Deliciousness

I follow quite a few blogs having to do with WLS (See the list of blogs I love on the side).  The Shrinking Titan is one.  Tony has been incredibly successful with his surgery.  I love his outlook on life and I love following him on FB.  (Side note - he is a GENIUS at Excel, too).  He recently posted a recipe for peanut butter crepes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese.  No offense to my DH - but Good Lord - I think I love this man.

Here is a picture of his nomalicous creation

And here is a link to the post on his site for the recipe.

I plan on making this ASAP.  I am positive it will give my taste buds a major party in my mouth.

Adjusting

So it does appear as though I hit on something with the lactose intolerance stuff. I have avoided all things dairy and when I haven't been able to avoid those things I have taken a fast acting lactaid pill. I have not gotten sick yet. Yeah! So while I am disappointed to have developed this lactose intolerance, I am very excited to know what the problem is so that I can address it.

I have tried chocolate Silk and that is pretty good. Plain Silk - not so much. Lactaid milk is OK - kind of sweet actually. Just trying to figure out what I can do to replace my milk obsession.

I was playing around with recipes in the kitchen again today. I made up one today that came out pretty good. I'm not sure what to call it, so for now I am going with Pam's Chicken and Pasta.

I took 3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts and put them in the crock pot this morning with a jar of spaghetti sauce and let that cook all day. When I got home from work I cooked up a box of Barilla Plus penne pasta. When that was done I put it in a casserole dish. Then I turned to the chicken - it was so tender that it shredded. I shredded it and mixed it with the pasta sauce and then spread that on top of the penne. On top of that I put some mozzerella cheese and baked it at 350 for about 15 minutes. It would be great with a side salad and some garlic bread. It got a thumbs up from my family.

I have been having a hard time seeing the difference in myself while I am loosing all this weight. So tonight I pulled out a before and a current picture to put side by side and see if I see a difference. What do you think?

Another New Recipe

So I was thinking about what I could bring to the Super Bowl party at my mom's tonight that I could have and enjoy, but that others would enjoy as well. I came up with something I have decided to call Enchilada Dip. I'm not married to that name - so if you find something else please feel free to make suggestions.

First I put 3 large chicken breasts in the crockpot this morning with a box of chicken stock and an envelope of taco mix. I cooked them all day in the crock pot. When they were done the chicken just shredded - it was so yummy.

So I took the shredded chicken and put that at the bottom of a small baking dish. Then I layered a can of refried beans on top of that. On top of the beans I layered fat free sour cream. And on top of the sour cream I layered some Kraft Mexican Cheese. I put the baking dish in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes.

I liked just scooping out some of the dip and eating it as is, but I also had some Scoops tortilla chips and a lot of people were using those to eat the dip. I imagine it would be good on some tortilla shells, too.

More Experimenting In the Kitchen

OK - I don't experiment in the kitchen. I don't. I find a recipe - I stick to it. It had better be easy and have like 6 ingredients or less or I don't even attempt it.

But I have been experimenting lately. Today I wanted to make like a chicken salad that I could eat. I started out with a package of Tysons premium white chunk chicken. I threw it in the food processor with some lemon juice, some lemon pepper seasoning, and some fat free miracle whip. You could do it without the food processor - but I'm still in pureed food stage - so I zapped it. The lemon pepper gave it a kick - nice. It tasted fine that way, but then on a whim I added some shredded cheddar cheese (cause cheese makes everything better in my book). So you can have it with or without. I think tonight I might heat it up in the microwave - that would be yummy, too.

I didn't put any measurements on this cause I didn't measure anything. I put the lemon juice in because I need it to stay moist for Kanga right now. I would do the lemon pepper to taste - as little or as much kick as you want. I would say I put about 2 tablespoons of miracle whip in - again - I need it to be moist - you may not want as much. I just put a handful of cheese in. It was really yummy.

Some Sense of Normalcy

I was able to have dinner with my family tonight. I know that doesn't sound like such a big deal, but it is to me. Since surgery I have not been able to eat anything that my family is eating. But today I made a roast in the crock pot. It was the perfect day for a roast in the crock pot being stuck at home and the snow falling and such. By about 5:30 the smell in the house was to die for! So after serving my family I took about 2 forkfuls of roast and used my Pampered Chef chopper on it to get it ground up real good. So I ate those two forkfuls and 2 forkfuls of mashed potatoes - and that was dinner! Yeah!

I did something different with the roast this time. I had found a fantastic recipe by Shelly on Eggface for a crock pot pot roast. But being stuck in the house I didn't have exactly all of the ingredients she listed. So I improvised. I'm not usually an improviser in the kitchen, but according to my family it came out pretty good!

I put the pot roast in the crock pot and I covered it with a can of cream of mushroom soup. Then I took a package of Lipton's onion soup mix and emptied it on top of the roast and soup - without mixing it in. I didn't have any white wine - so I put vodka in instead. Go ahead - laugh - I did. Vodka? Seriously? It sounded good at the time. I cooked it all day in the crock pot - it smelled delicious and my whole family really liked it. I served it with mashed potatoes and some baby carrots (cause my kids love those). So I have now dubbed this Pam's Vodka Pot Roast.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I kill myself.

Food Obsession v2.0

So I was warned that I would still be obsessed with food after WLS - only in a different way. That was so right. I am now obsessed with recipes - finding different ways to make what I can eat - making sure it's high in protein, low in carbs and fat, but full of flavor. It is a new kind of obsession.

Fortunately, there are many others out there who share my obsession. I have found so many sites that have such great recipes. Tonight I had Shelly's Baked Ricotta. I got this wonderful recipe (follow the link) from a website by Eggface. She is a wonder with the food. One word for tonight's dinner - YUM! I also got some tips from her site on how to make refried beans. I'm not a refried beans kinda girl, but after putting some in the food processor with some fat free sour cream, cheddar, and some juice from salsa - then cooked up in the oven, I was lovin' life! I also have found a lot of recipes at Before & After Help. They have a whole section on WLS friendly recipes.

Now that I have moved on to pureed foods I have really gotten to find out how much Roo Kanga can hold - and let me tell you - it's not much. I had the baked Ricotta tonight - 4 spoonfuls and I think the last spoonful was too much. I can't fit anymore in there. Earlier tonight I drank some milk too fast - that came right back up. Kanga is letting me know just who is boss.

I continue to lose weight - 2 more pounds since my doctor's visit earlier this week. I wore a pair of pants today that haven't fit in a while. It's like shopping in my own closet! YEAH ME!