I Cheated on Chobani

Dear Chobani.  Oh how I love thee.  You have been good to me the last couple years, sending me free products, t-shirts and spoons.  I’ve been spreading the word about your wonderful yogurt so much so that my boss who once thought she hated Greek yogurt has come to love it.

But this week you weren’t on sale.  And the Yoplait was and it was winking at me, and before I knew it, it was in my cart ready to make the trip home with me.

And while this wasn’t as good as Chobani, it was pretty tasty. 

I ended up running a couple errands at lunch with my co-worker.  We stopped at T.J. Maxx – I love that place for their home goods section – so many cool dishes and food items.  I ended up picking up a bottle of agave nectar for only $2.99 for a 12 ounce bottle, and got these cute mini casserole dishes – 2 for $4.99.

My friend didn’t bring a lunch so she suggested Chipotle, and while you know I always bring my lunch, it sounded really good.

I was in Tabasco heaven!

I ended up getting the burrito bowl: chicken, brown rice, black beans, romaine and some cheese.  When I got back to the office, I did the nutrition calculator, and that whole dish was 610 calories!  So I ate 2/3 of it, for around 400 calories – oh, and I got the spicy red salsa – so good!  Also in that dish?  1500 mg of sodium!  I drank a lot of water yesterday afternoon!

I had simple grilled chicken thighs on our dinner menu, and decided to make a quick broccoli gratin side dish.  I let the microwave do most of the work!

Broccoli Gratin for Two

• each serving: 247 calories, 16 fat, 332 sodium, 14 carbs, 1.8 fiber and 13 protein

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped cooked broccoli
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup non-fat buttermilk
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• pinch of pepper

Cook the broccoli in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Let it cool enough so that you can chop it up.  I prefer my broccoli to be crisp tender.

In a saucepan, melt butter.  Add flour and cook 1 minute.  Slowly add the buttermilk, making a roux.  Remove from heat and add cheese and stir until combined.  I think there is enough salt in the cheese so I didn’t add any, but you could if you wanted to.  Add the chopped broccoli to the cheese sauce, mix and divide between two oven safe dishes.  Put under the broiler for a couple minutes until nice and bubbly.

I also had 1/2 a cup of rice on the side, but since the casserole dish was a bit big, I just added it to my broccoli and ended up stirring it in.  Oh, and I may or may not have added buffalo Tabasco to my broccoli too. 

I never used to like chicken thighs.  Truth be told, I never even tried them until a few years ago, I had myself conditioned that I didn’t like dark meat, and there is so much more flavor going on with thighs.  I had a chipotle honey bbq sauce on mine, so good!

I have got to get back on the exercise train!  Turns out when I get off the train for too many days in a row, it’s hard to get back on the train.  Can you leave me a comment today telling me to get my ass to the gym today?!  Thanks for the push!

Come back tomorrow – I have a couple new recipes.  Right now I am making banana flax seed buttermilk pancakes with agave nectar and applesauce.  And over the weekend I made pickled radishes that are amazeballs.  Veronica, you will totally love this recipe!

And for the record, my brother and sister both hate when I use the word amazeballs.  I just forwarded them this:

Make it a great day!