Brine Time

My first brine went super duper well. Foodwise. I nearly fireballed myself in setting up for indoor grilling...but that's another matter!

I was following a very easy weight watcher recipe that called for a brine. Whenever I've seen/read a recipe with a brine, it usually requires tangoing with a large piece of meat and overnight soakage. That takes a lot more resolve and memory power than I can spare at a time. This particular recipe though allowed me to use either boneless or bone-in chicken breast and a combined brine time (part set up-part soak) of 90 minutes. Brine on!

I chose boneless chicken breast because the market had a BOGO Free on it. The freebie sits in the freezer whilst the paid one sitts in my belly.

The success is due to the accessibility of ingredients (chicken, kosher salt, water), tools (bowl, fridge) and time. It's pretty much goof proof. And since I nearly goofed with the pan, it's nice to know something is goof proof.

Brining is also a good cooking method that allows you to maintain juicy texture of your meat on the cheap without loading in up calorie wise. (Here's a nice wiki blurb on it.) It's also not labor intensive, you just need to do a little bit of homework, which is a major mantra when eating for health and eating to fit your lifestyle.

Do you know the muffin man?

You should. Then you should find out what he bakes in.

Muffins tins are excellent multitaskers as they can play a major role in portion control. Last week for lunch, I used a modified muffin tin, a mini-loaf pan, to make individual meatloaves. I had meat that I could eat hands on! So, aside from the gluttonous-perk, I had built in calorie/portion control as each loaf weighed in at 2 oz of meat.

I've also used muffin tins to do assembly-style breakfast, such as mini-quiches and egg scrambles for breakfast sandwiches.

Another benefit: by increasing the surface area of your entree, you shorten the cooking time. So, where a meatloaf can take as long as 40 minutes to an hour to cook, mini meatloaves take about 25 to 30 minutes. It takes no extra effort as you "downsize" some of your favorite recipes. The only additional step is that you have to grease/lin the tines and perhaps adjust the oven temp or cooking time.

Timing's everything

I was just thinking about time management, and how I've improved. (Allow me to say, I am terrible at time management, but I've learned how to do it through trial and error.)


Meal planning and time management can actually be very good friends. A chief complaint I find that people make with healthy eating is the time, convenience will often trump price, and this slippery slope leads to poor eating choices or over reliance on processed/fast foods.

Time management to me used to be the idea of setting side a fixed time, say an hour, to do an activity and then, do another activity afterward, right? Problem was, I didn't do the activity, because I'd procrastinate. Or, I actually would do it, and then it took longer than expected. Now, I choose to think about what I need to do & what I need to finish over the course of a longer fixed time (week usually) and just pick one or two things to get me started. So, for example, if I wanted to bake something for a get together Saturday, I don't shop and bake on my late nights (Mon or Thursday), I pick up the items midweek and bake Friday, and while I'm baking, I can make quick meals like pasta dishes or salads.

So, think about your week, and sort of highlight things like family dinners, dinners out with friends, late work nights, errands & food shopping days. Once you've analyzed strengths and weaknesses, you can center in on making better decisions. If you work late, survey your work area for healthy take out choices so that when you're hungry, you have a plan. On lighter days, combine food shopping with a friend or family member and prepare meals together. Twice the work, twice the meals, but not twice the time.