Happy Chili Halloween

Low-Carb Chili Topped With Fat-Free Greek Yogurt

Sunday was a hang out around the house and watch football kind of day, which means it was also a perfect day for chili. The husband wanted something a little spicy; I needed something that wasn't loaded with carbs. We compromised with a low-carb chili recipe I came up with using whatever I could find in the fridge and pantry. The recipe didn't require a lot of ingredients, but it fit the bill. And best of all? We had leftovers we could enjoy tonight while waiting for trick-or-treaters. So far, we've seen one hippie.

A Tasty Answer: Chicken Cordon Bleu Breakfast in Vegas

I mentioned this fabulous breakfast to the husband and told him that I wanted to make it for him, but, apparently, he has no interest in eating chicken for breakfast. That's right: This tasty little bit is lightly breaded chicken rolled with ham, topped with a poached egg, some yummy sauce that I couldn't quite put my finger on and a slice of crispy bacon. 

How can you look at that little breakfast bite and tell me it's too early in the morning for chicken? I know I'm drooling.

So, as much as I want to re-create this in my own kitchen and share my experience, it doesn't look like this will be happening anytime soon. Maybe the husband will hit the golf course this weekend and I'll attempt to make this wonderful dish for myself, but we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, I thought I should at least share with you the fabulous protein-filled ingredients. Maybe one of you will be inspired and spontaneous enough to eat chicken before noon.

A Tasty Tease: Breakfast in Vegas

There's a quick look at one of the fabulous meals I enjoyed last weekend with my girlfriends in Vegas. Man, I could really go for one of those little bites this morning as I sit in the airport drinking mediocre coffee. Actually, I consider that little dish such a fond breakfast memory I'm wondering if I can re-create it for the husband sometime soon.


So, what do you think is in that little bite? Your hint: It's filled with protein.

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Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Our beautiful, beautiful Sunday afternoon

The husband doesn't carve pumpkins. He has absolutely no interest in hollowing out a pumpkin, making it look fancy and putting a candle inside of it so all of our neighbors can enjoy it while we sit inside. Nope. It isn't his thing. 

But he likes it when I roast pumpkin seeds, which is exactly why he bought me two pumpkins last weekend. Yes, that good man bought me two.

Reuben Casserole

 

I made just about the easiest dinner ever last night. It was super simple to throw together, which was great because I came home late after a long meeting at work, and it tasted pretty darn good, too, another plus because I was starving.

Even the husband agreed that dinner, though it sounded a little strange to him at first, was good. I toasted and buttered bread for the husband and made him a reuben sandwich from this dish, but I ate mine straight from the casserole. Mmmmm. Corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese, hot out of the oven in 25 minutes? I'm not sure it gets better than that after a long, long day at the office.

Reuben Casserole
Serves 2

1/2 lb. corned beef from the deli, sliced thin
4 Tbs. sauerkraut
2 slices low-fat Swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray. 

Spread the meat evenly across the bottom of the dish. Layer the sauerkraut on top of the meat and top with cheese. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is melted and, if you like, starting to brown. Serve on a sandwich or eat with a fork. You may even want to serve with dressing.

Enjoy!

Chicken Egg Drop Soup

Chicken Egg Drop Soup tastes better than it looks.

Every day this week I swore the weatherman said the sun was going to shine. And Monday through Thursday we lived with gray skies and rain around here. That's right: Soup weather was upon us.

And I had a serious craving for French onion soup. I knew we had mushrooms and onions in the fridge, so I got myself quite excited one afternoon this week thinking about a big bowl of French onion soup. All I wanted to do was sit down at our kitchen table with one of our speckled soup bowls filled to the brim with hot soup, a nice layer of gooey cheese browned under the broiler coating the top.

But guess who was out of beef stock?

A Work in Progress

I'm a work in progress - so much more than usual it seems this week. 

I've been trying to blog more lately and to increase my activity on Twitter. It all gets a bit tricky, though, when I'm also trying to increase the time I unplug in the evening so I can give the husband and the brown doggies a bit more attention.

I've been crafting more than usual lately. That's something I haven't told you much about, mainly because I'm working on launching an online store. Don't get too excited: It'll be quite small. But it's giving me a creative outlet - outside of the kitchen and in my very small craft room - that I've missed in the last year or so.

I've also been reading more and listening to more classical music than the husband probably appreciates. Thank you, Jasper Rees, for that.

And I've been collecting more recipes that I know will make the husband and I both very happy. For one:

 Chicken, cream cheese, mozzarella, hot wing sauce and a lil broccoli. Good times.

That's what we ate for dinner tonight, and I plan to turn that mess of ingredients I found in the fridge tonight into a Buffalo chicken dip casserole in the near future. 

So bear with me. Eventually this week will come to an end, I'll launch that dang store, pick up my horn and make that casserole. Till then, I think I'll just watch some TV with the husband and hope this headache goes away soon.

Bake Sale Dilemma - Help!

Momma always made lemon bars for Little Big Brother to take to bake sales, you know, back in the day when he wasn't a cool college kid. (Do they say "frosh" in college, Little Big Brother?) I've never actually eaten one of her lemon bars, but they were frequently requested, so they must be good. Strangely enough, lemon bars came up in conversation just a couple of weeks ago when the world's best mother-in-law told me she was supposed to make them for L & K's rehearsal dinner. Lemon bars aren't her apple bread, if you know what I mean. (My apologies if y'all didn't know she actually paid Grandma to make them for her.)

We're having a bake sale at work Monday, and I'm a little like Momma S. I know won't be making lemon bars.

But I have no idea what I will be baking. Help.

I'm considering:

• Oatmeal Cookies or Oatmeal-Apple Cookies (probably with raisins because that's what the husband wants)

• Pumpkin-Spice Coffee Brownies

• Oatmeal Bread

• Aunt Caroline's Jam-Thumbprint Cookies

What do you think will be a best-seller? I promise to share the recipe to whichever baked good I make.

Low-Carb Waffles

High-Protein, Low-Carb Waffles

You know that feeling you get in the back of your throat after you've just eaten so much bread so quickly that you're about to get the hiccups and know you're going to need some peanut butter? No? Are you telling me you've never eaten bread so fast you've gotten that hiccups or that you don't cure hiccups with peanut butter?

Oh, well. Let's not start that debate.

Let me just tell you that these waffles were a long time coming. I tried them with three egg whites, which resulted in a volcano of a waffle erupting all over our kitchen countertop. I tried adding water, which made the waffle iron sizzle and steam - and make very crispy, airy waffles.

Finally I stuck with two egg whites, skipped the water and ended up with waffles.

Thank God.

High-Protein Godiva Pumpkin Spice Iced Coffee Bliss

I love getting mail. Coming home to a box on the front porch, wondering whose name is on the return address label ... the anticipation of what's inside just about kills me. Even if I know I ordered something, and I know it's just a used book, I'm still super excited. So imagine how exciting I find it when I pull into the driveway and see that the mail lady has left me a brown box I wasn't expecting.

That's exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago.

The weather was turning a little cool. We'd turned off the AC and were enjoying mornings with the windows open. It was starting to feel like fall and, lover of summer that I am, I was slowly embracing the change. I still wanted to wear sandals to work every day, but visions of Thanksgiving were starting to dance in my head. Wool sweaters, pie and stuffing, oh, how I love thee. But I wasn't ready to say goodbye to skirts and fresh local watermelon just yet. 

And then I got a package in the mail.

Not-Yo-Momma's Apple Bread (Or Is It?)

Husband, via text, Friday at 4 pm: Want to make a coffee cake tonight for me to bring to work?
Wife: U know it
Husband: Yup. Best wife ever

I tell you that not so you can puke on your keyboard at our newlywedness. I tell you that so you know why I had to bake after work yesterday. You heard him. The husband really twisted my arm.

All the way home I debated as to whether I should make the boys at the quarry another coffee cake or if I should switch things up a little and make a cinnamon Bundt cake. Decisions, decisions.

Then I walked in the door and saw the husband had brought home a bag full of apples.

"Can you make apple bread?" He asked a bit tentatively. 

I just looked at him.

Winning Chicken Dinner

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

Bake chicken, ham and cheese. Who knew that's all I had to do to make the husband an ah-maze-ing dinner? Seriously. He loves chicken cordon bleu so much (news to me) that I've made it twice in the last three weeks - and one of the last three weeks we weren't even home. So let's just say I've made him this meal twice in two weeks.

I can't complain, though. This a simple dinner that tastes great, is low in carbs and the husband absolutely loves it.

Baked Zucchini Fritters

Clean the living room, dust, vacuum, clean the kitchen, put away the dishes in the dishwasher, change the sheets on the bed, sweep the hallway, clean the bathroom, go back to the kitchen and eat all the produce in the fridge that's about to go bad, and then take out the trash. That's how it goes in our house the night before we leave to go somewhere. That way everything is nice and clean when we get home. Unfortunately, it also means we return to an empty fridge.

The husband and I have spent the last couple of nights scavenging for dinner food. We had meat we could thaw (thank you, Da, for the venison!), but sides required a bit more imagination. Lucky for me, Momma grew about a hundred zucchini. Why I only brought one home is beyond me. Maybe I didn't want to look greedy. Or maybe I only snagged one because the husband isn't always a fan of this versatile vegetable, as evidenced by his "What are you doing with that?" inquiry when he saw me making these for dinner.

"I'm making something up," I told him.

The Circle Game

L & K's cupcake tree

What I learned on our mini holiday:

1. It's extremely hard to eat well on the road. And even when you find something "good" to eat, you'll still want to scream at your husband's French fries for making the truck smell like fried deliciousness.

2. Not cooking for the husband for five days makes me feel funny - rushed and incomplete in a strange sort of way.

3. Even if no one else things your high-protein pancakes sound edible, your little brother will eat them. 

4. Pumpkin spice coffee should always be available. "For a limited time only" is just silly.

5. The husband must have listened to a lot of House of Pain back in the day. He knows all of the words to "Jump Around." All. Of. Them.

6. There's a chance your husband won't let you drive on your next road trip, if you've recently had a minor fender bender.

7. The term "boot scoot" is not limited to a line dance.

8. Your dogs will appreciate you that much more after you've banned them to the kennel for  six nights. If they don't show their appreciation for long, they'll at the very least give you 75 kisses all over your face as soon as you get home.

9. The husband is going to love me no matter what I put on my feet.

10. Weddings never get old. It doesn't matter how cold it is, how far you have to travel or how dull the autumn leaves are. Congratulations, again, L & K. We love you, and we're so happy you'll be spending forever together.