Color Run 2012!!

Anyone ever hear of a Color Run? I hadn't. A friend just told me about it, because there's one going on in Charlotte in October of this year! I can not tell you how much fun this is going to be!

http://thecolorrun.com/about/

I'm definitely not be a marathon runner, let alone have done ANY sort of "race" before. This seems like a perfect starter idea. You can run, walk, jog, skip (oh yes, there will be skipping). It's one crazy colorful 5k!

I CAN'T WAIT!!

Todays Bento, Inspired by last nights dinner!

Heres the bento for today!

Breakdown:

Chick peas: 52 Calories (1/4 cup)

Carrot Shreds: 14 Calories (1/4 cup)

Corn: 30 Calories  (1/4 cup)

Cucumber: 5 Calories  (1/4 cup)

Red Bell Peppers: 12 Calories  (1/4 cup)

Turkey: 55 Calories (2 oz)

 Laughing Cow Cheese: 35 Calories

Mini Pita: 80 Calories

 (plus: salt, pepper, dill, lemon juice)

Total: 283 Calories

Last Nights Tuna/Veggie Salad!

I'm on a tuna kick. It rarely happens, but when it does.. I want tuna, ALL the time. I go in and out of stages of liking tuna, this week.. it's on. Last night I wanted something fresh, with a crunch, and with tuna. I should mention that if you're not a tuna lover, this would taste AMAZING with chicken, or even chick peas if you want to go full out vegetarian with it.

So here's last nights dinner!

Lets Break this down:

1 can of Tuna: 100 Calories

1/4 cup Carrots: 14 Calories

1/4 cup Corn: 30 Calories

1/4 cup Tomato: 7 Calories

1/4 cup Cucumber: 5 Calories

Two Chopped Scallions: 1 Calorie

Topped with Salt, Pepper, Dill and Lemon juice

So for just about 150 Calories, I had an amazing tasting, fresh salad!

..and it was GREAT!!

Quick, Yummy, 160 Calorie, Tuna Snack in Under 5 Minutes

I was so hungry, so so hungry. We had been running around all afternoon and I hadn't kept up with my "eat a little something every 3 hours" normalcy, so by the time we got home I was STARVING. I tried to figure out something filling and quick I could throw together, and heres what I came up with.

What you'll need:

One can of Tuna in water (drained)

Lemon Juice (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

Dill (to taste)

Fresh minced garlic (the natural stuff in the jar) (to taste)

2 Pieces of Wasa

Fresh Cucumber

What you'll do:

Mix the tuna, lemon juice, pepper, and garlic together.

Top Wasa toasts with the tuna mixture.

Cut slices of the fresh cucumber and place on top

Sprinkle dill over cucumber.

Sound easy enough? It is. It took me less than 5 minutes. And it was surprisingly filling for only 160 calories! 

Enjoy :)

Todays Bento

Breakdown:

Turkey: 49 Calories (2oz)

Laughing Cow Cheese: 70 (2 pieces)

Wasa, Rye: 60 Calories (2 pieces)

Hummus: 70 Calories (2 tbs)

Baby Carrots: 22 Calories (16 pieces)

Cheese Stick: 80 Calories

Clementine: 35 Calories

Total Calories: 387

Extra snack for afterwork also included:

Special K Bar: 90 Calories

Sauteed Asparagus with Feta Cheese

So I'm on a feta cheese kick this week, obviously. Like I've said in the past, I try to use up all foods before they go bad, and if that means eating somewhat of the same thing a few nights out of the week, so be it. 

I had a bundle of asparagus in the fridge, and a brand new bottle of Adobo spice mix in the pantry. Now let me start off by saying I have NEVER had Adobo before, but was dying to try it. So why not throw it on the asparagus?

Heres what you'll need:

Adobo Seasoning

Pepper (just pepper, adobo is salty enough)

One bundle of Asparagus

Feta Cheese (to sprinkle on top)

Olive Oil (1.5-2 tbs worth)

How to do it:

Wash off Asparagus and snap off bottom woody area, cut the remaining stalks into 3 pieces of about equal size. Throw into a mixing bowl with about One Tablespoon of olive oil and pepper and adobo mix, toss until pieces of aspargus are coated. 

I used a decent amount of Adobo on this, because while tossing in the skillet it is bound to have some come off.

Put whole bowl of asparagus into a skillet on medium-high, constantly mixing it around for the first minute or two. If you need to add more olive oil, now would be the time, the tablespoon I used on the asparagus was enough to sautee it up.

If you like your asaparagus to have a slightly "steamed" texture to it, you can cover it up while cooking with the top of a pot, or if you have a skillet with a cover use that. Only keep the top on for a minute or so at a time, and then move around the asparagus. Apparently, it tends to burn quickly.. yeah don't ask me how I know that.

Once its to the texture of your liking (I like mine slightly crunchy), remove from pan, and top with a bit of feta cheese crumble.

I'm estimating this to be just around 100 calories a serving (yeilds two servings as show above), but it can change depending on the amount of olive oil used, and amount of feta use to top it off. Best bet would be to calculate your own calories on this one just to be sure.

Enjoy!!

Todays Bento

I made turkey sausage for dinner last night, so of course, left overs go in the bento!

Breakdown:

Turkey Sausage: 140 Calories

Mini Pita: 80 Calories

Cheese Stick: 80 Calories

Hummus: 70 Calories (will only use half the container for lunch)

Baby Carrots: 22 Calories (16 pieces)

Cantaloupe: 36 Calories (2/3 cup)

Total: 428 Calories

I will call them.. Zucchini Frittercakes.

I'm on a crazy zucchini kick lately. It's one of my favorite spring/summer foods, that I can't get enough of. I decided to try out making a lower calorie version of zucchini fritters last night. They came out great, but not so frittery.. more like a pancake. They didn't have as much crunch as I think a fritter should have, probably mostly due to the fact that I used Pam instead of Olive Oil. Either way, I ate a full one before the last two were even cooked, and it was GOOD.

What you'll need:

 Cheese Grater

Mixing bowl

Large spoon

Large Skillet

Pam Spray

Ingredients:

One Large Zucchini

1/4 cup Flour (any kind really)

1/4 cup Reduced Fat Feta Cheese

One Large Egg (not shown in photo, oops)

Two big scallions, chopped

Spices of your choice to taste, I HIGHLY recommend Dill

(I used Dill, Garlic Powder, Parsley, Salt & Pepper)

Wash and grate down the zucchini.

Place grated zucchini either in a metal strainer, or on a few paper towels and squeeze out most of the water.

Combine ALL ingredients together in mixing bowl (Zucchini, Flour, Feta Cheese, Egg, Scallions, Spices).

Mix until smooth, and it all becomes kind of the consistency of thick pancake batter. I had to add a little bit more flour to mine.

The final mixture should make the perfect amount of "batter" for 4 large fritter/pancakes (Frittercake? yes.. I'll call it a frittercake. And Yes, I just changed the title of the blog, right now.)

Once I realized these would be more frittercakey than actual fritter, I pushed them down when I flipped them to make them a bit thinner, and so that they cook a little faster. It took about 3-4 minutes on each side to get a golden brown. 

Sprinkle a little bit of extra feta cheese over the top and voila! Frittercake! Best when served with Tzatziki Sauce :)

Each one of these badboys is about 95 calories (sauce and extra feta on top not included)

For a slightly higher calorie option, but to get the crunch of an actual fritter, substitute Olive Oil for Pam when cooking on the stove.

Baked Zucchini Fries!

I saw these on Pinterest and immediately remembered them from when I was younger. The only difference is, when I was younger, we fried them up on the stove. These are baked, and only 60 calories a serving! How can it get better than that? Here's how I did it, I changed the Pinterest recipe up a bit.

What you'll need:

One Egg

Italian Bread Crumbs

Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder (all to taste)

One Large Zucchini

Foil, Pam, Baking Sheet

First, Mix all dry ingredients together and scramble the egg. Then, Cut up the zucchini into the size pieces you would prefer for your fries. Cover your sheet pan with a sheet of foil, and lightly spray with Pam.

Dip the zucchini sticks into the egg, and then coat them with the breadcrumb/spice mixture and lay out on foil covered sheet pan.

Bake at 425* for about 20 minutes. I turned them over after 10 minutes to brown up the other side as well. Depending on the size of your zucchini sticks, it could take more or less time. Bake until golden brown.

And you're done!! Serve with your favorite sauce! I prefer marinara sauce, but I hadn't defrosted any of my home made sauce from the freezer. So I settled for low calorie Ranch Dressing, which tasted great as well!

Enjoy!!

Tummy Friendly Bento Box Lunch

Welp.. yesterday I had a bad tummy day. One of those lovely days I talked about in my first post/about me. So bad, that I actually left work a half hour early, hadn't had one that obnoxious in a while.

So I figured I'd play it safe today with some of my tummy friendly "safe" foods.... aka carbs. 

Breakdown:

PB&J Sandwich: 215 Calories

(Bread, Low Cal: 80 Calories (2 pieces), Sugar Free Jelly: 40 (2 tbs), Peanut Butter: 95 (1 tbs)

Special K Bar: 90 Calories

Honey Nut Chex Mix: 107 Calories (2/3 cup)

Total: 412 Calories

I did not count the banana, that is part of breakfast. Just figured I'd keep it in the picture to add to the "tummy safe" food list.

Last Nights Dinner? Todays Lunch!

Last nights dinner was chicken over pasta, with dressing and fresh tomatoes.

You can check it out HERE.

So we had some leftovers, so I decided to turn it into todays lunch!

Breakdown:

Garden Pasta: 95 Calories (1oz)

Italian Chicken: 140 Calories (1 piece)

Kens Lite Olive Oil & Vinegar Dressing: 50 Calories (2 tbs)

6 Cherry Tomatoes: 18 Calories

Baby Carrots: 22 Calories

Hummus: 70 Calories (it is a 150 calorie pack. I'll eat half with lunch, and half at another time)

Total: 396 Calories

**NOTE FOR PACKING**

I did not cut up the tomatoes or the scallions yet. I will cut those two once I am ready to eat so that they do not get soggy or mushy.

Last nights awesome Dinner!

Over the weekend, a friend decided she wanted to get rid of her grill. Ours has been broken since the end of last summer, so she asked if we wanted it. OF COURSE we wanted it! I'm not sure how we functioned grill-less for the past half a year, we practically live cooking on the grill on warm weekends (and have been known to grill in snow). So we got it home, set it up, and decided to give it a test run.

Perdue makes pre-seasoned chicken in individual packs. I absolutely love these things, because if it's just me and mini squish at night while the husbutt is working, I just take out one pack (one piece) and throw it in the oven, instead of needing to cook or freeze a big pack of chicken. Our favorite ones are the italian seasoned ones.

We had gone food shopping that day, so we picked up some of those, and ran across this "vegetable enhanced" pasta. We've been in a "veggie battle" with our 2.5 year old son who LOVES pasta, so why not give this a go. Veggies hidden in one of his favorite foods? I'll take it, and so did he!

So we figured, we'd grill up some chicken, put it over the pasta, and see what we could add to it. 

What we ended up with was a 350 Calorie awesome tasting dinner.

Here's what I had:

One piece of grilled Chicken: 140 Calories (because of the seasoning on it)

3/4 Serving of Veggie Pasta: 142 Calories

Kens Reduced Fat Olive Oil & Vinegar Dressing: 50 Calories (2 tbs)

6 Cherry Tomatoes: 18 Calories

Scallions to put on top

Lay down the pasta. Cut up a piece of grilled chicken and put on top of pasta. Cut tomatoes up into 4's and put around the edges. Put chopped scallions to taste over the top. Drizzle dressing on top of entire plate. And you're DONE!

It tasted so fresh and was so satisfying. I can't wait to eat this again!

Fast 160 Calorie Snack or Lunch

Two Wasa Crackers

4 Slices of Deli Turkey

One Laughing Cow Spreadable Cheese

What is ALWAYS on my shopping list?

A few people have asked what foods I always have in stock at the house. These are the foods that will always show up on my food shopping list each week:

Fruits & Veggies:

Bananas
Oranges or Clemintines

Avocados

Carrots

Tomatoes

Green Beans

Sweet Potatoes

Cucumber

Onion

Garlic (chopped in a jar, or fresh)

Packs of Frozen veggies (for when youre in a bind)

Pickles (at virtually no calories, they're perfect with a sandwich or as a snack)

Breads:

English Muffins (my weakness..)

Low Calorie Bread (any kind, 40 cal a slice or less)

Grains/Pasta: 

Oatmeal (I eat it EVERY morning for breakfast)

Rice (I always have white and brown in the house)

Quick Cook Rotini (fast and easy to make)

Drinks:

Diet Pepsi (for my soda cravings)

Meat & Cheese:

 Chicken

(I ALWAYS have chicken in the house, I rarely eat red meat because of my stomach, so Chicken is my go to protein and meat for the week)

Deli Turkey

(Kreshmar or Boars Head, Yes I know its sodium packed, but nothing tastes better than turkey with avocado on a size of low cal bread)

Tuna (in water)

(I always have tuna on hand, another versatile food that you can throw in a salad or make a sandwich with really quick)

Spreadable Laughing Cow Cheese

Baby Bell Lite Cheese 

Condiments, Spices, Dips, and Add-ons:

Kens Light Options Olive Oil & Vinegar Dressing

Mustard

 Hummus

Reduced Sugar Grape Jelly

Peanut Butter

(contrary to popular, and my own, belief, Regular peanut butter is actually a LOT healthier than reduced fat. Reduced fat peanut butter actually has more sugar in it, but less fat, yet the SAME amount of calories. And the fat content difference isn't drastic.)

There are a TON of breakfast, lunch, and dinner combinations that can be made with just these foods. I sometimes fall into the "same lunch 3 days in a row" issue, but that's more so because I'm shelf life paranoid, and do not like to waste the foods I have open by letting them go past their prime dates.

Whats on your shopping list?

Bento & Snack

Todays Lunch & Snack

Breakdown:

Turkey: 66 Calories (2 oz)

Cheese Cubes: 120 Calories

Wasa (Rye): 60 Calories (2 pieces)

Guacamole: 60 Calories (3 tbs)

Baby Carrots: 22 Calories (16 pieces)

Broccoli: 4 Calories (1/4 cup)

Special K Bar: 90 Calories 

Total Calories: 422

Todays Bento

Lunch & Snack!

Breakdown:

Chicken Breast: 93 Calories (3 oz)

Cheese Cubes: 120 Calories (8 pieces)

Mini Pita: 80 Calories

Guacamole: 60 Calories

Baby Carrots: 22 Calories

Broccoli: 4 Calories

Kens Light Options Oil & Vinegar Dressing: 25 Calories (1 tbs)

Total: 404 Calories

Helpful Websites!

Not sure what to cook for dinner? Check out this site! Plug in whatever ingredients you have around the house, and it will search recipes for you to make with what you have at hand!

http://www.supercook.com/

Heres another pretty awesome site to check out. Type in the ingredients in your recipe, and it will calculate the nutrition facts for you!

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp

What to snack on? Here's a few of my faves..

When I want something sweet..

Hersheys drops are an awesome way to curb a chocolate craving, and at 13 calories a piece, you can't really go wrong. I'm not saying sit there and eat the whole bag, but one or two pieces to get past a chocolate craving isn't so bad (as you can see.. my bag is open.. haha). Fruit snacks made with real fruit and real fruit juices are another "sweets" satisfier, and at under 100 calories per pack, you can't really get a better one. My husband found these Welches packs when I was pregnant, I've been mildly addicted since.

When I'm craving potato chips..

Imagine a cracker and a potato chip had a baby. Yup, Special K, you've done it again. These come in a good few different flavors (sour cream & onion not shown, but tastes great).

When I want something satisfying..

This is one of my favorite "go to" snacks between meals. Its filling, tasty, and easy to carry with you if you're running out. At 90 calories a bar, you really can't go wrong.

Tea, oh, I love my tea.

Every night and every morning I have tea. It's a filler and a flavor satisfier. In the summer there is a constant brew of Liptons "cold brew" tea in the fridge. I wake up every morning with regular Lipton black tea, or green tea, and I wind down every night with peppermint of chamomile tea (not shown, ran out). These are some of my favorites.

Grow your own Scallions *update*

Yesterday I posted about growing your own scallions from store bought, and forever having scallions in the house. Here is a picture of the progress on mine. I believe they've been growing for just about two weeks. I have already used them in about 3-4 dishes, so some are cut. I made sure to keep one growing so you all could see how tall it has gotten. These things grow like crazy!!

Todays Bento

Tuesday Bento!

Breakdown:

Small Turkey Wrap with Pepperjack Cheese: 220 Calories

Special K Crisps: 51 Calories (14 chips)

Salsa: 10 Calories (2 tbs)

Baby Carrots: 22 Calories (16 pieces)

Broccoli: 8 Calories (1/4 cup)

Hummus: 70 Calories (2 tbs)

Total: 381 Calories

Now on Facebook!!

Check out "I'll Have The Soup, Please" on facebook:

Ill Have The Soup, Please.

Easily re-grow scallions..

I read on Pinterest that you can re-grow store bought scallions, simply by putting them into a glass of water on a sunny window sil. I had to try it. We use scallions a lot, and if I could just constantly have a plant to cut them off of, it would be awesome. 

This picture was taken after a couple of days, and it had already grown about an inch on each stalk.

Ill get a more updated picture tonight, I've already cut it down 3x to use in meals. This thing is growing like a beast! It's amazing!

Pasta Bento.. mmmm

Last night for dinner I made a crock pot Pot Roast, my husband and I had it over pasta. It was deeeelicious. But that also meant, lots of left over pasta. So I decided to make a really quick pasta salad for todays Bento.

Breakdown:

Carrots: 22 Calories

Hummus: 70 Calories

Pasta: 105 Calories (1/2 cup)

Olives: 20 Calories (2 tbs)

Chick Peas: 52 Calories (1/4 cup)

Fresh Cucumber: 2 Calories (1/8 cup)

Fresh Broccoli: 8 Calories (1/4 cup)

Kens Light Olive Oil & Vinegar Dressing: 50 Calories (2 tbs)

I also chopped up some scallions from my ever growing Scallion Re-Plant to throw on the top of the pasta salad, but I did that after I took the picture.

Tota: 330 Calorie Lunch

How last nights dinner became today's Bento..

I saw a recipe for easy crock pot chicken tacos on Pinterest last week, I HAD to try it, because.. who doesn't like tacos? It was simple:

One 16oz Jar of Salsa

One packet of taco seasoning (I used mild)

Chicken Breasts

Combine in crock pot, cook 4-6 hours on high

I altered it and used chicken tenders instead, which was great because it cooked in just 2.5 hours. The chicken VERY easily shredded apart, actually practically fell apart, and it tasted AMAZING.

Taco Shown is just about 270 Calories, and kept me full for hours!! 

Now heres todays bento, made from last nights dinner!

Breakdown:

Snack:

Baby Carrots & Hummus: Total 92 Calories

Special K Crisps: 44 Calories (12 Pieces)

Total: 136

Lunch DIY Taco:

Flour Tortilla, cut into 4 pieces: 110 Calories

Crock Pot Chicken: 62 Calories (2 oz)

Light Sour Cream: 31 Calories (1.5 tbs)

Fresh Avocado: 57 Calories (1/4 avocado)

Salsa: 10 Calories (2 tbs)

Total: 270

Grand Total of Snack and lunch: 407 Calories