Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie [Recipe]

It's fall y'all (aka my favorite time of year). And with the cooler temperatures comes comfort food. On Friday night when our desert temps dipped to 60 degrees, I decided to dust off my deep dish chicken pot pie recipe I found several years ago from Kraft. It's simple, looks fancy and I'm pretty positive you'll love it. I always forget how much I enjoy this dish.

I made a few slight variations to the original recipe and here's how.

WHAT YOU NEED

• 1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/4 cup KRAFT Lite Zesty Italian Dressing
• 4 oz. Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/2 cup fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter (optional)
• Salt, pepper & parsley to taste (optional)
• 1 ready-to-use frozen pie crust
• Egg wash (one egg + 2 Tbsp water)

Sautee veges in 2 Tbsp. of butter over medium low heat to soften. In a separate skillet, cook chicken in dressing in large skillet on medium heat 2 min. Add cream cheese; cook and stir until melted. Add flour; mix well. Add broth and vegetables; simmer 5 min. 

After you pour mixture into deep dish 10-inch pie plate, arrange pie crust over filling and flute edges. Cut slits in crust to allow steam to escape. Brush pie with egg wash. Bake 25-30 min. or until crust is golden brown.

The cream cheese is the secret. Enjoy.

[RECIPE] Mock Mashed Potatoes Using Cauliflower

I typically don't get home from my Skyrobics trampoline class until almost 9PM at night. I go straight from work to make it to the 7PM class. Since I am getting home so late these days, I am trying to limit my carb intake so at dinner, which resulted in me finally trying this dupe for mashed potatoes.

I saw Laura from Laura Must Lose Weight vlog her recipe and I was still skeptical when I watched it a few months ago. And if you've never tried this, then I'm sure you're going to still be skeptical after I tell you how great it was. I don't blame you. But I'll also tell you that you are missing out. This stuff is legit. I Instagrammed a photo of the mashed cauliflowers and I had a few requests for the recipe, so here you go. It's super easy to make.

You need:

1. A head of cauliflower, chopped
2. One ziploc steam bag (can be found where the oven bags are)
3. 1/2 C of cottage cheese
4. 1 clove of garlic minced
5. salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Put chopped cauliflower in ziplock steam bag and steam for 5 to 6 minutues or until soft
2. Mix all ingredients in a blender and blend untill smooth
3. Enjoy!

 

I served mine with zesty tilpia and sauteed mushrooms (I use a slight variation of that recipe). I didn't use oil for any of this, just fresh lemon and lime juice, salt, pepper and mrs. dash original seasoning. BAM.

"The Best" rolled sugar cookies with icing

Happy Halloween goblins! In the spirit of the holiday, I made some homemade Halloween sugar cookies with icing last night to take to work. I Googled "best sugar cookie" and was directed to allrecipes.com, which had a recipe for The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies.  I also found this Sugar Cookie Icing recipe, which was legit. Actually, both recipes were legit, so I'm sharing them with you today.

The Bargain Blonde's adventures in baking:

Do you love the breast cancer awareness eggs?

Bats, pumpkins and boo! shapes, oh my

Halloween Cookiepalooza

If you don't own a silicone slipmat and you ever plan on baking, I'm telling you right now that you need one in your life. They make baking so much easier. The bottom of cookies turn out perfectly every time and are so easy to transfer to cooling racks.

I baked mine for exactly 6 minutes at 400 degrees F and transferred them to cooling racks immediately after taking them out of the oven. They were the perfect chewiness. Ice after cooled. Full recipes below:

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

1.5 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Food coloring (Orange = 4 drops red + 2 drops yellow)

Anyone have any fun Halloween plans? Since I live in an apartment, I am going to my bestie Kristina's house to pass out candy because I want to see all the kiddos in their costumes.

Speaking of kiddos ... how cute is Reese in his costume for preschool on Monday? This is his "Captain America pose" he said:

Ugh, he's the cutest ever. My heart can't handle it.

My Weekend via Instagram (Baked Veggie Egg White Recipe included)

I honestly don't ever use my real camera anymore. The only photos I take are on my iPhone and then 99% of the time, they get Instagramed. BTW - I have over 1,000 Instagram followers. How did this happen?  I have no Earthly idea, but it excites me.

Friday night I saw the magical Magic Mike movie.  It was everything I dreamed about and more.  Our theater was so crazy. We were slow clapping, cheering and screaming. I loved it and felt like I was back at Thunder From Down Under.  If you haven't seen it yet, grab your besties and go immed.

The theater now sells booze and I'm not complaining. 

My BFF Liz and my gubby came with!  And my bros gf but she missed the photo sesh before the movie started.

Saturday morning my college gf Amber hosted a Stella and Dot party for me.  She has the cutest studio apartment I've ever seen. I wish I could take y'all for a tour.

Saturday evening I went to HomeGoods (exciting life) and got a new centerpiece for my dining room table. It was a Cynthia Rowley vase I found on clearance for only $10. The arrangement I put in it was also on clearance for only $10.  All in all, I thought my $20 centerpiece looked pretty good.

Then Sunday morning, Bear did this:

Y'all. I was so mad I could have killed him. I took him by the collar and put him outside for punishment.  He knew he was in trouble!  I swear I am living the real life Marley and Me with this dog.  He is so wild.

After my anger subsided, I took him to the pool with me and let him swim while I drank my coffee and caught up on my mags.

Saturday before I went shopping, I stopped at Which Wich for dinner.  To my surprise, they now have bowls aka salads and I got the Mediterranean Turkey Bowl.  It was so good. Yes, the lady went overkill on my pepper.  I love pepper though so I didn't mind.  And can we talk about banana peppers?  They may be my new favorite thing.

I loved it so much, I made my own version of a Greek salad for lunch Sunday. Spring lettuce, cucumbers (how cute are my flower cucumbers?), grape tomatoes, turkey, Kalamata olives (I die), a little bit of crumbled Feta and Parmesan garlic dressing.

I also made this deelish egg white bake on Sunday for breakfast.  I loved it so much that I'm sharing the recipe. I paired it with a toasted piece of 45 cal Sara Lee 100% whole wheat bread and 1/2 C of watermelon. Now that's what I call brunch.

I adapted a recipe I found on SkinnyTaste and here is how I made it.  It's super easy.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Chop about 1/8 C of green and white onion. Spray a small skillet with non-fat cooking spray and heat the onions over med-low heat for a few minutes.

3. Add 1/2 C of baby spinach (large stems removed) to skillet and cook until the spinach wilts. 

4. Spray a small glass baking dish or a skillet with non-fat cooking spray (my preference is the olive oil version) and put the spinach/onion mixture on the bottom.  Next crack 3 eggs whites on top of the spinach and onion.  Add a few tomatoes to the top and salt and pepper.  


5. Bake for 17 minutes and you are done!  A  clean, all-natural and delicious breakfast. Vegetarian friendly, too!

P.S. I'm linking up with S, D and L!

What I've been eating since starting Tone It Up

Today we talk food because honestly, who doesn't love to stuff their face?  If you don't, we can't be friends because I like to get down with some food.  I refuse to starve myself with gross, tasteless food, so I've found some delicious, healthy meals to help me reach my weight loss goals.


This post has all the meals I've eaten so far on this plan and they are all yummy in my tummy!  The name of each recipe links to the recipe video or web page.  As always, let me know if you have questions. I'm happy to answer!

The Tone It Up Protein Pancake with all natural honey drizzled on top.

I normally don't eat the yogurt with the protein pancake (like in the pic above), but on Saturday I just combined my breakfast and my mid-morning snack as one meal.

Normally mid morning I have 1/2 C of non-fat Greek yogurt and 1/4 cup of bluberries.  I measure it the night before so it's easy to grab out of the fridge in the morning to take to work.  If you need a crunch with your yogurt, add a sprinkle of granola or almond slivers. Goodness, granola is good.

This is my absolute favorite Tone It Up (TIU) meal and it's what I've been eating for lunch this week.  What we have here is the TIU member-submitted Black Bean Tostada recipe, but I use the Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Tortillas (bake at 350 for 10 minutes, flip over and bake another 10 to get the tortilla crispy).  I also add nitrate-free chicken slices chopped up.

If I don't eat the tostada for lunch, I'll have a big salad with low sodium turkey from my local deli, lots of veggies and balsalmic vinaigrette as the dressing.

The easiest thing for me to do as an afternoon snack is a Luna protein bar and the S'mores variety is my fave flavor!  The ThinkThin and Lara bars are some of the TIU girl's favorites.  I'll drink some Green Tea with it if I'm feeling frisky.

For dinner I've switched between ground turkey and quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), chicken or tilapia with veggies or a side salad.

Mrs. Dash skillet baked chicken and baked green beans flavored with Mrs. Dash.  Mrs. Dash is salt-free and a fave of the TIU girls. 

I grilled chicken kabobs on the grill with veggies last Saturday. I just marinated the chicken with a healthy oil-based dressing for a few hours in the fridge, cut it up and added chicken and sliced veges to kabob sticks.  I also grilled green beans and mushrooms in a foil packed with a little olive oil and Mrs. Dash.  Easy and good!

Zesty Tilapia and mushrooms!  The recipe calls for some dried mushroom I've never heard of and didn't care to look up, so I just use regular button mushrooms and it's deelish.  This tilapia is SO easy and SO GOOD. Seriously, out of this world.  The recipe also calls for butter, so use olive oil instead.  

Quinoa (keen-wa) and ground turkey stuffed tomatoes. I kinda made the recipe up so if you don't love it, sorry!  Preheat oven to 350.  Cut the tops off of 8 to 10 large red tomatoes and scoop the insides out.  Brown 1 lb of lean ground turkey with mushrooms, chopped onion and minced garlic.  Add 2 low-sodium taco seasoning packets to flavor the turkey once it's browned (I used an all-natural seasoning packed I found).  While your ground turkey is browning, cook one cup of quinoa according to package instructions.   Combine the quinoa and ground turkey.  Place the tomatoes in a glass caseerole dish and fill with the mixture. Add about a 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the casserole dish (steams the mushrooms while baking).  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. If you want to add cheese to the tops, take out 5 minutes early, sprinkle cheese and bake the last 5 minutes. I don't eat dairy in the evening so I don't use cheese, but it's a good addition. 

If you are like, "What the hizzle is quinoa?", don't fret. I didn't know what it was either, but it is cooked just like rice, but it is actually a seed and not a grain.  It's super healthy for you and the TIU girls highly recommend it on the diet plan.

Your turn.  What are your favorite healthy meals?! Share them below.


p.s. I WILL have Friday Favorites tomorrow and you can link-up.

The "Tone It Up" plan and me

I first stumbled across the Tone It Up girls, Katrina and Karena, via Pinterest months ago.  Wouldn't these toned bishes catch your eye too?

I followed the link to their Web site and saw that these perfectly sculpted ladies had a blog, nutrition tips, printable workouts, and lots of YouTube work-out and nutritional videos.  A lot of their stuff is free, but it you want their comprehensive diet and fitness plan including recipes, workouts and a 7-day slimdown, you've gots to pay.  You can choose between the original plan, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, gluten-free vegetarian or pescatarian and it will cost you $149.99.  Go to their site to read more about the pricing and what you get for your money.  

I was mesmerized by how perfect they looked, but didn't think much about it again until very recently.  You see, I'm completely out of shape and that's putting it nicely.

Simply put, I'm fat. I'm not saying this so you can tell me, "You are not fat. You are beautiful."  I don't need to hear that. I don't want to hear that.  No, I don't need to be craned lifted from my bed every morning, but I'm unhealthy, it's not cute, I'm not happy with body and it is time to do something about it.

Prior to committing to the Tone It Up plan, I stumbled across another girl on Pinterest named Laura who blogs/vlogs about her weight loss.  I spent hours watching her body transformation videos and started following her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.  She is truly an inspiration and has a blog Laura Must Lose Weight if you want to check it out.

via

Girlfrand is brave because she puts it ALL out there.  We're talking filming a YouTube video in nothing but her bra and panties at her heaviest weight of 195.   As much as I'd love to be able to show you my transformation, you will not be seeing me in my bra and panties. Ever. Laura covered that one for us thank the Lord.  

Anywho ...


What I like most about the TIU girls and Laura is they are all about clean, healthy eating and working-out. None of it is a quick fix. It's not a fad diet.  It's about avoiding processed foods and eating balanced meals of carbs (yes, you eat carbs, but at the right time of day and the right portions), lean proteins and lots of fruits and veges!  You also eat fats, but good fats like fat from olives, olive oil and avocados.  You even can sneak in a few glasses of red wine a couple times a week if you like to hit the bottle.

The plan is so sensible.  It's not an extreme diet that inevitably sets you up to fail (i.e. cabbage soup diet, Atkins, egg white diet, etc.).  On the TIU nutrition plan, you eat five meals a day, you drink lots of water, you work-out and you have an entire online community of TIU members who are there to encourage and hold you accountable.  Hence, if you follow me on Instagram/Twitter, you have seen me blowing up your news feed with pictures of healthy meals.  These are called "check-ins" and that's what every member of the TIU community does on the daily.

Now you know more about the TIU plan and why I've decided to do it.  I am in no way associated with TIU or Laura. I simply stumbled across them and was compelled to make a life change.  With that being said, there are a few changes I've already made that are easy changes any of you can incorporate into your lives if you are looking to become healthier versions of your already fabulous selves.  Tomorrow I'll blog about those and some recipes that are easy to make and yummy!

It's only been a little over a week since I started TIU, but I'm extremely committed and determined.  I lost about 3 lbs last week.  Even if you don't have weight to lose, this plan could still benefit you.  The girls implore you to be TONED, not "skinny soft".  I'm an ex-gymnast so I can co-sign. I have muscles and as much as I'd love to, I'll never have the build of a super model.  Even if I starved myself.

So there you have it; my take on the Tone It Up plan.  I'd love to talk more about it with any of you, just leave your questions in the comments.

Recipe: Baked Summer Squash and Tomatoes

Ello!  I hope y'all enjoyed your extra long Memorial Day weekend.  Long weekends are the best, but going back to work after one of them is the worst.  Am I right or am I right?  However, the good news is that we now have a short work week, so yay to that.  

My cousin drove to Dallas from Houston Saturday morning and stayed with me this weekend.  Saturday we went to the lake, Sunday we took it easy and yesterday after brunch I insisted we go to my local Farmer's Market because it's been on my "to-do" list forever. 

Here are pictures from the market and a recipe for Baked Summer Squash and Tomatoes, which I made yesterday evening for dinner.  So fresh, so good and so easy. 

My cousin Sierra is in the white pants although you can barely see her.

The tomatoes were enormous, a gorge deep red and perfectly ripe.  There is no way I would ever find that kind of produce at my local grocery store.

blackberries, peppers and strawberries

I didn't even notice the wall of coffee beans and tea until I went to check out.  The clerk ringing me up said the Country Special Blend variety was their best seller and so I got half a pound of it.  I brewed a cup of it this morning and the flavors were magical.  

Call me crazy, but there is something fun about taking your produce home in a box.  I left with a cucumber, corn, avocados, new potatoes, eight ball squash, jam, coffee and those jumbo tomatoes.

Sitting pretty in my kitchen. 

I knew I wanted to bake the squash, so I took to Google. I combined a few ideas I found online to make the recipe I'm sharing below.  I loved it so much, I will be making it again this week and all summer long for that matter.  I used eight ball squash, but you could make this with the longer, Italian squash as well.  

Do you visit your local farmer's market?  What's your favorite way to cook squash?

The Bargain Blonde's Raspberry Champagne Spritzer Recipe

I wanted a champagne spritzer recipe for a bridal shower I was throwing a few months ago, so I took to Google to start my search.  I found one by Top Chef hosts Padma Lakshmi & Tom Colicchio, which I have now simplified and IMHO, perfected.  I have served this at a bridal shower, two Stella and Dot parties last week and at a BBQ at my humble abode.  Not one person, male or female, hasn't been obsessed with it.

I have had several requests from my readers for the recipe, which I actually mentioned in last week's Bachelorette Viewing Party Recap post.  The recipe was included under the picture of the spritzer, so it seems it may have been easy to miss.  Regardless, I love the recipe so much I thought it deserved it's own post.

Try this refreshing spritzer next time you have friends over and they'll think you're all kinds of fancy serving it.  Little will they know how easy it is to whip up.

Last week I was asked if the spritzer was really minty and I personally don't think so. I'm not a huge mint fan (I can't stomach mojitos), but it gives it a really nice, balanced flavor.  Try it and see if you like it because I bet you will. If you absolutely don't like the flavor, then omit it.  I am not responsible for any champagne hangovers.