Chicken, again?

At one point in our lives together, NZ and I were going through 182 oz. of chicken ( that's 11 1/2 lbs!= 3 COSTCO size bags of frozen breasts), a 2lb tub of cottage cheese, a flat of strawberries, 42 oz of flank steak (again, that's 7lb of steak..of which, NZ enjoyed all by himself), 21 potatoes, 7 cups of rice and 42 (1) cup servings of veggies per WEEK. Not to mention a dozen protein shakes, and few cups of oatmeal that rounded out our repetoire of menu items.

Were we crazy?

We didn't think so..but ask friends and family who watched us turn down BBQ'd burgers and chips and dip for our pre-portioned baggies of food and they'd probably tell you "Heck yeah! We couldn't wait for them to be 'normal' again!"

We were commited. We had a plan ( designed by our awesome awesome trainers, Kim & Tad) and we stuck to it. It was either that, or, climb up on stage in an itty bitty posing suit and show the world a little jiggle-wiggle. We pushed each other to keep the nose to the grindstone and be proud of what we put out there at the end of the journey.

So, how'd we stick to the above formentioned foods and not stray???

Easy.

We got creative.

Sure, there were mannnnny nights when we rolled our eyes thinking, "mmmmm, my umpteenth boiled chicken breast" and sometimes we'd scarf it down without even realizing we had just eaten meal 5 out of 6, and it was a loooong two hours till we (gasp!) got to drink a protein shake and turn in for the night. The food got boring sometimes...and although it is viewed as fuel, sometimes we'd try to jazz it up a little to tease ourself that we weren't eating the same dang thing.

Hot sauce and mustard are a dieter's best friend...Oh, and ICBINB spray butter...and PAM spray...and SPLENDA.

A few twists we were able to make were...

Oatmeal into Granola:

Mix steel cut oats with rolled oats using just a touch of water and a sillionpacks of splenda. Spray a cookie sheet with PAM. Spread the oat mmixture onto the sheet, press down. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes. Turn oven off and let the mixture dry out. At one point I was lucky enough to have a kiddie size box of raisins added to my menu so I threw those in my granola mix.

Oatmeal Pancakes:

Mix a serving of oats ( mine was 1/3 c.) and serving of eggwhites ( I thinkI had 3 whites) with a whisk. Add a packet of splenda. Spray a skillett with PAM, and cook just as you would a pancake. Flip and serve with a spritz of spray butter. I still make these even though I am not on a contest diet.

Chicken Tacos

1 c. shredded lettuce, a serving of chicken cooked in salsa and water in the crockpot and fork shredded. 1-2 corn tortillas. Totally diet friendly and fooled me many times into thinking I was eating something really sinful!

Chicken Stirfry

precooked chicken breast diced, 1 c each of bell pepper &broccoli, 1/2 onion and rice. Stirfry the veggies in a skillet sprayed with PAM and add a little bit of water until al dente. Season with hot sauce. Serve over rice.

But oh, how I wish I had known about this little ditty way back then...I just discovered the recipe for baked chicken taquitos through Our best bites and did my own little twist on the recipe to make taquitos that were "clean" enough to eat every night ( and even for breakfast if you're like me...I've had them breakfast, lunch and dinner today!). I have to admit, Our Best Bites creamy taquitos with the cream cheese and chicken take the cake, but seeing as we're trying to get back to our girlish figures again, I had to clean it up a bit for the scale's sake, and omit the cream cheese.

CLEAN EATS TAQUITOS

Fork shredded chicken

cottage cheese

taco spices

salsa

corn tortillas

PAM

1-Boil 3 chicken breasts in water and a package of taco spices ( or use fresh chili powder, cumin etc)
2-When cooled, drain excess liquid and shred chicken with fork
3-Mix in 2 T. of cottage cheese
Add 1-2 T. salsa
add salt, pepper, cumin
4-Spray baking sheet with PAM
5-Heat oven to 425 ( or if you are lazy like me, turn broiler on HIGH)
6-Steam tortillas in microwave to make them pliable. (10 sec intervals worked for me)
7-Spoon 2-3 TBSP of chicken mixture into corn tortilla and roll.
8-Place seam side down on baking sheet, making sure that none of them touch.
9-Lightly mist tops with PAM
10-Bake at 425 for 20 min or broil for 3 min then, roll taquitos over to crisp up the underside.

Serve with Salsa.
So good even Beaver liked them! I know, he's a cat..he shouldn't be eating people food, but he has the most pitiful cries that I had to shut him up by feeding him some of what I was eating!