Recipe: BBQ Chicken "Pizza" (THM S)

Ahhhh it's Friday. 

Each week have been trying to do family movie night and we do home made pizzas. I buy or prepare dough for the kids and my husband and I would make speedy thin crust pizza for myself. 

But tonight I missed pizza - like real pizza. With good toppings. 

But then I thought about it and what I really missed was the idea of the convenience of takeout pizza. You order it, pick it up (or have it delivered), eat and boom - done. But then I remebered about how it made me feel after I ate it. 

And then I had an idea and decided to make something else super easy - and faster than takeout. This is something that I find I can do successfully now after being on THM for over a year. I know how good I feel when I eat "on plan" and when I eat foods that aren't I'm miserable. Both in regards to my body, mood and on that's always reflected on the scale. 

And since I did an hour long spin class tonight and have had a pretty good week eating and exercising I didn't want to blow it eating "real" pizza (which isn't a favorite of mine anyways).

So I decided to make a different type of "pizza" that I learned from Trim Healthy Mama that literally takes minutes to make. By using low carb products as a crust and toppings I am able to make a delicious concoction so I truly don't feel like I'm missing out. 

I have no idea what made me think of it but I tonight I wanted BBQ chicken pizza. So that's what I made.

I used Joseph's brand pitas which I cut I half. I microwave it for about a minute to harden it a bit and set it on the foil and get it ready for toppings.

Disclaimer: there's a recipe in the book for bbq sauce which tonight I had none of the ingredients needed so I used a low sugar bbq sauce instead. So next time I make this I will be more prepared but in a pinch this will do. 

I topped the pita halves with some red onion, roasted red peppers and took a few handfuls of rotisserie chicken tossed very lightly with the bbq sauce. I spread a small amount of sauce on the pita halves and added the chopped up toppings.

To finish, I used Mexican blended cheeses and mozzarella. Bake in oven for about 4-5 minutes at 400 degrees.

OH-EM-GEEE

This was seriously SO good. I added a few handfuls of spinach as a side salad with some balsamic dressing and it was just perfect!

Yum. 

For THM this version would be an S because of the cheese and the dressing I used. If you used less cheese it could be FP- especially if you use Mrs.Criddles Kitchen's recipe for bbq sauce which can be found here: http://mrscriddleskitchen.com/thm-bbq-sauce/

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Now, off to watch the movie :)

~Carly

 

Motivate Me Monday - 2/23/2015

Hello!

It's been a great Monday here. I hope your week is off to a great start, too!

Sometimes I need to read or see something presented or explained in a different or unique way to make it click. 

That's exactly what happened today when I saw what a friend on Facebook posted:

Click, right? How great is that. We are given this one body and this one life so why treat it with anything less than 100% respect?!?

I'm totally motivated to get and stay on track with my health and wellness goals and seeing this today just adds another level of motivation.

~Carly

Dreamy Sandwich

Hello!

I have to admit I had every intention of posting in December about being on the Trim Healthy Mama plan for a year but as always my good intentions fell to the wayside - but I'm still here, still on plan and still under my first goal weight and heading towards ultimate goal weight! Buuuuut - with holiday indulgences, a few parties and a vacation to Florida and Disney in January I've strayed a bit but am fully back on track now.  I've gained an lost the same 3-5 lbs but I'm ready to kick it to the curb for good.

Today I'm sharing my favorite sandwich - and yes it's dreamy. For real.

All you need are two slices of Ezekiel bread, spinach, your choice of protein, laughing cow cheese wedge in your choice of flavor and veggies you enjoy. You can make this warm or cold but I've been loving my concoction warm since its been like Antarctica here in Connecticut.

On this sandwich is 1-2 wedges of laughing cow garlic and herb, a handful of baby spinach, roasted red peppers and thin sliced deli chicken. I stuff it all in between the two slices of bread and put it on my George Foreman grille and make a panini style sandwich out of it.

It's really tasty. This is an E meal if you follow THM. If I'm still hungry I will eat it with some cucumber slices as my "chips" or slice up some apple. You could also pair it with any other E fruits including melon, berries or a small orange if you'd like. 

Mmmmm - it's a dreamy sandwich.

Enjoy!

~Carly

Motivate Me Monday - 11/24/2014

Ahhh Mondays. I love Mondays. I see them as a fresh start to the week. There's that long running joke about always starting a diet on Monday.  

Fortunately I can cross that one off my list since I've found Trim Healthy Mama and I've made a permanent lifestyle change. Next month - actually just a few weeks now - will be one year on the plan and I'll post a full and detailed update there but for now I'm the closest to my "ultimate" goal weight as I've been since pre-pregnancy. The first pregnancy.  It's crazy.  And, it is truly hard to believe because it's been a long journey.

So for today's motivation - I say to you and to myself:

I will persist until I succeed. 

Image found via Pinterest

Because if I can do it, any one can. And I'm so close to my goal!

~Carly

Recipe: Chai Shrinker

Hello! Happy Wednesday! 

It's about that time of day I need a little pick me up to get through the afternoon but also keep my hunger in check so I don't get the afternoon pre-dinner munchies. 

Since being on THM I love the shrinker and good girl moonshine (and some variations). 

So one day I decided to play around with the shrinker when I was craving chai.

This may or may not be created yet in the THM world with so many awesome ladies out there making recipes and tweaking things - so here's my recipe:

1 quart mason jar filled with boiling water 2/3 of the way to the top

3 prince of peace oolong tea bags

2 spiced chai tea bags at trader joes

1/4 tsp cinnamon 

A shake or two of nu nu naturals or 3-5 packets of truvia or sweetener of choice

1/4 cup almond milk - I like ton use unsweetened vanilla

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

Optional - cayenne pepper to taste (which I don't use but is called for in the original shrinker recipe)

Directions:

Brew tea bags until cooled but while warm ads cinnamon to help dissolve

add in other ingredients and fill reminding space in jar with ice. Cover and shake - then enjoy!

~Carly

Recipe: Apple Cake

Hello!  Long time, no post (again).

Anywhooo - Fall as arrived and we took full advantage this past weekend and went to Pumpkintown, USA here in Connecticut followed by some apple picking.

I scored some white pumpkins at the farm and then this week I found a cute "Give Thanks" sign at Target to enhance our family room decor - which can totally apply to both Halloween and Thanksgiving. Multitasking!  The leaves and foliage are really starting to come out and I'm loving Fall - in case you couldn't already tell.

My Fall Mantle - not done yet!

If you've visited here before, you may know I'm following the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating and I have had some great success lately after some pounds creeped back on over the summer and vacation in August.

I'm happy to be back on track and at an almost all time low weight and smaller inch-wise after I finished a three week Fuel Cycle.  I'm happy to report that I'm currently wearing today a pair of true pre-pregnancy pants - cute capri pants I haven't worn since ohhhh 2007 maybe?! I'm SO happy to see my efforts on the scale and in my clothing and how things are fitting!

However, this post is a recipe post so I'll post a full and detailed re-cap on that soon enough to share with you.

Onto the apple recipe!

I came across this recipe from Julia's Album somewhere (Facebook or Pinterest maybe? I get around...the Internet...hah!) and decided I needed to use up some of these fresh apples we picked.

I modified it to my THM guidelines and this would be considered an E (Energizing) dessert or snack.
So again, not my recipe but tweaked for my purposes!

Apple Cake - THM version
This recipe could also be gluten free if you use certified gluten free oat flour or grind your own gluten free oats!  The apple sauce and greek  yogurt make this cake very tasty and light!  

Ingredients:

• 3 medium apples, peeled, cored, and chopped into chunks
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar (NOTE: you can use a THM version of Gwen's brown sugar but I used a tiny bit of real brown sugar but it's up to you!) 
• 1 and 1/4 cup oat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup on plan sweetner - I used a combination of Truvia and pure stevia extract (original recipe called for 1 cup regular sugar)
• 1/2 cup apple sauce (original called for oil)
• 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 egg whites (original recipe called for 2 eggs)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and also grease a square pan - 9 by 9 or 8 by 8 is good

2.  In one bowl combine chopped apple pieces and cinamon and your choice of brown sugar - real or THM version. 

3. In another larger mixing bowl, combine oat flour, baking powder and salt.

Half the batter and half the apples

4. In yet another bowl - sorry for all the dirty dishes we are creating! - whisk together the sweetner of your choice, apple sauce, yogurt, egg whites and vanilla extract until combined. 

5. Add the dry items into the wet ingredients and combine completely - don't over mix!

6. Take about half the batter and pour into greased pan and take half the apple chunks and pour on that.  Then, layer on the rest of the other half of the batter and then top again with the other half of the apples. 

7.  Bake for one hour.

It smells soooo deelish in my house right now!  I can't wait to eat this recipe!  And a food blogger I clearly am not so I do apologize since as I am baking I'm all "oh hey, I should snap some pictures."

Finished baking!  Yummm

A food blogger wanna be I am - hot and fresh apple cake!

Wow, this does not disappoint!  It's warm, apple cakey goodness.  A must-make for sure!

Enjoy!
~Carly

Motivate Me Monday - 9/22/2014

Happy Monday!

I am always looking for some extra motivation and I always seem to come across the right type when I need it. 

Getting back on track (more like staying on track!) with exercise and diet has been my focus for awhile. I had a minor set back from our short vacation - up a few pounds that seemed to not want to go away without some major fighting!

But I won and am currently on week 3 of a Trim Healthy Mama fuel cycle and loving it.  So, here's my motivation and I hope it inspires you too:

You can't go back. You can only go forward. 

Made a mistake? No worries - just continue forward! 

~Carly