Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

Oh, that’s right.  It’s still April in Chicago, so that means you’ll have temps in the 80s one day, and then barely get out of the 40s.  I actually had to turn our heat on, which has been off for probably two weeks.  Luckily all three of us don’t mind a cool house, but yesterday I was downright cold.  Hannah was home for me with breakfast before heading to work, so we had what we like to call a diner breakfast at home.  I had 2 ounces of leftover steak (2) scrambled with 1/2 cup egg whites (1) with spinach and a slice of buffalo wing cheese (thanks Laura!) (3) with three ounces of leftover new potatoes on the side with fresh fruit.  Such a delicious 8 smart point breakfast and super filling because I had plans to hit the StairMaster up later.

After Hannah left for work, I had to clean the fridge.  I kind of just did a cursory clean up last Saturday, but it was time to pull out the shelves and clean them really well.  I texted these pics to Hannah because I knew she would be happy with the before and after!

Yeah!  Now I can see everything.  I decided I would get in a quick 30 minute walk before doing some computer work. God I love snapchat!

See those shoes?  I bought them at my local thrift store for $5 – they look barely used at all.  I looked them up, and they retail for $77!  I wore them on my walk and on my workout at the gym later yesterday afternoon, and I realized that I haven’t replaced my running shoes in a long time.  I took a close look at a couple pair that I have and saw that they were pretty worn, and just threw them out.   Helen, you’ll be proud to know that I now own 9 pairs of shoes – well, that includes two pairs of flip flops.  I joke because she collects shoes like I collect jars of mustard!

Long time readers know I talk about my $1 rack a lot.  I love the $1 rack, even though Tony would be embarrassed by how fast I would run to it when I saw it was full.  I mean, come on – I can sometimes get 14 bananas for $1!  When I was at the store on Saturday, I bought a 2 pound bag of tomatoes for $1 and a 1 pound bag of roasted red peppers for $1.  I have learned the hard way that it’s not a bargain if I buy the $1 stuff, bring it home and decided to do something with it three days later – by then it’s almost always bad.  So I decided to roast them to make a soup with later – and yesterday was the perfect day to make it.

Once I entered the recipe into the Weight Watcher recipe builder, I realized that each serving was only 2 points!  I knew I needed to bulk it up a bit before going to the gym, so I added 1 link of leftover Jennie-O sweet Italian sausage (4) with 1/2 cup leftover pasta (3) and added baby spinach for a filling 9 point soup.  But it had me thinking, this would be nice to have on hand if I was hungry late in the afternoon as a great 2 point snack.

I had every intention of doing the StairMaster at the gym, but there is only one, and in the hour and fifteen minutes I was there, it was being used.  Every time I saw someone get off of it, I didn’t get there fast enough to get on it.   So I did the treadmill and did an hour at 8% incline.  I ended up watching an episode of Fixer Upper, so the time went by fast.

After I cleaned out the fridge, I decided to marinate my chicken for dinner.  I didn’t want to use a whole lot of oil, so I only used 1 tablespoon of oil mixed with 2 teaspoons of Greek seasoning and 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper, so it almost was like a paste.  Every hour when I walked by the fridge, I’d flip the ziploc bag around to make sure all the chicken was covered.  So while I wish it would have been warm outside using the grill, I at least got the flavor of summer in my dinner!

I had pita bread in the freezer so I took that out earlier in the day to thaw. (3).  I had 5 ounces of chicken on my pita (4) and some tzatziki (1) and. . . green bean fries on the side.

I found a bag of fresh green beans that Hannah bought when I was in Virginia, and well, they were looking pretty sad.  Not bad, but not fresh either.  For my one serving, I took 4 ounces of fresh green beans and for the batter:  1/4 cup flour (3) 1/2 teaspoon creole seasoning and 4 tablespoons of lime seltzer.  I would have made a beer batter, but I knew I wouldn’t need a whole beer for the batter, and I knew I’d drink the rest, so the lime seltzer worked great.  Just dredge the green beans into the batter, and deep fried for 4 minutes at 375 degrees.  Now you all know how I feel about my deep fryer – because it holds the temps so well, nothing comes out too greasy, unless the oil is really old.  But I cleaned out the fryer and had fresh oil and these were light and crisp.  I guess if I were being technical, I’d add another point for the oil, but I still have 17 flex points left for the week before my Thursday weigh in, so I am not going to sweat it.

I have some more recipe testing to do today – this week is Cooking Club at Courtney’s house tomorrow night, and I have been assigned dessert!  I’ve always wanted to make a fruit tart – don’t these look pretty?!

Wish me luck!  

Stats for the Day:  90 minutes of exercise – 30 smart points

Make it a great day