Best Buffalo Chicken and Waffles

I am sure I am like a lot of people, if a gun were put to their head and they had to choose one cuisine to eat for the rest of their life, Mexican food would be at the top of the list.  I love everything about it.  The salsa’s, the braised meats, CILANTRO.  I know some people think it tastes like the bottom of a bird cage, but I love it.  And fresh lime.  Love fresh lime.  My daughter in law needs at least two whole sliced limes at every Mexican meal she eats.

As I was brewing my coffee, I glanced over at the fruit bowl, and remembered that I bought avocados when I went to Whole Foods.  I am sure I’ve shown this trick before on the blog, but I am too lazy to find it and link back to it now, so here is a quick picture on how to pick the perfect avocado at the grocery store.

Just pick the stem off at the grocery store before bringing it home.  If it’s dark – it’s too ripe, but if its green – you are good to go.  See?

Before I learned that trick it used to make me so mad to pick up avocados to make guacamole, only to cut into them and they be black on the inside – such a waste!  I ended up making breakfast tostadas.  Two tostadas (3) topped with scrambled egg whites (1) and spinach, tomato and red cabbage with 1/2 an ounce of Cabot cheese hot habanero cheese (2) and 1.5 ounces of sliced avocado (2).  I had a small bowl of fruit on the side, so breakfast comes in at 8 smart points.

I am learning so much about tips and tricks about blogging and getting your SEO searches right, keywords, etc.  I signed up for Lindsay’s FoodBlog Pro that she and her husband run out of Minneapolis.  Her blog Pinch of Yum made $64,000 in the month of February 2016.  Crazeballs.  Um, for the record, I’d be happy to make $3k a month!   Just sayin.  I spent all day yesterday learning tips on photoshop (I have Photoshop Elements, which is a much cheaper version – I bought it for $48 many years ago – its version 8 and I think they are up to version 14.  Every time I open it to use it, I get a pop up that says “you should really upgrade!”  I probably should, but that’s not on the list of things to pay for at the moment.

Before I knew it, it was time for lunch!  Since I had so much leftover skinny chicken that Hannah wasn’t going to eat anymore, it morphed into chicken and spinach taquitos.  Two Mission brand extra thin tortillas (2) stuffed with three ounces of grilled chicken (2) 1/2 ounce of Cabot hot habanero cheese (2) and then I pan fried them in one teaspoon of grapeseed oil to get them nice and crispy.  That whole plate was only 7 smart points.  #winning

I had a date with the Stair Master at the gym yesterday as my last chance workout before my second WW weigh in today.  When I pulled into the Y parking lot, there weren’t many cars in the parking lot – score!

Yep!  The place was nearly empty, except for one girl on the Stair Master.  Rat farts.  So I ended up doing a hill climb on the treadmill at 12% incline for 45 minutes.

Hannah had asked me the other day what I wanted to do for Mother’s Day, and not shockingly, I said I’d like to try really good chicken and waffles, like at a place called Hash House a go go . . . one of the dozens of Chicago area restaurants I want to try. Check out their sage fried chicken and waffle tower!

And while you know I love to go out to eat, I realized I didn’t want to go out for Mother’s Day.  Places are usually packed, huge lines, pre fix prix fix menus and I don’t like to feel rushed like they want to flip the table to seat more people.  But I couldn’t get the idea of chicken and waffles out of my head.  First I wanted to come up with a decent waffle that wouldn’t break the bank in points.  I first googled “waffle recipes” and quickly found Pioneer Woman’s waffle – that only has a stick of melted butter in the batter.  Um, no thanks!  I had Chobani in the fridge.  I had Silk unsweetened almond milk in the fridge.  I had King Arthur self-rising flour.  I could do this.

I cheated and bought two chicken tenders at the grocery store.  When it was time to put dinner together, I toasted my waffle.  In a small skillet I added a few tablespoons of Frank’s wing sauce and brought it up to a simmer – then added the chicken tenders in and put a lid on it and let the chicken get coated in the wing sauce and heat through.  The chicken was 7 points, the waffle was 4 points and the 1/4 cup Smucker’s brand sugar free pancake syrup was 1 point.  I garnished with a bit of chopped cilantro.

Holy balls guys.  First of all, the waffle was light, fluffy and a bit crunchy out of the toaster oven.  Second the wing sauce – perfect amount of spice and actually dipped into the tiny pool of pancake syrup was an awesome sweet/spicy combo.  And then the brightness for the cilantro.  Well, just drop the mic.  I quite literally could have this once a week and never get sick of it.  Just the sweet/salty/spicy/crunchy combination all on one plate?!  Swoon.  And the fact that it was 12 points is totally doable. 

Hoping my WI goes okay today – I had one tiny binge.  I woke up the early morning of May 2nd with low blood sugar.  In stead of reaching for fruit, I reached for candy and could have stopped at two pieces but ended up mindlessly eating more to get my low blood sugar back up, when I know if I just eat two pieces and wait 15 minutes, I’ll be fine.  Gah.  But I got my minimum of 10k steps every day – got an hour bike ride and hit the gym up four times this week, so fingers crossed.

I am bringing dinner over to a friends house tonight – can’t wait to see her and catch up.  I am bringing marinated steak, twice baked potatoes and garlic green beans.  I figured I’ve had enough Mexican food lately even though today is Cinco de Mayo.

Make it a great day!