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Last week I came home from a busy day at work and literally had no idea what I was going to make for dinner. I opened the fridge and saw this:

I looked in my vegetable drawer and saw I still had a bag of mini peppers

So I thought about just cutting up the smoked sausage and peppers and onions, then I thought that wouldn’t be enough food for my whole family. So I looked in my pantry and saw that I had pasta – then I thought I could make a cream sauce to go with it and voila – a totally deluxe dinner was born! Normally in jambalaya you would use Cajun seasoning, I didn’t have any so I used the spices I had on hand.

Ingredients:

mini peppers (I used about 10) sliced
1 box of your favorite pasta
1 small onion, cut into pieces
4 cloves of garlic – chopped
1 package Hillshire Farm Smoked Chicken sausage, sliced
1/4 pound shrimp (I used precooked shrimp – the frozen kind)
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup flour

In a big pot, cook pasta according to directions and drain.

Meanwhile in a skillet, add the peppers, onions and garlic with a little Olive oil and saute for a few minutes. In a separate bowl, add the skim milk and flour and mix until it’s all smooth. Add that to the pepper/onion mixture and stir to make the sauce. Add the seasonings, the smoked chicken sausage and the shrimp and cook for a few minutes until the shrimp is cooked (if using raw) and the smoked sausage is heated through. Add the cooked pasta and stir making sure it’s all coated with the sauce.

This turned out so much better than I thought it would – my whole family devoured it, and there were no leftovers – but that’s OK, it means they like it!

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Many thanks to all the birthday wishes on here and on Face Book. The party still continues because I will be celebrating with my twin on Sunday at our best friends house so I am really looking forward to that!

I had a half day on my birthday – and guess what I did as soon as I got home? Changed into my running clothes and my husband and I headed out to the Brookfield Zoo running path and we ran 4 miles! I thought that was a great way to start the next year in my life – we had a great time and he slowed down to run with me the whole time which I thought was really nice – he can run way faster than me!

Enjoy your day everyone – another 80+ degree day in Chicago again! I love it!

Slim Shoppin’

First off, I have to give a shout out to my twin sister – it’s OUR BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!

That’s us on our first birthday – I’m not sure which one is which!

We’ve had some great birthdays over the years. When we were in grade school, we usually invited our whole class over – so that’s 2 classes of kids. One group would be upstairs doing an activity and the other group would be in the basement watching movies and then we would switch. One birthday my parents rented out the community center and we roller skated. On our 19th birthday – we were in college and our spring breaks were back to back, so Biz came to Iowa State – we may have had many cocktails and there was taco bell tacos involved

So Happy Birthday Biz!!! We are getting together next weekend with out best friends who are twins to celebrate together.

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So the start of my weekend was pretty exciting. Claire was in a cake making contest for Girl Scouts. They had a 100 year celebration last week with all sorts of great activities. When I saw that it culminated with the cake contest, Claire was all in. The rules? Your daughter has to make everything by herself, no store bought cakes, and you can supervise, but you are not supposed to touch anything (which can I tell you was super hard for me!)

Claire made a white cake and she wanted to do a tie dye frosting. I wasn’t sure how to go about doing that. Does she make frosting and we color it in different colors? Then I saw this blog. She took gel and made a ring around the cake and then pushed it through with a paint brush. I didn’t have a brush, so Claire wrapped 4 toothpicks together to make the effect.

The green represents the sash for Girl scouts – this is the final cake:

The patches were vanilla wafers which she decorated. It took 3 nights to do this cake. She baked them on Wednesday, made the frosting and frosted it on Thursday night and before the event Friday, she made the patches.

There were about 60 cakes there – kindergarten all the way through 5th grade. There were different categories – Claire’s cake celebrated 100 years of Girl Scouts. There were judges at the event walking around and since it was a fundraiser, you could bid on the cake you wanted.

Then it was time for the awards. They started with the littler kids and then got to the bigger kids, when all of a sudden – they announce my daughter as a winner in her category. There were about 10 prizes for all those cakes, so I was so excited (and she was too!)

It was very exciting!

Then Saturday my husband and I headed downtown to run with Team in Training for our upcoming event. He had to run 12 miles, and I had to run 8. It was WARM out – I mean not being cold wearing shorts and a tank top at 8:00 a.m. After weeks of wearing multiple layers and being so windy, it was certainly strange to douse water over my head because I was so hot! But we did it and it wasn’t that bad!

Next on the agenda? It was my son Paul’s birthday yesterday!!! He turned 16. I missed having him on St. Patrick’s day by just a few hours, but I was glad he wasn’t born on my birthday – since I already have to share that day with my twin

He’s so awesome and smart and funny and the best son I could ask for!

I thought this picture was funny. We went to my nieces Gelato Shop Black Dog Gelato and the kids were waiting while my husband fed the meter and this is how they were standing – so serious looking and we are getting gelato!

Thanks for the gelato Jessie – it was amazing as usual and great on an 80 degree day in Chicago in March!

Got to run – Have a wonderful day everyone – I sure will!

Slim Shoppin’

It’s been a while since I’ve made muffins! I forgot how much I love them and how easy it is to grab that for breakfast out the door.

I had a bag of chia seeds and I thought I wanted to add those to muffins. I quickly googled “chia seed muffins” and made mine based on a recipe from www.choosingraw.com.

These are more dense muffins, not cake like – but delicious just the same. I would heat it up at work in the microwave, open it up, smear a little peanut butter on top of each half and it was amazing!

Jenn’s Chia Seed Banana Oat Chocolate chip muffin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup oats
1.5 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 bananas, peeled and mashed
1 1/4 cup skim milk
1/8 cup canola oil
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tablespoons chia seeds
1/4 cup chocolate chips (plus some placed on top before baking )

Using a 1/4 cup measure I filled the 12 muffin tin (coated with cooking spray first). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For each muffin: 206 calories, 53.4 grams fat, 34 carbs, 3.4 fiber

Have you ever used Chia seeds? You can add them to pancake or waffle batter, add them to smoothies, sprinkle over yogurt. You can find them in health food stores or Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.

Slim Shoppin’

I think I’ve turned a corner as far as my running goes. I am training for a half marathon at the end of April. I’ve run longer distances before, but I have never really considered myself a runner. I thought of myself as a charity runner – since this will be the 4th race I am raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I’m not fast, I usually do a run walk and in the past – when the going gets tough I would usually walk more.

But last week while running I made a challenge to myself. In the last 45 minutes, I just told myself – just keep going, if you get too winded, just run slower. And you know what? I did it! And it wasn’t that bad either!

During the week, I ran 3x and ran the whole time – @ 45 minutes and felt fine.

Yesterday – I had to run 10 MILES – and guess what? I ran the whole way. The only time I stopped was to use the bathroom, drink from my water bottle, or eat part of my Cliff bar.

So it got me to thinking about how the power of the mind works. If you believe in yourself – I think that gives you strength to complete things you didn’t think you could. Before I started training for this in early November, I couldn’t have run more than a block without stopping, yet now- I ran for 2 hours and 15 minutes – I think that is pretty awesome!

I am sore today, my calf muscles are tight and after sitting for a while I’m a little stiff – but if that’s all I have to deal with – I’ll take it!

And it was warmer and sunny and beautiful on the path today. My favorite parts are when you are close to the water. I train on the Chicago Lakefront path.

This is right when you get to Belmont Harbor. In the summer – you would see tons of boats docked here!

This part of the path is at Belmont Harbor. In the summer you would see tons of boats here. The sun on the water was so pretty!

This part of the path – there is a lagoon. You can take kayak or rowing lessons here in the summer. That would be fun!

This part of the path has a lagoon where you can kayak or take rowing lessons – that would be cool!

So – I still have 3 pretty sizable runs. I have to run 12 miles twice, another 10 miles and 8 miles – but my event is coming soon – April 28th!!!

So – if you can donate and help my husband and I reach our goal – here is our fundraising page. Congrats to my hubby David – he ran 16 miles yesterday!!! Great job!

And today is my wedding anniversary – we’ve been married 17 years!!! It doesn’t seem like it’s that long – or that I’m old enough to be married that long Happy Anniversary David!

Slim Shoppin’

Another week went flying by – I can’t believe it’s Friday again! We’ve had some gorgeous weather this week, a few days making it into the 60′s – so Happy Spring is around the corner.

So as you can imagine over the years I have subjected my family to watching many hours of cooking shows -and I love that they never seem to mind it I also love when they watch something and it inspires them to get creative in the kitchen. We watched last weekends episode of Sandwich King. The winner Jeff Mauro grew up in the town right next to mine – so that’s cool!

He made an amazing pastrami sandwich. I was busy doing things around the house when I went into the kitchen and saw my oldest son Paul making this:

He was cooking up pastrami (not fancy stuff – Hillshire Farm!) and onions….(Biz you would love that part right?)

He made a sauce to go with it: Mayonnaise, Sriracha sauce, lots of pepper and garlic powder.

The end result?

He said it turned out great. If anything – watching so many cooking shows and being with me in the kitchen, I won’t have to worry about my kids starving when they are on their own!

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I had a good training week this week for my upcoming half marathon. One of the things that is hardest for me is finding time to fit running in during the week. We have 3 kids and they go to 3 different schools and wake up and leave at 3 different times!

My oldest son is a sophomore in high school – he gets up at 6:30 and leaves at 7:20. My daughter is in 4th grade, she gets up at 7:10 and leaves at 7:50. My middle son is in 8th grade, he gets up at 7:30 and leaves at 8:20. My husband gets up at 5 a.m. to run and with everything else, plus I could never get my butt out the door that early – I’ve switched to plan B. Sometimes plan B is to just get changed as soon as I get home from work and run before dinner. That usually works OK and doesn’t push dinner back too much. The other plan I did several times this week is just running after my daughter goes to bed at 8:30. Since it’s dark out and I’m a little nervous running outside at night, I stick to my block! I run to the end, cross the street, then back to my street. Most everyone has their front porch light on, so I’m not scared.

After running 4 laps of this the other night, when I got to the end of my block I looked across the street. There is a park, 4 tennis courts and a baseball diamond. I saw the tennis courts – it was of course empty and I decided to run in the tennis court!

The best part? I didn’t have to deal with traffic, people walking their dogs, it was well lit, and a smooth surface, and I have the whole thing to myself! It worked out perfectly. So that’s what I did last night. I ran for 40 minutes, mostly without stopping. Once I was done, I noticed when they revamped the park, they made some small man made hills- so I ran up and down those hills a few times.

I’m so happy I thought of that! I’ve been a little nervous this week, my training for tomorrow – TEN MILES!!! The good news is the weather is finally going to be better than its been the last month. It will be in the 30′s to start and sunny – so I am glad for that.

So I’ll let you know tomorrow how my run goes – have a great weekend – what are your plans?

Slim Shoppin’

I normally make my breakfast at home and just bring it to work to eat. It takes me a long time to eat so I like not to be rushed. More than not, I prefer a savory breakfast over sweet and if I can add some veggies in the mix even better.

As I was looking in the fridge thinking about what to make – I had about 1/2 a chicken breast left over from the night before. And I had some peppers, and potatoes and started building it from there.

To make things go quicker, I cook the potato in the microwave on the baked potato setting until there is a minute left. That way it’s not totally mushy, but firm enough to cut and cook in the skillet.

In a skillet I added chopped baby peppers, green onions and red onions and cooked that for a few minutes. I had a bag of frozen peas and carrots, so I threw those in too. Next I added the potato and cooked that for about 3 minutes, then put the chicken in to warm up. This was so much food and not a lot of calories, it kept me full all morning. I love that!

I couldn’t wait for lunch because Tuesdays at my office is SALAD CLUB! Over the last few weeks its been so deluxe. Here is my salad from yesterday:

I had spinach, arugula, strawberries, clementines, black beans, peppers, green onions, cucumber and my friend Laura made candied almonds! I had to refrain putting too many of those on because they were delicious! And my new favorite dressing comes from Aldi, it’s the Fit and Active Brand Light poppy seed – low in calories and very tasty!

So it was a great eating day all the way around!

And kudos to me because I got home from work a little earlier yesterday and instead of starting on dinner right away – I changed my clothes and went running for 35 minutes It felt great – went by super fast and it was done so I could enjoy watching Biggest Loser!

What did you think about last night’s episode. For those of you who didn’t watch, the contestants had to go home for 18 days! That way they would most likely have to face temptations that they had trouble with. If they lost 5% of their weight then they automatically got immunity when they got back. I was shocked that most people lost 10-23 pounds while at home!

In the end, it was Chism, the 19 year old who didn’t make goal so he was automatically eliminated and had to go home. I kind of fast forwarded the end, it was a lot of crying! But he did great while he was on the ranch.

Who is your favorite contestant so far?? I actually don’t think I have a favorite – but I do have my not so favorites….Kim and Conda!

Have a great day everyone!

Slim Shoppin’

I am actually not a huge fan of cottage cheese. I can’t just eat it in a bowl, with salt and pepper or with fruit – yuck! But over the weekend I made lasagna and I couldn’t find the ricotta cheese, so I ended up using cottage cheese instead. In that – I don’t mind it at all, but then I was left with the dilemma of what to do with the leftover cottage cheese.

I’ve read about cottage cheese pancakes before on numerous blogs and just pushed it out of my mind because I thought there is no way in hell I will ever make those. Fast forward to yesterday – after I just said that I prefer savory over sweet breakfasts, yesterday I woke up and wanted something sweet.

So I googled cottage cheese pancakes and on the first page was my friend Kevin from Closet Cooking’s recipe, so that’s the one I chose. I’ve made lots of stuff from his site and it never disappoints so I wasn’t worried weather it would turn out OK.

I figured out the calories on www.caloriecount.com I said the recipe served 3 and just figured out the calories for a serving.

Much to my surprise these made 6 HUGE pancakes and for TWO pancakes the calories are:

269 calories
7.4 grams of fat
2 fiber
11 grams protein

Cottage Cheese Pancakes (adapted from Kevin’s recipe)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon Canola oil
1/2 cup water (you are supposed to use milk, but I didn’t have any)
blueberries on top

In a bowl add all the ingredients and whisk until it’s all incorporated. My recipe made 6 giant pancakes:

Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. Since these were big, I turned the heat to medium/low so they wouldn’t get too dark on the outside and still be uncooked in the middle.

I didn’t even taste it before I put 2 in a container with a baggie of frozen blueberries and headed to work. I heated up the blueberries in the microwave and kind of mashed some of the blueberries. I did that instead of using syrup.

I LOVED THESE PANCAKES!

So don’t discount them if you don’t like cottage cheese, because I don’t either – yet these were so flavorful. They aren’t super sweet, but with the blueberries on top, it was perfect!

After my great breakfast I was anticipating a great lunch with my Momma. She took me out to lunch at an Asian place near my office called HUTONG.. I am a little biased since my office designed it – but the food is good.

Since I’m in weight loss mode, I decided I was going to get miso soup, spring rolls and green beans on the side. When we got there the soup was hot and sour, so I passed on the soup. But I stuck to my plan so I was super excited about that!

My Mom got the pad thai

And we shared the green beans which came with brown rice – YUM!

Happy Friday – I have to run to work – so have a great day!!

Slim Shoppin’

Per usual, we had good weather during the week, one day reaching 60, but the forecast for Chicago this morning was overcast and cold and WINDY. One thing I was grateful for was that this week was a cut back week, so we had to run 90 minutes.

I had on 2 pairs of leggings, a long sleeve running shirt, my sweatshirt and a windbreaker and my hat. I had my hood on most of the way because it was so windy. Even though it was cloudy out – I was surprised by how many people were out on the Lakefront path. It’s very inspiring to see people being active so early in the morning on a Saturday. I’m not sure I would have that dedication if I wasn’t training for a race!

At the beginning of the training – our coach has a white board which has what every one is running depending on what race you are doing. We have people in our group doing the Shamrock Shuffle, the San Diego Marathon, The Christy Clinic full and half marathon and the North Shore half marathon. There are also a group of people for early bird training for the Chicago Marathon in October.

The first 45 minutes of my run was not great. I walked more than I ran, I went a little out of my way to find a potty – but none were still open! Very frustrating. But at the 4 mile marker, you can cross the street and use the bathroom at St. Joseph’s hospital – so that’s what a lot of people do.

So once I didn’t have to pee anymore for the 2nd 45 minutes I told myself – run the whole way – no stopping!

Usually I do a walk run – Run 6 minutes and walk 2. But I do psych myself out a lot and even though I feel fine, I talk myself into walking for a bit – I don’t know why! So this time I said “you can do it!” I thought even if I started to feel like I wanted to stop – just slow down and run slower. After a while I looked at my watch and 15 minutes had gone by. Nice! I really wanted to stop but I created an imaginary cheering squad in my head. Who was there cheering me on? My husband David, My sister Biz, Helen, Shelley, Lori, and Jacky! Yep – you were all there in my head. I thought what would they say to me if they were next to me? They would probably say – “Keep going – you are doing great!” So I pretended you were cheering me on and it worked. About a mile left one of our coaches Kristin ran with me for a half mile and when I had about 1/4 of a mile left my husband came up from behind and we ran the rest of the way together. He probably ran 4 miles more than me today – but that’s OK!

So it definitely gave me confidence and I will need it because next week I have to run 10 miles! I hope the weather gets a little warmer and it isn’t quite so windy – but I think I’ll do OK.

Our fundraising efforts are going great – but we only have another month before we have to recommit and be at our half way point – so if you can donate any amount – it’s greatly appreciated! HERE IS OUR FUNDRAISING PAGE

I think the best part of the run today is even after 90 minutes, I finished strong!

Me and my husband David

Have a great weekend everyone!

Slim Shoppin’

Before I get started in today’s post I found out over the weekend that my e-mail was hacked – so if you got a mysterious e-mail from slim-shoppin@comcast.net DO NOT open the link – it’s probably a virus – so sorry about that!

I had dozens of people e-mail me telling me so thanks for letting me know!

My husband and I had our weekly training for the Christy Clinic Illinois Marathon and Half marathon on Saturday and we’ve noticed a trend. It will be super mild during the week high 30′s and 40′s but EVERY Friday night we’ll be watching the news and the weather person says “ARCTIC AIR COMING IN” and sure enough it will be in the teens with windy conditions!

So as we were going to bed Friday night – I was thinking “please let it be sunny!” At least if it’s super cold having the sun does help!

Beautiful lakefront path

It was super cold and WINDY! At some points I just walked because it almost took your breath away. I finished 8 miles and despite having to watch out for icy patches on the path – I felt pretty good! Next weekend we have a cut back, running 90 minutes, then the following week I have to do 10 miles. I hope in a few weeks it will be warmer out!

We train on the Chicago Lakefront path. We start running north first about 1.5 miles then go south. I love going north first because it is right by the water – even though it is so cold out I think it still looks pretty!

I mentioned last week I couldn’t find the cord to my camera. Turns out in the box it came in there is an adapter so I can just take the chip out of my camera and put that in my computer and download pics – so I have lots of recipes to share – one of which is a dinner that has been requested several times since I made it. Creamy noodle and chicken.

Serves 8

4 cups uncooked macaroni
1 tablespoon butter
3.5 cups chicken broth or skim milk (sometimes I’ll do both)
1/4 cup flour
3-4 chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
chopped green onions for garnish
salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet add the cut up chicken pieces and a little Pam cooking spray. Cook until almost cooked through – and transfer to a plate. At the same time cook the macaroni and drain.

In the same skillet, melt the butter and add the flour. Stir constantly on medium heat for 1 minute. Add the milk or chicken broth and stir often it will form a nice thickened sauce. Generously add pepper and a little salt. Throw the cooked chicken back into the sauce. Then add the cooked noodles and stir so everything is coated. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese and the green onions. It’s so good! My whole family loves it.

How was your weekend??

Our fundraising page is here so if you can make a donation to help find a cure for Leukemia no amount is too small – it all adds up! Thanks so much for your support!

Slim Shoppin’

Ever since I got my Penzey spices breakfast sausage seasoning, I not only use it to make things taste great like breakfast sausage, but I’ll sprinkle it on eggs, potatoes, veggies, it makes a lot of things taste great.

Last week before work, I was thinking of what to bring for breakfast to work. I had run out of frozen fruit, so I couldn’t make my smoothie. Then I remembered I had bought some ground chicken and decided to make a breakfast sausage out of it.

If you’ve never worked with ground chicken, it is SUPER moist! I took 4 oz. of the ground chicken, 1/4 bread crumbs, and the added about 2 tsp. of the breakfast sausage seasoning. In a small skillet coated with cooking spray, I cooked each side for about 4 minutes, until it’s cooked through.

I didn’t have any eggs in the house, so I ended up making a weird, but delicious breakfast. I had 2 cups of mixed veggies, added the chicken sausage (chopped up) and 1/2 oz. of cheddar cheese.

My breakfast sausage veggie breakfast!

This was so good! The best part is the breakfast sausage seasoning is so flavorful, you don’t have to add anything else, which saves calories!

So last week I tried 2 things I’ve never had before…a kumquat and pea shoots!

Kumquat

A coworker of mine brought these to work and gave me one. I said “How do you eat it?” She said she really didn’t know! So we googled it and found this video. You can eat the skin. You just need to wash it, then you roll it between your fingers to release the oils and pop it in your mouth. It does have a few seeds – kind of like eating a grape with seeds, you just need to be careful about that. Anyway – I thought it was fantastic – sweet and tart.

And we brought salad club back at my office a few weeks ago. This last weeks salad was spectacular!

Setting up for salad club

For those of you who don’t know a few coworkers and I bring a fruit/veggie to share and any kind of greens and we set up a salad bar. My friend who brought the kumquats brought pea shoots and I had never seen/had those before, so I added them to my salad.

My salad!

What are pea shoots? They are the leaves of the pea plant. I thought they tasted great. My friend bought them at Trader Joe’s – they came in a plastic package found near the fresh herbs. You can read more about them here.

How was everyone’s weekend? Happy Monday!!!!

Slim Shoppin’