Dinner Recipe & A BSI Dessert

My alarm scared the devil out of me this morning! I was awake well before it went off and then obviously drifted back to sleep. When that baby went off, I almost hit the roof! It’s been so long since I’ve actually heard the alarm that I didn’t even know what the racket was! PHEW! What a way to start the day!

The thermostat outside my kitchen window read -4 deg Celsius at 7:30am. YIKES! I bundled the kids up in winter coats, hats, mitts & scarves...and they didn’t argue about it, either! But first came breakfast.

-1 cup water
-1/2 cup McCann’s steel cut oats
-scoop of pumpkin puree
-scoop of cranberry sauce
-cinnamon




These oats are so thick and creamy! I’ve always hesitated to buy steel cut due to the lengthy cooking time, but these are quick cooking – 3 to 5 mins – and work well with my morning schedule.

I ate this Lara Bar for a snack last night...



Banana Cookie was the flavor and it was really good! It reminded me of nutty banana bread. I also mindlessly ate a handful of (dry) mini wheat’s. Here’s the deal on the nibbles. My son decided he didn’t want to settle in for the night and by 9pm, I’d had enough of him calling me up to his room for silly things so what do I do? Stick my hand in the bag of cereal, pull out some crunchy nuggets, and munch, munch, munch. Wrong reaction, I know…..should’ve grabbed the baby carrots instead. Note for next time.

I had a good run today. About a half hour before I hopped on the treadmill I ate this muffin…



I left the speed a little on the low side, but bumped up the incline to work some different muscles. Also, I did the workout DVD from the back of this Tosca Reno book the other night and have some stiff muscles from that so the slower speed didn’t aggravate the situation!

Lunch today was one of my newest faves….a Lean Cuisine Chicken, Mushroom & Spinach Panini.





These sandwiches are GREAT! Around 3:30pm I ate my last huge honey crisp apple! YUM!



Sadly, I did not have any will power today when it came to the chocolate in the office candy bowl. I grabbed a few creamy nibbles!



Chicken was on the menu for dinner tonight, but not just any chicken...I made my Cheesy Salsa Chicken!

It’s pretty straight forward as you’ll soon see.

-4 chicken breasts
-1/2 cup salsa
-2 cups grated cheese (of your choice)

*Sautee chicken in pan until golden brown, 3-5 per side
*Add a few spoonfuls of salsa to the top of each breast, cover and cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes (the timing will depend on the thickness of the chicken)
*Top each breast with grated cheese and put the lid back on the pan until the cheese is all melty.




My family will eat just about anything that has cheese on it, in it or around it! This is my son’s favorite dinner! I used grated marble cheese on the family’s and smoked Gouda on mine. The darn piece of chicken flipped over on me so all the good stuff wound up underneath! I served mine over half a spaghetti squash. This dinner was SO good!



My sweet end (not that I really needed it) was a curves bar. Just enough chocolate to satisfy my need!



I diddled and daddled over a recipe for this week's BSI...cranberries. I love cranberries so this was a real treat! I couldn't decide on sweet or savory, but finally made up my mind to do some kind of cake. The weather is turning pretty darn cold and I reasoned that a nice piece of cake would go great with a cup of tea or coffee in the cooler weather. I'm very proud of this recipe as I thought it up all by myself (while running on the treadmill, no less) and I'm completely happy with the result. So, without further ado....

Banana Cranberry Pumpkin Cake

-2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
-3/4 cup wheat germ
-1 tsp salt
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp nutmeg
-1 large ripe banana (very ripe)
-1 cup pumpkin puree
-3/4 cup eggbeaters (or 3 eggs)
-1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt
-1/2 cup unpacked brown sugar
-2 Tbsp agave
-2 cups cranberries (I used fresh)

*preheat oven to 350*
*combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl and make sure to blend well
*combine next 6 ingredients in a smaller bowl and blend well
*add wet to dry and mix until just combined
*fold in cranberries
*put batter into a greased fluted cake pan (a 9 x 13 would work, too)




*Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 mis in pan before inverting onto a serving plate. Let cool completely before slicing.



I cut this one into 16 pieces. I ran this through the Spark People recipe builder and came out with these stats:

113 cal
0.9g fat
4.7g fiber
4.7g protein



So there you have it...my BSI recipe of the week featuring cranberries! Enjoy!

Bye for now!