I absolutely love Nature Valley granola bars.  They are crunchy goodness.  But it seems every time I try to make crunchy granola bars, they fall apart almost immediately upon cutting and I am left with granola.  If I had wanted granola I would have made granola!

Enter HalfBakedHarvest’s recipe.  I think the simple missing ingredient was using the bottom of a cup measure to REALLY press down hard on the mixture before putting it into the oven.  You can click on the link above for her recipe – I only changed two things based with what I had on hand – I used 1 cup of Cheerios and I subbed agave nectar for the honey.  Oh, and I forgot I added 2 tablespoons of flax seed and 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds.

I actually used my hands to make sure every piece was covered in the peanut butter/agave nectar mixture.  The parchment paper is key too – makes it super easy to get it out of the pan to cool before cutting.

So far it looks good!

After cutting??  Hardly any crumbs!!

Finally, a granola bar that stays together!!  I will note that mine were a tad salty – I shelled my own peanuts, so if your peanuts are really salty, you can leave out the salt in the recipe.  Still delicious – I need to make some more soon!

So we are flying by the seat of our pants this week food wise.  I knew we had enough stuff in the house that I didn’t need to grocery shop – should be an interesting week!

Breakfast was blueberry Chobani pancakes.   I was super busy at work all day so I just took a quick pick with my iPhone.

I decided to do the StairMaster at lunch.  Tony and I signed up for Netflix because they were having a free month special.  I watched a movie, but it wasn’t very good, but it made the time go by fast!  I ended up doing 100 flights of stairs in 35 minutes, or 2.07 miles.

So yesterday was all about the sausage!  I bought these last weekend. 

The package had me at jalapeno!  I decided to make a smoked sausage panini – I used store bought bread, baby spinach, horseradish mustard and a small slice of cheese with the sausage.  My boss loved this!

We split a 1 ounce bag of pretzels and had oranges, strawberries and grapes on the side. #winning!

So then I get home and Tony asked what was for dinner.  I start to mention “I have smoked sausage” and he said “put cheese on mine please.”

So this time I made a smoked sausage dog with sauerkraut on the bottom, the sausage, topped with a bit of blue cheese and hot giardiniera.  I had a cooked baked potato in the fridge so those because some potato fries, with cucumbers and ranch dressing for dipping.

I think I have yogurt for breakfast parfaits this morning, and I think I am going to throw all the ingredients into a bag to make smoked sausage sauerkraut soup for lunch.  I figure it can cook while I work!

Question of the Day:  Sauerkraut fan or not?  I can eat it out of a can cold, but Tony thinks it tastes like ass.

Make it a great day!!

I picked up Hannah late Saturday afternoon to head to my Mom’s for a Momma Day sleepover Saturday night.  It’s kind of weird when you see your kids after they have moved out.  I think it’s been about a month since I’d seen her?

We got to my Mom’s house and we decided it would be easier to go out Saturday night then on actual Mother’s Day.  I actually hate going out on Mother’s Day.  It’s crowded, over priced and I always feel like I am being rushed because they want to turn as many tables as possible.

We headed to downtown La Grange, which I’d never been to before. 

They had a super cute down town that was about four blocks long.  So many shops and restaurants!

It was a bit chilly though, we probably could have used heavier coats!  I like this picture because I was able to focus on my Mom and make the background blurry.

We ended up eating at Thipi Thai.   We all love Thai food.  And you know I love spicy shit!

The food was excellent, however our server was soooooo  sssssllllooowww.  Luckily we weren’t in a hurry, but it was crazeballs.  We split appetizers of chicken satay and potstickers.  I got Kung Pao Chicken with noodles:

There were so many hidden thai chilis in this dish that it was almost too spicy, almost.   After dinner we got some coffee at Starbuck’s and walked around the down town area.  When we got home, we sipped some wine and watched Silver Lining Playbook, completely not what I thought the movie was going to be about, but it was good.

Hannah and I stayed up until about 12:30 and then slept in my Mom’s guest bedroom.  The only problem with her guest bedroom is that it is super bright in the morning.  Tony and I sleep with black curtains so our bedroom is always pitch black no matter what time of day.  I was wide awake by 7:30.  Hannah slept until 8:00.

I brought flowers for my Mom – hydrangeas (SP?!) – which I didn’t even know are one of her favorite flowers – she’s going to plant them in her back yard.

Hannah got me a wine glass with a bottle of wine, some salsas and tea.  Thanks Hannah! 

My Mom had choir rehearsal before church so Hannah and I went to Panera for a bit.  Coffee and a pumpkin muffie, which is like a muffin top.

We had time to kill so I made Hannah a walking dead person!  God I love that app!

After church it was back to Mom’s for brunch.  I made a classic sausage casserole:

• 1 package of Jimmy Dean’s sage sausage, cooked
• 12 ounces of stale bread, cubed
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1.5 cups milk of choice (I used 2%)
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

This is best if you make it the night before and let the bread soak overnight.  Heat oven to 375.  Spray your pan with Pam.  Layer 1/2 of the bread on the bottom, sprinkle with half the sausage, then half the cheese.  Whip the eggs, egg whites, milk and salt and pepper together.  Pour half the egg mixture over the sausage, bread and cheese, then repeat with the final layer of bread, sausage and cheese.  Bake until the eggs are set – between 45 and 60 minutes.  Mine took closer to 60 minutes because it went from fridge to oven.

The sage sausage gives this so much flavor.  We nearly finished the whole thing between the three of us!  

And then what Momma Day would be complete without a visit to the local thrift store?!

I got some cute shirts for vacation.  Still need a couple more pairs of shorts, may have to run to the Good will by me one night this week.  It was great hanging out with my Mom and Hannah!

And when I got home, Tony prepared a delicious dinner for me.  He’d marinated a pot roast overnight – mine had chili oil, crushed red pepper, garlic and sriracha.  His simply had salt, pepper and garlic salt.  Mine was better!

We’ve learned the secret over the years to perfectly grilled meat.  We almost always grill our meat on a cookie sheet, above a cast iron skillet off the heat.  We cook the meat for about 15 minutes with the top slightly off on the grill to feed the coals with oxygen to get a nice sear, then close up the top, leave the top grate open and finish cooking that way.  125 degrees is the magic number to take the meat off the grill for medium rare.

Tony had a great idea to put smoked bacon on the top.  It became almost like butter when it was done cooking.

The skillet catches any dripped fat so the coals stay perfect.  No flare ups.

He made potatoes and carrots with rosemary on the side.

OMG.  So flavorful, tender, absolutely delicious.  Of course at only 1/3 of this meat, but it will be put to good use as a leftover.  Thanks for a delicious Momma Day dinner Tony! 

And to cap it off, when I went to go to the bathroom Tony left me this picture.

I am sure there are plenty of Michael Buble fans out there, I am just not one of them!  And Tony likes turn up a song if we are driving in the car too!

I am utterly unprepared food wise for this week, mostly because I want to use up stuff we have before going on vacation.  Should be interesting!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend – make it a great day!

Afternoon!  Wow, what a lazy morning I had.  I slept for 10 hours last night.  I wish I could give my gift of sleep to Tony just for one night so he could know what it feels like to sleep that long. 

We were both really hungry and I had to pick up my contacts before the eye doctor closed so we headed out to breakfast.  My phone died and I didn’t have my camera with me (I know, shocker!) so all I have for you is my coffee cup – I love diner coffee.

I may or may not have gotten corned beef hash and eggs.

Yesterday I had a spinach egg white, ham and cheese egg sammie with some strawberries. I love the Thomas English Muffin high fiber muffins – 8 grams of fiber per muffin!

Luckily my weather held out yesterday and I was able to grill out.  It was about 50 degrees and overcast, but the rain stayed away.  I made chili hot dogs, cole slaw and Fritos – super simple but so tasty.

Now the chili I make for hot dogs is different from any other chili I make,  It’s thinner and doesn’t have any beans.

Chili Dog Sauce

• 1.5 pounds ground sirloin**
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

** If you use any other kind of meat other than sirloin, cook the beef first and drain any fat off.  If using lean beef just cook with the other ingredients.

This can’t be easier – throw everything in a pot and mix together, using a wooden spoon to break up the beef.  Cook for 20 minutes.  Done.

I bought Oscar Meyer Angus beef hot dogs and they were really good – only $3.99 for 8 hotdogs.  And the coleslaw couldn’t have been easier too – have you ever tried this before?

I just chopped up a small cabbage, used 1/2 a bag of broccoli slaw and just tossed this dressing over the top – delish!

Here’s a shocker – we didn’t have party pizza Friday!  I know, I am just as bummed as you are!  But I had some ground beef I had to use up that I had leftover from the chili sauce.  I ended up making patty melts.  Here are a couple secrets to a great patty melt. 

First, thin burger just with salt and pepper.  Heat your skillet to medium high and don’t put your burger on until the pan is really hot.  Then don’t move the burger for 3-4 minutes.  You want to get a nice crust on the burger.

Once the burgers are almost done – about 3-4 minutes per side, build your patty – 2 slices of buttered bread, American cheese, and for me, hot giardiniera.  Once you put the patty melts back in the pan, put a lid over it and bring the heat down to low – you want to melt the cheese before the bread gets overcooked.  I use my wok top.

The only flack that Tony gave me?  That patty melts have to be made on rye bread.  I disagree, and feel a patty melt is a burger made on bread – any kind of bread.  He then proceeded to show me the first 500 pictures on google images, and sure as shit, each of them was made on rye bread.  Who knew?!

So since tomorrow is Momma’s Day, I decided to have a sleep over at my Mom’s house tonight.  She has pretty much everything she needs and/or wants, so I decided my gift to her this year would be the gift of time.  She needs her patio furniture put out and has a couple other household things she needs done.  We’ll have dinner out tonight and go to church tomorrow.  Hannah got tomorrow off so she will be joining us too – a three generation sleep over!

Tony will be fine.  Turns out we have Banquet fried chicken in the house and I am sure he’ll find a boxing or MMA fight on t.v.

I hope all the Momma’s out there have a wonderful day tomorrow – have a great weekend!  I am off to try making my first loaf of sourdough bread, if it turns out, I’ll post it on Monday. 

Hooray for Friday!  Actually, this week went by pretty fast.  A week from today we will be leaving for Austin!   We’ve already rented a boat for one day when we are there to boat around Lake Travis – how beautiful is this??!!

Thanks to all of you who stopped by Brooke’s blog to congratulate her on getting to goal, you guys rock!

I was back to the breakfast parfaits yesterday.  The only difference between me and my boss’ parfait is that I use plain Greek yogurt and for her I used Chobani’s banana yogurt.  With bananas, strawberries and chocolate almond granola – so good!  Don’t envy the wallpaper in my office too much, okay.

I was all set to work out, but when I tested my blood sugar, I was 110 – perfect but too low to work out.  That’s the only problem with the parfait, it takes me a while to eat and the insulin to food consumption doesn’t match up.

You all know I make bread every weekend, but the best part is that the dough can sit in the fridge up to two weeks.  I knew I was going to be making panini’s for lunch, so the night before last I just took the dough out and let it sit on the counter overnight.  It still cooks the same, 30 minutes in the Dutch even for 30 minutes with the lid on, then 15 minutes with the lid off.

Our sammies were delicious – deli ham, roasted red pepper, baby spinach and fresh mozzarella.  If my boss could have licked her plate she would have!

For some reason, Tony isn’t a fan of red sauce anymore.  I know, he’s Italian! (well, and half French Canadian which he doesn’t like to talk about, but I wrote it because his Mom is French Canadian and proud of it! – Hi Bonnie!).  Although I think he would be fine having Scott Conant’s red sauce, but I didn’t have time for that.

Alfredo though?  He loves it.  I decided to make a lightened up version using cream cheese that I got in the 50% off bin.

Alfredo Sauce for Two

• 232 calories, 15 fat, 354 sodium, 11.5 carbs, .1 fiber and 13 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• cracked pepper
• add salt if you want, but I think the cheese is enough salt – the sodium content above is without adding additional salt

Melt butter.  Add flour and stir for a minute.  Add the milk, 1/4 cup at a time making a roux.  Remove from heat and stir in the cream cheese and Parmesan cheese. 

I added 4 ounces of sausage and a cup of broccoli to my bowl – delish!  And um, we are going to pretend to not notice that this expired in April.

Pure comfort in a bowl.  (and I may have added some crushed red pepper to mine).

Stats for Thursday:

• 1476 calories, 113 mg cholesterol, 49 fat, 195 car, 22 fiber and 70 protein
• 53% of calories from carbs, 30% from fat and 17% protein
• no exercise

I am taking a gamble on the weather and grilling at lunch today.  On the menu?  Grilled hot dogs with no bean chili, cheese (and onions, aren’t I nice!), coleslaw and Fritos.  Now rain please stay away until after lunch, thank you!

And Mel, does this look right?  This is my sourdough starter that’s been “cooking” for five days:

I hope to make sourdough bread this weekend!   Make it a great day!

I hope many of you read Brooke’s blog.  (Brooke Not On A Diet).  She and I “met” each others blog a few years ago.  She was overweight.  Like 327 pounds.  By the time I met her she’s already lost about 70 pounds and was looking fabulous.  She chipped away at it, day after day, month after month and year after year.

Mind you, this woman lost all her weight without a gym membership.  She could only walk to start, then she was able to start doing exercise videos and created at home workouts to keep it from getting too boring.  Now she can run, ride a bike and lift weights!

So yesterday was her WI day at Weight Watchers.  She’s been focused on this goal for four years.  She was close to her goal weight, which is 150 pounds.  Guess what??!!

GOOOAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!!!

Yep.  This woman above has lost 177 pounds.  She’s lost more than I weigh now!  I am so fricken proud of her and I know she’ll be an inspiration to others if she becomes a WW leader.   Can you show her some love and leave her a comment on her blog for me?  Thanks!

I had a breakfast parfait for lunch.  My camera battery was dead, so my iPhone stepped in – plain Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup mango, 1/2 cup apple and 1/2 cup of Canadian Farm’s Chocolate Almond Granola. 

This granola is really good.  Super crunchy and I love the hit of chocolate every third bite.

But I have to say, either I am not cutting it right, but cutting up a fresh mango is a hard task.  It seemed like I had so much waste, I think I’ll just buy it frozen and defrost it from now on.

My knee is feeling better, but I didn’t want to push it too much, so I decided to do a run/walk on the treadmill, increasing the running portion until I finished a 5k.  Three minutes running, two minutes walking.  My last 3 minute run was at a 6.0 mph pace.

Over the weekend I made a Creamy Tortilla Soup.  I found a great recipe, printed it out and sadly, there was no mention of the blog on the print out so I can’t give credit where credit is due!  When I do find it, I’ll link to it.

Creamy Tortilla Soup

• 4 servings of 1.25 cups each:  133 calories, 4.3 fat, 508 sodium, 22 carbs, 3.3 fiber and 2.7 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 jalapeno
• 6 roma tomatoes, cut in half
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon agave nectar
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
• 4 corn tortillas
• juice of 1 lime

Heat oven to 350.  Toss the tomatoes, garlic and jalapeno with the olive oil and bake for about 20-30 minutes.  Check on the garlic though, that won’t take as long.  I kept the jalapeno seeds in, but you could remove them at this point for a less spicy soup.

Throw all the ingredients into a large pot.  Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, or until the tortillas are really soft, and using a stick blender puree.  Garnish with fried tortillas, cilantro and lime.

I didn’t realize how low calorie this dish was, so yesterday at lunch I ended up adding 3/4 cup of egg noodles, and I had a spinach quesadilla on the side.

I had chicken legs soaking in 1/2 cup of buttermilk, salt and pepper for 24 hours.  I simply took them from that marinade straight to the grill with just the addition of a little garlic salt.  Buttermilk makes the juiciest chicken, whether you bake it, fry it or grill it.

It was so nice outside last night – love the view from my grill!  Although we have to attack the creepy Charlie – it’s this tiny blue flower that just takes over the lawn.

I had some green beans that I was going to sauté with a bit of olive oil, lemon zest and almonds.  When I went to reach for them, they were frozen.  For some reason my back right hand corner is super cold in my fridge. 

All was not lost.  I decided to make a quick beer batter:

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup (3 oz) beer
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 a pound of fresh green beans

Heat your fryer or oil to 350.  Mix the flour, beer, salt and pepper together and toss the green beans in and let them soak while the oil gets to temperature.  Fry for 3-4 minutes, until the batter is golden brown.  I have Carolina bbq sauce on my legs (thanks Rachel!)

This made two servings.  Now I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, our fryer holds the oil temperature perfectly so nothing is greasy.  However, I do add 1 teaspoon of oil when calculating the nutrition.  This made 2 servings:  120 calories, 2.4 fat, 19 carbs, 2 fiber and 3.5 protein.  Delicious!

Stats for Wednesday:

• 1378 calories, 50 fat, 138 carbs, 13.5 fiber, 92 protein, 257 mg cholesterol
• 40% calories from carbs, 33% from fat and 27% from protein
• 45 minute treadmill workout

Yikes, only 20 minutes before I need to leave for work, and I still have bread in the oven to take out – no worries though, I’ll make it.  Make it a great day!

I haven’t gotten all the numbers back on my last doctors appointment, but the nurse called me yesterday to tell me that my cholesterol is high.  Really high.  I didn’t even think to ask the number, but I should be getting all the results in the mail in a couple days.  I’ve been on cholesterol medicine since September, and never really thought much of it.  Now I am taking twice as much medication.

Truth be told, I didn’t even know what foods were high in cholesterol, it’s something that wasn’t even on my radar.  I use Fat Secret to track all my food.  So I did a little digging last night.  Um, turns out my favorite foods are high in cholesterol:

EGGS

CHEESE

MEAT

So I looked back at a particular day, this is what I ate:

Breakfast: two tostadas with two scrambled eggs, spinach, turkey sausage and cheese: 440 mg of cholesterol

Lunch: Buffalo chicken tender stuffed potato with cheese: 85 mg of cholesterol

Dinner: Burger with cheese and potato chips: 103 mg of cholesterol

628 mg of cholesterol for that day!

I low cholesterol diet is considered to be under 200.  Gah.  Just one more number for me to look at.  But, I guess its better to know than not know, right?

And then what did I have for breakfast?  An egg/cheese sammie!  Must buy egg beaters and stick to egg whites.  But I really, really like cheese.

I ended up doing the stair master at lunch for 35 minutes.  I did the speed intervals and its pretty hard – it has 20 levels and I did my slow interval at level 8 and my fast interval at level 12.

I did 2.37 miles in 35 minutes for 114 floors.  Then I stretched for 5 minutes and then did 5 minutes of abs on the bosu.  A nice 45 minute workout.

OMG, the Asian Noodle salad I made yesterday?  Fantastic.  Such a great way to use up leftover beef roast.  I adapted the recipe from The Cozy Apron.  I just doubled the recipe for me and my boss.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked soba noodles (cooled), drizzled with a touch of olive oil to prevent sticking
6 ounces of leftover beef, cut thin
2 cups broccoli slaw
2 teaspoons crushed peanuts
1 tablespoon cilantro leaves, chopped
• Sweet-Spicy Peanut Sauce (recipe below)

Preparation:

-Add all of the ingredients through the chopped cilantro leaves into a medium-size bowl, and toss together gently until well combined; to pack up and store, add these ingredients into a container, either a plastic Tupperware with lid, or glass container with lid that you can take with you, and store the Sweet-Spicy Peanut Sauce in a separate small container, and keep refrigerated until ready to enjoy.

-To assemble at lunch time or when you’re ready to eat, just pour the Sweet-Spicy Peanut Sauce as over the noodles/beef, gently toss together to coat, and enjoy.

Sweet-Spicy Peanut Sauce ingredients:

3 tablespoons agave nectar or honey (I used agave)
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
2 tablespoon peanut butter (I used all-natural, creamy peanut butter)
2 clove garlic, pressed through garlic press
3 to 4 drops of Sriracha sauce (this is spicy, so use to your liking)

Preparation:

-In a small dish, combine all of the ingredients with a fork or small whisk until very well blended and smooth; keep in a small, snap-top container in fridge until ready to use. (*If the sauce gets a bit too thick from being in the fridge, just warm the container that it’s in under some hot water for a moment or two to soften the sauce and make easier to pour.)

These are the noodles I used – they are individually wrapped in 2 ounce portions.  I got these at a Japanese grocery store, but any type pasta would do.

I used my mini chopped to blend the sauce mixture.  Then just combined everything when it was lunch time.

This was so light and refreshing!  I think I could have added a bit of lime juice, but this was super flavorful.  This whole bowl comes in at 547 calories, 14 fat, 79 carbs, 5.2 fiber and 31 protein.

Over the weekend I bought a teriyaki marinated flank steak.  All I did was let it come to room temperature for about 20 minutes before grilling.  I was thinking of a side dish when I saw that I had asparagus and risotto rice, so I decided to make a spring risotto.

I originally thought that this was going to be 2 servings, but it turned out to be 3.  Or it could even turn out to be 4 small servings.

Asparagus, Carrot and Apple Risotto

• 3 servings: 332 calories, 7 fat, 51 carbs, 3.1 fiber and 7.3 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped asparagus
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup risotto rice (thanks Carol!)
• salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter with the olive oil.  Add the carrot and rice and cook for about 2 minutes.   Add 1/2 cup of liquid at a time, stirring and once the broth is absorbed, add another 1/2 cup of liquid, ending with the final 1/2 cup of wine.  During the last 1/2 cup of wine addition, add the asparagus and apples.  Once the last of the broth is absorbed, remove from heat and add the Parmesan cheese and stir until melted.  Salt and pepper to taste.

I really need to work on my food styling, but this was delicious.  The meat was so flavorful and the rice so creamy.

So today is WI Wednesday!

Back in the 160s, thank you very much.  I think I am down 1.6 from last week – I’ll double check that, but I am happy to be in the 160s again.  Now let’s just keep that number going down, shall we?!

Stats for Tuesday:

• 1499 calories, 48 fat, 186 carbs, 26 fiber, 94 protein
• 50% calories from carbs, 29% from fat, 21% from protein
• 355 mg of cholesterol
• 45 minute workout on Stairmaster

It’s that time again kids to get my shit together for the day.  I threw my gym clothes in the wash last night and never put them in the dryer so I need to get my act together.  I only have 30 minutes before I need to leave work today – not too much time for activities this morning.   Make it a great day!

Since I had taken so many pictures over the weekend, I was remiss in showing you the delicious breakfast Tony made me on Sunday.  This was actually my breakfast and lunch.  Last night we were watching t.v. and he was like “why didn’t my breakfast make the blog?”

I put some ingredients out and let Tony do his magic!  Eggs, egg whites, corn tortillas, sausage, cheese and my baja fresh salsa.

A few minutes later he brought me this gorgeous plate.

He crisped up the tortillas, mixed sriracha with the scrambled eggs – so delicious.  Thanks Tony!   You can tell I hated it.

I made another quiche yesterday, this time using canned sliced potatoes.  Check those out at your dollar store – they are usually 2 cans for $1.

Potato Zucchini Quiche

• 4 servings:  185 calories, 8.3 fat, 542 sodium (drops down to 213 if you don’t add the 1/2 teaspoon salt), 10 carbs, 1.4 fiber and 15 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 can sliced canned potatoes (1 cup)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup egg whites
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 2 ounces cheddar cheese (I used a horseradish cheddar)

Spray a pie plate with Pam.  Heat oven to 375.  Drain the canned potatoes and lay those on the bottom of the pie plate, overlapping if necessary.  Shred a zucchini into a paper towel and squeeze to get all the liquid out.  Sprinkle over potatoes.  Mix the eggs, egg whites, milk, salt and pepper together and pour over potato/zucchini mixture.  Top with cheese and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the eggs are set.

This was still pretty warm when it was time to leave for work, so I used a pizza box to transport it to work – just laid a kitchen towel on the bottom, put the quiche in the box and closed it shut – it worked great!

And some delicious strawberries and blueberries on the side.

My left knee has been bothering me since Saturday, so I decided to take it easy and swim.  I ended up swimming for 40 minutes!  While I do like that swimming is an all body workout, it does get kind of boring and I find myself looking at the clock seeing how much longer before I can get out.

And, for lunch I had lasagna soup #34!  Except this time I made it with fresh roma tomatoes and I have to say, this made this soup just that much better.  I used 8 roma tomatoes and cooked those in a teaspoon of olive oil, then added the chicken broth and once the tomatoes were soft, I pureed that mixture and continued on with the recipe.

So I am sure most of you are like me – you Pin a bunch of recipes, or make mental notes that you want to make some recipe soon.  That’s how it was when I saw Nicole’s lamb burgers.  Don’t worry, I was giving the red onion the stink eye.

I was going to use tzatziki sauce instead of her cilantro riata sauce.  I have to tell you, I was a bit nervous, I’ve never had ground lamb before.  When we were at the store, I was at the cheese section when I asked Tony to find me ground lamb.

Um, I didn’t pay attention to the price of this – $9.99 a pound!  I ended up mixing 5 ounces of ground sirloin with 5 ounces of the lamb.  Then simply seasoned with salt and pepper.

So I light the grill and start to get my other stuff ready.  Um, no tzatziki sauce.  I could have sworn on a stack of bibles that I had some in there.  So the direction of our burgers took a whole new direction.  For Tony, I made him a Swiss cheese mushroom lamb burger. 

Me?  #becauseIlovespicyshit – I made a cheddar hot giardiniera lamb burger.

I have to say, I am not sure that I could actually “taste” the lamb, but this is one of the juiciest burgers I’ve ever made.  I will definitely use lamb again to make burgers.  Thanks for the inspiration Nicole!

I think I am on day six of the Detox Water and I have to say, drinking 2 liters of water is so easy because the water tastes so good.   And I had no snacks after dinner – woop!

I am just about to make my lunch for my boss and I today, except I will be using leftover beef from the roast I made on Sunday – doesn’t this look good – Asian noodle salad.

I still have an hour before I need to leave for work, so much time for activities!  It helps that we went to bed at 10:30 last night.

Make it a great day!