Let's salsa!

Well, it's Wednesday. I'm up again... there are reasons to this, and I hope to get them corrected soon. Let's just say that being a girl really sucks.

I decided to buy two things that have been on my mind recently. Frozen chicken breasts and spaghetti squash. The last spaghetti squash wasn't as tasty as I was aiming for, so Monday night I made it goopy style. Fat free ranch dressing, some 2% shredded cheese, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. It was num nums. Also, the last squash I got didn't result in nearly the amount of squash I got from this one... and my next one is even bigger! I had enough for lunch twice over after my dinner. Also, I didn't cook it as long, and while it was more difficult to scrap out of the rind, it had a bit more texture, similar to el dente pasta.

Yesterday's lunch was bad... I had a chicken schwarma pita with fries. No need to yell, I already did and then said, wait, why am I yelling? RUN! It's gorgeous outside, 55 and sunny, so after the sun set and it was back to 40 and chilly, I went for a run with the pup.

Then it was dinner time :) Salsa chicken baby! I used my mini crock pot to make a smaller portion of this easy as pie entree. You will need one chicken breast, 1 cup of salsa (level of heat to your taste), 1/2 cup of black beans and 1 cup of corn.

Combine the ingredients in the crock pot starting with the chicken and layering in the rest. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high 4-6 hours. The chicken will soak up all that juice and just come apart when you mix it a bit. I usually top mine with a bit of cheddar or Mexican blend cheese and serve with a small portion of rice or tortilla chips.

Step 1: Place frozen chicken breast at the bottom of the crock pot.


Step 2: Add 1 cup of salsa (I use mild because I'm a wimp)


Step 3: Add 1/2 cup of black beans


Step 4: Add 1 cup of yellow corn.



Normally I would have a finished product for you, but I was a tad hungry and scarfed it before I could show you... I promise, it looks as good as it tastes :)

On to an activity check in! Had a volleyball game Monday night. We lost to a team with only 5 people. We stupidly let them not take a penalty for missing their sixth person... won't make that mistake again. I'm really banged up from that night, observe:

Scraped up my knuckles:


Dove a few times and landed quite hard on my knee (the good one, soon to be bad) PS - please excuse the extreme whiteness, that can't be helped!


And finally, skidded on my palm hard enough to burst a few vessels, that was fun :/



Moral of the story kids? I'm not as young as I used to be and while it still takes me a bit of effort to bruise, it can happen. Wear pads and don't kill yourself trying. Easy to say, hard to do!

I have a session with Heather tonight, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna die. My legs are mucho sore from running the past two nights. Last night was awesome though, how often in January do you get to run outside without dying?

I showed you!

Take that weigh in Wednesday! I lost 7 pounds last week. Of course that's a combination of finally not being that time of the month and having everything line up with my diet and exercise plans. BUT it happened! Wahoo!

It's been a while since I've updated mainly for one reason, I can't stand the site of those cupcakes from the previous post. Just writing about them makes me nauseous! Somehow, whether it was the cupcakes of the lean cuisines I had for lunch/dinner, I got food poisoning. I was up all night Wednesday night in the bathroom puking and having other tummy related issues. It was not fun and now my life will forever (the immediate future) be devoid of cupcakes or cake in general, cool whip, and sprite. Ugh.

On to this week :) It's CYP's Date 2 Remember Charity Fashion Show/Date Auction and I'm one of the date participants. My package includes the sports tickets to the Cavs, Bengals, Clippers, Crew, Blue Jackets and the new pro lacrosse team, as well as a gift card for the arena district. It's an awesome package that my friend Kelly and I will represent walking down the runway in some spring fashions. I'm quite nervous as I'm clumsy and tend to trip/fall down. I tested the fates by playing volleyball on Monday. It was my first indoor game since I injured my knee back in 2008? Or was it 2009? I keep losing track of my years, blah.

Let me tell you... it felt wonderful! I was just telling my mom, skinny volleyball playing is SO much more fun than fat volleyball playing :) It was an awesome game, we killed them in 2 and I didn't even feel a twinge in my knee! I did however, managed to over stretch both sides of my groin, so I'm a bit sore today. Just in time for another kick ass training session with Heather tonight.

Back to CYP, the event is Saturday and I'm getting my first official spray tan (free, only way I'd consent to getting one). I'm not sure how to feel because as much as I curse my whiteness, I know it works for me. I'm pretty sure orange is one of the few colors, along with yellow, that doesn't look good, so I'm hoping that's not the color of my skin afterword. My appointment is over lunch Friday, I'll be sure to share befores and afters... We get our hair and makeup done by Charles Penzone's and then I play on hitting up downtown that night to enjoy my fake hotness ;) I'm sure there will be a boatload of photos come Sunday afternoon, so have a good week until then! Make smart choices :)

Night of BubbleCakes

How can your night suck after eating this?

It can't.

I mean, that cupcake right there only has 84 calories. So I ate two of them :)

Not convinced? Let's look at it from another angle...


Obviously my love of cheesy pasta is closely followed by cake. We must have discussed this before. CAKE! Definitely can't live without it, wouldn't want to. Hence my very serious life's mission to find a low calorie substitution. I think I can rest easy after tonight.


If you would like to give this a try you will need 12 ounces of diet soda, I used Sprite Zero. You will also need a box of Pillsbury Sugar Free Yellow Cake Mix. The frosting is just a 8 ounce tub of Fat Free Cool Whip. I pour the soda in the bowl and add the cake mix after, keeps the soda from fizzing too much. Mix until smooth and fill cups halfway. Bake according to the box directions and let cool completely. Once cool, fill a large ziplock with thawed Cool Whip, cut off the top of the bag to desired width and swirl on top of the cup cake... then shove it in your mouth and enjoy.

Please note if you are a chocolate cake person they have a Sugar Free Chocolate Cake Mix that you can combine with Diet Coke.

That's all I have for tonight. I hit the gym... drooling the entire time, knowing that I would get to eat a cupcake. 30 quick minutes on the elliptical followed by a scrumptious Mushroom Tortellini Lean Cuisine. Soreness is about to set in from yesterday's work out, love it! I'm already looking forward to next week's torture session ;)

ADD & Weigh in Wednesday

Welp, the number hasn't changed... again. I know, I know, scales are the devil, but that wasn't the case last year! The scale and I were usually pretty good friends, she really didn't lie to me very often. I'd usually let her know if I was having a bad day and she wouldn't soften the truth, she just lay it out there. I feel like she's purposefully being mean. I don't need mean people in my life, I've kicked plenty out in the past, so she should know she's on the chopping block!

Ok, enough talking about my scale like she's a person and has a hidden agenda. That makes me feel crazy, and we all know I'm not ;)

Despite the non-exciting news of not losing any weight, the positive spin is, I didn't gain any! I'm also deliciously tired all over. I love feeling like my legs might give out at any moment, because one it means I'm alive, and two it means that I worked harder than I did the day before.

Heather and I were discussing the fact that it's going to be super hard for me to meet my 30 pound goal. Last time it was so doable because I had that much to lose. As I get closer and closer to my ideal weight, it'll become harder and longer between dropping a pound. Everyone plateaus but it definitely starts to slow and when you're on a deadline, that's almost torture to go through. So again, I have to work harder and longer than I did previously.

I was so out of it this morning when I got up. I was trying to let the dog out to go to the bathroom. I had pulled the cross bar up and was trying to slide open the backdoor but it just wouldn't open. With yesterday's weather going from mid 50's and rain to the low 20's and snow, I thought the door had frozen shut. So I started body slamming it in my semi sleepy condition. Meanwhile, Colbie is bouncing up and down, doing the potty dance. After a few body slams and unsuccessful attempts at getting the door open I look at the handle lock and realize that it's still locked...

Yeah, I was that tired. Also, at work I misplaced my coffee mug and blamed everyone for taking it. I told Katy that I needed pills for my headache and cramps. Ten minutes later I had to ask her what I was looking for in my purse because I forgot I was looking for the pills. I'm a hot mess today. Really though, I'm looking good, but I'm a mess. I'm also wearing green footy socks with my mary jane heels, maybe I'm not so hot.

Pop Up Video ;)

The Monday after...

A weekend full of work, frustration and lots of food.

The good thing is, I worked for 5 straight hours both days without slowing down so I could log that as "exercise". I ate cole slaw, sushi (yes sushi... I like crunchy rolls now, go figure), veggie straws (the organic brand sucks, definitely not as good as my normal brand, cake, ice cream (both small quantities), one chicken finger, a peach mango smoothy (sooo good), and corn bread.


Yummy Kroger Shrimp & Crab Crunchy Role!

Let's talk Hoggy's for a minute. I know you all know I loved that place, and yes, I use past tense. Hoggy's is dead to me. Not only because they've closed down all but one of their locations, but because the one they left running is the worst one! My father, sister and I wanted some BBQ and because we kinda loved Hoggy's we logically set out to indulge in some pulled pork, baked potatoes and mac and cheese.

We were greeted nicely at the door and sat by the server who would be taking care of us. His name was Bill. While Bill was seemingly pleasant, I had to admit his service definitely was not top notch. I'm allowed to comment on his service because I'm a server. I'm allowed to judge, because no matter the restaurant that you work at, you should provide excellent service. I always do unless the table has started treating me like crap, at which point I just stop pushing my extra happy self and instead just give them happy.

Bill got our drink order out to us and then we proceeded to order, the conversation went as follows:

Dad - "I'd like the pulled pork wrap with fries."
Bill - "Well... we ran out of fries, (pause) and baked potatoes."
Dad - insert slight grunt noise here.
Me - " Well that sucks cause all I wanted for dinner was a baked potato."
Bill - "Yeah... what other side would you like?"

Needless to say, I was not happy. I just wanted to get a baked potato with butter, bbq pulled pork and some cheese. They don't really have anything else besides the mac and cheese that is worthy of eating. So instead I ordered chicken fingers and mac and cheese :) You'd think that would be easy enough right? Nope... they fried my fingers to a crisp. Bill brought out my sister and dad's entrees explaining that mine were over done and he was having them remade. 20 minutes later I finally got my fingers but my mac and cheese was cold, so were my dad's sweet potatoes. Bill kinda sucked at refilling our drinks, but that was because he had some important texting to get in while on the clock. Hey Bill? Next time I would suggest hiding somewhere a little better before you spend 5 minutes straight texting.

The meal essentially sucked. Again, Hoggy's is dead to me... City BBQ here I come.

On a side note, I bought yet another DVD player when mine went on strike... as soon as I got it, the old one started working again. Soo I need to return it to the store, again! My dad was able to reattach my cupboard door that randomly fell off, and my sister was able to put my keyboard stand together.

Squash & Snow

First off, my friend Sam told me that Jym Ganahl is having some issues with his live weather tweets... he told us no snow in the forecast for at least 6 hours... less than two hours after he published that we had an inch... Jym boy, let's work on those cloud reading skills shall we? Sooo, the first real snow of the season is on the ground and the wind is blowing my friends. But let's take a journey into the warm kitchen where I will be teaching you about Spaghetti Squash.

I've heard of this mystical veggie before in passing but recently an old high school friend has been sharing her love of it on facebook. Obviously since it's on facebook it has to be worthy of a taste test! It is a veggie that, when cooked, comes apart in long strands. Both the texture and color resemble spaghetti noodles. It took me visiting two Kroger's before I was able to actually buy the squash, but I stuck to my guns and found it.


It's pretty boring looking if you ask me. I was also worried about the dents and bruises indicating that there would be badness on the inside but no worries, it was just fine. Google and I decided the best and easiest way to cook the squash is to cut it into halves length wise, so the "noodles" are as long as possible. Once you've got it open, you need to scrape out the seeds and guts just like you would a pumpkin. You should end up with something like this...


Place the halves, rind up, on a greased cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes... voila!



Now you can just take a fork and start combing the squash from the rind. It comes off super easy and in fact, looks exactly like spaghetti!




I just sauteed some peppers and onions, added some light Prego sauce (totally disgusting and water and not worth the 60 calories) and topped with 2% mozzarella cheese.


Over all, I would say it was a 5 out of 10. I really think if I added steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, fat free ranch and chicken that this could have potential as a pasta craving substitute... or maybe the basil pesto with spinach, tomatoes and feta. I guess it wasn't horrible if I'm already thinking about experimenting again :)

Also, for your information... I went to the gym and did both cardio and weights tonight. I also decided that as much as I like paying off my CCs, I like losing weight more. I will be texting my trainer tomorrow so I can start up sessions next week.