Tomato Chicken Rice Soup

This past Friday, we went back to a place called Baxter's in Paoli, PA.  It's where we had our rehearsal dinner for our wedding in October of 2008.  My father in law has been talking about his meal for the past 2 years!!!  We made the trip out on Friday evening for him to get his steak tip dinner before they left for Iowa on Saturday morning.  This time around, I ordered this chicken dish and got a cup of soup to start.  The soup was a tomato base with chunks of chicken and rice.  It was SO good I didn't even bother eating the rest of my meal (1 cup of soup is still more than enough).

So last night I decided I was going to use what we had in the cupboards and try to recreate it.  Surprisingly, it came pretty close!  I think the only thing I may do differently next time is sub the 10 oz. of water for 16 oz. of low sodium chicken broth.  It was a little more like a stew than a soup and I think the chicken broth would have added some depth to the flavor.  Ryan on the other hand said  "please don't change it too much, it's really good the way it is". 

Ingredients (from my version last night):
1/2 cup of chopped yellow onion
1 tsp. of minced garlic (equivalent to 2 garlic cloves)
2 tbsp. of olive oil
2-3 stalks of celery - chopped
2 tsp. of garlic salt
1 package of Purdue short cuts roasted chicken (chopped into tiny pieces) Here's what you're looking for
1 package of uncle ben's 90 second brown rice (don't cook in the microwave)
10 oz. of water
10 3/4 oz. condensed tomato soup
14.5 diced or whole stewed tomatoes - no salt added
5.5 oz. tomato juice
6 oz. tomato paste
1 pinch of dried bay leaves (found in the spices section)
6-8 small leaves of fresh basil - chopped finely

Directions:
Saute onion, garlic and celery in olive oil on medium high heat for 3 minutes.  Add chopped up chicken to mixture and cook for an additional 2 minutes.  Stir in condensed tomato soup, water, tomato paste, tomato juice and stewed tomatoes.  Once that has mixed thoroughly, stir in brown rice (straight from the bag), bay leaves and basil leaves.  Stir until mixed well.  finally, add 2 tsp. of garlic salt and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Sugar Free Cupcakes

Pillsbury has come out with a new line of sugar free baking items (found in the regular baking section of the store).  With my in-laws in town, I wanted to make sure to have something sweet on hand in the evenings - my father in law is BIG on sweets =)

This was the first time I tried these, followed the package directions exactly and they turned out well.  People couldn't tell that they were sugar free.  I had 1/2 of one the first time with no problem.  The second day, I had a whole one and had some pretty rotten gas (if you're a WLS patient, you'll know what I'm talking about).  The splenda in it was too much for me to have a whole one - but I'm good with 1/2.  Everyone else was fine eating whatever and said they were good with a glass of milk.

Ingredients:
Pillsbury Sugar Free Yellow Cake Mix
Pillsbury Sugar Free Chocolate Frosting
1/3 cup vegetable oil (in the future - I may sub applesauce, but didn't want to stray from the recipe this time)
1 cup water
3 eggs

Follow the directions on the box and apply frosting once cupcakes have cooled. The box says that it makes 24 cupcakes - the way I made them, I got 18.

Here is a link to the Pillsbury website where you can find more info on their sugar free products:
http://www.pillsburybaking.com/products/default.aspx

6 month pictures are here!

Tomorrow marks my 6-month surgerversary!  I've lost 103 since last July 4, 2009 and 82 since surgery on January 5, 2010 (that difference is pictured below).

Tomorrow we're headed to NYC with Ryan's parents for a 4 day trip and I'm going to cross off many of my pre-surgery "to-do's" while we're there.  Three that I'm very excited about are 1) fit in a theater seat and go to a broadway show (it's been over 6 years since my last!) 2) Ride in the double decker bus and be able to sit next to Ryan - not across like we've had to do in the past 3) walk anywhere in the city that I please and know that my body won't limit me (okay... the 95 degree heat might, but my body won't!)

So here are the pics - the real deal - no going back now.  Still room for improvement, but for one of the first times tonight, I could really SEE the difference - not just feel it.  Thanks to all my friends and family for your continued love and support - it has meant the world.  And of course, I couldn't have made it this far without my partner in crime -RYAN (love that guy ;)!

326 on January 5, 2010

244 on July 4, 2010

Chinese tonight!

This is one of our favorites - we made something similar before surgery, but we've changed up the ingredients to make it work for me after surgery.  Still great!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. Lite Soy Sauce
2 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup or 1 small package of snow peas (we buy the steamer fresh that we can microwave)
Approx. 30 small to medium shrimp (we use frozen out of the bag)
3 cups of instant brown rice (uncle ben's instant rice is still our favorite!)
1/2 cup of green and red pepper chopped
1/2 cup of chopped yellow onion
Fried rice seasoning mix (we use Sun-Bird brand) We buy it in the grocery store, it's about 90 cents
Optional: scrambled/fried egg (we prefer it without because it changes the taste)

Directions:
In small skillet, caramelize the onions in 1 tbsp. of olive oil.  Add Peppers to onion mixture and heat thoroughly.  In large wok, heat shrimp until hot (shrimp out of the frozen bag should be pre-cooked).  Drain shrimp and rinse wok out.  Add 3 cups of cooked brown rice, 2 tbsp. lite soy sauce, peas, onion and pepper mixture, 1 tbsp of olive oil and fried rice seasoning mix to wok.  Mix all ingredients together.   Pull tails off shrimp and add to mixture.  Heat for an additional 2-3 minutes until mixture has soaked up soy sauce.  Serve!

Hawaiian Pizza - Yes, It's AMAZING!

It's pizza and movie night at our house.  I always knew I'd be able to do movies, but I never thought I'd be able to do pizza after surgery.  The trick is finding a whole wheat crust and just eating enough of it to give it that "normal" feel.  We liked Hawaiian Pizza (Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza) before surgery, so this is our version now.

Ingredients:
1 whole wheat, pre-made pizza crust (we use Boboli Whole Wheat Pizza Crust)
1/2 - 3/4 cup of tomato sauce
Italian seasoning
4-6 slices of provolone cheese
1 - 1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
4-6oz. of thin sliced deli meat ham
4 oz. can of pineapple chunks (in it's own juice - no syrup!)
1 sweet red pepper (cut into chunks)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Take crust out of package and place on pizza baking pan.  Cover crust with sauce and top with 4-6 slices of provolone cheese.  Dab a bit more sauce onto of the slices of provolone and then top with sliced ham, chunks of pineapple, Italian seasoning and sweet red pepper chunks.  Cover the entire pizza with shredded mozzarella.  Bake for 12 minutes and serve while hot.

So good and very economical.  We easily get 2 meals out of this for both of us.  2-3 slices for Ryan per meal and 1/2 or 1 slice for me.

Now it's time for the movie!

BBQ Burgers anyone?

Ryan made these a couple of weeks ago when we had friends over for a BBQ - and he made them again over the weekend, they are SO good!

Ingredients:
1 pound of lean ground beef (makes 4-5 patties) - we use organic ground beef, it tastes amazing and is healthier for us
BBQ Sauce (sugar free kinds are available, but I've found that 1 tbsp. of Jack Daniels Original works for me!) Ryan uses Sweet Baby Ray's for his
Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns
Sliced Cheese - we prefer Colby jack on ours - about 1 oz. per burger
Optional: Ring of Pineapple

Directions:
Make hamburger up into 4 or 5 patties.  Coat each burger with a layer of BBQ sauce before putting them on the grill.  Grill for 6-8 minutes, flipping until done.  With 1 minute of grill time remaining - layer the cheese on top of the burgers to melt it before serving.  Serve on a whole wheat bun (I use 1/2 a bun and just do it for looks.  On average I eat 2-3 bites of bun) with 1/2 tbsp. of BBQ sauce for dipping.  Ryan has his with the full bun - a lot more BBQ sauce and a ring of pineapple to make it a "Hawaiian Burger".  We also had no-sugar added pears and Ryan had Bush's Baked Beans.  They are delicious and pretty much indicate that summer has arrived at our house!

Taco Night

This one is Easy Peasy - and SO good warmed up as left overs =)

Ingredients:
1 pound of lean ground beef
1 package of taco seasoning mix
1 small can of corn - drained
1 can of black beans - drained and rinsed
1 small yellow onion - diced
1 package of whole grain taco shells (we use these: Ortega Whole Grain Taco Shells)
Additional Optional Items: 2% Shredded cheese, jalapeno sliced peppers, salsa, lite sour cream, shredded lettuce

Directions:
Brown beef in skillet - drain excess grease.  Add taco seasoning with 2/3rd's cup of water - stir until mixed in. Add in corn, black beans and diced onions.  Cook for an additional 5-6 minutes on Medium High heat until most of the liquid has been absorbed.  Serve with taco shells and additional ingredients. 

I ate the meat/bean/corn mixture about 6 weeks out from surgery with no problem.  It was one of my favorite early post-op meals.  Now that I can eat some of the other items, it's again one of my favorites.  The beans and cheese up the protein in this dish - so don't shy away from them.  The meal pictured is mine from last night - 1 taco shell, split in half to lay flat on the plate.  1/2 cup of meat mixture covered with a spoonful of salsa, 6 jalapeno slices, 1/4 cup shredded cheese and a small spoonful of lite sour cream. 

This was WONDERFUL!

Garage Sale = No Posting

To any followers out there - I thought I needed to explain my recent absence and lack of posting.  Last week I pulled all of my clothes that are too big for me now together to start getting ready for a yard sale.  Well, Ryan and I knocked it all out in a matter of 2 days (2 very loooong days) and got it all organized.  I've been having Pre-Sale shopping appointments at my house this week and so far it's going very well!  Basically, I'm running a plus size consignment store out of our garage.  The scary thing is, I've sold more than 50 items of clothing, and it doesn't even look like a dent was made! (There were over 300 items to start!) The sizes I'm selling are 18-28 and 1x-3x.  Just a tip to anyone that is thinking of doing something like this - I color coded my items with red, yellow and blue electrical tape.  Each hanger got a different color and the color corresponds to the price of the item. All my items are 1, 3 or 5 dollars.  Name brand suit jackets from talbots or cold water creek would be an example of something that would get 5 dollars.  Shirts or sweaters from lane bryant might be 3 a piece and then tee-shirts from target would be 1 dollar.  The feedback that I've gotten is that all my "shoppers" LOVE the pricing system and love being able to pre-shop the sale.  Our Final Garage Sale Blow-out is June 19th, so if you don't see me posting until then... you'll know why.

Can't wait to clear this all out and start the shopping process of 16's and under!  Whoohoo =)