Craziness with Cheesecake & Chex

Wow the past two days have been a total whirlwind, but, in a good productive kind of way.  I am officially off work now until NEXT YEAR – yahoooo!!! 11 days off, I am only just a “little” EXCITED!  I still have a ton to do and I owe you all so many details so I think I will make it one of my goals to get caught up. 

Here is what I am thinking ~ tell me if you think I missed something or should add to the list:

* Recipes you will see coming up in this post and Christmas day (Here is a hint ~ healthy Au Gratin Potatoes, Healthy Key Lime Pie & 3 point Banana Ice Cream Cupcakes!)

* FINAL cruise recap ~ More Pictures, Our broken boat, extra stop & Miami!

*  Droid REVIEW & why I LOVE Verizon ~ I heart my phone and totally want to show you all some of the cool features for those who are pondering it.

* Springit ALL!  I want to get ALL my recipes in Spring pad for everyone!

* Anything else???  Ask away even if it isn’t anything I’ve ever mentioned, I’ll be glad to answer

Fun, right?! Hopefully I get it all done plus some.  Here we gooooooo..

TUESDAY!  Breakfast started out with my FAVORITE 1 Point bagel by Western Alternative Bagel.  I am so glad I have a NEW stock of these 😀

Nice stats, huh?!

No funky ingredients.

Roasted Onion goodness ~ they also come in Sweet Wheat, Cinnamon Spice and Blueberry!

Add 1/2 of one of these cute little Weight Watcher cups.

 

8 little cups in a package and they are completely filled up!

I rounded out my carbiness with some AMAZING blueberries and a Yoplait Berry Delight (all together breakfast was less than 5 points!)

I met The Husband for lunch and we had sandwiches from his FAVORITE place, Joe’s Buffet.  I LOVE Joe’s because they are a local shop and they make everything from scratch (roasting their own meats, making their own salads and dressings).

I started off with a crunchtastic cucumber salad.

 

Then tackled 1/2 of this BBQ Tri Tip Roast Beef Sandwich. 

 

The only way to eat this is to dip in in their homemade BBQ sauce ~ it is beyond good.

When I got home, the craziness began.  It all started out with making a TON of traditional Chex Mix to give away to my co-workers and family.  It’s sort of an expectation that I do loads of baking for the SWEET then balance it out with the Chex mix for their SALTY fix. 

The BUNNIES told me they wanted to join in the party this time, so I let them.

The snack mix got a little jealous and said next time I should use THESE instead of the BUNNIES and regular boring pretzels that are not in cute bunny shapes.  GREAT IDEA!

Our table was LOADED with 5 batches of CHEX MIX made in the MICROWAVE….Let’s be honest, if it tastes the same as the oven and only takes 6 minutes in the microwave, why would you waste your time using the oven.

 

Besides I had my VERY FIRST EVER cheesecake baking away in the oven.  Cheesecake is the bossman’s FAVORITE thing so I made this to score some brownie points.  I think i worked (RECIPE coming up this week).

Party crashers ~ LOVE those little cheddar bunnies 😀

I bagged everything up in these super cute bags I got at Target for only $0.20 cents ~ SCORE!

My FANTASTIC, AMAZING, AWESOME Husband cooked dinner for us on the grill while I baked away.   I wasn’t super hungry so I had small portions of more Tri Tip, TJ’s rganic brown rice and cheesy broccoli.  He cooked the rice and broccoli in the microwave too!

Then, I ZONKED out!  I had to wake up early TODAY so I could whip up a healthy Texas Style Breakfast casserole for our work brunch.  I used a Weight Watcher Recipe that I will post with the steps and my modifications this week too.  It was DELISH and I am pretty sure NOBODY knew it was healthy.  It disappeared!

 

Here is only part of the BRUNCH spread we had today.

I didn’t have any of these but aren’t they so freakin’ cute.

I tried a little bit of everything.

My healthy Christmas Texas Casserole!

Fancy Green Chile Spoon Bread

MY FAVORITE THING ~ SENORITAS!

Senoritas are this super soft, light airy bread that is brushed with butter and baked with sugar so that it caramelizes on the bottom ~ TOTAL LOVE!

Then, another co-worker brought out some TJ’s appetizers that I had to dig into.  Lemon Grass Chicken Roll Ups

I was impressed with the stat’s ~ I didn’t expect them to be all that good for you.  She also had coconut curry ones that were even better.

 

Plus a TJ’s Mushroom Turnover.  It was ALL delicious, but, I was super stuffed ALL day long.

We got out of work EARLY and I seriously wanted to come home and nap.  But, I was good and decided to wrap up all The Husband’s presents, plan Christmas dinner and do all the shopping.

While I was at my Weight Watcher meeting LOSING 1.6 LBS 😀 😀 😀 The Husband whipped up dinner for us.  I told him something light and he said he had it covered. (He must know Christmas is coming because this is TWO nights in a row he made dinner!)

POM CHEF SALAD!

Romaine

Cucumber

Cherry Tomatoes, halved

2 types of bell pepper

Ham and Turkey

AVOADO

POM seeds

Shaved Parmesan

Newman’s Own Lite Lime Vinaigrette

He is such the CHEF ~ DELISH!

He also made Vegetable PIZZA!

I LOVE the stats!

These taste just like pizza even though there isn’t any cheese.  I LOVE puff pastry :)  I had 4 and maybe the bonus 1 they gave us!

Ok ~ NO I DO NOT WORK FOR TRADER JOE’s ~ I just LOVE everything there.  I think I could be locked up in a TJ’s and live happily ever after LOL.  For dessert I had another AMAZING TJ’s FIND.

Have any of you ever heard of Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds?  I hadn’t!

OMG ~ I LOVE these!  They are like chocolate covered cranberries with a crunch.  The best part is they are super rich so you only need a tablespoon or two.

I give you all serious PROPS if you are still reading after that novel.  I didn’t want to miss out on sharing any of the fun with you.

I will get the recipes and reviews up as soon as I can.

Nite all!