WAFFLES!

Hi Y’all- I can’t believe I’m saying this but welcome to the last blog until October.  This year has flown by.  The good news about October is that it means Halloween is just around the corner.  I don’t know if y’all know this or not but Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday of the year.  It looks I have the potential to dress up at least 2, maybe 3 times this year so I’m so excited and the wheels are turning fast for ideas.  I was moderately behaved this weekend but I have been better.  When I weighed on Saturday, I was down a couple from the prior week so at least I’m headed in the right direction.  It’s a nasty battle I’m in because I’m hovering between 6-8 pounds ABOVE my lowest weight.   If I could get rid of those ugly extras, I’d feel better about my little plateau.  It’s not easy with football season and the holidays coming up but I’m pressing onward quite fiercely with exercise and I’m still at 75-80% on my dieting habits.  I’m working hard.

This week is apparently waffle week and I have a myriad of waffle inspired food that you can make.  The first is your standard waffles with syrup.  I know that I’m not exactly reinventing the wheel here or anything but if you like waffles and have a hankering, the Nutri-Grain, Low Fat waffles from Eggo are delicious, especially topped with butter spray and light syrup.  I’m an advocate of breakfast for dinner.  I have it two or three nights a week since I don’t get breakfast for breakfast very often and these waffles are low in fat and calories and pretty filling, too.

This recipe came from The Hungry Girl and I love it. It's called an In Your Face Breakfast Waffle. If the text is a little small, I think you can click on the image to enlarge or Google the title of the recipe.  I used the pre-cooked bacon that you can microwave in 20 seconds and is only 70 calories for 2 slices.  I also opted for egg substitute rather than cooking a whole egg (this dropped the calorie/fat count) and I also used a bit of fresh salsa rather than the sliced tomato.  This recipe had great flavor, whole grain and good protein.  I would definitely make it again.  It was also especially easy because I took the shortcuts with the eggs and bacon. 

The Hungry Girl is representing again with this recipe.  It is essentially a grilled ham and cheese sandwich that uses the frozen waffles as the bread.  I used butter spray on  both sides after I toasted them and then added the ham and cheese.  If you wanted, you could even add a bit of light or fat free syrup on the inside to give it the  feel of the McGriddle from McDonald’s (which is AWFUL for you by the way).  It is yet again something simple and low in points that I can just whip together and enjoy on a weeknight.

Last up on the waffle train is actually not a waffle…as you can see…but a waffle cone.  See what I did there?  I bought waffle cones awhile back for a recipe and a ton of them came in a box.  The kind I got are great because they are only about 15 calories a piece so I’ve been trying to come up with different ways to use them.  In this picture, I had mixed together Cool Whip Free with cinnamon and placed it in the cone like it was ice cream. It was quite good.  As a tip, putting cool whip in the freezer makes it smooth like ice cream.  If you do that, you can mix it with cinnamon, fruit, maybe a few chocolate chips or anything and eat it from a bowl or cone to trick your  brain into thinking you are having ice cream.  Sometimes, I eat it right out of the container like I used to do with Ben & Jerry’s pints. 

I have another busy week ahead but if I play my cards right, I may get a Sunday of mostly rest which is something I haven’t had in quite some time. 

I want to give a shout out to my Oma who had a birthday last week.  We celebrated last night.  Happy Birthday, Oma! 

Also, Roll Tide y’all! Alabama is 4-0 after their win against Florida Atlantic on Saturday.  They play Ole Miss this Saturday and hopefully that will kick off some more interesting games.  Not to complain but Alabama hasn’t really had much of a challenge yet this season.  I certainly don’t want really close scary games or losses but jeez, let’s amp it up a bit.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Peace out!

Bye!

  

“But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For-U2

Where did the meat and noodles go?

I’ve had quite the social life since I last posted.  I’ve had a great time going to concerts, football games and parties.  I posted some pictures below.  Unfortunately my “gallivanting,” as my mom would call it, has caused more strife on the scale.  I’m back at it today and as usual went crazy with exercise last week so I will press forward.  I’m disappointed that a downfall here and there with what I eat can determine so much of what the scale says but that is just the way it is.  I should have a good week and weekend so hopefully that combined with my gym work will help peel back some of the gained pounds. 

The recipe this week is Zucchini Lasagna.  You use zucchini instead of noodles.  This was inspired by multiple recipes that I’ve seen…some on Pinterest.  Many of them called for  ground turkey but I wanted to try the crumbles from Morning Star.  These are meatless bites meant to resemble ground beef.  When I told my mother about them, she winced at me like I had pressed hot coals into her arm.  I know that meat substitutions can often be gross but most people turn their nose up at them without ever trying them.  I would HIGHLY recommend these crumbles for your soups, casseroles and other recipes.  They are low in fat and have good seasoning.  I’ve used them several times since.  The lasagna also included broccoli and cauliflower so it’s loaded with all kinds of fiber.  The low fat cheese and tomato sauce make it even better.  It’s filling and tasty.  I think you should give it a shot!

I made another Pinterest recipe and it was called French Onion Soup Casserole.  It’s simple to make and DELICIOUS.  All you do is mix together sautéed onions with cream of mushroom soup, milk, butter, garlic, soy sauce and a few other spices, top it with slices of French bread and cheese and bake it.  It was a yummy addition to our Sunday night meal.  I think it’d be good for Thanksgiving too.  It was a bit decadent because it was loaded with calories and fat and it made my eyes cry for an hour because I had to slice the onions but overall, I loved it.

Like I said above, I’ve been quite busy.  In the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen 2 concerts that meant I got to see Matt Kearny, Train, Carolina Liar, the Fray and KELLY CLARKSON!!! I’ve been to a Bama game and watched one on TV (The Tide won both) and I’ve attended a bachelorette party for my friend Beth.  The pictures above are a mixture of those events.  I’ve had a great time.  I even counted points and was a good girl at one of the concerts and for the football games so I know I have it in me!  I look forward to a game this weekend and then I have some resting and grading to do.

I hope y’all have a FABULOUS week! Bye!

“Buildings with a hundred floors

Swinging around revolving doors

Maybe I don’t know where they’ll take me but

Gotta keep moving on, moving on 

Fly away, breakaway…” Breakaway-Kelly Clarkson

Sweet Tooth

Hey y’all.  It’s been awhile since I blogged.  I hoped everyone had a nice Labor Day and a fun time kicking off football season.  The last time I weighed, I was up a few pounds from the time before.  I would normally have some sort of emotional breakdown but I decided it was OK.  I know that I’m going 100% in terms of exercise and about 80% in terms of food.  This week, I plan on being even better on my diet so I have nothing to beat myself up over.  It’s just hard right now.  I didn’t weigh last week because I knew that it wasn’t going to be great.  I went out of town to my first football game and there was two parties at work last week and I ate at those.  All of the sloughing off during the week is over though so things should improve.  I will weigh on Saturday for the first time in awhile to see how far I am from that low point.  I am pushing for a particular goal that I have been wanting to reach for months but my weight isn’t budging unless it’s going up when I eat too much.  Oh well, onward, y’all…I just have to keep moving.

I have always been a fan of food in general.  I like junk food, home-cooked food, dessert, snacks…all of it…and I love it equally.  However, I have had the worst sweet tooth the past couple of weeks.  I don’t know where it’s coming from but I’m pretty sure if I put my mind to it, I could eat an entire cake in one sitting these days.  I included a healthy sweet tooth option and also a naughty one.  The first recipe is Hungry Girl’s peanut butter fudge.  It’s really simple to make.  You just mix together brownie mix, pumpkin and peanut butter.  It tasted great.  It had more of a dense brownie feel than fudge does but it was chocolate and peanut butter and I really enjoyed it.  In case you’re wondering, it didn’t taste anything like pumpkin.  My only complaint was that the serving size was quite small but that’s just because I like to eat big servings.

The other recipe was a total indulgence.  I was watching “The Best Thing I Ever Made” on TV a while back and one of the recipes was homemade chocolate chip cookies and milkshakes.  I love cookies, especially homemade ones with giant chunks of chocolate in them.  I made the cookie recipe and they were so yummy.  I could have eaten 10.  I also make milkshakes…they were cake batter flavored.  They were messy and a bit more work than they were probably worth but I enjoyed them.  I still have the sweet tooth but I’m now having to cater to it with sugar free cookies and 100 calorie packs so I’m mourning the loss of buttery, chocolaty sweets.  I’m sure I’ll live.

My Dad and I took the long trip to Dallas Labor Day weekend to watch Alabama beat the pants off of Michigan.  We had a great trip and Alabama is looking pretty good so far this season.  We play the Razorbacks this Saturday in Arkansas.  If Bama plays like they should, there should be no problems so hopefully I will be celebrating a win on Saturday night.

I hope you all have a great week and ROLL TIDE! Bye!

"If you get lost, you can always be found.” Home-Phillip Phillips

Frittata

Happy Football Week Y’all! In case you didn’t know, college football starts this week and I’m pretty excited! Football season is my favorite time of the year so be prepared for me to start talking a lot more about Alabama football.  This week’s weigh in showed basically no change.  I’m fine with that.  I was also flawless this weekend which made me proud.  I will weigh this week before I head to Dallas for the football game and then I probably won’t weigh at all the next week because I’ve got a lot of places I am going to stumble between this Friday and September 7^th.  Having said that though, I plan to have a much better football season than I did last year in terms of calorie intake.  I’m sure I’ll be filling you in as the season goes but I would love to actually lose a few pounds before the holidays.  Here’s hoping! I’m trying some more intense workouts and I’m going extra hard so I’m hopeful that it will pay off.

The recipe this week is a frittata.  You may have been able to figure that out from the title of the blog.  I decided the word frittata was cool enough to stand on its own as a title.  I think I’ve made a frittata in the past but I like them and they are fairly easy to make so I thought I’d share another.  I’m a big proponent of breakfast for dinner…especially eggs.  Who says you can only have breakfast food in the morning?  I made some changes to this recipe to fit the items I already had a bit better.  Instead of Canadian bacon, I used deli turkey and instead of chopped tomatoes that I’m not a huge fan of, I used salsa to give it more flavor.  My tip for frittata making is that you use a great non-stick pan or a lot of non-stick spray because they will stick easily.  Make sure they are ready to flip before trying or you have no chance.  Also, don’t let them burn.  I know it sounds like a lot of rules but it’s really not that hard if you’re careful.

I have a Pinterest corner below so this isn’t technically a Pinterest corner but since I spend a lot of time finding things from there, I wanted to share this idea that I of course snagged from Pinterest.  There seems to be a Greek Yogurt craze going on and I needed some for another recipe.  Since I don’t like to waste food, if I have to buy a whole package of an ingredient and I only use a small bit from that package, I look for other recipes to use that ingredient up.  This healthy snack is super easy.  All you do is dip blueberries in the yogurt and pop them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. I spread them out on a plate so they didn’t get all clumped together.  Once you take them out, you have a tart treat that you can pretty much eat until the cows come home.  Next time I try this, I may use vanilla flavored yogurt instead…and maybe grapes or strawberries. 

My parents went out of town this weekend so I cooked dinner for them so my mom wouldn’t have to worry about it when she got home last night.  I got a lot of help making these Pinterest inspired recipes and they turned out great.  One recipe was called Cowboy Casserole.  Basically, you layer tater tots on the bottom of a greased pan, and over them you pour a mixture of browned ground beef, onions, corn, cream of mushroom soup, cheese, garlic and sour cream.  Then, you add another layer of the tater tots, more cheese and bake it.  It was creamy, filling and delicious.  I made some black beans (not pictured) that were also a big hit.  I just simmered 

black beans with onions, garlic and a couple pinches 

of cayenne.  The other picture is bread from Pinterest called Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls.  This thing was delicious! The picture isn’t clear but it tasted amazing.  You just take a round sourdough loaf of bread, cut it horizontally and vertically in a cross hatch pattern that makes it easy to pull the bread off, stuff cheddar cheese and real bacon bits in the gaps of the bread and then pour melted butter mixed with ranch mix over the top and bake.  It was super yummy.  This was by far one of my more successful meals but nothing about it was healthy so make at your own risk.  I’m sure there are steps you could take to lighten the recipes but I went full steam ahead.  If you’re interested, you can find the recipes on Pinterest or if you comment on here, I’d be happy to pass the links along to you.  I also made two desserts last night that I’ll share in a couple of weeks that didn’t come from Pinterest.

Next Monday is Labor Day and I wanted to tell you Happy Labor Day in advance because there will be no blog next Monday.  You will have to hear about my time in Dallas, my stagnant weight and other recipes on the 10^th of September.  I hope you can handle that though I’m sure it will be difficult.

If you have the day off Monday, congrats and enjoy it!

Please keep me, my dad and the rest of the football travelers of the world in your thoughts this weekend.  Dallas is a long trip.

Also, try and stay out of the way of any hurricanes over the next few days.

Goodbye and ROLL TIDE!

“Sad can’t catch me

Call me baby now

When it’s all I used to believe

If the sun don’t light

And the moon won’t turn

We’ll get a room at the end of the world

And we’ll rewrite all the wrongs we’ve learned

Safe in our room at the end of the world.” Room at the End of the World-Matt Nathanson

Keep Egg Rollin', Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Monday greetings, y’all. Mondays never seem to be easy, especially because I am always trying to normalize so I spend most of the day thinking I’m starving.  I am particularly hungry today and my 70 calorie soup at hand doesn’t seem to be cutting it right now.  I was up a little bit this weekend but I’m only roughly 3 pounds from my lowest weight so it’s not too bad.  I wasn’t completely heinous this weekend.  I was certainly better than the weekend  before.  I had a lot of rice over the past few days which I think has me a bit swollen.  So, I think I will cut the grains back and try to incorporate some veggies and lean protein this week so I can get rid of the puffiness.  I need to have a banner upcoming weekend because the weekend after that, I’m going out of town for the first football game and I know that will be rough so here’s to no calorie drinks and keeping myself busy this Saturday and Sunday!

Sometimes, the most simple recipes can be the best.  This one is not only easy, but it will certainly satisfy any chili dog cravings you might be experiencing.  Since football season is coming up, the hot dogs will be flowing.  I encourage to give turkey hot dogs and turkey chili a try.  Some of you may turn your nose up at the turkey hot dogs and that’s fine but if you haven’t combined it with the chili yet, I would give it another shot.  The more flavors that you combine with meat substitutions, low fat or fat free foods or turkey, the more it disguises the tastes that you may not like.  I love hot dogs…I always have and I enjoy the low fat versions.

This Pinterest corner is actually one that isn’t high in calories.  I will more than likely be making some pretty fattening Pinterest recipes this weekend and I’ll share those too but this one is actually a nice, baked alternative to mozzarella sticks.  Basically, all you do is take an egg roll wrapper, dab a bit of water around the edges, put a whole string cheese on one corner, roll it up, stick it in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, flip them over, cook them another 10 minutes and BOOM, you’ve got a baked mozzarella treat.  These guys are no match in taste to the fattening, fried versions you can get out but they are pretty good.  They also inspired me to try a couple other different ways to use the egg roll wrappers.  I posted pictures below of ones that I stuffed with pulled pork and cheese in it and ones that I stuffed with turkey, cheese and spinach.  I clearly haven't mastered the art of making it look like an actual egg roll.  It’s just something different to try if you are bored with the same old, same old.

That’s all I’ve got today.  I start school this Wednesday (teaching two English Comp classes at UA) so wish me luck!

Have a fantastic week!

Bye!

“There’s just one life to live

And there’s no time to wait, to waste 

So let me give your heart a break, give your heart a break…” Give Your Heart A Break-Demi Lovato

Pita Party

When I stepped on the scale this weekend, I looked down in confusion, stepped off, cleared the number and my eyes and got on again.  When I got on the second time and saw the same number, I jumped off of it like it was on fire and ran into my room to record the number immediately before the scale changed its mind.  I did this because the number I saw was as low as it’s been in awhile.  I was down to an even 2 pounds from my lowest weight.  I was surprised because this little drop in weight was not deserved after the prior weekend I’d had but I took it anyway.  I have a feeling it may catch up with me next Saturday after a weekend of celebration of Cassandra’s birthday.  However, enough is enough when it comes to blowout weekends.  I have two weekends in a row before I’m off to Dallas for Bama’s first football game this season, and there’s no reason I can’t be flawless during that time.  It would be ideal if I could get down to my lowest weight or very close before I head Texas where everything is bigger, including the food and caloric intake.  I want to work hard for this so I’m going to do my best.

I enjoyed the pack of pitas that are pictured immensely.  My pita obsession was initially inspired by the Greek pita recipe you see here from the Hungry Girl.  The Greek yogurt made a tasty dressing for the sandwich and the fresh onions, spinach and cucumbers (I don’t eat peppers) added with the turkey made for a delicious sandwich.  I got these pitas and realized that you could have two of those bad boys for one point on the old system because they are small,  only 50 calories and high in fiber.  It was because of this reason that I went a little pita crazy and made all different kinds.  I highly recommend these pita sandwiches.  I put pictures of all the kinds I made…some of them aren’t pretty but I go more for taste.  Anyway, maybe it will inspire you to try a pita or 12!

In addition to busily making pita sandwiches, I’ve also been busy working and preparing for the fall semester.  I’m teaching two English composition classes at UA this fall so between that, working my regular job and exercising, I’m hoping I won’t have time to eat too much.  I don’t want to be the kind of person that makes excuses.  A lady at work told me she was gaining weight because she was stressed.  First of all, I think it’s funny that people feel the need to tell me they are gaining weight, losing weight, trying to lose or any weight related thing going on in their life.  Second of all, we are all stressed.  In today’s world, everything moves so fast and it can be overwhelming.  Unfortunately, being busy, stressed or tired isn’t a great excuse to gain weight.  If anything, making time to exercise reduces stress and eating right will keep you healthy so you can face all the crap with more ease.  I wish that everyone had less stress but they don’t…so don’t put off getting in shape.  There is never a better time than right now.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Since it’s getting close to football season, ROLL TIDE!

Bye!

“Your time has come to shine

All your dreams are on their way

See how they shine

If you need a friend

I’m sailing right behind

Like a bridge over troubled water

I will ease your mind…” Bridge Over Troubled Water-Simon & Garfunkel