Snow Day!

Well, for Hannah anyway!  We have a winter storm warning through Friday morning, and we will probably see up to 12 inches by then.  However, we only got two inches overnight – but I guess their fear is that if it snows throughout the day, the buses won’t be able to run this afternoon.

Our school system has an automated phone system in case of school closure.  As I said goodnight to Hannah last night, she carried the cordless phone in her room, and this morning when I got up to make coffee, she wrote “No School!” on our chalkboard!   Lucky! 😀

I am glad you all got such a kick out of my 7 things about me!  My friend Christina also sent me that award, but I’ll save 7 more things and post next week – I know, the suspense is probably killing you! 😀

I had to have my pumpkin pancakes again for breakfast yesterday – although I have decided that two is plenty – and I wanted bacon!

357 calories, 15 fat, 44 carbs, 14 protien, 3 fiber

For lunch I had two cups of my Tomato/Potato Curry soup – although at the very end, I added a cup of baby spinach and it was fricken delicious!  It is the perfect amount of spice.  I added 1/2 ounce of reduced fat cheddar on top, and on the side – a giant carrot with low fat honey mustard dressing and a Thomas light English muffin with 2 slices of reduced fat American cheese.  I won’t lie – I dipped each bite of bread in the tomato soup – YUM!

469 calroies, 11 fat, 74 carbs, 20 protein – 17 FIBER!

Theperfect bite!

I actually got a little snacky yesterday afternoon – I equate that to my killer workout (you’ll see below).  I’ve had this Vegan cookie in my drawer at work which I won from Val.   Truth be told, I’ve been a little nervous to try it!  There were two cookies in the package – and one cookie was a serving.  Guess what?  I loved it!  Although in the beginning it was a bit dry, but as I drank my water and continued to eat it, it reminded me of Erin Baker”s Fruit and Nut Breakfast Cookie – but just more dense.

159 calories, 1.5 fat, 34 carbs, 5 fiber, 6 protein

Tony saw on Tastespotting Chile Con Carne – the main reason being that there are no beans!  Tracey adapted a recipe from Cooks Illustrated (which I love!), but found that the meat wasn’t as tender as she would have hoped.  So I adapted that recipe to make it a 30 minute week night meal.  Thanks for posting that Tracey – I must have missed that recipe on their site!  I did make some adjustments though to make it a week night dinner.

Biz’s Weeknight 30 minute Chile Con Carne (adapted from Cook’s Illustrated thanks to Tracey!)(my changes are in parenthesis)

• One 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons inced chipotel chile in adobo (left out because Tony doesn’t like spicy chili)
• 4 slices of bacon (left out since I cooked the meat in the crockpot)
• 1 boneless beef chuck-eye roast – 3.5 to 4 pounds
• 1 onion (of course, left out!)
• 1 jalapeno chile, seeded and chopped (left out)
• 3 tablespoons chili powder (reduced to 2 tablespoons)
• 1.5 teaspoons cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar (left out)
• 2 tablespoons corn muffin mix (as thickening agent)
• 6 ounces tomato paste (added – not in original recipe)

Since Tracey’s main complaint was the meat wasn’t tender, I decided to cook the meat in the crockpot.  It was on for two hours in the morning, Tony turned it off before going to a meeting, then Hannah turned it back on – so in total about 6 hours.

No seasoning – just placed in crockpot with 1 cup of water

When I got home I turned off the crock pot and put on my cutting board to cool so I could separate the fat.  Look at how tender and juicy the meat is!

Next I chopped up the meat – mind you this meat still has a bit of bite to it.  Had I left it in the crockpot on all day, it would have been shredded and that wasn’t what I was looking for.

the pile on the left is for the dog!

So while the original recipe takes approximately two hours, here is how I made this a weeknight meal:

Put the diced tomatoes in a blender and then add to stock pot.  Add chili powder, cumin, oregano, gloves, 4 cups water and tomato paste and heat over medium heat for about 15 minutes.  Remove 1 cup of tomato mixture and mix with 2 tablespoons corn muffin mix.   Put that mixture in a dish covered with saran wrap and microwave for 1 minute.  Whisk into chili mixture and cook an additional 10 minutes.  For the last 5 minutes, add diced meat and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I was actually surprised how thick this got in just 30 minutes!  We decided to do chili three ways!  I added 1/2 cup black beans to my chili and of course splashed with Tabasco! 😀  3/4 cup comes in at 270 calories, 11 fat, 29 carbs, 15 protein and 5 fiber.

My plate: 5 ounces cooked Smart Taste pasta, 3/4 cup chili, 1/2 cup black beans and 1/4 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese:

540 caloires, 18 fat, 68 carbs, 29 protein 13 fiber!

Stats for Wednesday

• 1,516 calories
• 47 fat
• 212 carbs
• 66  protein
• 38 grams of fiber!
• 27% of calories from fat
• 25 minute Jillian circuit training (mostly biceps/triceps/jumping rope/jumping jacks)
• 25 minute jog on treadmill at 4.5 mph

Here’s hoping we get let out of work early today!  Although while working a snow blower is fun in the beginning, the novelty wears off pretty quickly!

Come back tomorrow – dinner tonight is dry rubbed pork roast – its the perfect dry rub mix, you won’t want to mix it.  And dare I try to make scalloped potatoes?   If so, this would be try number 219 – one of them has to work out, right?  Anyone have any tips?