Sometimes You Need Simplicity.

I finished up my third 12 hour shift for this week at the hospital, so now I have a little more time to write. Yay! I think about all these things I want to say but I don't have time to blog while I'm working so by the time I get the chance to I forget what I wanted to talk about.

I went grocery shopping this morning after I got off work (see receipt below, Yay again!), and got a really good deal on boneless skinless chicken breasts for $2.99/lb. I eat my fair share of chicken breasts, so I stocked up.

Tim has been craving this recipe for Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwhiches for a couple of weeks now since he ran across it on All Recipes one night. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make it. You know I love me a crockpot recipe! But the wing sauce that we had was Thai flavored and I had forgotten that. I didn't know if that would be good or not and I definitely wasn't going back to the grocery store, so I decided to do something different.

Instead I made shredded bbq chicken. This is hands-down the easiest thing I've ever cooked (can you even call it "cooking"?). Two ingredients - chicken breasts and barbeque sauce. It doesn't get simpler than that. I cooked the breasts on low in the sauce for about 6 hours and then shredded it and served it on hamburger buns with some veggies.

I can't believe I haven't done this before! It was the easiest thing ever and it was DELICIOUS! I think I'm going to use the leftover meat to make BBQ Chicken Pizzas tomorrow for lunch. That will be another first for me. I'm loving the simplicity!

Back on Track and The Best Dinner EVER!

This morning I woke up and hopped on the scale to assess the damage I've done recently, and it was definitely as bad if not worse than I thought it would be. I gained 9 (yes, nine) pounds! Normally I would cut myself a little slack and chalk it up to being on vacation, but lets face it ... I was only on vacation for 4 days. There is no way I should have ever let 9 pound slip back on in 4 days! I think the bigger problem is that I temporarily lost my motivation as I discussed here.

The good news is that I had time to reflect on what was going on, and made a recommitment to myself. Sometimes I think that its necessary to backslide in order to ultimately keep moving in the right direction and not lose focus. Sometimes you just need a break! Whether it be from counting points, exercise, weighing and measuring food ... whatever the case may be. I came back from this hiatus with a brand new attitude and an excitement that I haven't had in a while.

The excitement came at a good time because I decided that today I would make up for my long run that I missed on Sunday. 7 miles! I've done 7 miles (and even 8) before, but its been a while and I wasn't sure how I'd do after such an off track week. I did really well though, I'm not saying it was easy but it was a good feeling to get back out there. My iPod died during my 2nd mile and that was a bummer, but after a little while I got used to listening to myself breathe and got caught up in my thoughts. It actually turned out kinda nice to not have the music. I compared my run time today to my previous 7 mile run and was very surprised to see that I beat my time by a full 6 minutes!

My splits for today were:

Mile 1 - 8:46
Mile 2 - 8:49
Mile 3 - 9:00
Mile 4 - 8:56
Mile 5 - 8:57
Mile 6 - 9:01
Mile 7 - 8:52

After our run we ate lunch at Roly Poly. I ordered a small Ultimate Veggie wrap with hummus instead of ranch dressing and a bag of Baked Lays. It was yummalish and very low in points!

Tim and I decided to let the little man spend the night at his grandma's house tonight so that we could have a little break and some time together at home alone. I wanted to cook something special tonight that I haven't made before. I browsed the internet for a while looking for something that seemed right, and then I remember the Eggplant Spinach Stacks that my fellow blogger Allison from Balance in Bites post a few days ago. I've been salivating over these since the day she posted them, so I thought this might be the perfect opportunity.

I went to the grocery store and got all the ingredients, plus stuff to make roasted fingerling potatoes and Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus. I must say this was the best dinner I've made in a very long time if not ever.

I used goat cheese on both the Eggplant stacks and in the asparagus instead of the feta and cream cheese that was suggested. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a sucker for goat cheese and I'll fit it in wherever I can get it. The eggplant was the clear winner, but I have to say that the asparagus bundles were quite divine as well!

My husband would probably divorce me if I didn't show the picture of the eggplant that he picked out. Lets just say, it was happy to see us. My husband especially found it quite amusing.

And on that note, I think I'll say goodnight!

Pumpkin Cider Pancakes

Sticking with the pumpkin theme from yesterday, I decided to perk up my pancakes a bit this morning with some pumpkin puree. I just threw a few things together and came up with a really great recipe. Actually my husband said they were the best pancakes he has ever eaten and suggested that I submit it to a recipe website.

One of my favorite websites for recipes is All Recipes. So this afternoon I submitted the recipe. The last recipe I submitted (in Dec 2004) never got reviewed or published, so I'm hoping that this one will. The link to my recipe for the Pumpkin Cider Pancakes is here. Give them a try and rate/review them on All Recipes. Hope you enjoy!

Homemade Hummus

I hated hummus when I first tried it. I'm not exactly sure when or how it happened but now I adore it! Tim and I both eat alot of hummus. The problem is that hummus can be pretty expensive, especially when you eat it like we do. There are only a few ingredients necessary to make your own hummus and its really easy and inexpensive to make at home.

Last night before bed I made a big batch. Its a Weight Watchers recipe that I adapted for the ingredients I had on hand.

In a food processor combine:

• 2 cans of Garbanzo Beans
• 5 cloves of garlic (I like alot of garlic!)
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 3 Tbsp Tahini (I used peanut butter, couldn't find my Tahini)
• 6 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 cumin
• 1 1/4 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients for about 2 minutes or until really smooth. It makes 14 servings! (1/4 cup each). I wish I had some roasted red peppers to put in it, but I didn't. Next time I will try that for sure though!

In other news, I got my Amazing Grass in the mail today! Yay! I love getting treats in the mail. Its so exciting! I wasn't expecting it to come so quickly, but they shipped it Priority Mail at no extra cost. One thing I already like about Amazing Grass is that their shipping prices are included in the product price, so you don't pay anything extra for shipping when you order online.

We ordered 4 sample packs to try because we couldn't decide on which one to get.

I'll let you know my verdict after I try them. I did make Lincoln a smoothie with the Kidz SuperFood in it and he sucked it down!

Do you like hummus? What do you eat it on? What's your favorite flavor? Have you ever made it from scratch?

My First Green Monster

I made my first Green Monster this morning. Take a look at the website if you aren't familiar with Green Monsters. There are many different recipes to try. I made the Virgin Green Monster.

The ingredients are:

• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 1 Tbsp Flax Seed
• 1 banana
• 1 cup milk
• ice

This is what it looks like when its all blended together.

Pretty intimidating looking! I have to admit I was a little scared of what this was going to taste like. I smelled it first, but all I could smell was the banana. So here goes nothing!

And the verdict is:

Its really good! I couldn't taste the spinach at all, it just tastes like a banana smoothie. I'm glad to find another nutritious breakfast. I've really been wearing out the yogurt and granola lately. Now I can mix it up with a Green Monster sometimes.

I ordered some Amazing Grass last night, because I've been curious about it lately. Tim and I sat down together and looked at the website and decided to buy a few sampler packets to try and see what we like. I think these will be good to add into my Green Monsters.

Spaghetti Squash Recipe

I've been wanting to try Spaghetti Squash forever it seems. I've seen it on all kinds of cooking shows, but I've never been able to find it in any store here. Yesterday on our "Grocery Shopping Gone Wild" trip, we were buying some things in the produce section and I turned around and saw the Spaghetti Squash! And .. it was only $.89

I had to do some research to figure out exactly how to cook these crazy things, but it really wasn't hard at all.

First of all, this is what a spaghetti squash looks like:

The first step is to poke holes with a fork all over the squash so that it doesn't explode when you cook it. Then pre-heat oven to 375 degrees and bake the whole squash for 1 hour. I turned mine halfway through.

Meanwhile I made my spaghetti sauce, which is really pretty much just basic meat sauce, but I'll tell you what I did anyway. I used 1 1/4 pound very lean ground beef (93% lean), a tablespoon of minced garlic, 1/2 onion chopped, and 1 large zucchini chopped. I like to add in extra veggies wherever possible.

I sauteed this mixture until the beef was all browned and the zucchine started to get soft. Then I added in 1 jar of spaghetti sauce. I let the sauce simmer on low heat for the whole time the squash was baking.

After 1 hour I removed the squash from the oven, sliced vertically and spooned out all the seeds from the middle.

Once the seeds were removed, I used a fork to gently pull out the strands of the squash.

Top the "noodles" with the meat sauce like you normally would. The texture is a little bit different from real noodles, so you won't fool anyone into thinking they are noodles. But they have essentially no flavor, so it doesn't interfere with the flavor of the sauce at all.

Tim and I both really liked this recipe. I served the spaghetti with a small side salad and we were both pleasantly full.

I was really suprised at the amount of "noodles" you can get out of one squash. I had almost half a squash left after serving us both fairly big portions. I don't know how it will keep in the refrigerator for reheating, but I'm gonna give it a try.

What a day!

This morning I woke up and decided to spend the day shopping. I do this way too often, but when you are going through sizes as quickly as I have been its pretty much inevitable. I found some good deals on jeans and sweaters. And I'm happy to report that I got to move down another size in jeans! Size 10 baby! I never even wore a size 10 back in my "skinny days".

I called my grandmother to see if she wanted Lincoln and I to come over for a visit this afternoon, and she offered to meet me at the store and pay $50 on my new clothes. Score!

I took Lincoln to lunch at Zoe's Kitchen, one of my very favorite places to eat for lunch. I always order the same thing, Grilled Chicken Breast sandwhich with a side of salsa, slaw and Baked Lays.

When we got finished shopping and visiting with the grandparents I decided I'd like to go for a run. So I dropped Lincoln off at my mother in-law's house and got everything together to go running. I ran a great 5 miles! Nothing on my body hurt, the weather was nice, my clothes and my iPod cooperated with me, it was awesome. I probably could have run another couple of miles except that I was so thirsty and I forgot my water bottle at home on the counter.

I picked up Lincoln and went to the grocery store to find some inspiration for dinner. I wasn't sure what I wanted at all. I saw pizza crusts and remembered that I had some goat cheese at home that I've been wanting to use. So I bought some pizza sauce, fresh spinach, baby bella mushrooms, a red onion, and black olives.

Put it all together and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 450 degrees and this is what you get.

It was AMAZING! The goat cheese was the star of the show for sure, but anyone that knows me knows that I'm obsessed with goat cheese. I can't wait to make this for Tim when he comes home tomorrow. Its definitely going to be a new regular in our house.

Have you ever tried goat cheese? What do you think of it?

My Culinary Mistake

Well, I'm finally off of work for a few days. I can't write much when I'm working since I work three 12 hour shifts in a row. I pretty much just work and sleep for 3 days straight.

When I woke up this afternoon I got some Parisienne Chicken going in the crockpot for my dinner tonight. I already had all of the ingredients at home except the mushrooms, so it was an easy fix.

I went to the Y this evening and did 15 minutes on the elliptical before my spinning class. Spin class was really good tonight. I've been feeling like it was a waste of time lately because I think my body is too used to it. My heart rate doesn't usually get high enough for me to burn enough calories in spinning anymore. But tonight was different ... my heart rate stayed higher than normal and I felt like I got a really good workout.

When I got home the chicken was smelling really good. But when I looked at it I realized something was wrong.

The sauce was all grainy and gross. At first I thought that it was just a bad recipe, but I just re-read it and realized I messed up. I was suppose to mix sour cream into the white wine and cream of mushroom soup mixture, and instead I just put it into the crockpot. Oops!

I tried to make the best of it by serving it with some yummy sauteed green beans and rice. And it wasn't actually that bad, but it definitely isn't a keeper. I don't think it would have been that great if I had done it correctly either, so I probably won't bother making this one again.

Oh well, lesson learned. What culinary mistakes have you made?

Homemade Granola Bars

I've been eating a lot of granola bars lately, so I thought I might try my hand at making my own. I found this recipe online to use as a guide. I decided to make mine with dried cranberries and sunflower seeds. I also added some milled flax seeds. I made a few other changes as well; I used 1/3 cup of brown sugar instead of the 3/4 cups called for. I also used Blue Agave instead of honey to sweeten it with.

Mix all dry ingredients from recipe into a large bowl, make a well in the center and pour in all the wet ingredients. Mix well with your hands and spread on a 9x13 pan.

I put a piece of saran wrap sprayed with PAM over the mixture and had the hubby roll it out with a rolling pin for me so that it would be nice and even.

I love that he is wearing a shirt that says, "Let me drop everything and work on your problem" while he's rolling out my granola for me. :)

According to the recipe you are suppose to cook the mixture at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, but I read several of the reviews that said that was way too long. I cooked it for 18 minutes and it turned out perfectly. After letting it cool off for a good 5 minutes I cut it into bars.

For 24 bars it works out to be 3 points per bar. Not bad! I might try one in the morning for breakfast. Lincoln ate a whole one tonight for dinner, and he rarely eats anything so they must not be too bad.

Originally I planned on making Melissa D'Arabian's Morrocan Meatballs, couscous with dried dates and steamed carrots for dinner tonight. But after eating some movie theater popcorn that I didn't plan for I decided I needed a lighter dinner. So I had some yummy sushi, edamame succotash and some of the leftover dilly cucumber salad.

E-Mealz Review

A few months ago I ran across a website called E-mealz. I can't remember exactly what I was looking for when I ran across this site, but it has really been an excellent resource that I wanted to share.

Let me explain. E-mealz is a weekly meal plan and grocery list. You start by choosing which grocery store you prefer to shop at, how many people you are cooking for and how many meals per week you want to cook, and what dietary restrictions you are following. They even have a Weight Watchers plan! For my family I chose: Walmart Points System for two people, 5 day dinner plan.

E-mealz will create a recipe plan and aisle-by-aisle grocery list based on your preferences. One of my favorite things about it is that they base their menu on the items that are on sale at your chosen grocery store for that week. On the grocery list they divide it up easily so that you can remove all the items for one meal if you decide not to make that one. You can also see how much all of your items cost individually and what your total cost will be, which for me is usually around $40 per week.

I originally decided to sign up for this program because I thought it would save me some money on my grocery bill, but I didn't realize how delicious the meals would be. I've only come across 1 recipe that I really didn't care for. The others have been excellent, and very easy to make.

So if this sounds like something you might be interested in take a look at the website. You can see a sample menu on the site of what you will get. The cost is about $5 per month, but if you google "E-mealz Coupon Codes" or "E-mealz Promo Codes" you can save a dollar or two.

Here are a couple pictures of some of my E-mealz recipes I have made:


Turkey and Eggplant Casserole


Turkey Mexican Skillet

Both of these recipes happen to be turkey, but they use all other kinds of meats also and even have a vegetarian option I believe. Tonight for dinner I'm making County Fair Chicken, which is cubed chicken, carrots and red potatoes with yummy seasonings and baked in the oven. Can't wait to dig into that tonight after my spinning classes!

Biking in the Park and Another Race

Tim and I went back to the Shakespeare Park this morning and rode our bikes around for a while. I think I ended up riding just over 7 miles in about 52 minutes. I was pulling our son in the trailer behind me so it was much more difficult hauling an extra 30 pounds or so. We had a great time though.

After our ride we had a little picnic and fed the ducks. I packed up Club Sandwhiches, fresh fruit, baby carrots with fat free ranch dip, and Quakes last night for us to eat. This is such a change from when we used to go eat picnics. Normally we would stop by Fresh Market on the way to the park and buy about $75 worth of sushi, pasta salads, paninis, chips or crackers, hummus, etc. Not that all that stuff was bad by any means, but it was definitely unnecessary. For some reason we thought we needed that much food though. Then on top of eating all that if we did anything else at the park besides eat and feed the ducks, it would just be to pull out a couple lawn chairs and read books or magazines.

I signed up for what will be our 2nd official 5K today. The first one is going to be September 19th, and then the second one that I just registered for will be October 3rd. There is a Labor Day 5K tomorrow, but I didn't sign us up ahead of time and it would be $50 for Tim and I to register at the event tomorrow. Not to mention we'd have to be there atleast an hour early to register and it already starts at 7:30 am. I think I'd like to sleep in atleast one day during this holiday weekend.

We went to Books-A-Million yesterday while we were waiting to get my bike tuned up, and I bought a couple books that I'm really excited about. One of them is called Frozen Assets Lite and Easy: Cook for a Day Eat for a Month and the other one is called Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer. As the names may suggest they are recipe books of freezable recipes to have on hand. I love those kinds of things especially since I work night shift and I'm not home alot of nights to cook for my family. The recipes in the 1st book look really good! Some of the recipes in the 2nd one look really good too, but because its not a light cookbook I'll probably have to tweak them some to meet my WW requirements. I'll let you know how they turn out!

Todays Food Diary - Picture Style

For today's blog I decided to make a picture diary of my food. I definitely won't be able to do it everyday, because not only would that get monotonous but it would also be nearly impossible for me to take a picture of every single thing I eat at work since we don't get real meal breaks. Thats another story all together though.

But I figured this would be a fun way to keep myself accountable for the things that I eat, if I have to share it with (potentially) the whole world.

For breakfast I had: A Deep Chocolate Vitatop, 1 cup of skim milk, and apple slices.

Lunch consisted of: Homemade Veggie Black Bean Burger and a cup of Progresso Hearty Tomato Soup.

For a afternoon snack I had: Lowfat yogurt, a 100 calorie pack of Pringles, and more apple slices. I didn't take a picture of the Pringles because I didn't actually intend to eat them, but since my son didn't find them fit for him I HAD to eat them, right?

Dinner was awesome! I made Stuffed Bell Peppers, Sauteed spinach and onions with mushrooms, and Cauliflower in Cheese Sauce.

All of this came to a total of 24 points for the day. That leaves me 1 point left over to have a Sugar Free Jello Pudding for dessert. I think it was a pretty successful day food-wise. I got in alot of vegetables and fruit. I probably could have done better on my protein, but I eat alot of protein normally so one low day won't hurt.

Tomorrow morning we are getting up early to go running in the park with some friends of mine from work. I'll get to use my new Garmin Forerunner 305 that came in the mail today. More on that later. Goodnight!

Note to Self.

I really want to remember this next week when I have a few days off of work, so I'm writing a reminder to myself, but feel free to take advantage of it as well.

Don't forget to make Melissa d'Arabians North African Meatballs, Couscous with Dried Dates, and Glazed Carrots.

It looked super yummy and I think it could possibly be fairly low in points too. And if its worse than I think it is, I could probably adjust some things.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out!

Moo Shu Chicken Recipe Review & Another Goal Met

Daily Activity: Body Pump (3.5 APs)

Well, I did it. I went to the Body Pump class that I promised myself that I would do. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I wrote in a previous blog about how I've been stuck in a rut with my exercise routines. I've done nothing but cardio, cardio, cardio because I absolutely HATE strength training and weights. But I made a goal for myself to go to atleast 1 Body Pump class during the month of August.

I went to the Y planning on doing my normal elliptical routine tonight. When I got there a girl that I made friends with in our spinning class asked me about coming to Body Pump. I initially said no, because I wanted to go to my first Body Pump class when Tim was there to go with me. But she told me how good the instructor was that was teaching and I remembered my vow to myself, so I agreed to go. She was so nice to help me get all of my weights together and everything that I would need for the class.

I was in the front row of the class, which I would have never done if I had made the choice myself. It was really hard and I felt really out of place most of the time. My form SUCKED! I was really trying to concentrate on just making it through without looking like a complete douche. Everything was going ok, until we started doing lunges. I don't know what the problem was but my legs were shaking so bad it was obvious and I kept losing my balance. You'd think I'd have more thigh strength considering how much I run, do the elliptical, and spin.

All in all, I'm glad I went. I know I need to keep going so that I can gain strength. I'm going to seriously make an effort to continue working on my strength on a semi-regular basis. And eventually maybe even a real regular basis.

Tonight for dinner I made Hungry Girl Moo Shu Chicken. If you have never heard of Hungry Girl, be sure to check out the website. There are also 2 Hungry Girl cookbooks availabe. I find the recipes to be really good for individuals who are cooking for themselves or for one other person. They aren't usually very "family friendly" recipes. Some of the ingredients are quite strange, some of the recipes are quite strange, but there are some real jewels also.

I won't go into all the details of how to make this recipe since I provided the link, but here are the ingredients you will need:

Chicken breast, Broccoli Slaw, Bean Sprouts, Pepper, Corn Starch, Straw Mushrooms, Garlic, Rice Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, and tortillas (not pictured).

Follow the directions in the recipe and you will have something that looks like this:

Cut a couple tortillas in half and microwave them for about 15 seconds, then spread a little Hoisin sauce on them and top with 1/3 cup of the Moo Shu mixture. Don't skip the Hoisin sauce, it really makes the dish.

One thing I love about this recipe besides the fact that its just good is that it tastes really fresh and not heavy at all. It would be a great lunch if you have time to make it mid-day, or make the mixture ahead and just wrap up the tortillas when you are ready. It is also a great recipe to get your veggies in!

That is all for tonight.

Chicken Cacciatore Recipe, A Challenge and a VICTORY!

Daily Activity: Ran 5 Miles!!! (6 APs)

I'll start with the recipe I made for dinner tonight. It was Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore, which is a complete bitch to spell by the way. I'm still not even sure I got it right, but you get the point. Tim bought me this Slow Cooker book from Books-a-Million a while back that was in the super -super -extra clearance- like we might just give it to you for free -area. It has produced some really great recipes though and one of them is this Chicken Cacciatore.

Here are the ingredients you will need to make this dish:

A pile of chicken drumsticks, skin removed.

Diced tomatoes, Red wine, Tomato paste, Minced garlic, 2 onions, parsley, and thyme (last 3 not shown).

1. Heat 2 Tbsp Olive oil in a large skillet. Brown chicken on all sides for about 7-8 minutes total. Remove chicken to crockpot.

2. Slice 2 onions. Cook in remaining oil until onions become slightly golden brown.






3. Add minced garlic (I didn't measure, maybe about 1 1/2 Tbsp), 2/3 cup red wine, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 Tbsp tomato paste, thyme (fresh or dried, again I didn't measure), and fresh parsley to skillet.

4. Bring all ingredients to a boil and add to crockpot with drumsticks. It should look something like that pile of delicousness to the left.

5. Cook in crockpot on low for 5 hours. I think this dish is traditionally served with pasta but I just served the chicken with the sauce and a side salad to reduce the points.

I didn't take any pictures of the finished product because honestly it didn't look very picturesque, but it tasted pretty damn good. Well ... I thought it was pretty good, but Tim made obscene noises while he ate so I'll round that out to .. pretty damn good. I also made some homemade potato bread in the bread maker to serve along side.

The Chicken Cacciatore is 4 points/serving. Each serving is one drumstick. Pretty decent!

On to other news:

We cleaned out our deep freezer today, and we have a ridiculous amount of food we didn't even realize we had. I didn't count but I would say that we had about 40 or so Lean Cuisines, Lean Pockets, etc. We had countless packs of frozen chicken breast, thighs, tenders, porkchops ... and on and on. We decided we are going to try to make it to the end of the month without shopping for meat or frozen vegetables. At first I was going to try to not go grocery shopping at all, but obviously having a child in the house we are going to need certain things, and we'll definitely need fresh fruit and fresh vegetables from time to time. But I'm really going to make an effort to plan our meals around the things we have in our freezer.

I tried to make an inventory on this program that I downloaded called Living Cookbook, but it turned out to be way too time consuming and frustrating, so I gave up. Does anyone have any good programs they can recommend for compiling all my recipes into one program? I'd love something that tells you the nutrition info, makes grocery list, and keeps an inventory of items on hand. Is that asking too much?

I also ran 5 miles tonight!! I mentioned in a previous blog how I never could quite make it to that point. Well tonight I decided I was going to run 5 miles or die trying! Its amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it.

Tomorrow is weigh-in day. So far things aren't looking so good for this week as far as the scale goes. But I'll let you know the official results in the morning.

Spinning, Roast Beef and Zumba?

Daily Activity: 2 Spinning Classes (8.5 APs)

I love Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those are the days that my favorite spin instructor teaches back to back classes at the Y. So every Tuesday and Thursday (except the nights I have to work) I find a delicious crockpot recipe and get everything going so that I can spin my heart out at the Y for 2 hours and burn around 800-900 calories. Then I come home to a great smelling house and an exciting recipe waiting for me.

Today I decided to pull out a London Broil that has been in my deep freezer for atleast a good 6 months. I originally bought it because it was super cheap, but then I never knew what to do with it. So it sat ... until today. I looked up a Slow Cooker London Broil recipe on my favorite site All Recipes, and threw everything in the ol' crockpot.

When I got home from spinning, I shredded the beef up and made roast beef sandwhiches with lettuce, tomato and just a smear of Hellman's Low Fat Mayo on a Sunbeam Light Hamburger Bun. Much more points friendly than traditional French bread. I made some Oreida Zesty Twirl fries to go alongside (3 pts/serving) and had another delicious crockpot dinner. The entire meal works out to be 10 points including the fries.

In other news, Tim (my hubby) told me tonight that he found out that Zumba is coming to one of our local YMCAs. I've watched a few youtube videos of Zumba and it looks super fun, but it also looks like something I would be embarassed as hell to do in public. So we'll see. Maybe I'll work up the nerve to actually give it a try. I'll keep you posted.

Food Finds and Yummy Tacos.

Daily Activity: Spinning 45 minutes (4 APs)

Some of you may know that I went to a church boarding school when I was in high school. The school that I went to was vegetarian; so I went two years of my life without eating meat. During that time I found some really good meat substitutes that I actually enjoyed. I think most people automatically close their mind down to trying "meat-like" products without giving them a fair chance. Although I'm not a vegetarian now, I still resort to some of my meat substitutes on occasion because of their lower fat and calorie content.

One of the things I have always enjoyed are Boca Burgers. They are frozen hamburger like patties that can be microwaved or cooked on an indoor grill. They make several different flavors and some vegan options. They don't taste like a real hamburger, and I think thats where alot of people get caught up. But personally I like the way they taste.


A few months ago I discovered that Boca makes a product called Boca Crumbles. It is the vegetarian equivalent of ground beef. It can be found in the frozen food section of the grocery store with the other Boca products and Morningstar Farms products.


The nutrition information:

For those of you on Weight Watchers, one serving equals 1 point. Not bad at all! Compare that to ground beef and I think you'll see a big difference.

I love to use Boca Crumbles for tacos and in chili. With all of the spices and toppings you really cannot tell a difference in the taste of the Boca Crumbles vs. ground beef. There is a slightly different texture, but its hardly noticable.

Boca Crumbles are really easy to cook with as well. You can take the bag straight out of the freezer to a skillet without defrosting which is great for dinner on the fly.

This is what it looks like cooked and mixed with a taco seasoning packet, just like you would do with regular ground beef.

Proceed to make your tacos like you normally would. For my toppings I used: Kraft Free Shredded Cheddar Cheese, chopped onion, chopped scallions, salsa, Daisy Light Sour Cream, and cilantro. I served Old El Paso Fat Free Refried Beans on the side with some of my taco toppings.

Two soft tacos with all the toppings and 1/2 cup of FF refried beans equals 8.5 points, and one very filling and delicious meal!