We live in a small town, but I decided to get to the polls a bit early just in case there was a line.  Nope!  I think I was in and out of there in about two minutes! Happy to say that Pat Quinn is out on his ass.  Hopefully he’ll just retire quietly.  Bruce Rauner is our new governor –  I appreciate the fact that a businessman who has a net worth of a billion dollars wants to go into public office.  We’ll see!

voted 001

I love using leftovers to repurpose them into something just as delicious and not just as a way to not be wasteful.  Tony ate about 1/3 of the inside of a baked potato for dinner the other night.  I had some of my leftover steak, and decided to just make a breakfast baked potato.  First off, my store had Idaho potatoes 4/$1 last week.  If you see that price, weigh out the potatoes – some were as light as 5 ounces, some were as big as 12 ounces!  This one was 8 ounces.   I scooped out the remaining potato, scrambled that with 3/4 cup liquid egg whites,  cup of chopped baby spinach and at the very end tossed in the 1.5 ounces of leftover steak.  I put the scramble inside the baked potato and put it in a container.  Once at work, I put 1 ounce of cheddar cheese over the top, and put it under the broiler for about 6 minutes – to heat up the potato and get the cheese all nice and melty.

voted 032

I love that tiny casserole dish – I got it at T.J. Maxx for five dollars a few years ago.  Now that is two servings above – each serving is 251 calories, 6.2 fat, 20 carbs, 2 fiber and a whopping 26 grams of protein.  Best part?  The price!  I calculated each serving to be $1.47.  What’s also great about this is that it can be made ahead of time for a brunch crowd.  Then just before everyone sits down you can pop them in a 450 oven for 10 minutes to warm them up and melt the cheese.

My blood sugar was a perfect 220 before working out.  It was legs and then I did a walk/sprint – this time walk 4 minutes, sprint 1 minute for 2.25 miles.  My last sprint yesterday?  An 8 minute mile pace!

voted 007

voted 008

Yup, more leftover buffalo chicken chili!  I took the last of it.  Hey, if it’s not broke, why fix it?!  I was watching The Chew at lunch, and Tyler Florence was the guest.  He has a new cookbook coming out, that he said he took all the pictures with his iPad and used Photo Toaster as the editing app.  I downloaded it – It’s $2.99 (still using iTunes gift cards for my apps!) and I thought this picture from my iPhone 4 wasn’t too bad!  (although I can’t wait for my phone upgrade in February!)

voted 010

Um, guess who else likes my chili?  Sunny Anderson!  Seriously, we will be bffs one day!  Ha!

voted 002

Tony asked for plain pasta for dinner.   Something that I love that Tony can’t stand?  Macaroni and cheese.  I know, I know.  What’s not to love about mac n cheese?  I made macaroni and cheese with broccoli and leftover ham.  The ham actually came from a salad brought to our office last Friday.  The pasta with the salad was looking pretty sad, so I picked out all the ham and brought it home and threw the rest out.

voted 015

I used half of this block of cheese – so good!  Of course you know I love my Cabot cheese.

voted 014

And here’s a crappy dinner picture – it tasted much better than it looks!

voted 019

After dinner I decided to do a bit of recipe developing.  I am bringing dinner rolls to the dinner party I am catering for my boss.  I wanted to see if I could make quick dinner rolls without using butter, but vegetable oil.  These were good, but not great.  I think I put in too much sugar, not enough salt.  But considering these were done from beginning to end in 45 minutes was pretty good – they are light and fluffy!  You know what they remind me of?  Hawaiian rolls!  If you are looking for a Hawaiian roll recipe, let me know and I’ll share it.

voted 016

And I got all my steps and then some!

voted 014

I am having the other half of my breakfast baked potato for breakfast, and leftover beef stew for lunch.  Love leftovers!  Just throw everything in my lunch bag and go.   It’s a chilly 37 degrees this morning, although there are blue skies, so I’ll take it.   I am leaving work early to take Tony to some doctor appointments this afternoon.   Your good thoughts sent our way would be appreciated!

And thanks for your votes for the Fisher Nut recipe contest.  I think winners will be announced before Thanksgiving, and I’ll let you know when I do if I made the first cut.  Make it a great day!