Weight Watchers Wednesday: need a quick, summery dinner?

Grilled Cuban Chicken with Black Bean and Mango Salsa

{picture from weightwatchers.com}

POINTS® Value:5
Servings: 4

What you will need:
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup cilantro, fresh, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 1/4 pounds uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 5-oz pieces
1 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup mango, fresh, cubed
2 Tbsp red onion, chopped
cooking spray

How to make it:

The night before you are going to eat this:

In a small bowl, combine orange juice, cilantro, lime juice, oil, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper; remove 1/2 cup and place in a large zip-close plastic bag. Add chicken to bag and turn to coat; seal bag and refrigerate.

Then, to make the salsa, add beans, mango and onion to bowl with orange juice mixture; toss, cover and refrigerate.

The night you are going to eat this:
When ready to cook, coat grill or grill pan (we used the George Foreman) with cooking spray; preheat over medium-high heat. Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade.

Grill chicken, turning as needed, until cooked through. Transfer chicken to serving plates and spoon salsa over chicken; pour any liquid left in bottom of bowl over top. Yields 1 piece of chicken and about 1/2 cup of salsa per serving.

K and I had this last night with some Saffron rice on the side, it was great! Plus it only took about 20 minutes to get dinner ready since I had done all the prep the night before.

Weight Watchers Wednesday: Quick Breakfast

I've seen that a lot of bloggers do Weight Watchers or Weight Loss Wednesday so I decided to play along and use Wednesday as a day to share WW tips or recipes...so here we go!

Since starting WW in February I am always looking for quick things I can have for breakfast. Usually I eat in my car on the way to work or once I get to work at my desk so it's important that whatever I have is portable and will keep me full until lunch.

Here are some of my favorites:

Smart Ones English Muffin Breakfast Sandwich---4 POINTS

I try not to go crazy with Smart Ones or Lean Cuisines because of the sodium but these are really good and simple.

The Alternative Bagel---1 POINT

These can actually be ordered online here. I really like the Roasted Onion flavor with a Laughing Cow wedge spread on it (which brings the total to only 2 POINTS.)

Fage Total 2% with Honey---4 POINTS

For some people 4 POINTS might seem like a lot to spend on just yogurt but this is really filling and yummy. I will normally have a piece of fruit with it or as a snack later in the morning.

Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal---3 POINTS

The Banana Bread flavor is my personal fav.

What do you eat for breakfast? Any healthy suggestions for me to try next?

2010 goals---April update

Seriously is April is almost over? What? Where does the time go? The time has come for another update on my goals for this year. To see the original post and my previous updates click here.

1) Lose 20 pounds by the end of the year.

I'm still doing Weight Watchers and as of my last weigh in I have lost about 10 pounds. I say about because I was up a bit last week! It's slow going but as long as the general trend is downward that is good with me. As far as exercising I have been slacking on that and need to pick it up again. It's just hard to be motivated at the end of the day.

2) Take more pictures.

Let's be honest, I suck at this. But I am going to have some free time this summer and want to use it to get my pictures more organized. I also have a lot of events in the next few months so maybe that will motivate me more to take pictures?

3) Get accepted to a Masters in Teaching program. CHECK!

As you know, I am starting at LU in June and will be very busy with grad school classes and also taking some undergrad requirements at a local community college. I'll be posting more about all that soon! Now that I definitely know where I am going/getting started I'll be modifying this for next month's update but I'm not exactly sure how I will phrase it yet!

I really want to thank all of you for the support you have given me about going back to school. Not to be sappy, but I honestly don't know what I would do without this blogging community! I may not have tons of readers but those of you who do read and comment truly feel like real friends. So there is my sap for the day. Puffy hearts to all of you.

fortunately/unfortunately

Fortunately it's Friday! And I am leaving work at 1:00 today!
Unfortunately Friday is also my Weight Watchers weigh in day and this morning I was up 1.8 pounds...grrr.

Fortunately I am giving my notice at work in just one week...next Friday.
Unfortunately the thought of having the "I'm quitting" conversation with my boss really scares me!

Fortunately I'm still loving the look of my new bangs.
Unfortunately I haven't quite mastered styling them (and flattening the cowlicks that always stopped me from having bangs) so sometimes they look a bit wonky (today for example.) And they could already use a trim.

Fortunately Hanna and I are going to be spending the weekend at my friend, B's house. Her bf is going to be away and K needs to study so it will be a fun girls weekend!
Unfortunately wait...there is nothing unfortunate about that!

weight watchers gourmet pizza

Have I mentioned how much I love Weight Watchers online? Seriously, I love it. Since starting WW in February I have tried out so many amazing recipes. Like this EASY and DELICIOUS one for example.

Gourmet Pizza

POINTS® Value:5

Servings: 6

(this is the WW picture but mine looked pretty similar)

What you will need:

2 large onions, vidalia , thinly sliced
12 oz pizza dough (I just used the Pillsbury dough)
10 medium sun-dried tomatoes, without oil (I used probably about 15 of the halved ones)
3 oz hard cheese, Gorgonzola (I used one small package of the crumbled kind)
10 pieces spinach, washed and dried (I just chopped up a couple handfuls of baby spinach)
black pepper

How to make it:
Coat a large nonstick pan with cooking spray. Warm pan over medium heat. Add onions and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions brown and become very fragrant.
Meanwhile, prepare pizza crust for baking according to package directions. Mince tomatoes. Tear spinach into pieces (or chop if you are me.) Preheat oven to 425°F.
Spread caramelized onions on pizza crust and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and add tomatoes, spinach and cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, about 3 more minutes. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Enjoy!

road trip! and muffins!

K and I (and Hanna) are leaving tonight to drive to North Carolina for the weekend. My parents, brother and sister (and Gryffin---their dog) are also going but they are leaving earlier today. We are all going to visit my aunt and my cousin and will probably eat too much, drink too much, enjoy the sunshine and relax. I'm especially looking forward to the fondue and martini night my aunt has planned.

I wanted to make something to bring with me so I decided on trying out two different kinds of muffins recipes and a cherry scone recipe I got off Weight Watchers. Last night I was literally baking from 6-10.

I'm looking forward to these...

Raspberry Muffins

3 POINTS each, makes 12 muffins.

You'll need: 1 1/2 cup(s) whole wheat self-rising flour OR If you cannot find whole wheat self-rising flour, mix together 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour with 2 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
4 Tbsp margarine, softened.
2 cups ready-to-eat crisp rice cereal, divided
1 1/2 cup(s) raspberries, divided
2/3 cup unpacked brown sugar, divided 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cups buttermilk

How to make them: Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a 12-hole muffin tin with cooking spray or use liners. Place flour in a large bowl and rub in margarine with your fingers. Stir in 1 1/3 cups of cereal, 1 cup of raspberries and 1/2 cup of sugar. Combine eggs and milk in a small bowl; stir into flour-fruit mixture. Pour mixture into prepared tin; sprinkle with remaining raspberries (I put one whole raspberry on top of each muffin), cereal and sugar. Bake 25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before flipping onto wire rack to cool.

I hope you have a very nice Easter weekend!

2010 goals---March update

So I was trying to do this mid month but I decided to move it more to the end of every month. It just seems to make more sense that way. Click here to see the original post about my goals AND here to see my first update.

1) Lose 20 pounds by the end of the year.
When I posted my first update I had just started Weight Watchers and I'm proud to say I have kept it up and don't plan on stopping! As of Friday, which is my weigh in day, I have lost 8.6 pounds and made my first goal which was 5% of my body weight (that was the first goal they recommended online...I guess if you do the math you will know how fat I am...oh well.) I'm loving Weight Watchers, even though the weight is coming off slowly I feel like I am truly making a lifestyle change. This past weekend I slacked off a bit and I know I will again over Easter, also I haven't been exercising as much as I would like. Hopefully, after Easter I will get back on the fit train and I won't gain weight while I am away for Easter!

2)Take more pictures
I've been a little better about this. Also, I want to get my pictures all organized, my new MacBook will help with that and we are also going to be investing in a large external hard drive. Once I have that I want to consolidate all my pictures on to it.

3) Get accepted to a Masters in Teaching program
Not much has changed since last week (see here for details.) I am still really leaning towards School #3 and have found out more information on it. Yes, it will take longer but I think the pros outweigh the cons. I've been gathering more information from the woman who would be my advisor and she told me if I start this summer I won't graduate until January 2012. I would have loved to be able to finish in a year but an extra 6 months to 1 year (because I might not find a full time teaching job mid year) won't be the worst thing that could.) That being said I don't really want to slam the door on School #1. It's hard...but I want to decide for sure VERY SOON.

wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy

Is that not a really weird thing to say? What does it even mean? How does P. Diddy feel in the morning...rich? Sleepy? Does he push snooze? Or maybe someone wakes him up becuase...well...he is P. Diddy? The world may never know.

Anyways, this morning I am feeling pretty good and that line is just stuck in my head. As of today I have lost over 5 pounds on Weight Watchers, I have Real Housewives of NY dvr-ed and waiting for me, it's Friday, and I allowed myself to eat a yummy asiago cheese bagel from Panera for breakfast. (Friday and Saturday are the days I use most of my WW flex points for the week.)

Still no new grad school news. Waiting on School #1 but that's ok...I'm still in a good mood.

And here is something else that is exciting: One of you will be winning this tote very soon!

Today is the last day to enter my first giveaway, I'll be picking the winner over the weekend.

Click HERE to enter!

2010 goals---1 month update

Remember this post? Where I told you all my goals for this year and promised to update you monthly on my progress? Well here is your first update.

1) Lose 20 pounds by the end of the year.
So far this has been a little disappointing. I actually weight (very, very) slightly more than I did at the beginning of the year. I have done the Shred 18 times. I started really strong but then my knees started bothering me, I went to Boston for longer than expected, and we got lots of snow which made me lazy...excuses I know. I'm going to get back on track and I am happy that I am at least doing something few times each week minimum. It's a big improvement from last year.

The big news this past week is that I started Weight Watchers online. Tuesday was my first day of tracking points and my weigh in day is Friday, so while last week was my first week I don't feel like it is a good representation. This is my first full week. So far I really like being able to track everything online and having access to all of the recipes and guides. I'm going to try and plan out all our weekly meals based on WW recipes or using their "recipe builder." The big thing that I am noticing so far is my portions, especially at dinner, are just too big. Eating out will also be hard so I'm going to try to save up points and plan out what to eat in advance!

2) Take more pictures
I have been doing a little better than last year but still have lots of room for improvement. My first big "event" with my friends of this year is next weekend so that will be a good photo opportunity.

3)Get accepted to a Masters in Teaching program
School 1: My interview will hopefully be sometime soon! It got all messed up because of the snow. Stupid snow.
School 2: Honestly don't know what is going on with these bitches. I don't even know if they have all the right stuff, have lost paperwork or what. Very annoying. I don't think I want to go there even if I do get in.
School 3: ACCEPTED!


Overall, it has been a mixed first month. Can't wait to see what the next one brings!