Chicken Creole

This is my very own recipe. I've been perfecting it over the last year and I think I got it to the best it can be. It seems like a lot of ingridients, but it's just a lot of common spices. Warning: This is very spicy! Great for cold days/nights, also great if you've got a cold.

Chicken Creole - Weight Watchers Pointsplus value: 5 per serving.

Cooking Spray
12 ounces of boneless skinless chicken breast cut into small chunks (an average breast is 3 to 4oz)
Salt and Pepper to Taste
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
4 celery ribs chopped
2 handfuls of baby carrots chopped
2 cans of tomato sauce
2 cans of water
2 tablespoons of chili powder
2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon of tabasco or any other kind of hot sauce
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of oregano
1 tablespoon of season salt
2 cups of uncooked instant white rice

Start by spraying a skillet with cooking spray and adding chicken chunks (Medium-High Heat). Season with Salt & Pepper to taste. Should take about 7 minutes to brown all pieces. Turn off heat and set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large pot, over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onions, red bell pepper, celery, and baby carrots. Stir occassionaly until onions are transluscent.
Add 2 cans of tomato sauce and 2 cans of water, bring to a boil. Add all the seasonings, hot sauce, instant rice, and chicken and let it cook for approx 15 minutes.
Yield: About 6 servings. Each serving is approx 2 cups. I haven't measured it exactly but it's two soup ladles.

Deep-Dish Pizza Casserole

This is the most amazing pizza I've ever had. It's absolutely incredible! My friend Cara sent it to me, believe me, you must try it! This is a 6 serving pizza, so the "slices" are really big, and each serving has a Points Plus value of 7.

Deep-Dish Pizza Casserole

• 1 pound of ground round (I used ground turkey)
• 1 (15 ounce) can chunky crushed tomatoes
• Cooking Spray
• 1 (10 ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
• 1.5 cups preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Veggie Toppings (I use red pepper, onions, garlic, and mushrooms but you can use whatever.)
• Oregano (to taste)
• Basil (to taste)

Preheat Oven to 425 degrees

Cook meat in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring until it crumbles. Drain, if necessary. Remove from skillet.

Brown veggies

Return meat to skillet and add Oregano and Basil (to taste) and the can of chunky crushed tomatoes.

Coat a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough, and press into bottom and halfway up sides of baking dish. Top with meat and veggie mixture.

Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Top with cheese and bake 5 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese melts. Cool 5 minutes before serving.
Yield: 6 servings

I gained :(

Weighed in yesterday.. I gained .6
I can only blame myself. I wasn't tracking points, I was kind of summing them up in my head so I know I probably went over on a lot of days. I also indulged in McDonalds one day, and we had pizza at Church last week. I've learned my lesson, MUST TRACK EVERYTHING! The good news is, Jason lost .6! Yay! =)

It's been very cold and rainy the last couple weeks so I'm not walking the dogs every day. I know that's no excuse for not exercising. I haven't been going to the gym like I was before. I guess you could say I'm being lazy.

Since moving to Lancaster, I haven't made any friends. My neighbor is 60, she's nice and.. okay, I guess she's my friend. But I haven't met anyone my own age. Well, today I am getting together for lunch with a woman from Church. I'm excited! And a little nervous, does that make sense? I feel socially inept lately.

Church and Religion

I haven't updated in awhile. I haven't felt like writing much. My life has taken a huge turn over the last few weeks. Jason and I have been attending church for a little over a month. It's a completely new experience for us. Although we've each been to church a handful of times in the past, this is the first time we've actually wanted to go and are enjoying it.

What is strange to me, is that I become very overwhelmed in church. I can't explain it, but I'm brought to tears almost every sermon. Not tears of sadness, not happiness either. I just become overwhelmed with emotion because the words our Pastor is saying really seem to strike a chord in my heart and mind. I feel that this is what has been missing my whole life.

Since going to church, I've been trying to become a better person in my thoughts and actions. I've been reading the bible almost every night and I'm now praying regularly. I feel that God has blessed us. Jason has a wonderful job, we have a beautiful home, and we are genuinely happy.

I still question a lot of things about religion, one of my biggest struggles was trying to wrap my head around "every sin is equal" How can one person murder someone, and another person lie to someone and it's considered to be the same in God's eyes? Then my brother said something that made it click, "Think of Jesus as your lawyer." Because in the end, on judgement day, it is He that died for our sins. Who am I to say what is right and wrong in God's eyes? How can I be so foolish as to think my opinion of what sin is worse than another sin actually matters in His brilliant plan?

In other news, got my first root canal this morning. The pain was minimal, but now.. 10 hours later.. i'm hurting pretty bad. Time for some Tylenol, then off to bed.

Down 2lbs this week!

I'm down 2lbs this week. YAY! I feel so great about that! :)
I was also able to fit into a pair of capris I bought last summer. They were too tight when I bought them, but I didn't want to go up another size, so I just dealt with being uncomfortable. I've only worn them twice and I put them on the other day and they were kinda loose! I feel so great about that! I haven't been keeping track of measurements, but I know I've lost inches. Woot!

Online Vs. Meetings

Weight Watchers Online VS. Weight Watchers Meetings? In the state of Pennsylvania, Weight Watchers is a franchise and you end up paying $50.00 a month for meetings, but if you want to access the etools and online forums, it's $17.95 a month. They don't have a package deal (which blows!) Anyway.. at a Weight Watchers meeting, you go in, get weighed, talk to the leader for 1-2 minutes. This usually consists of her asking you, "How did it go this week?" "You lost weight, that's wonderful!" "Keep up the good work!" Then, you sit down and wait for the meeting to start, unfortunately, my group doesn't participate much. The leader asks a question and everyone just sits there in silence. I feel for her, it's like pulling teeth with this crowd. The only time anyone ever wants to share anything is when she asks about any new recipes people have found. During our last meeting, one woman went on and on about cauliflower.

So, I'm thinking of cancelling my monthly meeting subscription and signing up for Weight Watchers Online. I figure, people are more open about their struggles and strengths when they are sitting behind the computer. And I think our scale is pretty accurate. Another thing that concerns me is that my Weight Watchers meetings take place in the evening and your weight can fluctuate during the day between 1-3lbs based on what your wearing, what you've eaten and how much water you've consumed. Last week I lost .8, but the next morning, the scale showed I lost 3lbs.

Any thoughts?

Another Loss

I lost .8 this week. Hmm.. I was expecting more, but at least it's not a gain, right?

Motivation

It was hard to find the motivation to go walking today, but I mustered up the energy and I'm really glad I did! Even though it's super cold and windy outside, I walked the trail with Chloe and I feel really good about it. Taking two days off really put me in a foul mood. The next time I want to skip out on a walk, I'm going to read this blog post and just DO IT!

Blah!

I feel so crappy this week. Yesterday I skipped out on exercising all together. I just wasn't feeling well, maybe I have a stomach flu? Or maybe the people at Applebee's spit in my food on Sunday? (Long story, probably not going back there tho!) I feel like a lump! I could barely get myself moving today. After Jason leaves for work, I usually make the bed, start laundry, do the dishes, vacuum. I'm finding it hard to get the energy and willpower to do it. I hate feeling sick.

I got an e-mail today from an old friend who saw my wedding pictures and he asked me, "Are you pregnant or are you just practicing?" What a fucking douche bag! How can you call yourself my "friend", yet be completely inconsiderate of my feelings? What the fuck? I'm really trying to make an effort not to swear as much, but in this instance, I feel it is warranted.

I wanna go crawl back in bed and hide.

Mixing it up!

We did our bi-weekly grocery shopping over the weekend. I'm mixing it up with fresh strawberries and cantalope! I also bought Fiber One breakfast cereal (Carmel flavor!) It's incredible.

I forgot my WW calculator, and I was surprised to find out that the Flatbread Crackers that I bought are only 2 points a serving. They are really good, especially with chunks of string cheese over them! Quick 3 point snack!

Also bought some WW chocolate chip cookies and South Beach protein bars. I realized after I bought the cookies, they are worth two points, and the Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix i have in my pantry is 3 points per cookie and it's way cheaper. Sorry WW, your food is over priced!

Also found a generic brand nonfat yogurt that I really like with flavors such as cappucino, pina coloda, and cheesecake. I think these next two weeks are going to be awesome!

Things I've Noticed..

I have been exercising every day since starting Weight Watchers. (18 days!) That's the most consistent exercise I've ever done in my entire adult life. And here's what I've noticed..

• When I wake up in the morning, I don't feel 6 inches shorter.
• I used to have horrible back pain and I never felt like I could fully stand up straight, I felt weighed down and sluggish.
• I have more energy.
• I look forward to exercising and being active, I purposely park in the back of the lot just so I can do a little extra walking.
• I'm in a better mood.
• Just in general, I feel happier.

Life is good!

Saturday

Today we slept in, didn't eat breakfast until 10:00am, went to run errands, got side tracked and spontaneously took a drive through Amish country. Gosh, it's gorgeous here! I'm so happy we decided to move to Lancaster. I absolutely love it! It was 60 degrees today, a little overcast, but not too much. Such a beautiful day!

We picked up a Gentle Leader collar for CooCoo. She pulls so hard on the leash that sometimes I end up flat on my face. She's just got so much energy. I put the Gentle Leader on her this evening and we went for a walk, it was like she was a different dog. I can't wait to walk her every day now. :)

*Here's some pictures from our drive today*

 

Smoothie Time!

I bought a bag of frozen berries for .99¢ents, and a bag of oranges cost about $3.00 for 10 oranges. This smoothie cost me .63¢ents to make

CHEAPEST SMOOTHIE IN THE WORLD!
Ingredients:

• Juice of 1 Orange
• 1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries
• A tiny bit of water

Directions:
Blend!

So yummy and good for you! And the best part is, it's 0 points on Weight Watchers.
P.S. - I love my Magic Bullet blender!

Elliptical Machine

It kicked my butt today! I decided I was going to tackle that beast, so instead of warming up on the bike or treadmill like I usually do, I went straight for the elliptical and did 10 minutes, which was my goal! YAY! But, I was so worn out and tired, I didn't have the strength to finish the rest of the work out. I only did about 7 minutes on the bike, lifted some weights and then I was done. LESSON LEARNED: Warm up first!

I have no doubt that I will be able to ramp up to 30 minutes on that elliptical by the end of the month.

As far as Weight Watchers, here are some tips:
A BLT, even with turkey bacon, is really high in points when you add mayo. Yeesh!
Also, Mac & Cheese is a good way to go over your points.

*A few pictures of Chloe from our walk today*

Venison

Our friend John gave us some Venison and it's been in our freezer for almost 2 months. I ran out of food last night, so I decided to cook it up. It wasn't bad. I was a little afraid because I've heard it can be "gamey". I put it in a crock pot with an onion, vegetable soup mix, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and 2 cups of water. It was really salty but other than that, pretty good.

Jason and I worked out last night when he got home from work. When he exercises, he pours sweat. I barely break a sweat, even though I'm working just as hard. It makes me feel like I need to do more. So today, I'm going to try to do 10 whole minutes on the eliptical instead of my normal 5. I usually do 10 on the bike, 10 on the treadmill, and then 5 minutes of weights and 5 minutes of eliptical. Maybe I can stretch out my routine a little every day and eventually ramp up to an hour. (hopefully some time this month)

At our Weight Watchers meetings, we usually have a topic of discussion. My first week, it was getting rid of foods in the house that don't help you achieve your goal. (ie: The Klondike bars I had in the freezer, which Jason graciously finished off.) The next week, we talked about portion control and measuring everything out instead of eyeballing. This week, we talked about getting bored. I must admit, I'm starting week 3 and I'm becoming bored with the fruits and veggies. They are very expensive right now, so I'm just getting apples & oranges to snack on. I really need to mix it up. My dilemna is, bananas go bad really fast, so do berries (and a plastic tub of strawberries is $4.99 right now! EEK!) and I don't like raw carrots. So I'm thinking I'll try celery sticks and I'm going to look at the price of melons. Maybe I can find some cheap honeydew or cantalope.

2nd Week Weight In!

I'm down another 1.4 at my second weigh in. I'm a tad disappointed. I thought with all the extra exercise I would have lost more, but I'm not discouraged in any way. I know that in order for this program to work, I need to drink lots of water, and eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day. I've only been drinking 2 glasses of water a day, and 3 servings of fruits and veggies. The first week I did really good, the second week I found myself getting burned out on apples and oranges. I'm going to look at other fruits when we go to the store this weekend. Maybe some strawberries or grapes? My problem with fruit is that I really dislike sweet things. I'm extremely picky about yogurt for this same reason! The first week we had Yoplait Light, it's not overwhelmingly sweet and I had one a day. This time we picked up Light N' Fit because it was on sale, and it's extremely sweet. I've had one. lol
It's a learning process. But, week two ended last night and I've lost a total of 5.6lbs. I'm pretty happy about that!
I finally tried Yoga last night and it was wonderful for my sore muscles. It made me feel incredible! I felt like I had just been to the chiropractor. Unfortunately, I can't get into all the poses that they do, but it was nice to stretch my muscles after two days of really good work outs. I decided not to work out this morning, Juanita isn't available today, and Jason wants to work out with me this evening, so I'm going to walk the dogs today and do some house cleaning/laundry.

I figured I'd share this picture I took last night. I don't normally let the dogs on the sofa, but Chloe crawled up there when I wasn't looking and was watching TV with me. Notice our cat Buddy sprawled out on the dining room table. *Ridiculous*! No matter how many times I shoo him down, he gets back up there 5 minutes later.

Solid

I had a solid work out this morning. I did 10 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes on the treadmill, and 5 minutes on the eliptical. I can't believe I did 5 minutes on the eliptical. That thing kills! I much prefer the bike.

Also walked the trail with Chloe. I'm enjoying all this exercise. I never thought I'd say that.

Weighing in 3 hours from now. Hopefully this is all paying off.

I did it!

So, after my blog post, I put on my sneakers and headed to the gym to work out. I was the only one there, and I did 5 minutes on the bike, and a couple minutes on the eliptical and the stair master. It was all I could take. All in all, I probably did about 15 minutes. Then I ran some errands and walked the trail with Chloe, and while I was walking her, my neighbor Juanita called and asked if I wanted to go to the gym. I wanted to decline, and I kind of tried to get out of it by saying, "Oh, well I'm walking Chloe right now." So she said, "That's okay, you can meet me there when you're done." I wasn't thrilled at the idea of working out again because my legs are still sore from this morning, but I did it. I did about 10 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes on the treadmill, I lifted some weights. I feel good!
Juanita and I are going to work out again tomorrow morning at 6:00am. And she's off all next week, so she's going to be joining me on my walks with Chloe. I'm glad I went with her today, even though I'm really sore.
I'm going to do yoga tomorrow morning after our work out to stretch out my muscles.

Weight Watchers 2 week weigh-in is tomorrow night! I can't wait to see what I've lost. My eating habits haven't been that great this week. As I type this, I'm having hunger pain. I skipped lunch, so I had an apple and a yogurt about 30 minutes ago. I'm gonna go cook dinner.

Motivation

I walk Chloe every day. Even yesterday when it was raining, we walked the trail by our house. Chloe loves the water, I thought I'd be safe with my "Dollar Store" umbrella, but it broke and I got a little wet. lol
Anyway, our community has a fitness/work out room with an eliptical machine, a bike, weights, treadmill, etc. I need to start going there and I think I'm going to do that today. I'm still going to walk Chloe, but maybe some time on the exercise bike will help me lose more weight. I have this thing about people watching me work out though, it makes me uncomfortable. I know I just need to get over it, I shouldn't let my low self image and embarassment keep me from reaching my goals, right?
So, I'm going to work out today.. I'll eat some breakfast and then get ready. (can you tell that I'm talking myself into this as I type?) The hardest part of exercise is actually getting the motivation to do it.

.. I hope no one is there this early in the morning.