I've been bok choyed!

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Found these baby bok choys at No Frills, of all places!  I am sure I've tried it before, but I've never cooked with it before.  Tonight's supper was going to be a plain salad (well, as plain as my salads ever are!) with BBQ chicken on top.  At the last minute I decided to BBQ-grill my veggies (other than the lettuce, tomato and cukes!) to go on top of my salad.  I BBQ-grilled peppers, broccoli, onion, zucchini, bok choy and celery which I had tossed with a couple teaspoons of safflower oil and a tablespoon of raspberry balsamic vinegar, some garlic and some Epicure Cinco Pepper Blend.    It was SO yummy!  I only used one of my baby bok choys, but wished I'd used two!  I am SO addicted to my BBQ grill pan...I want to grill EVERYTHING...think I could have grilled my lettuce and cukes too?  I know tomatoes would have been fine... lol  I used to roast any veggie...now it'll be grilling for the supper I guess :)


Week 5 of maintenance almost over.  I am feeling very bloated this week, so hoping I don't have another gain tomorrow :(  Time will tell..stay tuned!

Bulgur & Quinoa Blend...and today's spices

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New find at the Superstore!  Been wanting
to try bulgur for a while, so figured this was
a good way :)  It was good!

Nutritional info...figuring out points for
cooked portion made me cranky, so
I just used quinoa in my tracker (it is the
same points as bulgur)

Today's spices over rainbow trout

The finished product!

I think I'm a chip fiend!

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First the chipster chips and now pita chips in the oven :)  Once again, spices were used.  One pita cut into 8 pieces with a pizza cutter and then each pita triangle separated into two.  Place on a cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  Spray pita with a bit of cooking spray and then season as desired (see photo for my preference).  Place in a preheated oven (400 degrees) for 4-7 minutes - watch them CAREFULLY as they burn quickly.  I literally sit on a stool in front of my oven and watch them :)  Serve with salsa or any dips you like.  Yummy!  You can also make these with cinnamon or other sweet options and serve with fruit salsa or just eat on their own.  Nice and crispy!

The secret ingredient

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Here are the spices I used tonight for my chili.  Mostly Epicure spices, but threw in some Chipotle Chili Powder for good measure.  The one on top of the Guacamole Dip Mix is crushed chili :) 

I have no real recipe for my chili - I just throw in whatever I have on hand.  Tonight I used a pound of extra lean ground turkey, peppers (yellow, red and orange), zucchini (yellow and green), onions, mushrooms, black beans, chickpeas, diced tomatoes and Hunts spaghetti sauce.  When I was just about finished, I decided to add a secret ingredient.  Only I had a brain fart and added the WRONG secret ingredient :)  I meant to add cocoa powder, which I have used before.  For some reason, my hands reached for...wait for it......cinnamon!!  The results were great!  This is the best batch of chili yet!  Cinnamon (just a few dashes) is going to be a regular ingredient in my chili from now on.

Chipster update:

Last night I had the girls overnight for a sleepover and we used the Chipster again with regular potatoes.  I bought baking potatoes this time.  One potato (about 10 oz raw) sliced up to enough chips for the three of us.  We tried them with popcorn seasoning (ketchup, BBQ and white cheddar...sometimes mixed!) and I also tried some with just sea salt.  I have to say the sea salt was my fav.  They turned super crispy!  I wish I could figure out how to make them and keep them crispy overnight...

The great spice challenge!

Pin It This week's topic at Weight Watchers was about spicing things up...in the kitchen :)  Our leader challenged us to try something new/creative using various spices.  I have no idea what I'm going to do...I NEVER use any spices... haha, yeah right!  I think I'm the Queen of Spices.  I don't tend to use "regular" spices (oregano, "regular" garlic, etc.) though.  I like to buy blends of spices, like the ones from Epicure.  I tend to buy the Epicure dips quite a bit and use them as spices rather than fattening dips.  My favorite dip has to be the guacamole one.  Love this on roasted potatoes and other roasted veggies.  My favorite "regular" spice has to be Chipotle Chili Powder, which I put on just about anything!

I am going to try and post a new photo each day this week showing a different idea using spices.  Today I made some rhubarb apple sauce and used the Epicure Apple Pie Spice.  This is great over Greek yogurt, ice cream or frozen yogurt or just on its own.  You could add some jell-o powder mix and turn it into jam and, depending on your Weight Watchers theory of using the recipe builder for fruit-only based recipes, you might call this zero points (some folks believe in putting all recipes in the recipe builder, resulting in fruit and veggies "costing" points; others believe that if they are using all zero point foods, the recipe should be zero points...I will let you decide which school of thought you subscribe to).

Maintenance Week 3 Update:

Today concluded my third week of maintenance.  I actually had trouble eating all of my points this week.  My aim was to stick with the 4 extra daily points, but some days it ended up being only 3. I also only used about 18 of my weekly points when I usually use almost all of them.  The result of these circumstances was a 2 pound loss!  I am now 1.3 pounds under my goal weight.  This week was an extremely stressful/emotional week (all will be fine, I'm sure) and I had less appetite than usual.  I'm sure that contributed to my 2 pound loss this week :)

My two girlies are coming for a sleepover tonight (nieces), so I must go get ready for them.  I'm wondering where one might find a movie rental place these days???