Sometimes Its A Wash

Wanna see what a future food blogger looks like?  This is what Hannah sent me yesterday with the caption “mini egg, ham and cheese sammies – delish!”

You all are too nice about telling me how young I look – I’ll be 44 next month! 😀  But I’ll take the compliments.

I have to give a shout out to Tony’s home health care nurse – not sure how to spell her name, so I may not do it justice, but her name is Shallette.  She is a super cute Philapino woman, who loves spicy food!  I gave her some of my baja fresh salsa when I was home when she made a visit.

I should have tasted it though because you never know with jalapenos – some of my salsas get hotter the longer they sit.  This batch, while flavorful, wasn’t spicy at all, which is why her husband and son loved it!  You know the best part?  She called last night to confirm her appointment today and she’s now calling him Tony!  (um, some of you may not know that Tony is not my husband’s real name – its his “stage name” for the blog!).

She takes great care of him, gets his sense of humor, and for that I am grateful.

Now some of you may throw up your mouth a little at my breakfast yesterday – bring it on.  There is a show Tony watches on one of his “man channels” called Drinking Made Easy.  They mostly go into bars that have creative cocktails – the latest episode Tony called me in the living room – they were at a restaurant in British Colombia that was doing a wine pairing with food and my beloved cheese.

One wine was paired with a thick slice of corned beef with an ale mustard – seriously my mouth watered simply looking at it.  Then one of the combinations they had was a wedge of blue cheese with honey on top.  I instantly thought that combination would be amazing – a balance of sweet and sour.

So I hallowed out a piece of ciabatta bread so it weighed 2 ounces.  I scrambled up 1/2 cup of egg whites with baby spinach, then stuffed that into my bread shell, then put 2 tablespoons of blue cheese on top, then drizzled 2 teaspoons of honey over the top, and then put it under the broiler in the toaster oven.

I know it doesn’t look that pretty, but the flavor was amazing – I got a bit of blue cheese and honey in every bite, and it is a good combo.  I am going to have to invest in some good blue cheese and try this again on a tasting plate – um, you may see it on my lunch menu next week!  Breakfast comes in at 8 points.

When it was time to work out, my blood sugar was only 130, so I ate 2 granola bars (Aldi Brand) while at only 180 calories for both, come in at 5 WW points.

I had a great run/walk for 45 minutes.  I ended up walking 3 minutes, running 1 minute and sprinting 1 minute – it felt great!  42 and sunny – nice!

Lunch was so good – I forget to make this, and its so simple.  I made stuffed zucchini boats.  I put a whole zucchini in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.  Let it cool and put it in my lunch bag.  I browned 3 ounces of ground sirloin with a pinch of Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper.  Put that in a separate container.

At work I cut the zucchini in half – I like a crisp tender zucchini, so you can cook yours longer if you like.  I scooped out the middle, split the meat mixture between the two, topped with my fire roasted tomato sauce I made the other day and topped it with an ounce of shredded mozzarella – it took about 5 minutes under a hot broiler and lunch was done.  And only 6 points!

Only one slight problem – I didn’t check my blood sugar when I got back from my run.  It must have been on the low side because I took the normal amount of insulin I would have for that plate – about 45 minutes later, my blood sugar dropped to 50. 🙁  My boss came to my desk to give me something and she was like “what’s wrong with your eyes!”  My eye look weird when I have low blood sugar and I start to sweat.  I know, it’s a pretty look!

I ate a pear, that wasn’t enough, so I ended up eating a cup of Vanilla Almond cereal that I had in my desk.  So between the 5 point granola bar to fuel my work out, and the 4 points of cereal to recover from my workout, my run was basically a wash.  Oh well, at least I survive to eat and run another day! 😀

I have to give my buddy Rachel a shout out.  Last year when Tony was sick she sent us some “fuck cancer” magnets, but also sent me this seasoning.

Sadly it had gotten pushed to the back of my spice cabinet, but when I rearranged our cabinet over the Christmas holidays, I found it and holy shit is this stuff good.  Super spicy, think black pepper spicy.

I had defrosted chicken breasts.  Tony didn’t have much of an appetite for dinner becuase guess what he had for lunch?  A butter burger from Culver’s!  He enjoyed every last bit of it, but since its the most food he’s eaten in a while, we have to slowly get his appetite back.

So it was just me.  So I got to use my spicy seasoning.  I love a good pan gravy.  What could be bad about gravy!  Here is a super simple one, that will be an explosion of flavor in your mouth.  I am so serious.  This is one serving for 3 WW points.

• 1 teaspoon butter (1)
• 1 teaspoon flour (0)
• 1/3 cup white wine (I used box chardonnay because I am klassy like that) (2)
• 1/3 cup chicken broth (0)
• salt and pepper to taste (0)

I sprinkled my 4 ounce chicken breast liberally with the seasoning.  Over medium high heat I pam seared the chicken (if you need to get in your oil for the day – you can saute in 1 tsp. of olive oil).

I had pounded my chicken so it was even, so it only took about 3 minutes a side. I set it on a plate to rest.  Then I lowered the heat to medium low.  Added the butter.  When melted I added the flour and cooked for 1 minute.  Then I added the wine and chicken broth and let it come to a boil – it took about 5 minutes for the sauce to thicken.

Since my chicken seasoning was pretty spicy, I only needed to add a pinch of salt (sorry Skippy!).  Now this is a more tart sauce because the wine never really cooks out of it, but I lean towards tart sauces – the butter rounds it out nicely though.

All together I served it over a bed of fresh spinach, 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes, the chicken and gravy.  Yep, this took about 20 minutes from beginning to end – definitely worthy of company!

Did I tell you guys that I love gravy?  Dinner comes in at 9 points.

I think I am going to have another parfait today – this time with Chobani’s passion fruit flavor – can’t wait to try it!

Don’t expect much from my weigh in this week – I think my exercise will be enough to keep me the same – um, I may have had some Cheez-Its last night while Hannah and I watched American Idol in her room last night.  And we ate Cheez-Its, not Cheese Nips – there is a difference! 😀

Make it a great day!