Lasagna

Sometimes, I don't make the best decisions. Take today for example. I not only made a batch of Alabama Firecrackers, but I also made a batch of Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies. Even now, after I have put everything in a sealed container, I can still hear them calling to me from the kitchen, begging me to try just one bite. I've been pretty strong so far and I hope I stay this way. I made these to share with my co-workers tomorrow at the Oyster Festival that my company plays host to. It usually draws a pretty good crowd and everyone has a good time. I have to work this year, as every other year, but since I'm going to be working the t-shirt table, I should be able to still have time to step away and socialize.

One of the ways to stay successful with Weight Watchers is to plan ahead. Tomorrow is a great example. I don't like oysters, and the other food that will be available to me isn't healthy either. There is usually a tent set up selling hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries. Nothing that is WW friendly. So I will be taking my own lunch with me tomorrow. I'm planning to take a ham & cheese wrap with some fruit, carrot sticks and some Special K Cracker Chips. I'm also going to take a couple of bottles of water in order to make my 6 - 8 glasses of water recommendation for the day. When you know that you're going to be in a situation where you're not going to have a lot of healthy options available, it's a good idea to take something with you that you already know the points value of and will be able to enjoy without feeling guilty.

We had lasagna for dinner tonight. This was the first time that I made this variation. It was pretty good, but the next time I make it, I will make some tweaks to it to make it a little better. Here's the recipe:

LASAGNA
adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 9
Points+: 9

1 lb. extra lean ground beef
3/4 lb. italian turkey sausage
1 medium green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
26 oz. spaghetti sauce
8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
1 c. 2% cottage cheese
6 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
1 c. part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
3 t. italian seasoning, divided
1/4 c. reduced fat parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground beef and turkey sausage. Add pepper, onion and garlic and cook until veggies are tender. Set aside 1 c. spaghetti sauce and add remaining spaghetti sauce to meat and veggie mixture. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 8 - 10 minutes.

In a small saucepan, melt cream cheese over medium heat. Remove from heat and add cottage cheese.

Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 of meat mixture in bottom of dish. Top meat layer with 3 lasagna noodles, followed by 1/2 of cream cheese mixture and 1 1/2 t. italian seasoning. Repeat meat, noodle and cream cheese layers. Cover with reserved spaghetti sauce. Top this with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.

EXERCISE
So I'm happy to report that the scale was down a little bit this morning. I'm hoping that I can keep this trend throughout the weekend. Tonight, I changed up my workout again and did JM No More Trouble Zones. This is a pretty difficult video to do for me, especially because it's 50 minutes long. I gave it my all for as long as I could and made sure to have a good cool down. I'm still feeling the workout in my shoulders.

I'm hoping to get in a morning run before I have to go to the Oyster Festival. Tomorrow is usually a pretty tiring day and I want to get my workout in before I leave so I don't have to worry about trying to do it after working the festival all day. Keep your fingers crossed...

So long for now...

BBQ Meatloaf Muffins

In case you didn't know, I have an almost 3 year old daughter. She is the light of my life! She's such a sweet little girl, it would be hard not to fall in love with her. Like any three year old, she can be pretty picky about what she eats. This is especially true when it comes to veggies. You already saw that I sneak in some carrots to my chili to add more bulk and nutrients to it. I decided to do the same thing to this recipe. I added in carrot to get my daughter to eat more vegetables. Sometimes moms have to be sneaky like that! You really can't taste the carrots in there, and unless you look really close, you can't see them either. They blend in really well.

I was holding my breath on this recipe. I honestly didn't know how it would turn out. Luckily, it was a success. I'm so relieved! It was supposed to be one large meatloaf, but I don't have time to wait for the oven to pre-heat and then bake something for 45 minutes on a day that I work. So I remembered the meatloaf muffins that I made a little while back and figured I would make this into muffins. I love the idea of the muffins, too because they really help with portion control. Of course, I had to do a side of mashed potatoes! What else do you have with meatloaf? Here's the recipe:

BBQ MEATLOAF MUFFINS
Servings: 6
Points+: 5

1 lb. extra lean ground beef
1/2 c. panko bread crumbs
1 medium onion, chopped
1 glove garlic, minced
1 medium carrot, finely diced
2 T. + 2 t. worcestershire sauce
3/4 c. Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, divided
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Add all ingredients except 1/4 c. BBQ sauce. Mix until well combined. Spray a 12 cup miffin pan with cooking spray and spoon meatloaf mixture evenly into the 12 cups. Spoon remaining BBQ sauce evenly over the top of each muffin. Bake for 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Enjoy!

EXERCISE
I was a little frustrated this morning, again. The scale was up even more from yesterday. I have done everything in my power to make the scale happy, but I must be missing something. Because it's definitely not very happy with me right now. I was pretty pleased with myself last night for getting a run and some yoga in yesterday. But I guess the scale wasn't that pleased with me. Tonight, I decided to take the intensity of my workout down a little bit. I did Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds. She has so many variations of these walking workouts. But my favorite is the classic. My only decision to make was whether or not to do the 30 minute or 45 minute walk. Since Addison went down easily tonight, I got to do the 45 minute workout and earned an extra activity point. Yea!!

I also wanted to stay inside tonight since my allergies are getting irritated by all of the pollen in the air. Everything seems like it's in full bloom right now! Don't get me wrong, I love Spring! It's my favorite of all the seasons! I love how fresh everything is. I just wish the pollen didn't play havoc with my sinuses! Oddly enough, I never had a problem with my allergies until I moved South. Not sure, I guess just the different types of pollen? Who know?

I'm really hoping that the scale is nice to me. I even sacrificed my after dinner sweet fix and just had my sleepytime tea. We'll see how pleased the scale is in the morning.

So long for today...

Cheesy Taco Pasta

I am very happy to report that I lost .6 lbs. this week. I'm very happy with that loss. I don't know what made the scale budge. I'm not sure if it was the water, my last chance Jillian Michaels workout or the lean dinner that I had. But something definitely worked. When the scale drops a bit, it makes all of the hard work I put in so much more worth it.

So it was cooler again today. I think it's supposed to be back up to around 70 tomorrow, but then it's supposed to cool off again for the weekend. Right now, they are forecasting a high of 60 degrees and rain for Saturday. That's definitely not good weather for the oyster festival. Let's hope the weather man is wrong on this one!

Dinner was delicious tonight. My family is so glad that I'm doing this blog. I'm trying so many new recipes and they are definitely reaping the benefits! Tonight's dinner wasn't the exception! Here's the recipe:

CHEESY TACO PASTA
adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 6
Points+: 9

8 oz wheat pasta
1 lb 95% lean ground beef
1 oz packet reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 ½ c mild picante sauce
½ c water
¼ c fat free sour cream
¾ c shredded 2 % reduced fat cheddar cheese
¾ c shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Cook pasta according to package instructions. While pasta is cooking, cook ground beef until well done. If you want to, you can also add in some chopped green pepper, onion or garlic, but it's not necessary since you're using the picante sauce. Add the taco seasoning, picante sauce and water and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes. Once pasta is done, drain pasta and add it to the beef mixture. Add the sour cream, cheese, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Stir until cheese is completely melted. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

I made this over the weekend and put it in the fridge for later in the week. All I did to reheat it was put in on the stove and allow it to warm up a little bit. Then I added about 1/4 c. of milk and a couple more tablespoons of FF sour cream. It came out perfect!

Jillian Michael's new workout DVD came out today. It's a kickboxing dvd, which I'm pretty excited about. But when I looked on Amazon, they say the format is DVD-R, and I guess that isn't very good? The reviews said that those types wear out quickly? So what's a girl to do? I really want this DVD! Maybe I will just try my chances. We'll just have to wait and see.

So long for today...

Slow Cooked Meatballs

Well, today was my official WW weigh-in day. After the food fiasco that I had on Saturday, I wouldn't have been surprised with staying the same weight or even a gain. Apparently, my hard work from yesterday must have paid off because I had a loss of .4 lbs today! Yea! I was very happy with that.

It was such a beautiful day today, so Addison and I asked our neighbor to go for a walk this evening after work. It was nice to catch up with my friend while also getting some APs. After Addison goes to bed tonight, it's off to let Jillian work me out.

Dinner was very good tonight. TC even commented on how tender these meatballs were. This is definitely a recipe that I'll be making again. Here's the recipe:

SLOW COOKED MEATBALLS
adapted from Can You Stay for Dinner
Servings: 4
Points+: 7

1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 c. panko bread crumbs
1/2 large onion, minced
2 gloves garlic, minced
1 T. dried oregano
1/2 t. dried parsley
1/2 t. dried basil
1/4 c. reduced fat parmesan cheese
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 c. milk

1/2 large onion, chopped
2 c. spaghetti sauce

Combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl using your hands. Do not overmix. Roll the mixture into balls roughly 1 1/2″ in diameter.

Combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl using your hands. Do not overmix. Roll the mixture into balls roughly 1 1/2″ in diameter.

Scatter the onion over the base of your slow cooker, followed by the meatballs. Pour the sauce evenly over the top, making sure to coat everything.

Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

I already have the red beans and sausage in the crock pot in the refrigerator ready to be cooked in the morning. Can't wait to see how this recipe turns out.

So long for today...

Baked Penne Pasta

I want to start by patting myself on the back for getting in a bonus run this week. It was such a beautiful and warm day here today, I wanted to take full advantage of it, and I'm so happy that I did. I got a 3 mile run in today at a 9:05 pace. I felt like it had been so long since I had run. Since last weekend was so busy and rainy, I only got to run on Friday. I will hopefully be able to get a workout in tomorrow during lunch because I definitely won't get one it tomorrow evening...

Ok, now for the food...Wow! 13 points for a dinner. Is that still WW-friendly? This is an example of when I made a recipe, then went back and plugged in all of the ingredients to see how many points were in it. I know this is pretty high in points. I mean, come on, that’s half of my daily points right there. Needless to say, I did a lot of scrimping on my other foods today in order to save enough for dinner. But let me tell you, it was worth it. This meal was so good! Usually, when I make a baked pasta meal, I have to put a ton of cheese in it in order to make it creamy and delicious. But I didn’t have to add all of those extra points of cheese to this one. The Philly Cooking Crème did that for me. The way it blended with the other ingredients was just perfect! I had seen these cooking crèmes last year when they first came out and bought one in every flavor. Once again, though, I didn’t check the points in them and of course, they ended up being higher in points than I was willing to sacrifice. So a couple of weeks ago when I saw that they had come out with reduced fat versions of a couple of them, I was completely on board. Count me in and sign me up! It was a good day when I found these on shelf at my grocery store. Here’s the recipe:

BAKED PENNE PASTA
Adapted from Plain Chicken
Servings: 4
Points+: 13

4 c. cooked penne pasta
½ lb. extra lean ground beef
½ c. onion, chopped
½ c. green pepper, chopped
2 c. spaghetti sauce
¾ c. Reduced Fat Italian Cheese & Herbs Philadelphia Cooking Crème
1 c. reduced fat mozzarella cheese

In a large non-stick skillet, brown ground beef. Add onion and green pepper and cook until vegetables are tender. Stir in spaghetti sauce, cooking crème and ½ c. mozzarella cheese. Stir until combined and cheese is melted. Transfer to a 2 ½ qt. baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

There are so many different ways that this could be tweaked according to your personal preference. You could use turkey instead of the ground beef. You could add mushrooms to it. You could use any shape pasta that you wanted to. This is definitely a recipe that I will make again, it just might have a few changes.

This stuff was so good! The portions were pretty big, too. So I guess the 13 pts.+ per serving isn't unreasonable. Pair this up with a nice tossed salad on the side and you've got a delicious and filling dinner.

So long for today...

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole

TC is a self-proclaimed "meatatarian". He absolutely loves meat lover's pizza. I saw this recipe a few weeks back and thought it sounded pretty good. When I started following the recipe for it, I decided that it needed something. I decided that that something was some turkey pepperoni, which I just happened to have already cut up in the refrigerator. If you're going to do a pizza casserole, it definitely needs to have pepperoni! You could also add onion and green peppers to this, or any other vegetable you like on your pizza.

We've recently developed a new meal rating system at our house. When I make a new recipe, TC tells me how much he likes it by telling me how often he wants me to make it. If he really, really likes it, its a weekly meal. If he just really likes it, its a monthly meal. And so on and so on. He must have really, really, REALLY liked this one, because after dinner, he asked me how hard it was to make, because he thinks he might make it as a weekend lunch sometimes. Those are pretty high praises! Here's the recipe:

DEEP DISH PIZZA CASSEROLE
adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 6
Points+:

1 lb. extra lean ground beef
14 oz. jar pizza sauce
oregano to taste
onion powder to taste
garlic powder to taste
3/4 c. turkey pepperoni, chopped into small pieces
1 10-oz. refrigerated pizza crust
4 oz. shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese
4 oz. reduced fat cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Cook meat (seasoned with oregano, onion powder and garlic powder to taste) in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring until it crumbles. Add pizza sauce and cook until heated.

While meat cooks, coat a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough and press into bottom and halfway up the sides of baking dish. Sprinkle half the cheese over the bottom of the crust. Top with meat mixture.

Bake uncovered in the oven at 425 for 12 minutes. Remove and top with remaining cheese. Put casserole back in the oven for 5 additional minutes or until crust is browned and cheese is melted. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

The rest of the week is going to be a busy one. Tomorrow evening, I have to make cupcakes for a friend of mine's birthday at work. Thursday evening, we are tied up all evening at a United Way soiree. I'm looking forward to this as its my first "soiree". Also, before we leave Friday after I get off work, I have to make brownies and alabama firecrackers. I also have to wrap the presents for Sydney and pack everything. I'm hoping to cut out of work a little early Friday so that I can get a run in before we leave...but I'm not sure if that will happen or not. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

So long for today...

Bubble Up Enchilada Casserole

So apparently, I've never had enchilada sauce. You can ask most anyone, and they'll tell you that I don't like a lot of spice in my food. My sister gets annoyed when I eat her lasagna because it's a litle too spicy for me. But I can't help it!! So today, I was just following the recipe for this casserole and added all the ingredients that it called for, plus a couple other ones. When I tried it, I made the realization about the enchilada sauce. It's still a very good casserole that I will probably make again, but I was just a little surprised at how spicy it was.

BUBBLE UP ENCHILADA CASSEROLE
slightly adapted from Emily Bites
Servings: 6
Points+: 9

1 1/4 lb. extra lean ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (7.5) can refrigerator biscuits, cut into quarters
1 c. 2% milk mexican cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Brown turkey in large skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender.

Add the enchilada sauce, tomato sauce and black beans and stir to combine. Stir the biscuit pieces into the meat mixtures.

Transfer the entire mixture to the prepared baking dish and spread out evenly. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Like I said, I think I will definitely make this casserole again. I might add some corn to it next time. We'll see. When I am making a new recipe, I like to follow it pretty close before I start changing it up. It must be good the way it is though, since we were all members of the clean plate club. TC liked it. He told me for the third time as he was eating his second helping.

Now go make this casserole and laugh when you taste it because you don't think it's spicy. Go ahead, it's ok.

So long for today...

Crockpot Chili

I moved to South Carolina from Pennsylvania 6 1/2 years ago. One of the reasons that I did was to escape the cold. Today, it didn't seem like I had succeeded in my escape. It didn't get out of the 40s here today! To a transplanted Yankee, that's cold! I was talking to my mother today about how it was a lot colder than what we have been used to. I told her I try to remind myself that at least it's warmer here than it is in Pennsylvania! On a cold day, whether its a cold Pennsylvania day or a cold South Carolina day, nothing is better for dinner than Chili!

Today was the perfect day for chili. I have a trick that I use for my chili. I sneak in some extra veggies and also bulk of the chili by adding finely chopped carrots. They blend in so well and take on the other flavors in the chili and no one knows they're there! Over the years, we've changed up how we eat our chili. Growing up, we always ate our chili over mashed potatoes. After I moved out on my own, I decided to try my chili over pasta. After I met my husband, he told me that he liked it over rice...but then again, Southerners like just about anything with rice! We also like to add different toppings, such as cheese (of course!), chopped onions or Doritoes! If you've never had cheesy chili with Doritoes, you don't know what you're missing. Of course, that combination isn't very WW friendly. My usual option for my chili is over pasta. That's how we had it tonight.

Here's my recipe:

CROCKPOT CHILI
Servings - 8 - 10
Points+: 5

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. carrots, finely chopped
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can dark red kidney beans, undrained
1 can light red kidney beans, undrained
1 can chili beans, undrained
1 t. cumin
3 t. chili powder
1/2 t. basil
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper

In large skillet, brown ground beef. Add pepper, onion, garlic and carrots and cook until veggies are tender. Add meat mixture puls remaining ingredients to crockpot. Cook on low 6 - 8 hours or high 4 - 6 hours.

I love that this is a crockpot recipe. I love to use my crockpot, especially on a cold day! There's just something about the great smells developing and spreading through the house...What's also great about this recipe is that it makes so much! We usually have enough for dinner, a leftover dinner and some to add to the freezer. Addison loves my chili, too. That's always a bonus.