To beans or not to beans?

So yet again I tried something new today (besides working out with the Wii ), it was some more food.  Now not that food is unknown to me and this time I even knew what I was making and knew I didn't like it.  I made White Turkey Chili, I don't like chili.  Its not the taste I don't like, its those beans!!! I am one that has a food problem that co-insides with textures.  Its not that I don't like the taste of alot of food its that I can't handle its texture in my mouth. Example:  I love deviled eggs, but hate egg salad sandwiches.  I know, I know its all the same stuff, but when my egg white and yokes are mixed together like the the salad I just can't handle it.  Once again I know you can call me crazy.  So I have the same kinda issue with beans (kidney, red, black, white..... lentils, etc)  the taste is OK (not great but OK!) but I can not handle that texture in my mouth, I just want to gag.With that being said I still made the chili and tried it.  It called for white beans (usually any chili I ever had only had red beans in it) and I had never tried white beans before.  To my surprise they taste better to me then any other ones and the texture, while still there wasn't as bad to me then some other.  Other then the beans the chili was great I thought.  The hubby and my son loved it, that's for sure.  Now with the chili I made a Santa Fe Salad.  Once again it had beans in it, but black one this time.  I must say I did try it and yes more then one little mouth full, but it was definitely a no go for me.  I thought with them not being cooked I might not mind the texture as much, well I was wrong!!!  So now my hubby has a huge bowl of Santa Fe Salad to eat..... I am pretty sure he will be eating it well into the weekend (that's if I don't toss it first!)

Any who here's be menu plan for the day.

Breakfast:  Coffee w/sugar X 4 (when I have 'X' it is cups not how much sugar I use!)
                  Easy Breakfast Quiche (see recipe below)

AM Snack: Nothing

Lunch:  Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, half piece of cheese toast (the daughter stole my other half!) and orange

PM Snack:  Orange

Supper: White Turkey Chili (see recipe below), Santa Fe Salad (see recipe below), and rolls ( I didn't have one but the rest of the family did)

Quote of the day:  You may delay, but time will not ~ Benjamin Franklin

Oh how I wish I had really thought about this quote along ago when I heard it.  I have loved reading quotes for years now.  I never applied anything I read (quote wise) to my weight, weight loss, or health ever.  I read them because they soothed me.  But it wasn't until lately that I really started to think about what they meant or at least how I have taken them.  If I would have done this thinking years ago, maybe it would have given me the strength to keep going while on those millions of short term diets I have done.  I am 25 years old and I think I have done at least that many diets in my life plus who can count all the "quick"  fixes I have tried!  If I would have put my all into it the first time I would be doing this right now.  (Although, I can't come plain cause I have gotten to know some friends alot better through all this and even met some great new friends and people along the way (how I love the blogging world)).  At the same time I am saying this (writing)  I am thinking to myself, I shouldn't be.  One should never look back on life and wish for something different, we should always take the memories we have and make the most of them.  If it wasn't for me waiting this long to make my true life change I wouldn't have gotten to know a friend from high school, as well as I do now.  And I am thankful to have her in my life now, she is great support and one whom I claim and a dear close friend now that I can confide in with anything.


RECIPES

Mini Breakfast Quiche ~ Recipe from Kids Approved Meals

Easy 1-2-3 Biscuits dough 


Ingredients:



3 heaping tablespoons of butter
2 cups of self rising flour *
1 cup of milk

*to make your own self rising flour: for each cup of flour used add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt

 Directions:

Preheat  oven to 325 F.  Divide dough into 12 pieces.  Press into well greased muffin pan, making sure to cover the bottom and sides of the muffin container.  Set to the side for time being.

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups of milk
4 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled (you could also use about 3/4 cup of breakfast sausage cooked and cut into small pieces)
1 cup of grated cheese

Directions:

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl .  Pour evenly over Easy Biscuit dough.  Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until tooth pick is inserted in the centre and comes out clean.

Easy-peasy and Yummy in the tummy!

White Turkey Chili ~ Recipe from Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground turkey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 teaspoons of chili powder

1 teaspoon of oregano
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

1/2 a red pepper chopped
3/4 cup of turkey broth (I used chicken broth cause that's what I had on hand!)
1 can of white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley chopped (I forgot to buy parsley on Sunday, so I skipped this ingredient)

Directions:

Heat oil in large non stick pan.  Add turkey meat, onion and garlic.  Cook, until turkey meat is no longer pink in color.  Add dry seasonings and mix well.  Add green and red peppers and broth.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10  to 15 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste if you like.  Add beans, cheese, sour cream and parsley.  Heat through for another 5 minutes.  Serve!

Santa Fe Salad ~ Recipe from The Best of Bridge Vol. 1

Ingredients:

Cilantro Lime Dressing
1/4 cup of olive oil
juice from 2 limes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon of cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Salad
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 red pepper chopped
1 can of corn drained
1/3 cup red onion chopped
1 jalapeno pepper seed and minced (if you don't like spicy food skip this one!)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together oil and lime juice.  Add cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper and mix well.  Added salad ingredients and mix well again.  Serve room temperature.

Day one and off of routine already!!!

Now I started out my day a little slow, the routine wasn't in place this morning!  I don't think I slept more then an hour last night and I really don't know why.  So once I did fall asleep I didn't want to get up right away to that alarm going off at 4:45 AM.  So there was no work out this morning, but once I got my butt in move everything was falling into place pretty good.  I am so excited to start these meals this week, they all sound so good to me.  So any ones that I like I will add to my daily blog.  Please note though that all lunch meals are not Weight Watcher friendly (totally) or low in fat.  My lunch meals are geared towards children's tastes not adults, although they are usually really good still. 

Breakfast:Hand full of mixed nuts and Coffee w/sugar X 3

AM Snack: Coffee w/sugar X 3

Lunch:  Cheesy Hamburger-Roni (see recipe below)  Strawberries or Grapes, 100% juice


PM Snack: Coffee w/sugar X 4

Supper: Spicy Steak, Red Mint Potatoes (see recipes below), Salad and yogurt with a chocolate zucchini muffin

Cheesy Hamburger-Roni

Recipe from Kid Approved Meals

Ingredients:


1 pkg macaroni noodles, cooked and drained
1 lb hamburger, browned and drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can of milk
½ tsp seasoning blend
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

Mix together soup, milk and seasoning in a large pot. Stir in noodles and beef. Cook over
medium high heat until heated through. During final minutes of cooking time, stir in
grated cheese.

~this would make quite a bit so I cut all ingredients in half because I only had myself and 2 children to cook for today! 

Spicy Steak ( we like spicy food and this wasn't that spicy but very, very good!)
Recipe from Wovenfare

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar (I didn't have apple cider vinegar, so I used 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar and 1/4 cup of water)
2 table spoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of curry paste (1: you find curry paste in the Asian food section of your grocery store. 2: this is where if you are a spicy kinda person to add more I would even try 2 teaspoons)
1 clove of garlic minced
1 table spoon of olive oil
2 4 to 5 ounce steaks

Directions:

Mix together all ingredients except steak, trimmed fat off of steak.  Pearce steak a few times on each side with a fork.  Place in mixture and let sit for 10 minutes.  In the mean time hot frying pan with oil or cooking spray.  Add steak to heated pan and cook to your liking.  Just at the end add the rest of your seasoning mixture and re coat the steak for added flavor.  Serve the remaining sauce over the steak once plated.

Mint Red Potatoes
Recipe from Wovenfare

Ingredients:

6 to 8 red potatoes
large handful of fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon for butter

Directions:

Clean potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes (I left skin on them, but you can do what you want).  Add to pot cover with water and add mint leaves.  Cook until soft and drain, add butter and shake pot to coat potatoes.  Now I don't know if you were suppose to take the mint leave out when you serve the potatoes or not but I did. 

I wasn't to sure about these at first but I thought hey lets give it a try!  I am always tell my daughter that she has to try new food besides Kraft dinner, so why shouldn't I?  To my surprise they were really good.  Not a strong mint taste to them at all, just a nice little flavor to them.  I really liked them, it was a good change to normal potatoes. 



Quote of the day:

You have to stay in shape.  My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60.  She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is.
~Ellen Degeneres

Not really one to think about a whole lot, but I sure though it was cute.  I am hoping to keep you up to date on my quote calendar I have made for myself.  Some of them will make you think and others are just for a good giggle.

I am off to try to set up our new Wii.  And maybe try to get some exercising in tonight too.  I will keep you all posted on my efforts!

Scrum-diddley-umiuos

This while getting my son ready for his hockey tournament, I was watching the Food Network. One of my favorite channels,  why wouldn't it be?!?!  I look the way I do due to food, so it would go hand in hand with me that watching food shows would be great.  Anyways, I was watching Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry, I love Janet and Greta.  I wish I had a sister to cook with or even a friend!  They have such a qurkie attitude towards one another and their guests, it just makes me giggle.  So today they were revamping a cream cheese muffin recipe.  Wow did they ever look yummy.  After the votes came in at the end of the show and Janet and Greta winning, I thought I just had to try this recipe, and had to do it today.  On I go to my life line the Internet and looked up the Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry website and found their recipe for Little Miss Muffin Tops.

To the kitchen I go to start baking, that is after I checked to make sure I had everything here for the muffins.  For the most part I did.  I added/changed a few things around for what I did or didn't have on hand.  For the most part they tasted amazing! 

So I know you are all waiting for the recipe!!! Here ya go:


LITTLE MISS MUFFIN TOPS
Recipe is taken right from the link above, anything in italics is what I chose to do.  Feel free to try either way!

Lemon-berry muffin tops with strawberry cream cheese filling. Per serving: 187 calories, 6.1 g total fat (1.3 g saturated fat), 4 g protein, 30 g carbohydrate, 2.3 g fibre, 21 mg cholesterol, 274 mg sodium

Yield: 12 mine made 15 regular muffins

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients

• 1 cup low-fat vanilla flavoured yogurt (I used plain, not to sure if there is a difference or not?)
• 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• Grated zest of one large lemon (I didn't have any fresh lemons on hand so I skipped this ingredient)
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used bottled lemon juice, again cause I didn't have fresh on hand at all)
• 2/3 cup fresh blueberries (I used frozen mixed berries.  Included raspberries, blackberries and blue berries)
• 2/3 cup fresh raspberries
• 12 teaspoons light strawberry cream cheese (Philadelphia brand) (once again I didn't have strawberry cream cheese on hand so I mushed up a 1/4 cup of my field berries with light cream cheese and 2 packets of splenda)

Directions

Dry ingredients

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 2 muffin-top(I used regular muffin pans, like mentioned at the beginning of the recipe)  pans lightly with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Wet ingredients

1. Whisk together wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in blueberries and raspberries.
2. Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin-top cups. Hide 1 tsp cream cheese in the centre of each muffin. Bake for about 12 minutes (I found mine took about 20 minutes, now this could be because my berries were still a little frozen) , or until muffin tops are puffed up and a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm.

We had these yummy muffins for our dessert tonight.  It was a great way to end off a yummy supper!

I did it, I did it!

Yesterday was the big weigh in day again.  I was kinda dreading it due to PMS and I know I worked so hard all week but didn't feel so come Friday when my good friend should up.  To my surprise I was down..... down 3 pounds!!!! I jumped for joy that's for sure.

All that hard work really does pay off!!!  I tracked everything and eat healthy choices.  I am really enjoying the more natural way for eating.  No more of those processed chicken nuggets or pizza's.  Sure they are nice for a TREAT every now and then, but not for a daily supper meal.   At least not for this family any more.  If we are having chicken nuggets for supper it is from skinned chicken titties and homemade crests (or whatever you want to call the outside of the nuggets.)  I have a friend that posted a great recipe for chicken strips on her blog that we use often for suppers,  yummiest chicken fingers ever.  I have always enjoyed cooking, but for many years I slacked off on it, because lets just admit it throwing those "premade, processed" chicken nuggets into the oven was just plain old easy.  Well, it might be easy to do it that way, it really isn't that hard to make them from scratch either. 

If any of you have other great healthy recipes and would like to share them, please do!!!! I would love to post them too.

Starting weight: 245
Today's weight: 223.4
1st Goal: 220.5
Total lost: 21.6

Homemade Granola Bars

So while in my kick of trying to cut out a lot of processed foods (not all but at least cut down on them), I was looking at the nutrition values of the granola bars I buy for m,y family.  I don't buy the chocolate covered ones any longer, due to 2 reasons.  One I can eat a whole box myself in about 3 days.... and no that's not the small box that's the value size box.  And two is one of my daycare children is lactose intolerant so I have to have as little milk and milk products for him.  So anyways now, I couldn't believe when you stop to read what is in these store bought granola bars there is a lot of unneeded shit in them and a lot has to do with packaging and keeping them fresh.  So I go to my good friend yet again, the wonderful world of the Internet and found some really good recipes for homemade ones.  I printed a few and did some work on the WW website to figure out values and what.  This one was one I mixed up a big and added a few of my own ingredients to help out.  The kids loved them and they are so easy to make and smell great cooking!


HOME MADE GRANOLA BARS

2 cups rolled outs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup and 1 tablespoon of splenda brown sugar)
1/2 cup of wheat germ (I bought bulk at the Bulk Barn)
3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of flour
3/4 cup of raisins (I used a trail mix that I picked up from Costco, but hell toss in any nuts or dried fruit, it will taste just as good)
3/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cups of honey
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup of oil (to me that was a lot so I used a 1/4 cup of oil and a 1/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce)
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Generously grease a 9"X13" pan
2.  In large bowl mix all dry ingredients well.  Once mixed make a well in the centre of the mixture and add all other ingredients and mix again!
3. Place in pan press firmly and evenly.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.  Cold slightly and cut.  Don't allow bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be to hard to cut.

Makes 24 pieces and is 4 points on WW new program.

Hope you enjoy!

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwhich

Well I made an all time favorite for my family tonight.  A meal that everyone will eat, even my picky daughter. 

With a little tweaking of an original recipe and some helpful hints from the Weight Watchers website, this sandwich not only tastes great but has about half the fat and junk as a normal Philly Cheese Steak.

2 cups onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 cloves of garlic minced
6 hot dog buns
6 oz of fat-free deli slices roast beef
3 oz of reduced fat Swiss cheese
6 oz of reduced fat cheddar cheese (I sometimes just use the pre-grated cheese by Kraft, and skip the Swiss)
2 cups of fresh mushrooms (optional, but if I can hide veggies in meals I will take it! (gotta love kids))
1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat broiler; in large skillet spray with non-stick cooking spray once heated add garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Add onions and mushrooms cook for another 2 minutes, add water, mustard, and roast beef, cover and cook for 10 minutes.  Open buns and place on cooking sheet spray with butter flavor or olive oil.  Broil each side for 1 to 2 minutes. Add roast beef mixture to half of each bun top with an oz of cheese over the whole bun, broil for another 2 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and melts.  Close sandwiches and eat away!

Makes 6 sandwiches and if using weight waters it would be 7 points (on the new program)

Hope you all enjoy as much as we do!  Sorry I totally forgot to take a picture of what they looked like.  I guess I was just to excited to eat mine.