Confessions of a Bulk Eater

I’ve now had 2 requests for the fajita recipe I made the other night. I will post the recipe and then tell you what I did. This was from allrecipes.com. This particular one serves 12. If you want to make it smaller or larger, you can go to the website and change the servings.

INGREDIENTS
1 (1 1/2-pound) beef flank steak
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, undrained
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped*
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium green pepper, julienned
1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
12 (6 inch) flour tortillas, warmed
3/4 cup fat-free sour cream
3/4 cup salsa

DIRECTIONS
Thinly slice steak across the grain into strips; place in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Add tomatoes, jalapeno, garlic, coriander, cumin, chili powder and salt. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours. Add onion, peppers and cilantro. Cover and cook 1-2 hours longer or until meat is tender.
Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; gradually stir into slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until slightly thickened. Using a slotted spoon, spoon about 1/2 cup meat mixture down the center of each tortilla. Add 1 tablespoon each sour cream and salsa. Fold bottom of tortilla over filling and roll up.

Nutritional Analysis: One fajita equals 273 calories, 11 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 23 mg cholesterol, 494 mg sodium, 35 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 21 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 2 lean meat, 2 starch, 1 vegetable.

Now, here is what I did:
1. I used a 2.5lb flank steak (don’t ever send your husband to the store for meat) I cut the meat but you really don’t need too. It ends up falling apart anyway so you could just put the whole steak in the crock pot and then shred it when cooked.

2. I didn’t put my onions and peppers in with the meat. I sauted them right before we ate with some ground coriander. This way they were still a little crisp.

3. There is NO way that this serves 12 with 1/2 cup servings. That is at one fajita each (and really, who only eats ONE fajita) but still. There were 5 people eating meat. I didn’t see how many fajitas each person had (I was late to my own dinner party) but there was not that much left over. And I’m sure they were not putting 1/2 cup portions. That’s a lot of meat on a small tortilla. Especially when you have other stuff to go on it. And I had almost twice the amount of meat as needed.

Anyway, they were very very good and we enjoyed them. I hope you all do too!!

My nemisis. The weekends always find a way to derail me. It’s not really the weekend’s fault obviously. It’s my own fault. I’m working on it though. I think if I could beat the weekends it would help tremendously in my efforts.

Yesterday was good… I haven’t tracked all my calories yet, but I should be good. Despite the chicken sandwhich (lunchmeat) I ate between getting home and my son’s soccer game. I had the worst cramps and needed to eat so I could take some super-strength ibruprofin. But we didn’t go out to eat after the game like we usually do. That killed two birds with one stone. I knew the amount of calories I was eating AND we saved some money.

Today some friends are coming over for dinner. One couple is our normal “over for dinner on Saturday” friends. The other couple are good friends of ours as well, but they have been in Kenya for the past year and are finally back in the states. It will be good to be able to spend some time with them. I have fajitas cooking in the crock-pot right now. They are starting to smell so good. I’m going to try to limit my calories today so I can enjoy. Although, I won’t eat the meat (it’s steak). I’m going to saute some veggies and make some rice and maybe black beans to have with mine. YUM!!!

My son is going to a “Scary Sleepover” tonight for his cousin’s birthday. We’ll see how that goes. I have a feeling I’ll be having to drive to go get him at like 2am to pick him up. I’m hoping not. My mom is going to keep the baby so we’ll be able to actually enjoy the time with our friends uninterrupted.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

So, as i was riding along on my horomonal roller coaster yesterday (have I mentioned how much I LOVE being a woman?) I consumed almost 200 calories more than my max allotment for the day should be. Considering my gorge fest at breakfast and the 2 snacks I inhaled between getting home from work and taking my son to soccer practice, I felt okay about that. Not good, but I knew it could have been a lot worse. It has been worse in the past.

So we get home from soccer and my husband tells me he has to go meet the A/C people at the new house in the morning (today) to give them a check (sellers are paying for the replacement, we are paying for some sort of upgrade to make it more energy efficient) and he won’t be able to take the baby to daycare. Did I mind? Hmmm… I didn’t get to the gym yesterday morning and I really didn’t want to miss 2 days. So I told him no, as long as he didn’t mind me going last night once the kids were to bed (nothign on TV anyway except the debate) He said no so once I got my son to bed, I hit the gym.

I wanted to run, but it had been almost a week since I had run and knew it would be difficult. I decided to jump into week 5 of C25k to get some structure and motivation. And it worked. I ran the three 5 minute intervals without any problems. I also ran once the whole thing was over. I had put the treadmill to go fo 45 minutes, I just wanted to see how far I would get. I finished a 5k in a little over 40 minutes so I used the remaning time to slow my heart rate down. I ran a few times at over 6mph too!! Not for very long, but just to see. I think I might continue with the program to see what happens. See if I can increase my endurance. Plus, the music was MUCH MUCH better on week 5 and that was my whole hangup with week 4.

So I burned up 450 calories on the tready plus I did a circuit of arm weights so I’m sure I burned more off there. See, redemption. I did not let the horomones beat me yesterday. Yesterday was a lunch from Tijuana Flats sort of day and I did not let it become that. Progress.

Okay, so now a rant. I hate this: I’m at the gym last night. It’s 9:30pm so the gym is pretty empty. There is a WHOLE ROW of EMPTY treadmills just waiting to be used. What does this one guy do? He gets on the one next to me and starts running away at like 8 mph. Really? Why the one right next to me? Number one, there were plenty of other ones to be had. Number two, he really was not that good looking and I may have been able to excuse it just a tad if he was. Number 3, I felt as if he were suffocating me (I have personal space issues as you can see) Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

And now I leave you with some insight as to why I go to NY as often as I do. You would too if this is what you were going to be looking at on stage:

I really should look into therapy

It’s just one of those days
Where ya don’t wanna wake up
Everything is f—-d, everybody sucks.
You don’t really know why
But you wanna justify rippin’ someone’s head off
No human contact
And if you interact your life is on contract
Your best bet is to stay away mother f—-r!
It’s just one of those days!
~~ Limp Bizkit “Break Stuff”

Hi.. can you tell I’m just a wee bit hormonal today? Plus the fact that my husband just totally annoyed the hell out of me last night and this morning (and I leave the house before he wakes up so consider that!!) The above lyrics pretty much sum up my feelings right now. I did not go to the gym this morning — I don’t care. I have consumed almost 500 calories already this morning. Well, if I would finish what is sitting in front of me I would, but I don’t think I will. But I’ll count the whole amount on my sparkpeople page anyway. I’ve already planned out my day on sparkpeople and I am actually still under calories, so it’s okay. Today will be a challenge. It’s when I am like this that I want to eat - and I mean EAT!! I am actually going to try to restrain myself though. If I can do it once, that means I can do it EVERY MONTH!!

On another note… did anyone watch Private Practice last night? I’m so glad that show is back on the air. If only the stupid VP debate wasn’t on tonight, I could get my Grey’s Anatomy fix and maybe everything would be okay.

THE DEVIL!! Homemade cupcakes… chocolate with chocolate frosting. UGH!!! And I am hungry!! I ate breakfast (my usual oatbran with blueberries) but I am already hungry! MUST. RESIST. CUPCAKES.

QUICK — where’s my gum?!

***Getupnow is right. I do have a trip for Halloween to NY to see my guys. I have resisted cupcakes thus far. The cupcake craving is over, but I am still hungry. I pinpointed my problem though and it’s the fact that it’s once again that time of the month. Ahhh… I love being a woman I have eaten a pear and no matter how hungry I get, I will force myself to wait until lunchtime. I only have so much food that I bring with me each day. I have my water and my gum and that will hold me over!!!