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!

****
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!

****
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!

I think the biggest benefit of me cooking all these years and my kids being in the kitchen with me is that I am teaching them such a great life skill. I know lots of people who don’t cook at all and have to rely on packaged meals, cans, and take out to survive. Since my Dad was a chef growing up I spent lots of time in the kitchen with him and since my Mom made homemade food all the time, we rarely had fast food for dinner.

My husband, daughter and I were about to run errands when my son Mark who is 13 proclaimed he was starving. I hadn’t gone to the store yet, so I was looking to see if there was anything he could make. I had a package of thin chicken breasts so I quickly defrosted it for him and he stayed home to cook while we took off.

While we were coming back from errands I texted Mark to ask how his “sammich” was… this was his text back to me:

“It was yummy. It was roasted garlic and herb chicken with a butter sauce.”

I am not going to lie, I was so impressed with what he came up with. And, to boot he took a picture of it to show me when I got home, so how can I not post this?

Mark’s roasted garlic and herb chicken with butter sauce

Serves 1

1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 tablespoon butter
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp. garlic and herb seasoning by McCormick

Directions

melt butter in a skillet
add chopped garlic
add the chicken breast and cook 3 minutes on each side
sprinkle with the seasoning

Serve on tortillas or serve on a bun.

One thing I have realized over the years that for me to stay on track trying to lose weight, I HAVE to bring my lunch and it has to be deluxe. If it sucks, I may be tempted to stray outside my office to find food.

Which is not good, since within walking distance from my office is a Tasty Dog, Jimmy Johns, a pizza place, 5 guys burgers, a taco place, Arepa restaurant, Chinese etc!!!

I also like to make my lunch the night before so I’m not running around crazy in the morning while getting my 3 kids out the door at 3 different times.

One day this week, I literally had about 2 minutes to put something together. I looked in the fridge… I had leftover taco meat, some leftover rice and black beans, a few slices of pepperoni, some green onions, so I threw that all in a container. I didn’t even have cheese, so I knew it was going to be kind of dry…

I heated it up in the microwave at work and stirred it around and tasted it. Ummm.. not very good. It was too dry. So I looked in my fridge at work to see if I still had some salsa in there…SCORE!! A bottle of my favorite green salsa . I put a few healthy tablespoons of salsa in my bowl and stirred it around. PERFECTO!

Then I wondered if I had any tortillas in my freezer at work and I did. So my first sucky lunch turned out to be one of the best lunches I’ve brought in a while!

Do you try to bring lunch to work? What’s your favorite thing to make?

I had spinach, broccoli slaw, strawberries, shredded beats, fresh basil, pine nuts, blueberries, cherries, grapes, carrots, cauliflower, peas, black beans, etc. and lite catalina dressing. It was awesome. I usually don’t like beets, but my salad club friend Laura grew them in her back yard. She shredded them added a little balsamic vinegar and sea salt. I LOVED them. I wish I had put more on my salad.

*for those of you who don’t know, salad club is a few coworkers and I bringing in a green and a fruit or veggie to share and we just set everything out like a salad bar.

My daughter Claire helped me chop stuff up the night before and I told her I hope I don’t forget to bring it to work. Without me knowing, she made this note and taped it on to the back door:

I love how she spelled club “CULB!” So cute!

****
So now on to the winners of PopChips!

NV
Barb
Alice
Errign
Shelley
Ally

I will e-mail you guys to get your addresses. Congrats!

Do you think you could start a salad club at your office??

Neely’s BBQSeasoning:

1.5 cups paprika
3/4 cups sugar
3 3/4 tablespoons onion powder

Mix together in a clean jar with a lid and you can store it in an airtight container for up to six months.

Since I made the rub, I took out 2 chicken tenders and added 2 tsp. of the rub and cooked the chicken until done, set aside.

Next, I cut up some baby red, orange and yellow peppers and sauteed them in a skillet for a few minutes.

When it was time for lunch, I assembled my salad. I cut up the chicken, I had different kinds of artisan lettuces, strawberries, an apple, and peppers. The only dressing I had was lite Italian, so I dressed my salad with the dressing, then put the chicken on top. Awesome and SUPER filling!

I also added a few dried cranberries, a few sunflower seeds. When I was talking to my sister after lunch – turns out she had almost the same exact salad – twin powers activate!

***
I mentioned yesterday I got some new work out dvd’s from my local library. I will tell you that I did NOT ride my bike to work since it was raining, and I did NOT walk during lunch, so after dinner, and running a quick errand, I didn’t get home until 8:15 and I definitely did NOT want to exercise.

I looked at the choices of what to do and I picked out this one called Iron Yoga (2005). Anthony Carillo is the man who came up with this type of yoga. He developed it when he was cross training for the Iron Man Triathlon’s he’s completed.

Even though I was not looking forward to exercising I really enjoyed this work out. I’m used to doing fast workouts – Taebo, the Firm, biking, etc… This workout was the exact opposite. You use light weights (I used 5 lb. dumb bells) and it is super slow moves. There is very soothing music, it’s hard but relaxing at the same time if that makes sense. It has a lot of balance moves and it’s a total body work out. I finished the whole thing which was 58 minutes. I had the motivational support of my son Mark who was practically next to me the whole time saying things like “way to go Momma!” and to his brother he said – “you have to give props to Mom because I could barely do the first exercise!” I appreciated his shout outs through out the whole workout.

So, if you’ve never tried yoga with weights, see if it’s at your local library!

I’m looking forward to salad club at work today – I’m off to chop up some veggies!!!