Chicken with Spicy Fruit

This is one I plan to make this week. The nice thing is that it serves 4, and that's how many of us are living at home now!

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 C. unsweetened crushed pineapple
1/4 C. golden raisins
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 (4 oz.) boned, skinned chicken breast halves
1/4 C. all fruit strawberry spread
1/4 tsp. cornstarch
green onion strips (optional)

PREPARATION:
1. Combine first 4 ingredients in skillet; bring to boil. Add chicken; cover, simmer for 10 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

2. Bring chicken liquid to boil; cook 7 minutes or until reduced to 3/4 cup, stirring occasionally.

3. Combine strawberry spread and cornstarch; stir into cooking liquid and cook 1 minute. Serve sauce over chicken; garnish with green onion strips, if desired.

Serves 4.

NUTRITION INFORMATION:
Chol: 66mg Carbo: 27gm Fat: 2gm Calories: 229 Protein: 18gm Fiber: 1gm Sodium: 77mg

Arm exercises

Ok, a co-worker was surprised at how muscular my arms are the other day, and I told her the exercises I do. These banish (horrible term alert) 'bingo wings' and generally firm up the upper arms.

Stand with your feet about hip width apart, knees slightly bent.
Raise your arms until they are horizontal from your shoulders, making sure your shoulders aren't hunched or tensed.

Rotate your arms from the shoulder until your palms are facing backwards.

Circle your arms up and back (small circles, not more than three or four inches) for a minute, making sure that your arms don't droop, and your shoulders don't tense up.

After, shake out your arms, then repeat, but with an up-and-down motion instead of the circles.

Two minutes a week really makes a difference. Four, even more so.

ETA: It's a lot more difficult than it sounds, I'm warning you.

Fresh Lemon Muffins

Okay, I'm putting this in as written, but at the end I'll put in the equivalents for real sugar, as opposed to substitutes. If you use the fake stuff, you'll end up with the nutritional values that I'll also put at the bottom.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C. diet margarine
5 pkg. sugar substitute
2 egg whites
1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 C. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 pgk. sugar substitute
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

PREPARATION:
1. Cream margarine; gradually add sugar substitute (the 5 pkg.), beating until light and fluffy. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in lemon rind and juice.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Spoon batter into miniature muffin pans sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, filling two-thirds full.

3. Combine sugar substitute (remainder) and cinnamon; sprinkle over each muffin.

4. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 20 minutes.

Yields 12
Serves 6

Nutrition:
Serving amount: 2 muffins
Chol: 0 Carbo: 8 gm Fat: 4 gm
Calories: 72 Protein: 2 gm Fiber: 0
Sodium: 143 mg

Sugar substitutions (these are all powders)
Equate, Sweet N Low, Sweet'ner, Sweet Magic, and Sweet One: 1 packet=2 tsp. sugar

Guess what I found?

I found a cookbook chock full of tasty low-fat, low-cal, healthy recipes! It's for a Bible-study weight-loss and fitness program that I was in several years ago. The program was actually pretty helpful, and I was losing weight, but most of the ladies were older than me, and stopped being able to go.

Anyway, I haven't tried all of the recipes, but the ones that I have tried are very good. I will be cooking several of them a month, I think, and will post the ones I cook.

Not much of a post, I know, but I'd like to see us get back to updating here regularly.