Tracking

One of the keys to success with Weight Watchers is tracking. Whether you do it on paper or use their mobile app, it’s something you need to do in order to succeed in this program.

Despite knowing this, I continuously do a bad job at tracking. I track my morning water and my breakfast and then I stop caring. That’s in regards to food though. If you took a look at my FitPoints tracker, I keep up with that as much as I can.

But exercise isn’t the only part of this equation.

When I started out on this journey last year and actually lost weight, I tracked like crazy. I need to start doing that again.

Just now, I went through and tracked most of my food for the day. I say most not all because I’m not sure yet what I’m going to serve with the tilapia tonight…

Besides tracking, a big problem of mine is portions. I do pretty good during the day.

Yesterday, for example, I had a protein smoothie for breakfast after I got home from the gym. For lunch, I ate half of a Subway salad that I put oil and vinegar on instead of ranch and southwest sauce. There were also cool ranch doritos present, but I only ate half a small bag.

And there was pie. It was Pi Day yesterday after all and I only had a small piece and I was celebrating the day with friends…I made a peanut butter pie with an Oreo crust.

Minus the pie, I did good during the day.

But yesterday evening, I made this breakfast casserole that I really like for something different. And I ate way too much of it. And then I ate some more as I was putting it away before bed.

Ya don’t see me unable to control myself around a salad!

I really need to work on controlling myself around all sorts of food. Yes, that casserole was fantabulous, but I didn’t need that big of a piece and I didn’t need seconds. I wasn’t still hungry.

The concept of hungry was actually the topic of discussion in the last WW meeting I was in. Internal hunger (actual, stomach growling hunger) vs external hunger (oh boy does that look good hunger).

I don’t have control over my external hunger and something need to change.

Morning Water

I think that it’s widely known that water is very good for you.

I’m also pretty sure that I’ve mentioned the fact that I cut sodas from my diet? Instead of soda, I drink lots of water, my morning coffee, coffee or tea in the afternoon, and sometimes dairy or nut milks.

Now that I think of it, I should probably do more to get more calcium in my system…

Anyways, after I read about something on Pinterest, I did some more research (lots of Googling) and decided to give it a go.

After I do my sideways walk to the bathroom, I head to the kitchen and make my current morning drink. I measure out a cup of warm water and add a spoonful of raw honey, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and some lemon juice. I do this before I eat anything and before I even have my needed coffee.

I know this doesn’t sound very exciting, but there seem to be many health benefits to it so I figure it’s worth a try. And I haven’t been doing it for even a full week yet, so I can’t report any results.

Here are a few things that this beverage can do for you from this article on Mind Body Green:

1. Immune system boost
2. Weight loss help
3. Reduces risk of heart disease
4. Helps your digestive system
5. Gives you energy
6. Improves your skin

Read the whole article for more details and so some research of your own before you decide I’m crazy for trying this. And I’ll report back if I notice any differences.

Avocado

This fruit is something that I had to acquire a taste for. I went from hating it to finding it acceptable in some forms, to seeking it out in some forms, to just straight up liking it.

Over the weekend, I bought a couple of avocados and I’ve already used one to make my own guacamole. It was so good that I ate the whole bowl in two sittings.

Want the recipe? Well…I didn’t use exact measurements…

I’ve taken to eyeballing spices, which I should probably stop doing if I plan on sharing it with you.

If you’re alright with winging a recipe, you’ll need one ripe avocado, salt, pepper, garlic powder, a fork, a sharp knife, and a bowl. And also this video that teaches you how to get into the flesh of the avocado.

Cutting into an avocado for the first time can be fairly daunting, but it really isn’t that difficult. Use a sharp knife to cut it in half length wise, you’ll be able to tell when you hit the seed. Then, twist the avocado to separate the two halves. In the video, there’s a nifty to way to remove the seed and make pretty avocado slices. I just scarped it out with my fork into the prep bowl, including the half with the seed.

Once you have your avocado flesh in your bowl, mash it up with your fork. Then, add your seasonings. I suggest you start out with a little, maybe a teaspoon of each? After you’ve stirred those spices in, taste it and see if you need more spices.

If you want a more precise recipe, here’s classic Mexican guacamole from Avocados of Mexico.

Give the avocado another try, or a first try. And tell me how you prepare it!

Something else that I’ve made with avocados in the past–it been a while so I’ll have to make it again before I can share how I make it–is egg salad. Avocado is a great replacement for the mayo that typically goes in egg salad.

(I like my egg salad best when it’s fresh and warm and I put it on tortillas instead of bread).

Here’s a recipe that I might use next week minus the onions.

I want to make some more guacamole this week too and I might even give avocado toast another try as I mentioned before.

Pulled Pork

Last weekend, Kroger had pork boston butt (ie pork shoulder) on sale for $1.99 a pound. I decided that I wanted to buy one.

I already had some Kraft Sweet and Spicy Barbecue Sauce that I had recently gotten for free from Kroger. Why not buy some hamburger buns and make pulled pork sandwiches? We did. And it was marvelous!

Since all of the pork shoulders were kind of huge (I found one of the smallest ones), I had the butcher at the meat counter cut it in half for me before I took it up to the counter. I don’t know if this is something that will happen at every grocery store, but, at least at my Kroger, this was a wonderful free service. At home, I put half in the freezer and half in the fridge.

The next morning, I made a spice rub that I had found online, put my half a pork slab in said bowl, and then proceeded to massage the mixture of brown sugar and spices into the meat.

Then I put it in the crock pot with 1/4 cup of water on low for exactly 8 hours.

I’ve read that, for most recipes at least, you can put something in the crock pot on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.

I was so excited about the mouth-watering smell coming from the crock pot that I made sure to check it at the 8 hour mark. When I touched it with a steak knife, a piece of meat just fell off the rest of shoulder. And that is a very good sign.

Using a soup ladle and a fork, I transferred the meat to a big bowl. Then, I shredded it using two forks to pull it apart. Using my meat moving ladle, I scooped some of the meat juices from the crock pot into the bowl of shredded pork to keep it moist before adding an entire container of my sweet and spicy BBQ sauce and mixing it all up.

Did I mention that I noshed on perfectly cooked pork while shredding it? It was soooo good that I couldn’t resist!

Then, with that fiery sweet sauce, it was delectable on a hamburger bun. Kevin and both of our moms also very much enjoyed it and I am planning on making this again. I’m so glad that I tried it in the first place!

Spice Rub Recipe provided by HarleySmoker on Smoking Meat Forums

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 4 tbs paprika
• 1 tbs black pepper
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tbs chili powder
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 1 tbs onion powder
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

I had considered buying a spice rub or even putting the meat in the crock pot without any sort of rub, but I did a Google search instead of making a hasty decision. When I found the above recipe, I realized that I had all of those ingredients so there was really no reason in my buying something that I could so easily make myself.

With all of those delicious spices and the spicy BBQ sauce that we had, I was concerned that the sandwiches would be way too spicy. But I thought they were wonderful. The spice rub did lend a delicious flavor to the pork, but it didn’t make it outrageously spicy. If you talk to my mom, she’ll tell you that her mouth was on fire, but she enjoyed every bit of it and couldn’t stop eating. One of those hurts in a good way moments.

First Attempt at a Frittata

Adventures of a Cast Iron Skillet

Since Grandma got me a cast iron skillet, I’ve been really excited about trying it out as my friend easily discovered after simply looking at my Pinterest account. The first thing that I did was use it when we had a rare beef night on Saturday.

Meijers had these little beef filets wrapped in bacon on sale two for $4. I knew this wouldn’t be something Kevin would want so I bought the two little steaks for myself and a pound of beef along with a can of sloppy Joe makings for him. I also bought a Vidalia onion to go with my steak after Mom pointed them out and told me they were super tasty and only around for a limited amount of time. Per the website, they’re around from “late April through mid September.”

Anyways, I carmelized the chopped up tear-inducing onion in my cast iron and threw my mini steak on the George Foreman grill. The onion slices were wonderful! They had a sweet flavor, less of an onion sharpness than you might be used to experiencing. The bites of steak that weren’t fat were really tasty. I’m going to leave it at that.

And Kevin couldn’t tell the difference between the Meijers’ brand, low sodium sloppy Joe mix and the Manwich brand I usually get–small victories!

Anyways, I think the mistake I made with my cast iron was that I didn’t “wash” it right away with an oil laden cloth as the care instruction said, instead waiting for the next day. That next day being frittata day, I should have reseasoned the pan before using it.

Frittata

I’ve seen a lot of these dishes both online and in some of my cookbooks and they seem to be a good staple dish to learn. So I decided to give it a go.

Some recipes call for making it exclusively on the stove while others call for a combo of stovetop and oven. I decided to do the later so I could use my cast iron.

I decided to heat up a little bit of olive oil in the bottom of the skillet because I figure it wouldn’t hurt to try to help the eggs not stick. After it had heated up, I put my leftover onions, some baby spinach, and a bunch of pre-cooked, diced ham into the skillet, making sure that these ingredients were warmed up.

At this point, I realized that I’d need to preheat my oven if I had any hope of using it, so I set the dial at 400 degrees.

In a separate bowl, I beat six eggs with a splash of milk and dashes of salt and pepper. I then poured this over my fillings. As you can see in the slightly blurry photo above, I realized I forgot the cheese (I had mean to stir it into the egg bowl), so I dumped some shredded provolone on top.

While the eggs cooked, I used a spatula to attempt to gently lift the semi cooked portions of egg up so that the rest could hit the hot pan and start to cook as well. Once it was mostly firm, I used an oven mitt to put the skillet in the oven. After the proposed five minutes, it still wasn’t quite done, so I put it back in the oven for three more minutes.

This time, my frittata was cooked through.

Sadly, it didn’t come out of the pan in one, pretty pie shaped piece like the picture that I had seen. I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t cleaned my skillet properly or because I didn’t cook it correctly, put too much milk in it, put too many fillings in it…I’m not sure.

But, thankfully, it did turn out super tasty and I didn’t burn it. It might not be what I imagined, but at leat the end result was a tasty pile of eggs and fillings.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 2 tbs milk
• salt and pepper, to taste
• ham
• caramelized onions
• spinach
• provolone

Note

A frittata is a very versatile thing. Feel free to experiment with any number of different filling combinations.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Heat filling components (excluding cheese) in your oven safe skillet. If your fillings are still raw, cook them in this phase
3. Beat eggs, milk, and seasonings in a medium bowl, pour over filling mixture in skillet; add cheese to top of mixture in skillet or mix in with your eggs before pouring in skillet
4. Using a spatula, periodically lift egg mixture as it sets to make sure all of the egg gets cooked
5. Once eggs have mostly set, use an oven mitt or pot holder to transfer skillet to the oven to cook for 5-10 minutes, until the eggs are cooked through

Cheesy Sausage and Potato Pie

At some point last month or the month before, one of the grocery stores I frequent had Johnsville ground Italian sausage on sale, so I decided that I wanted to try making something new. Did you know that the Johnsonville website has a bunch of great recipes?

I decided that I wanted to try this wonderful-looking savory pie.

Sometimes the bonus result of new recipes, a bonus for me at least, is the fact that I get to buy new cooking supplies! In this case, I needed a pie pan. I also got to work Pillsbury’s refrigerated pie crust for the first time.

This recipe is very easy, but the fact that it has to be baked for an hour means that I don’t consider it a good choice for a week night meal.

After lining the bottom of your pie pan with one pie crust and trimming the edges, you fill it with ground Italian sausage, frozen potatoes, shredded cheese, cream of potato soup, and some spices. Then, you carefully layer the other crust on top and trim it. Make sure to cut some slits into the top so that your pie doesn’t explode in the oven!

I used some onion powder in place of actual onion and accidently used a smaller can of soup than was called for. Otherwise, I stuck to their recipe.

Kevin and I both really enjoyed this. Not only was it tasty, but it was filling and huge, which meant we had the rare occurrence of leftovers. This pie is dense with plenty of sausage and potato goodness to each bite and a creaminess from the cheese and soup to tie it all in. Using a bigger can of soup might have added to the texture, but we didn’t really miss it.

The crust was great too. It was really easy to use and cooked up crunchy yet tender. I’d like to make a sweet pie with it at some point.

Cheesy Sausage and Potato Pie

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground Italian sausage (I used mild)
• 2 cups frozen, diced potatoes
• 1 cup green onion, sliced (or 1/2 tbs onion powder)
• 1 10.75 ounce can of cream of potato soup
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground sage
• 2 pie crusts, 9 inches

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Brown and drain sausage.
3. Mix all of the ingredients for your filling.
4. Place on pie shell inside of pie pan, pressing against sides and bottom. Trim off excess.
5. Add filling mixture and then place second crust on top. Trim off excess.
6. Press edges with a fork to seal and cut slits on top of the pie.
7. Bake for 1 hour and let stand 15 minutes before baking.

Seafood Pasta and Red Lobster Biscuits

On Tuesday, I talked about an easy and delicious mix up to pasta night. I love pasta and one of the easiest things to do is to cook some spaghetti and add a jar of marinara and some frozen meatballs. But I like to mix it up sometimes (that doesn’t include my obsession with butter chicken).

I’ve been trying to incorporate seafood into my weekly cooking routine at least once or twice. One of my favorites being the more successful attempt that I made at Baked Parmesan Tilapia.

Last week, I decided to make some seafood pasta. I had a can of crab meat in the cabinet and bought a package of SeaPak Shrimp Scampi.

While my fettuccini was boiling, I worked on the shrimp in my frying pan. There are a good number of frozen, raw shrimp in this box, each of them heavily coated in scampi sauce. If you look at the photo above, you’ll see that there is a lot of shrimp in a pool of delicious buttery garlic sauce. All that sauce came off of the shrimp. I didn’t even put oil in the pan.

Just like any other time that you cook shrimp, you have to make sure that you watch it so it doesn’t overcook. The first time I made this, I overcooked the shrimp and they were rather tough. You want to watch for the shrimp to turn pink and curl up.

The shrimp finished up before the noodles so I set the pan aside until said pasta was done. After draining the fettuccini, I put the shrimp, including the sauce, into the pot with the noodles. Then, I put in my can of crab meat followed by a jar of Prego’s lovely Roasted Garlic Parmesan sauce.

If you pay attention to titles, you’re more than likely wondering where the biscuits come into play.

I had purchased this wonderful looking biscuit mix some time ago and figured that seafood pasta night would be the perfect excuse to make it. And they were marvelous…

It was hard to believe how easy it was to recreate Red Lobster‘s famous biscuits in my own kitchen!

The Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix comes with a packet of biscuit mix and a tiny packet of garlic seasoning. In order to make these, you stir together the biscuit mix, some water, and some shredded cheddar cheese and then plop the dough onto a lined baking sheet. I wound up with 9 biscuits. Then, you mix the seasonings with a lot of melted butter with which to brush on top of the finished biscuits.

I don’t have a brush so that butter got ladled onto the biscuits with a spoon… These were super unhealthy and soooo worth it!

My husband and I devoured our dinners ending with both of us in food comas. The next day, I brought some leftovers to my mom’s and she and Grandma both enjoyed them as well.

The next time I make these biscuits, I think I’ll mix the seasoning packet in with the regular dough and scip the butter laddling process. This will make them at least slightly healthier. Right?

Gnnochi

I love cooking, but that doesn’t mean that I always feel like it when I get home after working all day. So, sometimes (read: a vast majority of the time), I’ll try to throw together something fast and simple. Much of the time, this means using something out of a can or box.

At one point last month, this meant finally trying out the box of Delallo Gnocchi that I had found at the grocery. I’ve had gnocchi before in Olive Garden’s Chicken Gnocchi Veronese and, more recently, at Portobello in Downtown Disney. There, they serve gnocchi with “Nona’s Sunday pork ragu” and it was fabulous!

For those of you who might have never had gnocchi, they’re potato dumplings. I.e. little pasta dumplings of goodness…

I decided to make mine with Prego’s Roasted Garlic Parmesan sauce. Because who doesn’t like cheese and potatoes?

And, remember when I said this was easy? All this meal required was boiling the gnocchi, draining them, and then pouring the sauce into the pot.

It was beautiful.

I decided to put parmesan on top of mine–because I’m a cheese fiend. Also, there was some pepperoni in the fridge so I sprinkled some of those on my plate as well.

See? Isn’t it lovely?

The one thing that made me sad about this dish is that there wasn’t quite enough food for both of us. I think that one box would be enough for two people with normal size appetites. But if one, or both of you, has a bigger appetite (like my husband), you might not have enough food to leave both of you feeling full.

I love this because it has great flavor and texture, it’s simple to make, and a great variation on pasta night.

Cheesy Potato and Ham Crescent Rolls

On Sunday, I decided to revisit Thanksgiving Leftovers. They were, once again, quite delicious.

Now, what does one do when one doesn’t have leftover ham and potatoes for this recipe? I bought some pre-cooked, cubed ham from Meijers (you should be able to find it by the ham steaks). I also had a coupon for two packets of Betty Crocker instant mashed potatoes. I picked roasted garlic and cheddar.

After cooking the potatoes in the microwave, I added nearly a pound of cubed ham and then I decided to alter the original recipe some by adding half a block of cream cheese into my bowl of ham and potatoes.

These were wonderful. I think I’ll add an entire block of cream cheese next time and maybe some shredded cheese.

Cheesy Potato and Ham Crescent Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 pd cubed ham
• 1 cooked packet of Betty Crocker instant potatoes
• 1/2 block of cream cheese
• 2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (I used the 1/3 less fat variety)

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients, except crescent rolls, in a bowl.
2. Arrange crescent rolls so that two triangles are together, forming a rectangle (you will wind up with 8 rectangles). Press the seams together.
3. Place a spoonful of filling in the middle of each rectangle and then pull up the corners to surround the filling and seal the seams.
4. Bake a 375 for 10-15 minutes.

Baked Parmesan Tilapia

The first time that I tried to make fish, I bought a couple of fresh tilapia fillets that were on sale at Meijers. I didn’t really look up a “recipe recipe,” I just tried to find out how other people pan fried fish. So I made three plates: flour, beaten eggs, and panko bread crumbs.

I took each fillet and dipped it on each plate, trying to coat all sides before putting it in a frying pan with some olive oil.

And the first fillet got rather overcooked. A tad burnt to be honest.

The one on the left is half of the burned fillet while the one on the right is the second one I made, which I thought turned out rather well.

Apparently, fish cooks really really fast! So I decided that it might be easier to bake fish. I also wanted something more flavorful as what I’d made didn’t have much oomph to it.

So I found a new recipe and some frozen fish fillets that were on sale (I like sales!) at Kroger and decided to try again.

The recipe that I used was really easy and I was super happy with the way the fish came out.

They were a tad on the dry side, so I’ll probably cook them about five minutes less next time. But they were tender and packed with flavour. This recipe does call for six spices, so make sure you have your spice rack stocked before making this one. I also should have halved the recipe as I used one instead of two pounds of tilapia fillets.

I turned two of the fillets into tacos and loooooved them! I put some hot and spicy mayo and mozzarella cheese on the tortilla before putting a fish fillet on there. They were marvellous and I was excited when we had one leftover fillet so that I could take that to work for lunch the next day.

 

Baked Parmesan Tilapia by *Parsley* on Food.com

Ingredients

• 2 lbs tilapia fillets (I used 1lb)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup mayo (I used miracle whip)
• 1 tsp lemon juice (I didn’t have any)
• I cup breadcrumbs (I used panko breadcrumbs)
• 2/3-3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1 tbs parsley

Directions

1. Spray baking pan(s) with nonstick cooking spray and preheat oven to 400 degrees. I put parchment paper on a baking sheet instead of using spray.
2. Place beaten eggs in a shallow dish. Stir in mayo and lemon juice until well combined.
3. In a separate dish, stir together breadcrumbs, cheese, and all of the spices, mixing well.
4. Dip each fillet into egg mix, coating both sides. Let the excess drip off and then dip into breadcrumb mix, coating both sides.
5. Place prepared fillets on baking sheet and bake, uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until the fish is white and flaky inside.

I give this recipe five stars!