Brandied Shrimp with Risotto + Swiss Chard
Thanks goes out to the husband for pulling this together while I yelled at my stats homework!! Ugh. It’s getting hard again.
I found this recipe in Fitness Magazine. It’s Ingrid Hoffman’s – see it here. We didn’t use the exact proportions (basically cut back on butter/oil a lot and halved the recipe), but it was the inspiration. The flavor was great! But I wish the sauce had been a little runnier to blend into the rice.
Normally I like to have a whole grain rice as a side dish but we have TONS of arborio rice to use up, so white rice it was. It was quite delicious! Plus, I’m less concerned with whole grains and their fiber filling me up in the evenings when I’m headed to bed soon. Whole grains are most important to me in the mornings!
Lastly, we sauteed a head of swiss chard. Uh, we needed about 5 more of these! This portion was entirely too small!
Dinner kcal ~ 350
Snack
I spent the afternoon studying and had 2 mini muffins, some Kashi Heart to Heart and hot tea around 4:00. My soup held me over well! Snack kcal ~ 160
Off to answer> 1,000 comments!!!!!!!
1,000 comments, I don’t doubt it. We love your dedication, honesty and commitment.
You are so lucky to have a husband that will fix you different things to eat. Not only healthy but beautiful presentations.
i fixed Lentil Soup for dinner and had the most amazing bread with it. I sliced Rustic bread and drizzled a little olive on it and put in oven till browned a little. I sliced blue cheese and when the bread was done I put the blue cheese on it and drizzed a little honey over it . I served it with sweet pear. What a great dinner. Sorry so long post. When time to you normally go to bed since you get up so early ?
Hey Kath!
Love the blog, read it every day!
You mentioned a few days ago that in Physio, you learned that the stomach holds 1 liter of food before it starts to stretch…. I’ve been thinking about this, and does that include water? I like my 1 liter water bottle… plenty of hydration!
Also, sparkpeople says I should be getting between 60-138 grams of protein a day… I’ve recently started tracking my intake on there, and I actually struggle to make 60! Being a vegetarian, I try to incorporate protein into every meal… hmm. How do you get protein into your diet? I eat pb every day, as well as skim milk (at least .5 cup in my oatmeal, usually more) as well as lots of yogurt. Any other protein solutions that I’m overlooking? Thanks Kath!
Shelly
Shelly,
Beans! Beans are a great source of protien and fiber and usually only around 100 kcal per half cup. You can use dried, but also canned ones are good too, just make sure you drain off all of the goopy liquid because it contains tons of sodium!
Thanks Karen 🙂
Bev,
Sounds WONDERFUL!! Go to bed around 9 or 9:30.
Shelley,
From Wikipedia: In humans, the stomach has a volume of about 50 mL when empty. After a meal, it generally expands to hold about 1 liter of food, but can hold as much as 4 liters. When drinking milk it can expand to just under 6 pints, or 3.4 liter.
The stomach is very flexible!! I think 1 liter is before any serious expanding starts.
The recommendation for protein for normal adults is 0.8 grams per kg of body weight. Divide your weight by 2.2 and multiply by 0.8. Generally, that’s not a lot (about 43ish grams for me). Americans get way more than enough protein in our diets compared to the minimum requirements. LOTS of foods have protein that aren’t really “high protein” foods – grains, vegetables, etc. so you’re probably doing just fine.
Kath
Hi! I have a random question about bananas … do you know what the approximate calories are for a banana when weighed WITH the skin? I’ve seen various estimates online, which range from 90-160 calories for a 170g banana weighed with the skin on… Thanks!!
Cathleen,
No idea. I always weigh without – sorry!
K
Hi Kath! I asked the question about the bmr. I must be totally dense, but I looked at the faq and don’t understand. The bod pod guy said that bmr is not a calorie count- so how do you get your base calorie line?
Also, if I understand correct you eat the exact amount of calories that you burn a day-so the calories you burn doing nothing + exercise calories.
Ronna,
Read this on Wikipedia about Basal Metabolic Rate. This is what the Bod Pod gives you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate
Hope that helps!
Kath
That dinner looks AWESOME!
Does this shrimp taste sweet? It looks beyond amazing. No surprise you have 1000 comments to answer! hahaha.
Thanks Roni!!
Cara,
It was sweet in a ketchup/tomato sauce way but not in a dessert way. Delicious!
Kath
if u eat a snack at 4:00, what time do u eat dinner?
Christine,
We usually eat between 7 and 7:30
Kath
This dinner looks fantastic! I have such a hard time planning meals in advance. I often find myself needing to pick up dinner ingredients on the way home from work which is time consuming and we end up eating out a lot. You do a great job!!
So random question…I’d appreciate insight from anyone…what do you think about Thai food from a nutritional standpoint? I love thai and we have been getting it quite a lot lately. I tend to get a stir-fry dish (pad prig pow) with rice and try not to eat too much of the rice since it’s usually white. It doesn’t taste as oily as chinese so I like to think it’s a little healthier for you, but am I deceiving myself? I assume pad thai (with noodles/peanuts) is worse for you than the stir-frys and curries which seem okay – nothing deep fried anyway.
Ally,
Try making a meal plan and grocery list over the weekend and do your shopping and prep then. It makes weeknight cooking so much easier. I plan my meals in Google Calendar so I know what’s coming up. And I always say that the secret to eating healthy is a well-stocked fridge of fresh things.
I like thai food, but I rarely eat it. I don’t do take-out much because you just have no idea how the dishes are prepared. If it doesn’t seem to have much oil in it, it probably doesn’t compared to worse, but that doesn’t mean they still didn’t cook it in 1/4 a cup of vegetable oil or more. Perhaps you could ask your favorite restaurant for the preparation instructions? I’ve done that before to favorites and its amazing what you find out – both healthy and unhealthy – with a few questions. When prepared well, thai food is supposed to be one of the healthier ethnic cuisines.
Kath
Kath, thanks for responding! I think I will ask next time we go for thai as the owners are very nice and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind letting me know or customizing my order if possible. And thanks for the tips!!