Beautiful Day and BSI – Chickpeas!

What a beautiful day it was today!  I enjoyed it because I think fall is about to bestow upon us this coming week!  Since we went out to breakfast yesterday, today was at home Mama Rini’s!  One fried egg, 1 piece of bacon, 1 ounce of bagel, 1 tsp. light cream cheese, 3 ounces of frozen hash browns, 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil the potatoes fried in, and 1 kiwi.

The boys first football snack was Steak Tartar.  Beware if you make this, you need to get the meat at a good butcher!  This is our butcher’s 99% lean ground sirloin.

This is one pound.  You add chopped anchovies, minced garlic, 1 egg, lots of pepper and salt – they ate it on good rye bread.  (Gross!)

At the library yesterday, I finally was able to pick up the Biggest Loser Bootcamp DVD – its usually always checked out.  I ended up doing 30 minutes of it – I liked it, but then I like Bob’s training technique better than Jillian and Kim.

Then I took our dog for a walk to the river, even though the leaves are falling the grass is still green!

And the river was quite busy with the boats!

I got this whole bowl of tomatoes for $4!  I used my trusty baja fresh salsa recipe – it never fails!

Make sure to start out at a high heat – you want the charred bits to give the salsa an extra smokey flavor.

I had four jalapenos total, and left the seeds in two and deseeded two.  Can you see the black flecks and the cilantro – yum!

So this weeks BSI is being hosted by Healthy San Diego Living – and she picked Chickpeas!  At first glance I was like, what am I going to do with that ingredient?!

I had a ton of broccoli I needed to use up, so I decided to add the chick peas to the soup to thicken it up – it turned out really good!

Broccoli Cheese Soup with Chickpeas

• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. butter
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 quart of chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 12 ounces of fresh broccoli
• 1 can of chick peas, rinsed
• 6 ounces of cheese
• sprinkle of fresh grated parm on top
• salt and pepper to taste
• pinch of dried thyme

Melt the butter and olive oil.  Add garlic and cook for a couple minutes.  Add flour and stir for one minute.  Slowly add the milk to make a roux.  Add chicken broth, water, broccoli and chick peas.  Simmer for 20-30 minutes until broccoli is tender.  I used  my stick blender to puree.  Removed from heat then stirred in the grated cheese.  This makes 8 cups and each cup comes in at: 198 calories, 12 fat, 12 carbs, 2.1 fiber and 11.2 protein.

My lunch was one up of soup with an ounce of tortilla chips on the side.

I also made two loaves of Artisan bread – so simple and delicious!  I gave Joe a slice with butter and cinnamon and sugar – he loved it!  Here’s how the dough looks after 2 hours of rising.

While the boys had Italian beef sandwiches, I decided to make an Italian beef pizza!  6 ounces of dough, 1 ounce Italian beef, 1 ounce of Italian sausage, 1.5 ounces mozzarella cheese.  I ate 3/4 of it – delicious!!

Stats for the Day

• 1269 calories
• 49 fat
• 58 protein
• 146 carbs
• 10.9 fiber
• 30 minute BL Boot Camp
• 15 minute walk with Ed

Gotta scoot!  Curb Your Enthusiasm is coming on and Tony and Hannah are counting down the minutes to the Season Premiere of Dexter!  Do you watch it?!

See you tomorrow night!