To make this week:

chicken cordon bleu in the crockpot

or

pasta fagioli soup stuff....?

*************

Uh-oh. I just found another recipe I want to try

Homemade Black Bean burgers!

Crap - I suppose I could make all three...the soup and the burgers would probably freeze really well...hrmmmm. That would be a PHOTO heavy post wouldn't it?

P.S. I am going to gloat about weather right now - it's 70+ degrees in Phoenix. The sun is shining and there is a light breeze. I may take a nice walk later this afternoon - without my jacket.

(I better remember days like today come July when it's insanely hot and I feel like my brain is being baked by the sun)

I forgot to post my weight loss for last week!

At Home Weight Watchers, Week 2

Down 0.6lbs. Not as good as last week but I don't really think that I should be losing 4lbs a week! Still, I was mostly on plan for eating, managed to get at least 45 minutes of walking each day with the dogs at the park and went to the gym on Saturday. Hopefully the exercise gets better this week - I made it to the gym last night before Martinis and Manicures (which was not so good for the staying on plan but was DELICIOUS. I friggin' love fondue!).

Red Beans and Rice

From the Jan/Feb 2009 Cooking Light magazine
But of course, I altered it since I never can find or have exactly what they use!

2 Tablespoons of olive oil
3 - 3 ounce Trader Joe's Chipotle Chicken Sausages, chopped
2.5 ounces of chopped onions
2.5 ounces of chopped celery
2.5 ounces of chopped green bell pepper
1.5 teaspoons of creole (or cajun) seasoning
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
2 teaspoons of jarred minced garlic
365 grams of cooked, drained pink beans (about the equivalent of 1-15.5 ounce can of beans, the recipe called for small red beans but I couldn't find them canned or dried)
1 - 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, low sodium if possible
1/4 cup of water




Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil. When it's nice and hot, add the sausage, celery, onion and pepper (make sure to put the celery in early and cook it long - mine was a little too crisp at the end). Cook for at least 5 minutes but not less time that it takes for the onions to be mostly translucent.



 Add the creole seasoning, salt, oregano, and garlic to the pan and cook for at least one minute while constantly stirring. Add the beans (after partially mashing them), the water and the tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer 10 minutes or until as thick as you like it. It looks a bit dry at this step but DO NOT add any more liquid!



Make some rice. Or, if you're rice incompetent like me and have a rockin' husband, have your husband make some rice. Joshua was nice enough to make us some basmati rice to go with this. I prefer brown rice but basmati cooks way faster and since he was nice enough to cook it for me I wasn't going to complain.



Verdict:
It's still not Zatarain's - which is both Josh and I's favorite red beans and rice in a box. It was a bit spicey but not too much! I think it would have been better with smaller tomato chunks (next time will be crushed tomatoes instead of diced) and if the stupid celery had cooked completely. Oh well. I served mine over about 1/2c of cooked rice because I don't actually like rice all that much. That pot made about five servings.

Nutritional information:
Well, it's around here somewhere, or else the dog ate it.

All I can remember are the Weight Watchers points - not counting the rice. And it was 6 Weight Watcher points for about 1 cup of red bean mixture. It was probably in the realm of 300 calories or so, with a bit more fat than usual from the sausage and the olive oil. It was nice and high in fiber though.

Dessert:


Topped those babies with some splenda and away we go (0 pts for 1/2 cup or 152 grams sliced. I wished that there was some fat free cool whip to be had in this house but I forgot to buy some today too.


EDIT

Woo-hoo! Found the nutritional information!

Per serving:
Calories - 288
Fat - 11.4g
Fiber - 5.3g

Produce Basket Saturday

It was about a month in between my baskets of produce this time, as the co-op took Christmas weekend off. As you can imagine, it was a busy co-op pick up as well as I was quite ready to have a whole bundle of fresh produce...

This last shot shows my three large zucchinis that I have NO idea what to do with. They're currently sitting in my second, smaller fridge and I'm really hoping to find a good use for them. What do YOU do with zucchini?

I did have an awesome breakfast:

That's an orange, an apple, a tomato and an egg-english muffin sandwich with pepperjack cheese and tomatoes.

And I had an awesome lunch:

That's a pear, two Claussen pickle spears (my favorites!) and two homemade tuna veggies wraps on high fiber flat bread. The tuna was made with Dijonnaise and fat free mayo and I added diced celery, chopped cucumbers and red onions, chunks of tomato and romaine lettuce. Delicious!

It hit me while I was driving home today.

In six weeks, I am turning 29.

In a year, I will be thirty.

I am avoiding freaking out over this.

For recipe #3:

Do you want to see:

A poached salmon recipe that I've yet to find?
A recipe for Shrimp, Tomato and Corn Sautee?
or
A recipe for red beans and rice made with chicken sausage?

Does anyone have a good recipe for poached salmon?

Down 4lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

***************************

Edit

I went from 167.4 to 163.4lbs - 4lbs lost or about a 2.4% reduction

I try to minimize variation in my weigh ins by weighing in at the same time and same condition as much as possible EVERYDAY. I weigh post my first morning potty but pre-shower (don't want the wet hair!) and I also do not eat or drink anything or wear anything when I weigh in. I also track everyday and there is quite a bit of variation but the general trend is definitely downward. Once I have a little more data, I'll probably start posting weekly graphs - but frankly, one week's worth of data looks pretty piddly!

The veggie bag has been a staple around here since I started trying to eat more vegetables ages ago...

This week was:
carrots
celery
radishes
sugar snap peas

If I'm feeling cheap, I buy actual carrots but we at Costco and got the 5lb baby carrot bag that doesn't require I do any work....

So, I wash, I trim...

And I make four bags lately - I've been going out to lunch one day each week.

It usually comes out to just over one pound of veggies - which, I typically count as 2 servings.

This week I'll be eating it with a Jalapeno and Cilantro Hummus I got at Whole Foods that is seriously like CRACK!

I actually made TWO new recipes today - Feta Stuffed Chicken breasts and reduced calorie mashed potatoes. I'm counting it as one though, since mashed taters are nothing special in terms of recipes.