Watchin' What We Eat Wednesday #2

I decided to do a slightly different take on what I think people may come up with when they think of fruit for this week's theme.  This recipe may/may not sound like the most appetizing dish, but let me tell you, it's delicious! I love it! 

Mandarin Orange Slow Cooker Chicken (4 servings at 5 pts each)

4 boneless skinless chicken halves

1 medium onion, sliced

1/4 cup orange juice concentrate

1 tsp. poultry seasoning

1/2 tsp. salt

11 ounce can of mandarin oranges, be sure to save 3 T of the juice as well.

2 T flour

Put chicken strips in slow cooker that has been sprayed with Pam cooking spray.

Combine onion, orange juice concentrate, poultry season and salt.

Pour mixture over chicken in the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours.

Remove chicken and keep warm.

Reserve chicken juices.

In a saucepan, combine the 3 T of reserved mandarin juice and the 2 T of flour. 

Stir until smooth. 

Stir in the chicken juices. 

Bring to a boil.

Cook for 2 minutes.

Stir in mandarin oranges.

Pour over chicken.

DELICIOUS!

With the ingredients I used, this recipe had 240 calories, 3.5 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber. That is 5 WW points. Please be sure and tally your points according to what you use :)

This is really delicious served over some brown rice. Be sure to add points accordingly :)

Click HERE for more WWWEW participants! :)

Fitness on Fridays!!

Well, this week has proved to end better than I thought. I swore I was gonna gain a TON of weight having tons of family in town, but to my amazement, I'm now only 5 lbs away from my original WW goal! YIPEE!! I intend to go lower than that, but for now, that is my goal. I want to meet this goal by July 24th (when my MIL gets home) and really believe I can do it. I even think if I put my mind to it, I can lose even more than that by then! I have my next goal already in mind! I originally got down to 8 lbs below my WW goal and I loved how I felt at that weight, so that will be my next goal. BUT, for now, it's to just get down to the original goal. Don't worry folks, I set my WW goal at the top of the charts, so I can bear to lose more even when I technically hit goal.

As for eating, I've done pretty well in staying in my points! I didn't do so well in the exercise field. We didn't get out and ride bikes because we've had family in town and my hubby has worked late. BUT, that doesn't mean I've been sitting around. We've been on the go everyday. We even took the kids swimming and I lugged my sweet toddler up about 10 flights of stairs at least 30 times to take her down the water slide! She was in heaven and I was losing my breath. I guess I got some exercise in there at least right? Other than that, it's just been long walks, chasing kids through the park and stores, museums, etc etc. We've been down right active! I think that's why I didn't gain and that's FINE BY ME! :)

I don't have much more to write as I have TONS to do. Sorry to keep it short and boring. I hope everyone is doing well on their weight loss journey! I'm off to read all the other Fitness on Friday participant's blogs! Have a fantastic week!

Watchin' What We Eat Wednesday!

JUST CLICK THE BUTTON/PICTURE ABOVE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE FOUNDER OF THIS GREAT NEW MEME!

(If you want the button above, just go to my sidebar and copy the code under the Watchin' What We Eat Wednesday picture and paste that code onto your sidebar or in a post! Let's all help promote this great new MEME of Lories!!)

I've posted this recipe before, but never for Watchin' What We Eat Wednesday. I have family in town, so I'm limited on my time to post, so hopefully you all will enjoy! :) It's delicious!!

I made this again last night and it was a HIT with not only my family, but the extended family we have visiting! Plus, there were leftovers and these re-heat really well!

Chicken Enchiladas (sorry, forgot to take a picture)

10 Mission Carb Balance Soft Taco Size flour Tortillas.  (these are only 110 calories each with 11 grams of FIBER!) According to the WW slider, these are 1 pt. If you do the points calculator  found online, the points come to zero. The reason for this is WW puts a cap on fiber at 4 grams. So, do as you wish. I calculated them as 1 "small ;)" point  each. I LOVE that they have SO MUCH FIBER and they taste awesome. SO MUCH LIKE THE REAL thing, it's scary! ha ha. Oh and Mission has Carb Balance tortillas in all sorts of sizes. Some of them are brown instead of white, but they taste just as good! I went with the white ones since they "look" more  like the real thing, thus fooling my family even more ;)

 1 20 oz. can of Enchilada sauce. - I used Rosarita Mild Enchilada Red Sauce. (it's our favorite) and it's 20 calories per serving and has 1 gram of fiber in that. 

1 lb of chicken

2 cups of shredded cheese- I used the 2% milk Kraft Mexican Style shredded cheese. Now in this step, you obviously could use more cheese than I have here by using a fat free version or the WW cheese. I didn't have either of those on hand, so I used what I had. Just calculate your points accordingly.

OPTIONAL- 

-chop and sauté  a cup of onions and add them to the enchilada sauce before putting the dish together.

-add some white rice or spanish rice into each of the tortillas as you make them. (BE SURE TO ADD THE POINTS ACCORDINGLY!)

-you can add black olives

-it's yummy to add salsa on the top of these when done and that doesn't add any points!

-you can also add salsa in with the chicken to give it some extra flavor and will help out if you reduce the amount of cheese you may need or if you use a lower fat/calorie cheese.

-you can add a dollop of sour cream on top of your enchiladas when done cooking. Fat free wouldn't even add any points if you kept it to 1-2 tablespoons of the fat free sour cream. Or add 1 pt if you use light sour cream. :)

Directions-

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

-Cook the chicken until cooked through and chop/shred. I boil mine and then put in a food processor to chop it up. (so much quicker that way and you don't have to wait for it to cool down so you don't burn your fingers trying to shred it).

-Get out a 9X13 dish and spread a small amount of enchilada sauce on the bottom of the dish, just to cover the bottom. 

-Poor some enchilada sauce on a plate for dipping the tortillas.

-Dip the tortilla in enchilada sauce and set in the dish. put about 1/4 cup chopped chicken (just evenly distribute it among the 10 or however many tortillas you have) in the tortilla. Add about 1/8 cup of the cheese (again just evenly distribute it allowing some leftover for the top of the enchiladas when done)

-Roll up the tortilla and continue this process with the remaining tortillas. Poor remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the dish (helps give flavor and keep them from getting too dried out while cooking). 

-Sprinkle any remaining chicken on the top and then top with remaining shredded cheese. 

-Cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubble and heated through. 

ENJOY! :)

Using these ingredients, I calculated each enchilada to be 4 ptsand these are big! YUM! Obviously BE SURE to add any points for any of the optional things you choose to add, unless it's salsa or onions or small amount of fat free sour cream :)

Do KNOW that you NEED to calculate your own points if you use different brands of ingredients, etc.

Fitness on Fridays!!

Well, I don't have anything really motivational to write this week. I haven't done exceptionally bad, but I haven't done anything fantastic either! It's all good. There's no gain, no loss, just stayed the same! Can't really complain about that I guess.

We have family in town and not sure how long they are staying. It's making it difficult to stay focused as we are going going going, but I'm trying my best! I'm hoping that I have a loss next week despite all the chaos around me ;) 

I also haven't been around to all the great blogs that motivate me as much as usual. That is key to my motivation. It really is. I just really haven't had the time, but I don't wanna make excuses. I just need to make the time. It's all about priorities and weight loss is definitely one of them!! We also need to make the time to ride our bikes again even with family in town. We were really disappointed a few days back to come out to the garage and see that my hubby's tires on his brand new bike were both flat. SERIOUSLY, what is up with that? It's not like we were cheap on what we spent on these lovely exercise apparatuses. Oh well. My hubby bought a pump and some new tubes for his tires and hopefully he gets out and fixes them really quick and we can get back to our fun bike riding exercise excursions! 

Well, I'm rambling on and on! Just not sure what to say, but wanting to be sure to post because when I don't, I don't have as much accountability with my goals with losing weight :) 

I hope everyone did fantastic this past week!! Let's keep our focus and be sure to motivate each other along the way! :)

An Award to those who Motivate me!!

Today, I decided I wanted to make an award to thank all of you whose blogs I read that continue to motivate me to stay on track towards my weight loss goals! I truly appreciate all your motivating posts and really REALLY LOVE all your great comments I receive here on my blog. With that being said, I present you all with my first weight loss award give-away!

I'd like to give this award to ALL the blogs who are on my blogroll! I would also like to give it to anyone that has stopped by and commented on my blog! You're all the reason I keep on going!! YOU TRULY all are THE KEY to my continued weight loss success story!! Heck, if you are reading this, consider yourself the lucky recipient of this fine award! ;) GO AHEAD and snag it, but first be sure to leave me a comment. . . if you don't mind, so I can come visit your blog :) 

Display it proudly and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pass it along to ALL those people who motivate you as a way to thank them!! Pass it to those that motivate you with your goals whether it be to continue to lose weight, stay at goal, eat healthy, exercise, pick you up when you are down, or any other reason you deem worthy of this award!

Enjoy everyone and THANK YOU AGAIN for ALL of your SUPPORT!!!!

Fitness on Fridays!!

This week has been fantastic! I've lost weight and I feel great. Man, I sound like a "slim fast" commercial. Anyways, I didn't start out the week the best. My hubby and I were able to go out on a date night as my sweet dad watched the children for us. We ended up going to a Japanese Steakhouse and boy, was it ever yummy!!! I know I went over my points, but it was better than eating something like Chicken Alfredo from Olive Garden? Have any of you seen the points for that? It'll scar your for life! LOL! Only kidding! Then, the next night, we went to dinner with my hubby's brother and their family. The PLAN was to go to Applebee's, so I was totally stoked as we all know they have a WW menu there. Well, we ended up going to a Brazilian Grill and I overate! I tried to be good, but there weren't too many options there. There is a ton of meat and lots of carbs! (noodles, gravies, potatoes, rice. . . and so much more) I did as well as I could (ate lots of fruit from the salad bar, etc), but still felt totally gross and bulging for the next 2 or 3 days!

But, I didn't let this get me down! I was determined to lose this week. I had gained a small amount last week and I wanted to lose that as well as additional weight and I DID IT!! I now only have 7 lbs to go to get to my goal before my MIL gets home from her mission. I'm pretty sure it helped that I've been running around like a mad woman and cleaning every corner in the house because we have company coming, but I am so happy with the results! Clean house and weight loss! YAY! 

We also took our bikes out and made a goal to ride up the canyon to the first park there. What an AMAZING ride! It's beautiful! I can't wait to do it again! The plan is to go again tomorrow! We love it and the kids love it! They get to ride in the trailer and then play in the park once we get there. The ride has LOTS of hills and some pretty tough ones I might add, especially for us novices in bike riding. However, we're excited to continue to ride this trail and continue further up the canyon next time. This trail goes for miles and miles and miles and has BEAUTIFUL scenery of gorgeous mountains, forests, rivers and waterfalls! I'll have to post some pictures here if I remember. 

Well, it's been a good week and I'm full of motivation for the coming week ahead. It seems harder to stay on track when you have so many places you have to be and especially with family coming into town. They love to eat out and so do we. However, it's nice because my SIL is now doing WW so that should help keep my focus. Hopefully, she'll want to be good and stay in her points while out here. I'm just gonna plan ahead as that is the key!!!

I hope everyone's week went successfully and I'm excited to hear about how you all did! Thanks again for your continued support and comments!! You all are AWESOME!!

TASTY THURSDAY

I decided I wanted to participate in this Meme that my friend Lorie told me about. It's called Tasty Thursday and it's hosted by Trista over at the Pumkin Patch. How fun! This week's theme is WW recipes! YAY!! I'm so glad she told me about it! I love finding new recipes, especially ones that people post about b/c that means at least they like them right? Anyways, I was gonna be creative and post a recipe that I haven't mentioned before (I have TONS), but it's 2:30 am and I'm totally tired! I've been up making Baby Shower Invites for one of my friends. Enough of that. . . The recipe I'm posting I LOVE!! It's a HIT with every member in my family, including my 10 month old. The best part is is that it's low in points and tastes delicious!!!  

Enjoy!

Turkey Meatballs in Wine sauce -I just use chicken broth here as I don't have wine on hand :(

1 egg white

1 cup soft bread crumbs

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

2 Tablespoons skim milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon thyme, crushed

Dash pepper

1 pound ground raw turkey

Nonstick spray coating

2 cups sliced mushrooms (we're not mushroom fans, so we don't add these)

3 cups water

6 tablespoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons instant chicken bouillon granules

1 cup dry white wine. (I just add an extra cup water instead when making the cornstarch mixture to equal 4 cups of water total)

2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley

1 box hot cooked noodles

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together egg white, soft bread crumbs (I use the ones you get for cheap that are crunchy at the store and the work just fine), 1/4 cup of the onion, milk, salt, thyme and pepper. Add turkey; mix well. Shape mixture into 1 inch meatballs.

Spray a 13X9 inch baking pan or baking dish with nonstick spray coating. Place meatballs in the baking pan or dish. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes. (I find with the oven I have now, they cook in as little as 27 minutes) or till meatballs are no longer pink. Drain any juices; cool meatballs. Then, cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours. I almost ALWAYS skip this step. I've done them both ways and really don't see the benefit of chilling them especially when I'm in a hurry. 

Before serving, spray a cold large skillet with nonstick spray coating. Add mushrooms and remaining 1/4 cup onion. Cook til mushrooms and onions are tender. Stir together water (including extra 1 cup of water as substitute for wine here), cornstarch, and bouillon granules. Carefully add the cornstarch mixture to the mushroom/onion mixture in the skillet. Cook and stir till thickened and bubbly. Add chilled (or not chilled ;) meatballs and wine (or no wine here if already added extra cup of water above); heat through. Stir in parsley. Serve over hot cooked noodles. YUMMY!

5 servings

5 points a serving 

Add points for noodles :)

P.S. I've found that the NEW Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta's work REALLY well!! They are packed full of fiber and nutrients (thus lowering your points), yet they look and taste like regular noodles. I haven't found any egg noodles by them yet, but have found their Rotini or Penne work just as well for this recipe :)

Yumminess!

Well, last night I decided to make my Chicken Enchilada recipe, but do so with fewer calories/fat, thus having it be less points per serving. I've made TONS of different variations of this recipe trying to get one that tastes as close to the original as possible. Well, with the new Mission Carb Balance WHITE tortillas, I think I came pretty close. My hubby said they were delicious. (he's not too fond of the variation I make with fat free cream cheese/green onions instead of shredded cheese, but I LOVE IT). The best part is these seem to be even better re-heated! Yay for leftovers!! Now let me just say there is SO MUCH you can do to "doll" this recipe up, it's insane, but I'll just post the simple/basic one for you here. Do KNOW that you NEED to calculate your own points if you use different brands of ingredients, etc. 

Chicken Enchiladas (sorry, forgot to take a picture)

10 Mission Carb Balance Soft Taco Size flour Tortillas.  (these are only 110 calories each with 11 grams of FIBER!) According to the WW slider, these are 1 pt. If you do the points calculator  found online, the points come to zero. The reason for this is WW puts a cap on fiber at 4 grams. So, do as you wish. I calculated them as 1 "small ;)" point  each. I LOVE that they have SO MUCH FIBER and they taste awesome. SO MUCH LIKE THE REAL thing, it's scary! ha ha. Oh and Mission has Carb Balance tortillas in all sorts of sizes. Some of them are brown instead of white, but they taste just as good! I went with the white ones since they "look" more  like the real thing, thus fooling my family even more ;)

 1 20 oz. can of Enchilada sauce. - I used Rosarita Mild Enchilada Red Sauce. (it's our favorite) and it's 20 calories per serving and has 1 gram of fiber in that. 

1 lb of chicken

2 cups of shredded cheese- I used the 2% milk Kraft Mexican Style shredded cheese. Now in this step, you obviously could use more cheese than I have here by using a fat free version or the WW cheese. I didn't have either of those on hand, so I used what I had. Just calculate your points accordingly.

OPTIONAL- 

-chop and sauté  a cup of onions and add them to the enchilada sauce before putting the dish together.

-add some white rice or spanish rice into each of the tortillas as you make them. (BE SURE TO ADD THE POINTS ACCORDINGLY!)

-you can add black olives

-it's yummy to add salsa on the top of these when done and that doesn't add any points!

-you can also add salsa in with the chicken to give it some extra flavor and will help out if you reduce the amount of cheese you may need or if you use a lower fat/calorie cheese.

-you can add a dollop of sour cream on top of your enchiladas when done cooking. Fat free wouldn't even add any points if you kept it to 1-2 tablespoons of the fat free sour cream. Or add 1 pt if you use light sour cream. :)

Directions-

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

-Cook the chicken until cooked through and chop/shred. I boil mine and then put in a food processor to chop it up. (so much quicker that way and you don't have to wait for it to cool down so you don't burn your fingers trying to shred it).

-Get out a 9X13 dish and spread a small amount of enchilada sauce on the bottom of the dish, just to cover the bottom. 

-Poor some enchilada sauce on a plate for dipping the tortillas.

-Dip the tortilla in enchilada sauce and set in the dish. put about 1/4 cup chopped chicken (just evenly distribute it among the 10 or however many tortillas you have) in the tortilla. Add about 1/8 cup of the cheese (again just evenly distribute it allowing some leftover for the top of the enchiladas when done)

-Roll up the tortilla and continue this process with the remaining tortillas. Poor remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the dish (helps give flavor and keep them from getting too dried out while cooking). 

-Sprinkle any remaining chicken on the top and then top with remaining shredded cheese. 

-Cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubble and heated through. 

ENJOY! :)

Using these ingredients, I calculated each enchilada to be 4 pts and these are big! YUM! Obviously BE SURE to add any points for any of the optional things you choose to add, unless it's salsa or onions or small amount of fat free sour cream :)

My first WEIGHT LOSS AWARD!

So, Natalie over at Normal to Natalie gave me this award a few days ago. It TOTALLY made my day! I just wanna post it with pride. THANK YOU SO MUCH Natalie!! I've so needed the "pick me up" this week and I truly appreciate your kindness, comments and motivation! YOU ROCK! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!