Good morning, it's October, and the second Monday of October here in Canada so it's Thanksgiving Weekend. For most that means Turkey weekend. It's tradition in my family to have the Turkey on Sunday because a lot of my family uses Monday for traveling home, with leftovers of course.
This year I've left the turkey in the freezer for Next Weekend because my inlaws are coming to visit. Next weekend is also AJ's birthday, it's going so fast I can't seem to keep these boys from growing up. He is having a birthday Party and it's going to be on Saturday afternoon. I'm just hoping I can get the house into a kind of order so that the kids don't think he's already spoiled. I have a hard time getting rid of toys here. I'm the kind of person that remembers where every single toy came from and when it was given and by who it was given.
He wants to have Pie for his birthday cake. I'm thinking I'll save that part for Sunday. I'll have cake for the birthday party.
Today though, since it's Thankgiving and we aren't having Turkey I'm going to bake up some muffins for the week's lunches. The boys have School On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week and I'll also ahve some of these muffins for the visiting inlaws since they like to hav esomething with their tea.
Recipe to follow, it's the very first recipe in the Jean Pare (accent over the e), Muffins and More volume in the Company's Coming cook books, it fits since I have Company COming!
Topping 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2TBSP flour, 2TBSP soften margerine, mix it up into crumbles but if it's a bit soft and pastish it works too,
Muffins,
1.5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar(I've used splenda sometimes)
1TBSP baking powder,
1/2 tsp Salt (I've cut this to 1/4 tsp when I think of it)
1Egg
1/2 cup milk (I use skim)
1/4 cup of oil,(I sometimes sub in 1/8th of that in apple sauce)
3/4 cup of shredded apple, with or without peels, I peel them.
mix, pour into greased muffintins, I get about 12muffins, and then I top with the topping and bake at 400F (200C) for 20-25minutes, my old stove 18minutes work, my new stove is 22minutes.
If you can get them to cool before they disappear they freeze well. I'll throw them in small zip bags for kids lunches. They don't usually last that long if hubbie knows I made them. The trick for that is to bake them while he's at work, and the cook a meal after to cover over the apple muffins smell.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
How "I" work out my Chimichangas.
I've actually been Linked! I'm not sure but some of you may have noticed I'm not "listed" as a Blog. I've got Family! Lots of Family. It's only today I've added my photo. But if you read over at Mom to the Screaming Masses, I'm Kyooty. Kyooty is all about the Cutie in me trying to get out.
Cameron asked "HOW" did I get this recipe, Beef and Bean Chimichanga from allrecipes.com. I signed up for their recipes about 6yrs ago, and I'm still using them. So let me break it down in the numbers of way that get's you to 9pts. This is all based on the materials I've read and used for the last 6yrs to try to lose, or keep my weight off. You can also use the nutrional information on the bottom of the recipe page which is a handy tool, but I'm so used to doctoring my own servings of things, I point I based on the individual ingredients and their measurments in my serving. wow it's 837cals each. This is how it WORKS for me. I own 3 sets of measuring spoons and cups. If I don't measure, my portions creep up fast, but this is how "I" do it! Your experience and ingredients may vary. I've also heard that some will lower their meat for cooking down by 25%, I rarely do that. I also don't use oil in my pan. I'm having a very hard time with the addition of healthy oils to my diet, I have been avoiding the oils for so long, I keep zapping them at the pass. I'm still losing but it's a slow loss.
First the spices, free... YAY!!!!, then the peppers and onions, you may use 3/4cup for the whole recipe but you aren't eating the whole 3/4 cup.I may want to eat the whole recipe but I'm not because the goal here is good food in in useable portions, not excess. ohhhh the excess, the temptation, the old habits... the hmmmmm food!
Lean beef, up here we call the one I use extra lean ground beef, when we lived in the US it was called 95% lean ground beef. I use my books for almost everything, because even with the new laws for nutritional information labels, it's still difficult to get it nailed down in the right measures. Seriously Monday math is hard work,
I just asked hubbie "there are 16oz in a lb right?"
and he says "yes"
so I said, "OK so 2oz, is 2pt, so what is 8X2?"
yes i just asked that easy peasy questions...to which he, of course, says "These are the questions you're asking me??"
Well it is Monday peoples! So there's 16pts for the meat in the whole batch. The Corn? 1 1/2 cups...1 cup=2 so 1.5=3. (wipes sweat off brow, Math at 7:46am on a monday...rereading, wow it's now 838am good think I'm doing your Monday Math for you eh?) but you aren't eating 1.5cups of corn in your serving right? so another 0 there.
TWO (2)cups salsa? 2cups of salsa contains 16, two tablespoon servings, that's 0 so far, since I really narrow down my salsa to the lowest Cal one on the shelf with less sugar and no added oil. The spicier the better though, the kids don't agree on this tastey idea. So 16 Zeros is where i'm at... and really since I can get about 8 of these it's 2 zero's per chimichanga... on we go to the next ingredient. The boys here wont eat the refried beans, so I either leave them out or only Smear the tiniest 2TBSP of that on mine, and since 1/4 cup is 2pt and half of that 1/4cup is 1/8th or 2TBSPs, we're at 1pt for that.
Ok, still there? So let me tally so far, beef 16/8wraps is 2pts per wrap worth of meat + 0 Veg, +1 salsa+ 0 corn+ 1pt refried beans=4pts. Here come the Torillas, and these vary based on what kind you use and how large and if you're really pounding down the fiber. We used to use the whole wheat Torilla in the US, that were 4pts each. So that's 4pts to your previous total of 4pts which gets us to 8. Cheese, I used the lowest fat cheddar without buying "fat free" ,because it just doesn't exist up here and it doesn't melt well, or marble or whatevers in the fridge. I will buy a 500g bar of orange or marbled cheddar, and cut it up into 20small equal blocks in my fridge, for 2pts a block. I will shred this and use the tiniest amount on the "mom" wraps (oops did I add an s there... portion...)and the let the kids and hubbie's servings ooze of their cheesy goodness. They would live on cheese if I let them and they are forever snagging 2-3 of those chunks during the day.
The last step in the melted butter, or margerine if your like me and cheap on that one. I don't find a difference between butter and margerine for cooking things where it's not part of the big taste bud experience; so that's 8+ 1+1tsp butter/margerine. If I'm low on points for the day I will spray mine with cooking spray instead of the butter or margerine, it works the same but remmber to count your seconds of spray time. I sometimes will put a banana pepper on the top of mine before it's in the oven, so I kno which one is mine.
OK so now you've seen me move it to 9-10pts. The refried beans,sinc I'm not using the whole can, I pop leftovers in ice cube cups like the babyfood days and zipper bag after frozen and pop them in the them into the freezer. Speaking of Leftovers, Hubbie likes chimichanga night because he's full and because he gets leftovers for lunch the next day. He says he pops them in the toaster oven at work. I also get stories of people visiting him while he's having his lunch and asking him for the recipe.
Cameron asked "HOW" did I get this recipe, Beef and Bean Chimichanga from allrecipes.com. I signed up for their recipes about 6yrs ago, and I'm still using them. So let me break it down in the numbers of way that get's you to 9pts. This is all based on the materials I've read and used for the last 6yrs to try to lose, or keep my weight off. You can also use the nutrional information on the bottom of the recipe page which is a handy tool, but I'm so used to doctoring my own servings of things, I point I based on the individual ingredients and their measurments in my serving. wow it's 837cals each. This is how it WORKS for me. I own 3 sets of measuring spoons and cups. If I don't measure, my portions creep up fast, but this is how "I" do it! Your experience and ingredients may vary. I've also heard that some will lower their meat for cooking down by 25%, I rarely do that. I also don't use oil in my pan. I'm having a very hard time with the addition of healthy oils to my diet, I have been avoiding the oils for so long, I keep zapping them at the pass. I'm still losing but it's a slow loss.
First the spices, free... YAY!!!!, then the peppers and onions, you may use 3/4cup for the whole recipe but you aren't eating the whole 3/4 cup.I may want to eat the whole recipe but I'm not because the goal here is good food in in useable portions, not excess. ohhhh the excess, the temptation, the old habits... the hmmmmm food!
Lean beef, up here we call the one I use extra lean ground beef, when we lived in the US it was called 95% lean ground beef. I use my books for almost everything, because even with the new laws for nutritional information labels, it's still difficult to get it nailed down in the right measures. Seriously Monday math is hard work,
I just asked hubbie "there are 16oz in a lb right?"
and he says "yes"
so I said, "OK so 2oz, is 2pt, so what is 8X2?"
yes i just asked that easy peasy questions...to which he, of course, says "These are the questions you're asking me??"
Well it is Monday peoples! So there's 16pts for the meat in the whole batch. The Corn? 1 1/2 cups...1 cup=2 so 1.5=3. (wipes sweat off brow, Math at 7:46am on a monday...rereading, wow it's now 838am good think I'm doing your Monday Math for you eh?) but you aren't eating 1.5cups of corn in your serving right? so another 0 there.
TWO (2)cups salsa? 2cups of salsa contains 16, two tablespoon servings, that's 0 so far, since I really narrow down my salsa to the lowest Cal one on the shelf with less sugar and no added oil. The spicier the better though, the kids don't agree on this tastey idea. So 16 Zeros is where i'm at... and really since I can get about 8 of these it's 2 zero's per chimichanga... on we go to the next ingredient. The boys here wont eat the refried beans, so I either leave them out or only Smear the tiniest 2TBSP of that on mine, and since 1/4 cup is 2pt and half of that 1/4cup is 1/8th or 2TBSPs, we're at 1pt for that.
Ok, still there? So let me tally so far, beef 16/8wraps is 2pts per wrap worth of meat + 0 Veg, +1 salsa+ 0 corn+ 1pt refried beans=4pts. Here come the Torillas, and these vary based on what kind you use and how large and if you're really pounding down the fiber. We used to use the whole wheat Torilla in the US, that were 4pts each. So that's 4pts to your previous total of 4pts which gets us to 8. Cheese, I used the lowest fat cheddar without buying "fat free" ,because it just doesn't exist up here and it doesn't melt well, or marble or whatevers in the fridge. I will buy a 500g bar of orange or marbled cheddar, and cut it up into 20small equal blocks in my fridge, for 2pts a block. I will shred this and use the tiniest amount on the "mom" wraps (oops did I add an s there... portion...)and the let the kids and hubbie's servings ooze of their cheesy goodness. They would live on cheese if I let them and they are forever snagging 2-3 of those chunks during the day.
The last step in the melted butter, or margerine if your like me and cheap on that one. I don't find a difference between butter and margerine for cooking things where it's not part of the big taste bud experience; so that's 8+ 1+1tsp butter/margerine. If I'm low on points for the day I will spray mine with cooking spray instead of the butter or margerine, it works the same but remmber to count your seconds of spray time. I sometimes will put a banana pepper on the top of mine before it's in the oven, so I kno which one is mine.
OK so now you've seen me move it to 9-10pts. The refried beans,sinc I'm not using the whole can, I pop leftovers in ice cube cups like the babyfood days and zipper bag after frozen and pop them in the them into the freezer. Speaking of Leftovers, Hubbie likes chimichanga night because he's full and because he gets leftovers for lunch the next day. He says he pops them in the toaster oven at work. I also get stories of people visiting him while he's having his lunch and asking him for the recipe.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
First day of school, September is here, this and that
I can't believe it, it's here, the summer is gone. I'm home with MJ and he's sleeping. I'm bored out of my Tree! TJ And AJ are gone to school. Hubbie Drove them today but tomorrow they will catch the bus at 715ish! ACK!!!!! way too early but it will help save a few pennies on Gas and hubbie can continue biking to work for the fall, until the roads become to slick with ice.
Last night I packed lunches, and school bags, today the boys were loaded down. Wow the stuff that you need to put in a school bag for the first day. I left some out and will send it in slowly over the next couple of days. I needed space for their lunches. I do hope they eat the lunches but wont be surprised if they are too excited, talking with their friends, to eat.
I did remember to take pictures of them going to school, now I have to remember to take pictures of them coming off the bus this afternoon. I wonder what MJ and I will do today once he's awake? As if on cue he just called out "Mom!" :)
Today I was reading over at Mom to the Screaming Masses
this morning and posted a link to this recipe...
Beef and Bean Chimichangas
It's a hit here most of the times I make it unless the kids are in a mood to say "I don't like it" and they do that just cause the moon is blue sometimes.
If you are back to school today, Welcome Back!
Last night I packed lunches, and school bags, today the boys were loaded down. Wow the stuff that you need to put in a school bag for the first day. I left some out and will send it in slowly over the next couple of days. I needed space for their lunches. I do hope they eat the lunches but wont be surprised if they are too excited, talking with their friends, to eat.
I did remember to take pictures of them going to school, now I have to remember to take pictures of them coming off the bus this afternoon. I wonder what MJ and I will do today once he's awake? As if on cue he just called out "Mom!" :)
Today I was reading over at Mom to the Screaming Masses
this morning and posted a link to this recipe...
Beef and Bean Chimichangas
It's a hit here most of the times I make it unless the kids are in a mood to say "I don't like it" and they do that just cause the moon is blue sometimes.
If you are back to school today, Welcome Back!
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