Happy Clover Day all!!! I have to say I officially redeemed myself with tonight’s dinner of Corned Beef and Cabbage, but, I can’t take all the credit. Trader Joe’s saved me with their Spiced Up Pre-Marinated Corned Beef Brisket.
All I had to do this morning was take it out of the package, cover with beef broth and cook on low in the crockpot all day long. EASY!
I have to admit I was a little leary after my experience last night, but, tonight did NOT disappoint on that all. I guess I should tell you all how my day went down first before I get to the IRISH stuff 😀
I think I LOVE St. Patty’s day because it’s the one time of year I get to wear this cool “Go Green” shirt 😀
It’s the little things….On my way into work, I brought The Husband Starbuck’s again so I could have one 😀 Grande FF Latte with caramel drizzle on top (2.5 pts).
Plus a Double Chocolate VitaTop with Kettle Cashew Butter Frosting (3 pts). I can’t describe to you how good this was ~ you just HAVE to try it 🙂
I am on a mission to get 110% back on track with my eats beginning today. My co-worker offered up a FANTASTIC TJ’s Blueberry scone to me, but, I refrained from downing it since it was 8 points,. I took a bite and saved the rest for The Husband. Along with it I had some “banana chips” (1 pt) and a Cabot LF Cheese (these are 1 pt too!)
Lunch today was at one of my favorite places in downtown Napa, Gillwood’s Cafe. I LOVE their menu because you can pretty much get everything there from breakfast to fancy dishes and everything I’ve tried is tasty.
I had an awesome Grilled Chicken Salad with Apples, Walnuts and Fat Free Raspberry Vinaigrette on the side (7 pt estimate) ~ it was so fresh tasting! (not bad for a cell phone pic, huh?)
Tonight was my WI and I gained .6 lbs ~ I honestly think it was probably earned with my antics yesterday and I am ok with it. I pretty much just broke even with the loss I had last week LOL. Our meeting was all about portion control and I actually learned a few new uses for my SCALE. Did you all know you can “TARE” after each food item you put on your plate. You know like measure your chicken, then, TARE, then measure your potatoes? All this time I used different plates each time 😀 Oops. I also learned that you can measure your salad dressing as your pour it on versus using a Tablespoon ~ I NEED to try this.
We all received samples of their new 1 point bars ~ Chocolate CARAMEL Pretzel Blast.
Usually I avoid the Weight Watcher Bars in all honestly because of the ingredient list first (lots of things I can’t pronounce or recognize), but, also because I am left still hungry after eating them.
Now THIS BAR is worth every bad ingredient in it! OMG – it’s like a candy bar ~ chocolate peanut butter, peanuts, caramel, pretzels…..AMAZING! Weight Watchers definitely got the flavors right here, now if they could just work on that ingredient list it would be perfect!
I was pretty excited to get home and work on our Irish Celebration. Because I am a dork and because I am NOT Irish at all that I know of (am I mom? LOL), I wanted to have a little shindig (is there an Irish Term for party?).
I took the Corned Beef out of the crockpot, shredded it and put it in the oven to keep warm.
I drained the broth through a strainer, then, returned the broth to the crock pot and added the chopped cabbage to let it steam for about 20 minutes.
I whipped out my MANDOLIN SLICER to slice up some potatoes with peppers and onion to cook as a side.
I LOVE this MANDOLIN SLICER because it slices everything evenly and super thin. You simply hook it onto your bowl and go to town. You can use or skip the safety glide too.
Perfect potatoes.
Plus “onion rings”” and bell peppers
You can easily slice everything up in a few minutes! This entire dish took maybe 5 minutes to thinly slice 5 potatoes, 1/2 an onion and 2 bell pepper halves. I know that the SwissMar Borner V-Slicer might be pricey for some, but, I honestly feel it’s worth every penny. I have also included a less expensive Quick Slice Mandolin that works great too. I don’t own this particular quick slice, but, I highly recommend a Mandolin Slicer. I use it all the time for vegetables in salad, cucumber salads and Healthy Au Gratin Potatoes.
I added 1 1/2 Tbsp of Olive Oil to my nonstick pan and “fried” them up with a little garlic salt and pepper. 1/4 of the pan is 4 points.
Can you believe I actually LOVED the Corned Beef and Cabbage? It tastes just like Pastrami and the broth gives the cabbage such great flavor ~ who knew that I’d LOVE being Irish today. The Husband said I redeemed myself and now he doesn’t have to go to McDonald’s for dinner – ha! I went back for another serving of cabbage while The Husband ate like 1 lb of Corned Beef LOL.
All together with The Husband’s decorating touches ~ “Lucky Charms”!
I think dessert might be a HEALTHY BANANA SUNDAE while The Husband has his late night “Irish Snack” (LOVE his shirt – he’s funny!)
I am off to spend a little quality time with my March REAL SIMPLE Magazine! I’ll be sure to post a review of what I like for you all.
Night all!
I am digging the shirts! And I think we have the same mandolin, LOL. Dinner looks good :o) I also LOVE that you call banana slices “chips”
mmmm, those ww bars look good. I once went with with my friend to one of her meetings, where I managed to purchase the entire “store” – the pretzel thins, these chocolate peanut butter bars…and I don’t remember what else. Mmm, they were good…but, I ate them all in a day! hahahaha You should have seen me when I went with my other friend to jenny craig meeting – they sell these cheeto-inspired snacks…DISASTER. haha All I remember was walking around New York – I was visiting her there – eating all these snacks. lol Anyway, cool post. When I read your post from yesterday I was LOL – I hate days like that!!!! When all goes wrong and it isn’t even the afternoon..but, like you said, tomorrow is a new day. The .6 gain is okay…just gives you that little push to work a drop harder! Plus, it could be like 5 lb! Trust me! lol That once happened to me! Hope you and THE husband lol have a fun St. Patrick’s day. oh, and you have inspired me with the rainbow cake…you should see my St. Patty’s cake! lol
Sorry about the weigh in – but great job getting back on track with your eats today!
Have you ever tried TJ’s Bran muffins? They have some that only have 220/muffin – I’m a huge fan!
Is the Bay area blogger meet up still in the planning? I hope so!
Hope you have a great Thursday!
That chocolate bar reminds me of a Take 5 bar. And those are GOOD. Holy moly.
I love lucky Charms! I tried the corned beef yesterday at Trader Joe’s. It was so tasty. The flavor was on point.
Love your green shirt! And corned beef… yumm! Wish I could have made it to your house for that feast! 😉
And those bars… wow. So delicious looking.
xo
K
You just totally convinced me to buy a mandolin! I’ve wanted one so badly for a long time but think I am going to take the plunge and get one. I will definitely need the saftey glide with it so it doesn’t take a finger off lol
Yay for new Real Simple, I absolutely love that magazine!
Hey Danica!!
Sorry I havent commented in a while–I started a new job but I still check out your blog everyday!! Anyways, I wanted to say you are SOOO cute w/this St. Pattys stuff and Im sooo proud of you on your race!!! Anyways, I got the WW bar too and its SOOOO yummy!!!!! Keep up the good work honey!! I only lost .4 lb last time haha so i TOTALLY understand the frusteration.. Hope your doing good!!!
YUM! I am not even 1% irish and I love corned beef. Your recipe seems so do-able, I’d try it off of St. Pat’s. YUM!
i wont tell you about how i know how to use the “tare” feature. let’s just say i used to be in a different “business” in my younger days!! LOVE your green outfit and necklace! too, too cute. i saw those old school cereal boxes at target the other day and wanted to get the cinnamon toast crunch SO bad! just got my new real simple, can’t wait to crack it open.
LOVE YA!
that corn beef looks lovely-even though i di not eat a lot of meat i would have eaten that for sure……
love the shirt 🙂
You have me wanting corned beef with thinly sliced veggies now. Everything looks so tasty and delicious. Not like the watery gross corned beef I’m used to!
Hi Julia,
I don’t think I haven’t tried those, but, I will definitely look out for them….I LOVE all things baked 😀 I know I tried a raspberry mango bran muffin and the fiber cakes before….are the muffins you are talking about different?
Yes, we are going to be sending out an email to everyone next week – we had some things come up that we had to delay the meet up til April. Hope you can still make it – I am excited for it. Oh and if you have any recommendations of places from here to LaFayette let us know 😀
Danica
Everyone loves an Irish girl!
ooh, i always forget about my mandoline! need to bust it out more. congrats on the half, too 😉 woohoo!!!
As simple as that salad looks, it sounds SO good, so fresh, I want it! lol
I got a sample of that WW bar- I usually add it to Sean’s lunch bag, but I ate it. I thought it was ok. I NEVER buy those bars (I hate the price of them! lol) BUT i do know that the portion size on them help lots of people and give that candy bar craving a kick to the curb.
I love love love corned beef- this is the first year I’m not having it, cuz I dont ever make it- my Mom does- but not this year. lol Oh well 🙁 I can smell it through the computer on your blog! lol