intervention

Well its a new year.... and you know what that means! Everyone is back on their diet. This year I decided I didn't want to make a diet resolution, I wanted to make a healthy resolution. I want to be healthy. I want to be fit. I want to weigh what I weighed when I got married..... 2 and a half years ago. It was NOT that long ago, how have I gained this much weight?!?! Oh... I know how, I was eating bite for bite with my stick figure husband. Damn his metabolism!!!! So while he went to work every day and performed manual labor to sweat off what he ate last night, I set on my butt answering phones and typing binders. When I went out into the PR world last summer I thought, "Here's my chance, I can move around all day, I can resist snacking by not eating in the car, I can get up and walk around the neighborhood in the mornings since I no longer have a 45 minute commute to work." And I did all of those things..... and I gained weight. GAINED WEIGHT!!!!!!! OHHHH MYYYYY GOSHHHHH!!!

I was mad and I gave up, convincing myself that this is who I am and I'm happy. But the truth is this is not me, and I'm not happy. I mean I have never been that girl who could eat whatever she wanted and still be thin, actually I've never been "thin" but I have been healthy and a decent size before. That is all I want.

So it started small, cut out cokes and tea. Only water and lowcal milk. Easy enough. Then step two, portion control, no more second helpings!!! Little harder. Step three, actually start counting calories. Which is where the sneaky part came in. Making a little bit of food into a lot of food by adding fruits and veggies. That was easy.

In between all of this I was reading, reading and reading about what all my body needs and how many calories I need a day to lose a pound a week. I found lots of inspiration on youtube, seeing ACTUAL people with an actual need to lose weight, actually lose it. That helped a lot. Not seeing some skinny ho on the nutrisystem commercials with before pics that may or may not of been her telling me that I'm a fatty.

Now I've lost 6 pounds and I'm really starting to get excited about it. Almost instantly my face cleared up, as I had been a victim of dietary rosacea for a while. I knew exactly what was wrong with my face, but when people would ask why my cheeks were so red I would blame it on me being hot or sunburned. It was embarrassing to say, "I'm all flushed looking cause I eat pure crap".

One of my main reasons for not eating healthy was, "It's hard to be on a diet and feed your husband too, he isn't satisfied with a lean cuisine and a salad for dinner." Which is true, but this time I wasn't going to let that stop me. Now there have been nights when I had a grilled chicken salad and he dined on a chicken quesadilla AND chicken nuggets, but those are few and far between. He has been very supportive and even joked with me that, "Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean I am" as he tried my new slim version of a once calorie laden dinner.

I said all of this to say, I know I am not alone. So I am going to put this culinary brain to work and come up with some man pleasing dinners that are easy on the waistline.

The first being, taco salad. BIG on taste, BIG on portion, small on calories! And the best part, you stay full for hours, and I mean HOURS, like eat for dinner and go to sleep and wake up still full. That's what I'm talking about!!!

Taco Salad
recipe by me

cook a pound of ground turkey and then season it with taco seasoning like normal.

lay out a bed of lettuce

mix 1/2 cup of each of the following: turkey taco meat, fat free refried beans, brown rice - and kinda spread it out over the lettuce.

top with 1/4 cup of kraft fat free cheese

top with 1/4 cup rotel

top with 2 tablespoons light sour cream

sprinkle 1/2 of an avocado, diced over that

~~~~~

Now I forgot to take a picture, but this took up an entire plate and was mounded way up high. So so so good! All for 585 calories!!! It is full of protein, which keeps you fuller longer. Don't be afraid of the ground turkey, once it is seasoned and mixed with all of this, you can't tell a difference.

Now I'm off to step four.... THE GYM!! :D

I heart chips n salsa

So much that I'm going to have them for dessert!!!

While the above statement is somewhat true, I put a spin on the traditional chips n salsa to make it more dessert friendly. Because only a special breed of people would actually want salty chips and spicy salsa for dessert, and just because I fall into that category doesn't mean the guests coming to my house last night would.

Last night there was a mexican theme in the Webb household. Instead of making soapapilla's for dessert, I wanted something that could be prepared ahead of time.

I took 5 taco size flour tortillas and sprayed the tops of them with a non stick cooking spray, and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the spray. From there I cut them into triangles and spread them out on a baking stone.

They almost look like grill marks, huh?

Now they go into a preheated 350* oven for 15 minutes.

For the salsa part, I chopped kiwis and strawberries, sprinkled with sugar and let them chill in the fridge. I actually did them the night before to save time, and the kiwis lost their color. So if I were you I would chop just the strawberries ahead of time and sprinkle with sugar and right before serving, add the chopped kiwi.

Either way it plated so cute! Looked just like chips n salsa!


It tasted equally as good, just in a totally different direction!

Run for your thighs!! Its.... GRILLZILLA!

Bradley's newest bob the builder escapade lead him to assist a friend in building what I like to refer to as "the biggest flippin' grill I ever did see", more affectionately known as..... GRILLZILLA.

Yes it is obnoxiously huge and yes he did have to build a new deck specifically for housing the flavor injecting beast. But that's ok because now my covered deck is going to be turned into a "tropical getaway".

I'm always trying to turn places into tropical getaways, seriously, can one of y'all just move me to the beach and call it good?? Please? My birthday is soon!!

This tropical get away isn't going to happen overnight, as patio furniture is DANG EXPENSIVE even in the off season when it is on clearance. Not to mention no where has it in the store anymore so I'm having to order it offline and pay for shipping and cross my fingers that nothing is damaged in the process. So I'm saving my pennies and if you would like to donate yours... please see me after the show. (ahem birthday soon ahem)

Where was I? Oh yeah, the big black thing in my backyard....

Anyway it came to us late Thursday night and we left a football party early on Saturday because Bradley was itching to go to the grocery store and buy large pieces of various animals to throw into its big steel belly. FEED THE BEAST! FEED THE BEAST!

Let the marination process commence!

And it was good. Sunday was spent "smoking" and not the wacky tabacky kind. (can you tell its past my bedtime?) He cooked a slab of ribs that looked like they were from a rhino.... or maybe an elephant, pork chops (that I rubbed with a new spice mix a friend told me about, don't worry I'll show you later) and an entire chicken. En......tire.....chicken. Remember Magda from There's Something About Mary? hehe That's what Mr Chicken looked like when he checked out of Hotel Grill-ifornia.

Of course we couldn't eat all that Sunday night, so we've spent this week finding new ways to enjoy smoky food. All jokes aside that thing makes some great food! The chicken was turned into chicken tacos last night and chicken nachos tonight. Both equally amazing.

Nothing special, just chips, chicken, rotel, corn, cheese and a spicy sour cream sauce I made up.


Take sour cream, mix in taco seasoning (to taste), mix in juice from rotel until it is a little runny and you are able to "drizzle" it on things like tacos and nachos.

YUM!

Cinco! Cinco de Mayo!!!

I've been singing that all day, to the tune of I Dream of Jeanie.

Thank you for joining me on this awesome Cinco de Mayo! I have great news, but I can't unveil it just yet.... stay tuned. I should be able to tell you either tomorrow or Wednesday. Here, have some salsa while you wait!



Meanwhile, I would like for you all to notice how hard I have been working on my photography. I think if you go look at the beginning of my blog and then today's post you will really see a difference.

Tonight was allllll about our friends from South of the border. On this day, I like to sit and wonder...... I am here in America eating salsa and drinking coronas and singing my newly composed cinco de mayo song. On the fourth of July will there be senoritas sitting in Mexico eating french fries and drinking bud light and singing a song they made up about our Independence Day?

Another one of my favorite American - Spanish questions to ponder is, "Do they have peso trees like we have dollar trees?" Because I do love the dollar tree, although I have to be in the mood for it.

FUN FACT - my everyday dishes are from the dollar tree. Hey, scoff if you want but I love 'em!

Now let's get back to business. Tonight's meal was Mexican Hamburgers with guacamole and salsa. YUM!!



I made a Cilantro-Lime Mayo to smear on the buns. Take two nice scoops of mayo, stir in juice from half a lime and chopped cilantro. Just go by taste on the cilantro, I happen to like a lot, but if you don't then only use a little.





For the Guacamole I cubed one avocado, drizzled it with the juice from half a lime, added 1/4 tsp garlic powder, and forked in Ro*Tel salsa a little at a time until it reached the consistency I like - still a little chunky.





The Mexican Hamburgers were also easy. One pound of ground beef, 2 tbspns of the recently posted Mexican seasoning and the juice from.... you guess it, half a lime! Mix it all together and let it chill in the fridge for an hour or two. Form into 4 patties and grill.

I glazed them with a Smoky Chipotle Sauce right before they were finished grilling, so the sauce would set, instead of being runny.

1/3 cup ketchup
1 T mustard
1 T oil
1 T vinegar
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
2 chipotle chilies, seeded and chopped
3 t adobo sauce

whisk all together and heat in a sauce pan. keep warm until ready to glaze your meat.



The finished product?? Maravilloso, como siempre!

when life hands you limes...

then you know it is almost time for Cinco de Mayo!!

I am extra excited this year for Cinco de Mayo because it is the first year that we won't be making tacos at home or going to our favorite local mexican dive. Nope - this year I am cooking the Cinco de Mayo dinner! I have been planning out my recipe all week long and am just chomping at the bit to get out there and put it all together!

We went to the grocery store today and bought the ingredients for the dinner. I keep going into the kitchen and re-checking to make sure they are all still there. I don't think I've been this excited about making a meal since Thanksgiving!

I decided to go ahead and make my mexican seasoning, in an attempt to get a "fix" until the real thing! Sure, you can buy taco seasoning, but why? I'm sure most everyone has the ingredients in their pantry to put it together, and it is more fun this way!

Let's get started!

Mexican Seasoning
recipe by me

1 tbspn chili powder
1/4 tspn garlic powder
1/4 tspn onion powder
1/4 tspn ground red pepper
1/4 tspn oregano
1/4 tspn dried cilantro
1/4 tspn marjoram
1/2 tspn paprika
2 tspn cumin
1 tspn course ground salt

measure everything into a ziploc baggie, close and give a good shake. label it and make sure it is all used up within 6 months. 2 tbspns will season 1 pound of ground beef

See you in a year, Cary :(

Today my husband's best friend leaves for Iraq to be an on base fire fighter. He is not only Bradley's best friend; he is also one of mine. He is the third plate at my dinner table.... or in our case, at the coffee table. I don't know what we're going to do without him.... but a year will fly by quick I'm sure.... I hope!

Saturday night we had a going away party for him. His favorite food is Mexican and the party theme was "fire", so spicy Mexican food seemed to fit. I made my famous salsa and quesa-deLas.... and we also had some hot dogs for good measure. Everything was a big hit! I'm so glad; I wanted the party to be really special for Cary. All I heard was "I need the recipe for this salsa!" Don't worry girls, I told you it was easy.... and I meant it -

DeLa's Blender Salsa
recipe by me!

2 cans of Del Monte Stewed Tomatoes - Mexican Recipe
1 can of Rotel - your choice of flavor, I prefer Mexican Festival (blue label)
one bunch of cilantro, stems removed
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
juice of one lime

** tip: try not to play around with the salt and garlic powder, using two tablespoons of garlic salt instead of the above makes it too salty to eat **

Slightly drain the canned items, and dump everything on the list into the blender. Pulse until you reach the consistency you desire, I prefer the "liquefy" button. Keep it chilled and keep the "salsa bowl" full!

At work, we have a dip that everyone loves called chicken dip. It has 3 simple ingredients: canned chicken, cream cheese and ranch powder. To be so simple, it is so delicious! Last football season I served it a few times, but then it started to get old. So I played with the ingredients and came up with the filling for the second item on the party's menu (sorry the descriptions of size are so bad) -

Quesa-DeLa's
recipe by me, again!

one of the larger cans of chicken
one tub of whipped cream cheese
1/3 cup taco seasoning

Mix everything together and do a taste test to make sure the seasoning is right. Add a little more if you need to. Now... here comes the part where you get creative! This is extremely versatile! From here, you can pour it into a bowl, top with shredded cheese and serve with chips as a dip. You can spread it onto a flour tortilla, roll it up and cut into pinwheels. Or, you can do like I did (above) and sandwich between two flour tortillas and cut into triangles. It would even make a great 8th layer to 7 layer dip. You just do what your stomach tells you to do and everything will come out right!



Good luck Cary! We love you and can't wait to see you again!