Eggs and Peppers with a Twist! Pinterest Experiment Number One

I'm like every other Pinterest enthusiast; I've been building a vast collection of wonderful recipes and projects, and have big plans to give all of them a try!  One of my criteria for "pinning" a recipe is that it must be fairly simple, with a minimum of ingredients.  This is because, in case I haven't told you, I'm not a big fan of cooking.  Eating, on the other hand?  I'm an Olympian in that department.    Anyway, back to recipes and Pinterest.  A while ago I saw a recipe for eggs cooked inside bell pepper rings and it looked like it fit my criteria, so I pinned it and finally got around to giving it a try.  First, let me give a shout-out to my family for graciously agreeing to be my guinea pigs.

This is a photo of the finished product:

And this is how I did it:
As appealing as the original recipe looked, it seemed to me that it might be even better if I added a little touch of cheddar cheese and bacon...since almost everything is better with cheddar cheese and bacon added to it.  First I sliced the pepper rings about 1/4" thick, and cleaned all the seeds and white insides out.  Then I sauteed them for a few seconds on each side in a hot skillet that I had sprayed with Pam.

                                      
 I broke eggs into each of the rings and cooked them until they were set, then carefully flipped them over.  You can see from the photo that I had a little problem cutting the pepper rings completely straight, so the egg white escaped under the edges, but we didn't lose sleep over that.

Now, this is where the twist comes in.  I put about a tablespoon of Hormel real bacon bits on the eggs, and then topped each egg with 1/4 slice of cheddar cheese.

The cheese got nice and warm, but didn't melt completely, so I put the eggs into the microwave for about 10 seconds, long enough for the cheese to finish melting.

The bacon and cheese added a little extra flavor and protein, so I only served it with some sliced kiwi and a biscuit.  Now, the best news about this dish is the calorie count!  The  bacon bits are only 25 calories per tablespoon, and the cheese was 90 calories per slice, but I quartered the slices so each egg only had about 23 calories worth of cheese.  The total calorie count for one serving (2 egg rings) only came to 236.  Of course that doesn't include the calories for that biscuit, but you could easily substitute a slice or two of low calorie toasted bread.

The family gave this dish a rating of two enthusiastic thumbs up, so I'm happy to say Pinterest experiment number one was a success!

Chicken Fiesta Soup and the New Weight Watchers

I am no stranger to dieting. I've tried almost every weight management strategy known to man, with a few notable exceptions. I say "almost", because there are a few diet strategies I have steadfastly refused to try. Among those are the placement of bands in locations where bands do not naturally occur, the stapling of any portion of my body (including my ears), and the surgical bypassing of certain portions of my digestive tract that God felt were important enough that they should not be bypassed.

Pretty short list, huh? Well, now you get the picture. Like so many, I have struggled with my weight for most of my adult life. I've tried Atkins (in which I discovered I'm not really all that crazy about meat anyway), Sugar Busters (lasted about 2 hours), the Carbohydrate Addicts diet (yes, I'll willingly admit I'm a carb addict...next!), the hot dog and boiled egg diet (which came with it's own unique set of side effects), and the colon cleanse (trust me, you'd really rather I didn't blog about that one).

Twenty-five years ago, needing to drop about 25 lbs, I decided to go with a friend to a Weight Watchers meeting. The meetings were held in the fellowship hall of an Episcopal church, and were led by a sweet lady by the name of Mildred, who would begin each meeting by introducing herself and telling her story. Mildred had lost 125 lbs on Weight Watchers. Sometimes she would bring her "before" photos, and sometimes she would bring a pair of slacks that she wore pre-Weight Watchers. She could fit her entire post Weight-Watchers self in one leg of those slacks. Mildred was very inspirational. I never got tired of hearing her tell her story, and I also loved hearing her say, at every single meeting, that we could have a hamburger from Burger King and stay on plan.

It became my routine to go to my Weight Watchers meeting each Tuesday night (always wearing the same outfit, because I knew how much it weighed). After the meeting, I would drive through the Burger King on the way home and treat myself to a Whopper. Within about 4 months I had lost that 25 lbs, plus a few more, and had won the coveted Lifetime membership. With that membership came a gold "key to the future", and a little plastic card to carry in my wallet. I'll always remember that night, because I was so gratified by my accomplishment, but also for the little extra tidbit of info that Mildred provided in that meeting. As always, she encouraged the members to treat themselves to that Burger King burger, but, for the first time, she followed that comment with, "Not a Whopper, though....just a regular hamburger!" Really???? Oops. The very next month I discovered that I was expecting my first child, and with that news, I stopped going to my meetings. I did not, however, give up those Burger King Whoppers.

So.....twenty-five years later, and carrying almost double what I needed to lose the first time, I decided to take the plunge and give Weight Watchers another try. I'd lost my key to the future, but had managed to hang on to that plastic card, so I whipped that baby out and proudly showed it to the cute little girl who was handling registration. As it turned out, my little card created quite the stir. The Weight Watchers ladies had never seen a card like mine, and they were quite impressed that I had managed to keep up with it all these years. I briefly pondered the possibility of loaning it to the Smithsonian, but decided that I would rather use it to save myself the thirty dollar registration fee.

Like so many things, the 21st century Weight Watchers is new and improved. It revolves around a point system, which is really simple to follow, especially with a nifty little points calculator. The meetings are led by a cute, bubbly lady by the name of Kristi, who has lost 82 lbs and gone from a size 18 to a size 2. I haven't seen Kristi's pre-Weight Watchers slacks yet, but I have seen her "before" photos, which are very inspirational. I've been listening intently for some mention of Burger King, but so far have heard nothing. I'll tell you this, though. One of the first things out of Kristi's mouth at that first meeting was, "If you want a Krispy Kreme doughnut, have yourself a Krispy Kreme doughnut....5 points". Wonder if that's for a regular glazed doughnut, or an eclair? Oh yeah. I think I'm going to like it here.

I've been Weight Watching for 2 weeks now, and have lost 5.5 of the 43 lbs. I'm hoping to shed.

One of my family's new favorite foods is Weight Watcher's Chicken Fiesta Soup. I triple this recipe and freeze it. Indulge yourself!

Weight Watchers Chicken Fiesta Soup

1 can fat free low sodium chicken broth
1 10 oz. can chicken, or 5 chicken tenders, boiled and chopped
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
2 cans whole kernel corn
1/2 lb 2% Velveeta

Mix first 5 ingredients and heat until boiling. Reduce heat, and add cubed cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.

1 cup = 1 point