Be Prepared!

Always makes me think of the Lion King song. Where Scar is singing with the laughing hyenas. Tee he he.

Anyway - Now that I have a baby on the way quick and easy dinners have been at the top of my list. Not only in the here and now when I am too tired to cook my usual over the top dinners, but for when we bring home our son. Something that can be made in minutes and is easy enough that Bradley won't freak out when I ask him to make it.

When I was little, mom use to make me "philly cheese and noodles". (I was actually in college before I was told that cream cheese was not called "philly cheese") Well these days there are tons of flavored cream cheeses out there. From sweet to savory. Two new kinds were introduced this summer, one of those being spinach and artichoke.

Bradley loves spinach and artichoke dip. So I bought it. I actually bought it when I was still battling nausea and I was nauseous when I bought it so just looking at the tub made me feel nauseous again. The pregnancy brain is an odd creature. But today I decided to bite the bullet, open the tub and make philly cheese and noodles.

Talk about quick AND easy!! This takes all of ten minutes. I boiled three servings of small sea shells in salty water, drained them and returned them to the warm pot. Then I scooped out a little less than half the tub, and stirred the pasta until the cheese melted and covered the noodles. I then stirred in a splash of milk to keep it from setting back up. There were actually big pieces of spinach and artichokes in the cheese, not just tiny specks.

Next time you're at the store pick up a savory blend that catches your eye and try it out. I promise you won't be disappointed!

three quick things, ya gotta try!!

first of all, for anyone who may read my blog but not my friend jaime's - the grocery game is something that really intrigues me and i plan on signing up for soon. i despise coupons...... UGH! but love saving money, and now that im buying a lot of fresh fruits and veggies for full price i need to be saving money else where. well that and the whole economy thing. basically im a sucker for easyness. go into the grocery, get what you want, get out. making a list and clipping coupons does NOT appeal to me, but its something i need to grow up and do. i dont budget and im a horrible impulse buyer. which is so not mature! i need to act my wage, so im going to use the grocery game to help me out and i wish you would, too!! ive already been clipping coupons and checking out the sales paper, and i cant wait to pick up a sunday paper for even more coupons! yay for growing up!!

number two - and this kind of ties into the grocery game and eating healthy. e-mealz.com is a co-workers sister's business. (jaime, look at the picture and guess which one, they look exactly alike!) the grocery game helps you make a list, emealz goes one step further and creates your menu!! how awesome is that!! for just $5 bucks a month, you pick your plan (points, low fat, just for two, family size, etc...) and pick your store and print out your recipes complete with grocery list. it even puts the correct price by each item!! this is also something i plan on implementing.

lastly, and not nearly as exciting as saving money and having a meal plan made for you with the push of a button..... but still tasty.... is asian pears. oh.... my.... gosh!!!! also known as (thanks to me) "appears", they are delicious bites of heaven. so juicy with a honey like sweetness. please go get one. i have found them at wal mart and publix and am totally addicted to them.

Recipe Review

I have several low cal recipes book marked, and I plan to try them all and see which ones fool my husband and which ones will be filed under the "never make again it tastes like cardboard" tab. I don't wanna use the word diet here...

I eat whatever I want. Nothing is off limits. However, I only allow myself a set number of calories a day, so I have to budget them. Kinda like a bank account. Now, say I have $100 dollars to spend at the galleria. As soon as I walk in I see a shirt in the window at express and swoon and go try it on. It's $48 (and you know that's true!). As I'm walking out of the dressing room I notice the clearance rack and realize that I can get two shirts and a pair of jeans for $35. Why on earth would I blow half my money on one shirt when I could get one shirt plus an entire outfit for $13 less??? It works the same way with calories. At the end of the day, I want to come in on budget, and not overdrawn :D Sure I could have a coke, but for the same amount of calories I could have a string cheese and 16 wheat thins, with calories (money?) leftover!!

So when I saw a recipe on eatingwell.com entitled No-Bake Macaroni and Cheese, I wanted to give it a shot.

picture borrowed from foodnetwork.com who borrowed it from eatingwell.com

First of all, it should be titled Broccoli Alfredo. It in no way tastes like macaroni and cheese and if you dive in expecting it to then you might be turned off. With that aside, this is a great recipe! The recipe feeds four at 412 calories per serving, which is a little on the high side but it makes a TON and the serving size is really big. I think they intended it to be the main course, serving it as a side, you can lessen the portion and have fewer calories.

When I saw the calorie count I made one change and used fat free cheese instead, which lowered the count to 327.

Also - We tried whole wheat pasta for the first time. It has slightly fewer calories but extra good for you stuff. Well worth it. I couldn't tell a difference, and once you boil it the dark brown color fades a little. Covered in the white sauce, it looked like regular pasta.

This recipe will be tucked away for future use, filed under "Alfredo".

Attention Carb Lovers

You're gonna love THESE!

They bake up super crispy on the outside.... but the inside... oh man the inside... it's like mashed potatoes in there!

It is by far one of the best frozen foods I have purchased in quite some time.

Not to mention, when I googled them to get a picture for this post, I discovered they make all sorts of frozen foods. Can't wait to try some of their other stuff!

http://alexiafoods.com/index.html

Can't leave well enough alone....

Every couple of months I go on grocery shopping frenzies. It usually starts out with good intentions, just going to the store for a few things totalling under $20 dollars. Then I see something I like.... and something else.... and then it is all over.

See I can't knowingly spend lots of money on groceries. It hurts me. I know we have to eat, but I would much rather spend my money on fun stuff, like clothes or shoes. So I have to trick my self into accidentally grocery shopping. In between those times I drop under $20 dollars a week on stuff we run out of and desperately need (read: cheese and bacon and coke zero) at the grocery. This goes on for months.

Well this weekend I had one of "those" shopping trips. I found a new product I wanted to try and it was all down hill from there. I was meal planning like crazy. The product was a macaroni grill chicken helper type thing. I thought, "Yum macaroni grill how bad can it be?!"



I was right! But was it their fault.... or mine??

I tried the above version first. It was a basil alfredo sauce with chicken, noodles and sun dried tomatoes. Ok Bradley is not going to eat sun dried tomatoes. So I omitted those. Plus I only like them on salads, so tata matoes. Then I read the directions. "Brown chicken in butter". That's it? No seasoning?

No no no. Step back macaroni grill... let me handle this.

I chunked up chicken tenderloins and tossed them with a generous amount of italian seasoning. Heated up a few tablespoons of butter with some evoo and cooked my chicken.... all the way through because it wanted you to finish cooking them in the sauce and that's just gross. I also sauteed some onions and baby bella mushrooms in evoo and italian seasonings, and fried some bacon. I mixed the mushrooms and onions with the chicken, sauce and noodles, and topped the dish with crumbled bacon and parmesan cheese.

It was SO good! I guess I can't take any credit for the sauce, I mean right out of the box it was good. It was almost like a pesto alfredo sauce. I asked bradley if he thought it would of been just as good if I had of just made it like the box wanted me to and he said, "I don't want to think about it!"

Team O-Town

My 2 best friends, and one of my best friend's older brother, are now competing in "Scale Back Alabama". It is a state wide competition where teams of four work together to each lose ten pounds in ten weeks, and have fun while they are doing it the healthy way.


Our name is "Team O-Town", which is very fitting and very reminiscent of our high school days. And no, we aren't named after the boy band.

Weigh in was last night and the dieting started immediately after. I went to Publix because I wanted to make fish tacos, but with all the moving in and setting up.... the fish is still setting in the fridge letting the rub soak in. So while Bradley was working his fingers to the bone in the basement, my stomach was screaming at me upstairs while I was unpacking. Being in my healthy state of mind, I dug through the freezer to see what we had. Our freezer is actually very healthy... if only I could say the same for the refrigerator and pantry.

Have you tried these? They get my "rave review" of the day! Despite the fact that the fillet is a perfect square, it is actually a real piece of fish that cooks up nice and tender in the microwave. While it was cooking I made a salad of half spring mix and half baby spinach, topped it with a couple of pepperonis and a little low fat shredded cheese, then spritzed it with my Salad Spritz Cesar Dressing. I ate that while the fish was cooking and cooling. The combination was very filling, extremely tasty and all for under 250 calories!

Then at 10:30 when Bradley finally found his way to the couch, I made him a ham and cheese melt and he ate every bit and went right to bed and his pants still buttoned in the morning. Ugh.
Hopefully I will be able to post up some healthy recipes that are still very tasty. That's my plan, make it taste great so I won't have to cook two separate dinners every night!

Bad Blogger....

So.... instead of cooking, baking and having fun in the kitchen together.... we have been house hunting, signing papers, packing and eating out - alot. And wouldn't you know it, the one night we stay in and cook delicious venison tenderloin wrapped in bacon..... i left my camera at work!

With the desire to be in the kitchen and taking pictures of beautifully prepared and easily edible meals nipping at my heels...I decided that maybe I could do something just as fun until we got back into the swing of things. It's something I like to call -

"Rave Reviews" by DeLa Webb

Today's review is for Green Giant's latest invention, Simply Steam.


Now, we did not have the one pictured above, we had Green Beans, Zucchini and Carrots in a light Rosemary Butter Sauce. This was by far the easiest and most delicious side dish I have ever pulled out of the freezer and *gulp* microwaved. The veggies were so crisp, sweet and full of flavor. The butter sauce did not taste "light" at all, and the rosemary really set it off. I highly recommend picking up a few, and if I recall correctly, they were cheap also, I want to say 2 for $3. I bought several different kinds until we figured out which ones we liked best, but I can tell you I will be a repeat purchaser!

Oh! And stay tuned, because I have TWO Christmas Parties this weekend I have to cook for, and I'm thinking about putting a spin on my bread recipe and making it more of a dessert bread.... Did I reel you in yet?!?