Pancakes pancakes PANCAKES!

Why is it that when I am trying to eat good I carve the sweets. All I could think about in the middle of the night and this morning was pancakes! If I would have had pancake mix in the pantry I would have thrown the good eating out the window and made pancakes. I usually have a box of Jiffy blueberry muffin mix on hand so Madison, my stepdaughter, and I can make pancakes. We love adding extra fresh or frozen bluberries in the mix so yummy! Well I  was out of luck no pancake or muffin mix, I knew if I ate something like eggs I would be craving sweets all day. Then I remembered I had oatmeal and I know how to make a fake out pancake which I think I actually like more then regular pancakes. Here is the yummy fake-out pancake recipe:

Ingredients;
One packet instant oatmeal (I used high fiber maple/brown sugar)
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon margarin

Recipe:
Preheat a skillet to medium low heat. In a bowl mixt together oatmeal and egg whites. Add the margarin to the skillet and make sure it has coated the bottom. Add the oatmeal/egg mixture and cook untill brown on the bottom, about 3-5 minutes, and flip. The bottom side will cook faster about 2-3 minutes. Then serve.

I like to add strawberries or bannanas to the top of it. This defenitely curved my craving for pancakes!

Whats your favorite pancake recipe?

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Pork Spinach Enchilada Cassarole

I have had mexican food on the brain all day long today! Figuring I wouldn't be able to think of something that I could make that was low calorie and mexican food, I almost gave up. That was untill I remembered I had bought corn tortillas that were on 60 calories a piece, yes 60 calories. So I thought if I added some veggies and not as much cheese as I usually do I would be fine. Well I use this wonderful website, http://www.calorieking.com/, to track the number of calories I take in so I thought I would just put in the ingredients and see what a portion would turn out to be calorie wise, I was pretty excited when it came out 350 calories! Which was perfect for my dinner. I really love calorieking it offers so much more then calorie counting, it offers support and tons of information. I would refer anyone that was looking to lose weight to calorieking. Anyway back to the enchiladas, they turned out amazing and everyone loved them. I have lots of left overs to if anyone wants to come have some! Or just try it out yourself:

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless pork loin chops
1/2 chopped yellow onion
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
3 garlic cloves graded
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups fresh spinach
1 can green chile diced tomatoes
2 cans green enchilada sauce
9 corn tortillas (mine were 60 calories a piece)
3 cups shredded cheese

Recipe:

Cut the pork chops into 1 inch cubes. Place a skillet over medium heat and add extra virgin olive oil and add pork, onions, garlic,and crush red pepper. Cook untill pork is browned and cooked through, about eight minutes. Put the heat down to low and add the can of tomatoes spinach, stir until spinach wilts. In a baking dish pour a little bit of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan, then add 3 tortillas on the bottom, then half of the meat mixture, then more enchilada sauce,and one cup of cheese. Repeat by adding 3 more tortillas then the rest of the ingriedents. Add the last three tortillas on top and the rest of the enchilada sauce and then the rest of the cheese. Bake about 35-40 minutes untill cheese is melted and bubbley.

There are 8 servings in this recipe and each are 350 calories.

Well hope everyone is enjoying my low calorie dishes latelt! What is your favorite low calorie dish?

My new favorite cheese!

My love of cheese has been fufilled while on my diet! I have had it before, Laughing Cow Cheese, but didn't realize how many different things I could use with. I started this realization friday and have been trying new things with it every single day. It has honestly curved my cravings for cheese, which I carve all the time! My all time favorite indulgence would be a brick of brie cheese and of course wine. If it wouldn't make me 300 lbs I would just eat cheese, thank god the Laughing Cow Cheese is only 35 calories a wedge and they are big wedges (go big or go home). So friday I made an amazing side dish to go with my salmon that actually wasn't very good so the side dish became my main dish. Couscous with spinach and garlic and herb lite laughing cow cheese so so good! Basically I made the couscous according to the directions, equal parts water to couscous boiling the water first then adding the couscous. I brought a cup of water to boil added in a cup of couscous, a cup of spinach, and 2 wedges of garlic and herb lite laughing cow cheese. Quickly stir together, remove from heat and cover for five minutes. This was amazing!

Other ways I have used this wonderful cheese, in scrambled eggs, on a mini bagel with deli turkey, on celery, or my new favorite tossing it with steamed veggies! I certainly hope Dusty loves this cheese as much as I do because I will be using it a lot from now on.

After writing this I googled laughing cow cheese, and found their website with even more amazing recipes check it out http://www.laughingcow.com/default.asp?section=laughingcow&gclid=CP3d_djOh6ACFRy4sgodRCO9mQ.

What do you do with laughing cow cheese???

Loving the healthy food!

So this is day 2 of my Arbonne 7 day detox cleanse, and I am actually doing good surprisingly. This detox is amazing, what it consists of is a drink you mix with water and sip on through out the day along with 32 ozs of water. The reason I choose this detox to kick off my "diet/weightloss" is because you are able to eat, although you should stay away from alcohol and processed foods. You can check out the detox at, http://www.ashleywilliams.myarbonne.com/, or email me for more info eorashley@hotmail.com.

 So far I have been doing great and my fiance has even liked what I have made for dinner each night! I have been packing in the veggies and trying out new ways to prepare them. Yesterday we had a great chicken dinner, marinated with italian dressing and hot sauce (this is one of our favorite marinades), and roasted cauliflower. Cauliflower is one of my favorite veggies because you can do so many different things with it. I love smashing it to make fake out mashed potatoes, I love it raw, and love it boiled with cheese sauce! Since I am watching the calories I decided to roast it and it turned out amazing! Here is what I did:

Roasted Cauliflower

Ingriedents:
1 Cauliflower Head
2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive
1 Tablespoon Poultry Seasoning
Salt and Pepper

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 400.
Cut the leaves and stems off the cauliflower and then into bite size pieces and place in a bowl. In a small bowl add the balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, poultry seasoning, and salt and pepper. Toss this mixture with the cauliflower, then spread on a baking sheet and bake for 20 min. Then enjoy!

Many more healthy recipes to come so stay tuned!!!


Until next time~!

The Ultimate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is my absolute favorite food of all time: macaroni and cheese! I could live off the stuff, and I like it all ways out of a box, homemade, or from a resturant. I do have to say my all time favorite macaroni and cheese is the (Mac & Cheese)2 from the Yard House (http://www.yardhouse.com/). I can't even believe I can pick a favorite because I am so in love, yes in love with mac and cheese. This mac and cheese from the yard house has chicken, bacon, mushrooms, and truffle oil, with parmesan and  cheddar cheese that melts in your mouth and is irresistible. The Yard House offers so many different amazing foods, there scallops are to die for, but I have the hardest time not ordering the mac and cheese when I am there! So the reason mac and cheese is the subject of this blog today is because at our Daytona Nascar party today my good friend Nicki brought her mac and cheese and it was so good, simple but so tasty. I didn't get a chance to get the exact recipe, which I will and post it, but basically it was elbow macaroni cooked, tomatoe sauce, and cheese. I know she mixes the tomatoe sauce and cheese and then adds half to a baking sheet adds cheese, then adds the rest of the noodles and sauce and more cheese. The layering is the best idea ever because every bite was cheesey!

The reason I love mac and cheese so much is because of all the different ways you can make it. I love making new mac and cheese recipes, I could probably write a cookbook just on mac and cheese recipes, because you can add in different ingriedents and it is always hard to screw up something with noodles and cheese. One of my most favorite and most requested mac and cheese recipes is what I call my "Mexican Macaroni and Cheese." Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1lb Pork Chorizo
1lb Vermicelli
1 Can Green Enchilda Sauce
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
1 Cup Frozen or Canned Corn
2 Bags Shredded Cheddar Cheese (the small bags, one big bag would work too)
2 Tablespoons Butter (cut into pads)


Recipe:
Preheat oven to 375

Brown the chorizo in a pan about med heat untill cooked through. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta untill el dente about 6 minutes. While pasta and chorizo cook rub one tablespoon butter on the bottom of an oven safe pan. In a large bowl mix the cooked pasta,corn, sour cream, enchilad sauce, chorizo, and one bag of the cheese or half of a large bag. Add the mixture to the buttered pan and top with the rest of the cheese. Add the rest of the pads of butter on top. Bake for about 35 minutes, or untill cheese is melted and bubbley!

Hope everyone has fun with macaroni and cheese. I would love to hear everyones different mac and cheese recipes!

This week we are focusing on eating a little better so it is a good thing  we got the mac and cheese fix out of the way! Thanks Nicki!

Untill next time~!

Green Chile or Red Chile?

Never before making green chile I decided that the superbowl party we were to have would be a great opportunity and fairly easy since it can be cooked in the pot crock all day or the night before. Well at the last minute we decided not to have the superbowl party but I still had the piece of pot roast. Not wanting the meat to go bad I decided to make it anyway and could use the meat through out the week. Well while throwing together what I thought was green chile it actually turned out to be red!? Although it wasn't green it was very good and we have been eating on it breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast of course was with potatoes and eggs, lunch a cheese crisp with the meat, and dinner a baked potatoe topped with the meat. Might have gone over my calorie intake today with all the carbs and cheese but trust me it was totally worth it. In the end I decided to name the chile my Green/Red Chile. Maybe I should make it for Christmas... the colors would work well lol! Like I said I am no expert at this and didn't follow a recipe so here it is Ashley's Red/Green Chile:

Ingredients:
4-5lb Beef Pot Roast
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (evoo)
Half a white onion chopped
4 Cloves of gralic peeled and smashed
2 Cans diced green chiles
Taco seasoning in the packet
1 Can beef broth
1 Can red enchilada sauce

Recipe:
Set crock pot on low and coat the bottom of the pot with olive oil. Place the beef poat roast in the pan and slit holes into the meat and stuff with the garlic. Add the onions, green chile, and then sprinkle the taco seasoning over the top. Pour the beef broth in the bottom of the pot, then pour the red enchilada sauce over the meat. Cook on low 7-8 hours, turning the roast over half way through cooking. You will know when the meat is done when it shreds with a fork.

This meat is great and stores well also. I guess it would have been green chile if I used the green enchilada sauce, but that is my favorite part of cooking throwing different ingredients into different recipes to change it up. I actually think I have never made the exact same recipe twice, well maybe the favorites and now it wont be a problem with blog!

Well untill next time!

Chicken Soup for Sick Days

I think I got it, the dread flu that has been going around the family/neighborhood. Part of my self diagnosis has to do with the fact that I am eating everything and craving sweets, this only happens when I am sick. Well low and behold the fiance comes home from work feeling sick also, so what better time to cook soup then now. I already had chicken thawed out and decided I would just throw together whatever else I had in the fridge poor some chicken stock on it and call it soup! If it was bad thats ok we probably wouldn't be able to taste it that much anyway. In the end the soup turned out great and I decided to call it Bacon Chicken Noodle Soup:

Ingredients:
3 Chicken Breast
1 Tablespoon Polutry seasoning
3 Slices of Chopped Bacon
1/2 Yellow Onion Chopped
4 Garlic Cloves Minced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 bag frozen vegtable soup mix ( mine had carrots, peas, lima beans, onions,celery)
1 Box of chicken stock
1 Box Rotini Noodles

Recipe:
In a medium sauce pan add chicken and cover with waterand bring to a boil. Once boiling bring to a simmer for about 8-10 minutes.

While chicken is cooking in a large pot add 2 turns of the extra virgin olive oil and add the bacon. Add the onions and garlic also to cook down, about 5-7 minutes. Add the frozen vegtables and poultry seasoning to the pot and stir.

Pull the chicken out of the water, reserving the cooking water, and dice or shred the chicken. Add the diced or shredded chicken to the large pot along with the reserved cooking water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. After the ten minutes add the noodles along with the box of chicken stock again bring to a boil and cook untill noodles are aldente.

Then enjoy of course letting it cool down just a tad!

Well hopefully the old chicken soup will cure the sickness, its off to bed for me!

Untill next time!