Vegetarian Taco Soup

Are you ready for one of my most favorite, easy and low calorie recipes ever? One cold nights when you've been rushing around all day and don't have time to get a healthy meal on the table, don't worry. I have just the meal for you! Vegetarian Taco Soup. It's the bomb. Everyone in my family loves it, including my meat loving hubs. This recipe makes 9 servings (1 Cup per serving) and each serving is only 212 calories! I add fat free sour cream, fat free cheddar cheese and a few of my favorite tortilla chips and I'm still only at 377 calories. That's great for a wonderful filling dinner.

So, here's how to make this wonderful soup.  First, grab all your ingredient, meatless crumbles (I usually use the Boca Brand, but the Morning Star brand was on sale so I used that instead and it was great), corn, black beans, ranch style beans, enchilada sauce, chopped diced tomatoes (I use the petite diced tomatoes, but you could also use regular sized), rotel, ranch mix, cumin, chili powder (instead of the chili powder and cumin you could also use a packet of taco seasoning...I was just out of that).   Oh, one other thing, I use all mild options (rotel, enchilada sauce, but you could use any heat you want...I just have to feed four little boys and anything too hot isn't going to work).

Cook the crumbles, add the seasonings, add everything else, heat until it's nice and hot, and then put it in a bowl.

If you're feeling frisky pick up some of your favorite tortilla chips...mine are the Tia Rosa Megathin kind.  YUM.

Then add a dollop of sour cream, a little cheese and a few of the chips and enjoy!

Easy Vegetarian Taco Soup

Meatless Crumbles
Ranch Seasoning Packet
1 tablespoon Ground Cumin
1 tablespoon Chili Powder
1 Can Red Enchilada Sauce
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
1 Can Rotel
1 Can Corn, drained
1 Can Ranch Style Beans
1 Can Black Beans, drained and rinsed

Optional toppings:  tortilla chips, sour cream (fat free or low fat), and shredded cheese (low fat or fat free)

In a large pot cook meatless crumbles per package directions, add seasonings and combine.  Add the rest of the ingredients and heat on medium/high until bubbling and heated through.  Serve in a bowl with toppings.
 Again, 1 serving is 1 cup.  This should make 9 servings at 212 calories a cup.

Meal Planning

Last week I had no meal plan at all.  I literally went to the grocery store every single day to buy what we needed that night for dinner.  I just couldn't seem to focus long enough to put something together for rest of the week.  I just got out of practice.  After my hernia surgery I had some really great friends bring us dinner every single night for two weeks.  I got so spoiled and now I'm having a hard time getting back in the habit of meal planning.  However, I know I need to.  Things just go such much better when I do.
So, I finally sat down this weekend and figured wrote one out.  I'm gonna head to the grocery store and get everything we need.  FYI...I usually only plan dinners because I throw together sandwiches and fruits/veggies for the kids and a salad or left overs for me for lunch.
If you're interested here's what we're having this coming week.
Monday: Italian Sausage and Goat Cheese Portobello Pizzas and Kale Chips. I've used both these recipes before and they're great.
Tuesday: Teriyaki Chicken with Brown Rice and Garlic Sauce with a side of broccoli (or another veggie if something else is on sale).  This is my own recipe which I've blogged about here.
Wednesday:  Salmon Cakes over Spinach and Arugula with a side of fresh fruit salad.  Again, the salmon cakes were blogged about here.
Thursday: Pomegranate and Honey Sweet, Salty and Sour Pulled Pork with Roasted New Potatoes and a Side Salad.  I'm most excited about this one.  I love pomegranates and my hubs loves pork, so I'm hoping this one will be a smashing success.
After this we get into a busy Christmas Party weekend.  I can't wait!
And, because no blog is complete without pictures here are a couple from our weekend.  We went to Main Street Bethlehem and were able to immerse ourselves into the world of Bethlehem at Jesus' time.  It was a fantastic way to be reminded of what Christmas is really about.  That God came in human form as a baby to rescue us.

Is It My Job to Look Good?

I was in the gym the other day working out. Yes, you heard that right...I was working out.  I've been there every day since I got permission from my surgeon to go back.  Woohoo!

Anyway...I was on the treadmill watching the tv on the wall in front of me and certain reality tv star came on the screen.  Now, I'm not a big reality tv fan or a big reality tv hater.  I could take it or leave it.  Whatever.  So, this girl woman comes on the screen and I think, "She's hot.  I wish I could look like that.  I'll never look like that.  I bet she works out all the time.  I bet she gets paid to workout so that she keeps up her image.  I bet her personal assistant has her workouts scheduled into her day and it's just part of her job."  So, I'm on the treadmill thinking through my jealousy of this woman's body and how she has no excuses because it's her job to look that way, blah blah blah blah.

Eventually I got passed thinking about her and started thinking about myself.  I have a job.  I'm a stay at home mom to 4 crazy sons and I'm a wife to an amazing rock star husband.  And I wondered, "Is it my job to look good?"  And here's my answer:  Yes.  Yes, it's part of my job to look good.  Does that surprise you?  Honestly it kind of surprised me.  I didn't initially think that, but the more I thought through it the more I realized that I do believe that it's my job to look good.  Here's why:

1.  When I say "look good" I don't mean super model, reality star look good.  That's all fake.  No one really looks like that in real life.  I mean look healthy, look like I care about myself, look like I put some effort into my appearance.  If I'm eating healthy and working out then I'm going to look good.  That means I'm doing the work.  I'm being the best me, the best wife, the best mom I can be and that's my job.

2.  As my job to be the best wife to my husband I need to look good.  I know that may send some people into a tizzy, but just wait and hear me out.  I need to look good to my husband not anyone else.  My husband tells me that he thinks I'm beautiful right now.  I believe him.  I believe that he thinks I'm beautiful.  But...he also knows how hard I'm trying to lose weight and the work that I put into my appearance.  If I was sitting around, not exercising, not eating healthy food and filling my body with crap, he would not find that attractive.  I have absolutely no doubt that he would still love me, but he wouldn't find me attractive and I don't blame him.  I wouldn't find it attractive if he just sat around putting on the pounds.  I want him to love the way I look and he needs to.  I want him to be happy when he looks at me.  I love the book of the Bible, Song of Solomon.  I want my husband to look at me the way the author looks at his bride in chapter 4 (read it...it's racey stuff).  It's my job to give him something pleasing to look at.

3.  When my children see me I want them to see a strong, healthy woman that takes care of herself and tries to use the abilities that God has given me to the best that I can.  I don't want them to see a woman that is lazy and disrespects the health that God has blessed her with.  I want them to grow into men that strive to be healthy and fit men and I want them to look for women that to be their wives that do the same.  So, it's my job to look good because I owe it to my children to set an example for them of how to take care of themselves.

I may not get paid to be on tv and show off my body to the world (thank goodness), but there are people that look at me and it's my job to look good for them.  It's also my job to look good for myself.  I should be able to take pride in how I look.  I'll never look like the women on tv that are filled up with fake stuff and nipped and tucked so they don't look like what God made them to look like.  BUT, I can look like the best me that I am.  I can strive for it everyday.

No more comparisons. Just comparing me to me. The me I am right now to the me I know that I can be with hard work and determination.

Source: workout-girl.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

3 Cheese Chicken Lasagna

Oh friends, do I have a recipe to share with you! My boys love just about anything with pasta and sauce, including lasagna. Now, I've never made lasagna before, but I felt inspired and decided to give it a go. I used a recipe from The Eat Clean Diet 2 as a guide line, but did it a little differently and so I feel like I can call this my own.

First, you take your chicken breast (I used skinless bone-in chicken breast because it had been reduced for quick sale at my grocery store and so it was super cheap, but you could totally use bone-less too) and you throw it in a baking dish.

Salt and pepper those little beauties and cook them in the oven until they're done (mine took about 45 minutes).

Get yourself a big old pot of water boiling (you want to start this process while the chicken is cooking because it takes forever for that much water to come to a boil).  You'll  cook some healthy whole wheat lasagna noodles in this mammoth amount of water until they're almost done, but not completely (I cooked mine for 6 minutes). 

Once your chicken is done shred or cut it into bite sized pieces and put in a bowl.

Get a jar of yummy marinara sauce (I use Newman's own because it's fairly cheap and there's no crazy stuff in it).

Spread about 1/4 of the marinara on the bottom of your greased 13x9 baking dish.

Oh, at some point you should have cooked up a whole bunch of spinach.  It will start out looking like this...

...by the end it will look like this...realize you have no garlic (how did I not have garlic?  I always have garlic!) and use some garlic powder on the spinach instead.

Once the spinach is cooked (it takes about 3 minutes), remove it from the pan and ring all the water out using a cheese cloth.  Then chop that green goodness up!

Mix the chopped spinach in with the chopped chicken.  You'll have a big bowl of chopped goodness.

Back to the dish with the marinara sitting patiently on the counter....layer some lasagna noodles on top of the marinara.

Then spread some low fat ricotta cheese on the there and sprinkle some low fat mozzarella cheese on top of that.  Mmmm....cheesey!  But wait, I said this was a three cheese lasagna!  Just hold your horses.  It's coming!

After the two cheese sprinkle some chicken/spinach combo on top of the cheese.

Then add some more marinara.

Then more noodles, then more cheese, then more chicken, then more marinara, then more noodles, then more cheese, then more marinara and you have a layered chicken, cheesey, noodley, marinara heaven.

Cover it and cook it in the oven for 60 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and uncover it.  Now you'll add the third cheese!  Sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese on the top and cook for another 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and enjoy!  My family devoured this.  It took a while to put together, but it was really very good.  So go ahead and give it a try and let me know what you think.  To be honest I have no idea exactly how healthy, or not, this is.  I used healthy options; whole wheat pasta, chicken breasts, low fat cheeses, spinach, etc, so I feel good about eating a portion of it.

Three Cheese Chicken and Spinach Lasagna

3 Skinless Chicken Breasts (they can also be boneless)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
8 ounces Fresh Spinach
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 Box Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
1 Jar Marinara
16 ounces Low Fat Ricotta Cheese
1 Cup Reduced Fat Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1/4 Cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Trim fat from chicken and place in a baking dish.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook until done, approximately 45 minutes.  Remove from dish and shred chicken.  While chicken is cooking bring a very large pot of water to boil.  Cook lasagna noodles until just under done, approximately 5-6 minutes.  Once noodles are cooked, remove from water and place in a single layer on paper towels to remove excess water.  In a large pan saute spinach and garlic powder in olive oil over medium heat until spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes.  Once spinach is cooked remove from pan and ring in a cheese cloth or paper towels to remove all water.  Chop spinach into small pieces and combine with shredded chicken.  Spray a 13x9 baking dish with non-stick spray.  Spread 1/4 of the marinara sauce all over the bottom of the dish.  Layer 1/3 of the lasagna noodles on the sauce.  Spread 1/3 of the ricotta on the noodles and sprinkle 1/3 of the mozzarella on top of that.  Top the cheese with 1/2 of the chicken/spinach mixture.  Spread 1/4 of the marinara on top of the chicken and repeat the layers, noodles, cheeses, chicken, marinara.  Top the marinara with last 1/3 of the noodles and then the last of the ricotta and mozzarella and then the last of the marinara.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for an hour.  Remove from oven and uncover.  Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese and place back in the oven for 20 more minutes.  Remove from oven and enjoy!

Family Pictures

One of our friends is an amazing photographer. He's known for photographing musicians, but he has photographed our family for the past two years.  These are just some of the shots from this years session.  He did amazing work.  Now I just have pick one of the Christmas card!

I love this picture.  My hubs looks like a total rockstar : )

Getting Back To It

I'm forever climbing uphill. I know it will always be that way. The struggle to lose weight and then maintain your goal weight is not an easy one, but it's worth it.

I've spent the last month (or more) feeling sorry for myself.  Having a hernia meant no working out, so I felt defeated which led to binge eating, which of course led to more feelings of defeat. 

I had my hernia surgery a couple of weeks ago and the recovery was harder than I expected.  My surgeon told me I'd start feeling better in 3-4 days, two weeks later and I'm still really sore.  I had my follow up with him two days ago and he said my hernia was bigger than they had suspected so that is why it's taking longer for me to get better (my ob/gyn was in the surgery room at same time as my hernia surgery and he had told my husband the same thing).  Anyway, my surgeon said it will probably be 8 weeks before I'm 100% again.  However, he did give me permission to get back on the treadmill, just nothing else for a couple of more weeks.  Yesterday I hit the treadmill for 30 minutes.  It was nothing to write home about, but it felt great.  I'm getting ready to head out and do it again.

So, I'm using that permission as the motivation I need to get back on track and get back in the habit of doing what's right for my body and health.

Source: fromfatty2fit.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

We've been having some amazing friends bring us meals while I recovered.  It's been great food, but it's mostly been comfort food (not really healthy).  Last night I cooked for the first time in weeks.  It felt good to get back in the kitchen and make something healthy for me and my family.  We had teriyaki salmon, brown rice, steamed broccoli, my own version of these twice baked butternut squash.  I only used one squash (instead of six) and it was plenty for our family.  I also only used 1 tablespoon of fat free sour cream.  It was really good and my almost 2 year old loved it!

Source: marthastewart.com via Heather on Pinterest

Feeling Sorry For Myself

I have a hernia.  Too much working out.  I'm feeling sorry for myself.  The end.