Thanks for all the tips for apps for my new phone!  Okay, you guys are going to laugh, but that’s okay.  I love Instagram.  I like being able to take a picture, use the features to fix it up to post to Facebook.  A while back people started following me.  A.  I don’t know how people found me, and B. I had no idea why people were following me.

So yesterday a few of you gave me your Instagram names to follow you and NOW I GET IT!  It’s kind of like a mini blog post in a way.  Now I can keep up with Erica’s sweet baby girl, Jen’s killer workouts and healthy eats, and Rhonda’s cute pups!  If you have an Instagram account, let me know what your name is and I’ll follow you!

Breakfast was an oldie, but a goodie – a McMuff!   100 calorie muffin, 1/3 cup egg whites, baby spinach, 1 slice of ham and 1/2 an ounce of cheddar cheese.  On the side? That’s not an orange . . . it’s called a cocktail grapefruit!  Never heard of it before, but if I were to describe it, it is 2/3 orange and 1/3 grapefruit.  If you aren’t a true lover of grapefruit, this one is the one to try – so delicious!

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I had no “official” workout per se, but that’s not to say I wasn’t moving most of the day.  Normally my day is spent at my desk, staring at a computer, but yesterday we had a major file reorganization going on, and I must have lifted hundreds of files from one end of the office to another.  Even later in the afternoon my blood sugar dropped to 48 – yikes!  A quick apple and 1/2 a container of orange juice and I was good to go.

I had some broccoli I bought last week that I never used.  Broccoli Cheddar Soup is one of my favorite soups at Panera.  I even have a copy cat recipe for it.  I have to say, I think I like this version better!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

  • makes six, 1.5 cup servings
  • 216 calories, 8 fat, 21 carbs, 4.6 fiber, 12 protein and 833 sodium

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups chopped broccoli
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 2 cups chopped carrots
  • 2 cups unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 pound of potatoes (about 3 large) peeled and chopped
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Add everything to a dutch oven, except the cheese, and cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes, or until the veggies are tender.  Using an emersion blender, blend to the soup to your liking, I left a few chunks of broccoli and potato.  Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.

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The potatoes really thickened the soup and my boss didn’t even notice that there was unsweetened almond milk in it.  I swear, unsweetened almond milk is becoming my go to substitution for any recipe that calls for milk.  And as luck would have it, I can usually find it in the 50% discount bin at my store. Open-mouthed smile

I had sloppy joes on the menu for dinner.  As luck would have it, I saw that Nicole recently made a crock pot version, however, I decided to see if I could make it on a weeknight on the stove top.  I did adapt it, because I only used ground sirloin, and I scaled back the recipe.  Nicole, I tried to leave you a comment, but your Discus kept saying my email wasn’t accepted – I tried every email, but to no avail.  So THANK YOU for this recipe – tangy, not too sweet and super easy to put together on a weeknight – the sloppy joes were ready in about 20 minutes.

Sloppy Joes (adapted from Nicole at Heat Oven to 350)

  • makes 5 servings, a heaping 1/3 cup measure per sammie
  • 237 calories, 9 fat, 17 carbs, 1 fiber, 20 protein and 687 sodium

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1/2 medium green pepper, chopped
  • 4 ounces tomato sauce
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
  • 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (could easily have left this out)
  • 1/4 flour

Since lean ground sirloin doesn’t have a lot of fat, I just added everything to my skillet at once, except for the flour.  I let the meat simmer for about 15 minutes, then stirred in the flour and let that simmer for 5 more minutes.

And no sloppy joe is complete without pickles!  On the side I had 1 ounce of potato chips and carrots and celery dipped into ff ranch. This was a super delicious, quick and easy weeknight meal.  I don’t happen to like sloppy joes on the sweeter side, but feel free to adjust it to your taste.

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Okay, any technical gurus out there – I am having one problem. I can’t seem to figure out how to add my iTunes to my iPhone.  I can open iTunes on my phone, but for the life of me I can’t find out where to log in to get all my songs.  I downloaded the Will.I.Am and Thrift Store songs to my iTunes, but can’t figure out how to access it.

We have another winter storm advisory for today – rain, turning to sleet, turning to snow.  Hope I don’t have a three hour commute home like I did a couple weeks ago!  Spring – where are you??!!

Time to get this show on the road . . . make it a great day!