red as a beet

The theme of today's post is the color red. I made two Weight Watchers recipes, both quite red, and a barley recipe from my new favorite foodie blogger (Oh She Glows). Plus, see below for more red surprises.

Dessert first, as always. (This isn't how I eat, by the way. Well, not most of the time. It's just that I prefer this course!) Mahogany velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, WW style. I was very intrigued by this recipe because the red didn't come from red food coloring as in traditional red velvet cakes, but from beets!



I love the idea of using a natural colorant and adding some nutritional value at the same time.



Don't think for a minute that I was fooled into thinking that these are healthy, though.




Two disappointments: the cupcakes weren't very red (perhaps why the name is "mahogany" and not "red") and the cream cheese frosting wasn't very good. Fat-free cream cheese = no good.




Christmas cupcake liners were all I had. Must add to shopping list.





I never eat beets. I believe this is the fault of one of my school cafeterias - probably a school in France. Those suckers are really bitter - no wonder I didn't like them as a kid. Not sure I like them as an adult yet. Except in red velvet cupcakes, that is. ;-)



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The other Weight Watchers recipe was skillet chicken paprika. I wish I could share the recipe, but that is probably against copyright rules. Therefore, I'll just give you the ingredients: chicken, paprika, flour, onion, garlic, red pepper, olive oil, sour cream (I used Greek yogurt instead), and a can of diced tomatoes.



You cook the chicken and set aside. Then soften the onion and red pepper.



Then you add the flour and paprika. It quickly becomes a gorgeous red mixture that is very fragrant.




The final result is delicious. Yum!



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Another recipe I made this week (twice!) is Easy Creamy Tomato Barley Risotto from Oh She Glows. Have I mentioned that I love her blog? She makes vegan so easy, delicious, and attainable!

First you add the barley, oil, oregano, and basil.



Then you add the rest of the ingredients, including miso and nutritional yeast - two new ingredients for me, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.



It's super easy and really tasty. I can't wait to eat this for lunch this week!



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My American breakfast this morning. Yum. Added some strong mustard to the eggs and it was spectacular. Hey...red strawberries!



Very similar to a lunch the other day. Nothing red here, sorry! Actually, there is paprika in the omelet, but you can't really see it.



And a delicious red drink. Mango rum, mango vodka, grenadine, cranberry juice, and pineapple juice, with a splash of Sprite.



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Speaking of red, my camera (which is red for those of you who haven't seen it) is still being fixed!! I'm lost without a camera. Thank goodness I have an iPhone!

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On the running front, so far so good. I completed the first week of training and all went well. I have done the first workout of the second week and I am proud to say that I was able to run every time I was supposed to. One uphill run was quite a struggle, but I made it and recovered. I'm on my way to 5K!! :-) Stay tuned!

New sneakers!


Very sweaty!


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The highlight of the week has to be winning the PSSC Spring 2011 Volleyball Championship. YEAH!! (Red shirts!)



I wish you a great week!

soup, it does a body good

Weight Watchers has a recipe for zero-point soup. When I read over the ingredients, I thought it sounded gross and I thought for sure that I wouldn't like it. But, it is zero points, and when you're on a diet, it's pretty special to be able to ingest something without worrying about its impact on your diet plan.

You start out by sauteing some onions, garlic and carrots.

Then you add broth, green beans, tomato paste, and cabbage. Also the herbs and salt.

And once the broth is brought back to a boil, add in the zucchini.

It's ready when the zucchini is tender. So much better than (it sounded to me and) it looks. And zero points!!!

A perfect way for me to balance out all of that baking! Bon appetit!

breakfast... it's what's for dinner

The plan was to make salmon tonight, but once I looked up the WW PointsPlus value, I got discouraged. (And side note, also annoyed that wild-caught salmon costs way more points than farm-raised salmon. Guess which one I bought thinking I was making the healthier choice!) As I was closing the freezer door after putting a salmon filet to defrost in the refrigerator for tomorrow, my eyes fell on a completely unnecessary purchase I made on Sunday: waffles! YES! Breakfast for dinner! All of the sudden, it was exactly what I was craving. Who wants/needs fish when you can have waffles! Now, really!?!

I tried to add a bit of nutrition. On one I added peanut butter and jelly, for a bit of protein (and lots of sugar, yes). On the other I added some agave nectar and sliced bananas (not much nutrition on that one, but another fruit added to the day). Ah, who am I kidding!? It was just plain good without much nutritional value!

Today's fruit count:

clementines: 4

bananas: 2

peaches: 1/2

Today's vegetable count:

uhhh, 0

I'll work on that tomorrow. ;-) But for today, I must say that this breakfast-for-dinner has made my night!!

In other news, I bought a blender! AND dug up a smoothie recipe book that I had forgotten about! More on that in another post...

And one last thing... I bought disposable coffee cups for the next time it snows and nice plow man comes around!!

back on the wagon

Tomorrow, I'm back on the wagon. What wagon, you ask? Oh, right, I haven't told you. Well, that's because I don't like to tell people. But luckily, no people read this, so I can say it: I'm on a diet. More specifically, on Weight Watchers. And the reason I don't like to tell people is because I usually get this reaction: "but why?" Because I want to learn how to juggle, of course! (For anyone who didn't catch it, that's sarcasm.) I want to lose weight. I don't feel well at my current weight and I know that I can be smaller and feel better. However, getting to this point is hard. No one ever said it wasn't.

I haven't done well all week, but yesterday was the kicker. With those mini cupcakes shown in my last post came a lot of batter-tasting, then frosting-tasting, and followed, of course, by final-product-tasting. And there is a whole other cake that you don't even know about... well, until now. I still had a lot of coffee left so I tried another recipe. It didn't make it on yesterday's post because it was a disaster. I had no cocoa left so I substituted melted chocolate, which meant I had to reduce the shortening. (Just saying, that's a lot of tweaking...) But melted chocolate doesn't do well with cold milk because it hardens. No biggie though - I figured tiny chunks of chocolate in the batter could actually enhance the cake. What did not enhance the cake, however, were the chunks of flour that never blended in the batter. I saw them, I did, but I decided to ignore them. Laziness is not forgiven in baking and so, the cake is gross. It's not appetizing and it doesn't taste very good. Not exactly the result I was going for. The biggest problem in all of this isn't only the result of the cake, but the fact that I have actually been secretly eating it!!! *Sigh* I think this right there disqualifies me from being a "foodie." Who eats an unappetizing and not-very-good cake just because it's there!? Not a foodie! Oooh, foodie-in-me, you are too well hidden.

Pictures for the benefit of full disclosure. Look at those flour chunks, people!

I had to end the mindless cake-eating. The cake's final resting place:

I have a plan. Tomorrow morning, I am making myself a smoothie with those clementines I'm trying to finish up (yep, still working on that crate). I'll have a salad at our lunch outing, and be careful at dinner. I need to psych myself up because this week is going to be hard: I'll be on a business trip all week - in ORLANDO! Perhaps the possibility of getting into a bathing suit will scare me into a little healthy eating!? Stay tuned!