Wednesday Weigh-In

Today I am 145. That's up from last week.

I also followed up with my doctor today and he tells me every one of my labs came back fine, except for my B12 - which explains why I'm feeling low in the energy department. So now I have a honking huge mulitivitamin to take that will hopefully give me superpowers.

Chili

Ingredients:
1 cup onion
1 tsp olive oil
2 bags Morning Star Farms crumbles
1 Jar pasta sauce
3 cans Bush's chili beans
2 cans light kidney beans
1 large can diced tomatoes (could use fresh, but I got overzealous and used them all in the salad!)

Carol Shelby spice packet

1. Brown onion in olive oil.

2. Add crumbles - warm/brown.

3. Add sauce, use jar to add 1/2 jar of water to pot, add all beans and tomatoes.

4. Mix in Carol Shelby spices - cover and simmer 30 minutes stirring occaisionally.

Serve with shredded cheese, tostito scoops, and sour cream.

Mashed Potato Soup

I didn't take a picture of the soup, but here is a picture of the soup-lover. The temperature was 42 degrees this morning at 4:50am during my 5 minute drive to the gym. The high in our area was about 65 today which felt sooooo cold. Joshua asked me to make some Mashed Potato Soup tonight for dinner, so that he could bring the leftovers to school tomorrow for his lunch.

Ingredients:
2 med baked potatoes
3 tsp butter
1 c. chopped onion
2 tsp flour
4 c. chicken stock
2 c. water
1/4 c. corn starch
1 1/2 c. instant mashed potatoe flakes
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp thyme
1 c. half and half

1. Melt butter in large saucepan, saute onion until lightly brown.

2. Add the flour to make a roux.

3. Add stock, water, corn starch, instant mashed potato flakes and spices to the pot. Bring to boil, then turn down heat to simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Cut already baked potatoes in half, scoop out flesh. Add potato flesh and half/half to saucepan, bringing soup to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve with bacon bits, chopped broccoli, shredded cheddar cheese and anything else that sounds good!!

Makes about 6-8 servings.

Rotini with Chicken Chunk Tomato Sauce

I love organic tomato products. I have some extended family members that think I'm crazy and that there is no difference between the $.99 store brand marinara sauce and a good organic pasta sauce. (Which is actually a big reason why my recipes, weight loss journey and other thoughts are posted over here separately from our regular family blog.) When I saw that our Publix had an unadvertised sale on Muir Glen tomato products and I had a handful of coupons for them, I stocked up yesterday at the store.

We had a spontaneous game-playing afternoon yesterday and while I did manage to get the groceries put away, the never-ending game of Disney Monopoly intruded on my menu planning time. So I threw together a pasta dish for dinner last night.

We only eat chicken maybe once a week because the Publix Greenwise chicken is pretty pricey. But for me it's worth the price to feed my family the best food possible. So I grabbed my newly purchased boneless, skinless chicken breasts, added them to a baking dish, covered them in the above can of tomatoes, covered that with aluminum foil loosely and baked it all for 45 minutes at 375 F. Towards the last few minutes, I boiled some water and added whole wheat rotini to the lightly salted water.

When the rotini was done, I drained it and plated it. Then I took two forks and shredded the chicken making the tomato sauce very thick. I added the sauce to the rotini and it was so delicious. Add a quick bag of steamed veggies and a couple of glasses of soy milk and voila...dinner is served!

Soda Fast

Carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

I often times feel as though I'm quick to listen to other people's difficulties and to offer a hug and an "I'll keep you in my prayers". While I do with a genuine heart intend to keep most people in my prayers, often times I pray at that very moment and then seem to forget about it. I want very much to follow up with people and ask them about their situation or let them know that I'm still thinking of them. Even more so, I feel as though there are people that are too shy or too proud to ask for prayers for their situation.

Add in my current addiction to soda. I got on a coffee kick while living in Alaska, and now that I am in Florida, it is just too hot for coffee. Iced coffee just isn't yummy. But, oh man, that combination of carbonated water, artificial caramel coloring, high fructose corn syrup and caffeine in my favorite soda has become quite an addiction. I've been depending on the caffeine to give me a little boost in the afternoon when I am feeling my sleepiest.

I read last week in my devotion book, The Official Soccer Mom Devotional by Lynne Thompson, about a mocha fast. Lynne talks about her addiction to coffee and that by giving up coffee, every time she would drive past a coffee drive-thru, she'd pray for her friend in need. I'm about 3 days into my soda fast. Everytime I start to get a hankerin' for a soda (and I'm usually a 2-a-day-er), I take a moment to clear my mind and say a few words of prayer for someone that I know is in need. Amazingly, as I walk to the fridge, I find myself thinking of people that might not have even asked me to pray for them, just other moms with young kids that I know could use a little boost.

Since I'm on day 3, the headaches have passed and I'm feeling better than I felt yesterday. At the job fair, they had a huge table of drinks set up. I was so proud of myself for grabbing a water instead of a soda. It was a small victory, but a good one.

I'm off to do my Sabbath cleaning and refill my Camelback BPA-free water bottle.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

4 medium sweet potatoes
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 cup mini-marshmallows

1. Peel sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks. Boil for about 10 minutes. Drain.

2. Put sweet potatoes in baking dish, toss with butter and brown sugar.

3. Bake at 375 F for about 30 minutes.

4. Add marshmallows on top, bake for 5 more minutes.

Yummy! Everyone loved this. I actually used yams instead of sweet potatoes because I like the richer color. But aren't they practically the same?

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 3/4 c. sugar
2 c. grated zucchini
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 c. flour
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c. chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place liners in muffin cups.

2. In stand mixer - combine eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini, and vanilla.

3. In medium bowl - combine everything else.

4. Add dry mix to zucchini mixture. Combining just until thoroughly mixed.

5. Put in muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes.

We have a 24 muffin cup tin. I filled that, and made a batch of mini-muffins from the same mix.

I popped about 4 of the mini muffins while standing in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher. They are so good.