Valentine's Day Treats!

Happy Valentine's Day! I spent all day yesterday baking and making these delicious treats to take into the office this morning. I felt a little like a crazy person since there were way more cake balls than I anticipated and ended up bringing in just under 100 of them, but most of them were gone by the end of the day, so I think they enjoyed them. Recipes will be posted later!

Red velvet cake balls in chocolate and powdered sugar

Cinnamon and sugar biscotti

Rice krispie treats

Oreo truffles

Just Another Meatball Monday

It was just another meatball Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my funday
My I-don't-have-to-run day
It's just another meatball Monday

So if you don't get the joke, you need to watch this video immediately.

Now that you've done that and laughed at my hilarious reference, take a look at my Valentine's Day dinner. I have been craving beef for a few days and I finally decided to make some penne and meatballs with arrabiata sauce. It was amazing.

Yield: 5 servings (about 15 meatballs if you make them pretty big)


Ingredients: 
1 lb lean ground beef (93% lean)
Jennie-O hot italian turkey sausage (3 links)
1/3 c breadcrumbs with Italian seasoning
2 eggs
1/4 c shredded Parmesan
18 oz jar pasta sauce (I used Safeway brand arrabiata)
Salt and pepper to taste



Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove turkey sausage from the casing and set aside.
2. Pour breadcrumbs into a large bowl and add 1/3 cup of hot water. Stir until moistened and let sit until the water is fully absorbed. Add eggs, Parmesan, and salt and pepper.
3. Mix in beef and turkey sausage - don't be afraid to use your hands! Form the meatballs, making sure they are equally sized so they will cook evenly.
4. Brown the meatballs in a skillet over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes on each side, or until some of the fat drains off.
5. Spray a large baking dish with cooking spray and place the meatballs in the dish. Make sure there is a little room between the edges. Pour the sauce over the meatballs.
6. Bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes until bubbling. Serve with penne and mozzarella or Parmesan on top.

This was so good, and I'm definitely planning on freezing these for when I get another craving! In case you're curious, I used Barilla Plus pasta since it has extra fiber and I hate the taste of whole wheat pasta.

Goal Met: New Charm!

So after a couple weeks of ups and downs, I finally started dropping weight again and made it past my second charm bracelet goal for a total loss of 11 pounds!! I got so excited yesterday morning that I spent 20 minutes before work online shopping to pick out which charm I wanted. I chose this one:

It's a french macaroon charm, so I thought it would go nicely with the Eiffel tower charm I got last time. One of the women at work complimented me on my bracelet yesterday, and I told her about what I was doing and that each time I lost 5 pounds I bought myself a new charm. She was so excited for me, thought it was a great idea, and then commented on how much progress I was making. That made me feel really good. It's amazing what a little bit of validation from someone else can do!

Because I'm not the type of person to go in and complain about my diet (because there's really not that much I can't eat, I just have to eat smaller portions of it), people take longer to realize that I am working on losing weight. I think the thing that stops me from telling people I'm trying to lose weight is the unsolicited advice that comes with it. Every time they start in on that, I just want to tell them, "I've done this before! I know my method works! No need to tell me!" I don't know if it's because I'm overweight that they assume if I knew what to do I wouldn't be overweight anymore or what. So usually I just try to avoid the whole situation. But it is nice to get a little unsolicited encouragement along the way. 

I'm going to be making some Valentine's treats for the office this weekend, so not much actual cooking. I may post a few of them, but no promises that they will all be healthy recipes!

Quick Lunch: Sweet Salad and Soup

Salad nutritional breakdown

Today was another snow day which is crazy. It's not supposed to stick around until tomorrow, but it was nice having another work from home in my pajamas day. It's always dangerous to hang around the house all day though because there's the temptation to snack on things laying around the house. I did really well today and landed under 1300 calories with the help of my delicious lunch! I hunted for things I had around the house (including some of Wendy's pomegranate vinaigrette that I need to find in a store or online somewhere so I don't have to keep the leftover packets like a hoarder). I came up with two cups of organic baby greens, half a granny smith apple, 1/8 cup of craisins, 1/8 cup of goat cheese crumbles, and that packet of pomegranate vinaigrette. I ate it with a cup of jarred tomato basil soup and it was fantastic.

I also have to give a shout out to La Madeleine. Not only do I love their fat free Caesar dressing, they just came out with a low fat version of their tomato basil soup. That soup is pretty much the only reason I ever go to La Madeleine, but with the regular version, a cup has 340 calories and 32 grams of fat, so I would definitely have to save it for a special treat. The low fat version that they also sell in jars is 150 calories and 11 grams of fat for a cup, so I am thrilled. The best part? It tastes just as good as the regular fat version! They sell them online, and if you order some, you might as well pick up some of the Caesar dressing as well.

Takeout Swap: Chicken Fried Rice

This was a particularly rough Monday since I hadn't been to work in a week because of all the snow and ice. I didn't get to eat breakfast today, I had a pretty light lunch, I had to go grocery shopping on the way home, and by the time I got back I was starving. I really just wanted to stop and get takeout, but I made this instead and saved myself a LOT of fat and calories (an order of takeout fried rice can add up to 1500 calories, 10 grams of saturated fat, and 2,700mg of sodium)!

This recipe makes enough for leftovers the next day, and it's really a HUGE portion. You could probably get away with dividing this into 3 servings if you added a little more chicken.

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:
1 c uncooked jasmati rice
2 tbsp canola oil
6 oz cooked chicken breast, diced
1/2 c egg substitute (Egg Beaters)
2 scallions, sliced
1 small can of peas and carrots
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce






Preparation:
1. Cook rice according to directions on the package. I love my rice cooker since, for some reason, I can never cook rice over the stove.

2. Spray a skillet with cooking spray and pour in egg substitute. Leave on medium until completely cooked through and you have a sort of egg pancake. Remove from the skillet and cut into strips. Set aside.

3. Heat the chicken, peas and carrots, scallions, and oyster sauce in the skillet over medium heat until hot, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from skillet and set aside.

4. Heat the canola oil in the skillet over medium-high heat and empty rice into the hot oil. Stir to coat rice and let the rice crisp, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add chicken mixture to the rice and pour in soy sauce. Stir and let cook for 1-2 minutes. Add egg strips and cook until egg is reheated.

Just as good as takeout but it saves almost 1/3 of the calories!

Broccoli Rice Cheese Chicken Casserole

I've had to get creative with the meals since I haven't been able to get to the store. I'm still at my mom's friend's house, so I've been raiding her fridge and pantry to come up with a few meals to tide us over. This is what I had to work with for lunch and dinner today. It turned out to be the perfect warm comfort food for a snowy day.

The way I had to make it I wouldn't call it low fat, but with some substitutions (2% cheeses, low fat cream of mushroom soup) it could be a dish that is in my regular rotation, and I don't think it would change the flavor that much, if at all. Note that the calories listed are for the full-fat version.

Yield: 6 servings, 1/6 of an 8x12 casserole dish each, so about a 4x4 inch square.

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked white rice
10 oz cooked chicken breast
1 10.75 oz can condensed cream of mushroom soup
2 tbsp margarine
1/2 c skim milk
1 12 oz package of frozen broccoli
6 oz Velveeta
1/2 c shredded cheese, cheddar or colby jack blend


Preparation:
1. Cook rice as instructed on package. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. While rice is cooking, steam the broccoli and chop it into pieces. You could use frozen chopped broccoli to make this step easier, but I prefer the Steam Fresh Florets; it seems like in the other packages all you get are stems.

3. Dice the Velveeta cheese into 1/2 inch cubes.

4. Dice the chicken breast into 1/2 inch cubes. All I had on hand was a bag of frozen, pre-cooked diced chicken from Kroger, so I just popped it in the microwave according to the directions. It was good! I am definitely putting it on my shopping list!

5. Once the rice is completely cooked, mix the rice, Velveeta, chicken, broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, water, and milk together in an 8x12 (13x9 is fine if that's all you have, just shave 10 minutes or so off the oven time) casserole dish and press down to even out the top. Put pats of margarine on the top. NOTE: If you want some additional texture, you can also put in a small can of water chestnuts or 1/2 of a small onion. I didn't have either of these on hand this time.

6. Bake for 25 minutes on 350 degrees. At 25 minutes, sprinkle the casserole with the shredded cheese and then return to oven for 10 minutes until the cheese is bubbling. I put the broiler on for the last minute just to get a good crispy texture on the top.

Snowpocalypse 2011: The Insanity Continues

On top of the ice sheet on the roads, six more inches of snow and still falling.