My breakfast sammie was so good yesterday, I decided to KERF it and have the same breakfast two days in a row!  On my classy paper plate – breakfast comes in at 387 calories, 12 fat, 31 carbs, 1.5 fiber and 33 protein.

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I have until November 2nd to get my 170 mile challenge accomplished, and as of Sunday I still had 119 miles to go!  I got 2.53 miles in Monday on the treadmill, so I had to use the exercise bike to get in some more mileage – 7.52 miles to be exact!

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I again did the random hill climb, and kept my RPM at 100 mph the whole time, with a cool down it was 40 minutes.

I took Suzie’s suggestion and while this is my third or fourth batch of her lasagna soup, I always cooked the noodles in the soup together – but noticed that the longer the soup sat, the more liquid the noodles absorbed and by the second or third bowl, the noodles kind of had no texture at all.

This time I used orecchiette pasta, cooked it on the side, and when I heated it up at work mixed the noodles in with the soup – and I added about 2/3 cup chopped mixed spinach/greens in the bottom of my bowl.  With some cheezy bread on the side – lunch comes in at 461 calories, 18 fat, 52 carbs, 4.5 fiber and 20 protein.

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Longtime readers know I like spicy shit.  And Tony does not.  But every once in a while I have to do a “Rhonda” (i.e. dine alone!) when I have the taste for something.  Over the weekend I mentioned I got a pound (41 count) of shrimp for only $4.97!  Score!  I love kung pao chicken, and decided to make kung pao shrimp for dinner.  I had about a cup and a half of raw broccoli, some already cooked white rice, so I knew this would be a quick dinner.

My recipe is adapted from this recipe.  I reduced the amounts to serve just one person, left out the scallions (obviously!) and reduced the amount of oil.  The stats are just for the shrimp and sauce.

Kung Pao Shrimp for One

  • 282 calories, 11 fat, 17 carbs, 1.4 fiber and 26 protein

Ingredients:

  • 5 ounces raw shrimp
  • 1 teaspoon peanut or canola oil
  • 3 dried red chilies
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
  • 1/2 an ounce dry roasted peanuts

Sauce

  • 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon hoisin sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon corn startch
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (adjust to taste)
  • 1/2 teaspoon olive oil

Peel and devein the shrimp.  Blot the shrimp dry with paper towels.  In a bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients and set aside.

Heat a work over medium high heat.  Add oil and when the oil starts to bubble, add the chilis and cook for about 30 seconds, until they have just begun to blacken.  (be careful not to inhale the smoke!).  Add the shrimp, and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes, until pink, but not cooked through.  Add the garlic and ginger, stir fry for 30 seconds.  Pour in the sauce and mix to coat the shrimp.  Add in the peanuts and cook for 1 more minute.

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I first started my wok on high heat, added about 1/4 cup of water, added my broccoli and steamed the broccoli for about 5 minutes, just until slightly fork tender.  And in the instructions above where it says to add the shrimp?  I added back the broccoli as well to coat the broccoli in the sauce.

The only thing I’d do differently, is double the amounts of the sauce.  While it was fine to cover the shrimp and broccoli, it would have been nice to have a little extra sauce for the 1 cup cooked rice underneath.

With the broccoli and rice, this whole plate comes in at 482 calories, 12 fat, 60 carbs, 5.5 fiber and 32 protein.  The sauce was spicy, sweet, salty – winning!

Stats for Tuesday:

  • 1530 calories (added 200 for the chips I ate after dinner!) Sad smile
  • 49 fat, 165 carbs, 14 fiber, 89 protein
  • 7.53 miles on the bike
  • 108.94 miles left in my 170 mile challenge
  • average blood sugar 156

A couple days ago Huffington Post Taste emailed me and asked if they could use one of my soup recipes for a Mexican recipe round up.   They chose my Poblano albondigas soup recipe – you can see it on this link here (I am slide 12 of 28).  I was pretty excited because some of the other photos/recipes they used are from some pretty big food bloggers:

But sadly, I still have a day job to get ready for.  Why doesn’t somebody offer me a nice salary and benefits package to stay home and cook all day?! Open-mouthed smile