breakfast thingys

Yeah I know kind of a weird thing to call them, but wasn't sure of their name
I have seem a lot of eggs in muffin pans on pinterest so I thought I would try one out.

It is pretty basic.

I took a half a slice of bacon and put it on the edges of the muffin tin...

then I whipped up some eggs with milk and filled the tin.  I also put not whipped eggs in to see what they turned out like...

I preheated the oven to 350..like chewbacca told me too

(love this pic haha) and baked the thingy's for 35 mins. I did not grease the tin or anything, the bacon did it for you.

aaand ta-da! they are kinda cute!!  When I tried one it needed something else so I added some parmesan cheese and a itsy bitsy amount of salt.

there ya go!! it really is as easy as it looks!  Took me about 10 minutes to do it all.  Now I have something I can take on my way to school if I want.
Sweetness!!

Broccoli rice and cheeeeesiness mmmmm

I have been craving this for a while. This is not a super healthy recipe, but a few changes made it okay. There are a lot of variations of this recipe. Mine is a little different, because I just used what I had in the house.
  You know how it goes, you want to make something good but don't really want to leave the house (and put actual clothes back on) to run to the grocery store and get something.  I was lucky enough to have all the basics and it actually turned out very good.  A note on this recipe, it doesn't make a lot so if you have more than 2 people you may want to double it up!

1 can cream of mushroom condensed soup (I had the healthy heart kind)
1 bag steamers broccoli (steam it up baby, no really go ahead and cook it)
1 pouch Uncle Bens Chicken flavored rice (cook it out too)
1/4 cup milk
1 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 (chewy says so!)

Basically you just go ahead and put it all in a bowl and mix it up.  Cook the rice and steam the broccoli in the microwave before you mix it though. 

Put the mixed up mixture in an oven safe dish.  Just to prove that I am a true a Nebraskan I crushed up some ritz and put it on the top (that way you know its a fancified casserole) and baked for 30 minutes so it gets all gooooey mm.

If you make it let me know if you like it!!!

Chicken Paremesan fo the better

I found the original recipe in the recipe book,  Eat What you Love, by Marlene Koch.  This is the only recipe from that book I will put on my blog.  It is a FANTASTIC book and I hope this whets your appetite to go get it!!!  There are over 300 recipes in it and I can't say how great this book is. That is why I will post one recipe from it so you can see how great it is and go get it! I have used about 5 of the recipes so far and they are wonderous.  This is the book where I got my cauliflower/ potato recipe. So give it a try!!

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp dried oregano
 1/4 tsp garlic salt
1 lg egg
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1tbsp olive oil (I used extra virgin and it worked great!)
3/4 cup marinara sauce (I used low cal low sodium prego and it was good too!)
3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1) Mix together the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, oregano and garlic salt. In another bowl beat the egg until frothy.

2) pound the chicken with a mallet (hammer works too, just sayin') until about 1/2 inch thickness. (I put the chicken in a ziploc bag to pound, to make less mess).  Dip each chicken breast into the beaten egg mixture to coat it then roll in the breadcrumbs. I know it doesn't look like much but it coats pretty well.

3)Heat oil in large skillet over med-high heat. add the chicken and cook for 4 to 5 mins on each side, or until the chicken is well browned and just cooked through.

I only had room for 3 breasts in my pan but there were 4 :)

4) Spoon the marinara sauce evenly on top of the chicken and sprinkle mozarella on top. Cover and reduce heat to low, and cook for 3 more mins or until cheese melts.  Mine took a lot longer probably because I didn't beat the chicken (ha!)  down far enough. I just kept checking until it was about done then covering.

This parm recipe is only about 340 calories and worth 8 points on weightwatchers :)

I also made a salad from this cookbook (has an avocado dressing), but you will have to get the book to find the recipe!! Here are what it looked like though!

cheers!!!

its HARD!! losing weight that is

Hi!  I wanted to take a moment and vent about this losing weight thing.  IT IS SO HARD.  Not because i don't want to do it or anything but keeping up the gung-ho attitude is tough!  I am on week one of this thang and wow I have to say, already I am wanting to eat the sugar.

After researching some, if you cut out sugar you most certainly will go through withdrawal! Whodathunk it right?  Along with the tapering out caffiene I have to slowly let go of my sugar addiction.  The problem comes in that I eat a lot of carbohydrates which is also known as saccharides aka sugar (or starches).

We need carbs as they are a key form of energy.  Things like the Atkins diet that was popular a while ago (not sure if it still is) are not healthy long term.  Its true you can lose weight on these types of diets but not more than with a higher carb diet.  We are obese as a society not because of high carbs but because we are high on calories.  Not eating carbs is out of the question but reducing what I do eat will help!!

My current lesson to learn is portion sizes.  What is good?   This is a lesson I really need to learn, a great website is
portion size plate-webmd
it has visuals to look at and find out what is the right size for you.  The plate is not going to look full, so eat on a smaller plate and load it up!  You want to eat no less than 1,200 calories a day. If you go below that your body goes into starvation mode and starts to store the fat. Don't want that!  Smaller meals throughout the day will help with the big hunger later too.

It is SO hard to do that though! The counting every little thing when you just want to run and grab something quick!  Make a sandwhich for pete's sake without having to add up calories or eat a freaking donut without guilt.  This is where I start to fade into the void of 'I don't care about diet anymore.'
 I can't do that though!!
This is my life, my body that I need to take care of.  If I don't do it who will?  NO ONE!  If I just keep getting bigger and bigger who is it going to affect the most??  ME.  I am not going to give up just because I want a flipping donut.  If I am hungry I will eat a piece of fruit or veggies.  I want to go clothes shopping and not have to worry about the size, not to mention bigger girl fashions are uuuugly.  Not all are ugly but the cheap ones are!!  I don't want to wear a freaking sweatshirt with a bird or flower on it okay??  Can't I just have a plain ol' white tee-shirt??  ANYWAY, I want to go to a store, look in the regular size section and find something cute, and not baggy.  I am big into baggy right now.
 SO that is what I want, that is why I will not give into the donut and why I will count calories and read my nutrition book and learn about how to do this the right way. This is not a fad diet to get skinny in 6 months then gain it all back. This is real, this is what I am doing and will continue to do. 

If that means cutting back sugar, caffiene, and eating some damn veggies. THAT is what I will do.  I am done being the fat girl!!  I am Jaime and I will be healthy!!!

so there.....rant done. :) Phew feel better!! 
AND this is what I had for lunch...

BOOM Panera bread strawberry/chicken salad, half a turkey avocado blt and an apple.  570 calories!!  GO TEAM!!  Thanks to Jen for taking me!!

Spaghetti Squash au gratin

Spaghetti Squash au gratin, sounds good right?  Well I am going to make it tonight and see how everyone likes it!  So heeere we go!

Ingredients

1 medium spaghetti squash
2 tbsp butter
1 small yellow onion sliced thinly
1 tsp red pepper flakes ( I didn't use much of these and it still had a bit of punch, if you like things more spicy add them in!)
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 cup  light sour cream
1/2 cup reduced fat shredded cheese

Directions

first off you have to get the spaghetti squash ready to go by steaming it.  So cut it in half long ways (its tough! took me a while).
then de-seed it like you do a pumpkin

Then place halves in a microwave safe bowl that you can cover with about 1/2 in of water in the bottom and put in microwave for 11 minutes

when it dings all done, take it out (careful it will be SUPER hot).

then using a fork scrape out the meat of the squash

while this is being cooked for the 10 mins, combine butter, onions, red pepper and thyme. Cook until the onions are a little brown.

now put in a greased up baking dish (not very big about 8x8) and sprinkle more cheese on top (if you want). Bake at 375 for about 20 mins! That is all! Hopefully it will turn out good!!

here is where I got the orginal recipe!! http://dandydishes.blogspot.com/2011/10/spaghetti-squash-au-gratin.html

healthier peach cobbler

HI!!!! As promised here is the recipe for a bit healthier peach cobbler!!

Ingredients:

2lbs ripe peaches
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 c softened butter
1 whole egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (not pictured..oops)
3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

peel, halve, and pit peaches. slice them into wedges.

Combine peaches, 1/4 cup of the splenda and the cornstarch.  Stir it up until the Splenda is dissolved!

Now to make the dough.  Cream together butter and remaining 1/2cup of Splenda until smooooth.  Beat in the egg and vanilla until..well...smooooth.

Add whole wheat flour, baking powder, and the piinch of salt. Stir until mixed up.

Put peach mixture into an 8in square baking pan and drop dough in rounded tablespoonfulls over the peaches.

Bake until the fruit is nice and bubbly, mine took about 50 minutes.