Pink & Green Thursday!

Hurry, Hurry! Call all your girls, get glammed up, and put on your heels! I am in need of a serious girls night out!!!

WW Wed.

Happy WW Wed! I survived the wedding weekend without gaining a pound!! Can you believe it? I even ate cake! I made sure to eat in whatever I wanted- just in moderation and I guess I did okay! We had fun, but I must say I happy to be home and back to my routine. I cooked a new recipe I found the other night and can you say.. to die for? Ohh.. it was so yummy! The entire family ate them up in a hurry! Please note that if you don't like spicy food- this recipe is not for you!

Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas with Creamy Green Chile Sauce

Recipe and picture found here.
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 1 enchilada • WW Points: 4
Calories: 230 • Fat: 7.3 g • Protein: 20.4 g • Carb: 28.7 g • Fiber: 12.2 g

Chicken and White Bean Filling:
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup minced white onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles
15.5 oz can Navy beans (or Cannellini beans)
8 oz cooked shredded chicken breast
1/3 can water
1 chicken bullion
1 tsp cumin

Green Chile Enchilada Sauce:
1 tsp butter
1/2 cup chopped white onion
2 tbsp flour
1 cup fat free chicken broth
7 oz can chopped green chile
2 jalapeños, chopped ( I used fresh jalepenos)
salt
1/2 cup light sour cream
3/4 cup reduced fat Mexican cheese
8 medium low carb tortillas
chopped fresh cilantro or scallions (or both!)

Preheat oven to 375°.

For the Filling:
In a medium pan, heat olive oil on low. Add onions, garlic and saute until soft, about 2-3 minutes. Add green chiles, beans, water, bullion, and cumin. Mix well and cover. Simmer on low 15 minutes. Remove cover, add chicken and cook an additional 5 minutes, or until it thickens and liquid boils down. Set aside.

Green Chile Enchilada Sauce:
In a large nonstick pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and starts to turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add flour and stir well. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth. Whisk until the sauce becomes smooth. Cook over medium heat until the sauce boils and thickens, about 4-5 minutes. Add green chiles, jalepeños, and salt to tatse. Cook another minute then remove from the heat. Stir in the sour cream.

Spread about 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish. Fill each tortilla with 1/3 cup of the chicken/white bean filling. Roll the tortillas and place seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Continue filling remainder of the tortillas.

Pour the enchilada sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Top with cheese. Cover with aluminum and bake 20-30 minutes, until the enchiladas are hot and the cheese is melted. Remove from oven and top with fresh cilantro or scallions.
ENJOY!

Wedding Weekend

Sorry I am just now posting this- I have been trying to get all my pictures uploaded to share with you. The husband and I went to some good friends of ours' wedding over the weekend. The groom was one of our groomsmen and very special to us, so we were excited to be celebrating with him on his BIG day! The entire wedding party + significant others stayed at the beach for the weekend and had so much fun! EVERYTHING was fun- rehearsal dinner, lounging by the pool, staying up late in the condo, the wedding, and wedding reception were ALL a blast!
We recieved complimentary bottles of wine per the bride and groom upon arrival. What a way to start the evening and a sweet gesture! We also got cute little itenararies for the weekend.

The bride is a sports anchor for WTOK and the groom works in sports media for Southern Miss. To say the pair love sports would be an understatement!
Due to their love for sports... a sports theme was incorporated into their rehearsal dinner (which was the largest I have ever been to btw!)

The grooms mother is a florist (how lucky!) and made stands out of baseball bats to hold some of the flower arrangements and the guests tables were adorned with boxes of old fashioned CrackerJack popcorn and small bags of peanuts. How cute! The groom gave each groomsman a wooden baseball bat with a thank you note carved into it. My husband loved it!

The food was fantastic and we all had such a great time dancing and laughing about how crazy the DJ was! We stayed up late that night in the condo and laughed some more!

The wedding was inside a church overlooking our beautiful Gulf Coast (which APPEARED to be oil free) and then we returned back to the resort for the reception which took the space of not one... but two ballrooms! Words cannot explain all of the flowers in that place! My pics do not do the room justice.

The bride looked absolutely amazing and the newlyweds were as cute and happy as could be!

Look how cute their favors were- flip flops! Pretty much all the guests changed out of their dress shoes and found them a bright colored pair of flip flops to wear on the dance floor.

 Here are some more pics from the night-

When the party was over- the mothers of the bride and groom told some of us girls to take any flower arrangements we wanted! I wish I could have taken more!! They were so gorgeous!

Thanks Jason & Heather for sharing your special day weekend with us! We had a really great time and wish the two of you the best of luck! Hope you are having a fabulous time in St. Lucia! Love you both!

Beautiful

Hi friends...
It seems as though lately their have been quite a few posts I have come across that have to do with our insecurities and how we percieve ourselves. Some of these posts have really made me sad. I have spent this year trying to love myself more- accepting myself for who I am and working on my faults at the same time. I have been insecure about my looks as far I can think back.  There were a lot of fun times in highschool that I missed out on because I was too worried about what I looked like to relax and have fun. Once upon a time I weighed 120 lb. and still I thought I was so hideous that I wore a t-shirt over my swimsuit. Why are we always our worst critic?
This year I have really tried to not be so hard on myself. I have tried to put all that energy to exercising and eating healthier. I am trying to be more positive and notice the things I love about myself in the mirror rather than what's wrong with me. Just so you know... I have discovered that I really love my eyes!
Here is a picture that was taken of me and my son a few months back and when I first saw it I was mortified at how horrible I looked. I don't know why I felt that way because now I look at it and think it is beautiful.

I wrote the following post in January and it is so encouraging to see how far I have come since that morning when I wrote "Heidi". That day was the beginning of my quest to be a better person and mother by finding confidence within myself.

So ladies and gentleman...
Just in case you don't think so... You are beautiful!
Just in case no one has ever told you... you are beautiful!
Just in case you don't believe me... try really hard... really hard..to accept that you are beautiful!
Let loose and have fun... enjoy your life and don't miss out on any more oppurtunities because you think you are anything less than extraordinary!

Favorite Fridays

This week's Favorite Friday topic is:

Who was your favorite friend from

F*R*I*E*N*D*S ?!?

My favorite friend was always Monica! She was so clean, friendly, and wholesome most of the time! LOL- I just liked her and thought she was really pretty :) Plus I enjoyed her quirkiness!

Who was your favorite?

Pink and Green Thursday- Back to School

I love it when Thursday's come around now! Pink and Green Thursdays are so much fun- you should join in! Well kiddos... it's August and that means school starts back this month. I love learning, but I won't lie when I say I celebrate the semester ending EVERY term. LOL Be cool- stay in school!

As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools. ~Author Unknown

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. ~W.H. Auden

Did you know America ranks the lowest in education but the highest in drug use? It's nice to be number one, but we can fix that. All we need to do is start the war on education. If it's anywhere near as successful as our war on drugs, in no time we'll all be hooked on phonics. ~Leighann Lord

“Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.”~ Bill Gates

“The person whose problems are all behind them is probably a school bus driver” ~ unknown

WW Wed

Hey ladies! Hope everyone is doing great! This week I am on vacation and although I am only vacationing at my house with my little one, I am having a good time. The weekend was tough because our family had an ugly little stomach virus- thank goodness it was a 24 hour bug. This made Monday really hard for me though- all I wanted to do was eat! I was starving since I literally had nothing over the weekend except sherbert with Sprite. All I wanted all day was... cookies and cream ice-cream! I didn't deprive myself though- I ate one bowl and am trying to forget the rest is in the freezer! Yesterday was much better- detoxed with eating TONS of watermelon all day and today I am being a good little girl and eating healthy again! Remember you have to eat to lose! Starving yourself does nothing but... STARVE your body of rich nutrients and energy that it needs to help you lose weight and fight sicknesses/diseases. Don't it make you feel good to know you should eat?! You really should! :)
This is a new recipe from WW I came across this morning. I plan on making it sometime this week- yummy!
Grilled Tuna with Herbed Butter

Ingredients

1 pound(s) yellowfin tuna, one steak cut 1- to 1-1/2 inches thick
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp fresh lime juice
1 spray(s) cooking spray
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 Tbsp chives, fresh, finely chopped
1 Tbsp parsley, fresh, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh tarragon, finely chopped
1 tsp lime zest, fresh, minced
1/4 tsp table salt, or more to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, or more to taste
1 pound(s) spinach, baby-variety, steamed
Instructions
Drizzle both sides of fish with oil and lime juice; set aside.
Off heat, coat grill with cooking spray; preheat grill to high.
Meanwhile, in a small metal bowl, combine softened butter, chives, parsley, tarragon, lime zest, salt and pepper; set aside.
Cook tuna on one side for 3 minutes; carefully flip and cook on other side for 3 more minutes for rare, or longer until desired degree of doneness. Place bowl containing butter mixture on grill just until it melts — you don’t want to cook it.
Thinly slice tuna and serve over spinach; drizzle melted herb butter over top. Yields about 3 ounces of tuna and 1/4 of spinach per serving.
Notes
You can cook the tuna on a grill pan in the broiler, if you prefer.
Tuna is prepared like steak in this recipe — cooked in one large piece on a very hot grill. If you like your tuna more well done, add about 1 minute to the total cooking time. But tuna cooks fast so make sure not to overcook it.
The herb butter topping is great on both the tuna and the spinach. Use a lemon if you don’t have a lime on hand.
WW points per serving: 4

Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 12 min
Cooking Time: 6 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Hope everyone has a great week! Wish me luck- this weekend the hubby and I are going to the beach all weekend for a wedding extravaganza and there is going to be lots of food I am sure! Say a little prayer for me to have the strength to restrain myself from my favorite thing in the world- WEDDING FOOD!! LOL