Experimenting Fun

Happy Friday, er, weekend all!  I am so excited for the LONG weekend because we have a bunch of fun birthday stuff planned (well, if the weather doesn’t rain buckets).  I started my weekend off early this afternoon by getting out of work early, relaxing, doing a little yoga and a little experimenting with new TJ’s products and in the kitchen.

Breakfast was one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES ~ A WAFFLEWICH!

2 Kashi Strawberry Flax Protein Waffles

1 Tbsp Crunchy Almond Butte

1 Tbsp Organic Apricot Preserves

1 small banana

It is worth ALL 7 pts and kept me going all morning.

I LOVE it when you are super busy (even on a Friday) because time flies by.  I had a working lunch so I could head out of the office early today.  I continued in my quest to clear out our freezer and pulled out this ALL NATURAL Asian Potsticker Healthy Choice Entree from the Freezer courtesy of Healthy Choice.  I LOVE Potstickers so I couldn’t wait to try this one out.

The stats are not too bad….The entire meal is 7 pts.

I LOVED the ingredient list and that companies are getting on board with REAL ingredients you can recognize….nothing funky.  WTG HC!

My first impression was that I LOVED seeing BIG vegetable pieces.  So many dinners claim to have vegetables, but, they don’t really have that many or they are super small.  I absolutely LOVED the potstickers ~ they were dense and chewy and their sauce is sweet plus spicy.  I honestly think I could eat an entire meal of just the potstickers plus veggies, trading in the rice 😀

I added a crisp salad with TJ’s LF Cranberry Walnut Gorgonzola dressing to round.

I was super snacky this afternoon so I decided to bust out a snack that I could totally eat a bunch of for very little points.  I am not a BIG fan of plain popcorn, so I decided to spice it up a bit.

SALTY CARAMELY CINNAMON POPCORN!!!

You can make it one of two ways.

1.  OPTION ONE

5 c air popped popcorn

1 tsp agave nectar

1/2 tsp water

dash of sea salt

sprinkles of cinnamon

Mix agave and water – drizzle over popcorn.  Add a dash of salt and sprinkles of cinnamon.

2.  OPTION TWO

Follow the above, but, use microwave Smart Butter pop and omit the sea salt.

Salty, sweet, and crunchy.  I LOVED this total random creation.  I like using agave because you use less than sugar so you don’t add any points.  If you have a mister, it could be even better.

I rounded out my snack with a LF Colby cheese while having a CSI marathon ~ awesome!

It was so nice to get off early and just relax.  I did a little YogaDownload.com Gentle Hatha Yoga, then, headed out to Trader Joe’s to pick up some dinner supplies.  I couldn’t resist picking up a few of their new items.

I LOVE their Dark Chocolate POM seeds, so I knew I had to try these, pretty much as soon as I walked in the door.  I am all about POWER BERRIES!

When I bought then I actually thought that the fruits were all separate.  I had to re-read the package to realize they were all combined.  I had 4 pieces (4 fruits LOL) ~ the flavor is hard to describe but they are pretty tasty.  Very chocolately loaded with a tart/slightly sweet fruit filling. 

I had been pondering all sorts of ideas for what to make for dinner tonight, but, nothing sounded really good.  So, I hopped on Cookinglight.com to see if anything stood out to me as a must try. 

Since I have been craving soups, I went straight to their 20/20 Soups ~ 20 Super Fast Soups in 20 minutes.

Sausage & Spinach Soup

I pretty much followed THE RECIPE, but, I added a splash of wine, doubled the spinach and added some freshly ground pepper with a pinch of crush red pepper flakes for spice.  I LOVED it and bet it will be even better the next day.

1 serving is HUGE too ~ 1 1/2 cups for 5 points.

I served it up with a TJ’s Ciabatta roll topped with light butter, garlic salt and black pepper. (3 pts)

All together it was completely warm, comforting and filling.

I am off to relax with The Husband and watch some show he is addicted to (The Jersey Shore) or something like that.

I am SOOO EXCITED for tomorrow night.  We are meeting up with my family at my ALL TIME FAVORITE sushi place to celebrate my birthday party.  I LOVE it because my sis and niece LOVE sushi too so we can get a TON of rolls to share while The Husband and everyone else will get something like teriyaki beef :D  Can’t wait, can’t wait.  I am glad to have my long run of 5 miles (hopefully) so I can make sure I have a BIG calorie deficit to enjoy with 😀

See you all late Saturday night or Sunday morning for a recap.

Nite all!