Healthy Chicken Enchiladas

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I'm not a great cook and can get easily overwhelmed when the ingredient list is longer than my attention span.  So I have a general rule of 5 ingredients (+/- a couple) and 30 minutes or less.  The one has 6 ingredients so it was a winner from the start.  Plus once again, they are perfectly portion controlled already and each pocket is only 155 calories each.  Super win!  

I found these over at The Dashing Dish.  You can go straight to the recipe here.  I love that she gives great directions and a picture at each step so that if you easily get confused like me you can follow along.  

On her instructions she says to use Enchilada sauce and enchilada seasoning but in the side she says you can also sub in salsa.  I would recommend using the salsa instead of the enchilada sauce.  I've done it both ways now and I think the salsa was better.  It made it a little chunkier in a good way.  =)

Another plus is these reheat well!  We just pop them in the toaster oven the next day to warm them up so the crescent rolls don't get soggy.  

I guess my only complaint is that mine don't turn out near as pretty as hers.  I just can't get them all tucked in and wind up having some of the yummy goodness inside leak out.  

Add these great Chicken Enchilada Pockets to your meal calendar sometime soon.  You won't regret it!

My Fit Week #2 (50 more to go)

Regular week for me.  Here's what I did:

Monday: 55 minute ride on the stationary bike
Tuesday: Yoga at the Y
Wednesday: YogaLifeWay Yoga class where she made us do crazy breathing exercises that almost made me pass out.  It was pretty awesome.
Thursday: Yoga at the Y
Friday: 55 minute ride on the recumbent stationary bike (Don't judge me, I was trying to finish the last book of the Hunger Games.  I need to focus on that and get my sweat on!)
Saturday: crawling, climbing, swinging, chasing, and playing with my 2 year old at the City Museum in St. Louis.  (It totally counts as a work out since I was sweating and sore the next day.)

Healthy and Yummy Chicken Pot Pies

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Who doesn't love a good comfort food like Chicken Pot Pie?  Yum!  What I love about these is not only are they skinny, but they are already perfectly portion controlled.  They bake up nice and individually in biscuits that you smoosh into one of those big muffin tins.

The recipe comes from Between 3 Sisters and can be found here.  If you follow their directions exactly each pot pie is ONLY 144 calories!  How awesome is that?  And as I was writing this I checked back and they've included a nutritional break down as well as direction now on how to make your own homemade low calorie biscuits to make them even skinnier.  But in my opinion, that takes away the wonderful convenience and how easy these things are.

I pretty much follow their instructions.  The only thing I change is instead of dried parsley and onion powder I add Weber Kickin' Chicken.  That stuff is delicious!

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Give these Chicken Pot Pies a chance.  I promise you'll love them!

My Fit Week #1

Well, I must say there is a certain power that comes with putting your goal down on virtual paper for the whole world to see.  I'm acutely aware that really no one is reading this blog (thanks google stats) and that is ok.  This blog is doing exactly what I wanted; it's giving me a sense of obligation.  I knew when I started this, that each week I would report to any one who read it and myself what I had done this week to work out.  So on Thursday when Lil' Joe wasn't feeling good and we had already had to change his clothes 3 times and done 2 loads of wash and Sassy was in full 2 year old tantrum mode, I really did not want to go work out.  I had missed my yoga class and it was dangerously close to lunch time and then nap time.  But knowing I didn't want to report a miss on here, I quickly got the kids loaded up and headed to the gym to at least ride the stationary bike for a little bit.

So thank you for keeping me accountable!

Here's my report for my fit week.  (1 down, 51 more weeks until the Princess Half 2013!)

Monday: Pilates class
Tuesday: Yoga class
Wednesday: Yoga class (with a strong emphasis on stretching out my IT band.  It hurt so good.)
Thursday: Short but hard stationary bike ride for 25 minutes.  Since I knew it wouldn't be long I upped the effort level.
Friday: Pilates class

The weather was beautiful and I'm itching to get out and start running, but I still haven't been cleared because of my back problems.  I'm thinking of taking another month of resting and going to the chiropractor before I head to a sports medicine doctor to try something else.  Or I was thinking about trying some pool training that my runner friend Travis has talked about.  Has anyone else tried that?  What are some other low/no impact training activities I could add in while I wait to get cleared for real outside running?

Inspiring Reads

There's nothing quite like that runners high at the end of a run.  Whether it's short distance run that you didn't want to do, a long distance run that you push through, or a race day run, there is an undeniable high when you get to the finish line.  It's a euphoric moment of accomplishment that can't really be described only experienced.  And I want nothing more than to experience that glorious feeling at the end of the Princess Half in 2013.

But this race is big deal for a number of reasons.  One, I've been dreaming of this race since 2010.  Two,  I've only ever ran in 2 organized races (the Grizzlies House 5K in 2010 and the Zoom through the Zoo in 2011).  Three, the furthest distance I've ever ran was the 4.2 miles that was the Zoom through the Zoo.  And four, I'm still on a low impact only restriction so I can't even start training yet.

At times the thought of getting ready for this half marathon almost terrifies me.  I find myself slipping into all the old excuses and fears that kept me for running before I started the C25K in 2010.  I wonder if I can even do this.  13.1 miles is a long distance to run, but it's not just that, it's the thought of all the miles I'll have to log to get my body ready for that.

So I thought, since the 2012 Princess Half was just last weekend, that I should find some of my favorite race recaps from people who've done it and compile them here.  Anytime I need a little motivation and inspiration I can quickly visit this page and be reminded of how awesome it's going to feel when I cross that finish line.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Run Faster Mommy: This is her race recap from the 2010 Princess Half Marathon weekend.  It was the first race recap I ever read and found it when I immediately googled Disney's Princess Half Marathon when I got home from the St. Jude race expo and saw those gorgeous medals.

FitFluential Compilation: Fit Fluential has to be one of the coolest things I've discovered since joining Twitter to help me on this journey.  It's this whole community of people talking about being fit and healthy.  They post recipes, work out ideas, and this post is a list of recaps from the FitFluential Abassadors they sent to the race.  It's a cool link because it also talks about the other parts of the Marathon weekend like the Expo, 5K, pasta party, and even a blogger meet up.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to talk any of my friends into going and running this race with me so it feels good to know that even if I go "alone" I'll still have a whole community with me.

Running Jenn(ie): This is one of my newest twitter buddies!  She just finished doing her first 5K and 10K in 2011 and her first half marathon ever was the Princess Half just last weekend!  I love reading about how she tracked her training online and everything just like what I'm planning to do here.  It's great to read it because 1) it reminds me about how hard training for this half is going to be, but also 2) how obtainable it is.  Definitely check this out if you're thinking about training for your first half.

Amanda's Weekly Zen: This is a great resource sight that has a bunch of tips and links.

And of course don't forget about RunDisney's site.  And you can also follow them on Facebook.  Speaking of facebook, I think I saw in their status recently that 2013 will be the 5th annual Princess Half Marathon.  So very exciting!