Happy Spring Break, Y'all! If you're like me, you haven't gotten a genuine spring break in a long time. Luckily, I get more off time than most when I don't have regular classes in the summer but my spring break this year is interrupted by another class in Birmingham that I picked up. Having said that, I do get a slight break the next few days so I'm going to try and take advantage of that. I hope you all get a chance to relax as soon as possible.
Happy Belated Anniversary to Ian. We celebrated last week. We've been official on Facebook for four years now and we are still going strong. We complement each other well and I'm excited to see where the future leads us.
Happy Belated Birthday to my Aunt Brenda! I hope you had a wonderful day!
One of my favorite holidays is happening on Saturday. I can't wait to wear green and be silly with my friends!
Happy Early Easter! Can you believe we are only a little over two weeks away from a visit from the Easter Bunny?! The year is already flying by.
Speaking of time passing by super fast, I am steadily working on my book. It's going to be featured on a panel at Book Expo in NYC at the end of May and so I'm rigorously working on editing, etc. 50/50 Press is revealing the covers for their upcoming titles on March 22nd at 7PM. That's when you'll see what my book is going to look like! I'm over the moon to be involved in this process and I can't thank 50/50 enough for treating me so well. They are awesome! The book should be out in October so keep a look out for announcements.
Over the past several weeks, I've been trying the new Weight Watchers Freestyle program. I've tried pretty much every version of Weight Watchers so I thought I'd try that one out. So far, I've managed to dig up some of my old will power. That combined with the fact that I think this is the most manageable version of Weight Watchers they've ever come up with, has meant that I have had some weight loss success in the past few weeks. I've lost a little over four pounds. I'm happy with this but trying not to get trapped in the numbers and obsession like I have in the past. This particular program allows some wiggle room. It provides balance. If I know I'm going to have cocktails or a heavy meal, I can eat a super light lunch. I still have about 4 pounds left to finally get off the Christmas weight but I like the direction I'm headed. Because WW allows certain foods like chicken, black beans and corn for "free" for the first time, I'm eating a lot of chicken. I'm big on variety and chicken can get boring so I've made several variations of chicken recipes the past few weeks. I've gone back to some oldies making Chicken Tortilla Soup and then also my Chicken Cauliflower "Fried" Rice. These are healthy, filling and easy dishes to whip up. They also have a lot of flavor.
I also made Stuffed Chicken. The chicken was seasoned, butterflied, stuffed with spinach and mozzarella and then rolled up. Once it was rolled, it was coated in panko bread crumbs and baked. I didn't add any fat other than cheese. I sprayed the bottom of the dish with non-stick cooking spray. It was tasty and even just adding a cheese element made it a bit more interesting.
The French Onion Chicken concoction I grabbed from Pinterest was a fan favorite. We caramelized the onions with balsamic vinegar and chicken broth for a long time. Once it was done, we sautéed the chicken the same way and then combined it all together. We added ultra thin sliced provolone at the end and baked it in the skillet until it was bubbly. I served mine with an Everything Bagel Thin but it could go with anything. The million onions (and garlic and balsamic and salt and pepper) made it SUPER flavorful and the chicken ended up tender. It was a good time. If you have any unique chicken recipes, let me know! Otherwise, have a wonderful March and I will get back to you in April! Roll Tide!
