Binging

So I had a bit of a binge last night. Something about staying up late makes me craves sweets soooo bad. Which in it's self is kind of strange because I really don't have a sweet tooth. I have the exact opposite, a tooth that makes me regret eating sweets. Despite the pain the is involved in eating sweets, I for some reason decided to clean up my christmas candy by eating it. It wasn't a whole lot just some malted milk balls and few mini snickers. My point is though I need to get to the bottom of my impulse eating. I am a admitted boredom eater, I need to find something to do after my baby goes to bed to keep myself busy and out of the sweets. I have made plans to go back to college, so maybe all that homework will be the boredom fix I need. Hopefully I will not feel the need to snack while I am doing my homework. Today I will share a recipe that fixes the sweet craving but is very easy to portion control and adds a shot of calcium. I have adapted these from an old cheesecake recipe.

Mini Cheesecakes 
You will need a mini muffin pan, which can be found at any cooking specialty store
Makes 48 mini cheese cakes.


Half a package of vanilla wafers
2 (8oz)Packages of cream cheese, you can use the reduced fat kind if you want
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can of fruit pie filling (I really liked these with blueberries)

*Preheat the oven to 350F. Line mini muffin pans (tassie pans) with mini paper liners
*Crush the vanilla wafers till very fine and put a 1/2 teaspoon of the crushed wafers in to each muffin cup and pack down.
*Beat cream cheese,sugar,eggs and vanilla together till smooth. Make sure there are no lump of the cheese cakes wont come out right.
*Fill each muffin cup with the cream cheese mixture almost to the top. Its is easier to use 2 normal spoons to scoop and scrape the mixture in to the cups.
*Bake for 15 minutes, cool for 30 minutes and then place in the fridge for at least an hour.
*Before serving spoon a little of the fruit filling on top of each mini cheese cake.

Makes 12 servings at about 150 calories per serving.

I love to make these they are so easy and I am often asked to bring them to brunches and parties. I am sure those of you who are good with cheese cakes could make many varieties of these.

Sweet Potato Fries

This is just about my favorite side dish. I can put this with anything, chicken, steak, burgers or fish. I have adapted my own recipe from many times of trying different things.

2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/8 teaspoon red pepper/cayenne
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 425F. Put sweet potato wedges into a bowl. Toss with oil and spices until very well coated. Spread onto non-stick baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 25 minutes of until crisp on out side but tender when poked with a fork. Makes 4 servings at about 80 calories per serving.
These are much lower in sodium than any of the frozen prepackaged ones you will pick up in the store. Hope you enjoy eating healthy-happy!

Treating Myself

I have recognized that one of my biggest eating problems is the constant need to treat myself when I have done something "good." Problem is now I treat myself for things that should be done anyways, like cleaning my house. If I spend the whole day working on cleaning my house I treat myself that night by getting a pizza/chinese/fast food or going to a restaurant so I do not have to cook, since I worked so hard that day. Why am I rewarding myself for something that should just be done? I asked myself that and came to the conclusion that it is because I am part of the instant gratification generation. We(I) like to see my the fruits of my labor as soon as "my labor" is done. I also realized that I will not be able to see the results right way as I go through this lifestyle change. I will not be able to see each pound I loose. I might notice my jeans fitting looser after I loose 10 pounds but I won't actually see any results until I have lost a substantial amount of weight.

This time when I reach my weight loss goal I will not "reward" myself by binging on a bowl of ice cream or going to celebrate at a restaurant and ordering a massive bowl of pasta. That, I have realized, is not a reward because it undoes everything I worked so hard for. This time I will reward my self by keeping up with my life-style change and staying healthy, since that is the real reward.

Now to share my first healthy-happy recipe with my readers, I got this one out of the Cook This, Not That book of 350 calorie meals.

Oven Fried Chicken; 310 calories per serving

Takes between 1 1/2 hours and 12 1/2 prep (depending on how long you marinate the chicken)

Makes 4 servings

2 Cups Buttermilk

1/4 Cup Franks Red Hot Sauce(This sounds like a lot but its balanced out by the buttermilk)

1lb chicken drumsticks and thighs

2 Cups Panko breading

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon red pepper

*Combine buttermilk and hot sauce in a zip lock bag. Add chicken to bag and shake to coat. Put in the fridge to marinate at least 1 hour up to 12 hours.

*Preheat oven to 450F. In a bowl combine breading and spices.Working with one piece at a time take chicken from buttermilk mixture and dip in to breading and coat completely. Its a good idea to use one hand for the wet chicken and one hand for the dry breading processes, its a little less messy.

*Place breaded chicken on a non-stick baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on the outside and cooked through.

I put this together with (baked) sweet potato fries and some fresh snap peas and it was an awesome dinner.It was much more tender and moist compared to KFC and it tasted just as good, if not better!