Meal Prep
The key to the 21 Day Fix is meal preparations. I decided I’m only willing to eat food that have been in containers for three days at a time, so here is what my three days looks like!
Breakfast:
Shakeology: Shakeology, 1/2 banana, flax seeds, coffee
Mid-morning snack: 1 egg cup with tortilla
Lunch: Chicken, Veggie Mix
Mid-Afternoon snack: 2nd Egg cup/whole wheat tortilla, Fruit
Dinner: Pork tenderloin, Lettuce w/ Balsamic Vinegar, Veggie Mix
Interested in joining me on this journey, get your 21 Day Fix HERE!!!
Broccoli Chicken Casserole
Last weekend I ran in the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. I guess “ran” may be a bit of an exaggeration. I ran part of it. I ran for the first 2 miles and then I hit a real steep hill and had to walk to the top of it. I ran for another 2 miles and then had to take a bathroom break, (which is kind of gross when all you have is a port-o-let). After that I had to alternate walking and running in much shorter increments for the remaining 9 miles. I got a little added motivation to keep going at miles 5, 9, and 13 when I saw a very good friend cheering me on with a poster made especially for me with my favorite colors on it. Every time I thought I couldn’t go another step, I thought about how I would be seeing her standing there in just a little bit. I appreciated her being there more than she will ever know!! I kept all my miles, (except the bathroom break mile), at under 13 minute miles. I finished at 2:43:02. The last time I attempted a half marathon, I finished in 3:07, so I was pretty proud of myself. I love my medal. I want to start doing more races that give medals so I can start a medal collection. I’ve found lots of cool display frames for them, but it would look pretty silly with just one medal hanging there. This weekend I will be riding in the Tour Dallas, but no medals for that!! 
This week’s recipe turned out really good. It is low carb, so I’m hoping by eating it for dinner this week, I will start to lose some weight. I’ve put on a few pounds and I don’t want to let my weight get out of control!! I’m getting back on track with my food and my exercise!
Ingredients:
Rotisserie chicken (I guess you could cook you’re own chicken, but why?)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
8 oz of cheddar cheese
1 bag of frozen broccoli
Sliced mushrooms (I bought them pre-sliced)
2 tsp of lemon pepper
Get a Rotisserie Chicken from the grocery store.
Put Pam in a 9 X 9 casserole dish and tear up the chicken for the bottom layer.
Put broccoli over the chicken.
Put mushrooms on top of the broccoli and sprinkle lemon pepper over the mixture.
In a bowl, mix cream of mushroom soup, half a can of water and about 6 ounces of cheese.
Layer the cheese/soup mixture over the chicken, broccoli and mushrooms. Put in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes.
Pull out of the oven and cover the casserole with more cheese and put back in the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes.
Pull out of the oven and eat. This casserole was even better the next day!!
Mi Cocina
I think most people judge a good Mexican food place by their salsa, but I judge them by their fajitas. Mi Cocina Mexican food restaurants are ALL over Dallas, and I’ve never been to one that I didn’t like. They cook their fajitas with potatoes, which I don’t eat, but it’s a little different. I like that they don’t over-cook the fajitas. Most places serve them so burnt that you can’t even enjoy them. You can get about 4 tacos from their servings, so that could probably even feed two people! If you are ever in Dallas area, make sure to try Mi Cocinas.
BBQ chicken
I love making stuff in the crockpot. It’s so easy to throw everything in there and then forget about it. I’m really not the type of cook that wants to make a fuss. I saw this recipe and really wanted to try it because it involved coke in the ingredients. I rushed out to the store and bought all the ingredients, came home and started preparations to cook the chicken. The only thing I didn’t factor in is that I have a really small crockpot. I couldn’t get the chicken to fit in, so I had to have Mike cut off the legs and wings to make it fit. Then, since the chicken took up all the room, the other ingredients didn’t really fit either and it ended up overflowing. After I got the majority of the ingredients finally in the crockpot, I turned it on and left it for a couple hours. I’m not sure what possessed me to go look at the progress, since that is a little more work than I was planning to do, but when I checked I noticed that the crockpot wasn’t even working!!! OMG!! It was all just sitting there marinading I guess. I moved the crockpot to another plug and changed the setting to high and it miraculously started working, so it all worked out in the end!
Ingredients:
Onions
Lemon
BBQ Sauce
Coke
Whole chicken – (or one with no legs or wings works too!)
Cut up the lemons and onions
Put the lemons, onions and chicken in the crockpot
Add BBQ sauce and coke
Cook until the chicken is ready. Probably about 4 – 6 hours.
This looks pretty pitiful, but it’s really tasty!
Mike said he made the best bbq sauce ever by using all the stuff the chicken was cooking in and adding a bunch of other stuff, but I have no idea what he added.
Home again!
I’m back in Austin and everything is starting to get back to normal. The only issue I’m having is with allergies. They are KILLING me. I’m afraid I’m going to OD on zyrtec, because I’m taking as much as I can to keep the allergies to a minimum.
Yesterday I didn’t wake up and walk because the allergies were so bad. I made it a point to exercise in the afternoon. I’m glad I did, because we went to Lady Bird Lake/Town Lake and walked around there. I love walking by the water. Even though there are tons of people there, it is very peaceful. There are small hills there, too, so it’s a little more of a challenge than walking in the neighborhood.
After walking at Lady Bird Lake, we went to Torchy’s for dinner. I’m pretty sure Torchy’s is my favorite place to eat. I got queso and a baja shrimp taco. YUMMY!! It turned out to be a nice evening.
Back to reality
Well, I’m back in Austin after a nice long weekend! I really had a great trip to Dallas! I got to spend a lot of time with my family and friends! Saturday night, I went to a party at one of my friend’s house. There was so much food there it was unbelievable! Mike brought two appetizers. One of his friends he grew up with shipped Slovanian Sausage to him from Wisconsin, so he made a little appetizer with that. I didn’t think I’d like Slovanian sausage, but it was really good. He also made bris/apple/bacon quesadillas. These were AMAZING!! I probably ate like 3 of them. I hope he makes those again.
Sunday, we had a perfect Easter. We went to breakfast at Cafe Brazil in Deep Ellum with my family and then Easter dinner at Mike’s parent’s house. We had lamb for Easter dinner that was to die for! I love all the good eating I did!! After I got back to my parents’ house from doing all this eating, I ended up walking on the Katy Trail. I walked from the American Airline Center to Central Expressway. It was a little under 8 miles and took me two hours. After that, I went with another friend to Wing Stop for dinner. I was afraid to get on the scale today, because I’m sure that was a five pound weekend!! I’ll get back on track this week!
Perfect day!
Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. I started out the day with a walk on the Katy Trail. That is one of my favorite things to do. One of these days I want to stop and eat at one of the restaurants they have there. There are two. I’ve been to the Katy Trail Ice House once and loved the atmosphere. There is a new restaurant called the Company Cafe that I still have to try.
When I got home, my mom and I went to meet my sister and her family out for lunch. We chose Maple and Motor as the place to go. I had been there once before, but no one else had. It’s a small little burger place at the corner of Maple and Motor Street. I am going to go out on a limb and say that’s where they got their name. They have one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten.
Later that day, I went and got my hair cut. I went to Lure over in the West Village. We watched them as they were building the salon and worried that they weren’t going to make it when they first opened. That is definitely not the case now, as they have a loyal following. I barely got an appointment when I called a week in advance. I can see why they are doing so well, because they really do a great job and they pamper you! They will offer you a glass of wine while you wait to get your hair cut. They also have tea and water, but I opted for the wine.
Fabulous after FIFTY 