GREAT Dinner Idea

As many of you know, I follow TheWorldAccordingToEggFace
all the time. I love how she cooks REAL meals with REAL food and can make "healthy" foods taste like naughty foods.

Much like California, Arizona has been having CRAZY weather this last week and my poor mother was stranded away from her home because every road into her house was flooded and barricaded off. So she came over for the night and I wanted something warm, comforting, but quick and easy to make. I decided to try BURRITO PEPPERS, courtesy of Egg Face. Of course, I made a few variations of my own. I do NOT like spicy food that much. And to be honest I don't even like peppers that much, but I LOVE this dish, even the peppers :)




HERE is the link for her blog with the original recipe. Below is my version.


3 bell peppers (any color will do) stemmed, seeded, and cut in half lengthwise

1 walla walla sweet onion, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
3/4 lbs ground beef (I used 98/2 lean)
1 can (16oz) Non Fat re fried beans
2 TBS taco seasoning (I used low sodium)
dash of kosher salt (I did not use the full 1/2 tsp)




a few twists of black pepper
3/4 cup shredded cheese (I actually used the "fiesta" blend which has a few different kids of cheese)- divided
olive oil for sauteing



Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Place your peppers in a lightly oiled Pyrex style glass casserole dish, sprinkle with salt and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the peppers and drain any water that accumulated while cooking.

Increase cooking temp to 400 degrees.
Saute onions (both green and sweets) until golden.

Add ground beef and cook thoroughly.

Add beans, taco seasoning, dash of salt and pepper.

Add half of the cheese and mix well.

I used 2 large spoons to scoop mixture by heaping spoonfuls into each of the pepper halves.

Top the "stuffed" peppers with the rest of your cheese and bake in the oven for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until peppers are tender. Mine took the full 25 minutes.

I topped mine with some fat free sour cream and some of the crisped cheese that fell off the top of the burrito peppers while baking.

This dinner was fast, very easy, and surprisingly delicious! I was afraid I would really notice the lack of tortilla and extra cheese, but I really didn't!

These are going to be filed in the "KEEPERS" section! Thanks again Egg Face!

WOO HOO!!

Today was our first day at the gym and it went so great! I did cardio for 40 minutes! My super cool shoes DID work on the treadmill :) but not the stair stepper :( lol, it's ok though. I'm SO proud of myself and and I'm feeling GREAT!

For breakfast I had a Smart Ones breakfast sandwich that was surprisingly good! I'll get the stats up on that. And then I had a Fruit Naturals cup of red grapefruit :) Super yummy!!!

Bad news is my fill got re-scheduled until next Friday instead of this Friday :( boo!

What's For Breakfast?

One of my dear friends who had bypass recommended this Banana Bread oatmeal breakfast to me. At first I kind of turned my nose up at it because I've only ever been loyal to apple cinnamon, maple and brown sugar, or cinnamon spice Quaker oatmeal and have never felt the need to try other flavors. I'm picky with banana flavors so I wasn't sure. But then she suggested adding a spoon full of peanut butter resulting in a taste very similar to a peanut butter and banana sandwich, which I LOVE! So I tried is and WOW!

Not only does this taste wonderful, but it is SO filling due to all the protein it packs. Normally I can eat 3 little bags of oat meal in one meal, but adding peanut butter to it makes 1 bag PLENTY. Unfortunately I can't say that it's because my band is preventing me from eating more, but still, I'm anxious to see if I can even eat 1 whole bag when I am adjusted properly (fingers crossed for Friday!).

The peanut butter I use is the fresh ground, no "stuff" added kind that you grind yourself. It's just fun grinding your own peanut butter, watching the peanut reservoir go down and watching smooth creamy peanut butter come out the dispenser :) I usually fill my little bucket too much because I have so much fun just watching it :) It's the little things in life...right?

I just prefer this peanut butter to any pre-packaged kind. It doesn't have any added sugars or added fats or anything else...it's just pure natural peanut-y goodness.

So if you're in search of a very filling, very fast, very easy, and very tasty breakfast that is post-op friendly...try this :)

FINALLY AN UPDATE!!

Well given my absence from the blogs and support threads, I think it's needless to say that the holidays hit me...hard! I'm disappointed because I saw it coming a mile away and still let it happen. Shame on me :( Honestly, it could have been a LOT worse, but still, I knew better.

Moving on!! :) I'm learning that it's important to just keep moving forward, I can't turn back time, so why lose sleep over it?

I have my next fill appointment this coming Friday, thank GOD! It was supposed to be done under fluoroscope but for some reason they're having me do another "in-office" fill first. I may call about that tomorrow to find out why...I'd really like the fluoroscope to make sure that I don't have a leak or anything and to make sure my band is being filled since I still have absolutely no restriction. I should have some, right? It's been over 6 months! :(

Hubby and I signed up for the gym today! YAY! I think I can use my super cool shoes on the treadmills just not the elliptical, we'll see though. Otherwise I'll only track my in-between-work-out-walking. So we start Thursday w/the personal trainer and I told him I want to speed up my weight loss. I feel like I'm "behind" everyone else banded around the same time as me. I don't like feeling like that. I also told him I want to make sure I don't have a lot of loose skin. He seems pretty confident that I won't, so I'm excited to see what his "plan" for me is.

Anyway, I'll keep this on the short and sweet side until I have more info and updates. But I promise I'm back and will be posting LOTS of new recipes, accomplishments, food finds, and other such goodies :)

No more excuses, the time for that is over. Keep moving forward! (from my favorite movie, Meet The Robinson's!)