February 2008

Extra days in a month are fun, I wish we also got extra hours in a day once in awhile! hehe Today we decided that we don’t have to leave for NY this Monday, because there’s really no hurry. So, we’re going to go next week, which will work out better being I hear there’s a ton of snow up there. We also have a lot of lose ends to tie up down here and waiting another week is no big deal. Only downside is that we have to be back in Atlanta the week after when my cousin comes for Easter weekend. We’re pretty unpredictable at times, we might still leave this Monday lol. Who knows! I’m prepared either way, I think.

For my late night snack last night I made whole wheat pasta with spinach and it was so delicious that I just had to have it again for lunch today:

I boiled 1oz dry whole wheat pasta (105 cal) and then sauteed 4 cups (84g) fresh spinach in 2 teaspoons olive oil (80 cal) with 1 minced garlic glove (5 cal). When the spinach was cooked down, I added in ¼ cup Hunt’s no salt added tomato paste (60 cal); stirred and added in the pasta after I drained it and let it all cook together for a few minutes. Before I ate it I sprinkled 1 TBSP grated parmesan cheese (20 cal) over it. This is one of my new favorite pasta dishes, it’s marvelous. So simple, yet so tasty. I love using tomato paste instead of sauce because it’s so naturally sweet and flavorful that you don’t miss the salt at all. It’s also very thick and coats the pasta and spinach perfectly. For just 290 calories, this is a very quick lunch, dinner, or snack that you can make a huge batch of ahead of time and eat it all week. And can you believe there’s 5 servings of fruit/veggies in there? A full day’s servings in one delicious meal. It doesn’t get much better than THAT!

I didn’t have my menu planned for today when I woke up this morning, so I planned it out as soon as I woke up. I wasn’t planning on being here after Sunday, so I wasn’t worried about menus too much. I couldn’t wait to try out the Mr. Spice salt free hot wing sauce and thought a blank menu would be the best time to go for it. I’m glad I did because it was awesome!!!! Spicy, very spicy but fantastic and SALT FREE!! Now, that’s my kinda flavoring. At first it’s slightly sweet and then the spice kicks in, and I was like Oooooooh HOTTTTTTTTT! lolol

I used it on 118g chicken breast that I baked in the oven. First I preheated the oven to 425F, weighed the chicken breast out and cut it into little chunks, then wrapped it in a piece of nonstick foil with 1 TBSP Mr. Spice salt free hot wing sauce (15 cal) and then baked on 425F for about 15 minutes (I like my poultry well done!). I had already put 1 serving of Alexia sweet potato oven fries (140 cal) in the oven before I put the chicken in and they both got done at the same time. When I plated the chicken, I added 1 more TBSP of the hot wing sauce and put 2 TBSP Sass Smoky yogurt ranch dressing (32 cal) in my little dipping dish. With 1 cup Birds Eye frozen broccoli (30 cal), this was a FANTASTIC hot ‘n spicy boneless chicken wing dinner for only 362 burn-your-tongue-calories. The sweet potato oven fries surprised me by their pale color, but they definitely tasted like a sweet potato! lol YUMMY! Mr. Spice for president! *giggles* Love their salt free products, so glad I came across them.

I totally forgot that I got my VitaBrownie delivery the same day my PB2 came because my mom had put them straight into my chest freezer. I had one after dinner, YUMMMMMMM! So much chocolatey goodness packed into 100 calories, I sometimes wonder why I bother baking lol. They’re even made with whole wheat flour. I must say that I like their brownies a lot more than their muffins, even though they’re practically the same thing lol.

Oh and one more point for Healthy Valley products; I had a ½ serving of their Amarnath graham crackers (60 cal) as part of a snack today; wow, they’re so good! They taste a lot like regular graham crackers, minus the strange additives. Health Valley has impressed me yet again.

It rained here tonight so I have a really bad headache from the barometric pressure. I’m going to go relax and think about the weekend menu. I feel puffy today, my free day sodium is starting to catch up with me today.

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