healthy-food:

Oven-Fried Chicken

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 2 1/2-3 pounds whole chicken legs, skin removed, trimmed and cut into thighs and drumsticks
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• Olive oil cooking spray

Directions

1. Whisk buttermilk, mustard, garlic and hot sauce in a shallow glass dish until well blended. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or for up to 8 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Set a wire rack on the baking sheet and coat it with cooking spray.
3. Whisk flour, sesame seeds, paprika, thyme, baking powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Place the flour mixture in a paper bag or large sealable plastic bag. Shaking off excess marinade, place one or two pieces of chicken at a time in the bag and shake to coat. Shake off excess flour and place the chicken on the prepared rack. (Discard any leftover flour mixture and marinade.) Spray the chicken pieces with cooking spray.
4. Bake the chicken until golden brown and no longer pink in the center, 40 to 50 minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving: 226 calories; 7 g fat (2 g sat, 2 g mono); 130 mg cholesterol; 5 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 34 g protein; 1 g fiber; 258 mg sodium; 400 mg potassium.

Exchanges: 1/3 starch, 4 very lean protein, 1 1/2 fat

I’ve been looking for a healthy way to oven fry chicken. I may try this out one day!

The picture above shows my weight-loss. The before pic is from my Senior year in high school (2009) and the after pic is from my Sophomore year in college (2011). I began my weight-loss journey on February 1st 2011. 

February 1st was the day I decided I had enough, the day I told myself I didn’t want to be fat anymore. I was through with buying expensive clothes from Casual Male XL, feeling sloppy everywhere I went, and just being unhealthy. I had ENOUGH of it. February 1st is when I decided to change my life.

A week before my birthday in December, I finally decided to come out of the closet. I wanted to be an out person and I felt like it was pointless to hide it from my friends and family. In February, I began to realize that I would eventually want to be with someone. Now that I was out, I’d be able to freely be with a guy I knew was right for me. This was a huge motivator for me to begin my weight-loss, albeit a poor motivator. Slowly, I am realizing that this journey should be centered around myself. I don’t want to do this to make other people like me, or to make other people happy. It’s for me.

I’m currently a college student and I want to be a teacher. I know it’s what I want to do. However, as an over-weight person, I feel as if I’m wasting some valuable years of my life which is college. I don’t want to spend the rest college career when I’m supposed to be having fun as a fatso on the couch. I currently weigh 264 pounds. I’m 6ft 1in and my goal weight is to be a healthy 190 by the beginning of February. By the end of this Summer, I want to be around 250-240. I hope that you will follow me on this journey to loose that last 70-80 pounds. 

This blog WILL NOT be some boring day by day account of my life….well mostly, yes. But I promise I’ll make it interesting. I think my life so far is kind of a movie in different ways and instances. I hope that you’ll follow me and be inspired by me. You can do it, my journey began with a single step…or pushup.