Chicken Cilantro Wonton Soup

Over the weekend I was thinking about it.  I can’t really remember NOT having a job since the time I was about 10.  When I was in the 5th grade, I babysat a 3rd grader.  Seems weird to me now that someone hired a 10 year old to watch their 8 year old, but they would pick me up in the morning and drive me to their house.  I’d make breakfast for me and Sherry (I totally need to find her on Facebook and see if she even remembers me!) and we’d walk to school together.  And after school we’d walk back to her house and we would do homework, I’d give her a snack and wait for her parents to come home at dinner time and then drive me home.

So pretty much ever since then, I’ve had some type of job, and pretty much have worked “full time” hours since I was about 16 or 17.  I worked at a restaurant on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.  I worked at Benetton after school three days a week.  One time when my sister and our friend Rich got into a fender bender which wasn’t their fault, the woman handed Rich cash to not file a claim because she had taken her husband’s car out without his permission when he was on a business trip.  Do you know what Jennifer and Rich did?  They went to Florida, and somehow my two jobs worked around her two jobs and I worked all four jobs for a week!   I remember them calling me at the pizza place my sister worked at (Jacky, do you remember Old Towne West pizza?) while I was “in the weeds” taking pizza orders and they were telling me how much fun they were having.  OMG, to be young and carefree like that again!   Jenn, do you remember that?! 

And since starting this blog , long time readers will know I’ve had to have two jobs to make ends meet when Tony was out of work or sick.  So as I have just EIGHT days of my job left, I know this is the first time in my adult life that I will not have a job.  And while it’s super scary, it’s also super exciting.  As the firm is starting to panic as my time with them comes to an end, all I could think of as I sit at my desk was “I only have X amount of days before I don’t have to sit in this cubicle with filing cabinets around me.”

And yes, if you are wondering, my eye brows are on fleek – I just had them threaded Monday night at Wal-mart, and while it hurts like a bitch, it doesn’t look like someone punched me in the face like it does if I get them waxed.

What’s funny though is that I have been busier than I have been in a while.  Suddenly all the files that could have been closed and were just lying around the office need to be organized and moved to a different spot in the office to take to off site storage when it gets nicer out.  I think yesterday I packed and moved about 50 boxes!  And I didn’t mind a bit because I was getting my steps in AND a task like that will no longer be in my future.  Hallelujah! 

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So I have some new finds to share with you.  I forgot how much I love Trader Joe’s.  It’s just normally not in a direction that I travel in regularly, so it’s easy to not keep it on my radar.  Last weekend when Hannah and I went thrifting, we passed by one (literally only 15 minutes from my house, so no excuse!) and I picked up a few things.

This package has two “hockey” puck sized portions that are frozen.  Each one is 5 smart points, and while it has brown sugar in the ingredient list, AND maple syrup, this is not overly sweet, just a hint.  (Each one also is 150 calories, 2.5 fat, 27 carbs, 4 fiber and 5 protein if you count calories).   I then went over to the frozen fruit section and found this:

Ingredients?  Cherries, marion blackberries (never heard of those!), blueberries and red raspberries.  That’s it – no added sugar at all, so each 1 cup serving is zero WW points, or 90 calories, 0 fat, 22 carbs, 5 fiber and 1 protein.  I took 1/2 a cup of the berries and added a couple tablespoons of water and let them simmer from frozen for about 5 minutes until they started to defrost.  I mixed 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch with another teaspoon of water, turned the heat on high, added the corn starch mixture and cooked for 1 minute or until the sauce thickened a bit.

Once at work I just heated up the oats (took 3 minutes) then added the cherry mixture (still a bit warm even!) a small sliced banana and 1/2 ounce of mixed nuts for some texture.  A 7 smart point breakfast and this was totally filling. 

My friend Danica from Danica’s Daily has been a creative WW cook for several years.  She took a break from blogging for a while, so I am glad she is back.  Mainly because I would have missed out on her Chicken Cilantro Wonton Soup recipe!  I did switch it up a bit with what I had on hand, but in the end, each serving ended up being 4 WW points for two cups of the veggie broth and TEN of the pot stickers.  Yes!

And since the wonton soup was only 4 smart points, I had a 4 ounce pork chop on the side.  Jacob was a bit iffy about the soup, but even he loved it, although I know he loved the pork chop more. Thanks for the inspiration Danica!

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Our weather has been so weird.  Over the weekend we had lows in the single digits.  Yesterday it snowed an inch in the afternoon, but by the weekend we’ll have temps in the low 50s – so crazy, but I’ll take it!   Although living in Chicago, I know our winter is far from over.  But I loved the fact that I pulled into my driveway at around 5:45 last night and it was just starting to get dark out.  Maybe I’ll pull out the Weber this weekend!

Eight more days to go . . . WEEEEE!  Make it a great day!