10K Training, 7 Miles, New Comfort Food Recipe, Cooking Fever, 3 TV Pilot Reviews

Thanks, friends! The breakfast really was yummy! Sounds like bagels get a lot of love too, and am so glad i'm not the only one out there loving on Modern Family (well clearly not the "only" one - they won a shiz load of emmys - but you know what I mean, in the blog works!). Moving on! haha Yesterday was a great day! I popped up early feeling wonderful - and hit the grocery store at 7 a.m. for a few more items for new recipes! Then it was on to work at 8 and get stuff done! During lunch I headed to the gym - I walked 1/4 mile at 4.0, then ran for 3.5 miles straight at 6.3 mph, then walked for another 1/4 mile. GREAT workout! I did all of this in a little under 41 minutes. Then I just stretched, headed home, and worked more. At 5, I headed back to the gym for a 3-mile walk at 4.0, taking my total miles today to 7 miles.

Then it was time for a cooking marathon. No, I didn't need to cook, but I wanted to! So I made some stuff that could be frozen. hehe Here's a pic of my prep meals: LOVE IT!

4 chicken enchilada casserole, 4 egg soaked ham & bacon breakfast pizzas, 6 brunch pizza squares, 3 cheesy slowcooker chickens, 5 poppy seed chickens, 6 taco soups and 6 southwestern cream of chicken soups

We had new recipes for lunch and dinner! Then we watched some more TV pilots. The Undercovers -meh - wasn't feeling it. Was only able to watch about 20 minutes. Not for us - we didn't buy the actors who were playing spies. Then we watched Lonestar - it definitely caught us early on. Great beginning, interesting story (man in TX leading a double life) and it was nice to see Jon Voight! It got a little lost in the middle but we're going to give it a chance. Lastly, we watched My Generation - being a class of 2000 graduate myself, I TOTALLY loved it, especially the year 2000 references with music, events, and seeing where people ended up - so cool! I'm going to watch this for sure. K - here's what I had for lunch - GOOD!

Adapted from Real Mom Kitchen
Poppy Seed Chicken

Makes 6 Servings

20 oz. diced cooked chicken
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can fat-free cream of chicken soup
1 cup fat-free sour cream
20 reduced-fat Ritz crackers, crushed
2 tbsp light land o’lakes butter melted
1 tbsp poppy seeds
3 cups white rice, cooked

In a bowl, mix together soup and sour cream until well blended. Stir in diced chicken.
Spread creamy mixture into a 9 x 9 inch baking dish. In a small zipper bag, crush crackers. Then add poppy seeds and butter to bag and seal. Toss to coast. Sprinkle cracker mixture over chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve over cooked rice.

yummy 6 servings!

My serving


Nutritional Information: 390 calories, 52 carbs, 6 fat grams and 24 protein grams.

Review: Awesome. It was super creamy and flavorful. I did have to add a bit of salt to mine, but other than that it was yummy, filling and creamy southern comfort food (without all of the extra calories!).

SIDEBAR: This song has been making my runs fly - LOVE IT!

Q: What song has been pumping up your workouts lately?

Q: What's your favorite comfort food?

I'll post a new recipe tomorrow for the soup we had for dinner (LOVE), and I finished Jane Green's The Beach Trip during my afternoon walk - i'll post a review!

Day 320: 6.5 miles + Greek Chicken Salad Recipe + New Tunes

Today was a pretty blah day! I got up chipper, wore my new outfit (middle dress!), and headed out. I had a productive work day, walked 6.5 miles, enjoyed the new playlist Austin put on my iPod (the usual suspects: Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Keri Hilson, Black Eyed Peas, Flo rida, Pink, Veronica, Katy Perry, Pitbull, Akon, etc.) and read some of my book! My TOM was still craving crap and even though I brought my good food (breakfast burrito + yogurt for breakfast; Greek feta chicken for lunch + grapes) and my own “bad snacks” (reduced fat cheez its; no pudge brownie)… I still gave in ALL DAY LONG having a mini snickers… a mini reese’s cup… 4 starburst… and a publix sugarcookie. I know this may seem insane, but believe it or not I passed on TONS of food including barbeque, pizza, cupcakes, brownies and cookies. It was like crap food heaven in the break room. All. Day. Long. Sigh.

I left the gym feeling better post candy eating and ready to make a new recipe from Cooking Light.com: Herbed Greek Chicken Salad. As per usual, here’s my version for 2 peeps modified a bit:

First Step (pre yogurt mix)


With yogurt mix... nom nom nom



Mixed in with a side 'o pita

½ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp black pepper, divided

¼ tsp salt, divided

Cooking spray

8 oz. skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes

2.5 tsp fresh lemon juice, divided

½ cup plain fat-free yogurt (Fage 0%)

1 tsp tahini

½ tsp minced garlic

6 cups chopped romaine lettuce

8 grape tomatoes, halved

44 grams fat-free feta cheese

Combine oregano, garlic powder, ¼ tsp pepper and 1/8 tsp salt in a bowl. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken and spice mixture; sauté until chicken is done. Drizzle with 1.5 tsp lemon juice; stir. Remove from pan. Combine remaining tsp of lemon juice, remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, yogurt, tahini and garlic in a small bowl; stir well. Combine lettuce and tomatoes. Place mixture on each of 2 plates. Top each serving with chicken mixture and cheese. Drizzle each serving with 3 tablespoons yogurt mixture.

Optional: Serve with toasted pita wedges (like I did above; 1/2 6-inch pita) OR chop down salad with knives, toast 6-inch pita, cut pita in half, and stuff each half with salad making a Greek Chicken Salad Wrap. The salad is super “sticky” if you will (see 3rd picture!), making it easy to stuff in a pita!

Nutritional Information (without pita): 251 calories, 13 carbohydrates, 3 fat grams, 41 protein grams. Nutritional Information (with pita): 371 calories, 37 carbs, 3 fat grams and 44 protein grams.

You guys – it was SUPER good. I ended up eating half the salad with ½ a pita (2 small triangles), then stuffing the other half of the salad in another ½ of pita. YUM. It was so creamy and thick and fabulous – DEFINITELY making again. This would be a good one to bring to work too, could just pack it up and bring a pita, toast the pita in the toaster in the break room and stuff it up! Easy peasy!

After dinner Austin left for poker and I watched more of Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix. How I love this series. Then it was time to make lunch for tomorrow (Yellow Curry Chicken with Cilantro) and get snacks together. Then it was time to shower, pay bills, get ready for tomorrow BLAH - the evening flies by! I settled in to the awesomely bad Secret Life of the American Teenager. hehe I ended up at 1,834 calories (not bad), 277 carbs (eek!), 32 fat grams (not bad) and 107 protein grams (good!). So again - carb monster attacked! Here's what I ate! Factoring in the 6.5 miles, def not bad. Oh HRM update - it's FINALLY going to be here Thursday. Never do Amazon ship-to-store - geez!

Day 138: 16 Songs, A New Recipe & a Crappy Mood

Yesterday was a weird day – I wanted to be positive and have a great day, but I just felt AWFUL still. Such a grumpy Gus. I couldn’t stand it! I tried TV, reading, laundry, etc. Mostly I tried to stay to myself (why ruin Austin & Reuben’s days with my foul mood?) Finally I gave up- couldn’t break it – so Austin put some more music on my iPod and I left in a bad mood to go (hopefully) walk it off. It worked! I walked for 5.5 miles then did shoulders. Afterwards I kept the pod in at Kroger and flew through my grocery shopping. I got home in a MUCH better mood. My stomach even felt better! I hopped in the shower and got out to make Chicken Parmesan for me, Austin, my sister and her husband. They came over at 8 and we had a great time!! Yummy dinner, great conversation and awesome chill/catch up night. I’m so glad our husbands get along so well, too, I hear of these people who just don’t like the people their siblings date/marry/etc. – I can’t imagine! Anyway, I ended up having a high day once you took into account the three glasses of red I had. But that’s okay! I ended up at 1,779 calories, 243 carbs and 24 fat grams – so only 229 calories over and, with 5.5 miles of cardio, I burned 299 calories. So if you think about it the wine didn’t count! Hehe Here’s what I ate. Oh – here are the happy Pod tracks I put on yesterday:

• New Soul, Yael Naim
• I’m Yours, Jason Mraz
• Shake It, Metro Station
• Greenlight, John Legend feat. Andre 3000
• Single Ladies, Beyonce
• Happy Birthday, Altered Images
• Let it Rock, Devin Rudolf
• When I Grow Up, Garbage
• So What, Pink
• That’s Not my Name, Ting Tings
• Great DJ, Ting Tings
• Shup Up and Let me Go, Ting Tings
• Whatever you Like, T.I
• When I Grow Up, The Pussycat Dolls
• Sour Cherry, The Kills
• And the one I recommend for everyone who wakes up feeling how I’ve been feeling: Be Ok - Ingrid Michaelson

Today is going well so far. Started out being woken up by the phone – Austin’s car is SOLD. (he bought a Z a while back and we’ve had his Maxima on AutoTrader.com – gotten lots of hits and today it’s sold!) We're meeting them tonight to give them title for cash (they've already test driven the car, etc.)Kinda sucked being woken up – but again – great news! I hopped on the scale and it said 115.5. What? Tested it again – 115.5. Wow – what I’m doing is working. Will I be up again tomorrow? Likely – but I’m still trending down and feel great about it! Soon after construction started. Yes, they’re doing construction TODAY on a holiday. They even tried to come into our place to replace our French doors. We declined. They were pissed. Too bad. We’re on vaca – leave us alone! So now we’re listening to them replacing other people’s French doors. Reuben just LOVES it, so much so that each time he hears a loud noise he barks. Awesome! :( I’m trying to have a good day – catching up on Desperate Housewives (so good – what a sweet story and nice flashbacks…) and Brothers & Sisters (I just love this show – so good, so real, and Sally Field is just a doll). Me and Austin also made another new recipe for breakfast adapted from Southbeach Diet’s Eggsadilla!! Here’s how we did it for TWO servings – SO good.

1 tsp EVOO
3 large eggs
1 tbsp fat free milk
2 8” Mission Carb Balance Tortillas
1.5 ounces FF shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp hot sauce
Salt & Pepper

Spread 1/4 tsp hot sauce on one side of each tortilla. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat (we added a bit of spray since the oil didn’t cover the whole pan). Whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and scramble for 2 minutes. Remove to plate. Wipe the pan with a paper towel, and replace on heat. Add tortilla to heat and cook on both sides for 1 minute. Remove from heat and do the same with the other tortilla. Leaving the tortilla on the pan, top it with cheese, then eggs, and then with the other tortilla. Cook for one minute, then flip and cook for another minute. Cut in half and serve with 2 tbsp salsa per serving (for dipping). Each serving was 301 calories, 25 carbs, 12 fat grams and 23 protein grams. Great breakfast! (FYI – we tried cooking them with salsa in them and they were MESSY – so we’re definitely going to dip from now on).

GUESS WHAT?! As I was writing this post my books arrived! I’m so excited! 11/12 are here – one was backordered but that’s okay, I think I have enough to keep me busy in the meantime, no? I only have 30 pages of Queen of Babble yet so they’re just in time – AWESOME.








Austin’s now making chili and I’m now watching Nancy Drew mysteries from the tivo – so cute! I just loved those books and the hour-long episodes are fun to see. Did any of you see the most recent Nancy Drew movie? I liked it, but it was nothing like these! I don’t have much planned for the rest of today – another load of laundry, LOTS of cooking for this week’s meal plan, 5.5 miles/abs/back/bis, ordering a bridesmaid dress, reserving a spot at Pottery Barn’s upcoming decorating class, and making a dentist appointment. I know – you’re jealous huh? Haha I hope you’re all having wonderful days and In My Tummy I’m super sad for you that you’re working. Blah. Hope you’re not at it too hard!