Noodleables…. Vegetarian or Not, your choice

This recipe comes from a boy scouts recipe.  I obtained it via some friends who got it from the boy scouts in Lafayette, IN at a festival.  From the first time I tried it, I was in love.  I love that this recipe is adaptable for vegetarians, and that it also works for meat eaters.  Since we are trying to cut back on the calories/fat, good stuff of life, I made it vegetarian this time.  As always, I’ll add my changes to the recipe in () so that you can see what changes I made when making it skinny.

Ingredients:

• ·2 cups carrots, sliced into ¼ inch pieces  
• 3 cups celery, sliced into ¼ inch pieces 
• 2 cups onions, cut into thick wedges  
• 3 cups broccoli, cut florets and stems (I only use florets)   
• 2 cups cauliflower, cut into pieces  
• 1 cup red cabbage, chopped  
• 1 cup green cabbage, chopped
•  3 cups Reames frozen noodles (I used 4 cups because that’s what I had left from a bag, but 3 would be good and when we weren’t watching things we added an entire bag)  
• ½ lb diced bacon OR 1/2 cup oil (I actually used the equivalent of I can’t believe it’s not butter light, 8 tbsps = 8 ww points)  
• 3 tablespoons mixed seasonings (recipe below)

Mixed Seasonings (mix and store in container)

• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup dill weed
• 1/8 cup paprika
• 1/8 cup coarse pepper
•  ¼ cup salt

Method:

Fry bacon until crisp (or substitute heated oil). Add carrots and cook until slightly tender. Add seasonings, celery, onions, cauliflower and broccoli. Cook until vegetables are warm. Add cabbage and cooked noodles. Continue heating until hot. Sprinkle additional seasonings to taste. Makes approximately 8-10 servings.

When making the mixed seasonings, beware, it makes A LOT. You’ll probably only need the three that are called for in the recipe, and maybe 1 additional if you like a lot of seasoning. You’ll have enough seasonings to make this at least 3 times if not 4.

I’ll admit, it takes forever to chop up all of those vegetables… and I highly recommend buying small bags of the chopped red and green cabbage instead of entire heads, only because you’ll have a lot of cabbage left over otherwise.  Even though it’s a lot of chopping, it’s totally worth it.

The way I made it, 4 cups of noodles and 8 tablespoons of the light butter, it has 41 weight watchers points in the entire recipe and it makes 10 cups worth, so about 4.1 points per cup.  

Nom Nom Nom…. Enjoy this skinny recipe!

Meal Plan Monday

I’m late getting this post up today, at least I’m doing it.  You’re welcome.
This week, I’m making several new meals.  Since it’s Monday night, I’ve already made two of them, and I’ve gotta be honest here, I’ve not been all that impressed with either of them.  Here is my issue with some (most) recipes I find online: lack of flavor (or what I perceive to be lack of flavor).  I totally weed through online recipes before deciding to try new ones because some I can just tell will be bland.  But these that I chose this week looked good.  And, I still have hopes for the remaining ones.
So far, I’ve made crock pot potato soup.  I think I put too many onions in it, but Tim loves it.  I have yet to have more than one bite of it when its been warm.  I am going to take some for lunch tomorrow so I’ll have to get back to you.  It was SUPER easy to make.  I didn’t make this for a meal, I made it for our lunches and whatever meals are in between.
Then I made this: Cream Cheese Crock Pot Chicken, we had it for dinner tonight.   I really thought this was going to be awesome.  I thought it looked delicious and with the rotel, it was bound to have a kick right?  Nope.  It was bland bland bland.  She has a note at the bottom of the post stating that it might require some additional seasonings but I figured I’d try it without.  Now, I probably won’t be making it again to try it with additional seasonings because I just didn’t care for it that much.  I served it over rice like she suggested.
Here’s the rest of the week’s meal plan:
Tuesday Night: Dashing Dish’s Lasagna Roll-ups  Another easy night because I had made a double batch of these the last time I made them, so these are all ready for me in the freezer, just need to bake them when we get home.
Wednesday Night: Crock Pot Beer Chicken  Can you tell I’m all about easy this week?  I just needed an easy “crock pot” kind of week. 
Thursday Night: Tacos
Friday Night:  Not sure – I have one more meal on the docket, but I have a feeling it’ll be pushed off to next week, but here it goes: Chicken Teriyaki Noodle Bowl.
I am all about trying new recipes, but I also need to keep some of our regulars in the rotation because the fam gets sick of trying new things all of the time.
So, what’s on your meal plan for this week?

Chocolate Muffins/{cupcakes} (Variation 2)– 3.5 WW Points Plus

Here’s your ingredient line up….

These wonderful cupcakes have only 4 ingedients and tons of flavor!  Here are the quantities:

• 1 cake mix (I’ve used chocolate, white, red velvet so far)
• 3/4 to 1 cup water (based upon desired consistency)
• 1 5-6 oz Vanilla or Plain fat free Greek yogurt  (I usually use vanilla, because that’s what I have on hand, but either will work just fine)
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (for white or chocolate cake mixes)

If you want exclude the mini chocolate chips, you’d have 3 point cupcakes. 

The major difference in this recipe and the previous one is that these are more like cupcakes as far as texture.  My entire family loves these, especially when I put the chocolate chips in them. 

Between the two variations of these chocolate muffins/cupcakes, I will almost always choose these.  There are benefits to both recipes, but taste wise, I prefer these.

I hope you enjoy, please let me know what you think!

Sometimes Food is JUST Food

 
You may be thinking “duh, Emily” but seriously folks, food has rarely if ever been “just food” to me.  I love food.  It makes up so much of my life.  You may be thinking “how sad” but honestly, it does.  I could go on and on with examples, but let me give you just a few…..

· Family gatherings for our family are usually all tied up on what foods we’re going to prepare for everyone to eat.  When the gathering actually happens, people gather around the food, eat and socialize.  We haven’t really been what you’d call an active family.  There may be some cornhole games going on, maybe ladder golf at times, but that’s really the extent.  Growing up and still today, we don’t focus on doing activities together, other than eating. (unless you’re specifically talking about my mom and me, then we focus on shopping AND eating.

· My weekends cannot be relaxing until I figure out what we’re going to eat for the following week for dinners and getting the grocery shopping done.  This entails spending at least an hour meal planning, then more time checking out the stockpile at my house to find out what we have and what we don’t, then actually going out doing the shopping.  The grocery shopping at my house always takes at least an hour and a half in the store(s). 

· Daily food intake – I spend time each day planning lunch and breakfast around what the dinner is going to be so that I don’t “go over my points” for the day.

I think that’s probably enough for you to get the picture.  My life seems to revolve around food, at least that’s the way it appears if I were just to read the above three examples.  However, lately, I feel like food is just something that I have to eat.  It’s nothing thrilling, it’s just food. 

This morning for example…. I packed my lunch like a good girl, I have purchased good for me items to bring in my lunch, so each morning it is just the daily routine to get up and pack the lunch and breakfast, too. 

Breakfast:  ½ cup lowfat cottage cheese and 3.5 ounces raspberries – 2 points plus

Lunch: 13 baby carrots, 30 special K cracker chips, 4 tbsp roasted red pepper hummus, ½ cucumber sliced with 1 tbsp light ranch dressing, and ½ peanut butter sandwich. – 12 points plus

Dinner: pork chops, green beans and baked beans.  I have 16 points left for the rest of the day, so this should be fine.  I should even be able to have a snack.

But you know what?  None of it sounds good.  It may be just the mood that I’m in, but I’ve been this way for several days now.  When I eat food, it’s eh, ok, but nothing spectacular and nothing that I’m going back for seconds on.  And NO, I’m not pregnant, so these are not just pregnancy food aversions, although, I wish they were. 

Tell me, do you have days/weeks like these?  Because I for one, am not used to this, although, not a bad thing, I’m just not used to it!

Have a great Thursday! 

Meal Plan Monday on a Wednesday

 

It’s Wednesday, I know, I’m late with this, but at least I’m posting it!

We’re having a few easy dinner nights this week as Tim is doing some umpiring and I just am not in the mood to cook as much!

Monday night we had Grilled Cheese and Soup.  My Campbell’s tomato soup (entire can with 1 can skim millk) and grilled cheese came out to be a total of 14 WW points plus.  I have no idea what other soups are, I’m sure you can find better choices, but this is what I was craving.

Tuesday night we had Mama Laughlin’s Chicken Enchilada Bake.  I am going to forego posting points for this one, because I didn’t even figure them out.  Our Greek yogurt froze when It was in the fridge, so I had to improvise with other ingredients and I am thinking this wasn’t good for us at all!

Today we’re having baked spaghetti. – point values to be updated at a later date when I post the recipe on the blog.

Thursday and Friday – well, we’re scheduled to have pork chops with green beans and baked beans one night and Hamburger Helper and salad another night.  My mom is coming into town on Friday so I can foresee that at least one of these meals will not take place because we’ll hang out and go out to dinner Friday night.  Oh well!

Super quick and simple dinners this week!

No More Fireplace

My husband, again, my hero.  We decided earlier this year that we wanted to get rid of our fireplace.  I know, I know, sort of odd for people to get rid of their fireplace.  People wish they had one and here we are getting rid of ours.  Well, we’ve had problems with pests getting inside the fireplace and dying.  They stink terribly when it happens and so we had just decided we’d had enough.  So, out went the fireplace one weekend when Cooper and I went south to visit my family.  Tim, Andrew and one of Andrew’s friends, Garrett, worked on it and here are some progression photos.  They did a great job!

Now for the Before and After photos. 

 

BEFORE

AFTER

Now, keep in mind that we haven’t yet decorated the room by putting the art work back up and the picture quality of the after picture is pretty terrible, since I took it with my phone, but we are soooo pleased with how it turned out!  I need to get some light pillows and blankets to brighten up the new couches too, as they seem really dark compared to the old room.  I cannot wait for it to be complete, but we are loving it!  I love having the extra wall to put furniture on, it really makes a difference in the room.  What do you think?  Do you have any suggestions for me? 

Fruit Pizza!

 

I decided that I'd post this delicious recipe for you, and no, it is not low in fat, and I did not count any weight watcher points so when eating, do so in MODERATION! 

Crust is sugar cookies so feel free to buy refrigerated ones or make your own.

Filling (Pizza Sauce):

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 6 oz cool whip

Fruit: (any that you’d like!)

• Strawberries
• Peaches
• Bananas
• Pineapple
• Kiwi
• Pineapple
• Raspberries

Glaze:

• ½ cup orange juice
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch

Method:

1. Spray pan with non-stick spray. Bake Sugar Cookies and let them cool.
2. Spread filling over cooled cooked sugar cookies.
3. Make rings with your favorite fruits sliced.
4. Mix all glaze ingredients and boil for 1 minute until thickened, and pour or spread over fruit, making sure to cover bananas and any other fruit that browns easily, as the glaze will prevent it from turning. (glaze becomes very thick)

 

Weekend Wrap-Up

What a weekend!!

It was a busy but super fun weekend for us, and I’m dreading the day back at work, but know it will be fine!  This past weekend was a big baseball tournament in Indy, so Tim was super busy umpiring Thursday evening through Saturday.  He had 8 games between 3pm Thursday through 3pm Saturday!!  So, that meant a lot of QT for Cooper and me!  What do we do with that time?  Hang out, do chores, play lots of baseball and some soccer and visit daddy’s games!

Friday night, Cooper and I went grocery shopping and then we came home and played with sidewalk chalk, played some soccer and lots of baseball.  My pictures reflect the soccer part of our evening because we have soooo many pictures of Cooper playing baseball, to have him interested in another sport makes me happy, so I had to take lots of pictures.

On Saturday morning Tim had to be at the baseball fields by 7:15, so we were up super early, I was hoping to go back to sleep for a bit once Tim left, at 6:40, but Cooper had other plans.  He was bright eyed and bushy tailed before Tim left.  So… got up and made breakfast and clowned around quite before I decided we’d go and watch daddy’s game.  We hopped in the car and got there just in time to see about 15 minutes of the first game and then we talked to him for awhile before we headed out.  It was super warm on Saturday, so Tim was pretty hot in his umpiring gear.  He decided he had to cool off by soaking himself in a cold wet towel.  Pretty comical sight, one that I just have to share with you.

He looks like a puffed up old lady with a scarf around his head, lol.  That’s what a ton of umpiring gear and a nice cold towel over your head will do to ya! :)

Moving on.  Saturday afternoon we were having a family dinner with my Dad, Gwen, Steph, Ryan, and Andrew, Tim, Cooper and me.  I made a great roast recipe, I found it on pinterest (of course!) and it turned out wonderful.  Then for dessert, we had fruit pizza.  It was delicious, take a peek.

Oh my were they good!  I haven’t made this recipe for over 5 years, but it was worth it, and everyone seemed to like it.  We only ate the circular one though, because it was so much.  I had no idea we would be so full after lunch.  Oh well, that just left quite a bit for Sunday!

Here are some pictures of Cooper with Dad and Gwen, Cooper was being kind of a big stinker, but we’ll forgive him.

I cannot believe I didn’t get any pictures of Kampbell or the rest of the crew, time was just so busy that I didn’t make time for it.  That bothers me, but I know I’ll get some pictures next time.

On Sunday, we were terrible and skipped church, took Cooper to a little league baseball tournament to watch more baseball, had an early lunch and then came home for naps and a lazy day.  It was so nice not to be jam packed with stuff to do.  We did have visitors, Erica and Mel came over and ate some fruit pizza and shared with me some of their powdered peanut butter.  They had just bought it, it was super yummy.  Here’s a link for you if you want to try some of your own, I know I’ll be buying it soon!

After Cooper’s nap time, Tim’s buddy Jon came over, and Andrew and I worked on some of his homework for his summer class.  I didn’t do any cooking, any laundry or any major work today.  I haven’t had a day like that in so long, it was fantastic!

Monday’s meal plan will most likely be posted later on in the week because I’m too tired of typing right now to write it up!  Here’s to a great week! Happy Monday to you!

Chuck E. Cheese and Crazy Hair

Good Friday Morning to you!  We’ve had a crazy week, but nothing we can’t handle.  We got to see Miss Kampbell on Monday after work!  It was so fun!  She was such a sleepy girl and when she finally woke up, I only got to hold her for a little bit because it was so late and little miss needed to get home.  I held her for a long time while she was sleeping though, and she is such a sweetheart!  I love that baby girl.

Tuesday we went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time with Cooper.  It was the first time I had been there since I was a kid and who knows when Tim was there last.  Cooper had a great time, we ate dinner and then Cooper played lots of games!  Look below for lots of pictures, I just cannot help it, I’ve got to overwhelm you with them.

I’ve been going back to the gym at work this week, I’ve been everyday this week except today, and my hair has been a complete mess all week.  It feels like I have A TON of product in it yet, I’ve put nothing in it.  It is soooo darn tangly and I just am ready to cut it all off.  I took some pictures of it one day after I blow dried it at the gym.  Take a look.

Eeks!  Isn’t that terrible?  It doesn’t matter how much I brush it, how much I rinse the shampoo and conditioner out, it still is a mess.  It looks like a rats nest in those pictures, I am hoping that it turns out better next week after I spend a few days at home showering in our soft water.  The water at the gym is just gross.  I’ve also gotten a new hair dryer because mine was completely shot (it was smoking at the gym yesterday).

Speaking of the gym…  I’ve done my running/walking/strength training every day this week.  I’m super proud of myself!  This is the first week since vacation that I’ve done my strength training 2 days.  I’m super sore, but its worth every single pain.  I still enjoy the running/walking part of my week the best, but the strength training is good for me, so I’ll keep with it.  I lost two pounds this week, so between the counting points again and the working out, it’s been a good week, now not to ruin it this weekend!

Time for me to end this post, so I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!