I'm BACK!

My crazy weeks are done and I can focus again on y'all!  Honestly, nothing exciting has happened over the past few weeks.  This post might be a bit long due to the fact that I have a ton of recipes to share. 

Let's start with the Superbowl.  I never have enough friends to have a party but I love the idea of Superbowl party food.  So, I did a themed dinner that night.  It was delicious.  I did Spinach artichoke dip, homemade tortilla chips, cauliflower buffalo bites, and portabello pizzas.  The recipes for the dip and the buffalo bites are located below the picture. 

SkinnyTaste: Buffalo Cauliflower
SkinnyTaste: Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Oh and I did some angel food cake cupcakes with team colored sugar on top.

Next up, the Korean New Year, Seollal.  I made Bibimbap and chamchi-jeon (Korean tuna cakes)  except I did them with crab because I was in a crabby mood.  I didn't get a picture of any of it.  It was actually gone too quick. 

ZenKimchi Chamchi-Jeon

Oh and I just have to show you this!  My father and mother in law sent this to Sunny last week. 

 
Her own hanbok!  Isn't she simply adorable???  

Fast forward a few days to Valentine's Day.  To Ken and I this day has become just a day for the kids.  And it's honestly all about the candy.  We exchange cards and he will buy my flowers but, it's nothing major.  This year I gave him a bag of Snickers with a reason why I love him for every piece in it.  He gave me a bag of Valentine's Day 3 Musketeers.  I think I've talked about 3 Musketeers before.  Each piece has under 1 gram of fat so, I can still have chocolate without causing myself pain. This year he bought me a bag of Strawberry Dark Chocolate ones.  They are amazing.  I have dubbed them the "poor man's Russel Stover" because they taste so close to the high end strawberry cream chocolates.   I eat one a night.  I would highly recommend them.  7 pieces has 6 grams of fat and 180 calories.  That means 1 has 0.86 grams of fat and 25.8 calories.  Not too bad right?  Healthiest candy I've found so far.

Florida kills me sometimes.  The other morning I woke up and it was 34 degrees outside.  34!!  I decided it was the type of day that called for chili.  Well, by 2 pm it was around 65 degrees.  Definitely not typical chili weather.  But, despite that, I still made it.  I was amazed at how it turned out.  It was really good awesome!  I took a few big risks with some of the ingredients.  Kaylee and Mantha aren't normally fond of sweet potatoes (that's why there's only 1/2 of one in the recipe).  If I had been making it for me I would have added a whole one.  The soy crumbles aren't normally liked by non-vegetarians.  But, even Ken raved about it.  Note about the Crumbles.  If you are seriously on a no-fat diet then you need to buy the BOCA soy crumbles.  They are the only ones that have 0g of fat.  I picked up a different brand and didn't pay attention so that is why there is extra fat in the recipe 

Veggie Overload Chili
Serves 10 calories 136 fat 1.09 grams fiber 6 grams protein 12.2 grams

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup chili powder
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
2 bay leaves
12 oz Ground Crumbles Meatless (1 bag)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
12 oz dark beer
.25 sweet potato, cubed
1 cup corn (fresh, frozen or canned)
16 oz mushrooms, quartered
42 oz Diced Tomatoes 
16 oz tomato sauce 

Directions

1. Saute onions, sweet potato and garlic until golden.
2. Add in the spices and cook for another 2 minutes
3. Stir in tomato paste and meatless crumbles
4. Next put in chocolate, beer,tomato sauce and tomatoes bring to a boil then reduced and simmer for 30 minutes
5. After 30 minutes add the corn, and mushrooms.
6.  Bring back to a boil and simmer for another 15 minutes

 I have a post in the works about regaining motivation.  I kist my motivation a few weeks ago while I wasn't blogging (hmmmm, I wonder if there's a connection?  I hadn't thought of it before now)  I bought myself a new pair of pants for the gym in order to get myself pumped.  

I bought them at Target for $20.  They are made by Champion and they are AH-MA-ZING.  When I worked out in my other capris I kept having to adjust them every 10 minutes.  The only time I had to adjust these was when I got out of the car and when I accidentally pushed them up.  I have one problem with them though.  They are made of 84% polyester and 16% spandex.  I'm very paranoid about them getting snagged.  

That's my February in a very big nutshell.  How has your month been?

Traveling

Doesn't everyone start their year off with a 1000 768 mile road trip?  That's how I started mine! 

New Year's Day I left for Virginia for an appointment.  This is the first roadtrip longer than 3 hours long that I have taken in since we moved here in 2010.  I decided that I would pack all the snacks, lunch and dinner for the trip.  This way I won't be tempted by gas station food and we can cut some time off our trip by not stopping as much.  

I have to say that you CAN eat healthy at a gas station.  Fruit is sold at many gas stations these days and there are other healthy snack options.  It is difficult and there are many tempting unhealthy items alongside them.  

I made lunch sandwiches and dinner sandwiches for Mr. Amazing and myself.  I packed apples, bananas, squeeze fruit puree, and some homemade pita chips for me.  Mr. Amazing got Wheat Thin and Ritz crackers, and Slim Jims.  I packed a container of Mio and some bottled waters, and a few sodas. 

I used the Korean BBQ Rub that I found at BJ's. 

Pita Chips
1 package White or Onion Pitas (They have the least amount of fat, 0.5 grams per loaf)
Pan Spray
Seasoning of your choice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cut pitas into 8 pieces.
3. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray it with non-stick spray
4. Lay the pitas on a single layer on the baking sheet, spray them with non-stick spray and sprinkle with you favorite seasoning
5. Bake for 7 or 8 minutes until crispy and browned

We were supposed to leave at 8 yesterday morning.  We ended up getting out of the house at 9.  It was a lot harder to say goodbye to the girls then I expected it to be.  This is the first time we’ve been away from Baye for more than a few hours. 

We stopped for a few minutes for gas in Georgia, and South Carolina.  By 6:00, 2 ½ states and 7 ½ hours of driving Mr. Amazing and I were exhausted.  We ended up stopping in Smithfield, NC [I wonder if the ham and the town are related.] We ate our dinner sandwiches in a seedy motel.  For the rest of the nite we watched TV and I learned that when there is DEFFINATELY nothing else to do I munch.  I am going to have some serious work to do when I get home. 

I ended up waking up before 6 [damn earlybirdness].  You never realize how hard it is to be quiet until you’re stuck in a hotel room trying to let your husband sleep.  I did manage to get in 150 situps (the quietest exercise I could think of)  Another thing I realized is that daylight comes later in the North.  At 7 in the morning Florida is atleast slightly sunny.  North Carolina was still pitch black.  So needless to say we didn’t get up and out as early as I expected. 

But, we finally ended up getting to my mom’s at 1:30 after a brief stop at our storage room and Target.  We stayed just long enough to drop off our bags and change and then headed for the grocery store.  I have learned that there is one perk to winters in Virginia.  When you need to make a stop and have groceries in your car you don’t have to worry about how long your other stop is.  It’s 40 degrees out so your groceries will be perfectly fine in your cold trunk!

Luckily my mom’s house is stocked with the staples so I only needed a few things to tide me over while I’m here (soy milk, bananas, etc.)  Here’s my haul:

The local Korean store, Grand Mart, was pure heaven to Mr. Amazing and me.  Imagine giving your child a green light to buy whatever they wanted at the toy store.  That was us here. 

We picked up a bunch of banchan for dinner.  There's Kimchi, bean sprouts, tofu, japchae, fishies, seaweed, radish kimchi, and black beans.  

All we needed was a big pot of rice and dinner was ready!

Well, I’m going to go relax.  It’s nice to be somewhere comfy.