Two-fer Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sandwhiches for Dinner, and a Buffalo Ranch Salad for Lunch.

I've talked about making buffalo chicken egg rolls, and buffalo chicken in wraps. But not buffalo ranch chicken on buns, followed by buffalo chicken salad. It's delicious, and easy! I usually make this for just Travis and I. Then I'll make the boys something different. I can't wait until the boys go in to the boy-guy-man phase of liking spicy things. When I make this for just Travis and I we usually have it for dinner and lunch the next day.

This is a slow cooker meal, so drag out your crock pot.
Ingredients for Chicken:
4 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 cup Frank's Buffalo Sauce
1 dry package hidden valley ranch mix
1/2 cup of water

Mix everything together, and cook on lo for 6-8 hours. Shred chicken with fork and serve on toasted buns with a little ranch dressing on top.

Salad ingredients:
1 cup romaine chopped
1 celery stick shredded
1 carrot stick shredded 
1 summer squash shredded
1 small tomato diced
2 tbsp shredded cheese
1/2 cup shredded buffalo chicken mixture
Light Ranch dressing 

Day 6

 

Breakfast: Voskos Wild Strawberry Greek Yogurt with 5 medium sized strawberries sliced and mixed in. 

Lunch: Chicken Salad (Containing- Romaine, Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, zesty Italian dressing, and a baked chicken breast. )

Dinner: Summer Fajitas (recipe follows below) 

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Tonight I was making tacos, and as I'm browning the meat...I'm feeling really grossed out by it. Sometimes I'm very anti-red meat. Plus I wanted to have some leftover meat so that Travis could have Tacos for lunch tomorrow at work. So, I thought to myself no problem I'll just make myself some chicken fajitas with my leftover chicken...except I didn't have any peppers. Then, I was like...who needs chicken? Or peppers? With all the squash and zucchini I have from the Summer crop this makes an easy simple meal. I'm always trying to come up with new ways to use my squash and zucchini. I love it sauteed as a side, but sometimes that gets boring and old. If you're like me, and you have so many tomatoes, squash, and zucchini either from relatives or your garden..(mine are from my relatives). This is an awesome recipe to use some of your Summer veggies. 

I ended up not adding my chicken to this because I checked out  my tortillas, then my veggies and realized nothing else was going to fit in them! But this would be delicious with chicken, or shrimp!

Summer Fajitas 

Serves Two. 

Ingredients:
1 cup diced squash
1 cup diced zucchini
1 yellow onion sliced
1 small tomato sliced
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chili poweder
1/2 tsp cumin 
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp light sour cream
2 flour tortillas (100 cals each or less)

 

Directions: Heat olive oil over medium heat, prepare your veggies while your pan heats up. Swirl the oil around in the pan, then add your veggies to the hot oil. Mix your veggies around with a spatula to coat with oil, then stir in seasoning. Cook, stirring often, until veggies have softened.  Add 1 tbsp of sour cream to each tortilla and top each tortilla with an even amount of veggies. Enjoy.

I like to look through magazine for recipes, workouts, house plans, garden plans, things to do with the kids, or for the kids. Here is an awesome work out I got from Redbook Magazine for your booty. I have a paper copy in a folder BUT I looked on the internet and found it for any readers I may have. Also for my own keeping. :)

Redbook's 15 Minute Best Booty Workout!!!

For Instructions Click Here! 

Day 5

Breakfast: Peanut Butter Belgian Waffle topped with frozen bananas blended in the food processor.

Lunch: Caesar Salad with chopped tomatoes, black olives, Parmesan cheese, and mixed deluxe nuts. 

Dinner: Sautéed Cabbage with Zucchini Cakes.


Just bleeeeeeh on today. We lost a goose , Winifred. So I'm a little sad about it. I would've cried though had it been my Alfred, he's my favorite out of our geese.

Also I keep trying to upload my recipe for homemade tomato sauce, and it isn't working. Promise to get that up soon though!

Day4

Breakfast: zucchini hash browns (recipe coming as soon as I perfect them)

Lunch: squash sliced thinly to act as noodles (sautéed) with one large tomato I put through my new food processor with oregano, basil, garlic, pepper , and red pepper flakes . Sprinkled with Parmesan.

Dinner: 1 slice of sausage pie, and a side salad.

Plus taste tests of waffles and waffle batter lol

I pretty much ate veggies all day so that I could have a slice of sausage pie for dinner. :) Not complaining!

For my sausage pie recipe click here! 

Day 3

Breakfast:
1 slice of whole grain toast
2 tablespoons of applesauce spread on top
Sprinkled with ground cinnamon 
Sprinkled with deluxe mixed nuts

Lunch:
A big salad out of several veggies with Thousand Island Dressing

Dinner:
Cheesy Buffalo Cauliflower
Celery Sticks
Light Ranch for Dipping
1 loaded potato cake with about 1 tsp of ketchup on top

I decided to do some of my work out apps.

Day 2

I have had a day on the go, so I feel like each 'meal' was a grab and go, quick and easy type thing. I never felt hungry though because if I would've then I probably would've added a salad in here. I think that's the thing, some days we just feel hungrier than others, and other days its like we can't eat enough. Does anyone else ever feel like that?

Right after breakfast I had some down time on here. Then I left with the boys before lunch to the town over to see about adopting 2 wolf hybrids. I would've made time to eat lunch before leaving but I had to leave quickly and get to the animal shelter before anyone else could adopt them. Turns out the trip was all for naught because we didn't have any veterinarian proof that we have experience with wolf hybrids.  After leaving the animal shelter I got the boys a snack, and myself a Clif bar...walked right past the doughnuts, pizza, candy, chips, and hots dogs. After the boys and I got home Blake and I worked outside on our "outside chores"- feeding animals, playing with them, and refilling everyone's water outside. By the time we were done with that, Travis got home and we left to pick up a few things grocery wise before we can get around to doing our big shopping trip in a few days. On the way to the store we stopped at the store so everyone could get a snack and drinks (again). Instead of getting real chips I got the special k cracker chips...pretty good, actually.. I was surprised.

When I got home I had just enough time to make a pizza before we got hit by a summer storm. I don't usually have busy days that are unplanned, so this is pretty random for me. I'm still patting myself on the back for making healthier choices.

Well besides the pizza, but everything in moderation. I've learned enough after losing 40lbs to know that if I restrict myself, I will over-do it, and pig out on the next given opportunity. A slice gives me the satisfaction of eating pizza but without going overboard, especially if I add a nice side salad with it.

Breakfast: 1 granny smith apple with 2 tablespoons reduced fat creamy peanut butter
Lunch: Clif energy Bar
Snack: Special K Southwest Ranch Cracker Chips
Dinner: Three Meat Pizza 

And to make my day even better I got a surprise visit from my mail lady who handed me a packaged food processor, that I did not order, addressed to me. Turns out my really awesome aunt sent it to me after I made a whiny FB posts about needing one because my blender just wasn't cutting it! I had to do some tracking down first before I found out it was my aunt! :) It really made my day! 

Like my little stick figure guy? :p I think I will be doing this tonight plus my leg work out.

Sparkpeople app

Make Your Own Skillet Flat bread

Let it Rise.

Make 10 small balls of dough

Roll out!

Prick with fork and cook in skillet!

I have been searching and searching for awhile now trying to find the perfect homemade flat bread recipe. Eventually, I decided to just put a little bit of everything together and change up a recipe that I found to be pretty good, but not quite there yet. This recipe is perfect because I don’t need to use my oven and heat up my house during the summer time.  It also serves as a great mini pizza crust! If your family requests it, then trust me, it is blog worthy. 

Skillet Flat Bread (also known as Piadina)

1 package of yeast
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cup warm water

In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk together the water and yeast, then add the olive oil. With the mixer on low, add the liquid to the flour mixture and stir to combine to make a firm moist dough.

(*Note:  If you do not have the attachements you will have to do your best mixing it by hand and then work with the dough with your hands. It may require more time to rise.)

Switch to the dough hook on your mixer, or on a lightly floured surface knead the dough until smooth, shiny and elastic (about 10 minutes by hand, or 5 minutes by dough hook on medium-low speed).

Put the dough in a clean bowl and cover with a dish towel or clear plastic wrap to let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch down or flatten the dough in the bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes.  While the dough is resting, start a skillet or griddle heating over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes until very hot, let it heat up slowly to avoid hot spots that will burn your flat bread. Add a table spoon of olive oil and let that heat up. (Olive oil will need to be replaced when cooking each round of flat breads. )

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and divide it into 10 equal pieces. Just take a pinch off the round dough. Roll each piece until about 5-6 inches across and roughly 1/2 inch thick. If the dough is still too stiff to roll, or pulls back, let it rest a couple of minutes before rolling.

Place the dough rounds in the hot pan and prick the dough in several places with a fork to prevent air bubbles. I can usually fit about 3-4 during each batch. Cook the dough until golden brown on both sides, flipping several times while cooking. It will take about 4-5 minutes per round. Repeat with the remaining pieces until they are all cooked. Stack rounds on top off each other to keep warm. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 10 round flat breads.