This breakfast was a winner today! I took the leftover chili/cumin/garlic powder chicken I made last night and added it with a potato, egg and cheese to make a breakfast hash. This kept me full forever!

Ingredients:

1 egg “fried” with Pam cooking spray
3 oz. of the leftover chicken cubes (or any cooked chicken you have)
1 oz. shredded mexican cheese
1 small potato, cooked in the microwave, then diced

In a small skillet, fry the egg and set aside. Meanwhile, put the potato in the microwave and cook for several minutes. Dice up the potato, add that to the skillet and spray a little more cooking spray. Cook until browned and tender. Add the chicken and heat through. Then I added the cheese and the cooked egg. So cheesy and yummy. And for this big bowl, the calories weren’t that bad either:

Calories for my breakfast

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And, I walked for 80 minutes today!! I didn’t walk to work like I planned, but I walked during lunch and walked home, so even without trying I burned some calories. Tomorrow I am going to wear my Polar heart rate monitor to see how many calories I would burn if I walk to work, walk during lunch and walk home.

The best part about trying this new routine out is that I hate getting up any earlier than I have to, and I can be done by the time I get home from work, freeing up my night! I hope I can keep it up.

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And, I would like to introduce everyone to a new blog I visited today, thanks to my brother Charlie. Her name is Charlie and she’s lost a bunch of weight (62 pounds!) and is doing great. She reviewed my brother’s book, which you can buy HERE. I’ve read some of her past posts, and I love how honest she is and she makes me laugh!

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Also, I need to ask a HUGE favor!!! My friend Kenta has entered a contest throught CB2 (Crate and Barrel 2) and they are running a contest where the first prize is $10,000 in merchandise, but he needs your vote! You can only vote once, please GO TO THIS SITE to vote for them today! Thank you so much!

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What’s everyone’s plans for the weekend??? Do you eat healthy on the weekends, or splurge??

Sometimes I feel like something savory for breakfast, but this morning I wanted something sweet. As I was looking in my fridge, I didn’t have time to make pancakes, or something more complicated, but I thought about french toast. Instead of using bread though, I used a 100 calorie skinny bagel.

And I wanted a little crunch factor, so after dipping the bagel in the egg I then dredged it with 1/4 cup of crushed Cornflakes. Start to finish was 10 minutes!

Ingredients:

1 skinny bagel
1/2 banana
1 tsp. country crock spreadable margarine
1 tsp. brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 Cornflakes
splash of vanilla extract

In a small skillet, I melted the margarine and the brown sugar. Meanwhile, in a shallow bowl, I beat one egg and added a little of the vanilla extract.

Take the outside of the bagel, dip it in the egg mixture, then dredge it in the crushed Cornflakes making sure to reserve enough for the other half of the bagel.

Place Cornflake side down in the skillet, add the banana and the other half of the bagel.

Flip once the bottom side gets browned and flip and continue cooking. It only takes a few minutes per side.

The verdict? Fantastic! The brown sugar/Cornflakes made a crispy sugary crust on the outside, the banana’s were softened on the inside. I’m glad I made only one because I definitely could have eaten another!

Calorie breakdown

1 tsp. brown sugar 15 calories
1 tsp. margarine 20 calories
egg mixture for dipping 30 calories
skinny bagel 100 calories
1/4 cup Cornflakes 20 calories
1/2 banana 40 calories

ONLY 225 CALORIES FOR THIS AWESOME BREAKFAST!

What’s your favorite healthy breakfast??

Yeah, my first tomato!!

OK, I have to start with my tomato!!! Last year for Mother’s Day, my husband got me 2 Topsy Turvy Tomato planters. Granted it was cooler last summer, but I kind of didn’t keep on top of them and I hung them too high, so it was hard to water, and I just let them die…

Fast forward to this year, I got a later start, but set them up again. Last night when I got home from work, my daughter shouted that there was “A red tomato!” So sure enough, as she grabbed it to show me, it came off in her hands. You can’t tell from the picture but it’s only a little bigger than a cherry tomato! Oh well, I plopped it into the blender with other veggies/tomatoes to make my homemade sauce and I was happy!

On the other plant, I have lots of flowers, and see new tomatoes coming!

More tomatoes coming soon....

So, taking care of my plants this year is paying off so far!

Speaking of veggies, I know a lot of people grow zucchini’s and the next thing you know you have too many to know what to do with! A few weeks ago, I was reading Kevin’s blog and he made zucchini blueberry bread and I knew I had to make it.

A friend of mine at work brings me blueberries from a blueberry farm by her cottage, and what I couldn’t eat fresh, I froze, so I used those berries in this bread. I changed a few things with the ingredients I had on hand, but it turned out great!

If you’ve never been to Kevin’s site, you have to. He makes the most amazing food and his food photography makes me jealous!

Blueberry Zucchini bread adapted from Kevin @ Closet Cooking

Makes 10 slices

1.5 cups zucchini, grated, squeezed and drained)
1/2 sugar
1/4 cup Canola oil
1 egg
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tsp. white vinegar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

In a small bowl, add the zucchini thats been grated and squeezed of excess moisture, the egg, oil, milk, vinegar, and mix until it’s all incorporated.

In a separate bowl add all the dry ingredients. Then dump the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon. I didn’t even use a mixer, it took about 1 minute to stir the batter together and incorporate the flour.

Bake at 350 F for 50 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).

My kitchen smelled so good!

And, the nutritional info isn’t bad either!

Calories computed using www.caloriecount.com

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And another update! A few weeks ago (18 days ago in fact), I vowed to kick this to the curb!

I kind of felt like I was addicted to the stuff! I would have at least one, sometimes two, and there were bunches of times where I would have three in one day. I started to think that’s way too many chemicals to put in my body and the money I was spending on it was a big waste.

So how has it been? Actually, when I first started I didn’t think I could do it. I miss drinking it with my lunch at work, and while I am making dinner. But, I either drink water, or make tea, or an iced coffee and it’s been fine!

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And one last favor! If you can still vote for my friend John who is vying to win $10,000 from Stride Gum. He wants to run 40 races by his 40th birthday. He’s lost an amazing 109 pounds since December!

VOTE FOR HIM HERE!

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Before I started making my own healthy muffins, there was a bakery by my house on the way to my office. I would literally say, if there was a parking space open, I would get a muffin, or if there wasn’t I would pass it by. More times than not there would be a space and I would eat a muffin. Bakery muffins are made with LOTS of butter and sugar and 1 muffin can easily set you back 600 calories and 30 grams of fat. Not a great way to start your day!

I adapted this recipe from Penzey Spices Catalog I got in the mail. I made a few adjustments. One being that I used silken tofu instead of the butter for the recipe, the other is I used skim milk instead of whole milk. The results? You can’t even tell I made any alterations!

Cinnamon muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup oats (not instant)
1 cup skim milk
1-2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/5 block of silken tofu (91 grams)
1/3 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 TB Canola Oil
4 Tablespoons chocolate chips (because I have to have some chocolate!)

Directions:

In a small bowl, add the oats and cover with the milk and let stand 10 minutes.

In a mixer add the tofu, the brown sugar and egg and mix until smooth. Add the oats soaked in the milk and the rest of the ingredients.

I used a Jumbo Muffin Tin (found at Target or Walmart). (Makes 6 muffins).

Mix together some sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of each muffin. Bake for about 18-20 minutes at 350 or until a toothpick comes out clean.

And, the difference vs. buying a huge muffin at the bakery?? Here’s the nutritional info:

I love when lightened up versions turn out great!

Under the categories section, there is a category for “Muffin of the Week” where you will find all the muffins I’ve made so far over the past 2 1/2 years!

Have a great Saturday!!!

Here is a cute picture I took this morning of our cat Max and my son Mark!

Max & Mark

Jenn's chicken enchiladas

The quick method I used, was I took 3 big boneless chicken breasts, trimmed of any fat and just cut them up into bite size pieces. I cooked them in a skillet with a little oil and sprinkled cumin and chili powder of the chicken. Cook until the outsides are browned, but so they aren’t cooked all the way through. Since you are going to bake it, it will finish cooking in the oven. After the chicken was done, I just took a tortilla, filled it with some chicken cubes, and folded it up and placed it seam side down in a 9×13 dish. Cover with the green salsa and some chihuahua cheese and bake for about 20 minutes. It tuned out so good! Between my family of 5, this whole dish was gone, not a drop left!

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So in addition to making the green salsa, I made a batch of my sister’s salsa yesterday. The only difference is I roasted the veggies instead of charring them on the grill.

On a cookie sheet, I put 7 firm tomatoes, 4 cloves of garlic, 1/2 a white onion (my sister doesn’t add the onion!) and 2 serrano peppers. After about 30 minutes, (@350 degrees) and they are softened enough. Then place all the ingredients in a blender and puree.

Biz's baja fresh salsa

There was just one tiny problem…..after I pureed it and tasted it, it was SUPER spicy!! I called my sister on the phone. Turns out serrano peppers are spicier than jalapeno’s, I thought they were less spicy, so I left the seeds in! To try to remedy it, I added a can of diced tomatoes and a small can of tomato sauce and it balanced it out. Phew!

So, since I had a ton of salsa, I was trying to think of a deluxe breakfast to make with it. I ended up making a fried egg quesadilla!

I have a non stick pan, so no oil is necessary

I added 1 egg and 1 egg white in a non stick skillet and cook on both sides. Set egg aside. Back in the skillet, I added 1 low carb tortilla, the fried egg, 1 oz. of chihuahua cheese, some fresh cilantro and cooked on both sides until the cheese has melted. I dipped the quesadilla in the salsa and it was amazing!

Yum!