The Week Baking Took Over

I promise I haven't forgotten my vow to come back! I have the pictures taken and in folders ready to be edited for so many things! Crock Pot Apple BBQ Chicken, Make Ahead Breakfast Sandwiches, Peach Cobbler Trifle, Fake Fried Okra, Single Serving Blueberry Cobbler, Pumpkin Blondies, Pumpkin Fluff, THE BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies in the world, Pumpkin Bread Pudding & Homemade Caramel Sauce, and Philly Cheese steak Sloppy Joes. I even have some DIY project pictures and how to posts lined up (magnetic chalkboard memo boards with DIY chalkboard paint). I promise! I haven't forgotten. August 1st until about mid to late September is the busiest, most hectic, craziest time of my job/life EVER. In addition to nearly 4 weeks of training, school starting, students moving in, training and working out the kinks with RAs, and more, the non profit women's ministry team I am on has our big two day event in September every year.

Okay, okay. You get it. I've been busy. But I always make time for a meal plan even in the midst of business right? So why not last week. Well... in the name of baking, I boycotted cooking. I only ate frozen things. From last Sunday to this Sunday I baked Pumpkin Butterscotch Blondies, Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes, Mamaw's Strawberry Cake, Strawberry Cupcakes filled with White Chocolate Strawberry Ganache topped with Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing and adorned with candy pearls, AND 150 Strawberry White Chocolate Cake Truffles. Seriously.

The cake was devoured before I could take a picture, but it existed too! And though I'm not eating quite as healthy as I should, don't think I made all of these things for myself! The blondies were for a fall picnic with friends. The cinnamon roll cupcakes were part of a cheer up gift for an RA. The cake was for an RA's birthday. The strawberry cupcakes were part of teaching my best friend to make fancy cupcake, per her request. Let me interject to say, they were my most favorite cupcake ever! They had a vintage antique look. She iced them all! I was quite impressed with her first time icing skills which are already better than mine. I adorned them with pearls and it was fun! The never ending cake truffles are for my former social tribe (for non-MC folk - think sorority. Their big rush part (aka KT Coke Party) is tonight. Their colors are pink and silver so I made strawberry cake, white chocolate coating, pink drizzle, and silver gem sprinkles. Later today I will post a meal plan and then hopefully a few recipes posts this week!

Adding this picture just for fun and because seeing my Macy, her little sister Ellie, their parents, the ladies who I get to serve on Total Woman U with, and my Slidell church family was the highlight of my month and so good for my soul!

Overnight Oats

You know how I have all those weird seasonal food aversions? No soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, or hot coffee unless it's cold out. No watermelon, or any melons for that matter, unless it's hot out. I also kind of feel this way about oatmeal. I LOVE a bowl of warm cozy oatmeal in the fall and winter, but I'm not a huge fan in the summer. 

I kept seeing cold overnight oatmeal on Pinterest. I didn't buy into it at first because I thought the texture might be weird and most recipes called for chia seeds, which freaked me out a little. Chia pets. Chair seeds. They are the same things. I'm not a picky eater, but that made me hesitant. Since then I've discovered it's normal and okay to eat chia seeds. I'm not scared of them, but still haven't tried them. Apparently they are really good for pregnant women. One day when/if I get pregnant, I'll add chia seeds to my oats. For now I'll save my self a trip to a health food store. 

All that to say, try these! You don't have to have the fancy chia seeds. My pregnant friend made them first (with chia seeds) and highly recommended them to me. We have similar food likes, so I trusted her recommendation. I'm in love! I got obsessed and game up with EIGHT flavor combinations. I'm gonna work on a pumpkin version next week. This is one thing that will not be a seasonal food. I love them for summer to take the place of hot oatmeal, but I love them so much I will definitely eat them year round. 

Base Recipe:

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats (NOT the instant kind)
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup non fat Greek vanilla yogurt

Directions: 

Pour yogurt, oats and milk in a pint sized mason jar. Shake it until all ingredients are combined. At this point your jar will be about 3/4ths full. 

Add your toppings of choice, and shake until mixed. You may have to shake a little extra for some toppings. If it's not combining well, stir in the toppings to combine all ingredients. 

Refrigerate overnight. I made four at once and they were good up to 4 days. I don't think I'd go more than 4 or 5 days because fruit and non-fat yogurt can produce excess water.

For pretty presentation you can save out tiny bits of your toppings to garnish the tops. 

Each base recipe is 7 points on Weight Watchers. Extra points for different topping combinations are listed below. 

Peach Melba

• 2 small nectarines (or peaches) diced
• 2 tablespoons raspberry jam

Add 2 points for jam.

Peaches and Cream

• 2 small nectarines (or peaches) diced
• dash of cinnamon
• drizzle of honey

Add 1 point for honey.

Strawberry Banana

• 1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the slices, then quartered the slices)
• 2 tablespoons strawberry jam

Add 2 points for jam.

Banana Nutella

• 1 medium banana, diced (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
• 1 tablespoon Nutella (one really is enough, Nutella is SWEET)

Add 3 points for Nutella.

Banana Peanut Butter

• 1 medium banana, diced  (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
• 1 tablespoon reduced calorie peanut butter (2 if you like more)
• drizzle of honey

Add 2 points for 1 tablespoon of peanut butter + 1/2 teaspoon of honey.

Banana Chocolate (for those who like chocolate, but not Nutella)

• 1 medium banana, diced  (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 packet of Splenda

No extra points! 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder is zero. According to recipe builder you'd count the points for bananas in recipes, but I say if they're free as a snack they are free as a topping!

Banana Nut

• 1 medium banana, diced  (I sliced it, halved the sliced, then quartered the slices)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts

Add 2 points for honey and how every many points for the nuts you choose. 

Apple and Cinnamon

• 1 apple, diced
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Parkay spray butter

Saute diced apple with a little Parkay spray butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar until they loose a tiny bit of their crispness. Add 1 point for brown sugar.

Stir into base recipe. Shake to combine completely. 

Meal Planning 101: Week Oops (14)

Oh Julie (my blog's name)... I know. You're right. I know. It's been too long. Over a month. Okay, almost two months. I know I should be ashamed. I -am- ashamed. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? What if I told you that since July 4th (my last post) I've been in a wedding, packed up an apartment, moved back into my new/old apartment, unpacked an entire apartment worth of stuff accumulated over the last at least six years, visited family out of town, went through two weeks of RD training eating frozen things, went through ten days of RA training that lasted from 8:00 am until at least midnight, usually later every day while eating provided things, made so many burlap and cloth flowers my hands almost fell off, got a massage because the stress knots on my back were so bad they made my hands go numb, had two panic attacks, a couple of emotional break downs, a dad frequently in the hospital and a mom in the hospital twice, and went at least a whole month with no more than six hours of sleep a night? Could you maybe forgive me then?? What if I also added that my lack of meal planning and healthy cooking and posting hurt me as much as it hurt you?! It's true. Girl to girl I knew that one would get you. No girl would ever wish weight gain on another girl! 

My apologies that you had to experience that conversation between Julie and I. She was mad. She had a right to be. We had it out and now we're good. It's just real. Flaws, weight gain, lost motivation, busyness, crazy panic attack/emotional break down moments. It's real. 

Other things are real too. Found motivation! It's real. Knowing yourself well enough to know that meal planning, OCD grocery shopping, blog post organizing, and cans of pumpkin actually do bring you motivation and make you happy, that's real too. I'm so happy to be typing right now! I don't even care that that huge paragraph written to my inanimate blog that I affectionately named Julie was ridiculous and cheesy and over the top, because it feels good to be typing in this white and orange box. I missed you blog, typing, readers, recipes, cooking, prep work, meal plans. I missed you a bunch! This reunion is sweet. 

You know what else is sweet? Hot tea. Literally and figuratively because I like mine with two spoons of sugar. In our absence I discovered I like it. I do believe the reason I never liked it before was because I hadn't had England's best tea, PG Tips. We're pretty close now and I'm happy about that. 

Now that I got all my excessive typing and words out of the way, let's get to business shall we? A meal plan! I missed many things about cooking and meal planning, but one thing in particular. Meal prep! I was so happy to cut up my bundles of green onions and find the new perfect bottle to store them in. (Remember my favorite trick to never let green onions go bad?)

Sunday:

Crock Pot Apple BBQ Chicken, Perfect Brown Rice, and Not So Fried Okra with Spicy Scallion Dipping Sauce

Monday:

Leftover Apple BBQ Chicken

Tuesday:

Leftover something because I'm making a somewhat time consuming dessert for a premature fall party/birthday celebration the next morning. 

Wednesday:

Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes and Crock Pot Roasted Veggies

Thursday:

Leftover Sloppy Joes & Veggies

Friday:

Lazy Spaghetti, Tomato Bread, and a tomato heavy salad that will resemble this one but with some lettuce mixed in.

Saturday:

Leftover Pasta

Extras:

Make Ahead Healthy Breakfast Sandwiches - I used ham and bacon. Can't wait to eat these all week! Post coming soon.

Pumpkin Fluff Dip - To dip apples and grapes in. Back on the healthy food way of life! This means healthy snacks. I also made fat free ranch dips to dip cucumbers, celery, baby tomatoes, and carrot chips in. I'll probably blog this pumpkin dip too since it was my first can of pumpkin for the season!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding - Minus the raisins. Making this for my friend's birthday and premature fall celebration party along with Caramel Sauce and Pumpkin Whipped Cream.

Proof! This was Sunday night's planned meal made on Sunday night. The Not So Fried Okra was a disappointment! I really want to be able to like okra in other ways that aren't fried or fake fried and coated in cornmeal. These were broiled and I hoped that meant no slime, but it didn't. The sauce was yummy though! 

DIY Surf Spray

I'm interrupting the flow of food posts, to bring you a far more rare kind of post, but just as fun. DIY! I usually get DIY inspired in the fall and winter months, but this summer DIY project totally rekindled my love for all things DIY. I was so DIY inspired that I had to draw a pretty chalk sketch to go with my creation. 

Once upon a time on a beach trip in some year I don't remember, I recall thinking that I loved the way my hair got wavy after some combination of ocean water, sand, and too much sun that surely burned my freckled skin. 

Years passed, and post college (when I stopped cutting my hair way shorter than I ever should have cut it) I discovered surf spray. Herbal Essence used to make it. It was in a blue bottle and you had to shake it before every use. I stocked up on two bottles every time I ran out. I remember when my Walmart stopped selling it. I panicked and then discovered Herbal Essence had a section of their website that told you what stores sold the products you wanted. I found it at Walgreens! I stocked up and then they discontinued it. I tried other products, but nothing was ever the same. My hair hasn't seen beach waves since. Until today!

I pinned this DIY recipe for surf spray long ago, not having super high hopes. I got a hair cut Tuesday and then saw this adorable hair style on Pinterest. I knew I could do it with my hair as is, but couldn't help think of how much cuter it would be with beach waves. Then I began to long for beach waves. Which then lead me to add Epsom salt and hair gel to my shopping list. 

I doubled my recipe and altered it a bit from the Pinterest one. What I'm posting are the products and amounts I used. If you don't plan on using it as often as I do, you might want to do less like the Pinterest one did. Also, you'll notice I slightly decreased the amount of hair gel (she says four squirts for the smaller batch, but in the comments when someone asks how much each squirt was she says tablespoons) and added the Surf Hair stuff. I LOVE this stuff. It's my go to product. I like it better than any gel or hairspray. When I curl my hair, I run Surf Hair through it and it holds way better than any hairspray AND with a soft bouncy hold. It also helps keep my bangs in place. Knowing how great that product was, I wanted to add it to my concoction.

Ingredients: 

• 6 teaspoons Epsom salt ($2.98 for a HUGE bag at Walmart)
• 7 tablespoons water-based hair gel (one that smells good!)
• 1 tablespoon Garnier Fructis Surf Hair Texture Paste (optional)
• 8 ounces of water

Directions: 

You can add all the ingredients to the bottle you want to use and shake, but I feel like I have more shaking power and control with a Mason jar and also less spills. I added all ingredients to the jar. I added slightly warm water to help the mixing process. Shake shake shake. If you use Surf Hair, it doesn't like to mix quite as well. I had to whisk it in and break it up, then shake more. I used a funnel to fill my bottle. 

Look! Perfect, messy beachy wavy curls! I am certain I'll have to make another batch of this next week. Use it on damp hair for best results. You can also spray it on your roots for some lift and use it for touch ups on dry hair. Be sure to shake before each use.

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken

I know I'm a posting maniac in the last two days, BUT I know most of you have the day off today for the holiday! So either you're cooking and ideas are helpful or your relaxing and have some spare time. What better to do in your spare time than catch up on blog reading and meal plan? Thus you need reading material, ideas, and inspiration. Also... I'm trying to get to my 100th post! On the post I'll announce changes to the blog and other fun things. This is the 95th in case you were wondering. :) 

This recipe has quickly become one of my favorites. You know I don't repeat recipes often. I usually wait at least 3 months to cycle things back around, unless I absolutely LOVE them. Well this one has been repeated! It's so stinking easy and soooo good if you like spicy things. Three ingredients! AND you don't have to thaw anything. 

Ingredients: 

• 3 lb bag of frozen chicken breasts
• 1 bottle of buffalo sauce (I usually use Frank's but I got this Texas Pete one for free from an RA and loved it just as much)
• 1 packet of dry ranch mix

Directions: 

Add chicken to a large crock pot. Sprinkle with ranch seasoning. Pour over hot sauce. Cook on low for 6 - 7 hours. Remove chicken from crock pot, leaving sauce in. Shred chicken with a fork and add back to crock pot. Cook on low for 30 minutes to an hour. 

That's it! I like to serve mine on some nice rolls or buns. I used onion rolls this time and they were YUMMY! I made a batch of healthy ranch dressing using 1 packet of dry ranch, 1 cup of non fat Greek yogurt, and 1/2 cup of skim milk (1/3 a cup is 2 points and I used much less than that) to spread on the buns. I topped each sandwich with julienned celery, matchstick carrots, and some reduced calorie blue cheese crumbles. 

This makes 8 good sized servings at 4 points per serving, not including bread or toppings. 

Summer Holiday Foods

Tomorrow is July 4th! I always say I'm not patriotic. Don't hear me wrong. I'm VERY happy and thankful for my country and freedom, my dad's a vet! I'm not anti-patriotism at all. I just don't consider myself patriotic. But somehow... I subconsciously wore red and/or blue yesterday and today! And all I can think about is BBQ and watermelon. 

If you're like me and only have the one day off in the middle of the week, you might not have made any big plans. Therefore you might not feel BBQing a whole lot of meat (and your grill might be broken like mine). Or maybe you want to eat a healthier holiday meal! I made this meal a couple of weeks ago and when I ate it, it made me think of summer holidays. It was so good and so fresh. So if you haven't planned what you'll eat tomorrow yet (or if you just need some meal planning inspiration for any summer day), be inspired! 

Easy! Thaw some frozen tilapia fillets. Spray each fillet with a little olive oil cooking spray. Salt and pepper each side, heavy on the freshly cracked black pepper. Slice a lime or two into rounds and bake with the fish. Squeeze a couple lime halves over the fillets. Bake at 375 for 14-17 minutes. Serve with lime wedges, garnish with some fresh cilantro. An average sized tilapia fillet (4 oz) is 3 points cooked. Lime, seasonings, herbs, and lightly sprayed olive oil cooking spray are all zero. Healthy and so yummy.

So easy. So fancy. So yummy. This would be EVEN better with grilled corn. I roasted mine in the oven since the grill is broken. Butter is not healthy, but corn is! One medium ear of corn is 2 points. And you only need a little pad of compound butter per ear of corn, which I estimate to be about a half of a tablespoon. 1/2 tablespoon of butter is 1 point. So a whole ear is 3, not bad for this treat!

Compound butters can be anything! They are so fun to make and slicing into your compound butter will make you feel like a real chef. Let some butter sit at room temperature. I did less than a 1/2 stick because it was just for me and my leftovers. You can do a whole stick and it keeps for a long time. It can also be frozen. I mixed finely chopped cilantro and scallion, softened butter, a little cracked black pepper, and some lime zest. Place your mixed butter blob onto some plastic wrap. Wrap it up and shape it into a little log. Chill until hardened or until you're ready to use.

And then this! My very first quinoa experience. I loved it! This was a perfect first dish to try quinoa in. I used her recipe exactly except I used a normal quinoa, not tricolor, I added a chopped avocado, and I used roasted corn instead of raw. Quinoa is a super food! It's really good for you and actually a grain.

If you're gonna use paper plates, use happy festive ones! Even if you won't just be staying cool at home and have a holiday gathering to go to, I promise your friends and family won't hate you if you come with any of these dishes in hand. Happy 4th! Eat some watermelon and watch some fireworks.

Meal Planning 101: Week 13

I'll keep it short and sweet! Meal plan and weekend recap because I know you love it when I force my life on you in the midst of food posts. 

Babies! I got to hang out with my best friend (and fellow bridesmaid) and her baby this weekend! Alice is the sweetest baby ever and I couldn't take enough pictures of her. She does this adorable thing where she hides her face when she eats. Just like a little Southern lady, always trying to look proper.

Finally bought a Roo Cup! 25 cent refills here I come. Why don't they make a Diet Coke Icee?! 

I've been a bridesmaid a whole lot. This rehearsal dinner was some of the best rehearsal dinner food I've ever had! No food pictures, but we were pretty. (My fellow bridesmaids said I looked like Belle! As in Beauty and the Beast, best compliment ever. She's totally my favorite Disney Princess.)

I love my friends! Was so happy to be part of Molly's big day.

AND I decided I want to become a person who has painted nails often. They were painted for the weddings, and I just loved it, like I always do. So I stocked up on some fun colors at a Payless BOGO sale. I peeled off all the weekend one while antsy yesterday at a meeting, but then painted them last night! I like this commitment.

Now the food. Still eating veggies with every meal! They are never ending but I'm totally not complaining.

Monday:

Leftover Edamame Rice and Veggie Stirfry with Rotisserie Chicken (from Walmart - I cheated! Was a tiring weekend and didn't want to cook.)

Tuesday:

Baked Chicken and Dumplings Casserole and Stewed Squash

Wednesday:

Leftovers

Thursday

Slim Potato Casserole and Grilled Ham, Cheese, Chip and Pickle Sandwiches

Friday:

Leftovers

Saturday:

Chili Con Queso Pasta Bake and Nanny's Salad (My best friends' grandmother's salad. Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, mayo - I use fat free, and Italian dressing all tossed together. Simple but I love it!)

Sunday:

Leftovers

For lunch and breakfast this week, I'm obsessed with jars. I got some wide mouth pint mason jars and they are perfect for the popular Overnight Oats cold oatmeal concoctions for breakfast and jar side salads for lunch.