One thing I will NOT sacrifice is real cheese. Even if you are trying to lose weight, 1 oz. of real cheese actually goes a long way (for @ 100 calories). Why buy fake cheeses that don’t melt well, or fake cheeses that don’t taste good, when you can have the real thing?

So for 3 people who leave a comment today, you will be in the running to win a coupon!

Also, if you visit their website HERE, they have lots of recipes WITH the nutritional information.

Today I would like to highlight their recipe for spaghetti pie, it couldn’t be easier to put together either!

Spaghetti Pie
Ingredients
• 6 oz. spaghetti, cooked
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 3/4 cup (3 oz.) Sargento® Artisan Blends® Shredded Parmesan Cheese, divided
• 1 cup Sargento® Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese
• 1 cup pasta sauce
• 1/2 cup (2 oz.) Sargento® ChefStyle Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Directions
1. Toss spaghetti with olive oil in large bowl. Stir in eggs and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Pour spaghetti mixture into greased 10-inch pie plate; form into a crust.

2. Spoon Ricotta cheese over spaghetti crust. Top with pasta sauce. Bake in preheated 350°F oven 25 minutes. Top with Mozzarella cheese. Bake 5 minutes more or until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Cool 10 minutes before cutting.

Serving Size 156 g
Calories 268
Protein 16 g
Carbohydrates 15 g
Dietary Fiber 1 g
Total Fat 16.1 g
Saturated Fat 9.4 g
Monounsaturated Fat 4.6 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.2 g
Cholesterol 114 mg
Vitamin A 72 RE
Vitamin C 3 mg
Calcium 316 mg
Iron 1 mg
Sodium 484 mg

Spaghetti Pie (photo courtesy of Sargento)

If you are trying to lose weight, do you still eat cheese, or avoid it altogether??

FTC disclaimer
*I was also given 2 free coupons as well for the give-a-way. My opinion about Sargento is my own.

I LOVE Nutella! I never even tried it before a year ago, and I didn’t know what I was missing! But how do I incorporate that into healthy eating? I had to come up with a dessert. I’ve only made this once before, but it’s so easy, you can make this in less than 10 minutes!

Won ton wrappers

I had leftover won ton wrappers from making potstickers, and I took a square of the won ton wrapper, used less than a teaspoon of Nutella, and added a slice of banana. Fold it in half and wet the edges with water so that it sticks together.

I sprayed a small skillet with Pam Cooking Spray. Add the won ton bites and cook for a few minutes on each side until browned.

Drizzle with chocolate sauce and if I had it, I would have sprinkled powdered sugar all over it.

My only bit of advice is that the insides are HOT! I burned my tongue by not waiting for them to cool!

For all 3 won ton bites, its only 175 calories! Enjoy!!

What do you make with Nutella?

I'm addicted to homemade salsa!

I have to thank my twin sister Biz for giving me the idea of making my own salsa. Although I didn’t try it for a long time because I never thought it would turn out right. But, it can’t be easier, and cheaper to make a big batch of it. Look for tomatoes that are on sale or the dollar rack at your store. I scored 6 big tomatoes for only 99 cents.

Jenn’s red salsa

6 tomatoes (med-large)
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 white onion
1 poblano pepper
salt to taste
2-3 TB. cilantro

This is all you need for great salsa!

In a big skillet, throw all the veggies (not the cilantro yet) in without any oil. (Keep the paper on the garlic when you are roasting it so it doesn’t get bitter). After it’s browned on all sides, remove the paper from the garlic, take the seeds/stem out of the poblano pepper and throw everything in a blender (add the cilantro now) and blend until smooth. That’s it! Then refrigerate until ready to serve. This made a whole blender full of salsa for less than $3.00 in ingredients!

Check out my green salsa recipe here

Go to my twin sister’s grilled baja salsa recipe here

What do you make homemade now that you used to buy at the store pre-made?

Also, I want to give a BIG SHOUT OUT to John He has lost 115 pounds so far and he entered a contest through Stride Gum to win $10,000!!! AND HE WON!!! He wants to try to compete in 40 more races by his 40th birthday to lose the last 50 pounds. Go over to his site and give him a big congrats!

Also, my sister Biz has thrown her hat into the ring for the Next Food Buzz Blogger Contest. It’s also based on votes, so go check out her page at FOOD BUZZ HERE!

Have a super Monday everyone. I’ve got my running shoes ready for walking to and from work and during my lunch break 90 minutes!!

So, it didn’t hurt that it was 65 and sunny when I left for work yesterday. I wore my Polar Heart rate monitor to calculate the calories burned…

When I got to work, the calories burned were 205 - nice!

Then at lunch I walked around the neighborhood and when I get back this is what my watch said:

After my 40 minute walk at lunch, now I was up to 829 calories. (The 142 is my heart rate)

Then, I walked home from work, picked up my daughter from her after school program which added an additional 15 minutes, so I walked 45 minutes after work.

1562 calories!

I took my watch off at 9:30 last night, so by the end of the day, after wearing my heart rate monitor for 13.5 hours, this was my final number of the day.

1948 calories!

So, I walked a total of 112 minutes yesterday. And the best part is it didn’t really seem to take that much time out of my day. I left a little earlier to get to work and I got home a little bit later, but it was awesome!

I live and work in Oak Park, IL. People come from all over the world to see the Frank Lloyd Wright (famous architect) house/walking tour. And it’s literally blocks away from my office, so I’ll share some of the houses during my walk yesterday:

This is where people go to start the tour!

This is a cool front door!!

A walking path at a park near my office, it was so nice!

So, all in all, it was a great day. And who wouldn’t enjoy going for a walk looking at beautiful houses!!

My game plan is to try this for 2 weeks and see if I lose any inches and pounds! Of course, I also have to keep track of what I eat too!

What is your favorite form of exercise if you could do anything you wanted??

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??