Grown Up Spaghettios

I am proud to say that I got up to go to the gym yesterday morning – I had every intention of doing laps, but the pool was full – and I don’t share lanes.  So I ended up getting the aqua dumbbells and ended up doing 40 minutes of upper body in the water – it was really hard to keep those floaty dumbbells under water – I did biceps, triceps and back. 😀

I had all my food packed to take for the day, so when I got home from the gym, all I had to do was put my work clothes on.  I had breakfast nachos on the menu.   Only one problem, the egg beaters I brought were frozen, but I put them in the fridge the night before, and they were still frozen when I got to work.

So I had eggless breakfast nachos – 1 serving tortilla chips, 1/3 cup refried beans, 3/4 ounce mozzarella cheese, baby spinach and taco sauce – my whole plate was 8 points.

As I was planning me and my SIL’s lunches over the weekend (Helen, I am positive the grammer is wrong in that last sentence!), I stumbled upon Kaylyn Kitchen’s Italian Sausage soup.  Mine is a knock off of hers, I used regular Italian sausage and ended up adding more veggies. 😀

When I had it for lunch it tasted like a grown up version of Spaghettios!  I am 43 years old, and still love spaghettios – served with toasted white bread and butter to dip in the spaghettios. 😀  I am positive my brother and sister would still eat spaghettios to this day too!

Grown Up Spaghettios (based on Kaylyn Kitchen’s Italian Soup) 1.5 cups = 8 points

• 8 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 29 ounce can tomato puree
• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 cup dry macaroni
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1 large zucchini, diced

Take the sausage out of the casing and cook up with the Italian seasoning and garlic.  In a large stock pot, add chicken broth and tomato puree.  Once the sausage is cooked, drain fat and add to broth pot.  Bring to a poil and add macaroni and cook about 9 minutes, until the macaroni is tender.

Add zucchini and cook for 5 minutes on low.  Remove from heat and add baby spinach – as it cools the spinach will wilt.

This was delicious, although I thought it needed a bit of heat, so I added about 1 teaspoon of Tabasco to my bowl.

I know its crazy to eat soup when its 98 degrees outside, but I can eat soup all year no problem.  And I was hot on my walk/run yesterday – I probably walked 60% and ran 40% – it took me 50 minutes to go 3.5 miles.

Since my soup was only 8 points – I was hangry by the time I got home.  I did have a peach later in the afternoon, but that didn’t hold me very well.

I made chicken parmesan – no real recipe, just dipped in egg/milk mixture, then Parmesan/bread crumb mixture – and fried with 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter.  On the side I had new potatoes and green beans – to tell you the truth I was too lazy to put my dinner into eTools, but with 13 points to spend for dinner, I think I did okay!

See, you don’t need a lot of oil to get a crunchy crust. 😀

Stats for Tuesday:

• not more than 29 points 😀
• 40 minutes upper body in the pool with aqua dumbbells
• 50 minute 3.5 mile walk/run
• average blood sugar 104 (my blood sugar was 55 when I got back from my run at lunch!)

It’s going to be another scortcher today – off to walk my neighborhood before work, not sure I can handle another outing at lunch, but we’ll see.

And it’s Hanging with Hannah tonight – I haven’t seen much of her since Sunday – we might go see Mean Bosses – I heard it was funny.

Questions of the Day:  Can you soup in the summer?  Do you love spaghettios?