Microwave Sadness

World.....I'm BACK!  Please refrain from the eye rolling.

Let's play catch up!

Friday we had dinner at our house with some friends.  We decided to do Mexican food and everyone should be super proud... I resisted the urge to pick up On the Border and dish it out as if I made it!  Friday was my first time to actually marinade chicken... We had fajitas, tacos, refried beans (from a can), spanish rice (from a bag), guacamole and salsa ( compliments of Meredith), and yummy brownie dip for dessert! The chicken was edible.. but a little tough (something to work on). Sweet Meredith rescued my attempt at "sauteing" the peppers and onions....Thank goodness!!! Overall dinner was good.. but game night that followed was the best!  If you haven't played Things go out right now and get it!  SUPER fun... I suppose this partly depends on who you play it with... you have to be able to get crazy with your responses:)

Here's a recipe for a low calorie and EASY Crockpot Fajita Meal that Martinez and I have eaten a couple of times.  I LOVE Mexican food and we all know it's not favorable on the weight loss end, so I found this recipe and love it:

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

2-3 chicken breasts
1 Cup of chicken broth ( you could use water but it tastes better with broth)
1/2 Tsp salt
2 Bell Peppers sliced
2 Tbsp cumin
1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder
2 Tbsp of lime juice
1/2 Cup sliced onion
Whole Wheat Tortillas ( my tortillas are 130 calories each)

Mix up the dry ingredients; place your chicken breasts on the bottom; pour in chicken broth; put your sliced bell peppers and onions in; sprinkle your dry ingredients all over and let it cook on High for 3-4 hours if the chicken is thawed or 6-7 hours on low if the chicken is frozen.  I always do frozen.  EASY.

If you do this recipe with 3 breasts and exactly as listed and get 6 servings out of it, the calorie count is 225 per serving.  Of course, this does not include condiments. However, salsa is SUPER low. You can use low fat sour cream (you will eventually adjust to the taste...just tell yourself when you initially gag that that smaller size in jeans will be worth it) and MEASURE your cheese!!! Cheese will sneak up on you and beat the crap out of your hard work of calorie counting!! Don't let it win! MEASURE!
We eat this meal with fat free refried beans.  You can have half a cup for 90 calories! (that's a lot of beans FYI) Beans, Beans, good for the heart, the more you eat, the more you....oh man.. I got distracted.

Saturday... I'm trying to remember.............I've got nothing. Oh well.

Sunday started with church, included a nap, and ended with mowing the yard.  I mow as if I'm vacuuming, so you can imagine the look:) The Homeowner's Association didn't say the mowing job had to be pretty... just mowed:)

Monday was a busy day.  D and I jogged in the horrid humidity!  I will say that this was the most sweat expired from a jog yet, thus I felt successful... even though I know it was from the humidity:) Before work, I put this new recipe in the crockpot and had really high hopes for it... FAIL.  I almost threw up tasting it.  Needless to say.... down the drain it went ....which led to a pizza delivery.  BIG MISTAKE.  I felt so gross after eating two greasy pieces of pizza and three cheesesticks.  It was so yummy... but the way I felt afterward overtook the taste.  For nights when I try a new recipe, I need to have a backup plan with a healthy choice.

Another weight loss tip:  Limit eating out!  Try for 1 whole week of not eating out.... then try 2 weeks!  This was extremely helpful for me.  Martinez and I are takeout junkies.  Chinese and pizza were twice a week occurrences.  This HAD to stop!  We both love pizza, so a healthier choice of pizza is to get a Papa Murphy's DeLite! Yes, you have to go pick it up...and cook it... and wash the baking sheet... but the calorie savings makes up for it, you save money, and the taste is AMAZING!  For the Pepperoni DeLite Family Size, you get a large slice for 196 calories.  A regular piece of pepperoni pizza is around 356 in calories per slice (of course every place is different.. and Old Chicago is BAD just FYI).  You can have almost 2 for 1 with Papa Murphy's!!!!!!!!!!  The crust of the DeLite pizza is a cracker crust..it's super thin... but great!  All of the ingredients are measured for each pizza, so the work is done for you!
I think of calorie counting like shopping.  I know this won't work for everyone, but for all the cheap folks like me, it works.  I try to get the most out of my money when shopping for clothes.  I'm weird with how I spend my money and I'm CHEAP with clothes.  So, I shop mostly at  TJMaxx, Marshall's, Ross, Amazon (for shoes) and Maurices.  I would rather have more things for my money (which is why I shop at certain stores) than fewer (Duh).  It's the same with food.  Wouldn't you rather have more slices of pizza than fewer (insert another Duh)????  Bethany Frankel has a book about being healthy and weight loss.  She uses an analogy of thinking about calories as money.. essentially... you are allotted a certain amount of calories everyday and when you eat something, you are subtracting that calorie amount from your total... Just like a bank account... you have a certain amount of money in it.. and when you spend, it's subtracted... and when it's gone... NO MORE.  I had to compare this to something that worked for me... which is shopping.


Reverting back to Sunday... my fantastic, Spanish speaking microwave showed signs of dying.  She (her name is Tivo) started making this terrible sound and it looked like fireworks going off inside!  No, I didn't have metal of any kind in there!! That's only happened a handful of times! The explosion kept happening, despite my numerous attempts of using her.  I convinced Martinez not to trash her, as I was holding out hope that she just needed to rest.  Yesterday, I tried again.  SAD day.  She's still exploding inside and making lighteningish (yes, that's a word) sounds.  I ended my attempts at revival, as DeShazo instructed me before I left work that water could not be poured on an electrical fire (no, I didn't know that) and I didn't have any of that foam stuff she was telling me about (firefighter's kids ) in case I caused a fire. She even busted me out to Martinez!  I had this whole plan of trying to resuscitate her before Martinez got home... since he told me not to mess with the microwave... I still attempted to save her... but he knew about it... and was home:)

I will never again get to hear her say, " Hi, I'm Tivo and I'm ready to cook!". In loving memory of my wonderful microwave ( fantastic wedding gift from my bro & sis-in-law)...

Sniff, Sniff..

Today....finally !

I failed to roll myself out of bed this morning.  I let the runny nose and sore throat win, and I went back to sleep.  I'm going to try to jog tonight to make up for it!  I feel successful when I go.  Even if I walk, that's still exercise and I feel better and know that the more exercising I do, the better chance I have of leading a healthier lifestyle for my baby girl.  Speaking of LG.. she loves music and dances to almost anything.  We never seem to capture her best dance moves (inclusive of some "knock yo socks off" hip swaying...in sync!), but we did get a cute little video last night.

I'm gonna have to get that baby in dance!

I'm all talked out for today. Again,  please refrain from the eye rolling.

Until next time......