Creating Fridge-Appeal!

     Since we are going to be hanging out in the kitchen, we may as well spend some time making it work for us. My kitchen isn't that small but the only place I currently have for the refrigerator is tiny. So I can't fit a big fridge in that space. If I want to have healthy choices readily available, like I posted last week, I need to be able to know what it is in the fridge. I can't tell you scientifically how many seconds you have before your brain makes up its mind if there is anything to eat in the fridge but I can tell you the way things got shoved into my fridge in the past I would give up quickly and go to the pantry instead. Sometimes I didn't even want to open the refrigerator door.
   My fridge always started off full of fresh fruits and vegetables but by day three once healthy food was hidden on the bottom of the "Stay Fresh Fruit" drawer or hidden in a plastic sack at the back of the fridge. By the time I found it, it often had shriveled up or grown green hair.  I was throwing out hundreds of dollars worth of fresh fruits and vegetables and missing opportunities to eat healthy snacks between meals and fresh sides with our meals.
   Game over. I decided it was time to get this fridge organized. I investigated different refrigerator organizing systems and decided on a 50ct box of Rubbermaid for $19.98 at Sam's Club. I pulled everything out of the fridge including the drawers and made room for shelves to hold the Rubbermaid containers.
   I gave some thought to what I wanted to see first when I opened the fridge door. I wanted to see the fresh fruits and vegetables but instead all I saw were bottles and bags. The fruit and vegetables were hidden down in the drawers out of sight.
     You know what? I thought. Why don't I put the bottles of condiments and dressings into the drawers out of sight? It turns out I can now pull out the drawer and see exactly what condiments and dressings I have on hand. Guess what I found out... I had three bottles of ketchup and four bottles of Italian dressing that I didn't know I had. Apparently that is why I kept buying more.

   Now I had all this room in my fridge to store what I really wanted to see when I opened up the fridge. I took everything out of their bags and stored like fruits and vegetables together in the see through containers. Make sure the like fruits and vegetables are sealed in together. This helps keep early rotters from igniting rotting in longer lasting ones. So I sorted by type and sealed up fresh everything still worth eating and that which I brought home from the store for this week's meals.
   Now when I open my fridge door, my focus is directed on wonderfully arranged, inviting healthy fresh fruits and vegetables and I can quickly tell what I have on hand to cook with or serve for a healthy snack.

It Begins in the Kitchen

     Never be on a diet again! Have a diet. Have a good one. A good diet begins in the kitchen.
     You don't have to worry about craving a treat during a movie at home if when you get to the kitchen you can't find any temptations. If you have a bowl of apples or a jar of nuts sitting on your counter, you can treat yourself guilt-free. You can have a snack that leaves you satisfied and your body feeling good. On the other hand if you find a bag of chips or a bag of Oreos, then you will blow a "good diet" in the blink of an eye and a slight of the hand. Not only that but you'll feel sluggish and unsatisfied when you're done.
     A good diet is only as good as what you stock in your pantry, your fridge, and your cupboards. When you crave something sweet, you will grab a hand full of grapes every time unless there is a tray of cookies next to them. If you have to choose, you will have to go through the "eat this not that" routine and see which one wins. You know what is good for you, you know what you should eat so don't put a bad diet in your kitchen to tempt you. 
     What does one cookie hurt? The food that you eat is all your body has to do the work it needs to do to keep you fit and healthy. The nutrients you put into your body not only build new cells everyday but you use up nutrients digesting the nutrient deficient foods that you consume. Simply put simple sugars use up energy turning into simply fat.
      What's a few chips anyway? Remember the old Lay's pototo chip commercial, "You can never eat just one." Low density, simple carbohydrates including chips, cookies, simple sugars, leave the body craving more. You really can't eat just one. The satiety mechanism is literally turned off and you crave, crave, crave without feeling full until it is too late. It's not a family gene folks it's a switch you turn on by the choices of food you make to put in you body.
    The food you put into your body is the only thing your body has to work with. Good food is the building blocks of healthy cells that make healthy bodies and make you feel full and satisfied. Fill your pantry, fill you refrigerator, and fill your body full of good, wholesome, satisfying food. Have a good diet!

Today I had a good diet. I felt satisfied. I felt full. I felt good about my choices.

Breakfast: A Juice Plus Complete Protein Shake
Mid Morning: A cup of hot green tea with mixed berries.
Lunch: A cucumber, avocado, and cream cheese spinach wrap and a bottle of Spring Water.
Afternoon snack: A half cup of Pistacio nuts (burns a few calories splitting open the shells)
Afternoon drink: a bottle of Spring water
Dinner: Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Onion, and a side salad with black olives and carrots.
After Dinner drink: A cup of hot Chamomile tea.

Recipe: Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apple/Onion Bake

• 2 Pork Tenderloins
• salt, pepper
• 1 tblsl Thyme
• 2 Apples cored and sliced
• 1/2 large white onion sliced and diced
• 1 Cup apple or cranapple juice
• Grapeseed oil

Preheat onion to 425 degrees. 

1. Pat dry the pork and sprinkle with salt.
2. Heat grapeseed oil in the bottom of a cast iron skillet. 
3. Brown pork in skillet on all sides and remove. 
4. Add apples and onion to skillet and slightly brown
5. Add 1/2 cup of cranapple juice and bring to boil
6. rub pork with pepper and thyme
7. Place pork on top of apples/onion
8. Slide cast iron skillet into the oven and cook for 30-45 minutes. 
9. Remove from oven, let rest, and then slice into servings. 
10. Serve with Salad wedge, black olives, carrots, and Parmesan cheese.