This is a sad year people.  An email went out a couple days ago that because of lack of interest, no one was dressing up for Halloween this year.  WTF?!  I, of course, immediately sent an email and said that I was dressing up!  Two other people I know are going to dress up, but it isn’t the same if everyone doesn’t do it, you know?

I still plan on taking lots of pictures so you’ll have to come back tomorrow to see what I dress up as this year!

So we are in the home stretch of my 170 mile challenge!  When Helen left a comment on yesterday’s post, it never dawned on me that because of the hurricane Sandy, the New York Marathon might be cancelled or post-poned.  I couldn’t imagine preparing for months for an event and then have it cancelled.  My fingers are crossed for you Jacky!

So today was my 2-a day!  I was hoping to divide my bike ride evenly between 8 miles before work and 8 miles during lunch.  No such luck – the traffic sucked ass, and I only got just over 5 miles in before I had to head to work.

An unusual Biz breakfast is ahead – Carnation Instant Breakfast made with soy milk!

I was actually quite surprised that this held me through my lunch time workout – 12.3 miles baby!

17.12 miles done and done.  Now I have 50 miles to go before Friday – the race is still on!

Lunch was leftover chicken tortilla soup, still good, I think it gets better the longer it sits, with some tostada nachos on the side.

I can’t be the only one that watches food network while they work out, am I?  Although the time that I usually go is either Sandra Lee, Melissa D’arabian, or Anne Burrell.  Sandra Lee kinda gets on my nerves, although I do like her money saving meals.  Melissa is okay to watch, although she’s sometimes almost TOO perky?  And Anne just thinks she’s all that and a bag of chips.  And I can’t stand her hair.

Well the other day Melissa had a recipe for a three cheese Philly cheesesteak that looked really good.  I chose to make a chicken version though since chicken cutlets were on sale last weekend.  I liked the sandwich, but think its needs more seasoning.  Tony liked it though!  We both only ate half of sammies too – they were big!  You can find Melissa’s version here.

So this morning is going to be a race.  I have to pack up my costume, bring all my pot luck food, get to the gym and hopefully (yikes!) bike 16 miles before work, and then relax once I get to the office at 8:45.

And flashback – Hannah’s first Halloween costume!

Hannah was 7 months old – only 3 months later and she was walking no problem!  Wow, does time fly?

Question of the Day:  What was your favorite costume you ever wore?  I have to say I was a hobo for three years straight.  My mom put Vaseline on my chin and lip and put coffee grounds on it so it looked like I had stubble.  It made it difficult to eat candy, but I loved how it looked!

Have a spooktacular day!

I have Nicole to thank for my delicious breakfast yesterday.  Although, once I adapted it, it’s really inspired by Nicole.  You can check out her original recipe here.  (Um, and much better pictures are on that post too!)

Potato and Poblano Pepper Crustless Quiche

• 4 servings (cooked in a standard pie plate)
• 226 calories, 12 fat, 12 carbs, 1.6 fiber and 15 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 8 ounces of potato, peeled and diced
• 1 poblano pepper  **
• 1.25 cups egg beaters
• 1/4 cup fat free half and half
• 1 cup finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

In my toaster oven set on broil at 450, I roasted the poblano pepper for about 10 minutes, turning once and then put into a ziploc to cool.

Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet.  Add diced potatoes, and cook, 7-9 minutes, just until tender.  Go back to the pepper and remove the charred skins and discard.  Seed and dice the peppers and add them to the potatoes and cook a couple more minutes.

Whisk the egg beaters, half n half, salt and pepper together.  Spray the bottom of your pie plate.  Put the potato/pepper mixture on the bottom layer.  Pour the egg beaters/milk mixture over that, then sprinkle with the cheese.  Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, or until the egg mixture is set.

** Holy shiz when Nicole said she used FOUR poblano peppers in her quiche.  Some peppers are so hot to me I can barely take a bite, and some jalapeno peppers I can eat like an apple.  Mine was SUPER spicy which is why I only added one.  And while a pie crust is nice, you won’t miss it with all the extra cheese you get to have! 

The berries were especially good – both were on sale this week!

I am in the home stretch for my 170 mile challenge.  Since I had my doctors appointment at lunch, those of you who follow me on facebook know I got my ass to the gym this morning to knock out another 9.3 miles.

So this whole mileage challenge started when my blog friend (who I know in real life – seriously, when you get back from NYC we will have to get together!) Jacky had 170 miles of training to go before the New York City Marathon.  It’s already this weekend already!   I’ve since hooked up with her sister Jody, who I played field hockey with.  (Hi Jody!).  She’s been monitoring my mileage, and when I posted that picture on facebook, she said “how many more miles?” 

When I typed out 67.2, I realized I’ll have to bike 16.8 miles the next four days.  We talked about doing 2 a days which is the only way I’ll meet my goal!  Still doable!

Lunch was leftover beef stew with some garlic bread.  I only ate one piece of the garlic bread – it wasn’t that good – I bought a .50 cent loaf of day old bread from Jimmy John’s across the street, but only used a pat of butter and it was really kind of dry.

   

And then came the biscotti.

I went to get some coffee yesterday and I saw three bags of these biscotti.  I asked around and discovered it was one of the attorneys’ mother-in-law who made them, and his wife asked that they leave their house.  Want to know why?

THEY ARE INSULIN WORTHY!!

Holy shizz – I ate three during the whole day.  And while that would be fine with the exercise I am doing to maintain my weight, that isn’t the answer while I am trying to lose weight.  Gah!   Why does food have to taste so good?

Bay scallops were on sale last weekend – I ended up only using 2/3 of this package.

Scallops always remind me of my Dad.  For Tony and I, going out to eat out was a treat – like saved for birthdays and special occasions.  It’s so different how our kids grew up.   They probably ate out more by the time they were ten, then Tony and I did our whole childhood!

We would go to Red Lobster and my Dad would always order scallops, only to complain that they were too small.  I wanted to say “um, it’s because we are at Red Lobster!”  Back then I ate no seafood, but I still remember their cheddar biscuits!

The base of my pasta dish is a low fat alfredo made with fat free half and half.  The bay scallop part was from this recipe, only I reduced the butter to 1 tablespoon and reduced the olive oil to 1 teaspoon.

Somehow, my pasta all stuck together, so half was cooked perfectly, the other half was inedible.  I don’t know if I didn’t use enough water when I cooked the pasta, or what.  So we both could only eat half of this plate.  The flavor was good, so I’ll have to buy better pasta next time.

Don’t you just love the fluorescent lighting in my kitchen??!!  I of course added crushed red pepper to mine.  The scallops were delicious though!

Hurricane Sandy only effected Chicagoland with a windy night – and today should be windy as well, but only like 30 mph winds.

Hope all my east coast friends and families are okay!  I read that 16 people died and millions of people are without power.  Sending big hugs your way!

Off to the gym . . . 16.8 miles have to be done before work and lunch today – wish me luck!

Another weekend has come and gone.  They seem to go faster when the temps cool down and the days are darker longer.  And another weekend when just two meals were eaten both Saturday and Sunday.

Knowing I have a little wiggle room calories wise, I made breakfast tacos Saturday morning.

Breakfast Tacos

3 tacos = 1 serving:  463 calories, 28 fat, 26 carbs, 3.3 fiber and 25 protein

Ingredients:

• 3 corn tortillas (mine are 40 calories each)
• 1 egg
• 2 ounces raw breakfast sausage (mine was low-fat Jimmy Dean)
• 1/2 cup baby spinach
• 3/4 ounce shredded cheddar cheese
• 3 tablespoons taco sauce
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Cook the sausage first, until almost done, then add the egg and spinach and cook just until the eggs are cooked through.  Nuke the tortillas for 30 seconds. 

Put 1 tablespoon taco sauce on the bottom of each tortilla.  Divide egg mixture between the three tacos, then add 1/4 ounce of cheddar cheese over each taco.  Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. 

Fry 2-3 minutes per side, just until they crisp up.  Serve with salsa on the side for dipping and garnish with cilantro.

So, so good.  And filling!  I made these around 11:30 and we didn’t eat dinner until 6:30!  Hannah was in town to babysit overnight and one of the families she used to baby sit for.  We had an hour to kill before she had to be there.  We went thrifting, of course!

When I dropped her off the Mom hugged me – the kids were so happy to see Hannah.  I hadn’t met the Mom before but she told me that she considers Hannah as part of the family – so sweet!  I knew we would have more time to spend together on Sunday, so I just headed to the grocery store and went back home.

Dinner Saturday night?  Super easy – leftover Chicken tortilla soup and chicken and cheese quesadillas.

So cheezy!

Sunday morning when I was cooking up my SIL’s lunches for the week, Hannah got dropped off from her babysitting gig.  I had about an hours worth of work and it was nice sharing coffee and catching up with her face to face.

We went to another thrift store – this one is huge!

You could literally spend all day there and never see everything.  Hannah was shopping for jeans:

I ended up getting new (boring) work shoes that are super comfy, some workout t-shirts that were all .22 cents!  And then I got this Nike jacket – it was sold AS IS because it had a tiny stain on it, which I already was able to get out – it was only .88 cents!  Um, can you tell that blue is my favorite color?

And before we knew it, we had to get her to the train station to head back down to Chicago – there aren’t too many options so we didn’t want to be late.  So of course, we had time for photos!  And that jacket?  The woman Hannah babysits for gave it to her – it’s a North Face and totally cute!

That last picture cracks me up!  And after the train pulled away, I was already dressed for the gym, I ended up doing 10.5 miles on the bike, bringing my total down to 76.5 left in my 170 mile challenge – eek, I have just five days to finish – I can do it!

For dinner I made a wonderful beef stew – perfect for a chili night.  You can find the recipe here.  The meat is tossed in a mixture of flour, cinnamon and brown sugar – sounds weird but it gives it a very interesting flavor – the only change I made was to use a bottle of pumpkin beer.

Pure comfort in a bowl! 

I am working out before work today because at lunch time I am getting the stitches off my face – can’t wait.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to scratch my face forgetting they were there!

My football picks kind of sucked too – Tony and my step-son kicked my ass this week.

Does anyone have any Halloween activities going on this week?  We dress up at my office every year and have a pot luck.  In case I have new readers who weren’t around last Halloween – I went as Guy Fieri last year!

Happy Monday – make it a great day!

Fall is definitely in the air – it was only 31 degrees yesterday morning when I left for work.  We are going to take down our gazebo this weekend, which is always the sign for the end of summer.

I found a Jimmy Dean breakfast bowl in my deep freeze, who knows how long its been there.  I have to think a while, because the eggs almost tasted rubbery.  But I was running late and it was easy – I had a cup of un-photographed fruit on the side.  Breakfast comes in at 286 calories, 8.23 fat, 30 carbs, 2.6 fiber and 22 protein.

I made it to the gym at lunch – this time did 9.31 miles in 35 minutes, then did 10 minutes of abs with the balance ball.

Only 85 miles left in my 170 mile challenge – woot!

You know over the summer how I used to do cookouts at my office on Fridays.  I didn’t do too many this past summer because everyone really needs to be in the office to make it cost effective for me and, um, its kind of a lot of work. 

I decided to do Soup Friday’s though!  Yesterday was my first one.  Soup is easy.  I just put it in the crockpot around ten, and my noon it was ready to go.  I asked for a $2 donation and ended up making $12, plus I have lots of leftovers!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

• makes 8 GENEROUS servings (about 1.75 cups)
• 231 calories, 4.8 fat, 32 carbs, 6.6 fiber and 14 protein

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds diced chicken breast
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cracked pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon chile para naranja (if you can’t find, use chili powder)**
• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano (or regular dried oregano)
• 1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• Two, 15 oz. cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• Two, 15 oz. cans white canned corn, drained
• Two, 28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
• 32 oz. box of chicken stock

Heat the oil in a big stock pot.  Salt and pepper the chicken and sear the chicken, so it gets golden, but not cooked through.  Remove from pan. 

Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add the chicken stock, tomatoes, poblano pepper and all the seasonings.  Reduce heat to medium low and cook until the pepper is soft.  I don’t like too chunky of tomatoes in soup (that sentence sounds awful!), so at this point I pureed everything.

Then I added the chicken back in, the black beans and corn and simmered for 15 more minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

I brought garnishes too!  Sliced limes, cilantro, sliced jalapeno and fried tortilla strips.  I couldn’t help it, the deep fryer is still in the kitchen from when I made the Chik-fil-A sammies!  I loved the added crunch on the top.  My bowl with the toppings comes in at 332 calories, 6 fat, 51 carbs, 10 fiber (nice!) and 21 protein.

** this is what my seasoning looks like.  Even though it says “chile for orange” it’s actually paprika chili, sugar, lemon and salt.

 

This is what I call a “company” soup because it isn’t too spicy.  I also had three hot sauces if anyone wanted to kick it up.  I was fine with the jalapenos.  It got rave reviews.  I kept forwarding Tony emails I got from my co-workers saying how good it was – and I always tell him “I am changing lives, one bowl of soup at a time!”

So you know how I am always wanting to have Party Pizza Friday.  Well guess what.  Yesterday I wasn’t in the mood for pizza – I know!  I think I should take my temperature.

With the $12 from my lunch sales burning a whole in my pocket, I went to the store to see what I could come up with for dinner.  I had surf and turf on the brain.

I ended up getting half a pound of shrimp for $4.71 cents and two steaks for $5.03.  Tony and I even split a steak, so our surf and turf dinner comes in at $7.21.  Not too shabby for date night in!

The star of the plate?  The shrimp scampi.  Usually in restaurants its just sitting in a pool of butter, which typically I don’t mind, but I wanted to come up with a slightly lighter version.

Shrimp Scampi

• serves 2
• 200 calories, 10 fat, 3 carbs, 2 fiber and 21 protein

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound shrimp
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 ounces white wine
• 2 heaping teaspoons minced garlic
• salt and pepper
• juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (I added it just to mine)

Melt the butter and oil over medium high heat.  Salt and pepper the shrimp and toss them in the pan.  Once one side is cooked, flip it over, add the garlic, wine, lemon juice and cook another minute until the shrimp is cooked through.  Remove from heat and sprinkle with the parsley.

Our steak in total was 8 ounces, so we eat got a 4 ounce portion.

I used our indoor cast iron grill pan.  The secret to medium rare steak?  High heat, then 2x2x2x2.  Two minutes on one side, two minutes on the other side, then two minutes flipped the other way so you get the cross marks, then two minutes and you are done.  Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

This plate of goodness comes in at 372 calories, 16 fat, 3 carbs, .2 fiber and 51 protein.  I’d say that’s a Paleo dinner, wouldn’t you?

So this morning when I added up my eats for the day?  I was only at like 1000 calories!  Which would explain why I ate 450 calories worth of potato chips while watching t.v. last night.

Stats:

• 1442 calories, 60 fat, 128 carbs, 17 fiber and 101 protein
• 9.31 bike ride at lunch
• average blood sugar 151

I get to see Hannah today!!!  She’s back in town to babysit overnight at one of the families she used to babysit for.  It’s actually 4 families with 8 kids ranging in age from 4 to 10.  The parents have an annual Halloween party.  Hannah watches the kids in one house, they all sleep over there, then Hannah wakes up and makes them breakfast.   The parents end up sleeping in and then having a brunch for the adults at noon.  It’s a sweet gig because she gets paid by each family – I think she made like $300 bucks last year?

Then I’ll pick her up tomorrow and we are going to go thrifting before she heads back home.  I miss her face!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Before we get to the topic of today’s post, the winner of my 1,000,000 page view giveaway is . . .

Min 1            :Max:         84          Result:7

Aimee on October 24, 2012 at 1:17 pm said:Edit

Since I can’t run I have to ride the bike which means I get to read blogs the very second they hit my reader. Congratulations Biz!! That’s awesome. I live in Massachusetts. Off to twat the giveaway! Sounds so dirty. LOL!! Have a great day.

Congrats Aimee!  Send me an email at mybizzykitchen@gmail.com with your mailing address.

Let’s quickly show yesterdays eats, because after seeing the food pics, you may not have an appetite!

I tried making a pumpkin parfait.  It is close to being great.  I love that it isn’t overly sweet, but I need to add some texture to the canned pumpkin – maybe mix it with diced apple or dried cranberries?  Admittedly, my co-worker thought it looked like baby food, but this was delicious – 1 container of plain Chobani, 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin mixed with 1 tablespoon of sugar free pancake syrup, and for the granola, I broke up one piece of Pioneer woman’s granola bars.

I left my good camera at the office, so thanks google images for my breakfast and lunch pictures!  My parfait came in at 388 calories, 6 fat, 62 carbs (eek!), 7.4 fiber and 25 protein.

I WENT TO THE GYM!   Knowing that I still had over 100 miles to get to in just 9 days, I ended up doing 12.9 miles on the exercise bike in 45 minutes.  I did random hills on level 5 and kept my RPMs over 100 the whole time – its been nearly a week since I’ve worked out!

Lunch was leftovers – red beans and rice with sausage, mixed with 1 cup chopped baby spinach.  Lunch comes in at 555 calories, 23 fat, 60 carbs, 8.7 fiber and 27 protein.  Can you tell I chose this picture off of google images because of the Tabasco sauce??!!

When I got home Tony asked what was for dinner.  I said chicken.  He said “didn’t we have chicken last night?”  Well, yes we did, but chicken was the only meat I had thawed out.  So I said “chicken sandwiches and fries or chicken mushroom pasta.”  He said “Chik-fil-A sandwiches with mayo and pickles!”

Truth be told, I still have yet to try a Chik-fil-A.  I told you there was one that opened up near our house but the place is always packed, even two lanes in the drive-thru!

I loosely based my recipe on this one:   Um, there’s looks pretty amazeballs!

I did ours a bit differently.  Each of our chicken sandwiches was only 4 ounces and pounded thin.  Each sandwich maybe retained 1 tablespoon of milk and 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture.  I didn’t butter our buns, and I left out the powdered sugar in the recipe, but that’s just a personal taste.

I topped ours with 1/2 ounce slices of American cheese, used light (80 calorie) buns, and I topped mine with these pickles, which are amazing and almost all gone.

I was going to throw the brine away when I saw on the label: “uses for pickle juice: marinate chicken, pork or beef.”  What??!!  I am bringing pulled pork sandwiches for our Halloween luncheon next week and plan to use this.  Yum!  So my sandwich by itself comes in at 347 calories, 23 fat, 15 carbs, .1 fiber and 22 protein.

I may have dipped my fries in this?

It was a simple, quick and easy week night dinner.  You should check out the original recipe though if you’ve had Chik-fil-A before.

It’s been a couple months since I KERFed out loud.  I actually haven’t read her blog lately, but my co-worker sent me a link.  She and I are on the same page that we just can’t figure out what is so interesting about her – I think she doesn’t seem to have much personality, I’ve never known a blogger to post more pictures of themselves into almost every post.  (Tony thinks that I am just jealous that her blog is more popular than mine!)

What stopped me in my tracks?

SHE ATE HER PLACENTA!!

In her original post she actually posted the picture of the woman who was encapsulating her placenta, while her placenta was on the kitchen counter.  It’s since been cropped, so I won’t let you get too grossed out.

That lady above drove 100 miles round trip ($300 in total to cook the placenta and mileage) to make placenta tea and encapsulate her placenta into pills.   Their doula took the placenta from the delivery room and brought it back to KERF’s refrigerator. 

Nicole also left “placenta tea” in fridge for when I got home, which was essentially the broth she cooked it in (I think?) seasoned with spices and flavors to make it palatable. I was brave and gave it a taste – it was like the strongest black and herbal tea I’ve ever had mixed together. There was no trace of iron or blood or anything gross. In fact, both my MOM and MATT tasted it!!!

There was no trace of iron or blood or anything gross?  Seriously, I am just happy I was young and clueless when I had Hannah.  There was no internet to speak of, I didn’t read any books.  Just followed my doctors advice and somehow she turned out okay.

Am I just old and this is the newest and latest thing??  I am so curious to hear what my nurse and RD blogging friends have to say about it!

And will wait to see the comments for me to just mind my own business.   It’s okay, I’ve got my big girl pants on today.

HAPPY FRIDAY!   Only 94.33 miles to go in my 170 miles challenge – woot!