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Happy Friday everyone! This week has flown by and I can’t believe the weekend is upon us again.

My husband and I will be on the Chicago Lakefront Path tomorrow morning running for our event in April. I’m doing the half marathon and my husband is doing the full marathon. We’re raising money for The Leukemia Lymphoma Society – and we really need everyone’s help to make our fundraising goal. If you have an extra .00 today – please consider donating to the cause. Our fundraising page is HERE.

Last week I was supposed to run 8 miles with a cut back to 6 this weekend BUT, since it was only 10 degrees last week, they only let us run for 60 minutes, so this weekend I have to do the 8. But so far it looks like it will be in the low 30′s so that is much better. Last weekend there was some guy on the path who was actually wearing shorts and slippers – no socks! Some people are so crazy

I have been really focusing on losing weight and my weigh in is today – and I lost another .8 pounds this week! So I am officially 23 pounds less than my all time high. I’m not following any program other than watching my portions and choosing healthier options. I’ve also been exercising and avoiding treats at work.

Since December I had stayed away from all food at work that I didn’t bring. Like most offices there are donuts, treats people bring in, leftovers from luncheons, etc…

This week was especially challenging because of this:

My daughter is a girl scout and the cookies came in last weekend. I bought 5 boxes for my family and did not have ONE cookie – can you believe it? So I thought I was good by avoiding them at home, but then I brought a few cases to work for my coworkers and a few people put their cookies out for everyone to enjoy – but I survived that too!

Then yesterday my boss said he was bringing treats in to celebrate the anniversary of the company I work for. So I didn’t bring breakfast thinking there would be something to choose that would be relatively healthy…wrong. As soon as I saw him come in with 2 giant bags – I knew exactly what they were – CRUMBS cupcakes!

Are you kidding me? I work with 65 people and there were TONS of cupcakes. So I could have caved – it’s just one cupcake. But instead I ate my lunch for breakfast – which was leftover pasta!

So, then since I ate my lunch for breakfast I had to go out to get food for lunch. I am lucky that I have dozens of choices to eat within walking distance and my coworker and I decided on Chipotle. For those of you who don’t know – I just tried chipotle for the first time last year! I know – I think I am the last one on the planet to have tried it!

I knew I wouldn’t get the burrito – if I get that with everything I like on it, it’s 1,000 calories! So I went to the website/consulting with my twin Biz and decided on getting the bowl. If you go to Chipotle’s website – it has all the calories broken down for each item.

Mine looked similar to this – but this is what I got for 420 calories:

Brown rice, chicken, green salsa, fajita veggies, and lots of lettuce.

NO SOUR CREAM, NO GUACAMOLE, AND NO CHEESE – which saved me 350 calories!

And you know what? It tasted amazing – I didn’t miss all the extras at all.

So – I think if I can survive all those things this week, I’m going to make it this time to my weight loss goal.

I keep thinking about Keith Ahrens – who I profiled in a weight loss success story a few years ago. You can read his story here. He lost 200 pounds but instead of focusing on the number on the scale, he focused on eating better and moving more. He said because of that the weight came off – so he never really worried about each pound – he just knew if he kept at it – the weight loss would be a result of the changes he was making daily.

So – have a great Friday – Donate to my fundraising efforts if you can and wish me luck running 8 miles tomorrow!

Slim Shoppin’

If you keep checking back here and see a different layout, it’s because I keep playing around with different themes! It’s so fun to find new layouts and customize it differently.

This one I like, so I may keep if for a while and see how it goes. If you find that it takes a while for you to upload the page, let me know and I’ll more than likely find a different theme!

Not much news to report. I stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday because my daughter Claire was sick. She’s all better now, and even though I had to use 2 vacation days, it was nice to be with her and I got a lot of laundry done – I don’t have any clothes on my basement floor right now

Eating wise, it’s been different. I kind of went overboard on Monday being home all day and access to the fridge – but Tuesday I reeled in some self control and did great.

Our Team in Training is going well, I have to run 8 miles this weekend and of course it will be the coldest day of the week. We’ve been lucky to be in the 40′s which is so nice, but by Saturday at 8:00 a.m. it will be in the teens – that’s cold! I invite you to make a donation – we’re raising money for cancer – here is my donation page - no amount is too small – it all adds up!

My weigh in is on Fridays. I’m not doing weight watchers like my twin Biz or doing any formal program, just trying to stick to normal portions and no 2nds after dinner and no junk at work – so far it’s working, I’m the lowest I’ve been in a LONG time!

How is everyone’s week going? Have a great day!

Slim Shoppin’

Usually when I grocery shop every weekend, I have a plan about what I am going to make every week. When that doesn’t happen, I just buy things that I know I can make things with. Chicken, veggies, ground beef, etc… and work around that.

Yesterday I was trying to think about what to make with the stuff I had on hand. I had boneless chicken tenders, veggies, only a pound of ground sirloin (not enough for my family of 5!). I didn’t have any tomato sauce – and then it hit me – I’ll make soup! But what kind?

Since I had the chicken tenders and I had lots of veggies since we had stir fry the night before I thought I would make chicken noodle soup.

Jenn's salsa chicken noodle soup

Ingredients

3 garlic cloves, chopped
4-5 mini bell peppers (I had red and yellow), diced
3 green onions, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 package boneless chicken tenders
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. pepper
dash of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 bottle of Pace salsa (or your favorite salsa)
8 cups water
6 tsp. chicken stock (the powdered kind in a jar)
3/4 bag of egg noodles

In a big pot, I added a few teaspoons of Canola Oil. Add all the chopped veggies and cook for about 5 minutes. I cut the chicken tenders into bite sized pieces and added that to the pot. I cooked that until the chicken was almost done, but still pink in the middle. Add the water and chicken stock and the egg noodles and salsa and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are cooked through and the egg noodles are done.

I know my family likes what I make when they ask for seconds! I was proud of myself for sticking to my one serving – since December I’ve banned myself from 2nd helpings and I’ve stuck to it

After dinner, we talked about what homework everyone had and I went back into the kitchen to clean up. I figured with the leftovers I would bring some for my lunch. When I walked into the kitchen I quickly realized that was not going to happen. This was what was left….

Yep – not a morsel left!!! I was shocked. But also a part of me was happy that my family liked this soup so much!

Do you make dinner so you have leftovers – or do you like to make just enough so there are no leftovers?

I personally love leftovers because then it is an easy choice for what I’ll have for lunch the next day.

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Now onto my work outs for the last few days. I could have run outside since its so warm out, but I have been working out after 8:30 p.m. when my daughter goes to bed. Over the weekend I found some more work out videos, I got 3 more Taebo work out tapes as well as a Beach Body one with Tony Horton.

So last night, I did a double work out – 40 minutes of Billy’s boot camp. Then I wanted to see if I could do any of the Beach body tape. It was level 3/4 and it had a huge label on it not to attempt unless you could complete the first 2 levels without stopping. Ha! I was going to try it anyway. I lasted about 20 minutes. It was so hard. At one point he did 1 1/2 minutes of straight push ups. One set with your arms wide, the other side with your arms closer together and the last set with your arms REALLY close together. Nope, that was not going to happen. Although I did do one 30 second set with my feet on my stepper (the actual way was putting your feet on top of a chair and doing push ups). During that set, my son happened to enter the room and he said “That’s impressive!”

And last nights workout brought back lots of memories. It’s the Taebo advanced workout and it is at least 13 years old I would say. My twin sister Biz and I once lived in a 2 flat together. She lived upstairs with Hannah and my family lived downstairs.

We would talk the night before about working out before work. So I would set my alarm clock early, get up, bring the baby monitor upstairs (the boys were small) and we would workout with Billy. We always had a great time and would laugh at each other if we couldn’t get a move right. I forgot how hard that work out was!!! It’s crazy hard. But I’m glad I did it!

Have a great day everyone!

Slim Shoppin’

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of helping a 12 year old girl Sophie have her dream birthday party – a kind of a cooking throwdown with her friends. Her favorite shows are chopped and Cake Boss!

She wanted to have an appetizer, a main entree and dessert. So her Mom and I e-mailed back and forth and I gave her some ideas about what we could do, made a list of ingredients and made a recipe card for her friends to take home.

I belong to a Mom mail group in my town and a Mom had asked for help because her daughter wanted a cooking party, but she had no idea how to make it happen. I e-mailed her right away and said “I can help!” Then I called my twin sister Biz and asked if she would join in the fun – and she jumped at the chance.

When we got to the party, the birthday girl Sophie had set the tables so fancy!

The kitchen was gorgeous – Biz and I were drooling over the kitchen island with a sink in it, the 6 burner stove, gorgeous lighting – it was deluxe!

On the menu? Pot stickers for an appetizer, thin crust and deep dish pizza for the main meal, and crepes for dessert.

The Mom, Maryanne had everything ready when we got there.

The pot stickers turned out great and the girls spent time plating their dishes beautifully:

The girls got to chop veggies, fill their won ton wrappers as Biz and I sauteed them.

Once we finished eating pot stickers, it was on to the main dish – pizza!

My team did thin crust, and Biz’s team made deep dish. I showed the girls how to make the no rise pizza dough.

2 cups flour
1 cup warm water
1 packet of yeast
pinch of salt.

Mix the water and yeast together and let sit for 5 minutes. Add that to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until it starts to get incorporated. Then you can take it out and knead it for a few minutes. Then just roll it into 1 big pizza or 2 smaller ones.

My team decided on green pepper, onions and spinach.

I like how the girls thought to place the green peppers around the edges – it turned out great!

Now my sister’s team made a deep dish pizza – the link to that recipe is HERE

Everyone loved the deep dish too!

And after the girls were done eating pizza – it was time for dessert!

Sophie wanted crepes – so we made crepes with strawberries, bananas and Nutella – you can’t go wrong with that.

I used the recipe from Mark Bitterman’s How to Cook Everything and it’s super easy to make.

1 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1- 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs
2 T corn oil

Just mix together in a bowl and take about 1/4 cup of the batter for each crepe. It only takes about 3 minutes per side.

Then, just fill it with whatever you like!

All in all it was a great night – Biz and I got to do something we love – we got to spend time together and met a great group of girls.

Happy 12th birthday Sophie!

Slim Shoppin’

So quick and easy!

I made this quick and easy recipe last night for dinner and it turned out great. All it was was turkey kielbasa, potatoes, peppers and onions and put on Kabob! Since it’s colder than heck here in Chicago, there was no outdoor grilling, but your broiler can work in a pinch!

I didn’t peel the potatoes, I used red potatoes and just washed the skins really good. I cut those into quarters and cooked in a pot of water for about 20 minutes or until they were cooked through.

Since the kielbasa is already cooked, you just need to cook these for about 5-7 minutes per side until it’s heated through. Just watch it if your broiler is really close to the flames and maybe place it lower so they cook and don’t get charred.

I will definitely be making these again soon.

Now on to my Half Marathon training. My husband and I are raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. If you can make a donation – here is our fundraising page – no amount is too small! THANK YOU FELLOW BLOGGER FRIENDS LORI AND JOANNE WHO HAVE MADE DONATIONS!!! I REALLY APPRECIATE IT

On schedule this past Saturday was a 6 miler for me and 8 miles for my husband who is doing the full marathon. We opted out of the group training, since we had a lot of snow late into Friday and it would be super cold at 8:00 a.m. we thought the path wouldn’t be cleared by then. So we had to train by ourselves. My husband runs way faster than me, and the thought of running laps at the local high school didn’t seem too fun, so I went on to Map my Run and mapped a 6 mile loop from my house.

To be honest, after sleeping in and hanging out in my jammies all morning, the thought of getting bundled up and running by myself did not appeal to me AT ALL! I really wanted to just blow it off, but I have to run another 6 this weekend and already 8 miles the weekend after that, so I can’t miss the long runs. I think that’s how I was able to finish both marathons I did, I didn’t ever miss a long run.

It took me a long time to finish – because some of my neighbors hadn’t shoveled their walks AT ALL from the day before. So I would run a half a block, climb over snow, run a block, walk a block over snow pretty much the whole way. But, I thought about all the people we’ve met dealing with cancer, and other people in my life who are in poor health and I thought about how lucky I am that I am healthy and I can do it – so that kept me going! And in reality, once I got started I wasn’t cold at all and it was 22 degrees outside!

So, my work out area in my basement is now all nice and clean. Thanks to my son Mark for hooking up the VCR – I bought one at Good Will for .50 so I can play my VHS work out videos. When I brought it home, he said “where are the cords for the TV?” Ummmm… I don’t know – it didn’t come with that! So he went digging in a basket where we have all sorts of cords, found one that would work and set it all up for me! It pays to have a teenage son who can figure all that out for me!

Over the last 2 weekends I bought about 9 more work out videos so I won’t get bored. Taebo, The Firm, etc… most were 3 videos for a dollar, so you can’t go wrong with that.

Have a great day everyone!

Slim Shoppin’

Welcome to our Team’s Homepage.

Slim Shoppin’

For the last week I’ve been drinking a smoothie for breakfast. Not just any smoothie, but one chocked full of nutrition!

I think it’s a great way to start the day on the right foot, and if you have trouble fitting in fruits and veggies – this could do the trick!

My power smoothie

What am I making my smoothies with??

This week it’s been:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
handful of frozen mango chunks
2 kiwi
1/2 cup fresh cranberries (which I keep in the freezer)
1 leaf of kale (too much will make the smoothie taste gross)
1 carrot
squeeze of honey
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon flax seeds

I just put everything in my blender and blend until it’s super smooth.

It’s about 300 calories, I bring it to work and sip on it and it’s been keeping me full until lunchtime – which is nice!

Also, I have a site to share www.thislunchrox.com. She has great ideas and recipes!

One of which is no bake granola bars. I’ve made them before, but they NEVER stay together and end up just being granola. This takes no time to make and is great for your lunch or your kids lunch!

Ingredients

Granola Bars (based on a recipe from This Lunch Rox!)

1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup oats
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons other dry ingredients (like flax seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, nuts, protein powder, etc)
(I used 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and 1 tablespoon of flax seeds)

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate and peanut butter

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until combined.

I used an 8×8 pan, and just pressed the mixture into that dish. Refrigerate 10 minutes of until set.

These were delicious and it’s nice to know all the ingredients that are in there vs. buying a granola bar that is store bought – and it’s cheap too!

Not the best picture – but you get the idea!

Do you have a recipe for granola bars you like? What’s your favorite things to put in a smoothie??

Slim Shoppin’

I have a HUGE pile of cooking magazines in my house. Some are mine, but the majority I got from another Mom in my hometown, and I have at least 50 cooking magazines! Vegetarian times, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Rachel Ray, Food TV, etc…

So, when I am looking for inspiration – I just grab a few and see what there is that I can make. This recipe is based off of a 2005 Vegetarian Times recipe. I used that as a guide, but added what I had on hand. Their recipe called for currants, and I was going to use fresh cranberries, but then I also wanted my kids to eat these, so I subbed in 1/4 cup chocolate chips instead.

You don’t even need to get your mixer out, you can mix everything in a bowl with a rubber spatula.

This made 19 mini scones

1.5 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tsp. sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup (the recipe asked for Maple syrup – but I didn’t have any…)
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup chocolate chips
5 tablespoons of butter
*Melted chocolate for drizzle if desired

In a big mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients and stir. I sliced the butter into small pieces and using your hands, just start incorporating the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles course crumbs.

Add the milk and corn syrup and stir until the dough comes together. On a floured surface, remove the dough and knead a few times until it’s all combined. I made it into a log, then sliced it with a pizza cutter.

Bake on cookie sheet coated with cooking spray for 15-17 minutes at 425 degrees – they will be golden brown on top.

Jenn's 110 calorie scone bites

These were great – not too sweet, but just the right thing to hit the spot if you want a little special treat after dinner, or make an afternoon hot chocolate/tea/coffee to go with these.

I will definitely make these again!

EACH SCONE IS:

Slim Shoppin’

In our Christmas box from my brother’s family – I received some deluxe food items – almost all of which we’ve already eaten. I got this:

This pesto is AWESOME!

This pesto is made with almonds and peppers and is delish. A little goes a long way, so you don’t have to use that much to add flavor to what you are making. Last week I made lunch with it a few times.

I used a cooked potato, mixed veggies, green onions, peppers, a scrambled egg and added some of the pesto and a leftover Target Chicken sausage – cut up. It was super filling and yummy!

Filling lunch!

But onto the RIck Bayless sauces! You can now buy in the grocery store some of his signature sauces. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure how it would taste – but was pleasantly surprised that these tasted so good! Definitely worth it to check out. I got the taco sauce and the enchilada sauce.

With the enchilada sauce I cut up some chicken, added a bag of frozen peppers from Trader Joe’s and cooked that until it was done. In a separate pot, I cooked up some orzo and drained that. I added the orzo to the chicken and peppers and used 1 packet of the enchilada sauce. Dinner was done in less than 30 minutes and there was no leftovers – so I consider that a hit!

Orzo, peppers, chicken and enchilada sauce

So thanks to my brother Charlie and his family for giving us such great gifts in our Christmas basket this year – we really loved everything!

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And on the Team in Training front, my husband and I went to the kick-off at Eduardo’s pizza in Skokie, IL on Saturday. Basically it’s a getting to know you, meet the coaches, go for a short 30 minute run, come back, eat pizza (nice!) and then we had a clinic about what to wear when it’s cold outside and layering from 2 men from Fleet Feet running store in Chicago. Although who needs that advice now since today is going to be in the 50′s again! Winter hasn’t really come yet this year – which is fine with me!

We got some stuff too – 2 new Team in Training shirts, the white one is for being alumni since this is my 4th event with the Team. We got water bottles and reps from FRS which is a company that has sports drinks for athletes, so we got to take some samples of that too.

The loot we got at the kick off!

It was a great time – we saw some team members from when we did our last event back in 2007 – and met Doug a patient honoree who is battling lymphoma – but also raising money and running events with Team in Training – I always get choked up meeting people like that.

So, our fundraising page is open for donations – no donation is too small – it all adds up!

Have a great day everyone!

Slim Shoppin’

Happy New Year everyone! It’s been a great Holiday – I’ve had 10 days off in a row, so I cannot complain about that

I also slept in every day, I did run a few times (running into my friend Jacky while we were both running in our neighborhood. I had Christmas with my husbands side of the family on Christmas Day and yesterday was spent having a 2nd Christmas at my Mom’s since she was out of town visiting my brother.

I got a little more organized, I spent time reading a new book “The Kitchen Counter Cooking School” which is a great read, we got a new to me (used) car – which I am VERY Happy about. Here is my new car:

We took the kids to the eye Dr. and Mark and Paul’s prescription changed (Mark’s doubled!) and Claire was complaining she couldn’t see close – so she got new glasses too! We went to America’s Best – and if you don’t get all the “extras” it is 2 pairs for .95 WITH the eye exam – so it’s a great deal. We are waiting to pick those up – but they are super excited about getting new glasses

So here are some pictures from my Holiday:

Mark getting Snuggy with our cat Max on New Years Eve!

Paul and Claire opening presents on Christmas

Mark got a donut baking pan, and has already made a batch! If you can see in the background, my Dad painted a portrait of me and my twin sister when we were babies!

I made a kick ass lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner – the best one I made so far!

Mark's first donuts using the donut baking pan my Mom gave him

So – all in all a great Holiday. And I am one of those people who makes New Year’s Resolutions – so here are mine:

Enter a cooking contest sometime this year
Learn to can – I really want to make homemade sweet and spicy pickles this year
I have an idea for a cookbook – so I’m going to start working on that
Run a half marathon – since I’m signed up I have to do it! April 28th 2012. Don’t forget to donate HERE
And I’m not putting down lose weight, my plan is to continue eating great and exercising and because of that the weight will come off, but I’m not going to count points, or calories, just focus on healthy foods and correct portions!

SO what’s your New Years Resolutions???

Slim Shoppin’