I am happy to report that Tony has been able to eat a little more this weekend.  He’s had chicken and wild rice soup and eggs with toast.  May not seem like much, but after 9 days of not eating solid food, it takes a while for things to wake up.

He’s able to rest comfortably in the living room, while I keep bizzy in the back of the house in the kitchen.  While I would one day love a kitchen/den open floor concept – I know he can rest when I am making noise in the kitchen. 😀

In the March edition of Bon Appetit, one of my favorite things is when readers ask for the recipes from some of their favorite restaurants.  Someone wanted a recipe for a date bacon scone.  A quick look at the recipe and it called for 1 stick of butter!  So I decided to take Cooking Light’s classic scone recipe and kick it up a notch.  Since I didn’t make these into typical triangles, I weighed out my dough and divided that by 12 – each scone (looks more like a muffin = scuffin!) was 2.1 ounces.

Asiago Cheese Bacon Scuffins with Dried Cranberries

• 167 calories, 7.6 fat, 20.2 carbs, .7 fiber and 4.3 protein = 4 points

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided (1/2 tablespoon is for sprinkle over the top)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons frozen butter*, shredded
• 3/4 cup fat free milk, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg white
• 1 ounce dried cranberries
• 1 ounce cooked bacon
• 1 ounce shredded asiago cheese

Preheat the oven to 425.

Combine the flour, 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl; stir with a whisk.  (* My trick for the butter – the key to flaky biscuits, pie crusts, etc. is to have super cold butter.  I keep sticks of butter in my freezer, so that by the time I use a box grater to grate the cheese, the butter is still super cold.”  Put the shredded butter in the flour mixture – no need to use a pastry cutter since the butter is super fine – just toss to coat.

Combine 1/2 cup milk, vanilla, and egg white in a bowl.  Add mix mixture to flour mixture stirring until moist.  It was at this time that my dough was still super floury, so I  ended up adding an extra 1/4 cup of milk – but just eye ball it until it looks doughy.

I put my chopped bacon, cranberries and shredded cheese on my counter and put the dough on top – adding just a touch of flour I kneaded the dough until just incorporated.

I weighed each dough ball, made it into a circle and pressed down.  Put on Pam sprayed cookie sheet and divide the remaining 1/2 tablespoon sugar and sprinkle over the top of each scuffin.  Bake for 17-19 minutes, or until slightly browned.

These turned out amazing.  I for one love a sweet/savory combo – the scuffin was light, but had a bit of crust on the bottom.  Since I diced up the bacon and dried cranberries, they played off so well when you got each of them in a bite – first slightly sour sweet and then the saltiness of the bacon.  Hannah’s thoughts?  Leave out the dried cranberries and sugar on top – she would prefer cheese and bacon only on hers!

And then I decided to make simple white bread while Tony is on this low fiber diet for the next several weeks.  I adapted this recipe from King Arthur Flour – I didn’t have honey, so I subbed in the sugar, and I didn’t have any dried nonfat milk, so I just added 3 ounces of 1% milk to the dough.

Simple White Bread

• 12 generous slices – 188 calories, 2.5 fat, 35 carbs, 1.4 fiber and 5 protein = 5 PointsPlus

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoons sugar
• 1 package yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons loose yeast)
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 4 cups flour (and up to 1/4 cup additional)
• 3 ounces milk

Mix all the ingredients in a stand mixer using the dough hook.  After a few minutes I realized it needed a bit more flour, so I added 1/4 cup and it was the right consistency.  Let the machine knead the dough for 7 minutes.

Put in a big container and let rise 90 minutes.  Once it has risen, pour into a greased 9 x 5 inch bread pan – it will just about fill the top of the pan, so you need to use this bigger size.  Let rest an additional 90 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350.  Bake for 20 minutes uncovered.  Then bake an additional 20 minutes with foil over the top so it doesn’t brown too much.  Let cool a few minutes then put it on a rack to cool.

And now its time to announce the winner of my giveaway last week in celebration of my 1500th post!

The winner is . . .

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: 107 Result: 22

Julia says:

February 24, 2011 at 3:19 pm (Edit)

Check out all the fabulous BSI recipes – cumin that Holly rounded up!

I’ll announce the new host either later today or tomorrow at the latest.

Have a great Monday!

When I went to the hospital yesterday morning to see Tony, none of his doctors had been by yet.  So I headed to work, but not without spending $1.65 at the cafeteria for 2 scrambled eggs, 2 turkey sausage patties and an english muffin.  When I got to work I toasted the english muffin, then with 1/2 ounce of cheese I had in the work fridge, finished it off in the toaster oven – this is 13 points but totally filling!

Then late in the morning Tony called me to say that his discharge papers were being put together – woot!  I quickly got permission to take the rest of my work day off, and went straight to the hospital.  Turns out when they say they are “starting” the paperwork, three and a half hours later we were ready to go – Tony was so ready to come home!

When we got home he was able to eat a bowl of soup – probably the most he’s eaten in well over a week!  I heated up 1/2 cup of my three bean chicken chili and had it over 2 ounces of leftover pasta – still using what I have in the house! 😀

While I plan on doing a full grocery shop over the weekend, I started thinking about things that Tony could eat – you see he is on a low fiber diet, i.e. white bread, white rice, regular pasta all get the green light!

Tony is not huge on eating breakfast, but when I mentioned pancakes he said yes. 😀  The only problem was that I didn’t have any milk.  But I did have fat free half and half!

Simple Fluffy Pancakes (adapted from Lick My Spoon)

Each pancake: 98 calories, .5 fat, 19.1 carbs, .7 fiber and 3.5 protein = 2 PointsPlus)

• 8 ounces all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 eggs
• 10 ounces of fat free half and half
• (I left out the butter in the batter)

I am the queen of throwing everything in a bowl and just using a mixer, so that’s what I did.  I’ve mentioned it before, but the secret to fluffy pancakes is to let the batter sit for at least 15 minutes to let the baking powder do its magic.

I cook my pancakes over medium heat to start, and then to medium-low as the pan gets hot – about 1-2 minutes a side.

I am submitting these to Christina’s Friday Firsts – first time I’ve used half and half to make pancakes!

When I got home yesterday, I got a package that I forgot I won from Danica:

Cannot wait to try this one though:

Hannah had to take my picture yesterday . . . more details later but I am going to be in a diabetes magazine in April – I thought I would leave you with this out take picture – keep it real peeps!  Have a great weekend!

p.s.  you still have time to enter my giveaway – entries accepted until Sunday night and a winner will be picked on Monday, February 28! 😀

1500

I can’t believe that today’s post marks my 1,500 post! I’ve said it before, but when I started this blog almost 2 1/2 years ago, I had no idea that I would form so many wonderful relationships from this blog.  That is especially appreciated during these last few weeks while Tony has been sick.  While sitting last week during his long surgery, every time I heard the “ding” of a comment sending us positive thoughts, it helped more than you will ever know. 😀

Check out my first blog post here.   And look at how horrible some of my early photography was!

Really, some of my food photography was so unappetizing – I am surprised you stuck with me this long!  Maybe because my food became more photogenic?

I have tried so many things over the past couple of years – sweet potatoes, Greek yogurt, coconut milk, and curry – just to name a few.  I still will never like onions! 😀

So why not celebrate with a giveaway!  First up – the Weight Watcher’s Food Scale:

And what’s a giveaway without a cookbook!

To enter, simply leave me a comment telling me what your favorite comfort food is.  For a second entry, link back to this post, and if you Tweet about it, you get another shot!  First time I am using social media for a giveaway – I am kind of scared!  😀  You have until Sunday, February 27 to enter and I’ll pick a random winner on Monday, February 28 – the last day of February!  Good luck!

So even though I again got home from the hospital after ten last night, I still wanted to cook up some food!  While I said that I was going to use up just what I have on hand, I did have to make a stop to pick up one thing – spicy chili beans:

While my go to chili is my Best Buffalo Chicken Chili, um, guess who is out of Frank’s hot sauce?!  I think my friend Allison just fainted reading that sentence!

So I am calling this one:  Three Bean Chicken Chili.   I brought it to work yesterday and the comments were “I can’t believe how filling this is – delicious!”  and “Chili is your specialty no matter how you make it.  It was delicious – thanks so much!”

Three Bean Chicken Chili (printer friendly version here)

• 1.5 cups per serving: 324 calories, 6.7 fat, 41 carbs, 12 fiber and 28 protein)
• 8 PointsPlus

I am submitting this recipe to Holly at The Balance Broad – this weeks BSI hostess who chose Cumin. 😀

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 large carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 large red pepper
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 5 tablespoons of chili powder
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1/2 cup Frank’s Hot Sauce (so sad!)
• 2 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce
• 1 (15 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 oz) black beans, drained
• 1 (15 oz) dark red kidney beans, drained
• 1 (15 oz) hot chili beans in sauce (do not drain)
• salt and pepper to taste

Put chicken breasts in food processor to grind up – if you can find ground chicken breast, you can use that too.  Heat oil and add ground chicken and cook about 10 minutes on medium heat until no longer pink.  Rinse out processor and add carrots, celery, garlic and red pepper and puree.  Add to chicken mixture and cook about 5 minutes until veggies start to soften.

Next add the rest of the ingredients, put stove on simmer and cook for 1 hour.

172

That is how much I weighed at my quarterly diabetes doctor appointment.  Granted, I was fully dressed and it was the middle of the day, but I can see those extra licks, bites, and oh, yeah, whole pizzas have added up these past couple of weeks – and I haven’t worked out in a week and a half.  But I am owning that number and will make steps to make it lower.  Good news is my blood sugar has been in control, even if my eating hasn’t been!

25

My next diabetes doctor appointment is July 13.  I want to lose 25 pounds by then.  That’s the recurring dialogue every appointment “Biz, your blood sugar numbers are great, your blood pressure, etc.  But let’s try to get some of this weight off.”

2

Tony is eating soft foods, his drain has been removed, he’s no longer on a heart monitor, we are just waiting for his International Normalized Ratio (INR) to get to the magic number of 2 before the heart doctors will let me bring him home.  Fingers double crossed that it’s soon!

I miss having him home.  I miss snuggling while we watch t.v., and I miss having him next to me in bed.  Usually every morning after my alarm goes off, he wakes up for a second, reaches over, pulls me into him and hugs me tight.  At that moment I feel the most unconditional love.  It’s an awesome way to start the day!