Yukon Gold and Sweet Potato Au Gratin

I bought  a big bag of Yukon gold potatoes at Costco last week so Im trying to use them before they grow eyes. While searching FoodGawker for Potato recipes I found this yummy looking Sweet Potato and Yukon Gold Gratin, which is PERFECT because I also had a large sweet potato that I had yet to decide what to do with. Of course this recipe uses heavy cream and major cheese, to things I dont do. To revamp this into a healthier recipe I used Fat Free Half and Half instead of Heavy Cream, and I Low Fat Margarin instead of butter (and I only did about 2 tablespoons). I also used Mozzarella cheese and only about a cup (not packed like they say). Overall yes it is still a cheesey potato concoction, but it’s not too bad for you, especially if you watch your serving size. I also think this will keep pretty well to take for lunches over the week.

Thin sliced potatoes soak in water

Layer Potatoes and cheese

Sprinkle each layer with salt and seasonings

Pour boiling garlic cream over layers. Bake!

Let cool and enjoy!

******************************************************************************************************

HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:

Weight Watchers Eggnog

******************************************************************************************************

I LOVE KALE

Its true! I do love Kale! I can’t believe I havent been eating this in EVERYTHING! I had never really had kale before making this soup a couple weeks ago, and now Im on my third batch of it! I think it tastes WAAAAY better than steamed spinach and its uber healthy:

Nutritional value

Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties and is anti-inflammatory.^[2]

Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium. Because of its high vitamin K content, patients taking anti-coagulants such as warfarin are encouraged to avoid this food since it increases the vitamin K concentration in the blood, which is what the drugs are often attempting to lower.

Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties.^[3]

Tonight I made a pretty stinkin yummy pasta dish. Pasta is always a bit dangerous, who doesnt want to sit and eat a giant plat of alfredo? We switched to Whole Wheat a long time ago, but now its important to watch quantity too. A serving of pasta looks like this:

See thats not very much, sure isnt a whole plateful is it?

Tonight’s dish was Whole Wheat pasta topped with Chicken Garlic Kale cream sauce. Well not very much cream, just enough. Basically I sautéed Onions, mushrooms, garlic in EVOO. Added some shredded Rotisserie chicken (we buy one of these about once a week and it last about 5-7 days) and steamed Kale. I then poured in about 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and 3/4 cup Fat Free 1/2 and 1/2. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Pour over pasta…yum.

******************************************************************************************************

HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:

Weight Watchers Baked Potato Latkes

******************************************************************************************************

Almost 60 baby!

Weigh in went splendid! Except that I was starving (oh come on like you dont hold off eating until after your weigh-ins!) and its “Holiday Talk” time so all we did was talk about Holiday food traditions…drool. Anyways I felt like I had a pretty good week, but it was nice to step on the scale and see…

-2.8lbs!

Holla! That puts me 57.8 lbs lost! That my friend is most definitely 60lbs naked! Im very pleased with this.

In other news I really think I might wanna do the Denver Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day. Its a 4 mile walk at 10:30 am and I think it would be the perfect pre-meal activity so I dont feel bad about all the yummy food I will be having! Who else wants to do this with me?

******************************************************************************************************

HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:

Low Fat Green Bean Casserole

******************************************************************************************************

Low Fat Turkey Meatloaf Muffins

I’ve been wanting to make these for so long, but APPARENTLY The Biggest Losers promotion of Jennie O Extra Lean ground turkey has wiped it all off the shelves. Im not even joking I have probably checked 5 different grocery stores in the past two weeks and all of them were out! I mean they even had the empty spot for it but no actual product…lame. You have to be careful too because you might see the LEAN and think thats what you want, but the LEAN has 8 grams of fat and they EXTRA LEAN only has 1.5, thats a big difference my friend so read the label!

Anyways portion control is HUGE when losing weight so these Meatloaf Muffins are a great way to limit the amount on your plate, plus who doesnt like a muffin, meat or otherwise? So the recipe I used is based on this one, only I nixed the cheese cube and added onions, so ignore the nutrition info unless you follow that one exactly. I also made both Garlic butter Acorn Squash and Brown Sugar Acorn squash and salad of course! It was nice warm comfort food.

******************************************************************************************************

HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:

Vegan Pumpkin Bites

******************************************************************************************************

Sunday Groceries

Groceries upon groceries were purchased today. We tried out Sprouts and my overall opinion is that its EXACTLY like Sunflower Market, only its 20 minutes form my house unlike SFM which is 5 minutes. Lots of yummy favorites for making soups and stir fry and salads. Lots of veggies, lots of fruit. Some new things too! Just some pictures of what we got (many new recipes will be posted this week, I promise):

This will be going in a Thai Coconut Shrimp soup

I have a few recipes that call for this, we'll see.

BEST fish breading!

.5 grams of fat, 110 calories, 8 grams of fiber for one Pita! HOLY COW!!!!!

Pomegranate Frozen Waffles on sale for 99 cents!

Extra Lean Turkey, only 4 grams of fat.

The perfect chip fix.

******************************************************************************************************

HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:

Spice-Roasted Butternut Squash and Onions

******************************************************************************************************

Babies, Dresses, Cake…Oh My!

Just wanted to share some pics from my weekend. Friday night Mr. Gaunt and paid bills and organized our finances, then we went down to the Castle ROck outlet mall to hunt for some long sleeve shirts. We made a little stop at Banana Republic Outlet where I tried on some of their clearance summer dresses. It was kind of exciting because I kind of wear a smaller size now (please note slight tummy bulge that would prevent me from actually buying any of these dresses) Im really excited for the next 20lbs to come off!

Yesterday Pro and I went to a friends baby shower (yes we are at that age where EVERYONE is getting married and having babies) which was fun, I made a little rain mobile and we got to color and baby onesies and eat yummy Pumpkin spice cake that Pro made! A good time had by all!

Today Mr. Gaunt and I are gonna do some cleaning and then look through some cook books and then go grocery shopping. Im excited because were gonna hit up Sprouts which is kind of a discount organic food store that suppose to be amazing! Ill let you know how it goes. Oh and I leave you with pics of my baby mobile:

******************************************************************************************************

HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:

Light Chex Party Mix

******************************************************************************************************