Stuffed Peppers

I made stuffed bell peppers for some friends of ours who came to visit today! I actually took pictures too, so I thought I would share! 

Serves 8*

What you need:

1 lb of italian ground sausage (I used mild)

.75 lbs ground beef

8* bell peppers

1 package Uncle Ben's Ready Rice

1 package Italian blend cheese

1 package shredded mozzarella cheese

1 32 ounce jar of spaghetti sauce

Vegetable juice as needed.

Meaty goodness. Vegans beware.

Brown that shit up

 Start off in a cold pan and turn it up to medium heat. Start crumbling and stirring constantly.

Stir frequently. Crumble.

Eat while you cook

Papa John's Cheesy Chicken Cordon Bleu w/ Spinach Alfredo sauce

This is 1 half of the sauce

Add in the sauce

Transfer to a bowl

Best rice ever

Add in 

My beautiful peppers

I love this cheese
Notice there is still sauce in the pan- that's part of my dinner!

Chop off the tops and a little of the bottoms so they stand up 

Filling them up is easy- spoon until overflowing

I got a lot of filling left over- probably got enough for about 4 more peppers

Then I cleaned the kitchen!

Look how nice!

I actually cooked up over 3.5 lbs of meat, part of it for spaghetti and part of it for peppers.

So there- I used my camera and made food. :) PS- it was well received by the company :)

On the 6th Day of Shred.

You guys are so awesome. Thanks for all of your incredibly sweet, helpful, encouraging comments. I didn't mean to inspire a blog-wide 30 Day Shred-fest, but I am so glad you are doing it!! It makes me feel great knowing others are trying it too. I don't feel so alone now, and even more motivated to complete it! Go TEAM!! We can do it! 

Day 6 which means I have made it almost an entire WEEK through the 30 Day Shred. Which means only have to do it 4 more times. I am 20% done!!

Day 6 was not any easier than Days 1-5. In fact, it was probably harder today than it should have been because I was eager to try level 2. Never again. I have noticed some new things though: I can complete about a minute and a half each circuit of cardio, better than I have previously. I can also do more bicycle crunches, I completed the whole set of them today. Still cried in agony when I was doing it though. My lower abs are burning now, but I think that is a good thing. Those are definitely my weakest abs, because my belly fat hangs out there. I definitely have noticed that my belly is shrinking a little from all of the cardio and crunches! 

Paula mentioned her daughter does level 1, level 2 AND level 3, back to back!! Wow, that is some serious dedication.

Wednesday was awesome eating wise. I had 33 points, earned 6 points. 

I wasn't very hungry. And also I was feeling very lazy. I didn't really want to prepare anything to eat. I couldn't be bothered to wash a spoon, so I poured 2 cups of Honey Nut Cheerios into a cup and munched on them, for 8 points. Then after the Shred, I was hungry but even more unwilling to wash a spoon or prepare anything, so I had two more cups of Cheerios, for 7 more points. (15 total) 

I took a nap and slept off the soreness and when I got up, Brian was home and doing dishes. I'm such a bad housewife. But then I made dinner, so all was forgiven. We had Turkey Skillet which is sort of like Hamburger Helper, except without all the fat, preservatives, and ground beef. :P

Bacon Turkey Burger Skillet | Serves 4 generous portions | 12 PointsPlus per serving

~20 oz raw ground turkey, 93/7 at least. 

~4 oz Barilla Plus elbow macaroni pasta

~8 oz tomato sauce

~16 oz Swanson chicken broth

~1 cup Bacon Bits

~1/2 c each green bell pepper and onion, chopped

~1 cup fat free shredded cheddar. 

~Various seasonings. I used garlic, red pepper flakes, Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder, and chili powder

Directions:

In a big skillet, brown the turkey on medium heat and add in onion and green bell pepper, crumbling the turkey as it browns. After the meat is browned and the veggies soft, add in the tomato sauce, seasonings, broth, and pasta. Let it come to a boil on medium heat and then turn the heat down to medium-low, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. After the noodles are tender, turn on low, put cheese and bacon on top and cover, until cheese is melted. 

Serve immediately. But don't burn your tongue, like I always do. 

Mine was extremely spicy, which I loved, but of course there are so many more options. If I was so inclined, this would have served 6, and the points would have been a little lower. But I was hungry, so I had a 4th of it. With 2 slices of whole wheat bread and a Tbl of butter, for 18 points total. 

Just 24 more days to go until I am shredded! What other recipes would you guys like to see? 

Chicken and Noodle Soup

I have been craving soup. Mostly because its a million degrees below zero. So I was going to make a big pot of chicken stock and then you know, add some stuff to it to make soup.

Here's what I have:

-3 large chicken breasts (8-12 oz each)
-3/4 large onion, cut into chunks
-2 carrots, cut into chunks
-4 pieces of celery
-handful of cremini mushrooms
-3 T of garlic powder
-Sprinkle of red pepper flakes
-Water to cover
-salt, pepper to taste

Crank it on high until it boils then simmer until chicken is fork-tender. Strain any foam from the top. Pull out chicken and set aside. Strain solids from the broth. Let the broth cool and skim any fat from the top. Or take a turkey baster and suck the broth out from under the fat. Whichever. Return broth to pot. Shred chicken with 2 forks. Add noodles. I am using bow ties. Add shredded chicken and cook until al dente and chicken is heated through.

Ladle that delicious soup into a bowl. Butter a piece of bread and pop in your favorite dvd. Snuggle with a furry friend or your significant other.

Usually when I make chicken and noodles I use cream of chicken. I like it to be a creamy noodle instead of a brothy soup, but this time I wanted broth and lots of it.

Let me know what you think

500th Post Vlog Spectacular

This is it... the moment you have all been waiting for! The 500th post spectacular!!




Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe (the Christie Way)


-4 servings of chicken breast (3-5 oz each), thawed, pounded flat to 1/4-1/2 inch
-4 slices of ham
-4 slices of Swiss cheese (I used Fat Free)


-Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
-Lightly spray a baking pan (9x13 should do) with olive oil/cooking spray
-Cut each chicken breast lengthwise almost in half and open up.
-Place one piece of ham and one piece of cheese in each slit, close chicken flap.
-Pin in place with toothpicks if you want, be sure to remove them after baking though.
-Cook uncovered, for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is done and juices run clear.

Now when I was fat, I used to put toothpicks in the chicken to hold it all together, then coat each piece of chicken in mayo, and then coat in seasoned bread crumbs. It makes very juicy chicken, but you can get a similar taste if you just follow my cooking tips under the recipes. Actually I was skinny when I discovered this recipe, but still, its very fattening and a waste of perfectly good mayo that can go on a sandwich.

Christie's Awesome Seasoned Potatoes


-12 oz of red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges, skin still on. 
-Hidden Valley Ranch powdered seasoning. Just a pinch
- 1 Tblsp garlic powder or seasoned salt. 
- 2 Tblsp butter, melted. 


Mix your seasonings with the butter and pour over your potato wedges. Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 50-60 minutes until tender.


Bonus: Awesome dip- Mix together 1/4 c each of fat free sour cream and fat free mayo with 2 T of the ranch powder, mix, and chill for at least 30 minutes. This is really good to dip your potatoes in.

Did you all like the vlog? Tell me what you thought about it! Do you want me to do another one sometime? Do you never want to see my face again? It's okay, let me know!


Upcoming Posts:

I am going to the chiropractor on Friday (tomorrow) morning so I will have an update on that. Hopefully my doctor is really cool and will let me show pics of my xrays. I think I have what is called a "luxating patella" but will know for sure tomorrow.

I also have to do my "Then and Now" pics. I will also do a pants comparison, since I am down 2 full jeans sizes and shirts too. How fun!

Special thank you to my sweet and wonderful husband, who so kindly helped me shoot and edit this video. Who am I kidding, he edited the whole thing. :) Thanks, Brian.

Weekly Weigh In: Week 10 Wednesday

(Post 489)

Yay its Weigh in Day! 

So time to hop on the scale and take my weight! 

Today's number is 216.2 which is down 1.8 from last week. I was down 3 but then got sick. Still, as I always say, any downward movement is good, so I am quite pleased with myself. Almost 2 lbs a week is a fantastic, safe rate of weight loss, and I am very happy. 

Today marks the first full week of PointsPlus on the new WW plan. I was mistaken earlier, I want to correct it: The new plan does not count calories into the points equation. It is only carbs, fat, fiber, and protein- which make up the total calorie count of any product Sorry if there was any confusion, that was a "my bad". 

I am on my lunch break, again. This time I am making dinner, I am going to have chicken and noodles again. I love chicken and noodles. It's actually very tasty and makes me feel better about life, the universe, everything. 

What else is going on? Hmm not a whole lot. I was very sick this week. Started off with a cold then sort of escalated to an almost-flu. I spent most of yesterday battling to not regurgitate. Thankfully I work at home, so I didn't have to go into the office or anything! Brian even told me "You look awful" haha I bet I do.

I have also put a little thought into what I am going to do for my 500th Vlog Spectacular (That's the working name; subject to change) Paula said she wanted to see me cook- Right back at'cha! 

What wonderful Christie-meal should I do? I don't really have the makings for lasagna, or enchiladas, or really anything at the moment. If I did do a cooking one, it would have to be after the 10th, when I get paid. (First paycheck!!) I'm trying to think of some of my other awesome meals that I make, and really all I can come up with is spaghetti (which you've seen) and lasagna (which you've mostly seen) as well as enchiladas (which are horribly Americanized- but still delicioso if I must say so myself) 

I could do my chicken cordon bleu, or my chicken spinach rollups. Those are the bomb (dot com) and they are gobbled up really really fast. Or I can do my baked mac and cheese, which is really really good as well. Not exactly pointsplus friendly, but then again, thats what your weekly is for! Save those points for my Vlog because you are going to go "Mmmm!" 

I can't wait- I already have some awesome ideas for editing it and some other surprises too. Now my chicken is probably almost done boiling, I have to add in my noodles. I am so hungry. 

Later, Gators!

I'm Bluffin' with My Muffin

No this isn't Lady Gaga lyrics-fest. I actually made my own English Muffins today. I went to the store and picked up the ingredients:

-Thomas English muffins 100 cal/1g fat/8g fiber per muffin
-Meijer brand Canadian bacon 60 cal/1.5g fat/0 fiber per 3 slices (I only used one per sandwich)
-Meijer brand fat free American cheese slices 30 cal/0 fat/0 fiber per slice
-Meijer brand egg beaters 30 cal/0 fat/ 0 fiber per 1/4 cup.

*An interesting side note: Neither English Muffins or Canadian bacon originated in those respective countries. They are both entirely made in the USA. Thanks, Food Network Channel!




I cooked up 1.5 cups of egg whites in a skillet while I split open the 6 muffins, topping each with 1 slice of Canadian bacon and 1 slice of cheese. Then I topped with 1/4 cup each of the scrambled egg whites. Wrapped up and stuffed in the freezer. Each sandwich is 220 calories/2.5 g fat/ 8 g of fiber which makes it 4 points, just like the WW sandwiches.

The total cost of the ingredients for muffin meal was $10.54. The cheese was $3.59 for a package of 16 slices, which makes it .23 per slice. The egg beaters were $2.39 for 7 servings and that was .34 per serving. The bacon was $2.59 for 7 slices, and was  .37 per slice. The muffins were $2 for 6 for .33 per serving. It was $1.27 per sandwich, or $7.62 for 6 of them. WW were $2.74 for 2 muffins or $1.37 per sandwich. By buying and making it myself I saved .10 a sandwich, or .60 a week.

That doesn't really sound like much, does it? I didn't use coupons and nothing was on sale, so that will be the most it will cost me. I will also probably eat this every day for many years (I actually ate the same flavor of Pop-Tarts every single day for 6 years. I still love them) so the savings down the road will be good.

I also had a WW anytime meal- mini cheeseburger for 4 points as well. So far that brings me up to 8 points spent, 20 left. I have to figure out how many points dinner will be.

I also bought some wool yarn for a Christmas gift, and some paraffin wax as well. I need to go pine cone hunting which was on my to-do list today but I sort of got side tracked with blogging. Whoops. That will be what I will do tomorrow, first thing. The wool yarn feels so good. I really need to stop rubbing it against my face and finish my crochet projects. There's only 5 weeks and 2 days until Christmas

I am freezing cold. I can't seem to get warm. I have on a sweatshirt and my robe (I know, classy!) My ankle is killing me today as well. Stupid weather.

Tasty Tuesday: Christie's Awesome-Sauce Spaghetti

Sometimes I crack myself up. "Awesome sauce" is internet lingo for "really cool" fyi. But in this case, it's quite literal. It was AWESOME sauce.

And I made it! From scratch!

Before I get into how awesome I am, I have a confession. I am a terrible housewife. So much so, that my husband has all but given up on the idea of a clean house. Hey at least he gets a hot meal every night when he comes home for dinner... Gotta take what you can get.

Not to mention my kitchen is incredibly tiny. Like.... closet sized. Linen closet. The walk in closet in the master bedroom is actually bigger than my kitchen. I really wish I was joking.

I told hubby Sunday night that I was going to clean the kitchen "all day, even if it kills me" because I was so sick of having a dirty kitchen.

He texted me at 8 pm yesterday and the conversation went like this:

Him: Did you get the kitchen clean like you wanted?
Me: I'm working on it. There's a lot of dishes. *as I surf the web*
Me: I'm totally lying I havent even started yet.
Me: I'll get to it now.
Him:: Oh okay.

And that led me to take these pics. Not only to prove to you how horrible I am in cleaning but also how very tiny my kitchen is. Which makes it impossible to keep clean.

See? Filthy.

But an hour later, I got half of it done. I used vinegar and baking soda paste and lots of elbow grease to get the stubborn baked on stains off the stove top. I put all my spices/baking goods away and I tackled a good chunk of the dishes. I hand washed the linoleum. As in, on my hands and knees washed it with a washcloth and a vinegar/water solution. I don't own a mop. This is my entire kitchen. See how tiny it is?? It's still not 100% clean its like 80% with probably two more loads of dishes to go.  Let's get back to awesome sauce now.

Here's my ingredients

V8, red wine vinegar, red pepper flakes, garlic, onion, oregano, black pepper.

96/4 lean ground sirloin. Frozen, naturally. 

Brown that baby up! Also, add frozen, diced onion

The sauce is 2 C juice and 1T of all the spices.

It was a little runny. Secret thickening agent? Instant mashed potatoes. Seriously.

Sprinkle

Mix

Perfect! No one will ever know... wait... I just told. D'oh!

Needed more O- oregano!

Whole grain! I love whole grain! Pay no attention to my mess I just made :(

Secret ingredient #2: For flavor, add in ice-cubed chicken broth. 1 works.
My mom swears by butter. I swear by broth. So help me Broth!!

Yay! Thats all there is to it. You would think I worked hard at this meal. But no. I'm lazy. It was really easy to do.

Someone appreciates all my hard work. And thats what counts <3

We gobbled it up. There was enough for him to take to work and for me to have early this morning at 4 am when I got hungry hehe :) It must be all that coffee that I am drinking.

Gamma- come clean my kitchen and I'll feed you. We can do Dance Central as well :) lol I'm kidding. Mostly. I can make cheeseburgers


Tonight for dinner? Chicken rollups stuffed with light cream-cheese and spinach with macaroni and cheese. Excitement.

Stress and the effects on the body and mind

Or as I like to call it, my weekend.

My poor gramma is going to freak when she reads this....

As you know I got hired into a super awesome job this weekend. I am so excited about this job, I know that I will do really well in it (if you blow your interviewer out of the water, thats a good sign) I want to be prepared.

Being prepared. It sounds so confident and awesome, doesn't it? Well the reality is I have been flailing around like a drunken idiot who also happens to have a sudden case of amnesia. I can't remember anything. Anything. At all.

Some examples include:

1. leaving the stove burner on low heat for 5 hours
2. forgetting where I put the controller/remote/phone/pen/glass/etc the moment I set it down
3. telling Brian the same thing multiple times in a row, and not realizing I had told him already
4. forgetting basic English, grammar, and sentence structure. Seriously. I could not remember what "chicken nuggets" and "french fries" were called. I asked Brian if he wanted me to make him "uhm ...those thingies you dip into ranch and that other thing you dip in whats it called ketchup"

Not to mention the technical trouble I was having with the printer! Thankfully, it's all sorted now. I got all my paperwork done as well and faxed it over from my fax machine in my office.

Add that into one bad eating day where I ate a bunch of fast food and you are looking at a 2.5 lb gain!
UGH. I am calling shenanigans though. I know I didn't eat 2.5 lbs worth of food that day, and I am pretty sure it's just stress and water retention. I have since been eating only at home and only what I have logged into Weight Watchers. (Thankfully, I've gone down .8 lbs since yesterday)

I thought it was going to be 9 am-5 pm, as that is what I was told before but it turns out that it is actually going to be 2-10 pm. Which works out great for me. I don't have to alter my sleeping habits at all for this job. This rocks! My hours will be 1-9:30 pm when I get out of training. Know what is special about these hours? These hours are the *exact* same that my husband works! Yay!

I have everything done that I can do now. I am just so anxious to start. I think I will go and get some sleep now. I am so tired. I didn't sleep well at all last night because I was so worried if I would get all my paperwork done in time. I had to notarize it as well.

But I will leave you with something exciting (?... at least I think its exciting)

This week I have tried several new things:

1- applying for a job that I didn't think I was qualified for (and got hired!)
2- drank regular sweet tea with raspberry added (delish)
3- bought and juiced 3 pomegranates (awesome)
4- tried two new recipes
5- drank regular coffee with a dash of creamer and 2 packets of splenda. (also good)

There. That makes this a positive post :) See Gramma, I'm not stressed out at all! I'm doing good :) Now that everything is taken care of until the 23rd, there is no reason to worry. Right? Right.

Orange Chicken

I don't know about you, but I love me some Chinese food. When I found the virtual cheat sheet on WW.com about how many points are in chinese foods, I flipped. It was so darn expensive points wise. It almost (but not quite) ruined my love for Chinese.

One of my favorite dishes is orange chicken from Panda Express. Here's the nutritional breakdown:

Serving size 5.4 oz
Calories: 400
Fat g: 20
Fiber: 0

If you were just counting calories, you would say, hey, thats not too bad. 400 calories for almost 5.5 ounces is great....

If you are on weight watchers, you are going to do what I did, and freak the eff out... Ready? It's 10 points. Okay that doesn't look so bad right... 10 points.... *except* that's not including anything else. No rice, no chow mein, no drinks... thats JUST the chicken.

Curse you delicious golden chicken!

If you add in the rice (fried, natch) it turns into 22 points
*rice is 570 cal., 18g fat, and 8g fiber = 12 points

I am sobbing inside right now. I love PE and I love orange chicken. I only get 28 points a day. I am not spending 79% of my dailies on that! This week, I am lucky enough to have the following items in my inventory:

-Orange juice
-Lemon extract
-Chicken
-Brown rice

Liiiight bulb! I will make my OWN orange chicken. I looked up a recipe for a orange chicken glaze and then I built it into WW.com and found out my orange chicken (sauteed chicken chunks with orange glaze) is 4 points a serving! Yay! It's also 3 oz :)
Brown rice .5 cup per person is 2 points.

Take that, you stupid Panda. If your species weren't endangered I'd tell you right where to shove that wok!!
But since you are endangered, dear sweet panda bear, I will just cry and say no thanks whenever I am invited out.

I've done this now a few times. Take a recipe for something I really love and then find a lower-points version of it. That way I can still enjoy what I love without having to drastically alter anything. Yay WW! You rock.

Also, pomegranates? Freaking rock! I bought 3 of them and used one for a marinade for a pork loin (delish) and then juiced the other two so I could add them to my tea and have pom-tea. Delish. I also love eating the seeds, which is weird because most fruits I hate the seeds. But if you look at a pomegranate you will realize it is not most fruits. It's a weird little alien fruit that happens to be a nutritional powerhouse. I would buy cratefuls of pomegranates if I could afford to and also have room to store them.

EAT THIS its good for you...no srsly

Christie's Tricksy Lasagna!

Before we get into how awesome of a cook I am, let me show you how awesome I am.

Do you like my babydoll/cardigan combo?

This is me down 8.4 lbs!

Don't I look sexy? Also my dress is a bit too big already. It could be because its actually a 1X rather than an XL, but I'd love to think its because I'm 8.4 lbs lighter than I was when I ordered it!


My parents and grandma came over for lunch and to hang out so I made my famous lasagna. Being on weight watchers though, I decided to improve my already awesome recipe.

Normally it looks like this

*1 lb ground beef
* 9 lasagna noodles
* 1 jar spaghetti sauce (Prego)
* 2 bags of shredded cheese
* 2 cups 4% milkfat cottage cheese
* diced onion and garlic

But not this time. Noooo. It looked like this


* 1/2 lb ground beef
* 1/2 lb ground turkey
* 9 lasagna noodles
* 2 cups of V8 veggie juice
* 1/2 cup diced onion
* 1/2 cup diced green pepper
* 1 16 oz can of petite diced tomatos with garlic and olive oil
* 1/2 cup of pureed spinach
* 3/4 cup fat free cheddar
* 3/4 cup fat free cottage cheese

And guess what? EVERYONE agreed it was the best lasagna ever. I also have some piccies too. Soon as I find my camera cord. I'm going to go on a hunt for it now. *grabs a gun* Be vewwy vewwy quiet I'm hunting wabb-- er camewa cowds!

First we brown the meat- beef and turkey

 I also sauteed some onion and green pepper in too.

Let's add in some tomatoes!

Let's add some spinach!

V8 to the rescue!

Mixed all together

Simmering... looks so good....

The rest of the cast. I actually didnt use that other mexican cheese

Making brownies! These also have spinach in them! Shhhhh

My new kitchen scale!

It likes me! It really likes me!

 I didn't take any pics of my lasagna done or my brownies. We were all too hungry by the time it was done. And some stupid woman decided she needed to take pics for her blog. ;)

It was delicious, there wasnt any leftovers. The brownies went over very well too! My parents took half home of them, and the other half was devoured by my hungry husband. He kept exclaiming "I can't believe these have spinach in them!" It's true. They did.

So there you go, picture overload. Now that I have found my cord, I have no excuse not to use my camera more often.