Grown Up Spaghettios For One

One of the first things I do upon waking up is make myself a cup of coffee.  I love our Keurig if for no other reason than I can have stinky coffee.  By that I mean flavored coffee that Tony wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.  I don’t like it every day, but once in a while I have a jones for it.

Cinnamon Bun is the name of my step-son and daughter in laws pug – I put that on Instagram and told them “it’s going to be a great day!”

I made so many black beans the other night when I made quesadillas, I told Tony that one way to use them up was to add them to a spinach omelet.  I seriously think he went into the bathroom and puked with just the thought of black beans in eggs.

I love, love black beans and sometimes I need to remind myself to make them for me even though Tony isn’t a fan.  I put 1 cup of baby spinach in the bottom of my skillet, let it wilt about 30 seconds, then added 1/4 cup of my seasoned black beans, 1 egg and 1/2 cup of liquid egg whites and 3/4 ounce of cheddar cheese.

I am sure my method is wrong, but it works for me.  I cook my omelets with a lid on them.  I don’t touch them at all – this way they cook from the top and the bottom at the same time.  I don’t actually flip it into an omelet shape until the very end.  It doesn’t look that great, but it was tasty!

I had to run an errand at lunch yesterday, so no lunch workout.  I did happen to pass by my favorite store, so I just had to go in!

I wonder who made that coffee cup after me? 

That middle mustard looks so interesting – triple crunch?  However, with a $12.95 price tag, it was easy to move on.

Okay, long time readers will know that I loved spaghettios growing up.  Like a lot.  Nothing better than that with white buttered toast for dipping on the side.  I haven’t actually had a can in years, but I know I would still love it.

I’ve made grown up versions before, but yesterday morning I was in a hurry and didn’t feel like making a whole pot, so this is my version for one serving.

Grown Up Spaghettios for One

(my fatsecret site is down so I’ll update the nutrition info once its back up)

Ingredients for the Meatballs:

• 1 ounce ground sirloin
• 1.5 ounces ground pork
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon panko bread crumbs
• salt and pepper
• pinch of crushed red pepper
• 1 cup cooked pasta of your choice (I used from 2 ounces dry)

Since there wasn’t a whole lot of meat for these meatballs, they cooked up in no time – I ended up with about 8 a little bigger than marble sized balls.  I just Pam fried them for about 4 minutes.

In my pot, I added 1 cup of tomato puree, 1 cup of beef broth, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper and 1 cup of chopped baby spinach.  I just let that cook down for literally 10 minutes, then added the meatballs to the soup and cooked for about 5 more minutes.  I happened to have leftover pasta in my fridge, so I added that at the same time as the meatballs.

This was so filling and delicious – I do remember it came to around 500 calories for this bowl, but it was worth every calorie.

I did have a small snack in the afternoon – 1/2 ounce of almonds mixed with 2 tablespoons semi sweet chocolate chips.

While I love really big thick chops, since Tony’s colon cancer surgery, he isn’t a fan of thick chops anymore.  What works great?  Shoulder blade pork steaks.  Check them out the next time you go to the store.  They cost a fraction of the price of regular pork chops, and since they have a small bone in them, the flavor is out of this world.

Tony and I ended up hanging outside and chatting until nearly 7:30 last night so I put some abborrio rice in the rice maker while I grilled the pork steaks.  Tony’s just had pepper and garlic salt, with BBQ sauce on the side – I grilled mine with the copycat Rudy’s BBQ sauce.  I could not get the lighting right on this pic!

I ended up tossing the cooked rice with Parmesan cheese, diced apple and edamame – word of advice, don’t waste good risotto rice in the rice maker, because it obviously wasn’t creamy at all – still tasted okay though – and not bad for putting together a 15 minute dinner!

The pork steak was so juicy – it’s okay for pork to be pink people!

So by the time we ate, I cleaned the kitchen and let dinner settle a bit – it was about 8:45.  I did not want to work out.  But, I knew I would be upset at myself today if I didn’t.  It’s all about consistency in weight loss, and since I didn’t work out at lunch, I rationalized that NOT working out was not an option.

42 minutes later – I was done!  And sweaty.

I was trying to take a picture of the sweat on my shoulder and arms but love that you can see sweat dripping off my lip!

Since fatsecret.com is down this morning, no stats, but it was around 1650 for the day.

Alright – the tornado of putting my food together for the day is about to begin.  And I have already made stuffed peppers for dinner this morning so I only need to bake them tonight – easy peasy!

Question of the Day:  How do you convince yourself to work out if you don’t want to?

Make it a great day!