Category Archives: Bread/Yeast/Tortillas

Parmesan Pizza Crust and Weekly WI

I’ve had plantar fascitis for about five years.  I ended up having to have special inserts made for my shoes that I have to wear every day.  If I wear flip flops or skip wearing them for a couple days, the back of my heels, especially the left one, becomes painful not only to the touch, but with every step I take.  It usually takes until after lunch for the pain to go away.

Even if I wear the inserts every day, my left heel is still normally sore for a good couple hours after getting up.  It’s just something I’ve learned to live with.

So yesterday I went to my DVR and saw that another episode of Classical Stretch had recorded.  This one was called calves, shins and posture.  Guess what?  After that 30 minute routine, my heel pain went away and didn’t bother me at all the rest of the day.  Better yet?  No pain this morning when I got out of bed!

I guess my Achilles tendon was just really tight and whatever moves she did in that routine did the trick.  I seriously will do one of those videos every morning.  See if you can search it on your cable package – she normally appears on public television.

I made a quick zucchini frittata yesterday morning.  Hannah and I were on a mission to go garage saling before she had to work.  1 zucchini shredded that I sauteed in about 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil, then 1/2 cup egg beaters, 1/2 ounce of cheese and I had a cup of fruit on the side.

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We ended up going to four garage sales.  I ended up getting a WW cookbook for .50 cents and this for the fridge – Tony loves iced tea so I plan on keeping some in the fridge for him – this cost $1 and it’s brand new. Just kidding

fridge

On the way back Hannah and I went to Walmart to get our eyebrows threaded.  We both know its gonna hurt like a son of a bitch, but the pain only lasts a couple minutes.  However, it never fails that they then ask “you want me to do lip and chin?”  I politely said “no thank you.”  But the woman said “but ma’am – it looks so bad!”  I’d like to note for the record that I don’t have lip and chin hair, thank you very much.

Tony and I went grocery shopping for our Easter dinner.  We bought a $14 ham, but had a $9 off coupon – score!  After grocery shopping we went out for Chinese!  Woop – lunch out with Tony two days in a row?  Love it.  Since it was Good Friday Tony went with Chinese noodles with shrimp.  I however, can eat meat, so I went with the spicy Mongolian beef.  This plate came in at 580 calories and hit the spot.  I ate all the beef and broccoli, 1/2 cup of the brown rice and the egg roll.

lunch

When we got home I did a dry run of my Easter dessert yesterday – I am calling it a rustic apple tart that I plan to serve with vanilla bean ice cream and peanut brittle as a garnish. I will post the recipe tomorrow, but holy shizz, this one is a keeper. Be right back

While I was cooking, Tony did our first mow of the season – our grass was so thick!  It looked great when he got done.  I think even if Tony was bleeding out of his eyes he wouldn’t let me use our riding mower – apparently I can’t cut our grass straight! Smile with tongue out

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We have two giant pine trees in front of our house.  Every time we have a bad storm we think they will break in half, but they are still standing strong.

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I’ve had a pizza jones all week.  While my favorite pizza dough is still super thin and crispy, Tony usually likes a bit thicker dough.  I looked through a bunch of other dough recipes online, and ended up coming up with this one:

Parmesan Garlic Pizza Dough

  • 1 1/8 cup water (9 ounces)
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1.5 Tablespoons honey
  • 1.5 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

Mix the water, yeast, honey and olive oil and let stand for about 10 minutes, or until the yeast gets frothy.  Add the flour salt and Italian seasoning in the food processor.  Turn the processor on and add the water mixture.  After a minute the dough should be incorporated and pull away from the sides of the processor.

Put in a bowl with a bit of olive oil, and let rise for 1 hour.

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You can see the flecks of Italian seasoning.  This dough is really soft too.  While the dough was rising, I did Billy Blanks “Empowerment DVD.”  The first 10 minutes were a cake and I almost switched to something more challenging.  Um, the first 10 minutes was just the instructional part!  The next 50 minutes kicked my ass.

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Melt the butter and garlic together.  Stir in Parmesan cheese.  Brush this mixture all over the crust, especially on the outer edges.  I had baby spinach and red pepper on my side – Tony had green and black olives and tomatoes on his side.

I preheated my oven with my baking stone in there to 425.  This took about 15 minutes to bake.

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This was delicious.  I ended up having two slices, or half of my side – which came in at around 590 calories.  I really wanted a third piece, but told myself to wait 30 minutes, and if I still wanted it I would have it.  But I never ended up going back in and Hannah had the leftovers when she got home from work.

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Best part is Tony loved it.  He said “it’s a non-Biz crust!”  I’ll definitely use this dough recipe again.

I realized that my WW meeting will be closed tomorrow for Easter, and I couldn’t weigh in today since I weighed in on Sunday, which is the start of their week – if I went today it would just tell me that I had already weighed in for the week.  I plan on switching back to Saturday meetings – I like the leader a lot better.

So last week I was:

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This morning I was:

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So unofficially I am down 1.6.  I hope to see – 3.0 at next Saturday’s official WI. Winking smile

So Hannah has decided that she wants to go to Roosevelt University to study Marriage and Family with an emphasis on Speech Pathology.  She forwarded on her college transcripts yesterday which was the last thing required before she hears if she’s accepted.

She had her letters of recommendation, and she said “I am not sure I showed this one to you.”  It was written by her psychology teacher from last semester.

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I am one proud Momma!  Hannah I have no doubt you’ll get accepted and that you will continue to succeed academically.  I am so proud of you!

Alright, I am off to finish making my apple tarts, my Italian wedding soup and homemade bread for tomorrow.  Enjoy your Saturday!

Stats for Day 6 of 30 Bad Ass:

  • 1336 calories
  • 56 fat
  • 132 carbs
  • 15 fiber
  • 75 protein
  • 40% calories from carbs, 38% from fat, 22% for protein
  • 30 minutes stretch
  • 50 Billy Blanks kicking my bootie

 

The Sandwich King’s Pretzel Hot Dog

Of course the day I decide that I am going to follow the Simply Living plan on WW, I knew that I was going to make The Sandwich King’s Pretzel Bun Hot Dog for lunch.  But I did okay for breakfast and dinner, and it’s all about balance, right? :D

I knew that regular oats are a power food so I decided to see if I could make pancakes out of oats.  I kind of kept adding stuff to the mix and this is what I came up with:

Banana Chocolate Chip Oat Pancakes

  • Makes 2 pancakes – 3 points from 49 weekly fun points

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons fat free half and half
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons water (batter was too thick before)
  • 1/2 cup regular oats
  • 2 tablespoons coconut flour (left over from when I was doing Paleo)
  • 1/4 baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons granulated Splenda
  • 1 banana sliced
  • 2 teaspoons chocolate chips

I put all the dry ingredients in my mini chopper and blended well.  Then added everything and mixed just until combined.

These actually weren’t too bad – kind of like eating oatmeal in pancake form.  It didn’t have the fluffy texture I was looking for, but the flavor was good.  And these kept me full a long time!

So yet another Sandwich King creation.  I’ve made his Meatball sandwich with hot peppers.  I’ve made his Roast Beast Master sandwich with onion rings.   And I’ve made the Sandwich Kings fries.  So now I bring you The Sandwich King’s Pretzel Bun Hog Dog.  Holy cow – this one is a winner, winner, lobster dinner.  The pretzels aren’t too hard to make, you just need time to let the yeast bloom, and it rests for 45 minutes, and you boil them before baking.  I know it sounds complicated, but trust me, even if you’ve never worked with yeast before, you can make this!

Pretzel Hot Dog Buns:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 packet active dry yeast
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 small cloves garlic, grated
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1 cup bread flour
  • 1/2 cup baking soda
  • Pretzel salt or coarse ground sea salt, for sprinkling

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, 1/2 cup water, sugar and honey to 105 to 110 degrees F. Add to the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the water mixture and wait for at least 10 to 15 minutes until the yeast blooms.

In a separate saucepan over medium heat, add the butter and garlic and cook until the butter is melted and the garlic is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.

Combine the all-purpose flour and bread flour in a mixing bowl.

Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the blooming yeast, and then add in the melted butter and garlic mixture. Mix on medium speed until the dough has come together and is smooth and elastic in texture and pulling away from the sides of the bowl, 5 to 7 minutes.

Line 2 baking sheets with silicone mats.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured cutting board and form into a ball. Cut into 4 equal pieces, and then cut those in half to form 8 equal pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece into a ball and place onto a prepared baking sheet. Cover with a dish cloth and let them rest in a warm place for 12 to 15 minutes.

Once rested, lightly dust your work surface again and roll the balls into 7-inch logs. Place onto the other prepared baking sheet, cover, place back in the warm spot and let rest for an additional 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place one oven rack high and one low. Line 2 more baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.

In a large pot, bring 8 cups water to a boil, and then add the baking soda. In batches, place the dough in the water and cook for 30 seconds on each side.

Using a slotted spatula, remove the logs and place onto the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle the logs with pretzel salt as they come out of the water, to ensure the salt sticks. Then cut 3 diagonal slits on top of the bread, not too deep.

Bake for 10 to 13 minutes, rotating between the top and bottom racks of the oven halfway through the cooking.

You need to make sure that the milk mixture isn’t too hot, otherwise it will kill your yeast.  I use my meat thermometer.

Even if you’ve never worked with yeast before, this is a pretty simple recipe.  The end product was soft on the top, but crunchy on the bottom.  I didn’t make the cheese sauce, but I had spicy mustard and pickled jalapenos on mine.

Um, there was no power foods in my lunch, so it “cost” me 12 points, but I still have 34 points for the rest of the week and I think I’ll be okay. :D   Totally worth it!  The bun comes in at 8 WW points, or 300 calories, 3.8 fat, 56 carbs 1.9 fiber and 8.7 protein.  Winning!

For dinner I made filet mignon – in the sale bin two for $4!  I had a baked potato on the side with some green beans, so I only had to count the butter for 2 points.

Then after dinner Tony and I watched The Guard on Demand.  It was really good!

It’s twinfest today!  Going to celebrate our birthday with our best friends – its gorgeous today!

Don’t forget, last day to enter your breakfast BSI recipe – simply leave a comment or email me at mybizzykitchen@gmail.com.  The round up and winner will be announced in tomorrows post.

Enjoy your Sunday!  And make the pretzel buns – you’ll thank me later. :D

Quick Crusty Bread

I totally forgot to post this recipe yesterday!  While this bread isn’t as stellar as the artisan bread, this was still a good loaf of bread – and the fact that you just throw 5 ingredients together, mix with a spoon and an hour and 15 minutes later you have fresh bread?  Awesome!  I found the recipe here, but I am rewriting it in ounces instead of grams.

Quick Crusty Bread  (made 3 loaves – for calories, I put each loaf is 2 servings – so half of one loaf is 312 calories, .8 fat, 65 carbs, 2 fiber and 8.5 protein)  If you cut each loaf into three servings, it would be 5 points, and still a generous piece of bread.

  • 17 1/2 ounces regular white flour
  • 12.5 ounces warm water
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt (next time I’ll make it a full tablespoon)

Mix the honey and the water together until the honey dissolves. Mix the flour, yeast and salt.  Add honey water mixture and stir – don’t worry the dough will be really sticky.  Let rest for one hour.  I set my oven at 430 degrees about 15 minutes before my hour resting was up – my oven takes awhile to get to temp.  At an hour, I divided the dough into three loaves, and baked for 15 minutes on a baking stone.

The drive to work was so pretty yesterday – for me, you can’t have too many pictures of clouds, sunsets or trees! :D

So for breakfast yesterday I had an egg/bacon/cheese sandwich with 1/3 of a loaf.  The bread (5), egg, (2), cheese (2) and bacon (2) with a side of sliced apples was a super filling 11 point breakfast.

It was so nice outside – 72 and sunny for my 50 minute walk.  I decided to give my legs a break yesterday.  It feels so much like summer.  Not sure I’ve seen the trees or flowers bloom so early!

Lunch was kinda on the fly – I just kept putting stuff in my lunch bag and decided I would see how it worked out once I got to work.  I had leftover chicken from when my SIL was over for dinner, so chicken tacos quickly formed.  4 of these mini corn tortillas are only 120 calories (4 points).  I divided 3 ounces of chicken (3) (yes, I have a food scale at work – don’t judge :D ), green chiles, cheese, romaine lettuce, salsa and fresh cilantro.  All together lunch comes in at 10 points.  The only thing that would have made this better would be to have pickled jalapenos on them, but I am all out.

My store had smoked sausage on sale for $3.29 a pound.  Hannah will actually eat this meat because it doesn’t have any grizzle (sp?) in it, and reminds her of the sausage she had in Germany.  We normally cook the sausage along with the red beans and rice, but I decided to grill it.  Yesterday was an awesome mail day – only 1 bill and three food magazines!

It’s fully cooked, so you just need to heat it up and get some grill marks on it – it was ready in about 10 minutes.

I dipped my sausage into this mustard – omg – so good!  It’s  sweet and hot mustard – it had me because the first ingredient was white wine vinegar!  I got it on the discount rack at William’s and Sonoma – normally it sells for $14.50 (total rip off) but I got it for $3. :D

I had to laugh because this was how one of my dinner plate pictures turned out – I know, I know, you’re jealous of my photography skillz and I should just quit showing off.

Dinner came in at 10 points.  With the leftover sausage and red beans and rice I made a mean soup – I added some chipotle peppers and for lunch today I plan on putting in some fresh chopped spinach – it will be spicy goodness. :D

Check out this BBQ sauce that Suzie made – Whiskey Bourbon BBQ Sauce - it has bourbon AND cider vinegar – I am so making this!

Happy Friday – hope your work day goes by fast if you are working today.  Make it a great day!

The Sandwich King’s Meatball Sandwich with Giardiniera

Remember the bagel I talked about on Friday that was giving me the stink eye?  I caved and after WW swung by a bagel shop and picked up bagels for the house.  While the jalapeno cheddar is high up on the list – my all time favorite bagel?  The everything bagel.  I toasted that bad boy up and schmeared it with a little butter and it was worth the 10 points.

So after seeing The Sandwich King’s meatball sandwich with giardinera, I knew it was quickly going to the top of my “must make” list.  But I decided to make my own ciabatta bread.  Um, turns out most of the recipes called for a “biga” which is a starter of flour, yeast and water that needs to sit up to 24 hours in advance.  So I was thrilled when I found a recipe for Cheater’s ciabatta at Two Spoons.

Instead of making loaves though, I ended up making six sandwich size breads – each one coming in at 5 WW points.

Cheat’s Ciabatta – from Two Spoons

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water
  • 3/4 tablespoon yeast
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt (perfect amount, reduce if you are sensitive to salt)
  • 3 cups white flour

Mix the water, yeast and salt together.  Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon just until all the flour has been incorporated.  Let it rise for one hour.  After the hour is up, I placed a piece of parchment paper on my counter, liberally dusted it with flour and divided the dough into 6 mini loaves.  The dough is super sticky – probably the stickiest dough I’ve worked with but try to avoid using too much flour if you can to mold your loaves.  Let rise for another hour.  Heat oven to 450 with a broiler pan on the bottom rack and a pizza stone on the middle rack if you have it.

Transfer the parchment paper to the stone – add 2 cups of water to the broiler pan and shut the oven door quickly.  Bake for 20 minutes.

The dough doesn’t rise all that much:

See how sticky the dough is?

Here’s how they look after resting the second hour:

Hanging out after they come out of the oven.  Um, Tony and I may have split one with a bit of butter.  You know, for quality control. :D

While these were delicious, Tony and I both concluded that it didn’t taste “ciabattay.”  Yep, I made that word up.  I will definitely try making this again using a biga starter.  The inside was super tender while the outside was crunchy.  Love.

I did adapt The Sandwich King’s meatball recipe just a tad – his original recipe called for five pounds of meat for 8 sandwiches!

Meatballs:  (makes 6 sandwiches, 5.3 ounces each before cooking – 7 WW points)

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup grated pecorina romano
  • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (didn’t have fresh parsley)
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • salt and pepper
  • 1.5 pounds meat loaf mix (my store sells this together – 1/2 pound ground pork, veal and beef each)
  • 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, romano cheese, Italian seasoning, garlic and salt and pepper.  Add the ground meats and bread crumbs.  Mix with your hands (or God-given hands as The Sandwich King states) and combine, careful not to over mix.

I cooked mine in about 1 teaspoon of canola oil on medium-high heat – you want to form a crust on the bottom.   So with my ciabatta roll, the slice of mozzarella, giardiniera – my meatball sandwich comes in at 13 point.  Totally worth it!  I made a simple marinara on the side with 1 can of diced tomatoes and 4 roma tomatoes – it cooked down for an hour and I pureed it and added a touch of olive oil, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper.  Winning!

Tony had asked for German potato salad and I planned on making it.  Until I got to the store and was in the check out when I reached into my purse and realized I didn’t have my wallet.  Fudge.  So I had to drive 15 minutes back to our house, get my wallet, drive 15 minutes back, then 15 minutes back home again, and ran out of time.  So I quickly made some onion rings on the side.  I had just cleaned out my deep fryer and these turned out so good – there isn’t a lot of breading on these, but 1 ounce of onion rings in WW eTools comes in at 3 points, so I’ll stick with that.  That wonderfuly plate comes in at 16 points.  All in all though I had 34 points for the day – and still have 41 flex for the week.  Nice.

Don’t forget to submit your BSI beef recipes before 9:00 p.m. tonight.  The winner will be announced tomorrow.  Blog reader Joy has donated the prize this week - a handcrafted yoga mat carrier!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Heaven on Seven Jalapeno Corn Bread

My SIL and I hit up the Entenmann’s outlet on Sunday.  I wasn’t going to buy anything, but they had these Arnold Pocket Thins – in Italian herb – each half of a pocket is only 2 WW points.

I decided to make an egg white/egg beaters scramble and stuff it into the pita half.  Um, I must have been really hungry because there was no way my scramble was going to fit into the pita!  Egg whites (1), egg beaters (2), 1 tablespoon bacon bits (1), 1/2 ounce cheddar cheese (1), pita (2), red pepper and zucchini and apple on the side (0).  Breakfast comes in at 7 points.

I tested my blood sugar right before heading out for a run.  It was 220 – right where I want it to be before working out.  I checked weather.com – said it was 33 but felt like 21.  It was sunny, so I decided to go for it.  I only was able to walk for 15 minutes – the wind was so strong!  When I got back I checked weather.com again, no wonder – there were 25-33 mph winds!  I texted Tony and said “I had to abort the run due to wind!”

He texted back, “why don’t you go to the gym after work, I can cook dinner.”   I quickly texted him back and told him I would take him up on that offer.  Then he texted back “what am I making?”  Now you all know I do the weekly meal plan – not sure if Tony listens to me when I throw out ideas of meals like I do.   I also don’t have the most organized kitchen.  At some moments I will have all the lids on the pots in order – other times, I just shove them in the cupboard and slam the door shut before everything falls on the ground.  I also almost never put anything back in the same place.  So if Tony was going to need the rice maker, it could literally be in one of ten places.

I texted “I have red beans and rice with smoked sausage – the sausage is on the left hand bottom side of the fridge, the rice mix is above the coffee maker.  I also have pasta with sauce and Italian sausage – the sausage is in the meat drawer and the canned tomatoes are in the pantry.  I also have steak and potatoes – the potatoes are on the bottom left hand side of the floor of the pantry.”

He texted me back “I’ve made my decision, now back off.” :D

I ended up having leftover beef stew, this time over chopped baby spinach – I had a very generous one and 1/3 cups – so I am calling lunch 8 points.

So after work I went straight to the gym.  I just changed back into my clothes before leaving the office.  I knew I wanted to run a 5k – um, let’s just say my gym is busy at 5:45 at night!  I grabbed the last treadmill!  I walked for 5 minutes to warm up, reset the treadmill and started out at 5.5 mph.  Every mile I bumped up the mileage, so my last mile was at 5.8 mph and my last .4 miles was at 6.0.

My facebook friends already know this is a PR for me – so close to being 33:__!  My goal is still to do it under 30 minutes.  I know I’ll get there eventually. :D

So I came home and as soon as I walked in the door it smelled like heaven.  I walked into the kitchen, and there was homemade cornbread!

Corn bread and I go way back.  I have probably told Tony this story 100 times every time I see corn bread on t.v.  Back when I was a poor single momma I worked in Chicago.  My office was on LaSalle.  There was a restaurant called Heaven on Seven on Wabash, which was a good 25 minute walk to get to.  The first time I went was with my boss at the time.  The restaurant is in a funky office building.  You get off on the seventh floor and there is this cajun restaurant with 100′s of bottles of hot sauce on the walls and tables – I knew I was home. :D   But what got me that very first time was their jalapeno corn bread.

It was a giant square of heaven – slightly sweet, hint of bacon, spicy because of the jalapenos and so tender.  I believe it cost about $2.50 for a square of that goodness, even back then.   So at least twice a week I would walk 25 minutes, get my square of deliciousness and eat it on the 25 minute walk back to my office.  They since opened other locations – one on Michigan Avenue and now in a Chicago suburb in Naperville.

As luck would have it – Tony and I were watching Pioneer Woman and she made corn bread.  Before I even said anything Tony says “I know, you got corn bread from Heaven on Seven!”  On a side note – I love Pioneer Woman’s website.  Her t.v. show?  Not so much.  Is it me or does she not have much of a personality on screen?  I keep wanting to watch her show, but not sure how much time I’ll invest in it.

I digress.  Tony found a recipe for Heaven on Seven corn bread, and when I mentioned red beans and rice and sausage, it turned out to be the perfect fit.

Heaven on Seven Corn Bread (makes 1, 9 inch pie plate – which I cut into 12 pieces – for 6 WW points each

  • 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons ground corn flour (Tony just used corn meal)
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (which Tony left out because he added cheese and pancetta)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/3 cup milk (Tony used buttermilk)
  • 5 tablespoons of butter, melted
  • 4 ounces cheddar cheese
  • 1 4 ounce can diced jalapeno peppers
  • 2 ounces chopped pancetta for the top

Since Tony didn’t have corn flour as the recipe stated, he mixed everything together except the pancetta, and let it soak for a couple hours before putting it in a 9 inch cake pan.  He topped it with the chopped pancetta and baked it for 40 minutes at 350.

He cooked the red beans and rice and sausage together in the rice maker.  I think he runs it through two cycles to get it all done so it was basically ready to plate when I got home.

I figured out the points after I ate.  The rice and beans were (4), the 3 ounces of smoked sausage was (7) and my slice of heaven cornbread was (6).  So while I had a 17 point dinner, it was delicious – that’s what my flex points are for, right?!

Thank you Tony for putting dinner together – it was delicious.  And for breakfast I am going to have an egg white spinach omelet (2) with my slice of heaven (6) for a nice 8 point breakfast.  Nothing like staring out the day with jalapenos!

Make it a great day!

 

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