BBQ Chicken Stuffed Potato and Laughing Cow Spinach

I've had a lone potato sitting in my fruit/veggie basket just waiting to be baked, fried, or scalloped. I chose to bake it and stuff it! I needed some greens to go with those carbs, so I added some creamed spinach made with Laughing Cow.



BBQ Chicken Stuffed Baked Potato

Ingredients: (1 serving)
1 med-large potato
3-4 oz boneless, skinless chicken, shredded
2-4 tbsp honey bbq sauce
Chicken Seasoning
Sea Salt

You can chose to microwave or bake the potato. I'm more of a convenience girl, so I chose to microwave my potato for 4.5 minutes.

Spray chicken with cooking spray and coat generously with chicken seasoning. On medium heat, cook chicken until no longer pink. Use a fork to shred the chicken.


This stuff is key!!

In a bowl, mix chicken and bbq sauce. Feel free to add more chicken seasoning.

Split potato and stuff with chicken mixture. Add sea salt to taste.

Creamed Spinach

Ingredients: (1 serving)
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 wedge Laughing Cow light swiss
1 tsp fat free sour cream

Cook spinach in a small saucepan. I just add it to the saucepan in it's hard, frozen state and spray it down with cooking spray so it doesn't burn. Cook until not frozen, duh. Add cheese and sour cream and stir until cheese is melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

Kentucky Advances to Final Four!

My weekend can be described in the title of this post. I've never regretted going to the University of Kentucky and this weekend proved to me that I made the best decision. I love the passion and dedication of the whole town to this one team. Despite the doubts from everyone, some of our own fans, we've advanced to the Final Four. There was screaming, shouting, tears of joy, road blocks, and couches burning in the streets. It was a day to be celebrated.

This is after we won and had jumped all in that booth.






I. LOVE. THIS. TOWN!! And those boys in blue!!!

Mmmm, the Yummiest!!

Hamburger Helper. Nothing about it is really helping anything, except your taste buds. Here's a recipe that is close to the real thing...okay, maybe even better...with ingredients that didn't come straight from a box.

Turkey Taco Helper

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 1/2 cup (dry) whole wheat rotini pasta
1/2 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
3 oz reduced fat cream cheese
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
4 tbsp taco seasoning
1/2 tsp red pepper
salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta as directed. Drain and save 1/4 cup pasta water. Set aside.



In the meantime, cook ground turkey, onions, carrots, and garlic until turkey is no longer pink.



Add diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, cream cheese, and sour cream. Add pasta and pasta water. Stir until cream cheese is melted.



DIG IN!

Homemade Vegetable Pad Thai

I love Thai food. Ok, I mainly love Pad Thai. Hot, spicy, and sweet Pad Thai. I've had a box of Pad Thai Rice Noodles marinating in my pantry for almost a year now, so I finally decided to take a stab at making this dish at home. While it wasn't as delicious as the oil laden take-out that I'd pick up from Planet Thai, it will suffice as a lower calorie choice. If I made it again, I'd add more veggies and more sauce.

Homemade Vegetable Pad Thai
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
1 box Annie Chun's Original Pad Thai Rice Noodles
2 packages of frozen California Vegetable Mix (I only used 1, but would use 2 next time)
1/4 cup onion
2 cloves garlic
2 eggs
Red pepper, to taste
Lime juice, to taste
Chopped Peanuts for garnish

Sauce:
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce
4 tbsp lime juice
Dash of red pepper

Cook noodles as directed and set aside. Spray wok generously with cooking spray and add onions, garlic, and vegetables. Cook on medium to high heat until tender.


Once vegetable mix is cooked throughly. Move to the side and scramble the eggs. Once the eggs are cooked, mix with vegetables, then add noodles to the mixture.


Mix all ingredients for sauce mix in a small bowl. Pour sauce over noodles and vegetables mixture and coat evenly.


Top individual servings with peanuts, grab your chopsticks, and dig in.

I added massive amounts of red pepper and some slivers of carrots to mine. Only because I like to sweat while I eat. Not really, but I do love spicy!

March Madness Kick-Off

March Madness couldn't have started out any better. My Cats inched by Princeton proving that it's hard to beat a bunch of white boys with money, which may explain why Duke does so well. The picture below may be one of the greatest moments of March Madness. Morehead State beat Louisville...oh how sweet it is to see them lose, especially to a fellow Kentucky team.


There was no green beer involved in my St.Patrick's Day. There was however some delicious sushi,salad, and delicious bread from Harry's. To my dismay, this small amount of food pushed me way over my calorie limit and came out to over 1,000 calories. Watch out for that bread people!

Here is a picture from the St.Patty's Day Festival in Lexington this past Saturday.


And here is a picture from St.Pat's circa 2008 in Orlando. Much more tan and rockin the dark hair.


Annnnd I couldn't resist putting this one up from St.Patty's Day 2009 in New Orleans. I apparently was highly celebrating my non-existent Irish roots...

In honor of St.Patrick...

I made Shepherd's Pie...a light version of course! I made a half of the recipe below.

Skinny Shepherd's Pie

1 lb lean ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp Italian style tomato paste
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup fat-free, reduced sodium beef broth
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn

For the topping:
2 large potatoes
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1 tbsp light butter

Directions:
In a large pot coated with non-stick cooking spray, saute onions and carrots until softened (keep coating with cooking spray to prevent burn). Turn up heat to medium-high and add turkey; cook until no longer pink. Add Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, herbs/spices and broth. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Add peas and corn.

While sauce is simmering, bring a separate large pot of water to boil. Add potatoes, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until tender. Drain water. Add milk and butter. Mash with a potato masher until smooth. Salt to taste.

Pour sauce into an 11-inch by 7-inch baking dish. Top with potatoes. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup reduced-fat cheese if you like.



Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.



I sure did top my piece with some ketchup! Enjoy!!

The Pacific

Right now, all you need to do is take a moment of silence or pray, in whatever way you do, for those in the Pacific.

It's hard for us to fully grasp, mourn, and grieve for people that we don't know personally. However, most of us have experienced tragedy in our lives and for this reason we are all linked together. So when you're complaining because gas prices are too high or because your roommate ate your last popsicle, remember that someone just lost their husband or wife, brother or sister, son or daugher after a tsumani swept them into a raging ocean.