Feb 1, 2012 Posted by Jennifer on Feb 1, 2012 in chicken, exercise, general ideas, kid friendly, soup, vegetables | 3 comments

Salsa Chicken Noodle Soup

Usually when I grocery shop every weekend, I have a plan about what I am going to make every week. When that doesn’t happen, I just buy things that I know I can make things with. Chicken, veggies, ground beef, etc… and work around that.

Yesterday I was trying to think about what to make with the stuff I had on hand. I had boneless chicken tenders, veggies, only a pound of ground sirloin (not enough for my family of 5!). I didn’t have any tomato sauce – and then it hit me – I’ll make soup! But what kind?

Since I had the chicken tenders and I had lots of veggies since we had stir fry the night before I thought I would make chicken noodle soup.

Ingredients

3 garlic cloves, chopped
4-5 mini bell peppers (I had red and yellow), diced
3 green onions, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 package boneless chicken tenders
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. pepper
dash of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 bottle of Pace salsa (or your favorite salsa)
8 cups water
6 tsp. chicken stock (the powdered kind in a jar)
3/4 bag of egg noodles

In a big pot, I added a few teaspoons of Canola Oil. Add all the chopped veggies and cook for about 5 minutes. I cut the chicken tenders into bite sized pieces and added that to the pot. I cooked that until the chicken was almost done, but still pink in the middle. Add the water and chicken stock and the egg noodles and salsa and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are cooked through and the egg noodles are done.

I know my family likes what I make when they ask for seconds! I was proud of myself for sticking to my one serving – since December I’ve banned myself from 2nd helpings and I’ve stuck to it

After dinner, we talked about what homework everyone had and I went back into the kitchen to clean up. I figured with the leftovers I would bring some for my lunch. When I walked into the kitchen I quickly realized that was not going to happen. This was what was left….

Yep – not a morsel left!!! I was shocked. But also a part of me was happy that my family liked this soup so much!

Do you make dinner so you have leftovers – or do you like to make just enough so there are no leftovers?

I personally love leftovers because then it is an easy choice for what I’ll have for lunch the next day.

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Now onto my work outs for the last few days. I could have run outside since its so warm out, but I have been working out after 8:30 p.m. when my daughter goes to bed. Over the weekend I found some more work out videos, I got 3 more Taebo work out tapes as well as a Beach Body one with Tony Horton.

So last night, I did a double work out – 40 minutes of Billy’s boot camp. Then I wanted to see if I could do any of the Beach body tape. It was level 3/4 and it had a huge label on it not to attempt unless you could complete the first 2 levels without stopping. Ha! I was going to try it anyway. I lasted about 20 minutes. It was so hard. At one point he did 1 1/2 minutes of straight push ups. One set with your arms wide, the other side with your arms closer together and the last set with your arms REALLY close together. Nope, that was not going to happen. Although I did do one 30 second set with my feet on my stepper (the actual way was putting your feet on top of a chair and doing push ups). During that set, my son happened to enter the room and he said “That’s impressive!”

And last nights workout brought back lots of memories. It’s the Taebo advanced workout and it is at least 13 years old I would say. My twin sister Biz and I once lived in a 2 flat together. She lived upstairs with Hannah and my family lived downstairs.

We would talk the night before about working out before work. So I would set my alarm clock early, get up, bring the baby monitor upstairs (the boys were small) and we would workout with Billy. We always had a great time and would laugh at each other if we couldn’t get a move right. I forgot how hard that work out was!!! It’s crazy hard. But I’m glad I did it!

Have a great day everyone!

Jan 30, 2012 Posted by Jennifer on Jan 30, 2012 in breakfast, chicken, vegetables | 3 comments

Chicken Breakfast sausage = yummy/filling breakfast

Ever since I got my Penzey spices breakfast sausage seasoning, I not only use it to make things taste great like breakfast sausage, but I’ll sprinkle it on eggs, potatoes, veggies, it makes a lot of things taste great.

Last week before work, I was thinking of what to bring for breakfast to work. I had run out of frozen fruit, so I couldn’t make my smoothie. Then I remembered I had bought some ground chicken and decided to make a breakfast sausage out of it.

If you’ve never worked with ground chicken, it is SUPER moist! I took 4 oz. of the ground chicken, 1/4 bread crumbs, and the added about 2 tsp. of the breakfast sausage seasoning. In a small skillet coated with cooking spray, I cooked each side for about 4 minutes, until it’s cooked through.

I didn’t have any eggs in the house, so I ended up making a weird, but delicious breakfast. I had 2 cups of mixed veggies, added the chicken sausage (chopped up) and 1/2 oz. of cheddar cheese.

This was so good! The best part is the breakfast sausage seasoning is so flavorful, you don’t have to add anything else, which saves calories!

So last week I tried 2 things I’ve never had before…a kumquat and pea shoots!

A coworker of mine brought these to work and gave me one. I said “How do you eat it?” She said she really didn’t know! So we googled it and found this video. You can eat the skin. You just need to wash it, then you roll it between your fingers to release the oils and pop it in your mouth. It does have a few seeds – kind of like eating a grape with seeds, you just need to be careful about that. Anyway – I thought it was fantastic – sweet and tart.

And we brought salad club back at my office a few weeks ago. This last weeks salad was spectacular!

For those of you who don’t know a few coworkers and I bring a fruit/veggie to share and any kind of greens and we set up a salad bar. My friend who brought the kumquats brought pea shoots and I had never seen/had those before, so I added them to my salad.

What are pea shoots? They are the leaves of the pea plant. I thought they tasted great. My friend bought them at Trader Joe’s – they came in a plastic package found near the fresh herbs. You can read more about them here.

How was everyone’s weekend? Happy Monday!!!!

Jan 27, 2012 Posted by Jennifer on Jan 27, 2012 in chicken, Dinner Idea, Half marathon training, Team in Training | 5 comments

Chipotle at home – $5.00 buck Friday

I have Mara to thank for my dinner last night! After reading her blog post about her Chipotle bowl at home I thought I had most of my ingredients to make it.

Her recipe also is inspire by Iowa Girl Eats.. It was super easy to put together and my whole family devoured it – not a morsel left!

For the chicken, I made a rub from these ingredients:

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

In a cast iron skillet, I added 5 cloves of garlic, sliced, 1/2 a white onion sliced and sauteed that for a few minutes. Next I added 1 jalapeno – seeds removed and cooked for another minute. Add the juice of 1 lime and the zest of 1 lime.

I added the chicken (however much you need to feed your family), then the seasoning (a few tablespoons) and cooked that until the chicken was no longer pink in the middle.

Meanwhile I cooked some brown rice. I used a quick cooking version of brown rice that’s ready in 15 minutes. Cook the rice according to your package directions. Once that is done, then I squeezed the juice of 1 lime and the zest of 1 lime into the rice. I unfortunately didn’t have cilantro .

For the black beans, rinse 1 can of black beans and I added 2 tsp. of the seasoning I used for the chicken and cooked that in the microwave for a minute so it was warmed through.

Next – build the bowl. I put the rice on the bottom, then the black beans, the chicken and topped with a little cheese. The only thing I really missed was not having any avocado. BUT, for making this with what I had on hand – I thought it was pretty deluxe!

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So tomorrow my husband and I are going to be running on the Lakefront for Team in Training. We are running the Christy Clinic Illinois marathon (I’m doing the half). My run tomorrow is 6 miles, my husband has to run 10!!!

We are raising money for The Leukemia And Lymphoma Society – we have started a $5.00 buck Friday – do you have an extra $5.00 to spare?

HERE IS OUR DONATION PAGE – PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN

I just read an e-mail from one of our coaches that there is a half marathon on the Lakefront path tomorrow with 1,200 participants, so that should be interesting! We will probably cross paths at some point.

Have a great weekend and HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Jan 10, 2012 Posted by Jennifer on Jan 10, 2012 in a day in the life of me!, chicken, Dinner Idea, eggs, general ideas, kid friendly, pasta, potluck, sauces | 0 comments

Rick Bayless Taco/Enchilada Sauces = Easy & Tasty dinner!

In our Christmas box from my brother’s family – I received some deluxe food items – almost all of which we’ve already eaten. I got this:

This pesto is made with almonds and peppers and is delish. A little goes a long way, so you don’t have to use that much to add flavor to what you are making. Last week I made lunch with it a few times.

I used a cooked potato, mixed veggies, green onions, peppers, a scrambled egg and added some of the pesto and a leftover Target Chicken sausage – cut up. It was super filling and yummy!

But onto the RIck Bayless sauces! You can now buy in the grocery store some of his signature sauces. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure how it would taste – but was pleasantly surprised that these tasted so good! Definitely worth it to check out. I got the taco sauce and the enchilada sauce.

With the enchilada sauce I cut up some chicken, added a bag of frozen peppers from Trader Joe’s and cooked that until it was done. In a separate pot, I cooked up some orzo and drained that. I added the orzo to the chicken and peppers and used 1 packet of the enchilada sauce. Dinner was done in less than 30 minutes and there was no leftovers – so I consider that a hit!

So thanks to my brother Charlie and his family for giving us such great gifts in our Christmas basket this year – we really loved everything!

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And on the Team in Training front, my husband and I went to the kick-off at Eduardo’s pizza in Skokie, IL on Saturday. Basically it’s a getting to know you, meet the coaches, go for a short 30 minute run, come back, eat pizza (nice!) and then we had a clinic about what to wear when it’s cold outside and layering from 2 men from Fleet Feet running store in Chicago. Although who needs that advice now since today is going to be in the 50′s again! Winter hasn’t really come yet this year – which is fine with me!

We got some stuff too – 2 new Team in Training shirts, the white one is for being alumni since this is my 4th event with the Team. We got water bottles and reps from FRS which is a company that has sports drinks for athletes, so we got to take some samples of that too.

It was a great time – we saw some team members from when we did our last event back in 2007 – and met Doug a patient honoree who is battling lymphoma – but also raising money and running events with Team in Training – I always get choked up meeting people like that.

So, our fundraising page is open for donations – no donation is too small – it all adds up!

Have a great day everyone!

Nov 8, 2011 Posted by Jennifer on Nov 8, 2011 in BSI, chicken, dieting, general ideas, lunch, stir fry | 0 comments

Stir fry with peanut sauce for 1

So my plan this week is to make great food so I’m not tempted by all the treats at work. I love making food that is filling and a good serving size but still watching calories and I always go to a stir fry for that.

I normally buy House of Tsang brand peanut sauce because I love it so much – but it’s almost never on sale and at $3.99 for a bottle and then my kids like other flavors that can get pretty pricey for stir fry sauce. So I decided to make my own just for 1 serving. Most of this stuff I always have on hand too.

Spicy peanut sauce for 1

1.5 teaspoons creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. chili garlic sauce
drizzle of honey
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons soy sauce

For my stir fry I had cauliflower, garlic, carrot and celery. Saute that in a skillet for 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from pan and set aside. Next I cooked 4 0z. of boneless skinless chicken breast. Once it has cooked for 2 minutes on each side, I’ll cut it into strips so it cooks faster and I can see that it’s done all the way through.

I had some leftover rice – so that went in next. Add the veggies back and the peanut sauce and cook for another minute until it’s all incorporated. It was so good! And probably just pennies to make

For the chili garlic sauce, this is the kind I get which is so flavorful and tasty. You can find it next to all the other stir fry sauces at major grocery stores

When I got to my office my friend had given me some oranges and almonds – so I added the almonds to my stir fry.

I just realized my camera lens has a smudge on it, so sorry for the blurry part of this picture!

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Also, I am hosting BSI this week, check out the link here for details. You have until Sunday the 13th to submit a recipe with cranberries!

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Also, check out my brother Charlie’s latest post – 1 month in to hopefully his last diet ever – how is he doing? CLICK HERE TO CHECK HIS PROGRESS.

Have a great day everyone!