Sporadically Sandra

Quite a few people I know have this misconception that to eat healthy you must cut out everything delicious. And, I wouldn't actually care, except if you ask them what they are eating, they sigh, look kind of down and out and with a sigh reply "Oh, just this *bland diet food*. I'm trying to watch my weight."

Well, guess what. Eating healthy can be delicious, versatile, comforting and an adventure for the taste buds. I love eating unhealthy food (clearly) but I also make sure that every "healthy" thing I eat is just as delicious. I eat lots of lean meats, low fat dairies, fresh fruits and vegetables. I get, at a minimum, 6 fruit & vegetable servings a day, 2 dairies, 2-3 servings of lean protein. I drink at least 6 glasses of water a day because I truly love it. And most days, some sort of chocolate enters my body.

All it takes is some creativity and some patience. I've slowly built up a stash of "healthy" and delicious recipes so that I always have recipes I like on the back burner. In addition, I have a healthy stash of blogs that post ridiculously delicious (and sinfully decadent) tasting recipes.

This is a *mostly* accurate picture of what I eat each day. Of course, my breakfast did not taste good (new recipe, boo) so today I had a few extra points for an evening snack.  I also forgot to take a picture of my afternoon snack: romaine lettuce with red onion and Hot Bacon Honey Mustard Dressing (delicious).

Meals pictured: Morning Snack 1 - Cheese Stick, Morning Snack 2 - Banana, Lunch - Santa Fe Chicken Burrito Bowl, Dinner - Bubble Up Enchilada Casserole & Sugar Snap Peas, Evening Snack/Dessert - Dark Hot Chocolate, Nuts & Bolts (Family recipe chex mix), a piece of fudge and peppermint marshmallows.

So, don't let "healthy" food get you down, because if you aren't enjoying it, you aren't doing it right!

Joseph had to work on Saturday, so I decided to be a productive wife and spend my Saturday cooking up some meals to freeze for the future. It cost about $75.00 and took about 4 hours of my life, but I came away with quite a few meals.

 (I have no clue why the picture is upside down..??)

Anyways, Pictured is the following:

21 Pumpkin Muffins
A LOT of Pumpkin Pancakes (Forgot to count)
8 Servings Vegetable Chowder
4 Servings Tomato Soup
3 meals Spaghetti Sauce
10 Servings Chicken Taco Chili
6 Servings Chicken Tortilla Stew
8 Servings Mac and Cheese
4 Servings Chicken Stuffing Bake
12 Servings Pumpkin Beef Pasta
and 1 Sausage Hashbrown Casserole

All in all, a Saturday morning WIN! Especially when we got home tonight after HORRIBLE traffic and rainy weather and all I had to do was reheat some chicken taco chili and some rice for a delicious and quick dinner!

Inspired by the love of all thing cupcakes (hello easy serving size) and my love of fatty buffalo wings, I wanted to come up with a nice swap for football Sunday! These did not just pass my taste test, but my husband's, sister in law's and brother in law's.

24 Won Ton Wrappers
Hot Sauce to taste
Ranch to taste
3/4 lb shredded chicken
3 Garlic & Herb Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges
3/4 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Pre-heat oven to 375.

Mix ranch and hot sauce with chicken until satisfied with creamy/hot taste.

Spray a 12 cup Muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Press a won ton wrapper into each cup. Divide 1.5 laughing cow wedges among the cups and top with half the shredded chicken.
Add another won ton wrapper in each cup, pressing down firmly. Add a dab of ranch and the remainder of the laughing cow cheese and shredded chicken. Top with cheddar cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and won ton wrappers are browned.

I'm sure I'm not the only kid who grew up eating egg in a hole. It's a quick and easy way to make a delicious breakfast and as a kid, it was so much fun to help. I got to carefully cut a hole in a piece of bread and mom would do all the other work.

Well, I'm no longer a kid but I can still enjoy egg in a hole, especially if I give it a fun twist to make it a little more sophisticated. A recipe isn't really required, but it was so simply genius, I had to share anyways.

Ingredients:
Tomato - finely chopped
Mozzarella Cheese - finely grated
Parmesan Cheese - finely grated
Fresh Basil - finely chopped
Bread
Egg
Salt & Pepper - to taste

Mix the shredded cheeses with the fresh basil.

Using a glass, cut a hole in your piece of bread, discard or eat the middle.

Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat and add the bread. Crack an egg into the hole, and if you want, break the yolk. Salt & pepper to taste.

Once egg is set on one side, flip over bread. Sprinkle cheese mixture over bread. Once cheese is melted and egg is set on other side, remove from pan and place on plate. Sprinkle tomatoes on top.

Eat & enjoy. Simple yet delicious!

After a week of eating a little crazy; fried foods, ice cream, sugary drinks, and desserts, my body was ready to get back to "normal" eating. In the past 4 months my "normal" eating has become fresh veggies and fruits, lean meats, water, water and more water. It has been healthier, more whole and natural foods with a real emphasis to try and stay away from fried foods, high calorie foods and high processed foods.

It's amazing how satisfying a salad with grilled chicken can be when your body is craving greens. Spring and summer are the ultimate in light veggie dishes and Joseph proved it last night when he made me Skinny Taste Pasta Shells w/ Asparagus and Marinara. And let me tell you, to hear him say "We don't need chicken with this, it is going to be great on its own" is a miracle. If this were a year earlier and I suggested a meatless meal he would have looked at me like I was crazy.

There is just something about the warmer months that has me wanting to indulge in fruits and veggies, meals that don't involve a lot of cooking or a lot of work. Salads have become my best friend, especially since I've been experimenting with making my own salad dressings. That helped me discover my love of Red Wine Vinegar. I've been hunting around for a herb growing kit because I really want fresh herbs. I'm craving fresh and natural foods and at this point, I would rather choose a nice fresh salad over a delicious cheeseburger.

And with that said, tomorrow night we are having hot dogs for dinner. The things I do for my awesome husband.

So at the beginning of March I made some goals. Let's review them, shall we?
Enjoy my Anniversary! - Easiest Goal ever. See previous Anniversary post to see how much fun we had on that!


Hike a Local Park - Never did this. Between injuring myself, rainy weekends and not having time, it never happened. *But* I did tour Turner Field, which I feel should almost count.

Continue with C25K - Back to the darn injury. That threw a 2 week wrench in my plan, on top of that the gym at work has been closed. I have been walking with coworkers and this past week was my first week back on running and considering th rain forcasted for this week, I probably won't get to run this week, much.

Move on to Level 2 of 30 Day Shred - Although I did this with semi regularity, let me remind you of the darn injury. Seriously, stupid hip! But I also bought Jillian's Yoga Dvd and switched the two out. Still on level 1 but not giving up.

Workout 16 out of 31 Days - Even with the hip injury I'm pretty freaking sure I completed this goal. I've learned to actually *enjoy* working out so I do make sure to do it at least 4 out of the 7 days of the week and most weeks at least 5 days.

Attend Church at Least 2 of the 4 Sundays in March - Done. We didn't go today and that makes me sad, but once we are back from the beach, Church is on the To Do List

Make the Bed Every Morning - This was such a failure, not even funny.

But, I have some goals for this week I want/need to accomplish:

30 Day Shred - I want to complete this on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for sure. Friday might be difficult since it will be super busy with depositing my dog at my mom's, packing up the car for the trip and getting my nails done, but if time permits, I'm pretty sure I can talk the sis in law into doing it with me.

Laundry - it certainly is one of those things that is never done. BUT, I need to get it under control. I need to make sure everything gets folded/hung in a timely manner and keep the dirty laundry to no more than 1 dirty load at a time.

Pack for my trip - The list of things I need to pack for this trip is ridiculously long. Since we are staying in a condo for the week, not only do I have clothes to pack, but both kitchen supplies and cooking ingredients. I'm also one of those people who simply cannot pack light. I have a packing list (considering how messy I can be, I'm very list oriented) and I just need to make sure to follow it and add stuff as it occurs to me.

Stay OP- Ever since my anniversary, I've had the hardest time not going over points. It doesn't help that I haven't done a lot of cooking, Joseph has. But, I've discovered that for me to be successful, I have to be involved in cooking. This week we are having Turkey Burgers, Scilian Rice Ball Casserole and Chicken Taco Chili. Super yummy foods that will make it easy to stay OP.

Since I worked from home today because of my doctor visit, it meant I had no commute and could start cooking dinner earlier than normal. Because of that, I made lasagna. For those not in the know, I'm a really good cook, but lasagna always bests me.

Not tonight. Tonight I made the delicious, scrumptious lasagna from Emily Bites. Not only was it delicious, but it was fool proof because *I* was able to make it. I find it hard to believe anyone would only eat 1/12 of that because it only makes a 9x13 pan and even 1/9th was not enough because it was that good. (Although it was perfectly filling at 1/9th of the recipe) Joseph and I paired it with a simple sald with tomatoes and ranch dressing.

While I was waiting for the lasagna to cook, I whipped up some Pumpkin Pie Dip. Oh my goodness, it is delicious. If I see my mother in the near future, she will probably get a tub of it because it filled up two cool whip containers once it was all done and made. I am also debating freezing some in ice cube trays and putting it in a smoothie, but that is an experiment for the weekend. I tried it out with a strawberry and it was delicious. Seriously good enough that you could eat it with a spoon.

So, I went to the doctor for my hip pain that still hasn't gone away. My diagnosis is "Arthralgia of Hip". I don't know what that means and I don't intend to google it because we all know somehow it will end up being able to kill me. Basically I was prescribed a medicine for inflammation and I can't exercise in any way that will hurt my hip. Although I find this really depressing (with my new found love of exercise and all), but going to the dr I realized I am super duper lucky. I mean, my blood pressure is always low, heart rate is good, no diabetes, no debilatating sickness, no need to be on constant meds of any sort. For all intents and purposes, I'm super healthy. So, yes, my hip has me down. It has me seriously questioning whether I will be able to do the Warrior Dash in 9 weeks, but I'm super lucky to be as healthy as I am. So, I won't let this set back hinder my weight loss journey and I will figure out ways to exercise that won't impact my hip. (And I've had some great suggestions from friends via facebook) But, some prayers that my hip will heal quickly would be Greatly appreciated.

That's all I have internet world so I leave you with this quote from Psych:
Gus: I mean, what have I done in my life that anyone would say was great?

Shawn: Dude, the perfect cocoa roundness of your head alone makes you great.

So, on Sunday I completed week 3 of C25K. I don't know if you know, but you go from running 1.5 minutes and 3 minutes to running 3 minutes and 5 minutes in Week 4. Well, this girl was not ready for that change. Not only was I defeated before I even started, I had no belief in myself, my body was just tired. My hip *hurts*, my calf is sore. I could never get my running groove or my breathing.

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with knowing when you aren't ready and I'm not ready to move on to week 4. I never felt confident in myself with week 3, not like I did with week 1 or 2, even with completing it outside. So, I'm going to stay on week 3 this week and revisit the idea of week 4 next week. There is just something about running 5 minutes in a row that is extremely daunting.

But, there is always a silver lining to every day! And today's silver lining is dinner! I made barbeque chicken, green beans (which didn't turn out, but I don't like fresh green beans anyways so I'm alright with it) and skinnytaste.com 's Mac and Cheese. I am practically a hobag for some homemade Mac and Cheese, it's probably my favorite food ever (Chocolate doesn't count since it is a whole food group). Joseph made me this for Valentine's Day and we knew instantly it was a winner, it even beat out the best of the best cooking light recipe in my opinion.

However, this deep love of mac and cheese that I have, it also keeps me from being able to portion it very well. As in, I want to eat all of it in one sitting. Just give me a huge bowl of mac and cheese  and I will devour that. But, tonight I got out my measuring cup, measured out a serving of mac and cheese for Joseph and Me and then portioned the rest out in containers so that I can't go back for seconds, thirds and fourths.

Seriously though, go make that mac and cheese. It is so delicious. And, while you are at it, check out her other recipes because they are ridiculously good.

Every single morning I wake up and have a smoothie for breakfast. This one smoothie is what I attribute for giving me gorgeous nails with a natural french manicure, tons of natural energy without needing to guzzle caffeine and making it super easy to get in a full serving of fruits and vegetables a day.

The Green Monster is the smoothie that will help you glow from the inside out. It was really first popularized by Angela at ohsheglows.com (who has an amazing vegan blog that I love even though I am so far from Vegan). She has the website http://greenmonstermovement.com/ that talks about the smoothie as well as shares different smoothie recipes.

The Green Monster is called such because of the fresh raw spinach you add to the smoothie, which, under the correct conditions might just turn your smoothie bright Green! Although many people balk at the thought of putting Spinach and a smoothie, I promise you that you will not taste it and won't even notice as long as you blend it really well.

Spinach, for those who care, has twice as much fiber as other leafy greens and is a great source of amino acids, iron, iodine, magnesium, potassium, protien and Vitamins: A,C, E, K and B complex.

With all that greatness, how can you resist?

PB&J Green Monster Smoothie
1 Serving, 7 P+

1 handful of spinach
1 cup skim milk
1/2 banana
2 T peanut butter
7 frozen strawberries
2-4 ice cubes (Optional)

Add spinach to blender (important to do this first so the other ingredients help weigh it down) along with milk, banana and peanut butter. Blend until smooth and spinach has been processed. Add frozen strawberries and ice and blend until smooth. Pour into cup, add straw and enjoy!

1/4 cup Kosher Salt
1 t Sugar

Chicken:
4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, pounded to same thickness and brined for 20 minutes
1 Egg
1/3 cup Flour
Salt & Pepper
Other Seasonings to Taste

Whisk one egg with 1 T water. Dip rinsed and dried chicken breasts into egg wash before dredging in flour salt and pepper (and other seasonings to taste).

Lay chicken breasts on cooling rack for 10 minutes. (This is KEY)

Heat oil in cast iron skillet and pre-heat oven to 350. Once oil is hot, cook chicken until browned on both sides and no longer trying to stick to the pan (and if it gets a little blackened, that is delicious also!).

Stick into oven and let it finish cooking, 10-15 minutes.

Mashed Potatoes 2 P+:
Ingredients:
2 oz potato per person
Equal amount of cauliflower as potato
Skim Milk
Land o Lakes Butter
S&P

Dice potato and boil over high until soft. While the potatoes cook, cut cauliflower into florets and cook until soft. Mix potatoes and cauliflower with milk, butter and S&P until it reaches the desired creaminess.

The gravy is just a mixture of cornstarch, chicken stock and better than bullion.

*Recipe kindly provided by my mom*

Lately snacks have been greek yogurt (to get in a dairy) and a mini cliff bar to give me a little push before I workout. Sometimes it gets switched out if I get tempted while at work, but that is one reason I like to leave some leeway in my menu, to count for when I have a hard time saying no. And, if I don't use those extra points then I get to reward myself with some pretzel mms or some hot chocolate.
 
So far, this has worked for me for 2 months, which is pretty freaking impressive for me.

So tonight I made the Shepherd's Pie from Skinnytaste.com. Although, my British friends tell me it should be called Cottage Pie since it does not contain lamb. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of her recipe as I was making it and I would probably change the order of a few things if I were to make it again, which I will make it again. This was delicious and comforting; perfect for a cold night in. I adapted it a bit to what I did, but make sure to visit skinnytaste.com for great, healthy recipes.


Cottage Pie
6 Servings, 8 P+
Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb yukon gold potatoes
3/4 cup fat free chicken broth
2 T fat free sour cream
Salt & Pepper

1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 T flour
1 cup fat free beef broth
2 T tomato paste
1 t Woresteshire Sauce
1 T Italian Seasoning
16 oz frozen mixed veggies (peas, corn, green beans)


1 1/2 cup shredded low fat Mozzarella

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 400

Dice potatoes and boil until soft. Drain water from potatoes and mix with chicken broth, sour cream and salt and pepper until desired consistency is reached.

Brown ground beef in large pan. Remove ground beef and saute onion and garlic for 1-2 minutes. Add celery and saute until celery and onion are soft.

Add the flour and mix well. Add the beef broth, tomato paste, Woresteshire sauce and italian seasoning. Mix in frozen veggies and beef.

Pour beef mixture into 9x13 pan. Top with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle paprika on mashed potates.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and spread mozzarella cheese on top and bake for 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Let sit five minutes before serving.

Imagine my surprise, when after being on this Earth for 23 1/2 years, I hear of this thing called "Bubble Up Casseroles". My mother is a phenomenal cook, she can make anything and everything, she makes it up as she goes along, but did she ever make me a Bubble Up Casserole? No, she did not. She deprived me for 23 1/2 years of the deliciousness of the Bubble Up Casserole.

The best thing about this is your ability to add or modify ingredients. Next time I will probably stir in some corn and add green onions after it is cooked. So do your kids/husbands/wives a favor and make this and you can thank me in the form of comments.

For the record, I have no clue whose recipe this is originally. I did not make it up myself, just made it and enjoyed it's deliciousness!

Bubble Up Enchilada Casserole
6 Servings, 9 P+

Ingredients:
1 lb ground chicken
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup red enchilada sauce
2 small cans low-fat home style biscuits, cut into fourths (I had 20 biscuits all together)
1 1/4 cup low fat Mexican blend cheese

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In a medium skillet, brown ground chicken, onion and garlic.

In a large bowl, mix together the enchilada sauce and tomato sauce. Add meat mixture and biscuits and mix well to coat biscuits.

Pour mixture into a sprayed 9x13 pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Add cheese and bake for 10 more minutes.

Let sit 5 minutes before serving.