Baked Mac & Cheese with Broccoli

Last night I made something super delicious! I used a combination of two different recipes that I found to create my own version.

Baked Mac & Cheese with Broccoli

Ingredients

16 oz. whole wheat penne pasta

1 head fresh broccoli florets

1 3/4 c. low-fat milk, divided

3 T. whole wheat flour

3 T. dry breadcrumbs (plain or italian seasoned)

1 t. extra virgin olive oil

2 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1 c. low-fat cottage cheese

1/4 t. salt

Freshly ground pepper, to taste


Directions

1. Put large pot of water on to boil. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Coat an 11"x7" baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Mix breadcrumbs and oil in small bowl. [I used Italian seasoned breadcrumbs because I already had them in my pantry]

3. Boil pasta and broccoli in the same pot until pasta isn't quite fully cooked. [Pasta will continue to cook in the oven] Drain and set aside.

4. Heat 1 1/2 cups milk in large heavy sauce pan over medium-high heat until steaming. Whisk remaining 1/4 cup milk with flour in small bowl until smooth; add to the hot milk and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce simmers and thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. REmove from heat and stir in Cheddar until melted. Stir in cottage cheese, salt and pepper.

5. Add pasta and broccoli to the cheese sauce mixture. Gently stir until pasta and broccoli are coated with sauce. Spread in 11"x7" baking dish and sprinkle with the breadcrumb mixture.

6. Bake until bubbly and golden, 25 to 30 minutes.

Happy half birthday to me!

Today is my half birthday!

My [real] 18th birthday when I had very long hair.

Ever since my freshman year at Hanover College, I have been celebrating my half birthday (in addition to my real birthday). As you are very capable of figuring out, my real birthday is August 10, which means I was almost never in school on my birthday. That's a good thing, kind of, but it also means that I never got to have the whole class sing to me or tell me happy birthday. Now that I think about it, I always got really nervous at my birthday parties when it was time for everyone to look at me and sing happy birthday, but you always want what you can't have!

Does anyone remember having their locker wrapped with wrapping paper on their birthday??

My birthday happened to fall on my first day of middle school and my best friend at the time wanted to wrap my locker for me. I was terrified of middle school as it was, so I didn't want any extra attention to go to me on my very first day. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I am sure my mom can fill us in down in the comments area :) At the time, it felt like it would be embarrassing because I didn't know that it happened frequently to other people.

Well, I don't have any exciting half birthday plans except working until 7! Maybe my half birthday will motivate me to come home and do my workout video. Maybe.

Have a great day! Stay warm! And happy half birthday to ME! :)

Brunch and new shoes!

Last year when I thought I was going to run the mini-marathon (HA!) I went to Blue Mile in Broadripple and I bought some nice running shoes. They did the whole thing where they videotaped me running on the treadmill to see how my feet were hitting and decide which shoes to have me try on. I ended up getting some Saucony shoes that look like old grandma shoes with all of its large mesh and large size. [The lady at the shoe store made me get size 9 because she said my feet will swell when I run. They look enormous, but they fit.] I don't know, they probably don't look that bad, but when I look down at my feet I don't really like how they look. Oh well, they work well for running!

So while I have been doing my JM workout, I have been using my running shoes because they are the only tennis shoes I have! They aren't great when you need foot flexibility, such as when I am required to hold a static lunge. Usually my back toes end up kind of hurting because my running shoes aren't meant to bend like that.

I met up with Sarah yesterday to go to brunch at 3 Sisters Cafe in Broadripple. It was sooo good! I had a 3 egg scramble with bacon, avocado, mushrooms, basil, and feta cheese.

We weren't ready to part ways after brunch, so we decided to go to Castleton Square Mall to do a little shopping! Neither of us really needed anything, but thought it would be fun to walk around together anyway. At least I thought I didn't need anything...

I ended up buying much more than planned, but I did get something I really needed. Workout shoes! They are very flexible and extremely comfortable. I was instantly motivated to do my workout video so I could wear the shoes! I can't wait to put them on again. Of course, that means I will have to do my workout again, but it could be worse, right? :)

They are Nike Women's Free TR Fit Training Shoes. Whatever all that means. All I know is they are very flexible and light! I got them at Dick's and they also have them in lime green, which I wanted most, but they only had size 6.5 and I'm really 8.5 to 9, so that wasn't going to work. Best part? They were on sale for $10 off the normal price, which brought them down to $75. Still a lot of money, but totally worth it.

Well, I've got lots on the agenda for today: reading for class, getting killed in my week 4 workout video, baking triple chocolate peanut butter cookies, and bringing said cookies to Ryan's parents' house for the Super Bowl! It's going to be a great day!

Chicken Fajita Lettuce Cups

Another Hungry Girl recipe! This flavorful dish is super easy to make and it proves that you don't need a long list of ingredients to make a dish taste really good.

Another thing that I really love about the Hungry Girl cookbooks is that many, if not most, of the recipes are for single servings. It's nearly impossible to find recipes for just one person, and that makes cooking for one really difficult. So I am very glad to have all of these single serving recipes! And that also makes it easy to double, triple, or quadruple the recipe depending on how many people you are cooking for.

Chicken Fajita Lettuce Cups

Ingredients:
3 leaves romaine, butter, or green leaf lettuce
3 ounces raw boneless skinless lean chicken breast, sliced
1/2 c. sliced red and green bell peppers
1/2 c. sliced onions
2 Tbsp. Holy Moly Guacamole
1 Tbsp. salsa
1 Tbsp. fat-free sour cream
1 & 1/2 tsp. dry fajita seasoning mix

Directions:

• Place chicken, peppers, and onions in a medium bowl. In a separate dish, blend fajita seasoning mix with 3 Tbsp. water.

• Pour seasoning mixture over chicken and veggies. Stir until chicken and veggies are thoroughly coated. Let marinate for 5 minutes.

• Spray a medium pan with nonstick spray and bring to medium-high heat. Pour chicken-veggie mixture--including any excess marinade--into the pan.

• Stirring occasionally, saute until chicken is cooked through and veggies are slightly browned, about 6 minutes. Transfer mixture to a bowl.

• Enjoy fajita-style, by loading up each lettuce "cup" with one-third of the chicken-veggie mixture and topping with the guacamole, salsa, and sour cream. Yum!

Makes 1 serving.

Per serving (3 lettuce cups):

190 calories

2.5g fat

562mg sodium

18g carbs

4g fiber

7g sugars

23g protein

Although it might seem like these three lettuce cups wouldn't fill you up, there is so much stuff inside them that it really does! They are definitely messy, so don't even try wiping your face or hands until you're done eating. This recipe is mouthwatering goodness and I can't believe it's less than 200 calories!

Hope you enjoy!

Holy Moly Guacamole

This delicious recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, Hungry Girl 200 Under 200 by Lisa Lillien, where every recipe is under 200 calories! 

What's great about this cookbook is that there are so many recipes (200) and she covers all different kinds of foods. There are options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. I just love it! This recipe was super easy to follow and didn't take very long at all.

Holy Moly Guacamole

Ingredients:

One 15-ounce can early (young) peas, drained

1/2 c. mashed avocado (about 1 medium-small avocado's worth)

1/3 c. chopped cherry or grape tomatoes

1/4 c. finely chopped onion

1/4 c. plain fat-free Greek yogurt

4 tsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. chopped garlic

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1/8 tsp. ground cumin

1/8 tsp. chili powder

Additional salt and black pepper, to taste

Optional: chopped fresh cilantro (SICK), chopped jarred jalapenos

Directions:

• Place peas in a medium bowl and mash thoroughly with a potato masher or fork.

• Add avocado, yogurt, lime juice, garlic, and seasonings. Continue to mash until blended.

• Stir in tomatoes, onion, and, if you like, some cilantro (SICK) and/or jalapenos. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Per serving (1/3 cup):
78 calories
3g fat
320mg sodium
10.5g carbs
3.5g fiber
4g sugars
3.5g protein

Makes 6 servings.

I didn't make mine with onion because I don't like raw onion, and obviously I left out the cilantro. Also, I doubled the recipe because I didn't think the original would make very much and I ended up accidentally quadrupling the amount of Greek yogurt. I only realized that I did that when I was typing up the ingredients. Oops! It still tastes really good, though.

I hope yours turns out just as delicious as mine did!

"You should be gargling your heart right now."

"Keep your booty down. This is my workout, not your bedroom!"

"Are you crying right now? 'Waaahhh, it hurts! I wanna die!' I don't care!!"

These are just a few examples of the lovely things that Jillian will say to you during your Week 4 workout. I know this now because I just did the Week 4 workout for the first time. Let me tell you, it was rough. 

I know you probably could have predicted that based on every other post I've written about my progress through this workout video, but it was much harder than I imagined. Like I said during the first week, most of the moves individually aren't difficult to physically do. It's the combination of multiple moves at once that really get you.

Example: 

Week 1 had a squat with a shoulder press. 

You would hold your arms up at 90 degree angles with dumbbells in them, squat down so your knees are at a 90 degree angle, then while you are standing back up, you push your arms up straight.

Week 4 has a squat with a shoulder press.

This is a static squat with a continuous shoulder press. The difference is that you squat down to the 90 degree angle and you hold the squat while doing shoulder press after shoulder press after shoulder press.

You wouldn't think that it would suck that bad, but it really, really does. It's things like that that make me happy that it's only a 20 minute workout :) 

I've really fallen off the wagon when it comes to working out. When I was sick, I took a break from working out and even though I am not sick anymore and haven't been sick for over a week, but it's just so hard to get the motivation back. Luckily, I knew I needed to finish this workout video, so that was motivation enough to finally start back up today!

I didn't make those pictures, but I found them humorous. Happy Thursday, everyone!