If you need a quick cookie recipe that doesn’t take too long, I totally found a VERY easy peanut butter cookie recipe. I used a traditional recipe from recipes.com and then just tried to simplify it as much as possible.
Just mix it all together. Form little balls and then flatten with a fork. And then put in the oven. It makes 12-24 depending on the size of your dough balls.
I felt so accomplished when Thanksgiving went by without a single pound of weight gain. I think it really helped that Mike and I had a triathlon to train for the week after, and also the fact that we ran a 5k on the day of Thanksgiving. We also went to a buffet instead of having the post Thanksgiving day food laying around the house. Then Christmas and New Years happened…
It could have been the cookies, the egg nog, cinnamon rolls, and other sinful treats that pretty much ruined any momentum we had to our diet. Both Mike and I have weighed in this week and have gotten to the “angry phase” of dieting where you are so mad at yourself for getting to where you are.
TRY THIS!
Needless to say, we have been trying to eat right all week and working out every single day! I have been making smoothies left and right! Here is my favorite recipe:
Liz’s Awesome Blueberry Smoothie
1/2-1/4 c of almond milk
1/4 c spinach
1/4 c blueberries
1/4 c yogurt
Sonic ice (2.49 a bag)
add chia seeds for more substance
We are loving the Sonic ice! It blends so much better and works well with small blenders (like the Baby Bullet…don’t hate).
WORKOUT
I tried this treadmill workout today from www.fitsugar.com. Loving the treadmill workouts lately!
I have been taking the last few days off work to get my life in order before the craziness of the baby sets in. (I was also hoping that the baby would decide to come too, but she is pretty darn comfy in there, so back to work it is!) In between my errands and chores, I’ve been trying out different recipes.
Of course, the sweet tooth in me has been going crazy and considering I do have gestational diabetes, I have to be really careful! I still tried a couple of recipes out that I found on Pinterest or the internet that I would highly recommend.
I have never made crepes before and came across a basic recipe. Since I am not drinking milk right now, I substituted almond milk for regular milk and put splenda in instead of sugar. I felt so accomplished! Here is my finished product!
It was pretty easy to pour into a skillet and it stays pretty thin. I added some strawberries on the inside, cool whip free, and a little dash of chocolate syrup (which can be substituted with sugar-free chocolate syrup). It was great!
When my mom was here, we tried out a Pinterest recipe on how to make a simple berry cobbler.
All you do is put frozen berries in a baking pan, pour white or vanilla cake mix on top, and then pour 12 ounces of sprite on top of it without stirring. Bake in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes and you get an awesome, crispy cobbler! So easy!!
Of course, I had to put some Sweet Cece’s vanilla yogurt on top!
I walked in after work on Wednesday ALREADY missing the days at home where I could try out recipes and use my husband as a guinea pig. I get the itch to cook and bake at least once a week, so here is what I came up with when it came to what we had in the pantry.
(recipe courtesy of www.pbfingers.com )
Cocoa Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 10 – 12 cookies (depending on how much dough you eat)
Ingredients:
Directions:
I really liked them, the husband wasn’t too thrilled with them. If you are expecting the normal chocolate chip cookies, you may be disappointed. I realy thought they had good flavor and it was nice not to have to use butter.
My second recipe is courtesy of my mom.
Green Enchiladas
I bought the taco size corn tortillas from a local market and cut up onions, boiled shredded chicken, and poured some green sauce inside each tortilla. I rolled them up and placed them along my pan (I ended up with ten rolled up tortillas), and then poured the remaining sauce over it.
I really like the Las Palmas green sauce (found at Albertsons and Walmart) for a mild taste. The hubby wants a more FIRE BREATHING approach, so I suggest adding some jalapeno or green chiles to the dish. You can make it with flour tortillas, but the corn really makes it taste better in my opinion.
Great and easy recipe!
Did you ever play the Lion King game on SEGA? Well if you never did, right at the beginning when you are logging in, Rafiki goes “It starts.” It sounds so creepy, like your life is about to end.
Anyway, it did start today, work that is.
The dreaded 5 in the morning. I know some of you like the sound of this and….. hiss to you! 🙂 Anyway, I was pretty proud of myself for getting my butt out of bed and actually doing a workout before I got ready. I am especially grateful for the pictures that come with it. 🙂
The nice part is we don’t have the kids for another week, so this week is pretty much practice, and if I’m a little late…no biggie. I get excited buying back to school clothes and stuff. I got myself a cool lunchbox to take my 7 Day Carb Cycle diet food in.
It was cool because I was at an inservice training for the new assessment program for the district all day and they held it at the brand spanking new high school in town, Centennial High School. It was so clean and nice. There are so many neat things about it, like rooms that the lights turn on as soon as you enter or remote control curtains. They totally hooked up this place.
WARNING! AWESOME PIZZA RECIPE!
Tonight for dinner I made pizzas with the Lavash bread again. I was craving a BBQ chicken pizza. I highly recommend using Trader Joe’s BBQ sauce. It has some major kick. I sautéed some chicken, onions, and peppers and topped it with cheese. My new favorite pizza.
My sister told me that if you put the pizzas on a cooling rack, that they are crunchy throughout the whole pizza. Usually, just the edges get way cooked and crispy, but this totally helps. Also, it takes less time to cook. It usually takes me about 12 minutes on 400 and tonight it only took 5 minutes.
Before I go, here are two really fun websites for teachers or parents that want to make some fun activities…go check them out.
Any suggestions for quick morning workouts to do at home?
My sister told me about this recipe a long time ago so I thought I would post it on here. I’ve been having a hard time remembering what recipes I have tried, so it really helps to blog them and look back on them. Now that school is starting, I am really going to have to rely on Pinterest and blogs to get my meals all organized!
At Trader Joes, they sell a Reduced Fat Brownie mix where all you need to add is yogurt and bake the brownies for 22 minutes on 350 degrees.
To make it a little more “healthy”, I’ve been meaning to use up my greek yogurt in the fridge. I admit using plain yogurt isn’t as good. I have tried it with honey greek yogurt, which makes it sweeter, but my favorite is the blueberry greek yogurt with it. It gives it more flavor and is pretty good stuff.
Just wanted to throw that recipe out there if you have a Trader Joe’s near you. Thankfully, we have had races or trips that have brought me to a Trader Joe’s at least every few weeks. Is it sad that I look one up whenever I go out of town? 🙂
We don’t get paid until Saturday so I have to be a little creative as to how I am going to make dinner. Mike and I usually fend for ourselves when it comes to lunch and breakfast, so I really only have to worry about one meal a day. Thankfully, last night I was able to run up to Chick-Fil-A for some dinner, which makes it easier on me! No dishes! Yay!
On Sunday I missed out on my mother in laws cooking (that I was totally depending on!) due to the fact that we slept through dinner, so I had to check out what was in the fridge and freezer and noticed a frozen bag of shrimp and some corn tortillas.
I came up with these little beauties. I sautéed some shrimp in a skillet with a little bit of garlic olive oil and added a dash of garlic salt to give flavor. The best part of shrimp is that it holds flavor really well (just like mushrooms). I warmed up some corn tortillas, added some shrimp sauce, and put some cole slaw mix as a topping. So easy and so good.
Now here’s the best part. I was able to make a really good sauce made with random ingredients from the fridge. I originally was going to try salsa, but we were out of it, so this is what I came up with:
Easy Shrimp Taco Sauce
3/4 cup of mayonnaise or miracle whip
1/2 cup of relish
2 tbsp of taco seasoning mix
1 tbsp of lime juice
2 tbsp of hot sauce
I wanted to add the hot sauce for a little kick and wish I added a little more, but it was good stuff!
I love to order a steak salad at a restaurant. Mainly because you still get the “meat” of your dinner, but you don’t feel too heavy afterwards. I was surprised the first time I tried one that the two of them would even exist together.
I took a small steak fillet (uncooked) and took a meat mallet to it to make it as thin as possible. I sliced the meat into thin strips and laid them out on my cutting board. I took 1 piece of roasted green chile and placed it on top and rolled them together like a sleeping bag. I was out of toothpicks to hold it together, so I put them in a baking pan and they seemed to stay still.
I then turned the oven to broil and placed them in the oven for 10-12 minutes until fully cooked. I pre-made a caesar salad and added the steak at the end. Good stuff. It always taste really good after a workout.
All you need is: steak, green chiles, and caesar salad!
I miss PF Changs. The closest one to me is about 45 miles from here and its a little bit out-of-the-way. I went to the farmer’s market on Saturday and saw these huge heads of lettuce and they reminded me of the lettuce wraps I dearly love from there.
Tonight I got a little hungry before watching the NBA Finals, and considering tomorrow is grocery day and we don’t have much in the fridge, I came across the lettuce and thought I would work with what I have and make some.
1 package of Tyson pre-cooked chicken (diced)
1 can of water chestnuts (diced)
1/2 container of mushrooms (diced)
1 tbsp garlic salt
2 tbsp Trader Joe’s Soyaki Sauce
Dice and saute all the ingredients on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add a little juice from the water chestnuts to keep it moist. Add more soyaki sauce if desired.
I made a sauce to pour on it to give it a little more flavor. It included:
1/4 cup of sugar (dissolved in water)
1/2 cup of water
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp soyaki sauce
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp tobasco (to give some kick)
It tasted great! I would add a little more ketchup or chili sauce to the sauce for consistency, but the mushrooms and water chestnuts hold in so much favor!
I was browsing the meat aisle of the grocery store and saw that Turkey Legs were on sale. My first instinct was to BBQ them, since everything tastes so much better on the grill. If I owned a deep fryer, that would be even better, but I don’t. It’s been 100 degrees outside and not so pleasant to stand outside and barbecue, so I went to my back up plan.
When in doubt, use the crock pot.
I added a whole bottle (yes a whole bottle!) of barbecue sauce, and then to give it a little kick, about 3/4 cup of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. I added about 1/4 cup of water and stirred it up. I wished I would have put some onions or fresh garlic in to spice it up some more. Place the turkey legs in. Give it about five hours on low heat.
I was worried it was going to be dry, but the barbecue really holds in a lot of the juices. When I put the leg on a plate, I took some more of the sauce and put it over the top.
Love how flaky it came out. Crock pots rule. For a girl who didn’t own one until about five years ago, I was missing out!
Question: I’m in desperate need of recipes with turkey. Do you have any suggestions?
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