Kickin' Hungry to the curb

I struggled a bit today with my eating habits. It was like the 8th or 9th day in a row that it rained. I mean, come on! But I made a healthy dinner of baked chicken, baked potatoes, and green beans. It was good and comfort food without being calorie filled.

For me personally, I have no problem eating a baked potato with just salt. I know others feel this is crazy and the potato is simply a canvas to be painted with butter and sour cream and bacon and cheese. But for me, I feel the potato is a stand alone food. I love them, I always have. There was a time period in my young life where I pretty much only ate potatoes (in all forms) and peanut butter sandwiches. I still feel that those two foods are fairly complete.

The chicken, on the other hand, needed a bit of help. So I dipped them in eggbeaters & threw them into a bag that had italian breadcrumbs & montreal chicken seasoning. Put them in a 9x13 inch pan sprayed with Pam and baked at 375 for 30 minutes. So yummy, so tender. Even the baby who is not really into meat enjoyed them.

And the green beans were 0 points. So 6 points for a hearty dinner. Not too shabby & certainly needed since I'd already had 6 points worth of empty snacks today! Oh, and I bought the chicken for $1.69 a pound on sale and the potatoes & green beans were from Aldi's. I think dinner cost around $5.00 for all 5 of us to eat. So yea to our budget too!

Yes, during the afternoon Hungry was working his magic on me. But with a potato in my belly I felt my resolve strengthen and decided to take him at his own game. To prepare I put on my tennis shoes. He knew something was up and put in a strong effort to stop me. Here he is trying to hold me down:


But I was bound and determined to go on my run. Hungry claimed I should stay indoors away from tree pollen (which I'm suffering from right now) and eat Hershey Kisses which are sitting in my pantry. So I gave Hungry the swift kick he deserved. Don't worry, he landed in the laundry. It's not like I wanted to hurt him, I just wanted to teach him a lesson.


I had a great run. My husband and I made a deal that he would drop me and the baby off at the playground the he would drive his truck a few miles down. Then he and the big girls would bike to the park. Once they got there, I could have my run towards the truck & drive it back to the playground to pick them all up. It worked absolutely perfectly. And since I wasn't going to have the time to do 4 miles, I just tried to run the 2 miles as fast as I could. Which for me is still slow (11 min/mile) but I felt proud and that is all that matters. I think this could become a summer evening thing to do. The baby LOVED having such a long time at the playground. I think she went down the slide 100 times.

And we topped off the evening with Kroger's Chocolate Paradise Ice Cream. Sooooo yummy. And only 2 points.

Now I'm off to the showers and then Grey's Anatomy time. Will Izzy die tonight? Will there really be a wedding? Who will end up getting married? Hmmmm???? And the most important question of all... Will Hungry force me to eat over my daily points or will I teach him yet another lesson?

Mmmmmovie Popcorn

So, today's blog is actually about popcorn. But first I have to introduce you to Hungry. He follows you around trying to get you to eat when you have no business eating. Here he is trying to get me to eat dinner way too soon. I made these Mexican pockets (only 4 points & totally yummy!) and 0 point soup (with a packet of taco seasoning in it so it matched my pockets) at 3:30 p.m. so all I had to do was warm them up for dinner. But they smelled soooooo good, and one bite won't hurt, right? I mean, I need to make sure they taste good.

At least that is what Hungry is telling me. So I told him to back off and I went and cleaned up my daughter's room FAR away from Hungry and his enticing dinner. I so DON'T need dinner at 3:30 p.m. I also had a piece of gum to keep my mouth busy. Take THAT Hungry. You sneaky monster, you.

So now to our topic:

Movie popcorn. The perfect munchy. So buttery, so salty, so flavorful. Try as you might, the light, microwave popcorn is NOT movie popcorn. I'm not knocking it. You know that you & I HAVE to snack on something and it does in a pinch. Or more often than not, it does ALL the time. I, personally, snack on it straight from the bag. I love being able to eat a huge quantity of something for so few points without counting out 14 pieces onto a pitiful little plate.

But sometimes I want my food to have taste, ya know? So tonight I came up with a genius idea. Hershey Kisses. You like where I'm going with this, eh?

Here is my Lightly Kissed Popcorn:

Step one: Pop a full bag of Pop Secret (or your 94% f.f. popcorn of choice.)

Step two: While step one is happening, line a cookie sheet with wax paper.

Step three: Unwrap 4 Hershey Kisses and put in a small bowl. When popcorn is done put the Kisses in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Step four: Dump popcorn onto wax paper. Spray lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle cinnamon, cocoa powder, and Splenda to taste. For me it's 1 packet Splenda & 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon & cocoa. Toss to coat.

Step five: Stir the Kisses which should now be melted. Spray cooking spray into the little bowl for a 5 second spray. This should give you enough oil to make the chocolate drippy. Take you spoon & quickly drizzle (or fling) the chocolate on the popcorn.

Refrigerate for about 5 minutes.

My bag made 10 cups of popcorn. Prepared this way it is 5 points for the whole 10 cups. But I never get more than 5 cups worth which is 2 points. Right now as I type this my eldest is licking the empty bowl. It really is that good.