (The vanilla stuff I used to get had 7g protein and 26g carbs).

Things I like about it:

• It tastes good! Strawberry and blueberry are best, vanilla is … ok. The “honey” one was nasty.
• It comes in convenient single-serving containers, so it’s a perfect quick snack.
• It satisfies a craving for something sweet.
• It’s got “fruit on the bottom” so it’s kind of familiar, if you liked that.

The only real difference is that the texture is more “solid” than the usual yogurt I bought, but not in a bad way. Stir it up and it’s just as tasty. I give them equal marks on taste.

Try it, and let me know if you agree!

Week 7, Session 2 Checkpoint 8/14/2010

Beginning weight (6/28/10): 204.6

Current weight (8/14/10): 198.4

Weight lost this week: 0.8 lbs.

Weight lost this session: 6.6 lbs.

Weight lost since beginning Farrell’s: 14.6 lbs.

Summary

No progress at all this week.  I had a couple of weekly weigh-ins in the 197’s so I’m gonna chalk this one up to random fluctuation. Still, with only 3 weeks left, I’m not losing at the speed I wanted. The culprit: I’m not sticking to the food plan.

Going to have to get back to level 10 for the last couple of weeks!

Week 6, Session 2 Checkpoint: 8/7/2010

Beginning weight (6/28/10): 204.6

Current weight (8/7/10): 198.4

Weight lost this week: 0.8 lbs.

Weight lost this session: 6.6 lbs.

Weight lost since beginning Farrell’s: 14.6 lbs.

Summary

A little less than a pound is … progress I guess.

Week 5, Session 2 Checkpoint: 7/31/2010

Beginning weight (6/28/10): 204.6

Current weight (7/31/10): 199.2

Weight lost this week: 0.2 lbs.

Weight lost this session: 5.4 lbs.

Weight lost since beginning Farrell’s: 13.8 lbs.

Summary

I was a bit disappointed at weigh-in this morning, as a whopping 0.2 lbs is pretty pathetic. I did pretty well most of this week, so the result is less than I expected (Bodybugg predicted about a pound). I’m guessing its just a bit of an aberration and it’ll show up at next week’s weigh-in.

Week 4, Session 2 Checkpoint: 7/24/2010

Beginning weight (6/28/10): 204.6

Current weight (7/24/10): 199.4

Weight lost this week: 2.4 lbs.

Weight lost this session: 5.2 lbs.

Weight lost since beginning Farrell’s: 13.6 lbs.

Summary

After last week’s abysmal performance, I really kicked it into gear this week, hitting the 1000 calorie deficit almost every day. And it showed: lost 2.4 lbs last week. Woot!

Now I have to see if I can keep that up for the last 6 weeks of this session.

Spider Pushups

The FIT members (those that have completed the 10 week initial program and have continued on) have a challenge going right now, called “Corepalooza”. You get points for completing various exercises, and the winner gets some Farrell’s gear.

Anyway, the first set required 50 “Spider Pushups”  – which I didn’t know what they were. Watching everyone else do them, they looked sort of like mountain climbers, but I decided I’d Google it, and found out they’re much tougher:

I can do like 3, and I doubt those 3 would qualify as proper form anyway. So I’m doing something that looks like mountain climbers I guess.

The reason I’m posting this is to make sure you know that you’ll never be bored – there’s always new exercises to do!  

UPDATE: Ok, these are far easier to do before a workout than after you’ve already done 100 pushups. But they’re still not easy.

Food and Calorie Log: 7/21/2010

I’m back in the saddle again. The last couple of days have been more or less like this, though this one might be the best of them. Week 4 weigh-in ought to be a good one if I don’t screw it up.

Daily Targets and Actual:

Metric	Target*	Actual*	Notes
Carbohydrate (g)	206	206
Protein (g)	99-132	165
Fat (g)	81	118
Calories consumed	<2,500	2,459	1,031 calorie deficit
Calories burned	3,500	3,491
Calories burned at Farrell’s	500	415	Damien, Kickboxing.

*(Where did these come from?)

Food log

Farrell’s Tip of the Day: Don’t wait in line to put your gear away!

At the end of resistance training classes, don’t wait in line to put your bands/Xerbar away. Put in an extra 50 crunches or situps; do some V-Ups, whatever.

Or, if you get there a few minutes early, do the same.

You’re there anyway. You got up early (probably) to be there. Don’t just stand in line. Don’t just sit on the mat waiting for something to happen.

You can burn an extra 50-100 calories in 10 minutes or so (if you did this for 5 min before, 5 min after class). That adds up to as much as 6000 calories in 10 weeks, almost an extra two pounds lost (7000 calories burned = 2 pounds lost). And you don’t have to spend any extra time there to get it.