Jalepeno Popper Chicken Breasts

Hey, Mom! Daddy would like this recipe. He likes Jalapeño Poppers.

Here's another that looks tasty. Grilled Roasted Veggies. Grilling would add a tasty smoky flavor. I think that just about everything is tastier on the grill! I should look for one of those cool grill-baskets for ours.

This "Sticky" Chicken also looks interesting. The first commentor said they did it in a crockpot and they plan to use the juices as a soup base. Yum.

I think that I'm going to have to keep browsing the SparkPeople recipes from time to time. There's some tasty-looking stuff in there.

Keepin' On

Tried a new recipe this afternoon, and I quite like it, though it wasn't a huge hit with my family. We had Parmesan-baked Zucchini. I haven't had much zucchini before, but I'm deciding that I like it. It's got a milder flavor than many veggies, almost sweet. I don't use the butter sprays, so I just melted a little butter and brushed it on. Then I dipped it in the cheese and cooked it on my pizza stone under the broiler. Easy-peasy. Next time I might add a bit of milk or something to moisten things up a bit more so I get more parmesan flavor, but for the most part, I really liked it. Dragon threw his on the floor, but Hero actually ate his with a minimum of complaints, which is unusual for green foods. He's not a veggies kind of guy! But even if I was the only one eating it, I think this recipe was quick enough and tasty enough that I'm ok with that.

I'm still struggling to get my water to level out, but my clothes are saying nice things to me. I'm also getting stronger. We're doing Pace Express workouts, and they include a number of things that build strength. There's a bunch of things to like about Pace. The program is based on heart rate and exertion, so however you get to the level that you need to be at, it's OK. It's great for starting where you're at and building on it. And it's working. It's challenging to be perfectly consistent with littles, particularly the newborn, but I'm doing pretty well! I think that as soon as I get the retaining water thing worked out I'll see happy numbers on the scale again.

Weight Watchers Recipes

Hey, I ran across this Weight-Watchers recipe blog this morning, and I thought some of us might like it.

We've been so sick at my house for so long, but I'm finally getting to the point where I feel like I can exercise again, which is really nice! Happily, it looks like I haven't gained anything while I've been recovering.

Digging Out of My Hole

The one that I dug for myself when we went on our trip. It was not pretty. I came back with much more of me to love than there was when we left and this does not make me a happy Mama! However. I've been getting back on track since then. I've got some smoothie stuff to post (more on that in a minute) because I've been working on re-learning how to eat so that I loose weight. Re-discovering how tasty veggies and fruit are. Plain. All by themselves. With maybe some other healthy things. That and some water is working nicely. Which is good because getting the exercise to happen has really been a struggle. But I feel pretty good: I've lost 8 of the pounds I'd gained while we were out. Still have 4 to go, but it's progress. And it's loss. So I get a button.



Speaking of smoothies, they make a yummy breakfast. This one had apples in it, which my blender didn't quite manage to smooth out, so I had chunks. But the blender is known to be dieing, so it's OK. One of these days I'll replace it. But it's not all dead yet, just partly dead. Partly dead is still slightly alive... Ahem. In addition to the apple (chunky) there was strawberry. That got smoothed out. I think this one also had the end of my pineapple rings and some pineapple juice. And a little vanilla yogurt. YUM. So tasty! Sometimes, when I don't have any juice around I throw in a slosh of soy milk. For whatever reason I never seem to slosh around the regular milk like that, though you probably could. But soy milk is very easy on the calories. I've got some frozen fruit that I sometimes put in: peaches or blueberries. Both quite yummy as well. There will be bananas in the next bunch of smoothies that I make cuz I got a whole slew of bananas today. Just whatever's around. It's a tasty fruity way to start the day for not many calories! If you're feeling REALLY adventurous, a friend of mine makes a green smoothie... with spinach in her fruit. Looks like toxic waste. Tastes good. But it's a bit... oddd.... drinking that green stuff. But it'd add more veggies to the day.

Yummy Food!!

Strawberries! They're starting to come into season in the grocery stores, and I'm so excited! Not long after you can get good strawberries at the store (which these are) you can get them from the you-pick places. I love the spring and summer fruits. They're delicious and healthy and very low-calorie. Eat up, it's a gift from a Loving Father!

I tried Kate's pita salad, and it's yummy. I added mushrooms to mine, and because I like my veggies juicy, I added a bit of greek dressing. It was delicious.




Kate and I have been discussing in comments some very yummy looking food. One of the ideas she found was peanut butter sushi. It's fun. A little fiddly to make, but lots of fun. I ran it through my recipe program, which tells me that four pieces of "sushi" - the amount made from one piece of whole grain bread - comes to about 280 calories.

Blerg... Sick

Funny how being sick totally takes all motivation and stomps it into the ground. For the last couple weeks I've been doing pretty well with the exercising three times a week thing. However, this past Friday I was feeling a little sickly (nasty cold and stuff) and I did have tentative plans for going to the gym anyway.. but then I ended up running for the train and that made me feel even worse, so I decided to skip the gym that day. On Saturday I wasn't feeling any better, so I didn't do anything very active that day either. However, today (while my nose is still stuffy and raw from repeated blowings) I am feeling much improved and think I will make an attempt to do a little bit and get myself moving again.

However, despite the less than perfect record with working out, I do feel like I've been doing quite well with eating better (and less). I've changed my snacks to incorporate fewer bagels and animal crackers and more fruits and veggies (yay for carrots and hummus!) and I've also been eating more nuts. String cheese is another favorite, and doesn't seem to bother my milk-intolerance too much.

Also, I was reading the other day about the health benefits of fish and my husband, while perhaps not the most adventurous of eaters, is a fan of fish. So this past Friday I went to the little Spanish market down the street and bought a couple fillets of fish (tilapia) and cooked those up for dinner. (Yay for this magical recipe site: http://allrecipes.com/) While I was a little nervous about trying it, this recipe (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fish-with-Pico-Garlic-Rub/Detail.aspx?prop31=4 - skip the salt) was super quick and actually quite tasty! I think it may make it into the repeat pile!

(i'll fix the links tonight on my home computer)

Low-cal Quiche

Hey, I made a yummy quiche! When I cut it into 8 slices, it's about 200 calories a slice! My program that does nutrition facts for me hasn't been re-installed since Andy gave me a new hard-drive, so I can't tell you much more than that. But it made me really happy when I looked at the nutrition break down. I have pictures and a link to the recipe here.