WW Chicken Pot Pie

As I'm awaiting the snowfall tonight (seriously, I can't believe it's gonna snow again!), thought it seems like a good night to make this Weight Watcher dish that I think is pretty good. Here's the recipe if you wanna give it a try:

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

1 tsp butter

1 small onion, chopped

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

1/4 tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp. dried thyme, crushed

1/2 tsp. table salt (more to taste)

1/4 tsp. black pepper

2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

1 cup canned chicken broth

3 cups cooked chicken breast, chopped

2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

1/2 cup fat-free evaporated milk, divided

Reduced-fat crescent roll dough, undivided

Preheat oven to 375' F. Coat a 10" round shallow baking dish with cooking spray.

Coat a large pot with cooking spray, add butter & melt over medium heat. Add onion & mushrooms and cook, until tender. Stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Stir in paprika, thyme, salt & pepper. Add vegetables, broth and chicken. Cover & simmer 15 minutes.

In a small cup, combine flour & 1/4 cup of evaporated milk, stir into chicken mixture. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly for approximately 2 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup evaporated milk & cooking until mixture is slightly thickened approximately 2-3 minutes more.

Spoon chicken mixture in baking dish. Bake approximately 15 minutes. Serves 6.

A sweet drawer for a sweet tooth...

I am seemingly always trying to eat healthy, lose weight and make good food choices.....and along with that, I need something SWEET in my life! I have developed a sweets drawer in my bar area and don't really have many other sweet treats in my house (with the exception of recently delivered Girl Scout cookies). This candy is not something that I have purchased to "just have around" but nevertheless it's on my property. It's mostly from leftover bunko snacks people have left when they have hosted at my house, my Christmas stocking, etc. It is not realistic for me to resist them all together as some people can with their crazy strong will power (Linds)....as that would be setting myself up for a binge of sweetness at some point down the road. So, I have developed the rule that if I am really craving something sweet, I can go get THREE and three only, pieces of candy. I have to eat them in the other room in a civilized fashion, not cramming them in my mouth as fast as I can over the drawer.....and then after that if I think I want more, I make myself really think about how badly I want them. It's working well so far! Nice little bit of sweetness at the end of a meal but I'm not committing to a bunch of calories! Wish me luck that this "program" continues with success. :)

Feel the Burn!....Together!!

I have mentioned it in previous posts, but my parents' gym recently started offering a weight lifting class called "Body Pump" every Tuesday and Thursday nights. Anyway, so when I was talking about the class to my coworkers, my friend Leslie got SOOOOOO excited as she had done it in Texas before. Since this revelation that she LOVES it, she has convinced 5 other girls I work with to get memberships there for the summer so we have essentially taken over the class (at least the left side of it) and we have a blast together! We also enjoy the next day of complaining about all of our sore muscles together at work. It's great to have people to go with that enjoy the same classes. Hopefully it will pay off this summer! :)

Leslie and her dimples, plus her Texas accent...how can you say no to that face?!

Newsworthy!

Last time I went to Dillon's...I saw a new "Skinny Cow" item; individualized small low-fat ice creams. Um, delicious! At about 3 points each, some of the best calories I have had in a LONG time! There are 5 flavors (Caramel Cone, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Cookies & Creme, Dulce de Leche and Strawberry Cheesecake) and I have worked through 4 (all except the Strawberry Cheesecake). No complaints....would recommend any of them. Just had to share!! :)

Results

I keep meaning to post an update with the Biggest Loser contest at work....it ended on March 11th and I didn't win but I did lose almost 25 lbs in about 2 months. I hope this friendly contest at work will help me continue with this journey. We are starting a second leg this week so I think the competition will help keep me motivated. Stay tuned. :)

I might be becoming my uncle...

....and not like in a way of liking KU and living in Colorado. However, since starting the Biggest Loser competition at work and actively trying to make healthier choices with eating, I find myself following my Uncle Roger. He started following Weight Watchers several years ago and lost quite a bit of weight and he has done it by sticking with a routine. Everyday he has a turkey sandwich, carrot sticks, pretzels and some almonds for lunch (or something like this). And so...I have started my own routine lunch that seems to be working for me.

Most lunch days I have been taking to work cottage cheese and peaches, some baked chips and a mini bagel with a bit of cream cheese and turkey on it. Sometimes I had a piece of fruit too This combination really seems to fill me up and I like when I am rushing around in the morning to not have to think about what to pack. For breakfast I am doing a similar routine meal of english muffin with an egg beater and cheese on it, with maybe sausage. Anyway, hopefully I can stick with this; although I am still not "winning" the contest, I have lost 21.5 lbs since January 7th (2 more weeks to go). On the right track! Thanks for the inspiration Uncle Roger! I think of you whenever I am counting out my pretzel sticks or baked chips. :) I may never cheer for the red and blue but I think you're on to something here.

Ash Wednesday....

I am actually going to address two topics- 1) recycling 2) Lent. These go together because I recently set-up my "recycling center," aka- I bought a new trash can to recycle cans in after my friends Lindsay and Kylie visited last month. Well, it's been going really well and I have recycled oodles of cans....but today I decided to give up Diet Coke for Lent. I'm already anticipating the withdrawls. The headaches, oh the headaches! So, will keep you posted on that front. Maybe it will help with the Biggest Loser contest at work....one lady is plowing ahead and doing well each week and I think as of last week I am in second place. Anyway, really random post but that's the latest "news" here!

Addiction

I have quite possibly found a new love for dinner....homemade pizzas. Mmm. There are several variations to keep it interesting. My mom LOVES the Flat Out tortillas which are really good and when you put them in the oven with whatever topping, you get a really thin crispy pizza. My baby sister enjoys the english muffin pizza. You toast your english muffin, top and then put in the oven. My friend Kylie told me that bagels are the way to go and I am planning on trying these soon....surely you can't go wrong with this. So, moral of the story....if I enter rehab in the near future, I think it might be for homemade pizzas. There is a bit of protein if you use low-fat beef or turkey pepperoni, some veggies and some carbs and cheese. All of this could be yours for only 250-300 calories (or 5-6 WW pts). What more could you want? Did I mention the cheese? :) Pictured is an english muffin pizza...

Boston-Cream Peanut-Butter Breakfast Banana Split

I tried another recipe from the Biggest Loser cookbook. It is from the breakfast section and was pretty tasty....I would say 3 out of 5 Mmms. You place banana halves in a bowl with cut sides facing inward. Spread peanut butter evenly over the open bananas. Spoon the yougurt in the middle and top with 2 tablespoons of crunchy low-fat cereal, such as granola or Grape-Nuts.

Per serving it has 294 calories, 8 g of protein, 7 g fat, 5 g fiber

I ate it awhile before working out and it really gave me energy to get through it. Worth a shot if the ingredients sound good to you.

Ramekin Love

As I have been participating in the "Biggest Loser" contest at work, I have been making a very intentional effort to make good choices with food (minus this weekend with the bar food/pizza "incidences" as we will refer to them) and increasing my work outs to get results. I am currently in 2nd place out of 18 people....in case you were wondering. :)

Anyway, a big part of this for me personally is for me to plan ahead for the week. It's so easy to get busy and not have ingredients to make healthy stuff. So, tonight I created some little individual egg casseroles in my ramekins that my sis gave me a couple years back. I love, love, love these little ramekins. I think they are so pretty and I love using white cookware. I think the food just really stands out against the white background. Prior to this historic event, I was only using them to make heaven- aka, chocolate molten cakes.

I didn't really have a recipe but just wanted to make it low-calorie and filling. I used liquid egg whites, green pepper, onions, low-fat cheese, and low-fat sausage and they are 4-6 pts for Weight Watchers (200-300 calories) depending on how much cheese/sausage you put in each one. WW is my weapon of choice for keeping track of what I'm eating and a proven method that has helped tons of folks (including myself in college) slim down! I ended up cooking them for 25-30 minutes and will have breakfast ready in the fridge the rest of the week! I think some ketchup or salsa might help to add a some flavor. We'll see tomorrow morning how they taste!!

Day #1....

Girl Scout cookie orders arrived and our administration sent free pizza to the department. Ugh, not helpful! We all held strong but geeze; challenging first day! The biggest loser challenge seems to have united all of us together...hope it lasts! :)

Not much more motivating...

....than spending a week in a swimsuit....on a beach....oh, and with my skinny sister. God love her, but seriously. As most of you know, we went on a fantastic trip to visit friends in Jamaica last month. The last month has been full-force holiday celebrations galore and not much of that has been revolving around healthy eating and working out. Shocking. So, 'tis the season to change that! Oh, and apparently 'tis the season for Girl Scout Cookies to come in- could there be worse timing?!?! That's life though.

Anyway, as we are gearing up and starting a new year, it is frequently a time to come down from the junk food high the holidays provide and re-focus on eating healthy and increasing exercise. Today at work, some co-workers and I decided that with the premiere of this season's Biggest Loser Season 9 last night, we will have our own competition. We each put in $5 and I believe there are 10 contestants, so we could potentially net $45. It's of course not about the money, but about losing some weight! We are doing it Biggest Loser style and basing it on percentage of weight loss, since most of my competitors are about 5'2". :)

Wish me luck but I definitely feel motivated. I have gained weight since college and would like to lose some, especially before this summer wen I have a couple trips planned and next fall for my 10-year high school reunion. I have good role models in Kylie, Molly, and Mandy who have all worked hair and maintained weight losses and put it on their blogs for the world to read- proud of you girls for sharing! I will try to keep you posted on the contest and my progress. Hopefully putting this out to the world on the world wide web will help me with accountability, and with writing it down as well. Hopefully I will be $45 richer in a couple months, as well as a smaller version of your favorite Michelle! :)