Thank you so much for the anniversary wishes!! We had a great day. Hannah’s been babysitting for a family all week so I woke up to a note “the coffee is fresh!” Love that 😀 Since I had time, I decided to make breakfast nachos again. Since I know I’ll be making these a lot, I put them in the recipe builder on eTools!
Breakfast Nachos
Course: main meals
PointsPlus™ Value: 6
Servings: 1
Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 20 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy
| Course: main meals PointsPlus™ Value: 6 Servings: 1 Preparation Time: 5 min |
Ingredients
| 1/2 cup(s) Egg Beaters Refrigerated Egg Whites | |
| 1/2 slice(s) cheddar or colby cheese | |
| 1/4 cup(s) canned refried black beans | |
| 1 serving(s) Hot Sauce | |
| 2 item(s) corn tortilla(s) | |
Instructions
Heat oven to 350. Cut each tortilla into four, giving you 8 chips.
Spray with Pam and sprinkle with salt if desired. Bake for 10 minutes, or until chips are crispy.
Heat refried beans in microwave for 30 seconds. Divide beans between 8 nachos.
Microwave egg beaters for 2 minutes. Add taco seasoning or Tabasco to egg white mixture. Divide between 8 nachos.
Sprinkle 1/2 ounce of cheese over nachos and broil for a couple minutes, just until the cheese melts.
Tony and I watched some t.v. – love the Price is Right! We had to leave for a doctor appointment for Tony at noon, so when I saw it was 10:20, I knew I had to get my exercise in, otherwise it wouldn’t happen. I did a 20 minute bootcamp with Amy Dixon – never heard of her before but it was half cardio and half weights. Then I did level 1 of 30 day shred. Then did five minutes of stretching – a nice 50 minute workout – done!
One thing you need to know about Tony is that he hates to be late. He would rather be 30 minutes early than 30 seconds late. So we pull into the lot where the doctors office is, and I decided to test my blood sugar – it was 68. I meant to grab an apple as we were leaving but forgot. So since we had time, we went to a gas station and I ate an apple and cheese stick – actually not a bad apple considering it was from a gas station!
After his appointment we went to a Mexican restaurant – I counted out 12 tortilla chips for 4 points (actually thought they were 3, but on the new plan, its 4).
I love the trio of salsas they bring to the table:
I was going to order two chicken tacos a la carte, and a side of black beans. But the server said their special was 3 tacos with rice and beans for $5, so we each got that – mine was chicken and Tony got the carne asada. These tacos were super flavorful, and we liked that the meat had some charred parts to it. I ate 1 taco, 12 tortilla chips, 1/2 cup salsa, 1/4 cup of the refried beans – my guestimate is lunch came in at 11 PointsPlus. Sound about right?
When Hannah came home from babysitting, she had to go take care of a cat from another family she babysits for while they are out of town for the holidays. I needed a few things at the store so I tagged along. Holy cow, this house had to be at least 5,000 square feet. Gorgeous kitchen with a six burner gas stove with the griddle in the middle. As I was walking through the kitchen while Hannah was feeding the cat, Hannah walked in and said “Mom, this is going to kill you, but the Mom doesn’t even cook.” What??!! Maybe she’ll let me come over and cook on her stove sometime 😀
Then it was on to dinner! It’s a place called 1776 in Crystal Lake. You can see my review from 2001 here! I had planned on getting the tapas menu, but it was mushroom heavy, so I passed. We first ordered shrimp cocktail – each shrimp was $1.50 and you could get as many as you wanted – we each had three:
We both agreed while these were good – but we like our best shrimp cocktail recipe better! If you plan on having people over for the holidays – make this shrimp cocktail – it will be a guaranteed hit!
One of the special appetizers was this:
I ate 1 1/2 flautas. The sauce was delicious, but the beef was actually a bit tough which I wasn’t expecting. I was kicking myself for not ordering the cheese plate – what was I thinking?!
Tony got the smoked fish plate – it was smoked trout, tilapia and salmon and he loved every bite of it. I actually took a couple bites and it was delicious – it kind of looks raw, but its fully cooked.
Well after splitting a bottle of chardonnay, the shrimp and the huge appetizers, neither of us could imagine getting a main entree – even though I was going to order the pork roast with goat cheese mashed potatoes with a grainy mustard sauce – how delicious does that sound?!
We ended up splitting a lobster pizza – perfect size to split, probably about 7 inches around. It had lobster, goat cheese, mozzarella cheese and red and yellow peppers – the cheese was so creamy because of the goat cheese, but not too tart for Tony with the mix of mozzarella.
And when I made the reservation, I told them it was our anniversary, so our server brought us over what I think was a flourless chocolate cake – we each had a couple bites – yum! My guess is dinner was 24 PointsPlus. We are a cheap date too – even with the bottle of wine our bill only came to $83!
And then when we got home, we watched my favorite Christmas movie of all time. It’s A Wonderful Life. I’ve seen it so many times I can recite the dialogue almost word for word. But it always puts life in perspective. While I do dream of a six burner gas stove and a DSLR, I look around and I am thankful. I have a roof over my head, plenty of food in my refrigerator, a loving husband and wonderful daughter and step-son. It doesn’t get much better, does it?!
Stats for Tuesday (no pics though!)
- 37 points
- 6.3 mile bike ride
- 5 minutes abs on the ball
- average blood sugar 102
Stats for Wednesday:
- 43 points
- 13 flex points remaining
- 20 minute Bootcamp
- Level 1 30-day shred
- average blood sugar 113
Christmas is at our house this year so today is my big cleaning day and then the rest of our grocery shopping for Christmas eve and Christmas day. Do you have a Christmas dinner tradition? We are having both turkey and ham, stuffing muffins, green bean casserole, homemade bread, shrimp cocktail for appetizers and Robin Sue’s crab rangoon – can’t wait to make that one! 😀
Make it a great day!
Happy belated Anniversary Biz. What a wonderful day of good eats and good family time.
I am going to have to try those breakfast nachos, what a great idea. Lobster pizza – oh my!
I’m constantly craving Mexican food, but my husband could take it or leave it so I don’t get it as often as I like. Your day looks delicious!
Our annual Christmas dinner has become Prime Rib, Bacon Mac and Cheese, and Bacon Brussels Sprouts. Those are all “must haves” and everything else is up to me. I do like to try different things so I’m trying out some rolls called Butter Dips and Twice Baked Mini Potatoes (with bacon of course.) Now that I see it all in black and white, I realize that there is a lot of bacon and butter involved. Guess we should have some medics on call, huh? 🙂
Merry Christmas to you and your family, Biz! *Hugs*
Thank you for the reminder and reinforcing the fact that its okay to give your body a rest. Ever since I wrote that post I have been listening to my body. 🙂
Happy Anniversary and Happy Holidays!
Oh yeah, Merry Christmas!
I like the breakfast nacho idea. The other meals look good too. I can’t believe with such a nice stove there would be no cooking, but honestly, I know that many people who can afford gorgeous kitchens like that rarely cook and eat out a lot. Then of course there are people who can afford the stove and do cook, but often the nice kitchen just comes with the nice house and no one really asked for it. Or better yet, it gets used by caterers when entertaining.
Everything looks incredible! Love your lunch, I’m a sucker for all things Mexican food related!!!
Have a wonderful Christmas weekend!
Jen
Merry Christmas to you & your family, Biz! Hope you all enjoy a wonderful holiday!
No particular traditional menu around here. We’re just cooking for our family, so we only have to please ourselves. I’m going to pop out tomorrow to a special meat shop and try and get some Polish sausages for my Mr., so we’ll probably have that for either Christmas eve or day.
And mmm, I do love Mexican food! Definitely need some of that soon.
What a great day you had! (and what a busy girl Hannah is!!)
Hope you and your family have a WONDERFUL holiday. I’m so glad I found your blog, and look forward to all your posts and photos and recipes etc in 2011!!!
That looks like an ideal day’s meals to me!! Nachos, tacos, flautas, shrimp, and goat cheese? Be still my heart.
Ooh, those tacos look so good!!! I need to go have some good Mexican food soon!
J’s family loves It’s a Wonderful Life too. They recite lines from it in daily conversation. haha I had never seen it until I moved in w/ J! I was 21!
Sounds like the perfect anniversary dinner!
I have to get home and clean, too! But I’m sadly still at work…….. 🙁
Everything looks tasty. But I especially love the sound of those nachoes. What a perfect way to get in a healthy breakfast that sounds indulgent.
oooh, I missed that shrimp cocktail recipe and now I’ll have to try it!! So excited. I love shrimp but Dennis hates it so that means I’ll get it all to myself. 🙂 Happy anniversary, again! We don’t have a Christmas diner tradition–usually it’s something simple and a lot of this and that leftover from the big family Christmas eve party. This year we had the party early so there will be no leftovers and I’m interested to see what our spread will be like. I’m bringning some random things (fudge, homemade salsa & chips, spinach dip and crackers) to give it the same random feel. Enjoy your holiday!
I think you should offer your services to that woman for three reasons: 1. She would be amazed at your cooking 2. You would get to cook in her kitchen [jealous!] 3. You could make awesome money doing it. If someone has a showcase kitchen like that and doesn’t cook then I bet they will willing pay for some of [okay, ALL of] the fantabulous stuff you make.
I was happy for extra counter space when we moved in 4 years ago. [oh and I still occasionally kiss my ‘fridge which has an ice maker WITH crushed ice feature] I can’t imagine what they have.
As for traditions – we do a buffet of cold [roast] turkey, ham, salads, rolls and veggies with a crockpot of beans – we never know who is showing up when – so we just throw it all out [keeping it chilled] and hope for the best. giggle
I have yet to make green bean casserole. Everyone raves about it, but it scares me. I don’t know why. My Thanksgiving always lacks the “green” – except for celery and pickles. ‘Cause you know nothing says “Pilgrim/Indian” like a nice gherkin. ;D
That was an absolutely lovely day! And you’re right, we may dream of bigger kitchens and houses, but we are the ones so richly blessed.
Have a wonderful Christmas holiday with your great family. It’s always a joy to read your posts, Biz! Looking forward to so many more int he new year!