View From The Hills

Since this Weight Watchers business is all out in the open *sigh*, I figured I would show you what’s been for dinner.  Let me tell ya, it’s not half bad.  I’m already seeing the scale move in the right direction, which is encouraging.

I get 24 points a day.  I relinquish this information only because it helps to put some of these point values in perspective.  I’ve had more than a few “aha!” moments regarding my past diet, once I started calculating my favorite foods/drinks and their points.   First problem of the day: my decadent cup of coffee every morning.  I must confess that I suspected it to be problematic, but have been living in denial for quite some time.  I’ll save you the gritty details and just say that once I add my half and half and sugar to that jumbo mug, it adds up to a whopping 5 points.  Now, as long as that counts as a meal, that’s not so bad.  But it really never lasts me all the way until lunchtime, and the iced version that I had in the afternoon is probably a bit overboard.  Many of my favorite “healthy” snacks also add up in calories and fat to the equivalent of a meal, so needless to say I’m making some adjustments.  So, in search for better options, I bring you some of my new favorite things:

1. Trader Joe’s.  I spent about an hour one evening with my ridonk points calculator finding some quick and easy meals from the freezer section.  My favorite is the Bean and Corn enchiladas, 5pts.  Another was the low-fat  Chicken Chow Mein, 4pts.

2. Mahi Mahi.  I first discovered my new favorite fish while looking for ingredients for fish tacos.  Here’s the recipe I used for them. BUT note, I made 2 important adjustments.  One saved calories and the other saved time (win, win!).  First, corn tortillas instead of flour.  Huge points difference.  Second, instead of making the dressing, I mixed a container of light sour cream with a jar of garlic chipotle salsa from Trader Joes.  That salsa had almost the exact same ingredients that were in the recipe.  That whole meal was about 9 points with black beans and rice pilaf, but 2 tacos alone was 5pts.  But, back to the fish.  Last night I simply grilled it with some cajun seasoning.  It’s about 2-3 points for a Mahi steak.  They came in this big bag of 9 steaks for ~$15.  Individually wrapped.

The plate on the left was Stu’s.  My serving size for beans and rice was about 1/2 this size.  The plate on the right was mine.  That was 6 points with the fish, sweet potatoes, and green beans.

Sorry if you don’t enjoy pictures of food as much as I do.

3. Skinny Cow ice-cream sandwiches.  Seriously, where have these been all my life?  Kelli touts them as actual nutrition (wink), and while I won’t go that far, it is a pretty awesome ice-cream sandwich for 2 points!

4. Vegetables.  That’s right people, I have not abandoned the idea that these are really good for you.  My favorite thing to do with a bunch of vegetables (onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, brocolli-the combo I favor) is cut them into bite-size chunks, and roast them in the oven on a cookie sheet with Olive Oil, salt and pepper.  If you cover the pan with foil then your only dishes are the cutting board and knife.  Careful to not overcook them.  From there we do all kinds of things with them.  Put them on a ww pita pizza, eat them in a warm pita with feta cheese and parsley, put it on pasta, salad, in an omelet.  Blake regularly finds these leftover vegetables diced up tiny in his quesadillas and grilled cheeses.  Most vegetables are no points, and the olive oil might add 1-2 points.

This last one is the roasted veggies on whole wheat pasta that was seasoned with a tiny bit of olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, oregano, feta, and garlic.  I also created my own recipe for greek-meatballs because most of them seemed too hard.  One of them asked me to mince an entire onion.  HA!  So, with a package of ground turkey I mixed a packet of Onion Soup Mix, a tad of olive oil and vinegar, 1/4 cup of feta cheese, and a sprinkle of diced mint leaves.  Roll them into balls and drop on a greased cookie sheet for about 30-40 minutes on 350.  Can you tell I’m a fan of winging it?  My problems with baking are becoming more and more apparent.  This was 11 points.

The plan also builds in an extra 35 points to be used anytime that week.  My brain hurts less knowing that if I really need to indulge, I can.  And since my anniversary is this weekend, I will.  Yes, I will.

Peach Basil Sangria.

I made this a couple of weeks ago for a family dinner and at the request of my mother, am posting the link to the recipe.

You can find it here:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peach-Basil-Sangria/Detail.aspx

One change I made was doubling the wine.    Seriously though, it’s a very small wine to peach ratio.  It needed adjusting.  You can taste the sweetness as you add it though and decide when to stop.

“Basil!”  Stuart kept blurting.  Yes, basil, and yes, it was good.

If you are a fan of queso, stop what you’re doing and make this.  And a screech is heard across the state of Texas. One of my most shocking moments here in Maryland was regarding queso.  Weird, I know.  One of my favorite places to eat here is Baja Fresh, very good burritos, but up until a couple of years ago, no queso.  Well you can imagine my excitement when they added it to their menu.  I was sitting at my desk at work, placing an order for a sales meeting, and they asked if I would like queso with that!  Would I?!?

I hung up and promptly announced this to my boss and the entire accounting department.  I just figured it was that important.  Baja Fresh has queso!!  You should have seen the blank looks on their sad, Tex-Mex deprived faces.  Finally someone says, “what’s queso?”

Deep Breath.  I am so confused.  Where am I?  Am I really that far from Texas?  How did I find myself in a land where people have not heard of the single best food-creation known to man (baked-goods excluded).   Anyways, after a thorough explanation, including pictures, we were all just as confused as when we started.  BTW, don’t bother with Baja’s queso.

And if you have confusion on your sad, Tex-Mex deprived face right now, please call me.  I will make you some.

Anyways, this weekend I tried out some new recipes, including Mexican shredded beef and a peach-basil sangria that I hope to make again soon!  The new queso recipe was the big winner though.  Here is the recipe for the best queso I have ever had (it’s from the Everything Mexican Cookbook-but I have adjusted the proportions to such an extent that I would venture to say they just gave me the general idea):

One big block of Velveeta (2lbs I think)

1 diced jalepeno (seeds and insides removed)

1/2 cup milk -more if you want it a little runnier, which I did)

2 ounce jar of diced pimientos

1 medium sized red tomato chopped into small pieces

1 chopped onion

1/2 package of frozen chopped spinach

Thaw the spinach and drain as much water from it as possible.  Combine onion and milk in a large saucepan first, cooking just enough to soften the onion.  Be careful not to let the milk boil much.  Add cheese and pimientos, and cook on low heat until cheese melts (this will go faster if you cut the cheese into blocks).  Stir in the spinach and tomato.

Grab some tortilla chips and enjoy!

I do.  I can’t lie.  I had forgotten how much I looked forward to creating something for us to eat every night in my own kitchen.  And now that my kitchen is new and big and roomy and baby proofed, I love cooking even more.   And tonight, I totally rocked dinner.  Super healthy, super yummy.  As Blake would say “ummm ummm!”  So I took a picture to share. 

I don’t have a name for these, but they are some kind of Tex-Mex Chicken Lettuce wraps that I made up while trying to get a South Beach friendly meal together. 

Wanna recipe?

I’ll try, cause I did wing it (no pun intended). 

First I stir fried some chicken breasts (diced up into tiny pieces), half an onion, and a whole bell pepper (both also diced up tiny), with some olive oil, chili powder, garlic, cayenne pepper, and salt (prob would be good with chili oil if you want it more spicy).  I cooked it for awhile, until the meat got pretty brown (verging on burning) and the onions start to caramelize.  Then place in on some lettuce leaves (I used romaine, but there are all kinds).  Top with lots of diced up tomatoes, avocado, and sour cream.

Slammin.