Chive Mac & Cheese w/ "Breaded" Chicken Tenders

I loooovvveee comfort foods which I'm sure everyone else does as well. I am a huge fan of Mac & Cheese and when I learned how to make it from scratch I can't stop trying different combinations. I was watching Rachel Ray the other day and she made a Chicken Cordon Bleu Plate Special.

 Basically it was deconstructed Chicken Cordon Bleu. She made Mac & Cheese with ham and breaded chicken on the side. It looked delicious, but it also looked like 1000 calories on one plate. I decided to create my own spin off of her dish.

The "breaded" chicken was actually inspired by another recipe that I saw on my favorite blog Emily Bites. She made a Cheesy Chicken and Stuffing that was chicken breaded with Stove Top stuffing mix. I made it last week and I couldn't wait to make a variation of it again.

Breaded Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1lb of Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Tenders
• 1 cup of Stove Top stuffing mix (unprepared)
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsps of White Flour
• Cooking Spray

Directions:

• Set oven to 350
• Spray Pyrex dish with cooking spray set aside
• Set up your breading station
• 1st Station Flour
• 2nd Station Egg
• 3rd Station Stove Top
• Take a chicken tender coat with flour, then coat with egg, and finish off with a coating of Stove Top
• Place in Pyrex
• Repeat these steps for each tender
• Place in oven
• Cook for 30 minutes
• Let cool and enjoy!

Servings: 9 (The package I bought had 9 tenders pre-cut)

WW points per tender: 3 points

*By the time I remembered to take a picture Tim was shoving the last bite into his mouth :( I'll try to add one the next time I make this.

While the chicken tenders are baking you can prepare the Mac & Cheese

Chive Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsps of Butter
• 4 tbsps of Flour
• 1/2 a cup of Fat Free Milk
• 1 can of 99% Fat Free Chicken Broth (I used Swanson's organic one)
• 1/4 a cup of Sharp White Cheddar
• 1/4 a cup of Gruyere Cheese
• 1/4 a cup of Reduced Fat Cheddar
• 2 tbsps of Chives
• 1 tbsp of Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 box of Barilla Plus Penne Pasta

Directions:

• Fill a pot with water, 1 tbsp of olive oil, and just a pinch of salt and pepper
• When pot comes to a boil add the box of Barilla Plus Penne Pasta and reduce heat to medium/medium high
• In a sauce pan add the butter and when it's melted add the flour
• Stir butter and flour to make a roux
• Once combined add the milk
• Keep stirring till milk and roux are smooth
• Add the white cheddar stir till all the cheese is melted
• Add the Gruyere cheese stir till all the cheese is melted
• Add the reduced fat cheddar stir till all the cheese is melted
• Add a pinch of salt and pepper
• Add the can of broth start stirring in a figure 8 shape (Rachel Ray recommends this and it does seem to keep the sauce smooth whenever I do it)
• Pasta should be done cooking, strain it and put it back into the pot you used to cook it
• Once the cheese sauce is blended add the chives and stir
• Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and coat evenly

Servings: 8 ( The pasta totaled to 8 cups once prepared)

WW points per serving: 5 points

Mexican Pizza

I made a Mexican style pizza toady for dinner that was only 4 WW points per serving! It tasted delicious and was very filling. We actually had pizza two nights in a row. I was in a pizza mood yesterday and awhile ago I had bought some Boboli Whole Wheat pizza crusts. I wanted to use them before they went bad.

I went to my favorite recipe blog Emily Bites to see what ideas she had. I found a recipe for a Cheeseburger pizza (click on the link for the recipe). I made that Monday night and I still had some left over ingredients. I was actually going to make another cheeseburger pizza tonight, but I had a lot of taco ingredients that I had to use soon. I decided to put them on the Boboli crust and call it a Mexican pizza!

Ingredients:

• 3oz of 93% ground beef
• 1 Boboli Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
• 5 tbsps of Herdez Salsa Verde or any other brand of Verde style Salsa (it's the green kind)
• 2 tbsps of Fat Free Sour Cream
• 1/2 a cup of Shredded Queso Cheese
• 1/4 a cup of Reduced fat Cheddar Cheese
• 1/4 a cup of Tomatoes
• 4 tbsps of Scallions
• 3 wedges of Laughing Cow Queso Fresco Chipolte Cheese
• 1/4 a cup of Red Onions
• 1/4 a cup of Black Beans
• 2 tsps of sodium less taco seasoning
• Cooking Spray
• Garlic Powder no more than 2 tsps

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450
• Brown 1lb of ground beef in a skillet
• While the ground beef is cooking dice the tomatoes, scallions, and red onion set aside
• In a small bowl combine the 3 wedges of Laughing Cow cheese, Sour Cream, and 2 tbsps of Herdez Salsa when finished set aside
• Drain ground beef
• Add 2/3 cups of water and taco seasoning packet to the skillet
• Add the onions to the ground beef and cook for about 5-10 minutes when ground beef/onion mixture is finished take the pan off the burner and measure out 3 ozs of ground beef/onion.
• Put the remaining meat in a container and store in the fridge
• Spray the outer edge of the pizza pie crust with the cooking spray about 1/2 an inch
• With a light hand sprinkle garlic powder on the area that you just sprayed
• Take your combined laughing cow cheese, sour cream, salsa and spread that onto the pizza pie, but make sure you don't go into the cooking spray area, that's your crust
• Now sprinkle the beef/onion mixture, beans, tomatoes, scallions onto the pizza
• Add the 1/4 a cup of reduced fat cheddar cheese
• Layer the 1/2 a cup of shredded queso cheese
• Sprinkle the remaining 3 tbsps of salsa on top
• Cook pizza for 8-10 minutes
• Let cool and enjoy

Servings 6 at 4 WWpoints per slice

The Journey of becoming Fatty Fatty Fatkins

Me and my Mom, I'm about 2 and clearly not chubby

6(ish) and still skinny

When I was born I weighed 5 pounds and was always a very small child. Growing up I was never called the chubby kid. I was made fun of for other reasons like my Dumbo ears or skin color.

I became aware of weight in middle school when the kids started talking about diets and fattiness. This was never really my concern because I was around 95 pounds in 6th grade.  The summer before 8th grade came along and I gained a whopping 20 pounds, I was a fat cow at 115 (or so I thought). Obviously, I wasn't even remotely fat, but I thought so. I started exercising during commercial breaks when I watched TV. I dropped down to 100 in about 2 months.

14 summer before sophomore year

Senior Prom, 98 pounds



I was lucky my weight was never a struggle for me in high school. I would worry about clothes fitting sometimes, but that was more or less because I was short. I averaged around a size 0 or 2 and usually weighed less than 115. I jokingly used to say, I wish I was fat just so I could see what it would be like. Be careful what you wish for!

Ballroom dancing comps kept me skinny

While some of my peers struggled with their weight I just ate what I wanted and never exercised. Around junior year I started taking dance classes and toyed with joining our cross country team because my friends wanted me to. I started losing more weight and I was 98 pounds when I graduated high school. I could fit into a size 16 kids at the age of 17. Then college came around...



High School Graduation w/Dad and Mom

Instead of gaining the "Freshman 15" I gained the Freshman 32 and was 135 pounds. For the next four years my weight would bounce from 140 to 120. When I would actually start running and pay more careful attention to what I ate I could lose the weight.

At a HUGE 135 w/ my cousin Bobby





At 165 w/ my cousin Freddie







My husband and I started dating in 2004 and my weight went uphill from there. It was like every year I would just gain 20lbs and couldn't stop. I would get to 150 and think I can't get any bigger, but then at the end of the year I would weigh 170.



My husband Tim and I in 2007 @ 175

It wasn't as if I was on a weight roller coaster because you usually come down, I kept going up and up. I'll see pictures of myself at 135 and remember how miserable I was because I thought I was HUGE. It didn't help that during that time certain family members were already calling me fat and continue doing so.

Our Wedding 2008 @ 185

 I just want to say; telling someone they're fat usually doesn't make them aware of the problem. Chances are they own a mirror and can see that for themselves. I find that when you tell me I'm fat that doesn't really motivate me to lose the weight it just makes me want to punch you in face. This doesn’t help me lose the weight and makes you an asshole in my mind.

Finally a reason to be fat, I'm pregnant! January 2010

I have tried to count calories and put myself on an exercise regimen, but then something will waylay me and I can't get back on track. I'll lose 15, get sidetracked, gain it back, and start all over again.

My friends are happy because I make them look skinnier! August 2011

I've finally come to the decision that I'm going to push myself off the top of the roller coaster and try to plummet down. I hate getting out of breath when I go to check the mail. I can't stand looking at myself in pictures and not recognizing the Big Bertha in the corner.


At our friend's wedding August 2011


I joined Weight Watchers 4 days ago and so far I've lost 3 pounds. I hope that I can finally stay on track this time because type 2 diabetes and heart disease aren't something I'm looking forward to. While searching the Internet I have found some good blogs that share low calorie recipes. My favorite recipes blog is Emily Bites she posts recipes and tells you what the points are for Weight Watchers. Her recipes are delicious and I love trying them out, so far every recipe I've tried has been outstanding. Inspired by her recipes I'm going to post my first WW recipe after this post.


To get myself more motivated I look at these pictures to see what I have become. Looking at a timeline of fatness puts things into perspective. It's even worse when I show people my pre-fat pics and they say is that your sister? Um no, just pre-fat me.



All I want for Christmas is you...weight loss Christmas 2011

In the past I'll look at a picture of myself at that current weight and think, "It can't get worse than this." Then the following year I'll have gained more weight and view that same picture in envy wishing I was still that weight.



Hopefully, I won't be envying this picture next year. Instead I'll be thinking, "Damn girl, you lost a lot of weight since then."

Chickety Chicken Salad

This is the first time I've made chicken salad and it's not something I really grew up with. The first time I ate chicken salad was in 2009 when a co-worker brought some in for potluck. He brought chicken salad from the Willow Tree Farm in Attleboro, MA and it was delicious. I decided to make some because there was boiled chicken in the fridge and no one knew who made it or how it got there. I calculated the points in WW recipe builder to make sure I stick to my plan.

Just for the Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• 10 oz of boiled or baked boneless, skinless, chicken
• 8 tbsp of reduced fat mayo (I used Kraft's Olive Oil Mayo)
• 1 or 2 medium scallions/chives/wild onion they all seem to be somewhat the same thing

Directions:

• Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil chicken till cooked, usually 15-20 minutes
• If baking chicken coat a Pyrex dish with cooking spray (0 Points) and bake chicken on 350 degrees for about 30-45 minutes
• Then you can either cut or shred your chicken into small edible pieces
• Add 8 tbsps of reduced fat mayo
• Salt and Pepper just to taste
• Cut the 1 or 2 medium scallions/chives/wild onion into smaller pieces ( I actually just use kitchen scissors and cut it over the bowl, it's quicker in my opinion)
• Then stir all the ingredients together until all the chicken is coated with mayo evenly

Servings: 10 for 1 oz WW points: 2 points


My plate of veggies ready for the sandwich

                5 for 2 oz  WW points: 5 points

Now you can do the servings 2 different ways either 1 oz or 2 oz it depends on how many points you want to use. I personally did 2 ozs because I wanted a lot of chicken salad. What I did with my chicken salad is I created a sandwich. I know some people eat it plain, but I prefer it in a sandwich. I also chose a lot of 0 point items to put into the sandwich so I can eat more items, but not increase my points...obviously :)

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Ingredients:

• 1/8 of a red onion: 0 points
• 1/2 a cup of 50/50 salad mix: 0 points
• 4 slices of a plum tomato: 0 points
• 5 slices of English cucumber: 0 points
• 2 slices of Kroger brand light wheat bread toasted or not depending on your preference: 2 points

Assembly required

This totaled to 7 points for lunch. You can use any leafy green, onion, tomato, or cucumber because most are 0 points just make sure you double check your WW guides for point calculations.

Since, my lunch was so filling I didn't really need to eat another snack with it. If you find that one sandwich is not enough I would eat 10 baby carrots on the side with 2 tbsps of hummus. The hummus I use is the Athenos brand of roasted garlic and for 2 tbsps its only 1 point.



Leaning tower of chicken salad



On the Wings of Love

I wanted to share this ingenious idea of "wings" for a bird costume. I decided to be an "owl" for Halloween last year because of a cute owl hat I saw on Etsy.com. It's for a baby boy, but I asked the shop owner to make it for me a non baby boy. She said, "Measure your head", so I did and that was that.

The next part was trying to figure out how to make wings. I've never learned how to sew so I had to find something that you could do by gluing fabric onto fabric. I found this idea, alas it does involve sewing :(

However, the internet did not fail me and I found this post, that was actually inspired by the first post I saw. I realized that I could modify this with fabric glue!

This was my course of action:

- First I measured my shoulder to my wrist to see how much fabric I would need

- Then I went to Joann Fabrics and bought white fabric for the base of the "wings", blue and green fabric for feathers, and fabric glue

- I told the sales associate at Joann Fabrics my measurements and they cut the fabric accordingly

- I cut the white fabric into the desired shape that the 2nd post recommends, this post
- Next I cut the blue and green fabric into "feathers"

-What I did was draw a leaf like shape on a piece of paper (it's recommended to use card stock because it's a stiffer piece of paper) as my template for the feathers like this:





Leaf like template

-Now I had two varying feathers, one with a strip of the leaf like feathers cut out and the other individual feathers

- I glued down the strip of missing feathers first then put an alternating color of individual feathers on top of the strip (I chose to utilize the feathers both ways so I could use all the fabric, waste not want not)

- I did cheat a little because my mom can sew I had her sew the string onto the back of the wings to tie around my neck and each other. She also attached the wrist straps to the end of the wings.

- If you don't know anyone who can sew you can also use the fabric glue to attach the straps or find a video on youtube that will teach you how to do a basic stitch with just a needle and thread.

Materials:

-Scissors you don't need to use special fabric scissors
-3 yards of White fabric
-2 yards each of Blue and Green fabric
-One can of fabric glue, I actually bought a spray can to make it easier to do a large section instead of individually gluing pieces on.
-One package of string type thing to connect the wings together and tie around my wrists

*I'm short 5'1 so my "wing span" is probably on the shorter side of the spectrum. For taller people I would add a yard or 2. The best thing to do is tell the sales associate your measurements (from shoulder to wrist) then they will tell you how much fabric you need. That is what I did because I have no idea what is appropriate for sewing.

The final results:





Close up of feathers



One wing




Owling it up




This had to be one of my favorite Halloween costumes because it was fun to make and fun to wear. I like wearing the hat as well when it's cold out so I feel like I got a 2 for 1 special. I hope you non sewers were able to get some help from this post to create wings of your own.  



Co-sleeping is it murder?

I forgot I even created this blog, but apparently I did back in 2010 a month after my son was born. He just turned two a couple of weeks ago. The point of this blog was to share some ideas that I found while I was researching parentdom. When you're a new parent there is so much information thrown at you that it can be a little overwhelming. Anything and everything can potentially kill or harm your child so now that my baby is two I'll share some basic things I've learned from reading and personal experiences. Now keep in mind most of what I write is based on personal experience and how my family has coped with each new milestone. I'm going to pick a hot button issue for this first post and I'll provide data for both sides of the issue.

First topic: Co-sleeping

Before my son was born my plan was to have him in a bassinet, in our room, for the first 9 months, and then have him transition into his crib. After about 2-3 weeks of this, our plan completely changed, and we decided that we were going to be a co-sleeping family. There were many factors that brought about this change. The first being that I decided to breastfeed. It was tiring to have to wake up, get him out of the bassinet, get in the rocking chair, try not to drop him or fall asleep while bfeeding, and then put him back in. Doing this 4-5 times a night makes you super cranky the next day. Also, I was extremely nervous and would get up and check to see if he was breathing every 10-15 minutes. This also effected my husband, I had a c-section and getting up was not easy for me that first month. I would wake him up every 30 minutes to check on our son on top of my 10-15 minute check ups. He would also get up and put our son in my lap to help me with bfeeding in the middle of the night. In short, neither of us was getting much sleep.

I really had reservations about this because you hear so many negative things in the media about co-sleeping and honestly I didn't want to be the one that smothered my child. Our first step was to talk to our pediatrician who from the get-go convinced us that we should be co-sleepers because of our choice to breastfeed. Our pediatrician is a holistic pediatrician with a medical degree so he's not your typical pediatrician. I explained my reservations and he assuaged my fears with plausible sounding co-sleeping research. I did my own research and this is basically what I found scary propaganda and also this more reasonable article from the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics).

Naturally, I decided to do more research and I found more information about co-sleeping that didn't equate co-sleeping with murder. We decided to get an arms reach bassinet because I felt that this would be the safest possible way to do it. When we finally received it, our bed was too short. If your bed is the perfect height for this bassinet, I would highly recommend getting it. They also sell little bumpers to heighten your bed, but my husband vetoed that idea. Since that didn't work, we found this product at our local baby supply store the snuggle nest. We used it for the first 4-6 months and it was perfect. It was a little hard to breastfeed him while he slept in it, so I just took him out then put him back in when he was done. I also like this product because it's mobile and you could take it anywhere with you. When I went to other people's homes I would bring this so that my son could take a nap comfortably.

We then transitioned to having him sleep in our bed with the bumpers that came with the snuggle nest. I found it easier to breastfeed because I just needed to roll over. It also made me feel a little safer with the bumper there, but honestly our son was never close to being smothered. I also want to make it clear that I was never inebriated when I slept with my son and we are not smokers. Those are the 2 highest factors that go against co-sleeping. So here's a little pro/con list in regards to my family's choice to co-sleep.

PROS:
-It made bfeeding 100 times easier
-I could sleep and feel rested
-My husband would get a full 8 hours of sleep because he never had to wake up to help me
-Our son would sleep for 4-7 hours at time before needing to breast feed (around 3-4 months old)
-He also got up later in the morning and not at 4 or 5am like he used to in the bassinet
-The bond between us is still very strong even till this day
-My internal clock synced with his and I would wake up a minute before he was ready to feed
-He was a very happy and well adjusted baby who let anyone and everyone hold him

CONS:
-None for our family

Again, I'm not recommending co-sleeping I'm simply stating that it was easier for us as a family. There is also the myth that once your baby is in the bed you're stuck with them forever. It only took us about a month when he was 16 months to transition him into his own bed. There wasn't a lot of fighting on either of our parts and he transitioned pretty well. The only time we have issues is when we are traveling. We normally let him sleep with us when we travel so it takes a couple of days for him to transition when we come back home. Now I may have been gifted with an easy going child and that's why it wasn't hard for us, but we'll have to see what happens the next time around.