Recipe Bonanza

Days Until the Wedding: 67
Pounds lost: 12

Happy Tuesday friends! What a rough couple days it has been.  I spent most of yesterday resting and napping and sleeping and I feel 100 times better than I have in about a week.  Since I've skipped a bunch of days, this post is going to seem rather long....but hope you read the whole thing because it is packed with some good recipes!

Friday: 

I started my morning with a Egg White Delight from McDonald's (300 Calories).  I substitute the Canadian Bacon for regular bacon because I think it tastes better that way.  

For lunch I had some leftover Turkey and Quinoa stuffed Acorn Squash of which I couldn't even finish 303 Calores (recipe).

For dinner, Tony and I didn't feel like cooking, so we decided to go out.  I had a craving for a local spot called Village Tavern and Grill.  Every Wednesday and Friday nights they have an 'All You Can Eat Fish Fry' for $9.95.  It definitely isn't the healthiest thing to eat, but let me tell you, the 45 minute wait was worth it. This place is always packed on the weekends and for good reason! Just because it is all you can eat doesn't mean I had plate after plate.  In fact, all I could eat was about about 3/4 of the plate, if even that.  I still had 2 pieces of fish, at least half the french fries and one hush puppy leftover.  My meal also came with a bowl of corn chowder....clocking in my dinner at 610 Calories

The roundup:

1213 Calories Eaten / 0 Calories burned / 3201 Steps taken

Saturday:

Tony and I woke up early and I made breakfast of our leftovers.  We reheated my fish and his chicken tenders in the oven and I made hash browns of the leftover fries.  YES. Save your leftover fries people! Here is how I make them:

---

French Fry Hash Browns:

You'll need:

• Leftover french fries
• Green Pepper (optional)
• Onion

1. Dice up your French fries, green peppers and onions separately

2. Saute your onions with a little oil until translucent

3. Add the peppers and saute for a couple min with the onions until slightly soft

4.  Add your diced french fries to the pan and heat until desired crispness and serve.

---

My breakfast clocked in at about 321 Calories

We took a trip to the grocery store to stock up the kitchen and get the ingredients for the highly anticipated ...

---

Lumpia Shanghai (Shanghai Egg Rolls) 

Stop drooling.

You'll Need:

• 1 Package spring roll wrappers (30 wrappers/package)
• 1 lb ground pork 
• 1/2 Package of shredded carrots minced
• 4 Green onions minced
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• Black pepper to taste 
• Oil for frying

Directions

1. Place the pork, minced carrots, minced green onions, eggs, soy sauce and black pepper in a bowl.  Mix with your hands until well combined.  Chill the mixture in the fridge while you separate the wrappers. 
2. Carefully separate the wrappers layer by later so they are no longer stuck together, cover with a damp towel to keep from drying out. 
3. Spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoons of filling  on to the wrapper and spread into a thin line. 
4. Roll up your wrapper and seal the edges with water
5. Heat a large pan with about 1 inch of frying oil to about medium-high.  You can test the oil by putting a wood chopstick or  small piece of the wrapper into the oil and you should see tiny bubble form around it.
6. Place egg rolls in the pan seam side down.  Don't crowd the pan to ensure even cooking.  My pan was large so I was able to fit 6-7 egg rolls.  
7. Fry until golden brown, turning half way to ensure even cooking.  This take about 2-3 min per side depending on your oil temperature.  Be sure not to have your oil too high or the outside will cook faster than the inside. 
8. Drain the egg rolls standing up in a paper towel lined strainer
9. Once cooled cut in thirds with a knife or scissors
10. Serve with sweet chili or sweet and sour sauce 

These are the wrappers I used

Make sure you mince them up, so your lumpia has a good texture!

Here is the big bottle of soy sauce we bought.  Tony doesn't believe that we will actually use all this...

This is what my bowl looks like for a double batch (notice 4 eggs)

Get in there and mix it up good!

It should resemble something like this....

I have my rolling station 

Your wrapper and filling should look like this... you then fold the bottom corner up, the sides in and roll until you get to the top point.  

Dab your hand into the water, and spread on the top corner of the wrapper to help seal it.

Here is your completed roll.

Shallow frying egg rolls

Turn half way through cook time to make sure they're evenly cooked

Drain them standing up so the oil can pass through the bottom

I find using a pair of scissors is the easiest way to cut you long rolls into thirds

My favorite dipping sauce

Enjoy!

Estimating with the frying oil, these are about 40 calories a piece.  Which isn't half bad! Good luck only eating a few though...

---

Later that afternoon my cousin and I went to Ulta and I picked up a couple items that I will be sharing in a future blog.  I haven't had time to even open what I bought!  

I took Tony to a place near my parent's house called Pita Inn.  They have really good Mediterranean food...Like one of my favorite "fast food" places in the area.  We both got the Beef shwarma sandwich, a falafel and shared a side of baba ganouj.  This was the first time Tony had been there and he wasn't too impressed at first.  Then he tried the falafel and loved it.  It's probably the best falafel I've ever had, and many of my friends and family say it's the best in the area.  I'd like to try making baked falafel in the future, I've saved some recipes for it on my Pinterest.  In all our dinner cost me 693 calories.

We went over to our friend's house on Saturday evening to watch the UFC fight (which was disappointing) but we had a good time with friends.  I over indulged a little on snack food, but not too worried about it.  

Saturday round up:

1893 Calories eaten (Ouch) / 463 Calories burned / 7698 Steps taken

Sunday

We stayed over at Jen & Ryan's and enjoyed some home made waffles with them and the kids.  We tried to leave, but Snowpocalypse 2015 already started.  As many of you know some parts of the Chicagoland area got over 20 inches of snow clock in at the 5th largest blizzard we've had in 20 years.  Needless to say, we finally made it home at about 3pm after a painful 2 hour drive accross the treacherous expressways.  

Unfortunately due to the snow storm we all decided to stay home instead of attending a planned Superbowl party at a friend's house.  Tony dug out the walk ways when we got home while I fried up another batch of egg rolls and made a frozen pizza and called it a night. 

Sunday Round up:

1207 Calories eaten / 47 Calories burned / 2990 Steps taken

Monday

As you all know it was kind of a snow day for us here.  I initially drove to work in the morning despite the conditions (The roads and my terrible cold) and ended up taking half a sick day to rest. 

When I got home I decided to whip up a batch of Arroz Caldo (Filipino Rice Soup).  The recipe I referenced is here, but I improvised  because I didn't necessarily have all the ingredients and I've made it before so I know how I like it.  Estimated at about 346 calories for 2 cups.

So warm and cozy

Tony made dinner tonight also.  He cooked us up some Turkey Sausage and Peppers in the crock pot and we ate it over spaghetti squash.  All he did was throw a jar of pre-made sauce, the sausage and cut up peppers and onions in the crock pot and let it cook on low all day, or about 8-10 hours.  Here is our favorite way to prepare our spaghetti squash from Laura Vitale.  She rocks! A delicious dinner for 413 Calories.

So yummy and so easy!

We were craving dessert and I had seen some recipes for a "3-2-1" mug cake on Pinterest.  

---

3-2-1 Mug Cake

Here's what you need: 

1 Box Angel Food cake mix

1 Box ANY other cake mix (We used funfetti)

Water

That's it! 

mmm cake

Here's what you do:

1. Pour the dry mix from both boxes into a zip lock bag and shake it up until its well combined.  Keep this mix in this or another air tight container for future cakes. 
2. Grab mug and put 3 tablespoons of the cake mixture into it with 2 tablespoons of water and mix it up
3. Cook it in the microwave for 1 minute and voila! You have yourself a mini cake

You can eat this right out of the mug or invert it on to a plate.  I topped mine with 1 tsp of chocolate frosting (22 Calories).  According to MyFitnessPal this mug cake clocks in at 128 Calories making this dessert 148 Calories! Amazing

Monday roundup: 

1099 calories eaten / 98 calories burned / 3641 steps taken

---

So I was pretty worried about weekend weight because I splurged a little here and there.  My aunt posted this article  entitled "How Much Weight Can You Gain From One Day of Terrible Eating?"

I'm not saying I can splurge all the time, but I was surprised to find this out:

"It’s virtually impossible to gain weight overnight, even if you really blew it on bar food," says Cassetty. "The reason comes down to calorie math. Though it’s not 100% precise, the basic principle stands true: In order to gain weight, you’d have to eat 3,500 more calories than you typically eat and burn off to maintain your figure." So let’s say you eat 2,000 calories per day on a normal day. You’d have to eat 3,500 additionall calories, totaling 5,500 calories, to gain a single pound. And that's not even taking any physical activity into account."

So really, when you splurge don't sweat it.  Or do sweat it, and make sure you are burning off those additional calories! The most important thing to do is to stay aware and stay motivated! Keep your eyes on your ultimate goal and remember your health depends on it!

Question of the Day: What’s the biggest personal change you’ve ever made?

I think mine would be this. My dedication to being healthier and happier.

Catch you all tomorrow!

xo Mandie