My $4 pot of pork and bean chili is really morphing into some delicious meals this week.  I ate a bowl of it the day I made it (only 3 points per 1.5 cups), had chili mac on Monday, and last night made empanadas!

You guessed it – the dough for my empanadas is my skinny pizza dough!  It is such a versatile dough.  I know what you are thinking – but Biz – how are you going to put chili in an empanada??

Easy!  I just scooped some out, put it in a strainer over the pot of chili, and pressed out most of the liquid, so I was left with delicious pork and beans for the filling.  The first time I made them over the weekend, that was the only filling – last night I added some Trader Joe’s lite cheese and that kicked it up nicely.

I rolled out an ounce of dough per empanada – I used 1/2 cup of the filling for four empanadas – be careful not to overstuff or roll your dough too thin, otherwise the dough will break when you try to press it together – not that it happened to me on my first try – I just read that on the internet 😛

Then with a fork – press the edges – be sure too to be ready to fry these.  I waited a bit on the first one, and the liquid in the chili made the dough soft and tore when I tried to remove it from my cutting board.  So mis en place!  Roll dough, fill, crimp – fry!

I talk about it all the time, but I have new visitors here – I count one point for the oil when frying.  I fry at 350 – which sears the food when it immediately hits the hot oil, thereby creating a barrier, which cooks the food but doesn’t make it greasy.  When you get greasy food, you are either not frying at a high enough temperature (which then absorbs the oil) or you are using old oil.  I can get about 10 fries out of my deep fryer before having to replacing.

So let’s break it down – 4 points for the dough, 1 point for the 1/2 cup of chili, and 1 point for the oil.  I served mine with salsa, Greek yogurt and the green onion?  That was just for the photo.  I immediately threw them out as soon as I took this picture.

These are light, flavorful and delicious.  I had these as a snack the day I made them – two was plenty!

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Yesterday I made a shower omelette – so good!  Ham, spinach and cheese.  My bagels taste delicious, they are not pretty, so I am going to try those again – maybe making my holes not so big??

Jenn and I walked Macy’s yesterday – one of the only downsides of spending our lunch hour walking, sometimes when I get back to my desk it gets busy – I didn’t put my lunch together until 3!   My corn and tumeric blender soup (1) a turkey Tumaro wrap (2) and apple with Better N Peanut Butter (3) – 6 points.

And I made more empanadas for dinner!  The photography isn’t as good when I am home on the weekends, but these were delicious!  My dip is Greek yogurt mixed with Chiloula hot sauce.  On the side was carrots and strawberries – 6 points since I added cheese to these. 😀

Yesterday was the best mail day evah!  My Instagram friend Barbara sent me the cutest note and sent me this shirt – she said she has two daughters as well and they are both her favorite.  Um, pretty sure we know that I am my Mom’s favorite – duh!  I’m also pretty sure that I’ll wear this at every family event – thank you!

My other Instagram friend Judy sent me some loot too – how gorgeous is this box!  She painted the outside of the priority box – so pretty!  I’m already thinking of ways I can save this art.

Homemade granola (with the points marked!) foodie finds, and these screw top containers – thank you so much Judy!!

And Safe + Fair loot!  My friend Courtney’s husband owns this company.  The premise of the company is that they want to provide allergy free snacks at a fair price.  Everything I’ve tried so far is delicious – don’t even get me started on the kettle corn granola – amazeballs.  All the granola is 4 points for 1/3 cup or 130 calories, the pea protein snack chips – 28 chips (which is a lot!) for 120 calories and 3 points per serving.

I have a special link to get you products before they are on the market – check it out here.

Thanks again to dry January – I still have all those weekly points – and it’s already Wednesday.  It also helped that I didn’t eat like an asshole over the long weekend.  You pretty much have to treat the weekend like a weekday, with the exception of like one meal – otherwise you’ll be a hamster on a wheel – gaining and losing the same 2 pounds over and over.  I know – I pretty much did that last year. 😛

Happy Wednesday – stay warm if you live where it’s cold – so not looking forward to subzero temps, but if that could turn into an early spring I wouldn’t be upset about that.

However, Hannah’s birthday is in early March – I had birthday parties where it was so warm we had water balloons, and others where I’ve shoveled snow, so you never know.

Make it a great day!  Don’t eat like an asshole.

Love, Biz