Happy Birthday Joe!

My step-son Joe turns 23 today!!  I can’t believe it.  He was so cute when I met him.  He was a bit chubby, had this buzz cut hair that Tony cut for him in his parents kitchen.  He was 10 years old when I met him!

And now he’s been living in Texas for the last two years with his fiancé Lizz. 

While we miss him desperately, we are proud of the young man he has become and how independent he is.  This summer they bought their first house, they have a dog and a cat and are enjoying the sunshine in Austin!

He has to work tonight, but his fiancé took him zip lining over Lake Austin and they went to Melting Pot for dinner.  Hope you have a wonderful day Joe – I love you!

It’s day 3 of my breakfast casserole and I am still loving it.  Only one more slice to go.  I just love that in one dish, I’ve had breakfast for four days!  This time with a side of really good strawberries.  Breakfast comes in at 292 calories, 10 fat, 30 carbs, 5.6 fiber and 22 protein.

One of my tasks at work is to stock our supplies, which includes beverages, orange juice, sugar, creamer etc.  I hadn’t done a big Sam’s Club run in over a month, so my cart was FULL!  Ten 32 packs of pop, 6 cases of orange juice, creamer, plastic forks, paper plates, etc.  It was quite a workout getting everything in the cart and then pushing it through the store.

And then unloading everything once I got back in the office.  There was only me and one other secretary at the office so she had to stay back and hear the phones (she actually organizes it once I bring it in though – she’s really good at it!).  So after loading everything in the cart, pushing the cart, loading the car, unloading the car, by the time I finished it all, I checked my blood sugar and it was 79.  Way too low to work out.

So it was either eat, then try to work out later, but in the end, I just scraped the workout.  I don’t like working out after I’ve eaten.  Let me just say though that it made for a long afternoon!

I actually made my stir fry lunch before work.  I ended up pepper spraying myself!  Here’s the deal.  I used 2 tablespoons of a bottled ginger garlic sauce and then when it the stir-fry was almost done, I decided to throw in a tablespoon of this spicy chili crisp.

I bought it at our local Japanese grocery store – its basically a crushed red pepper/olive oil paste – 1 tablespoon is 40 calories.  It got lost in the back of the fridge.  Turns out I don’t care if its expired!

Well with the super hot pan, once this chili hit the pan it was a pepper cloud of smoke – I was coughing, trying to stir it, then just pulled it off the heat.  I literally made this 5 minutes before I had to leave, and decided to just Febreze the kitchen so that Tony wouldn’t notice the stink!

My stir fry:  3/4 cup cooked rice, 6 ounces raw chicken, 2 cups broccoli slaw, broccoli, zucchini, 2 tablespoons of ginger garlic sauce, and 1 tablespoon of the spicy Japanese lady spicy chili crisp.  So good – I need to make stir-fry’s more often – its such a great way to get in a ton of veggies!  This plate comes in at 467 calories, 6 fat, 52 carbs, 7.7 fiber and 46 protein.

When I got home from work, our neighbor came over to bring us a few bottles of Point beer from Wisconsin.  We sat outside and chatted for a while, and by the time we came inside it was nearly 6:30.  I had planned on a pork Milanese type of dish, but then quickly realized it would be similar to my chicken parm I made the night before, only with pork.  So I went simple. 

Butter Browned Pork Chops with Lemon Pan Gravy

• 2 servings:  245 calories, 9 fat, 11 carbs, .7 fiber and 27 protein ( this is for the pork and gravy only)

Ingredients:

• 2, 4 ounce lean pork chops, fat removed, pounded thin
• 1/8 cup Italian style bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons of flour, divided
• 1.5 tablespoons of butter, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• salt and pepper
• juice from 2 lemon wedges

Mix the bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon of the flour together.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over the pork chops.  Heat the 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil and .5 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat.   Dredge the pork chops in the bread crumb mixture on both sides.

When the butter starts to bubble, cook on both sides – not long since they were thin – about 3-4 minutes a side.  Take them out of the pan, add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon of flour.  Cook for 1 minute.  Slowly add in the chicken stock.  Be sure the scrape the bits on the bottom of the pan. Once the sauce has thickened (about 5 minutes) remove from heat and add the lemon juice and season again with salt and pepper as needed.

I served our pork with 1 cup mashed potatoes and sautéed apples on the side. 

While I am sure sautéed spinach would have gone well with this meal, I really didn’t feel like bothering with it.  This plate comes in at 445 calories, 13 fat, 51 carbs, 5.2 fiber and 31 protein.  The sauce was so good – the squeeze of lemon juice was a bright pop to an otherwise simple pan gravy.

So guess what tomorrow is?  Tony’s birthday!  I am not even sure what we are doing for his birthday yet – guess I need to ask him what he wants to do – maybe sushi out for a date night Saturday night?

Hannah called me just when I was leaving work yesterday.  She got in a fender bender.   Her first words were “I am fine” which is of course all that really matters.  She said that she got the other drivers info, a cop happened to be driving by, declared both vehicles drivable so they were instructed to go to a police station a couple blocks away to file a report.

Hannah took care of that, contacted our insurance agency and even got an email back from our agent on where to take the car for repairs.  I didn’t have to do anything!  So proud of how well she handled the situation – my baby is certainly growing up!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!  xoxoxoxo