Cobbler - The Healthy Way

Since I began my quest to eat healthy, I have been LOVING my Rocco DiSpirito, "Now Eat This" cook book. All of the dinner, lunch, breakfast, and snack recipes have been amazing! So filling and so healthy. The desserts have been hit or miss for me. The cobbler, with a few tweaks is now a favorite. I thought I'd share it with you guys!

Healthy Cobbler
Ingredients:
5 Golden delicious apples - peeled, cored, and cut into large slices
1 lemon
1 tbsp cornstarch
1" Ginger root
2 tbsp Cinnamon
1/4 c Dried cranberries
1/4 c Agave nectar
3/4 c Whole Wheat baking mix
1/4 c Fat Free milk
2 tbsp turbinado sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray an 8x8 baking dish with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a bowl, mix apples, juice of one lemon, cornstarch, 1 tbsp cinnamon, cranberries, and agave. Also grate, using a zester, the 1/2" of ginger into the bowl. Put mixture in pre greased baking sheet.

Using the same bowl (which is now empty), combine baking mix, as much of the remaining ginger (zested) as you'd like, 1 tbsp cinnamon, and milk. Stir until the mixture is well mixed. It should be the consistency of biscuit dough.  Add more milk if necessary. Drop spoonfuls of dough evenly over the fruit. Sprinkle sugar over the dough.

Bake the cobbler until the fruit is tender and the biscuit topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let the cobbler rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Health Facts per serving:
165 calories
1 g fat,
0 mg cholesterol
126 mg sodium
40 g carbohydrate
2 g fiber
1 g protein

For my Weight Watcher friends, 1 serving is 5 points :D

This should serve 8 people. If you'd like to save an additional 23 calories a serving, omit the cranberries and turbinado sugar.

Yum!

Also, if you are looking for an awesome workout, you should check out the Tone It Up Fall Challenge. It's a great way to keep up the motivation! I am loving it and so is Allie over at Teaspoon of Life!

Remember, now that fall is approaching and it's cooling down out there, our furry children love to stay healthy, too! So make sure they're getting outdoor time and exercise (Mack wanted to make sure to get that plug in since our outdoor running has started again).

Love List Wednesday

Today is short, but sweet!

• Target

• The Hubs

Maybe I want this shirt, but in a different color

• Harvest scent Yankee Candles

• Soft Blankets
• Air Conditioning

Hope everyone is successfully muddling through their week!

30 Day Shredding - Half Way Done!!!

Well, today is the 16th of the month and because I totally spaced my workout day with E on Sunday, we are now half way through the 30 Day Shred.

Every day except for this past Sunday, E and I have shredded ourselves to exhaustion. I like to think it's working since we're working so hard.

On day 10, I measured myself again and found I had lost 6.75" overall. I think that's pretty good! As of today at the half way point, it's 8.75". Not a ton, but definitely a good start!

All of my shredding friends are working their inches off too and I am so proud of them for keeping on. I know first hand how much I'd really like to turn Jillian off sometimes! I'm especially proud of my Mom for jumping in a few days late and rocking out her shredding EVERY DAY since she started. Mom you are awesome!

For Allie's winner announcement for this week. Go to her blog here.

Also, I ran across this super random fb page because a friend had liked a picture. It's a running page or something. I mostly just looked through all the pics and loved them. It made me want to get out and run again! It made me want to kill those miles. I especially loved all the pics that looked like people running in crisp fall air. I thought about it and then I went outside and almost got heatstroke from the humidity. I probably won't run outside for another couple weeks, but this page is making me anticipate the moment of being able to pound the pavement again. Hopefully we'll be in NM soon and I can run in air that does not maintain a heat index of 110 all day long. Check out the fb page here.

All you runners and shredders, we can keep going!

I think most of us feel this way sometimes...

Love List Wednesday

Time to continue the list of things I love!

• Harry Potter books/movies
• Reading
• Cuddling
• Cuddling with Mack
• Coffee
• Watermelon
• Soup
• AC during the TX summer
• dusk
• Anticipating Fall

There are so many things I could list that I think I need to stop!!

Pasta with Turkey Sausage and Mozzerella - Yum

I know I've been raving about fall in all of my past blogs, but what can I say, I am a fall addict! I love the autumn, I love decorating for it, cooking for it, and dressing for it. Here in my border town I have been able to decorate and cook for it, but not dress for it. This is a new recipe I tried out; that to me is the perfect fall comfort food. It was delicious, warming, and filling.

Pasta With Turkey Sausage and Mozzarella



Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 14 oz cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 lb turkey sausage, cut into 1/2" slices
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt
8 oz grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese

Method:
Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a minute more.


Add the tomatoes to the pan, shredding them with your fingers as you add them to the pan. Include the juices. Add the sausage and red pepper flakes. Cover and cook on medium high for 20 minutes, until the sauce is thickened.


While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a teaspoon and a half of salt for every quart of water. Cook the pasta according to pasta package instructions, until al dente, or cooked through, but still a bit firm. Drain the water from the pasta. Combine the pasta and the sauce in a large serving bowl.


Stir mozzarella cheese. Continue to stir until the cheese has softened and is a bit melty. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Delicioiusness in a bowl!

I Love Fall, I Love Decorating, Wait, I LOVE LOVE Fall Decorations!

So, in my last blog I discussed my love fall. One of my favorite fall foods and decorative motifs are pumpkins. I also love the sweet and spicy scents associated with fall. It's time to get out the cinnamon and pumpkin candles!

I thought I would include a few pics of some of my favorite decorations and a picture of the one and only Mack. Mack is still the laziest dog in the world.

My wall boxes. I love changing what decorations I put in them.  The many pumpkins are delightful!

Close up of my favorite pumpkin! It's all sparkly and strawish!

I use these glass containers all year. They're great because to change the look, you just change the contents.

This one is sitting on my pretty fall table cloth on the coffee table. This year, I did wine corks mixed in with the pumpkins to liven things up.

This is our wonderful and lazy dog with his half eaten football. He's so funny!

More Delicious Soup (Because it's fall and fall is soup time)

After many years of living in CO, I used to take seasons for granted. Now that I live in my tiny border town where it is still over 100 degrees in September, I have come to miss the change of season. My favorite season change is summer to fall. I love everything about fall. I love the smells, the tastes, and colors.
So, in honor of fall (even if it was 95 degrees out when I made this) I am posting a delicious fall soup recipe.

Minestra of Squash and Rice with Sage



Ingredients:
2 tsp Olive Oil
1 medium size onion, finely chopped
4 ribs celery, trimmed and finely chopped
4 carrots, finely chopped
1 lb of seasonal squash (I used butter nut squash) - peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2 inch dice
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I used chicken)
1 cup Arborio or other short grained white rice
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 large sage leaf, finely chopped or 2 tsp dried sage

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray aluminum foil with non stick cooking spray
Cut squash in half and remove seeds.
Place inside facing down on the baking sheet and bake for 40 min or until you can poke a fork through the outside with ease. Remove after baking and let cool. After the squash is cool, peel skin off and cut dice according to ingredient directions.

Heat oil in a heavy soup pan over medium high heat.
Add onion, carrot, celery, and squash and cook, stirring often until they begin to soften (2-3 minutes).
Add broth and bring to a boil.
Stir in rice and cook, stirring frequently to keep it from sticking to the pan, until the rice is tender (about 20 minutes).
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in parsley and sage.
Serve immediately!!

Makes 6 servings

Nutritional info per serving:
129 calories
2.3 grams of fat




***One of my favorite parts of soup is having leftovers. I label a gallon size plastic bag, pour in cooled extra soup and freeze. To make the soup fit better in my freezer, I put the bags flat on their sides on a small baking sheet and freeze on the baking sheet. This freezes them flat so they go in the side of the freezer like files!

Yum! I can now eat more than soup!

My mouth healed up great. Look at my wisdom teeth, they are huge!