New Recipe, C25K, New Book

Sounds like most of us are Julie & Julia fans, and that most of us are a little iffy on Mary Higgins Clark! I'm going to try another (or two!) before I make a decision about her - could have just gotten a dud?? Anywho, before I rehash my crap morning that turned into a good day, I wanted to post the recipe from last night’s dinner. YUM!

Adapted from Recipes For Moms - LOVING her blog!!
Taco Cassrole
Makes 4 Servings


1 pound 96/4 ground beef
2 tbsp onion, diced
1-2 jalapenos, finely diced
1 envelope taco seasoning
½ cup water
1 cup crushed tortilla chips (70 grams)
1 can (16 oz.) fat-free refried beans (400 grams)
¼ cup fat-free cheddar cheese
¼ cup cabot 75% light cheddar cheese
½ cup diced tomato (for topping)
4 tbsp fat-free sour cream (for topping)
½ cup romaine, shredded (for topping)

out of the oven - 4 servings (pre toppings)


In a skillet, brown beef and onion over medium heat until meat is barely longer pink. Stir in taco seasoning and water and cook and stir until beef is no longer pink and sauce is thicker, about 3 minutes; set aside. Place chips in a greased 8-inch square baking dish. In a bowl, stir refried beans until smooth; spread carefully over chips. Top with beef mixture and cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until heated through. Top with lettuce, tomato and sour cream.

one serving pre toppings


Nutritional Information: 398 calories, 35 carbs, 10 fat grams and 35 protein grams.

Review: We LOVED it! I don’t have too many casseroles with refried beans so it was nice to get those in, and we LOVED the crispy chip layer on bottom – fabulous! Next time I may add more lettuce for crunch but that’s an easy, no-calorie fix. It was perfectly spicy – yay for jalapeños! I actually ate it with a spoon - nom nom nom.

Notes: For this one, I actually made 8 servings of beef: 2 pounds beef with 4 tbsp onion, 2 envelopes taco seasoning, 3 jalapenos and 1 cup water. I plan to use the other 4 servings for taco salads and tacos!

So today I got up in a major funk – grrrr. I just didn’t want to go in and was SO tired. No fun! I get out of my neighborhood and realize I’ve left my allergy medicine. I keep going –I’m already running late and traffic is a nightmare. Then I get about 2 miles from home, AKA 15 minutes in traffic, and realize… I had left my purse! Who does that? I have my keys, clearly, and my cell as that’s how I determined traffic was bad… but that’s it! I call Austin and we talk through it. Nope, I don’t need to buy anything today. Nope, don’t plan on having to show my identification. Nah, I can do without my camera and video camera and make up… I guess I’ll just… go on then! LOL

On the way in I had some yogurt and began listening to my first Nora Roberts book, Naked in Death. This is the first out of a long line of books where she writes as J.D. Robb. It’s pretty good so far, about a female lieutenant in the future where our weapons are old school, prostitution is legal and technology is sweet. Interesting!

I got in, had a brunch pizza square for lunch, worked and then went down for 3.5 miles + abs during lunch – nice! Then I just worked more, had the new fiesta chicken (will post recipe tomorrow!), had a snack and then went back to the gym for C25K! I was only able to do 25 minutes today - not bad - and an improvement over the 22 minutes from last week - woo! I walked for 3, and ran for 25 burning 172 calories taking me to 2.81 miles. Then I walked more to get to 3.5 miles burning a total 218 in 38 minutes! Then we did a few more ab exercises and our full upper body circuit taking me to a total of 1 hour and 5 minutes, 318 calories. Woo - great workout!

Once I got home, we heated up the 4-cheese pepperoni pizza I made last night and chilled. Not bad for a Tuesday!

My serving (1/4 of pizza)

The whole pizza - yum!!

So I had a new recipe at lunch - also from Recipes for Moms - AWESOME!! It's called Chicken Fiesta - i'll post the recipe tomorrow! Have I mentioned that i'm LOVING making these new recipes?! All from bloggers, none or few from cookbooks - so cool. :) Tomorrow i'll also post Monday and today's stats - not bad! Now, for a few questions!!

If it works either way, do you prefer to eat with a spoon or a fork? I used to be a diehard spoon person, then Austin convinced me in college to use a fork more... and now i'm leaning back towards the spoon when it works either way!

How do you get yourself out of funky moods? The workout helped me... and music once I got to work!