Sweet Potato Soup

If you like sweet potatoes on a nice fall night - you will likely like this recipe from Laaloosh.
For myself, taste wise this turned okay but I wasn't a fan of the consistency nor was it a nice fall evening. This was one of the first things I have made that I decided wasn't for my taste, however I still wanted to share my adventure.

Ingredients:
2 cups fat-free chicken broth
4 medium sized sweet potatoes
1 1/2 cups fat-free half-and-half
2 packets Splenda
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard

The author over at Laaloosh suggests to top it with sour cream as option. I tried this. It definitely added to the taste, but I still couldn't get over the consistency of the soup to enjoy it.

Directions:

Peel sweet potatoes and place into crock pot with chicken broth. Cover and cook on medium for about 3 hours.
Using a food processor, blend up sweet potatoes and broth until smooth.

Put the blended potatoes back into the crock pot. Add half-and-half, Splenda, salt, dry mustard and allspice. Cover and cook on medium for about 1-3 hours. (I cooked my soup for about 2-3 hours more).

Definitely an adventure gone awry. As I said it turned out alright but it just wasn't for me.

Split Pea Soup

I have made this recipe from Skinny Taste twice. It is relatively easy to make and turns out completely yummy!
The author of Skinny Taste writes that 1/6th of the recipe of 4+ points... I am not sure how much that is... but definitely a healthy recipe in the right portion.

Ingredients:
16 oz bag of dried split peas
1 medium chopped onion
1 garlic clove (I used minced garlic)
8 cups fat-free chicken broth
2 tsp of olive oil
2 large carrots - chopped (I used baby carrots and just cut up what I thought would be good)
salt and pepper
1 ham hock

Directions:
Wash peas and drain them.
In a pot, saute onions and garlic in about 2 tsp of oil.

Add peas, carrots, ham hock and chicken broth. Cover the pot and let it come to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Once it boils, reduce heat and cook for about two hours. The beans become soft and dissolve into the green color you see.

Remove ham hock and serve. I put the soup in individual portions in mason jars and placed a lot of the left overs in the freezer so that on busy nights I would always have something to grab to eat.

Crock Pot Chicken a la Criolla for Cinco de Mayo

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I wanted to make something latin.
In the trying new things in my Crock Pot, I found this recipe for Chicken a la Criolla from Skinny Taste.

Ingredients

2 lbs skinless boneless chickes
1 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 bell pepper, chopped or sliced
4 plum tomatoes (In addition, I used canned diced tomatoes)
8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cumin
salt to taste
1-2 bay leaf
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (plus 2 tbsp more for serving)

Directions:

Place chicken, onion, garlic, pepper and tomatoes in the crock pot. Season with salt, cumin and oregano. Mix well.

Add tomato sauce, 1/2 cup water, bay leaf and cilantro. Mix. Cook for 4 hours on high or 6 hours on low (I cooked for 6 hours on low).
Serve over rice.

It turned out great, but there was more sauce than chicken!

Pita Pizzas

Pita Pizzas are one of my favorite things to make...

Ingredients

WW Pita
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 Tsp Minced Garlic
Tomato Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Topping of choice (turkey pepperoni or turkey sausage)

Direction:
Spread the olive oil onto the pita then spread the garlic. Add enough tomato sauce to cover the pita. Then add cheese and topping. Bake in the oven (325 F) for ~ 5 min. Occasionally I will cut up a tomato and put that on the pizza when it has about a minute left in the oven.

Are you "Fit?"

There are a few things that I absolutely love.... 1) Cheese 2) Pizza and 3) Gadgets.

I already made some posts with cheese and pizza, however I haven't posted a new gadget in a while! It was time!

I am always looking for new ways to make fitness fun and motivating and I found something that will do just that. Somehow I came across a product mentioned on a famous weight loss show that had mediocre reviews. I started doing more research and found the FitBit. The FitBit is a pedometer, but a lot smarter.

You can find all the information on FitBit.com.

This little gadget, which is supposed to be worn all the time is about the size of USB stick. You can even wear it during your sleep and it monitors your sleep efficiency by telling you how long it took you to fall asleep and how many times you woke up that evening.
You clip it on and go and magically syncs wirelessly with your computer (if you are in range) every 15 minutes.

I've worn it for 3 days now and it is quite enlightening. The first day I just wanted to get a baseline and wow, on lazy days at home I don't move much. I've now worn it for two more days and because it tells me how many steps I take - I find myself taking more steps! I also can't believe how many times I wake up a night.

I've increased my steps by at least 5000 steps.

Today, I actually think I will make it to the 10,000 step goal.

You can enter your calorie intake on FitBit itself or you can sync with FitnessPal (iphone app), where you can enter your food and exercise and it will tell you the calorie deficits. I can figure out my intake and how much I've burned in order to meet my weight loss and activity goals. Love it!

Skinny-ish Pizza Roll Ups

I found the idea for this on Pinterest and I choose "better" ingredients to make the healthy form.

Ingredients:
Pillsbury Reduce Fat Crossiants
Turkey Pepperoni
Reduced Fat String Cheese (Poll-O or Sargento)

Directions:
Unroll crescents onto a baking sheet. Place turkey pepperoni and 1/2 of a mozzarella stick into the crescent dough and roll up.

Bake according to crescent roll package directions.

To enjoy, dip pizza roll ups into pizza sauce.

Oreo Ice Cream Cake

There was a birthday in the house so I asked about a favorite cake and the reply was "an ice cream cake."
I have never made this before or even thought about attempting it, but I thought.. why not?

Warning: This turned out incredible! Skip this post unless you are prepared to make a deliciously (non-skinny) ice cream cake.

The original recipe was from AllRecipes.com and lists directions to make a chocolate chip cookie ice cream cake. After reading many comments from the readers on the site, I learned that you can make this with a little imagination and the ice cream/cookie of your choice.
I choose to make an Oreo Ice Cream Cake.

The original recipe give instructions on how make your own crust, but I decided to use the premade oreo crust to save some time.

Ingredients:
Ingredients to make crust or premade crust
1 quart of ice cream of your choice (I choose to use two kinds: Oreo Blast (Vanilla & Chocolate).
Fudge Topping
Light Cool Whip
Oreo pieces

Directions:
Spread melted (3/4 cup) fudge topping onto crust and freeze for 15 minutes.
Spread softened ice cream over fudge layer. Freeze 30 minutes.
Then I spread the next layer (chocolate this time) over the first layer. Freeze for 30 minutes.
I then put the cool whip in a layer over the last ice cream layer and topped with oreo pieces. Freeze for a minimum of 4 hours.


To serve, garnish with hot fudge topping and a cherry.