Jalapeno Popper Pizza

My sister texted my brother and I on Friday that she was taking her youngest through our high school because she’ll be starting high school in the fall and is already picking out classes and seeing what kinds of extra curricular activities and sports are available to her.  Um, it’s a lot.   Um, try 23 sports including field hockey (duh!), water polo and badminton.   And for extra-curricular activities?  Try over 70!  Including: vegetarian/animal rights group; robotics and gospel choir.

Since we went to such a big high school, there are a number of famous alumni.  My sister snapped this picture of the “wall of excellence” and my brother texted “did Thomas Lennon go to school while you guys were there?”  If you don’t know the name Thomas Lennon, you may know one of his favorite charactors:

Yep, Lt. Dangle from Reno 911 graduated in 1988 – my twin sister and I graduated in 1986.  I tried to find a year book that he would have been in, but could only find my 1984 year book quickly.  So I give you Biz and Jennifer circa 1984!  Can you tell which one is me?  I know my niece is going to excel in high school – she’s very much like Hannah as a student – she loves homework, projects, writing notes in different colors, having different colored file folders depending on the class – you get the idea!  Can’t believe she’ll be the class of 2020!  Ten years after Hannah graduated from school.

Here is a link to the notable/famous alumni of our school.   Yep, it includes Jeff Mauro of Food Network fame and Kathy Griffin!

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So you know Party Pizza Friday is alive and well if you follow me on Instagram.  I don’t consider my pizza night a “cheat meal” per se, but I do look forward to it every week, and it’s the one dinner I don’t measure out everything on my plate.  I was trying to think of a different type of pizza to make, and found Damn Delicious’ Japapeno Popper pizza and was like “why the fuck haven’t I made that before!” 

I used half of my no rise pizza dough for the pizza (2 cups water, 1 teaspoon yeast, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 cup water), and I adapted my recipe to what I had on hand.  So mine was inspired by Chungah’s post.  The ingredients below are for one 12 inch pizza.

• 2 tablespoons room temperature cream cheese

• 2 ounces sliced mozzarella cheese

• 1 sliced jalapeno

• 3 pieces of candied bacon, chopped

• 1/2 cup canned corn, drained

• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Roll out the dough.  I use my Baking Steel, so it was hot in the oven at 425 degrees.  Spread the cream cheese on the bottom of the pizza that’s on parchment paper.   Top with the sliced mozzarella cheese, the chopped bacon, the sliced jalapeno and the corn.  Brush the crust with olive oil and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

So good!  I loved the poppy seed crust, the cream cheese gave it just a bit of tang, then you get the sweetness from the candied bacon and corn, and then that pop of salt from the bacon.  Delish!

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Jacob had to work most of the day on Saturday and Hannah was off.  I love spending the day with Hannah.  About once a month she does a big stock up shop at Walmart – one of her favorite stores.  I only had to replace our bottled water for $12, but somehow managed to spend $92!  Easy to do in a store that big – I was just happy to be getting so many steps in outside of the gym!

My eats were on point over the weekend – I know that Friday night is my night of indulgence, so I made good choices the rest of the weekend.  Top right – breakfast both Saturday and Sunday – egg white omelet with feta cheese, turkey sausage, pom seeds and a cutie.  Saturday lunch was out with Hannah – I ordered posole and it was so good – I ended up bringing 3/4 of it home and had that as a leftover on Sunday for lunch.  Saturday night Hannah and Jacob went out, so it was dinner for one – I made a beef and veggie stir fry.   And Sunday night I made this Cuban Mojo pork roast – so good, but I am waiting to make it again because I think it will be amazeballs on a grill.  And for the record, both my step-son, his wife and I are still alcohol free this month!  Joe texted me a picture of wings and waffle fries and said “this would really go good with a beer!”

I’ve been keeping up with my workouts over the weekend – something that normally went by the way side last year.   I’d do great M-F and then all bets were off on the weekends.  I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. on Friday night because I had my hot yoga Saturday morning – and I fucking overslept!  Luckily they have a 24 hour cancellation after the class, so I can make up the class and will be going to a 7:00 p.m. class tonight with no penalty.  Whew!  I guess I needed the sleep!

The top and lower left hand pick?  That’s my new Kutting Weight top.  I am 5.2 and at my last WI I was 174 pounds.  Nearly all of my weight is in my tummy area, and I am sure other women who have this problem of the “muffin top” find it difficult to do some exercises if your stomach is moving in a different direction of the rest of your body.  Just try doing jumping jacks with a loose pair of sweat pants and a loose shirt and you’ll know what I mean!   I don’t know if their claim of “regardless of whether you’re using the suit for weight loss in a competitive sport or for your own health and fitness goals, the Kutting Weight sauna suit can help you achieve your your ideal physique. The sauna suit clothing is the most advanced product for enhancing weight loss in the fitness industry.”

All I knew was that when I looked at the tank, and read some reviews, it looked like this would be the perfect shirt to keep everything in one place.   I am going to have to do a video soon to show you, but I absolutely love this tank.  It’s tight, but doesn’t feel like I am restricted in any way.  And when I did my quarter mile run intervals at the gym, it was seamless – I didn’t feel any giggling, my tummy fat stayed in place and I could almost picture myself running at a healthy weight!  (let’s not talk about that I have about 34 pounds to go to be at the top end of a healthy weight for my height!).   It’s pricey – $39.99 but with free shipping and I literally got it in two days.  You can’t wash it in a washer – you have to hand wash it and let it hang dry.  One woman said she would wear it about 5 times before washing it – when I take it off it’s pretty wet with sweat, but the neoprene dries super fast and it didn’t smell after the two times I wore it over the weekend.  I’ll keep you posted on that. 

I did find it interesting that when I looked at the sizing chart – the size L was suggested for someone who was 5.7” to 5’11” who weighs between 170-190 pounds!

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Yesterday I made some soup and my copycat Starbuck’s lemon loaf for a friend of mine who had emergency surgery last week.  She’s recouping nicely, but thought it might be nice to drop some food off to her and her family.  So many people brought me stuff after Tony died, that I only think it’s fair to pay it forward.  This time though, I got the glaze perfect!  I need to rewrite the original recipe – turns out I needed twice as much powdered sugar, but I had a ton leftover.  And um, for the record?  This lemon loaf is insulin worthy!

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I have some fun family news!  Tony’s nephew and his wife added a baby girl to their family of three.  Brother Maddux is now a big brother to a sister named Hazel Bonita!  The middle name is after my MIL – happy to say the baby is home and in perfect health.   They live in Tennessee so not sure when I’ll met her yet, but that’s the beauty of social media – I’ll get to see her a lot before I even meet her!

Hope you all had a great weekend!  See you on Wednesday, until then, you can stalk me on Instagram.   Hugs!