Portion control: Good for the waist and the wallet

When it comes to helping your budget I can't help but mention helping your waist line. You see that is what started most of this journey for me. My husband and I started gaining weight and we decided that enough was enough we had to change our lifestyle. It was also around the same time that things went, well not so well with me with work. So budgeting was first most in my mind. So I started first looking at what we were consuming and what we were throwing away and there is something that I have noticed that has changed the way I cook. You see there is a time and a place for leftovers and what I have discovered is that it is not in every meal. Yeah when you make that soup or chili it is hard if not impossible to make enough to span several meals and that is okay. You see a dish like that is meant to be enjoyed over time. You are more likely to eat leftover soup then you are to eat the leftover casserole. You might love it the first time around but there are very few dishes that are that good the second time around.



For the past two years or so I have not payed too much attention to how I was cooking my meals. I would often make a dish and know that it was more then we should eat, but I would tell myself that it would be good leftovers. One of two things would happen, we would either eat way too much and there would be no leftovers or the leftovers wouldn't get eaten in time and would get thrown away. Either way it is a waist, to your belly or to the trash, both a waist. So I started learning how to know when to cook for leftovers and when to not. The key is to study yourself and how much is enough. For me it is just my husband and I so I had to learn what was enough to feed us and how to cook for that. The biggest thing is to be comfortable outside of the recipe. For example I created this meal from several recipes that I have read, including some improvising. I find that this creates the perfect amount of food for my husband and I, no leftovers and it fills us up. This cooks perfectly for two.


Chicken and Broccoli Stir-fry over Buckwheat Soba noodles:
1 Chicken breast diced up into small pieces
1 half of a small onion diced
1 broccoli stem, diced, separate the flower from the stem
1 bundle of Buckwheat Soba noodles

Sauce:
1/8 cup of soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp garlic minced
1 tsp ginger minced
1/2 cup of water
1 tbsp corn starch

Add a tsp of olive oil to frying pan and saute broccoli stem pieces and onion for 2 minutes. Add broccoli flowers and saute for two more minutes. Take off heat and set aside. Add chicken to skillet with just about a quarter size drop of Olive Oil add a dash of salt and pepper (I used garlic salt) and cook chicken until it is no longer pink. To prepare sauce add the first four ingredients stirring well. Then combine the water and the cornstarch until it becomes a smooth paste and add it to the rest of your sauce. Add to chicken and continue stirring. It is important that you continue to stir as the sauce will begin to thicken. You will do this for about 2 to 3 minutes. Once the sauce thickens add the veggies. Coat the veggies and make sure they are heated through. And serve. I have fallen in love with Buckwheat soba noodles so that is what I served it with this time, but you could to rice or any other of your favorite noodles.

But the key is is only make enough for you to eat. For this meal one chicken breast fed two people, the trick I found is that I cut the chicken up until bite size pieces and it quickly fills the plate, then with the added veggies you just don't need any more. For me that was the hardest and best lesson I learned.