Spaghetti Tacos

I don't know about you, but I am LOVING this fall weather. I can't even say that our Summer was unbearably hot, because it wasn't. We only had one week where the temps were over 100 degrees. I think it's the humidity that did me in. Starting this past Sunday, the humidity went on vacation. I know it's expected back any day now, but until then, I'm definitely enjoying this break. I've never been one to look forward to Fall, but that's exactly what I'm doing right now.

Apparently, there is a TV show on one of the networks called iCarly. On this show, one of the characters makes spaghetti tacos. My neighbor informed me of this tonight. I knew something about this before, but not all of the details. I saw a picture somewher of a spaghetti taco last week and I thought that they really couldn't be too hard and were actually a pretty cool idea. I cooked up my regular meat sauce, added some spaghetti, put it in a tortilla and topped it with cheese. Delicious! Here's the recipe:

SPAGHETTI TACOS
Southern Living Yankee Recipe
Servings: 4
Points+: 10

1/2 lb extra lean ground beef
1 green pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves carlic, minced
1 t. Italian seasoning
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used Prego Light)
3 cups cooked spaghetti
8 small tortilla shells

While spaghetti is cooking, brown ground beef in non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, green pepper, garlic and Italian seasoning and cook until vegetables are tender. Add sauce and stir until combined with meat and vegetables.

After spaghetti is cooked, add to sauce and stir until noodles are coated with sauce. Distribute evenly among warmed tortilla shells. You can also top with low fat mozzarella cheese, just remember to add additional points. Enjoy!

EXERCISE:
It was such a beautiful evening, I knew that I wanted to go for a run. I actually knew this all day and made sure I did it. Even though TC ended up working late, I made a point to still get my run in. I pushed Addison in the stroller and enjoyed the evening. Even though my pace was a little bit slower, I still managed to earn 4 APS!

So long for today...

Pretzel Hugs

I hope you all had a great weekend and that your week is off to a great start. We had so much fun in North Carolina. It's always nice to get together with family. We really need to do it more often, but just get too busy and don't make the time. Our weekend is full of family, food and fun. Anytime we all get together, that's usually what happens.

I called my aunt last week and told her that I would bring all the sweets for this weekend. Last year, I took a ton of fudge and everyone loved it. So this year, I decided to still go the sweets route, but change it up a little bit. One of the things I made were these pretzel hugs. I have had the pretzel with a Rolo and pecan on top, but thought these would be good, too, if not even better. And I was right! Here's the recipe:

PRETZEL HUGS
adapted from Cookies & Cups
Servings: 6
Points+: 6

1 bag Snyders Snaps pretzels
1 bag Hershey's Hugs

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and place pretzels on baking sheet. Place an unwrapped Hug in the middle of each pretzel. Place in the oven for 2 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to sit for one additional minute. Place another pretzel on top of each hug and press down. Allow to cool until chocolate has hardened. Enjoy!

EXERCISE:
I feel like I haven't been giving as much attention to my workouts as I should be. Maybe that's because I've eased up on the intensity and honestly, that frustrates me a little bit. Whatever the reason, I'm determined to start being more diligent about my workouts, starting now. I just finished my Last Chance Workout on the Biggest Loser dvd. Definitely felt good to sweat a little bit!

So long for today...

Finding Time to Do it All

Greetings from North Carolina! I hope you are all having a great weekend!

One of the great things about having a blog is all of the fun people that I meet along the way. One of these people is Racheal from the blog Running with Racheal. I love her blog because she is a fellow Weight Watcher. She gave us all a peak at what she ate including points as well as her running workouts. She did that until she found out that she was pregnant. Now, she still shows us her food and exercise but not the points for everything. When she asked me to do a guest post sharing how I fit all the cooking and exercise in with being a mom, I jumped at the opportunity. To read more, check out my post here.

So long for today...

Cheesy Southwest Chicken Pasta Casserole

Happy Thur-Friday to you! I like the weeks that I have Fridays off. I especially like the weeks that I have Monday AND Friday off. I really think that we should try to see if Congress will pass a law that will allow the work week to only be three days and have a 4 day weekend. Anyone else with me? Let me know where to send the petition and I'll get right on that.

Dinner tonight was a recipe that I have wanted to make for a few weeks. If you've paid attention to my weekly menu plan, you might have noticed that this was originally listed on it for the last three weeks. One thing or another came up and I just wasn't able to make it. I knew that there was a little bit of prep time that would go into making this dish and we've been so busy that I haven't had a lot of time to spend prepping dinner, only cooking it. I was very pleased with the way this turned out though. It had so many delicious flavors going on at once. Here's the recipe:

CHEESY SOUTHWEST CHICKEN PASTA CASSEROLE
adapted from Lauren's Latest
Servings: 6
Points+: 8

1/4 lb. pasta (I used mini shells)
2 T. light butter
3/4 c. onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped (I didn't have, so I didn't use)
1 c. frozen corn, thawed
1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 c. chicken broth
1 c. low fat milk milk
1 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. chili powder
salt & pepper, to taste
1/4 c. fat-free half and half
1/2 c. grated 2% milk cheddar cheese
1/4 c. grated 2% milk mozzarella cheese
1 c. chicken breast, cooked and shredded
3/4 c. crushed tortilla chips

Start by boiling a large pot of water and cooking the pasta for half the time recommended on the box. Drain and set aside. In the same hot pot, melt butter and saute onions, garlic, peppers, jalapenos and corn until tender, 7 minutes or so. Sprinkle in flour and stir. Cook 2 minutes, then pour in chicken stock or milk. Increase heat to thicken sauce, then sprinkle in cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, cheeses, half and half, chicken and cooked pasta. Stir to combine and pour into large casserole dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Top with crushed tortilla chips and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serve.

EXERCISE:
I was a little sore from the strength workout that I did last night so I didn't want to do too much, but I still wanted to get a workout in. So I decided to do Walk Away the Pounds - 2 Miles. This is really one of my favorite workouts when I want to get in a workout that isn't too intense, but still more than a yoga video. If you haven't tried it yet, you really should.

So long for today...

Asian Meatballs

Since I had Monday off, I completely forgot that it was Wednesday today. I didn't realize it until after lunch that it was WIAW today. So I am apologizing to you for not giving you a photo presentation of what I ate today. I do have good news though...Did you all hear that Jillian Michaels is coming back to the Biggest Loser? I'm so excited. I do love Bob Harper and Dolvett is ok, but it just wasn't the same without Jillian's no-nonsense attitude. I can't wait to watch the new season. It's just too bad that I have to wait until January for it to come on.

I am trying to use things out of my pantry so I can clean it out a little bit. One of the things that I see every time that I opened it was the rice noodles that I received in my FPP package a couple of months ago. I hadn't used them yet and since they were so fragile, I wanted to go ahead and get them out of my pantry. I found a great recipe for Asian Meatballs that were served with some rice noodles. It sounded so good that I knew I wanted to try it. Here's the recipe:

ASIAN MEATBALLS
adapted from Dishing Up Delights
Servings: 4
Points+: 4

1/2 lb. ground turkey
1/4 c. onion, finely diced
1 egg
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes (I didn't use)
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons flour

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix until well combined. Form into 1 to 1-1/2 inch meatballs.

Place the meatballs on a foil lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until fully cooked.

I served it along with some rice noodles with sesame sauce, but you could even just dip them in a sweet and sour sauce and serve as an appetizer if you wanted to.

EXERCISE:
Since I took yesterday as a DOR, I knew that I needed to get it in gear tonight. Since I'm planning to run while we're gone this weekend, I decided it was time for some circuit work tonight. I did the circuit workout on my Biggest Loser Last Chance workout DVD. Definitely felt good to get some strength work in.

So long for today...

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan

I hope everyone made it through this Mon-Tuesday. I'm already looking forward to another fun weekend so I'm just trying to make it through the week. I kept busy at work today and that's exactly what I plan to do for the rest of the week in order to make this short week seem even shorter. We're headed to Charlotte this weekend to go to a couple of children's consignment sales. It's a tradition that we started a couple of years ago and plan to continue for a while. The sales are just an excuse for us to get together with some family and have a fun weekend.

A while back, my sister and I were talking about slow cooker recipes. I was trying to find some easy but delicious ones. She told me to try Chicken Parmesan. She said that it turns out so much better than what you would think. I was skeptical, but I still tried it. Man oh man was she right! There is something wonderful that happens when the chicken cooks all day in the spaghetti sauce. The sauce gets such a deeper flavor, too. I'm telling you, you definitely want to try this. Here's the recipe:

SLOW COOKER CHICKEN PARMESAN
Southern Living Yankee Recipe
Servings: 4
Points+: 6

4 4-oz. boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 jar light spaghetti sauce (I used Prego Light Smart)
4 T. light Mozzarella cheese

Spray bowl of slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place chicken breasts in bottom of bowl. Pour entire bottle of spaghetti sauce over top of chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4 - 6 hours. About 10 - 15 minutes before you're ready to eat, top eat chicken breast with 1 T. Mozzarella cheese. Cover again to allow cheese to melt. Enjoy! - I like to serve mine with spaghetti, just remember to add the extra points.

EXERCISE:
I did a lot of running over the weekend and as it turned out, I didn't get my yoga in last night like I had planned. I really wanted to get it in tonight, but I simply ran out of time. I know, I know, no excuses right? But I can honestly say this isn't an excuse. Given the not so good night's sleep I got last night, my body needs sleep more than a yoga workout.

So long for today...

Jalapeno Popper Dip

Happy Labor Day everyone, or depending on when you're reading this, I hope you had a greay Labor Day weekend! We had such a great weekend. Of course it was busy, but we all had so much fun camping and getting to visit with friends and family. We've been on the go the entire weekend and that's made it go by so much faster! Of course, the weekend was also full of food, too! TC was excited because this weekend marked the return of college football. He's such a huge Clemson fan. Personally, my football season doesn't start for another week. Go Steeler!

One of the new foods we had this weekend was something that I've been wanting to try for a while. Last year, I tried jalapeno popper for the first time. I'm not a fan of spicy foods, so I didn't think I would like them. I mean, come on, the main ingredient is a hot, spicy pepper! Little did I know what I was missing out on. I tried them last year and loved them! We've actually made them ourselves a couple of times, too. I was pretty excited when I started seeing some recipes popping up for jalapeno popper dip. I thought about it and realized that it really can't be too hard. So I took a look at some of the recipes and decided to come up with my own. Here's the recipe:

JALAPENO POPPER DIP
Southern Living Yankee Recipe
Servings: 12
Points+: 6

16 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 c. light mayonnaise
1/2 c. fat free sour cream
1 3-oz. bag real bacon bits
4 - 6 jalapeños, de-seeded and diced
1 c. reduced fat cheddar cheese, shredded

Topping:
1 c. reduced fat Ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 c. grated reduced fat Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons light butter butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, bacon, jalapenos and cheddar cheese in a mixing bowl and stir until mixed well. Pour the mixture into a 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish or 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

Combine the crushed crackers, Parmesan cheese and melted butter in a small bowl, stirring with a fork until the mixture is evenly moistened. Sprinkle evenly over the cream cheese mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Allow to rest for 5 - 10 minutes before serving. Serve with tortilla chips or crackers. Enjoy!

EXERCISE:
This weekend has been full of running! I have run about 12 miles since Friday evening. That's a whole lot of running for this gal! I topped it off with about a 3.5 mile run today. While I enjoyed running where we were camping, it was nice to get back to my familiar neighborhood where I didn't have to run in circles the whole time. Even though it's Monday, it feels like a Sunday to me, so I will be doing level 1 of Yoga Meltdown.

So long for today...