seriously ... more snow??

Due to unprecedented ice, snow and freezing weather in the DFW metroplex last week, we almost didn’t make it to Portland to visit my family and meet my new niece (#3 on my list). While there, I was also able to cross off #74 as wow, really, my niece Mallory is truly one of the most beautiful sights to behold! It was a fabulous visit and I can’t wait to go back; we had so much fun with the family and Mallory is just such a sweetheart, I miss her already! If only everything had gone as smoothly … what should have been a nice and easy trip, landing us in Portland at 11amPT Saturday morning ended with us not getting there until 6:30pm … thank you SO much DFW airport for being so ill prepared. I can’t say it’s entirely their fault, I mean we haven’t had weather this bad here in the almost 6 years I’ve lived here (the news said it’s the worst in 20yrs), but I’m still going to blame them because Saturday was pure misery!!

I will say that I had fully intended to be good, track points, and not go over my ww allowance even though we were on vacation. HOWEVER, by the third airport stop in ONE day, I gave up and fell off the wagon with heaping plates of chili cheese fries, nachos and quesadillas. I also over indulged during the Super Bowl, noshing on chips and dips, pizza, lil smokies and much much more. I’m not even going to count the wine, or that random mojito drink thing (which was darn tasty). I do wonder though, do I have to figure out the points value of Mallory’s cheeks? Because I sure smooched those nonstop and ate her up!! Seriously, look at that sweet face and those gorgeous cheeks; how could I not? Buuuuut, now that I’m back home, I’m back on track and planning to stay that way! We got home just before dinner Monday night and thankfully, I had a pre-made healthilicious dinner waiting for us in the freezer. After we ate and relaxed a bit, I went right to work and made my egg casserole for the rest of the week’s breakfasts and started prepping dinners. We are a little behind this week and Dan has a little more to do each night, but it’ll all be ok and we WILL stay on track!

While eating regular, normal bacon at Sunday breakfast, we started chatting about our favorite meals. Brett & Heather (my brother & his wife) were telling us how much they love meatloaf and I’ve been craving it ever since. Tonight’s dinner is a healthilicious take on one of our favorite comfort food meals: meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Turkey Meatloaf
6 servings / 4 pts OR 4 servings / 5 pts
- 1lb ground turkey, all breast meat, at least 97/3
- 1 egg white
- 2tbsp skim milk
- 1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1tbsp Worcestershire (Wooster!) sauce

Place the turkey in a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients and mix well with your hands; you can use a mixing spoon but I swear it never comes out as well, just dig in there and get your hands dirty!

Form into a football shape and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 45min at 350; check that the internal temperature has reached at least 170 before slicing into servings.

Roasted Vegetables
4 servings / 4 pts
- 1 cup chopped broccoli
- 6 small red potatoes, washed and quartered
- 10 baby carrots, halved
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 1tsp no-salt Italian seasoning

Place all the veggies into a casserole dish, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with seasoning. Bake 30min at 350 and enjoy!

snow day; day 2

Yesterday was cold and snowy and I craved soup. Today was FREEZING and the dogs and I wanted some yummy, still warm cookies!! For the doggy cookies, I made their favorite peanut butter treats and dipped them in melted carob. You know what’s not cool? Forgetting that you’re working with carob and licking what you *think* is melted chocolate off your finger only to be sorely reminded that it is carob … yuck!!!! The melted chocolate from a fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookie that I licked off my finger later totally made up for it though.

Healthilicious Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes anywhere from 48-60 cookies / 2pp per cookie if you measure out 50
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup Smart Balance 37% Light Spread Margarine
½ cup safflower oil (you can use canola, I just prefer safflower)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup mini chocolate chips

- cream together butter, oil, sugars, vanilla and egg until well blended
- add flour a little at a time until fully incorporated
- stir in chocolate chips
- drop by rounded tablespoon onto baking sheet
- bake 8-10min at 375

Skinny Italian ... indeed it is!

Right before Christmas, the most wonderful surprise appeared in my mail … an autographed copy of Teresa Giudice’s Skinny Italian cookbook from the bestest friend in the whole wide world!! If you don’t recognize Teresa’s name, please google, she’s fabulous and I love her, despite her inability to properly form a sentence. I must say her (not) ghost writer did a fabulous job in translating the book so that it truly TRULY reads as if Teresa wrote it herself (with better sentence structure); so much so that I’d actually believe she wrote it, IF she hadn’t given so much credit to Heather in her acknowledgements (big snaps for giving credit where credit is due). The book is hilarious, I love the little jabs at Danielle and sidebar commentary by Joe, and the recipes are fantastic!

I was a little worried starting WW that I wouldn’t be able to eat much Italian food so I’ve been researching recipes for weeks. Tonight, I’d planned on making pizzas using whole wheat pita as the crust, but since I’m working from home today, I have time for a proper pizza crust … and since it’s a snow day, I want soup! I took my already made pizza dough (courtesy of Teresa) out of the freezer to defrost and whipped open her book to her recipe for minestrone. Before I started anything, I pulled up WW e-tools, entered the recipes and found out that her pizza dough is only 3pp per serving and the minestrone is only 3pp as well! Excited is not a strong enough word to convey my feelings towards tonight’s dinner. I’m going to top my pizza with 2tbsp of pesto, sliced tomatoes and mushrooms and of course, fresh mozzarella. Total pp for tonight’s dinner = 11 (8pp for pizza + 3pp for soup).

While I can’t post her recipes here since I don’t have her permission and am afraid of getting in any sort of trouble, I will tell you that with the proper google search you can find others who weren’t so wary (my pesto sauce is from a jar, but she also has a delicious recipe for that as well). Hope wherever you are, you are warm; happy googling!!!!

stupid stupid cold!!!!!

The weather this weekend was absolutely beautiful, it is almost hard to believe that we might have snow by Tuesday. I hate the cold!!! The only part of cold weather that I don't mind is enjoying soups, stews and other comfort foods. I'd already planned to have baked bbq chicken with oven fries tomorrow night so I'm all set!

Baked bbq chicken is simply that: skinless, boneless chicken breast smothered in bbq sauce and baked. Oven fries are super simple and uber delicious! I like to make mine with red potatoes, cut into wedges/strips and seasoned with garlic and pepper. Once you've cut the potatoes into fries, place them in a mixing bowl and pour about 1tbsp olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic and plenty of fresh ground black pepper; toss to coat. Spread the potatoes out on a baking pan and lightly salt; bake 35-45min until light and cripsy and ENJOY!

Hope you all stay warm!!!

WW Week 1 = success!!

Well, I had my first weigh-in at WW today and it went VERY well!! I was quite surprised to see the number she wrote down; I know I’ve worked hard but wow, yay!! I know most, if not all, was water weight, but whatever, I’m keeping my “win.” That said, I guess it’s time to start planning my 2nd week … even though my WW weeks are Thursday-Wednesday, I still plan Monday through Sunday. Tonight we’ll be celebrating my loss with turkey burgers and healthified mac n chz (with broccoli, cauliflower and carrots mixed in), tomorrow we’re having Swedish meatballs over whole wheat egg noodles with green beans and Saturday is ricotta gnocchi in a brown butter sage sauce over baby spinach.

The Super Bowl really doesn’t mean much in my world; my team’s not playing in it so it might as well be any other day. This year, we’ll be out of town for the Super Bowl visiting my new (perfect) little niece Miss Mallory. Buuuuut since the Super Bowl is here in Dallas (technically Arlington) this year, I’ve decided to do a SB inspired menu. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday will be the start of our (almost) weeklong SB inspired menu: WW version of chili cheese dogs (turkey dogs, turkey chili and reduced fat cheese in wheat rolls). The rest of the week pretty much follows suit, I’ve healthified up some traditional tailgate foods and/or foods I’d normally serve if we were having a Super Bowl watching party:
Monday – BBQ baked chicken fingers with oven fries (mixed red/sweet potato fries)
Tuesday – tomato and basil flatbread pizzas
Wednesday – turkey tacos
Thursday – straying from the theme and serving up a healthified chicken & dumplings with LOTS of veggies added; it’s more like a chicken veggie stew with dumplings on top

Then we’re off to Portland, OR to smooch and love on Miss Mallory and enjoy a nice visit with my brother/sister-in-law!!!! I’m going to tell myself that I will be good and not over indulge on my wee-mini-vaca but well, I won’t be angry with myself if my week 3 weigh-in isn’t as successful because at least I will have had fun. I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, that’s two weeks away … back to tonight; here is my mac n chz recipe, most recently updated to fit my points allowance:

Healthilicious Mac n Chz
8 servings; 6 PP
12 oz uncooked whole grain pasta (macaroni, penne, anything you want)
½ bag of frozen veggie mix
½ cup light sour cream
1 ½ cup fat-free half-and-half
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt & Pepper
1 cup low-fat shredded cheddar cheese
2 tbsp panko (optional)

- Boil water and add pasta and frozen veggies; cook until pasta is done, drain then stir in the sour cream while it’s still hot
- Whisk together the half & half, mustard, garlic and salt & pepper in a small saucepan and bring up to almost simmering over medium heat; reduce to low and add the shredded cheddar while continuing to stir until cheese is melty (note: low-fat cheese doesn’t melt as well so make sure you keep stirring so it doesn’t form a big blob in the middle; also, it’s ok if it doesn’t melt all the way since you’re going to bake it)
- Pour the cheddar sauce over the pasta and mix well; pour into casserole dish
(if cooking ahead and freezing, you would cover and freeze the dish in this state then defrost and follow final direction)
- Top with panko and bake for 30-40min at 350

Enjoy!!

always prepared!

Call me retentive, but I like to have everything planned and at least partially completed well in advance to ensure proper execution and to leave little room for failure. I know that on a weekend day, it is very easy for the day to get away from me and for me to skip the gym so I like to get up early and exercise first thing before I start my day (then subsequently sleep half of it away, but that’s a different story). Enter Dan. It all started this morning, I set the alarm to get up and head over to Grapevine to walk/run 8miles. First, the dogs were against me and wouldn’t let me out of bed; then Dan promised he wouldn’t let me sleep past 10am so that I could still make it to BodyPump at the gym if I’d just turn the tv off and fall back asleep already. Around 11/1130ish, some annoying roofer/salesman came a ringing and stirred the dogs into a barking frenzy which finally awakened me. I swear Dan would’ve let me sleep past noon had that man not rang our bell. I immediately gave up on my morning exercise plan and hope to go this afternoon/evening before dinner.

After the requisite trip to Dunkin Donuts for my coffee, I sat down and planned out our week ensuring we are both within our daily point targets. Side note: I figured out Dan’s points so I don’t starve him as I go through this; he lost almost 30lbs just eating what I was eating over the past few months and I don’t think he can spare another pound. Yes, that was – three effing zero – three times my goal, without trying, while I lost and regained the same 4lbs each month … DISLIKE! Back to my point, I’ve written out my plan for all meals and most snacks for the coming week, cross referenced my list against what I already have in the fridge/freezer and pantry and am about to run to the store to pick up the fresh veggies and other random items.

I’m going to make an egg & bacon casserole for each morning’s breakfasts (add fresh fruit & toast for Dan), lunches will be a mix between leftovers and soups for me (sandwiches, baked chips, fruit and something dessertish for Dan), dinners will be fresh, new and fabulous each night so I don’t get any complaints from the peanut gallery, err um, I mean Dan. One thing I’ve learned is that if I don’t have a good variety of dinners planned and goshforbid Dan has to eat the same thing twice within a 30-day cycle, he will sabotage me with pizza and/or cheeseburgers (or worse, Bueno). We will both have low-fat, low-cal, pro-biotic yogurt for our morning snacks but our afternoon snacks have yet to be nailed down; it’ll depend on what I find at the store that looks good (suggestions welcome!). Dan will also get a serving of dried fruit and nuts each day … seriously, he gets SO many more points than me each day and it is entirely unfair!!

Eggs & Bacon Casserole / Southwestern Style!
8 servings / 4 pointsplus
6 eggs
1 cup Southwestern Egg Beaters
¼ cup skim milk
3 slices whole grain sandwich bread
6 slices turkey bacon, cooked & crumbled
1 cup Mexican cheese blend (or cheddar)
Salt & Pepper (optional)
Olive oil cooking spray

- Spray casserole dish with olive oil cooking spray
- Break bread into bite-sized pieces & layer over bottom of casserole dish
- Top bread with bacon and cheese
- Whisk eggs, egg beaters and skim milk together until well blended and you can’t see any egg white floating around; it might get a little foamy but that’s ok (add salt & pepper if desired)
- Pour egg mix over everything in the casserole dish and bake 40-45min at 350 until browned and the center is set
- Cool completely before portioning out into individual containers to refrigerate or freeze for the week

Enjoy!!

Tonight’s dinner is 11 points plus: Dijon Pork Chops with baked red potatoes and broccoli in a low-fat/low-cal cheese sauce; I’ve never made the pork chops before so I’m going to wait until I test out the recipe before I post it. I’ll only post it if it’s good!

New Year - New Points Plus!

Well, I tried to do it on my own and I give up. Today, I joined Weight Watchers because regardless of how much I exercise and watch what I eat, I’m simply not making enough progress for my liking. The good news is, I’m not doing this alone; the great news is, my company even sponsors it!! Meetings are every Thursday over the lunch hour so I truly have no reason to skip. Even if I want to skip, my coworkers will drag me, kicking and screaming, and force me to weigh-in. This means no binging and just pretending the scale isn’t there, no pretending ‘I forgot,’ and no cheating.

Today was the first day and I’m already starting to realize the difference between doing it on my own and following the WW plan … my workout tonight would normally have earned me 4 glasses of wine so I would’ve had 1 and then maybe something yummy and sweet like a chocolate square or two. Through the WW plan, my workout only earned me 1 Mich Ultra, booooooooooooo. BUT I’m super excited because when I figured out the points for my healthified chicken enchiladas that I’d already prepped for Dan to reheat, I found they were only 6 points (even under the new system)!! I posted my enchilada recipe before, but here it is again … a little bit more healtified:

Healthilicious Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas:
Makes 8 servings; 6 PointsPlus

2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped or shredded
2 cups (1 can) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium onion, chopped
1tsp olive oil
1 cup fat-free sour cream
2 cups (1 can) fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth
4oz (1 can) diced green chiles
1 cup low-fat shredded cheddar
1tsp ground cumin
16 whole wheat, low-carb tortillas

•Sauté onion in olive oil until clear; add chicken, black beans and cumin; sauté about 5-7min then remove from heat and set aside
•In a small sauce pan, whisk together sour cream, broth and green chiles; heat to simmering and reduce heat to low
•Add cheese to cooled chicken mixture and mix
•Heat tortillas just a little bit in the microwave to soften them so they roll up without breaking (about 15 seconds, don’t heat all at once in a big stack, I heat about 4 at a time)
•Spoon chicken mix evenly into the tortillas; roll them up and place in a casserole dish
•Pour sour cream sauce over enchiladas
•Bake for 30-40min at 375 until all nice and bubby!

As I go through this challenge to follow the WW plan, I’m going to try to share PP values and report on my progress; if you don’t get a blog from me, it’s probably because it’s not working.

OH and ps - healthilicious is the word I came up with to descibe my cooking, should I ever get my own show. It's totally fetch!