Day 326: New ‘Hot Pocket’ Recipe, New Lemon Chicken & Cilantro Rice Recipes, 4 miles with HRM, Austin’s back!

Today I got up at 8 a.m. ready to go! I did junk around the house all day, had another herbed greek chicken salad, then made a new recipe last night from Our Best Bites – Homemade Hot Pockets!! I’m so glad I found the site – I’m going to make lots of their recipes. Here’s the recipe for this one (tweaked for us):

8 oz. Trader Joe’s plain pizza dough; divided into 2 servings

4 oz. Oscar Meyer deli selects ham; divided into 4 servings

½ cup Kroger fat-free cheddar cheese, grated; divided into 4 15-gram servings

½ tsp olive oil; divided into 4 servings

Flour to sprinkle on pan.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Divide dough into two 4-ounce piles. Roll into two small rectangles on a cookie sheet sprinkled with flour. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut each rectangle in half making 4 smaller rectangles. Leaving a margin on both sides, add ham and cheese. Fold the left side over the middle, and then the right side over that. Starting at the bottom, tightly roll the filled dough stretching it gently to make a tight seal. Repeat with the other 3. Bake for 10 minutes, then smear 1/8 tsp of olive oil on the top of each pocket, then cook for another 5 minutes. (Go HERE to see step-by-step rolling directions in photos). Nutritional Information: 371 calories, 53 carbs, 6 fat grams and 23 protein grams. If you're curious, here's what they look like on the outside - yes, I definitely need to work on rolling them better!

They were SO yummy – loved, loved them! Very doughy and fabulous! I will definitely be making these again – no doubt. She said they’re good to freeze and heat up in the microwave too – nice! Also – her pictures have her making them with her children – cute! After lunch and more sitting around, I sucked it up and headed to the gym for a I went to the gym for a 1-hour walk – here’s how it worked wearing my HRM for the first time whilst working out!!

Mile 1: 4 mph; incline 3 – 76 calories
Mile 2: 4 mph; incline 2 – 77 calories (153 total)
Mile 3: 4 mph; incline 1 – 70 calories (223 total)
Mile 4: 4 mph; incline 0 – 65 calories (288 total)

Just for fun, here's what the treadmill said I burned... CRAZY, right?! 300 calories more than I did - those things are SO off!


After treadmill me and Austin literally pulled into the house at the same time - he's back from Nashville - woo!! I heated up some of the new hot pockets for him (he loved 'em!) then I made myself a bowl of strawberries and we settled in for some West Wing!! Later I perused some cooking blogs and found one called Closet Cooking– lots of great recipes! I made one for dinner – Lemon Chicken! Here’s the recipe adapted for us and for two servings!

1.5 tsp bottled lemon juice
1 tablespoon chicken broth
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tsp light brown sugar
1 tsp honey
½ tsp sriracha chili sauce
8 oz. chicken (cut into bite sized pieces)
½ teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon ginger (minced)
½ clove garlic (minced)
2 green onions (chopped)
1 handful cilantro (chopped)
½ tablespoon sesame seeds (toasted)

Mix the first six ingredients in a bowl. Place the chicken into mixture and marinate for 10 minutes. Heat the oil in a pan. Add ginger and garlic and saute until fragrant, about a minute. Add the chicken reserving the marinade (use a slotted spoon). Saute chicken until cooked, about 3-5 minutes. Add the reserved marinade and simmer until the sauce has reduced and thickened, about 7-10 minutes. Add the green onion and cilantro, stir for 1 minute and remove from heat.>Serve on rice, and top with sesame seeds. I served it over Aggie's Kitchen Cilantro Rice – a recipe of hers I’ve been wanting to make! Recipe below makes 4 servings, so I saved 2 servings for our lunch tomorrow. :)

1 cup Basmati rice, uncooked
2 cups cold water
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp olive oil
large handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
2-3 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Combine rice and water in a large microwavable covered dish. Add a small drizzle of olive oil and garlic to rice. Place in microwave and cook for 18 minutes. Do not take off lid during cooking process. Once it is cooked, fluff rice with a fork and taste for doneness. (If at this time it's not cooked well enough - it should be - just add a small amount of water and cook for a few more minutes) Toss in chopped cilantro, green onions, salt and pepper. Stir. Nutritional Information: 359 calories, 6 fat grams, 44 carbs and 30 protein grams.

Some of the products I used! Rice from Kroger, Sesame oil from Kroger and minced ginger from Whole Foods

The chicken in its marinade

SUCH a delicious meal! Very light but super flavorful. Next time I may make more chicken, or serve it with a soup or something (just to get the calories up closer to 400 or 450). After dinner we just hung out and got stuff ready for tomorrow. I’m SO GLAD Austin’s back but SO SAD that tomorrow is Monday!! I ended the day at 1,739 calories, 241 carbs, 38 fat grams and 109 protein grams. Here’s what I ate. I hope you all had wonderful weekends!!!