I'm a Taco Bell Junkie! There I Admit It...

I like to eat - who doesn't right? But, I really like to eat, especially Taco Bell. Unfortunately, I can't eat three burritos a day and lose a few poundsies. So, I have to give up something. Either Taco Bell or my desire to be fit and trim.... tough decision. 

I am a big believer of the Mireille Guiliano's "French Women Don't Get Fat" plan! She teaches you how to eat what you love by making smarter choices. It is NOT a diet book! She HATES diets (weird, so do I). The book is hilarious, and she tells you how the French stay so thin. If you haven't read this book, you really should. It kinda changed my life!

Yet, I haven't lost any weight - not because of Mireille Guiliano, but because I haven't done what she suggests and I like to eat out! She would say that I can eat out, but I have to be smart when I do - which I'm not. Are you seeing my problem here? I get motivated by books like this (or New Years), and then I don't change. Story of my life. 

So what is my new remedy for my tragic love handles? A handy-dandy checklist, yep a checklist. Since I love food and I think it is one of the many pleasures of life, I think I should be able to enjoy eating out with friends and Taco Bell runs. However, I need to watch myself. What I think has been years since I ate at Taco Bell has really only been about two hours. 

With all of that being said, I decided to make a restaurant checklist so I could keep track of my eating out. I didn't want to eliminate eating out completely, but I did need to cut back. So I decided to make this!

It still seems like A LOT of eating out, but I had to start somewhere. Like I said, I eat Taco Bell numerous times a week, so cutting back to once a week for me is a big deal! I also go out with friends a ton, so I gave myself a little leeway there. I also gave myself 3 pop runs! I typically only drink water, but there is a little drive-in in OKC (Tim's Drive-in) that has the best pop in the world! And when I've had a bad day, Tim's makes it better. So, you get the gist. 

This is my start to a healthier me (cheesy, yes?)! I hope to keep cutting things back. 

Yummy Chicken Pasta with Butter Sauce!

Christmas break for a teacher means, I'm broke as a joke. Which means, I am scratching the bottom of the barrel when it comes to making a scrumptious dinner. When I first looked in my pantry tonight, it looked like I was going to either have Ramen Noodles, a can of Wolf Brand Chili, or pasta noodles. I really wanted the pasta noodles, but this poor girl is sick sick sick of spaghetti. After staring into the empty abyss that is my pantry, I decided to take a ton of mis-fit food items and make something delish!

I had one little chicken breast left over and a ton of mis-matched noodles. I didn't want marinara sauce, so I got to googlin' a butter sauce recipe. Again, with my lack of ingredients, I finally found one that I had all of the ingredients for:

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

2 Tbs. Butter

1 Tsp. Lemon Pepper

1/4 Ts. Salt

Melt ingredients in microwave or on stove top. Pour over pasta, toss, and serve.  

It sounded pretty dang tasty to me, so I got to it. First, I cut my chicken breast in half (I had a friend over, so I was making for two). Then, I seasoned it with Lemon Pepper.

(Please excuse the poor image quality - gotta love camera phones)

I melted butter in my skillet and began to fry away. If you ever try this, continue to add butter as needed to the skillet.

The obvious next step is to boil your noodles and prepare the sauce. So, that is exactly what I did. For the sauce, I just combined it all in a pot and melted it on the oven. Now, since I was cooking for two, I doubled the recipe (I did a little less Lemon Pepper because I had seasoned the chicken with it).

I even used two different types of noodles.

This doesn't take long to melt, so keep an eye on it.

After the noodles were tender, I drained them, put them in a large bowl, and poured this scrumptious little sauce over them. 

I placed the chicken breast on top and voila, time to eat! You can eat it with the chicken breast on top, or you can shred it into pieces and mix with pasta.

Surprisingly, this little dish was very good and so simple. Hope one of you can enjoy it as well!