Healthy Wrap for Lunch

I just wanted to make a quick blog post about these awesome wraps I recently discovered called Flat-outs. A friend of mine at work goes to Weight Watchers and she was told about these Flat-outs and all of the awesome things you can do with them, plus they are healthy. So of course I went out and got some! I bought the Light version in Original, only 90 calories for one wrap and they are good size. Here is a quick recipe that I made for lunch the other day, the best part is the turkey wrap I made was only 236 calories and very filling:

1 flat-out (Original Light)

1 wedge Weight Watchers Jalepeno spread cheese

3 thin slices Jennie-O Cracked Pepper Turkey Breast

a handful of baby spinach

3 slices of a Roma tomato

1 1/2 slices turkey bacon (cooked and refrigerated)

Spread cheese on entire flat-out, lay turkey breast on top of cheese. Spread spinach evenly on the turkey, then add the tomato slices. break the bacon up into pieces and lay on the top. Then roll the wrap up and wrap in saran wrap and pack in your lunch box/bag.

I brought some carrots with mine but you can bring anything with it. Delicious!!!

Crock Pot Ranch Pork Chops

Tonight for dinner I made crock pot ranch pork chops, garlic parmesan mashed potatoes and oven roasted green beans. Yummy and super easy! This one is a keeper.

I found the pork chop and mashed potatoes on Pinterest and changed the potato recipe a little, click here to see the original recipe from Chef in Training. The green beans are a go to recipe of mine that I love. I have shared all three here.

Crock Pot Ranch Pork Chops:

4-6 boneless pork chops (I used 4)

1 can Cream of Chicken soup (I used Campbell's Healthy Request version)

1 packet Ranch Dressing mix (I used Hidden Valley)

Place the pork chops in the crock pot and pour the soup over them. Add the ranch dressing mix and stir together. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.

Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes:

My recipe is quite different than the one I linked above because of how I like my potatoes. I used less milk and did not roast my garlic. I also do not use a mixer to make mashed potatoes. I don't think you need a mixer, use a little muscle and they are fine. :)

6 med-large red potatoes (about 2.5 lbs)

1/3 cup skim milk

5 Tbsp. of margarine

3 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Peel and cut up your potatoes, place them in a pot and cover with water. Bring potatoes to a boil and boil them until fork tender. Drain potatoes and put them back in the pot. Mash the potatoes with a masher, and then add the milk, cheese, garlic and margarine. Mash and stir all ingredients together.

Oven-roasted Green Beans:

1/2 lb fresh green beans with the ends snapped off

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1/2 tsp. of kosher salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rinse green beans and snap or cut the ends off. Place them in a bowl and add olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss to make sure they are all covered. Lay them out on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Roast for 15 minutes, halfway through stir.

This is a great, quick and healthy meal. I hope you enjoy it.

Linking up to:

Tatertots & Jello

Serenity Now

Serendipity & Spice

Positively Splendid

Monogram Fabric Wreath

So I was on Pinterest again and I saw this cute wreath idea made from fabric. I love wreaths as some of you may know so I was very interested in making this one. The wreath design is from The Patriotic Peacock blog which I now follow because she has some great ideas and cute stuff in her Etsy shop. The link to her wreath tutorial is here .

I like to make things my own even if I get the idea from someone else. On this one I added a wooden initial that I painted white because I plan on putting this at the entrance to my cubicle/office space at work. I have wanted to do a wreath with an A on it for our front door but I haven’t figured out what type of wreath for that project yet. So, now with this wreath I can have one with an H on it!! Plus I love anything monogrammed!!

Here are the supplies and steps to make your own monogram fabric wreath:

Supplies:

Straw/Styrofoam wreath- I used one that was 18 inches in diameter (Straw wreaths are cheaper than the Styrofoam ones)

½ yard of fabric (maybe less or more depending on your wreath size, I had very little left over)

2-4 sheets of felt (I used 1 and a half sheets, depends on flower size)

Straight pins

Pearl head pins (I used just white head pins to match my fabric better)

Wooden letter

Paint

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Assembly:

I painted my wooden letter first so it would dry while I was assembling the wreath. I used Americana white paint and painted on 2 coats. Set it aside to dry.

 

To start on your wreath, cut your fabric into strips that are 2-3 inches wide.

 

Then start wrapping your wreath. (Tip: Leave the plastic on your straw wreath so it stays neat and the straw won’t fall off and get everywhere.) To wrap your wreath, use the straight pins to secure the fabric at the start and end of each strip, shown in the picture below.

 

Continue to wrap until the wreath is completely covered, like so.

Now you can start on your felt flowers. To make the flowers you will need to cut out circles from your felt. I used the top to a candle jar because I can’t freehand very well with scissors. J You can do any size circle you want depending on how big you want your flowers to be and you can cut as many circles as you want to have lots of flowers or just a little bit. I made my circles about 2 inches in diameter and cut 30 of them.

Next time I would do bigger circles because I thought the bigger ones looked better but I had already cut my circles. Trial and error!!

Now take your circle and fold it in half.

Then fold it in half again.

 

Pin this flower on your wreath with a straight pin and continue with as many flowers as you want. (Note: As I pinned I opened the flowers up a little since mine were on the small side.)

Once you have pinned as many or as few flowers as you want you can start adding the pearl head pins to some of the flowers to accessorize. I placed some in between flowers as well. Don’t push the pin all the way down because you want them to “pop” with the flowers not hide within them.

Now you can add your painted wooden initial, if it is completely dry.

You can hot glue your letter to any part of the wreath you want but I think it looks best opposite of the flowers. I wanted my flowers at a diagonal so I put the letter on the upper left hand side of the wreath. Be sure to glue any part of the letter that hits the wreath so that it is secure.

 Now you have a gorgeous monogram fabric wreath!! The fabric/felt combinations are endless!! I can't wait to make more.

Linking up to:

Tatertots & Jello

Awesome Chicken Enchiladas w/ Salsa Chicken

Recently I made the best enchiladas I have ever had!! I found the enchilada recipe on Pinterest and made a few minor changes of my own. They were awesome!! Here is a link to the original recipe.

Here is what I did:

Chicken Enchiladas w/ green chili sour cream sauce

8 flour tortillas (I used Mission Carb Smart)

2 cups shredded Salsa chicken (see recipe below)

2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

3 Tbsp. margarine

3 Tbsp. flour

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 cup light sour cream

1 (4 oz) can of diced green chilies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9X13 pan with Pam. Mix chicken with 1 cup of the Monterrey Jack cheese. Roll the chicken mixture in the tortillas and place in the pan. Set aside. In a sauce pan on the stove, melt margarine, stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add chicken broth and whisk until smooth, heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Stir in sour cream and green chilies. Do not bring to a boil; you will curdle your sour cream if it boils. Pour sauce over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese. Bake the enchiladas for 22 minutes and then for another 3 minutes under the broiler on high to brown the cheese.

The Salsa chicken recipe I found on this blog. It is a great recipe because you can use it for so many different things. We had a lot of leftover chicken so I am going to make chicken nachos later this week to use it up. Plus it is good by itself. Here is the recipe:

Salsa Chicken

4 frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts

1 pkg. Taco seasoning (I used McCormick)

1 16 oz jar of Salsa (I used Hell on the Red)

Put all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. The original recipe said 4-6 hours but I was at work all day so mine was more like 9 hours. It was perfect. Take out of the crock pot when finished and shred with 2 forks. It falls apart because it is so moist. Use this in the chicken enchiladas, adds a ton more flavor than plain shredded chicken.

I served this meal with my go to Spanish rice and we were full and happy!! I will be making this again and again.

Goodreads

Last year I found this great social media reading site called Goodreads. It's like Facebook but you track and review books you've read. You have friends and can see their books and reviews and it is a great way to get suggestions for new books. Plus I love reading so this is perfect for me. I usually read during my lunch hour at work and then on the weekends but I guess you could consider me a bookworm.

I also like the feature where you can challenge yourself to read so many books in the year. Last year I challenged myself to read 106 books, 2 a week. It was a little too much of a challenge. I only did 71. So this year I made it a little more realistic.

This year I plan to read 75 books. Since I almost met this goal last year I figured it wouldn't be hard to do. I tend to be fairly consistent with reading but with us moving this last year I had a few months where I didn't read hardly at all. I am hoping that I can keep on track this year. Plus my sister and I have a little competitiveness with this so that makes it fun too!!

Enchilada Casserole & Key Lime Pie

So recently my sister introduced me to Pinterest. For those of you who have been on the site know how incredible addicting it is. Needless to say she has created a monster!! Pinterest makes my “I must try this” list longer, which isn’t fair because there are not enough hours in the day to make all of these crafts/ideas/recipes. If only I could get a job where I test out these ideas and get paid for it. I can dream can’t I!!

While on Pinterest I came across this recipe for Bubble-Up Enchilada Casserole. The original post on Pinterest is linked to this site. The picture looked so good and the recipe seemed easy so I decided to make it for dinner last night. Plus it was a Weight Watchers recipe so it was healthier than other recipes I could have made.

Here is the recipe:

1 lb. ground turkey

1 (10 oz) can of enchilada sauce (I used La Victoria)

1 (8 oz) can of tomato sauce (I used the no-salt added kind)

1 can of refrigerated biscuits (I used Pillsbury 16.3 oz but I only used 4 biscuits)

1 ¼ cup of reduced-fat Mexican cheese

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Brown your turkey and drain any excess liquid. Mix in enchilada sauce and tomato sauce. Cut the biscuits into fourths and mix that into the meat mixture. Pour into a greased casserole dish. Bake for 25 minutes and then remove from oven and add cheese. Place back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

It was really good and my hubby liked it too. There are a few things I would add to it like a can of black beans and maybe some corn, just to add fiber and a veggie without adding too many calories. When you look at the recipe you wouldn’t really believe that it would taste as good as it does but give it a try.

The other new recipe I tried last night was a Low Sugar Key Lime pie. I found this one just by researching recipes and figuring out which would actually taste and look like key lime pie. I changed a few things and this is what I came up with. The recipe is practically Sugar-Free but not entirely. The crust has a little sugar, as does the evaporated milk and the natural sugar in the limes but that is it. This pie was awesome. If you have tried to make sugar-free desserts before you understand the frustration I get sometimes because the sugar-free equivalent does not cook or set the same sometimes as sugar does. Being that my hubby is type 1 diabetic, I get frustrated often because I want to make sweets for him that won’t kill him. This recipe worked like it should and was delicious!!

Here it is:

1 reduced-fat graham cracker pie crust (you can make your own or buy the pre-made one) (I used Keebler)

1 tbsp unflavored gelatin or sugar-free lime jello (I used lime this time but will try gelatin next, just to see)

½ cup fresh key lime or lime juice (If you can find key limes you will need about 22, if reg. limes just 5)

1 cup boiling water

¼ cup Splenda

1 (12 oz) can of fat-free evaporated milk (I used Carnation)

¼ cup cold water

1 (4 serv.) packet of sugar-free vanilla instant pudding (I used Jell-o)

Dash of lime zest

Sugar-free whipped topping (I used Cool Whip)

In a blender, combine jello/gelatin and lime juice. Wait 1 minute until softened, and then add boiling water. Cover and blend on high speed until all gelatin granules are dissolved. Add Splenda, evaporated milk, cold water, pudding mix and lime zest. Cover and blend until smooth. Chill in the freezer for 20 minutes. Spoon chilled mixture onto prepared crust and chill in the freezer for about an hour or until firm. Top with Cool Whip and serve.

I hope you try out these recipes and enjoy them as much as I have.

Valentine's Wreath

Today I decide to make a Valentine's Day wreath for my front door. I can't stand what my door looks like without a wreath on it!!! It makes me happy when I have a cheery wreath to welcome me home everyday.

Last year I bought a bunch of Valentine's stuff after the holiday. That is seriously the best time to stock up and get stuff for crafts. I plan on getting some table linens after Valentine's Day this year so I can decorate my dining table next year. Okay, back to the wreath.

Here are a list of supplies you will need:

1 straw wreath (18in)

3 pkg. of garland (12 ft each)

Various ornaments or picks to place on your wreath (I found so cute foam hearts, a little mailbox and some wooden sayings)

Glue gun and plenty of glue sticks

Ribbon to make a bow or buy a pre-made bow

Assembly:

When you buy the straw wreath leave the plastic wrap on it. Since you are covering the wreath with the garland there is no need to take this off because it will make more of a mess. Start wrapping your wreath with the garland.

As you wrap, be sure to glue down the garland to the wreath as you go. You don't have to use a lot just here and there so it stays in place. Continue until the entire wreath is covered.

Now you can work on the ornaments. Sometimes I buy fancy picks or ornaments for the wreath and other times inspiration hits me when I see a few simple things that I could make into something unique and super cute! That is what I did this time.

I found this cute little pink mailbox in the dollar bin at Target and the foam hearts too. I glued the hearts together and then glued them in the mailbox. I glued the door to the mailbox on the bottom because it wasn't hinged to it. Then I found this cute wooden saying at Hobby Lobby and glued it on the mailbox. 

Extremely cute!!!

My other foam and wooden ornament saying were red so I needed to put them on a pink or white background since the wreath is red. I added the LOVE foam saying and the Sweetheart wooden saying to some of the white and pink foam hearts. They also stand out more since they are three-dimensional.

This time I just made a simple two loop bow and added a little foam heart. I love bows!!

Now you can add everything to your wreath. Since I have made a few wreaths I try to change it up a bit by placing the bow or sign (if I have one) in a different spot or at a different angle.

Now you have a beautiful Valentine's wreath!!

I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day (even if it is a month early!!!!)