Tacky Pants

One of my fellow bloggers posted the most inspirational blog a while ago... Tacky Pants (please click the title to read her original posting). In short, she turned a pair of her "goal jeans" which I know we all have, into a bulletin board of sorts! Great idea, right?! Instead of letting her goal jeans be hidden away in the dark depths of her closet, she decided to hang them on her wall as a constant, in her face reminder of her goals. Using her "goal jeans" as a bulletin board she pins anything inspirational and motivational to them. I so super love this idea, I had to copy :)

My jeans I hung up aren't actually my final goal jeans, they're just my FIRST goal jeans.

I'll be pinning much more to them as I find things that will motivate me and encourage me to stay focused and stay strong :) I highly encourage everyone follow suite if you need a good idea for motivation :)

FOOD FIND!

A lot of healthy recipes I find include dips to help accent (or cover) the flavor of the foods they're featured with. Personally, I've never really been a dip kind of gal, and I usually don't have, or want to make, the time to puree, blend, grind, or otherwise make the dips.

However...last weekend whilst out and about with my mother in law at a craft expo, we found this:

Watkins "Natural Gourmet" Snack and Dip seasonings. (http://www.watkinsonline.com/productsgroup.cfm?Parent=3&family=26&gCatalogLocale=USA&ECredit=081200N&group=70)

These are only a few calories per serving and fat free but pack a LOT of flavor! We sampled the bacon & cheddar, the cucumber & dill, and salsa flavored. I bought the first 2 mentioned because I was just amazed at how good they were. I'm not a salsa fan, but for those of you who are...there ya go!

Basically you just mix a couple tablespoons of this powder mix into 1 cup of your base of choice. The samples were made with sour cream. So you could use that, or if you wanted to lower the fat you could use a low fat or fat free sour cream. I, however, mixed mine with my newly found (and loved) Greek yogurt, which has the taste and consistency of sour cream but gives you a TON of protein.

For something that tastes so exactly like bacon and cheese but has absolutely no fat...this stuff deserves it's own blog post.

Try the mixes with toasted flat breads, veggies, naked nuggets, use it on salads, or whatever else you just need a little extra flavor. Each jar has a shelf life of up to 5 years...but I doubt it'll ever see the 1 year mark ;)

Tonight's dinner was a twist on a previous EggFace invention that I posted. I took her Burrito Pepper recipe and molded it into what I'm deciding to call Spaghetti Peppers :) Sounds fun, right? It's the same basic concept, all the yummy stuff without the carbs. I'm not sure if she has her own version, I wouldn't be surprised, but this is what I came up with on my own. It was a huge success...if I do say so myself.

*This made a LOT...you may want to cut some of the ingredients in half according to your taste/preference, or increase the number of peppers being filled*

2 peppers (I used 1 red and 1 green), stemmed, seeded, and cut in half lengthwise
3/4 lb ground turkey (or beef if you prefer)
1 can diced Italian tomatoes
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce (you're choice...but for this I used Italian Garden)
2 Tablespoons low fat grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese
4 slices low fat provolone cheese


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place peppers in a lightly oiled Pyrex style baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. Remove peppers, drain any water that pooled up and set the peppers aside. Increase the oven temp to 400 degrees.

Brown the ground turkey in a non-stick skillet until brown.
Mix all of the ingredients other than the provolone cheese in a separate bowl and then add the browned turkey.

Spoon mixture into the peppers, as much as you can fit in each pepper and then cover with a slice of provolone cheese. And I just now thought that it would have been yummy to sprinkle some Italian seasonings on top of the provolone cheese before baking. Clearly I didn't, but I'll try it next time :)

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

And you're done! These are really good, but kind of messy. They definitely cure my spaghetti craving, and that is why they are so named :) Like I mentioned, the "filling" quantities left me with a lot of left overs but I'm not good with modifying recipe sizes yet. Give it a try and see what works for you, these are well worth it :)

A Recipe of My Own!

I am SO excited over this recipe! A couple years ago at my supermarket they were doing a demo for this but the way they made it was really not healthy and so this was a once in a while food. But I've done some experimenting and made it healthy!!!!! And it tastes 99.9% the same, or else I wouldn't even bother posting it because I don't like when things don't taste close to the original un-healthy version. Here it is...I hope you like it! ***The recipe below is for 2 servings, I always double it so that my husband and I have left overs so the RECIPE is for 2 servings (2 people) but the PICTURES are doubled, for 4 servings. My motto is cook once, eat twice!***

Bronzed Salmon in a Basil-Wine Sauce (don't be afraid)

2 salmon fillets
Mediterranean Blend seasonings grinder (or a Seafood blend would work)
1 tablespoon olive oil (I use organic) **DON'T DOUBLE if you're going to double the recipe, just add one more TEASPOON**
2 tablespoons dry white wine (I always use the cheap-o $3 from wal-mart white wine, it works)

Sauce:
1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic (I use the kind in a jar, so much easier)
1/4 cup dry white wine (if you splash a little extra it's ok;) )
1/2 cup Plain Greek Yogurt (original recipe called for heavy cream)
2 heaping tablespoons Gourmet Garden Squeeze Basil (click the word for product info- it's found in your produce section and is essentially herbs in a tube but makes life SO much easier!)
Salt to taste
1 lemon wedge (I never use this but my husband does)



Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat for 1 minute.
Make sure to remove the skin/scales from your salmon:

Here's all the "stuff" I used:

Season the salmon fillets to taste with the Seasonings grinder (coat heavily on both sides):

Add the oil and the salmon to the pan and bronze for 2 minutes on each side. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, turning every 2 minutes, until done. Remove from pan and set aside but keep warm:

For the sauce:

Place the same skillet (un-washed...keep all the "bits") back over medium-high heat and add the garlic and the wine. Simmer the wine to reduce to 2/3 (I personally have no idea what that really is, so I just eye it and when there's less liquid I call it good):

Add the greek yogurt and the basil and mix well:

Let that simmer just a little bit, stirring constantly. Season to taste with salt and lemon juice from the wedge, if you like:

Sorry this picture is so bad, it doesn't look near as good with the flash washing it out...but basically you just spoon the sauce over the bronzed salmon fillets and serve with a nice salad or some veggies:

Please let me know if you try this and how you like it! Or if you have any modifications you made that worked really well :)

Breakfast Idea!

Sorry these are late! Hold tight because I'm going to be posting about...oh...maybe 3 super yummy posts :)

Up first (or last by the time you get down here) is Bacon Cheeseburger Bites (a la eggface and then a la me!) :
These are WONDERFULLY satisfying and full of protein.

1/2 Yellow or sweet onion, diced ( I used a walla walla sweet)
2 green onions, diced
1/2 lb ground beef (I used left overs from a roast I made and ground the already cooked meat myself)
5 eggs
2 TBS bacon bits (eggface used bacon bits, I used low sodium no sugar added bacon, cooked, drained, and chopped up myself- much tastier in my opinion)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
dash of seasoned salt ( I just used regular Kosher salt)
a few twists of black pepper



Saute onions (both yellow and green) until the yellow ones are soft and golden.
If you are using raw ground beef, add that to the onions and cook until there's no more pink.
Then set aside to cool:

Mix all the other ingredients together (shown below is with the pre-cooked self-ground beef sans eggs):

Make sure the onions have cooled slightly before adding the egg mixture (otherwise you'll get some cooked egg chunks early and that's not good) and then mix it all up.

Spoon into lightly greased mini muffin tins and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. One batch makes 24.

VIOLA!!

These also refrigerate and re-heat very well. I was a little worried about re-heating egg...but it's just fine :)

:(

UGH! My surgeon's office called me again today to re-schedule my already re-scheduled fill appt! :( I knew she was scared to tell me, lol, she was very apologetic, but don't they realize that I am NOT FILLED enough and every single week they push me back is one more week I have to loose control again. Luckily I'm still on my "gym" high and am doing pretty good. But still, this better be the last time I get re-scheduled. *evil glare*

But on the gym note, I'm having a great time! We met with another personal trainer today (we are keeping it mixed up so we don't get into too much of a "routine") and we love him! His name is Jude and he is BUILT! I like him :)

New recipes coming tomorrow!! I hope you all have a GREAT rest of your week!

PS-
You may not know it, but I read and keep up on all your blogs and some of you give me SO much inspiration from posts that maybe don't seem that important...so keep 'em coming!

Pizza Fix

Last night we were craving pizza, but we knew we didn't want to splurge for it. We just hired a personal trainer at the gym we just joined (major $ ouch!!) so we didn't want to spend the money and we didn't want to undo our progress so far with pizza so early in the game.


Once again, thanks to EggFace I was able to find a quick, easy, and super tasty alternative that really satisfied our craving without the guilt or expense!



I didn't follow her recipe so I'm not sure how they will differ, but I did get the idea from her blog so I want to give her due credit.



















Easy Cheesy Pizza (my version)

1 Flat Out flat bread (from Costco)
drizzle of olive oil
2 TBS store bought pizza sauce
1/2 cup cheese


This is kind of the basic pizza "base." The toppings you want are up to you.

















For the photos shown, one is a Hawaiian pizza and one is pepperoni.

















The Hawaiian pizza has:

4 thin slices of low fat deli ham
a little more than 1/8 cup fresh pineapple, diced
a little more than 1/8 cup sliced black olives (just regular canned)

The Pepperoni has:

Turkey Pepperoni

Preheat oven to 350.

Brush a little bit of olive oil on the top of the flat bread and then place directly onto the oven rack and bake for 7 minutes.

Remove and place on a foil lined cookie sheet and add your desired toppings.

Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the amount of toppings and how you prefer your cheese.

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Since I am not restricted properly yet (fingers crossed for Friday!!) I can easily eat the full pizza paired with a side salad. However if you are properly restricted, I would guess one pizza would be about 2 meals.

It's VERY good and fun to make. This would be a fun dinner to make with kids to let them "decorate" their pizzas with their toppings. You can also cut the flat bread into shapes for added whimsy :)