fake it till you make it

So I went to the store and wandered trying to find something to throw together for dinner last night since I had to cancel my plan of making chicken fried steaks this week. Here is what I ended up with:

Stuffed mushrooms (they were fantastic) Just take them out of the packaging and bake in 325º oven for 25 minutes.

I put the boneless Skinless chicken thighs in the oven for 30 minutes at 350º then I took them out

 And added some pork rub and threw them back in for the time it took to cook the mushrooms (All I had on hand was pork rub or salmon rub)

And some veggies

It was all quite tasty and really easy. I may have to add this one into the mix on purpose. 

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

social butterfly

Today the kids got out of school at noon for a teacher workday so after I picked up my oldest daughter we headed over to (my least favorite place) McDonald's for a play date. The place was super busy and we only stayed about an hour but the kids were able to burn off some energy and I was able to talk with some adults about something not school related. As we were standing around someone asked me if she could show my purple hair to her daughter.

I thought it was fun and my friends joked that I'm famous. I was able to share my story about raising money and awareness for cancer once again, but I still felt like I left something out. I need to figure out a way to shorten my story because it seems I always leave out the part about Christie. She was such a strong woman.

I also heard from several of my mommy friends that they check my blog every night to see what I'm making. Several people said they have tried my recipes which is pretty cool. I love getting feedback. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right.

stay tuned for an unpredictable supper. I mentioned Monday my husband didn't want chicken fried steak, which is what I'd had planned for dinner so I made tonight's meal on Monday and tonight I am just gonna wing it with some items I picked up at Sun Harvest.



What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

chicken cacciatore

Yesterday was a busy, busy day with a lab test in the morning so I set up the crock pot so I would have supper ready when I walked in the door. 

 This meal is really simple, I just place my boneless skinless chicken thighs in the bottom of the crockpot and cover it with spaghetti sauce and leave it on low for 8-10 hours.

The best part about this is that I already know what I will have for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  

 When I came home I scraped some of the sauce off a few pieces of chicken (for the picky eaters) and pulled the chicken out too cool.

 I boiled some water for pasta to go ahead and feed the kids.

Then I chop a whole bunch of mushrooms (and sometimes garlic, onion and bell pepper) and toss it into the spaghetti sauce to cook some more after I have shredded the chicken. This picture doesn't really do it justice, that chicken was so tender it just fell apart, and the sauce smelled so fantastic.

 I also cooked some garlic french bread from the bakery at the grocery store according to the directions on the foil bag.

I forgot to take a picture of my bowl, sorry. But it was GOOD!

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

pork chops

So tonight I had planned to make chicken fried steak (my husband's favorite) but he asked me to do something else, CFS is too heavy for him to work tomorrow, so instead I made pork chops.

The kids don't eat it very well so I made them fish sticks to go with the corn and macaroni and cheese. 

I started their water boiling to cook the corn-on-the-cob and macaroni noodles. 

Since I only bought 6 corn cobs I did some bargain shopping in the freezer to find something for me to eat. The kids had two corn cobs each leaving two for my husband to have and I had this instead:

My husband had to work late so I made the kids meal first then I started everything when he came home. 

I tossed my whole wheat pasta with the veggie mix instead of traditional macaroni and cheese. 

I seasoned the pork chops with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese

 And baked them in the 400º oven for 30 minutes.

nuked my veggies 

and tossed it with the pasta. 

Here's my plate:

Here's my husband's plate:

I don't think I'm missing anything, it was pretty darn good. 

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

finding a bargain

I have always been a bargain shopper but these days it seems I'm looking for a different kind of bargain. Seriously, this tastes too good to be good for you too.

1/4 cup raspberries

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 pink lady apple

2 Tbsp fat free cool whip

(106 calories, 6.5g fiber, 1.4g protein)

It's only 1 o'clock and I'm already at 34.5g fiber for today. 

So here's the rest of my bargains from today:

Breakfast: thomas brand english muffin with laughing cow cream cheese and polaner sugar free fiber (raspberry/strawberry/apricot) preserves. I bought the cream cheese (3 pack for $6.98) and the english muffins (two 9-packs for $5.14) at sam's, which is a fantastic deal both financially and nutritionally. Now I have breakfast for 3 weeks for about $15 (with the preserves)

Lunch: Progresso black beans and jalapeno canned soup with some sharp cheddar. 

What is your favorite nutritional bargain?

I had intended to make chicken fried steak for dinner but my husband said not for tonight, so I will have to figure out something else for dinner. 

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

Vegan Chili

I mentioned during my meal planning post that I was going to try something new tonight, well here it is: 

Vegan Chili.

Isn't it beautiful? It smells wonderful, but is still cooking so I wont know how fantastic it is until the end of this post probably.

Here is the recipe, from Dr. Oz's website. My friend Kristen at Mama swears recommended it, but she has been making it long enough to make lots of adaptations. I made it exactly like the recipe except that we cooked all the onion at once and we wont do soy cheese. anyways, here is goes.

Rocco’s Vegan Chili Recipe

Ingredients

3 tbsps olive oil


2 cups chopped onions, divided


3/4 cup chopped celery


3/4 cup chopped carrots


3 cloves garlic, chopped


2 cups chopped green and/or red bell pepper


1 tbsp chili powder


1 tbsp ground cumin


1 (28-ounce) can of diced tomatoes with liquid


3 tbsps tomato paste


1 (15-ounce) can organic black beans with liquid


1 (15-ounce) can organic kidney beans with liquid


1 (11-ounce) can whole kernel corn, undrained


1 1/2 tbsp dried oregano


1 1/2 tbsp dried basil


salt and pepper to taste


1 tbsp lime juice


1/2 cup chopped cilantro


Directions
: Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté 1-1/2 cups of onions, celery and carrots until soft. 

Stir in peppers, garlic, chili powder and cumin. 

Cook about 6 minutes.


(the white stuff is ice crystals from my frozen bell peppers)

Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, beans, and corn. 

Season with oregano, basil, salt and pepper. 

Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in lime juice and cilantro just before serving.

***UPDATE!***

It is fantastic!

We also made some BBQ chicken because my husband had serious doubts about it being edible, and we also served it with corn bread.

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

Nachos

This is the quickest and easiest meal I make and the one the kids eat the best.

Open the can of beans to one pan.

I always add water to the beans because it is so thick. If you've every tasted Lubbock water you would understand why I cook with bottled water.

In another pan open the can of rotel 

and the can of cream of potato soup, which makes it creamer without using as much velveeta.

Chop some velveeta to toss into the rotel and soup mixture 

and just mix them all up.  

All that's left now is to brown the thawed ground beef

And serve it up.

Here's what it looks like all done.

I serve mine with baked scoops and I don't eat the ground beef (because I am allergic to it) and the kids and husband have the regular scoops

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

organic running

All afternoon I have been considering taking a nap instead of getting on the treadmill like I usually do Tuesday and Thursday after school. This new antihistamine has my head in a fog, my breathing is still not feeling right and I am just exhausted. It seems I have been slowing down more and more with every run so I took the advice from my friend Sasha at eat the damn cupcake. I've been too obsessed with going by the book and running with couch to 5K/bridge to 10K and not focusing on what my body needs right now. When I run on the weekend I go outside and I have to go without netflix or hulu and I just enjoy my music. I don't know why I didn't simplify before but I do hope I can figure out this allergy situation and start running all out again. For now I am content with a quick 2 mile calorie burn.

So thank you Sasha for reminding me to simplify.

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

measuring up

As a stay at home mom I am able to make most of my meals at home (or prepare at home ahead of time the ones I don't eat at home) and I use a measuring spoon/cup for almost everything that I put on my plate. I have done it so long that now I am able to just looked at something and know about how much it is..... Like pouring creamer into my cup and looking inside the cup before I pour the coffee, but I have learned a few tricks to help me know a little better how much is too much. 

In general a portion the size of:

• A normal person's fist is about one cup
• a normal person's palm is 3oz. meat (also you can use a deck of cards or a checkbook as a reference)
• 8 dice=3 oz cheese cubes
• a normal person's thumb is about 1 Tbps (appropriate for butter)

At one point I was seriously considering carrying measuring spoons in my purse, but I thought I would get strange looks for sure. I wonder if these would be acceptable.

Today was a "guesstimate" day. I went through the salad bar with my 4-year-old daughter and had to guess how much of everything I was putting on my plate. 

In the corner is a prepared salad with bulgar wheat, raisins and apricots and almonds. It was good, about half the calories for this meal and it added 4g fiber too. 

to drink I had an apple cider vinegar drink which I really like. I am allergic to lemons and for years I have had to strictly avoid it or have instant heartburn so I got used to drinking this. I think it tastes similar to lemonade, but it is definitely and acquired taste. 

You can see the little cup there too, this is one thing I like to use to help with gauging visually. The bottom of the cup says 2 oz which is 4 Tbsp or 1/4 cup. I only used half the dressing so 1 oz/2 Tbsp. 

The good news is my grocery store has a nutritional information packet available on the salad bar so there was no guessing on the calories involved. 

Dinner tonight will be Fish, mixed veggies and macaroni and cheese with hush puppies.

What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather

tacos

Okay so my husband thinks I'm crazy taking pictures of everything I'm cooking this week so I may not post anymore "recipes" after this one. Let me know what you think please! so he believes me that people really are reading.

Tacos are really easy, I like to use ground turkey because it is so lean you don't even have to drain the meat after you brown it. I also use lots of onion because it tastes good and makes the meat go a little further. So, to start out, I chop some onion and thaw the ground turkey.

I mentioned before that I keep my meat in vacuum sealed bags, it stores in the freezer more neatly

and thaws out a lot more evenly and much quicker than the original packaging.
Then I toss the onion and meat in the pan to start browning.

Since that takes a while I spend sometime chopping lettuce (and an apple for my lunch tomorrow)

And set all the taco shells in a pan to crisp in the oven

I mix up the seasoning with water, to be poured into the meat/onion once it is browned

I like this seasoning mix because there is no MSG.

After the tacos have crisped in the oven for 5 minutes (per directions on the back of the box)

I chop up some velveeta to line the bottom of the shells for the family and I divide up a wedge of laughing cow (light queso and fresco) into quarters to put in my tacos. (Yes, I'm going to eat 4 tacos)

By this time the ground turkey/onion is usually browned and I can pour the seasoning into the mixture to soak in.

I divide the pan into quarters 

and spoon one quarter of the mixture into my taco shells (since I'm the only one who cares about the calorie count, I find it easiest to just divide the recipe by four to figure it up.)

Put the shells back in the oven until the cheese is melted and then serve it up with lettuce, shredded cheese and salsa.

Here's my plate:

This recipe has evolved as my calorie needs have changed. It's probably pretty obvious now that I eat high fiber, low calorie for breakfast and lunch with a larger dinner. I don't like to go to bed hungry so when I wake up each morning I enter my dinner into my food log before I start breakfast. For me this will ensure that I have calories left at the end of the day for a good meal that will fill me up so I don't wake up hungry. This is one of the reasons why I plan my (dinner) meals two weeks at a time. I pretty much have the same thing for breakfast everyday, although lately I've added a bowl of fruit to my breakfast too. 

So, if you want me to continue posting meals, please speak up so I know I'm not talking to myself.


What is your little victory today?

 Guitarplayingmommy,

Heather