Hello my friendly followers...all three of you... Ha just kidding there might be more but who knows, anywho today I was in the kitchen baking! As a member of weight watchers I have access to weight watchers online, where there are thousands of recipes to try. Now let me get one thing straight, not all of the recipes are good...some of them are not tasty but some of them are also sooo good that you dont even know what your eating isnt really bad for you. So I came across this recipe for a chocolate chip cheesecake and though I was skeptical at first I read the reviews and out of 138 of them, everyone said they either loved it or liked it so I decided to give it a shot. First change I made to the recipe though was to make the whole cheesecake into individual cupcake sized cheesecakes cause then I can keep them in my freezer and get one out when I want one. So here is the recipe and I am telling you they are sooo frickin good. So try them out!
Yumm!! I made mini ones too!
Ingredients:
1 box chocolate graham crackers or chocolate wafers (I used chocolate teddy grahams cause they were on sale)
8 oz block of fat free cream cheese
8oz tub of low fat or fat free cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup fat free cottage cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 large egg whites
3/4 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
Instructions:
Pre-heat the oven to 325
Crush grahams in a bag using a rolling pin, until fine, and set aside
Using an electric mixer, beat together cream cheeses until well blended
In a small bowl combine sugar and flour and then add to cream cheese mixture and beat until smooth
In a food processor or blender, puree cottage cheese until smooth. Then add to cream cheese mixture. Also add the vanilla extract to the cream cheese mixture too. Again beat the mixture until smooth.
Then add lightly beaten egg whites to cream cheese mixture and beat until mixed. Then stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips to cream cheese mixture.
In a cupcake pan (you can use the cupcake liners or not, but if you dont, make sure to grease the pan) put a little of the chocolate grahams and then fill each cupcake almost to the top with the cream cheese mixture and then sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top as well.
Put in the oven for about 24 minutes and then let cool. You can serve it warm or put them in the freezer and serve cool with a little bit of whip cream on top. It makes about 24 cupcake size cheesecakes.
They are 3 Points Plus on WW as a cupcake, but if you decide to make it as a whole cheesecake it serves 12 and each slice is 6 Points Plus. They are absolutely delicious and I suggest you try them!!!
SOoooo I havent updated probably in about a week and a half because my brother, Zach, came home for a week of summer vacation. We have been having a lot of fun as a fam, going to a Braves game and then Lazer show etc. I think I used to take this stuff for granted because you dont realize how important family time is until you dont have it anymore. Zach lives in Indiana and Im getting ready to move to Florida and Josh is in school in Georgia and its just strange to think we will never live under the same roof again and we are all growing up. So enjoy that time with your fam, even if they make you crazy sometimes....cause I definitely miss the crazy times when we were kids.
Anywho I decided to be totally self absorbed with this latest blog post and talk about the name ALLISON. I only share this name with millions of other people, but I feel kind of special that there are a bunch of songs with the name ALLISON in them. In spinning this week they played the song, "Allison Road" by the Gin Blossoms and I got to thinking, I wonder how many songs have my name in them so I found a few to share with all of you for fun! So check out the youtube videos below!
"Allison Road" by Gin Blossoms -Who doesnt love the Gin Blossoms!! Great 90s band..too bad they broke up!
"Allison" by Elvis Costello - Plain and simple...its a classic!
"Allison" by Permanent Me- I have never heard this song before but hey my name is in it and its catchy! and there is a line in it says "hey allison you are the one that makes boys hold their breath as you walk on.." haha
"Allison" by The Pixies- Okay so this song is about singer Moses Allison (who is in fact a man) but whatever its my name. And if ya didnt know already Allison only became a girls name in the 20th century, before that back in Germany it used to be a boys name meaning "son of Alice" ha!
"Allison" by Erickson - Kind of a punk, poppy song, that I have never heard until now. You wouldnt believe how many songs you can find on Itunes called "Allison" haha!
Well unfortunately I cant find anymore videos on youtube but like I said there are a million...okay like 45 in Itunes so check them out if ya want to think about someone named Allison!
Yeah so whats new!!!! I all I do is cook!haha I am very thankful that my mom allows me to be adventurous and play food network star and try out all kind of recipes! Thanks MOM! Last night I decided to try another recipe from the Everything Healthy Cookbook and it was a delicious soup called Buffalo Chicken Chowder. Normally this would probably be a better soup to serve in the fall or winter...but I just couldn't wait a few months to try it! It turned out to be a two thumbs up recipe in the miller house!
It tastes like a delicious buffalo chicken queso soup! Has a bit of a kick but its not too hot at all!
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 pounds boneless & skinless chicken breast
3 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper or red pepper
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs butter
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
4 cloves minced garlic
2 cups sliced celery
1 (8oz) package sliced mushrooms
2 cups chopped carrots
4 cups chicken broth
1 (13oz) can non-fat evaporated milk
1/2 cup fat free half&half
1 & 1/2 cups lacy swiss cheese
1/2 cup lowfat crumbled feta cheese
1/2 bottle Franks Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce (The buffalo one is a milder sauce and good for this recipe)
1 small can chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup low fat blue cheese dressing
Directions:
1) Cut up chicken breasts into small chunks and then toss in mixture of flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. Then heat oil in large soup pot over medium heat and add chicken. Cook and brown chicken for about ten minutes and then remove from pot.
2) Add butter to pot and melt. Add garlic, onion, and celery, mushrooms, carrots, and pepper to pot. Cook and stir the veggies on medium to high heat until they are crisp and tender for about 8 to 10 minutes. Then return the chicken to the soup pot and also add the chicken broth.
3) Bring soup to a simmer, cover, and leave on medium to low heat for about 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Then reduce heat to low and stir in evaporated milk, half and half, swiss cheese, feta cheese, and franks sauce. Continue to cook and stir until cheese melts and is creamy. Turn up to medium high heat and add some clear gel or cornstarch to thicken if need be.
4) Stir tomatoes and blue cheese dressing together in a dish to serve as a garnish for on top of bowls of soup.
This recipe takes about 20 minutes prep time (to cut chicken and veggies up) and then about 40 minutes for cooking the soup! Its 6 points plus on WW for a cup and a half. And the recipe easily serves a family of 6. Enjoy!
Sex in the closets, McDreamy doctors, dramatic lovers, fighters, best friends and over dramatized situations where there are bombs inside patients??? This is not what goes on inside a REAL hospital...but it sure makes for interesting tv on beloved award winning shows like Greys Anatomy and ER. This past Friday I had the opportunity, for the first in my time in my life, to go to work all day with my dad. Up until this point my view and explanation for what my dad did was kind of a mystery. I could tell you what my dad was, his title I mean, but I never really knew the extent of what my father actually did. Many of my friends over the years could easily tell me what their dads did for a living. Maybe they sold insurance or owned their own company. Maybe they were a history professor or an electrician. Or maybe I even got to see some of them at their job because I have a number of best friends who's fathers are Pastors! So anyways when I would tell people that my dad was a PA (a physicians Assistant) with the cardio vascular team...people would turn and say "oh okay so your dads a doctor!" "wow you guys must be millionaires!" NO No you have to go to school for about a million years to be a doctor. While my father did put in many years of schooling after his undergraduate studies at Goshen College, he became a PA and not an MD.
So finally on this Friday 6/24/11, almost 23 years later I returned to the hospital where I was born at 6:30 in the morning. Dad and I woke up at 4:30 ( the way dad has started his day for about 30 years) and got ready and left around 5:30 for the hospital. Piedmont Hospital certainly doesnt look like Seattle Grace but the day started to feel real when we got there and immediately dad passed me off to a nurse who took me into the locker room to change. Why hospital people have to wear nice clothes only to change into scrubs, I will never understand. But anyways in the locker room I grabbed pants, a shirt, a jacket (its kept very cold in the operating room), a scrub hat, a mask, and goggles. I was so unrecognizable that when we walked out of the locker room and into the OR someone asked me if I was a Nurse!ha noooo not me Im a teacher playing dress up! I sat in a chair and waited till about 7:30 when the first surgery or case as they call it would begin. No I was not going to see McDreamy do brain surgery because I was on the CVOR- Cardio Vascular Operating Room floor. My dad works with the one thing we need to keep the blood pumping...the HEART! This is the floor where you go when you have a heart attack or you have blockage in valves or you need bypass surgeries....so the patients are usually not young!lol Anyways I was then taken into OR 18 where my dad was. Finally I was going to see exactly what my dad loves so much! Before I walked in I didn't scrub in (cause obviously Im not the one operating!ha) but I did have to squirt this soap stuff on my hands every time I entered the OR cause everything is very steril. There were a ton of people in the room. At any given time there are usually 6 or more people in the room. people like nurses who pass instruments, the PA anesthesiologist who pushes drugs to make sure the paient stays asleep (my dad was a PA anesthesiologist for 4 years but he just loves surgery so he went back to PA-CV surgery). There is also an assistant nurse who helps the doctor during the surgery, another nurse getting stuff for the nurse who passes instruments, the perfusionist who manages the heart and lung machine (the keeps the patient alive when they stop the heart for surgery) and of course MY DAD the PA! The sounds of Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" lingered as my dad started off the surgery after the patient was put to sleep...although no one broke into song like on that weird episode of Grey's. Then the medical team did a call to order to make sure they knew what they were doing, who the patient was, etc. Then my dad did his job. He made a small incision in the patients leg and got this huge fancy tool and stuck it into the guys leg. It had a camera attached so I could see what was happening inside. My dad was going in to get a Vein! Dad worked for about 20 minutes cutting inside this guys leg to pull out a vein. When he got it out I was surprised that it wasnt bigger. It looked like a small red string. Dad quickly sowed up his leg and then worked to prepare the vein for the doctor. I was very impressed the way dad worked meticulously on this small vein sowing up tiny microscopic holes that were in the vein. He prepped it for another 20 minutes and then the doctor showed up to start the surgery. My dad left because he had to go do rounds (talk to patients and families who were recovering etc). Then I got up at the head of the patient and got to see as the doctor and his nurse assistant began to open the patients chest! I thought killing hens and chickens in Peru was intense...no, cracking open someones chest is insane! First they cut with a scalpel on the top layer of skin, and then they use a tool that cuts through the fat and cauterizes or burns it so it doesnt bleed to much and then they use a small saw to cut through the sternum. Finally when the chest is open they use a device to crank open and hold open the chest so the doctor can work. Then I saw it all the heart and the lungs, these organs we love with and breathe with, sitting there exposed. It was unreal and so interesting to see. So basically to make a really long story short. I watched a three or so hour surgery where they stopped the heart and took the vein that my dad had gotten out and attached it somewhere in there. Throughout the whole process they were talking to me and explaining things and I I was trying to sound like I knew what was going on, but all i could think to say was "My friend Bethany is a nurse!" haha I must have said that like 20 times throughout the day!haha. Anyway after the surgery was over, my dad showed up again the close the body. He literally had to sow up like four layers. He first put wires into the chest to pull it closed. Then he sowed up the fat, then another layer, then the skin and then the guy was done. The nurses wheeled the patient to a room in the ICU where he would spend the next five days to be watched and monitored. The rest of the day was much the same although the second surgery I watched my dad on he had his hands right in the patients chest holding the heart for the doctor....it was very cool. Then finally around 5:15 dad and I left the building. This post is already very long, but I could have gone into more stuff about all the people I met, all the WOMEN dad has to deal with haha. I told my dad that where he works is like working in a school like I do cause you work with a bunch of CRAZY WOMEN....lets just admit it when a ton of women get together in a work environment things get a little insane...but anyways thats another story.
I had a long, but awesome day finally getting to see what my dad does for a living. I realized no, my dad is not a doctor, so maybe he wont get any credit, but he is in there with a team of people saving lives everyday and doing it for 12 hours and smiling and talking to patients and interacting with all kinds of people. Okay okay long enough I know so I leave you with a quote from Grey's Anatomy:
"Its not about what you look like, or your job, or how successful you are. It's about having people in your life who you love and who love you. That's all that matters."
Found this recipe and made it last night and it was spectacular...and Im not just saying that because I made it!lol It takes about an hour of prep time and then a few hours in the oven but its totally worth it!
Caramelized Onion Apple pork chop with a side of corn and peas! Yum!
Ingredients:
2 Tbs butter, divided
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves minced garlic
2 granny smith apples, skinned & chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup fat free chicken broth
1/2 cup apple juice
3 Tbs dijon mustard
4-6 (6oz) boneless pork chops
How To:
1) Melt 1 Tbs butter in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook and stir until tender for about five minutes. Lower heat just a bit and stir frequently until onions are caramelized, like about 20 minutes.
2) Spoon onion mixture into medium bowl; stir in cut up apples, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Let mixture cool for a few minutes. meanwhile cut a pocket into the side of each porkchop (I you tubed this cause I had never stuffed porkchops before!)
3) Stuff onion and apple mixture into each chop, reserving the extra. Dredge filled chops in flour. Melt remaining 1 Tbs butter in skillet, brown chops on both sides.
4) Place remaining onion mixture on chops in a casserole dish. Deglaze pan with chicken broth and apple juice and stir in mustard. Then pour mixture over chops. Cover and cook at 325 or 350 for about 2 hours.
You can serve with veggies or coleslaw or potatoes! The porkchop is healthy and is only 7 points plus on WW! Enjoy!
Today is the First Official day of SUMMER!!! Although we people down here in the ATL wouldnt know that to be any different cause its been 95 plus degrees outside for the past two months!! Anywho in honor of this day I bring you some of the best classic Summer Flicks, in my opinion of course, cause nothing says summer like MOVIES!!! So if your sitting around bored (I highly doubt you are??? Hello we are adults and we have commitments!!!) but If ya just want to escape the heat and kick back with a classic summer movie then here are a few you should check out!
1) Now and Then - Hello this was every girls movie back in 95! I remember first watching it at a birthday party probably when I was like ten, so like three years after it came out. And I remember calling my mom and asking her permission to watch the movie cause I knew it was Pg-13...what a good daughter I was!ha!
2) Sandlot- Every boy's favorite summer movie of 93! "YOU PLAY BALL LIKE A GIRL!!" Dont remember when I first saw this one but I assure you I probably watched it with my two brothers. And after watching it I remember wanting to play baseball with the boys....so that is just what I did on the neighborhood street, I played ball with the boys!lol
3) One Crazy Summer- You cant have summer without the 80s, so this one takes us back to 86 before I was born and you can catch a young John Cusack and Demi Moore hangin out and makin out in Nantucket in the summer no less!!! This is a fun movie I've seen probably over fifteen times!
4) Stand by Me- Again with 86!!! That year was money! Also my oldest brother was born that year...random fact. Classic story of four friends out on adventure in search of a body...no its not a horror movie but its a classic!
5) The Endless Summer- 1966 Classic Surfing movie... basically THE SURFER MOVIE!! Again I cant recall the first time I watched this movie but I know it was sometime when I was in Florida hanging with my cousins Benji and Jordan, who are quite the surfer dudes! I always wanted to be a surfer...so maybe when I move to Florida in August I can become one too!ha
6) Summer Rental- This movie came out in 1985 but I dont think I saw it until about 15 years later. I found it on tv one summer and then I watched it a bunch! Its about a family who is going on summer vacation and just cant seem to catch a break. Another good one from the 80s!
7) The Parent Trap- Both the 1961 and 1998 version! The classic switch-aroo movie! I remember watching the orignial with my cousins Katelyn and Olivia and Erin especially (probs cause Erin and Liv are twins!!!!) But then the new version came out and I got to go for my birthday and ever since then I have spent the last 14 years A) trying to get that handshake down and B) wishing I could have gone to Camp!!
8) Jaws - This 1975 movie is the reason I hate the Ocean...well I love the ocean I just hate sharks!!! For some reason we would always watch these movies while we were in Florida on Summer vacation, and then of course there was that jaws ride in Universal that did me in when I was eight...I am scarred for life!
9) Heavyweights-1995 I really wanted to go to fat camp after watching this movie...mostly for the Blob...and maybe to hang out with ben stiller in his prime! This was Judd Apatow's brilliance many years before movies like 40 year old virgin and knocked up... etc!
10) Blue Crush- In 2002 I was 14 in eighth grade and totally in love with this movie. This movie started my favorite photo pose.."The Blue Crush pose" you know the one where we stand looking at the ocean and we take a picture just of our backs??? yeah thats the one that I coined back in freshman year of high school due to my intense love for this movie! Again I wanted to be a surfer...."You think you can surf it for real?" "you know it"...it has a killer soundtrack too!
So obviously I left off some good ones like Dirty Dancing, Almost Famous, Adventureland, Tommy Boy, Wet Hot American Summer, The Karate Kid, Grease, just to name a few. But anywho check any of these flicks out this summer!
So yeah its Wednesday and its the middle of the week and I'm just gonna throw out some new tunes that I am totally into! Now maybe you have heard them and maybe you havent and maybe they are from ten years ago...but whatever the case check them out cause they are on repeat on my itunes...
1. "Break off the Bough" -Cary Brothers: I love this dude and this is one of his tunes from last year but I just found it from watching that new abc family show "switched at birth"
2. "Struck by Lightning" - The Wooden Birds: This song is from their new album "two matchsticks" and I was totally obsessed after I heard it on one tree hill. The whole album is tight so check it out!
3. "Waiting for the sun"- Powderfinger: These aussies have been around for awhile...like many years and I just stumbled upon them..cant remember how but I love this song and I also love their song "my happiness"
4. "Calgary"- Bon Iver: If ya havent heard Bon Iver's new single then u must be hiding under a rock! Justin Vernon is a genius...This song builds beautifully... If ya like this song check out some of his old stuff.. my mom and my personal fave is "Skinny Love" we rock out like no other to that song!
5. "Faint Not"- Jenny and Tyler: My dear friend Bethany Yoder introduced me to this husband and wife duo and I havent looked back since! Awesome Tune...Thanks B!
6. "Sugar"- Stretch Princess: Anyone who is a fan of MK & A movies aka Mary kate and Ashley... has to remember this song from Passport to Paris! Found this song when I was watching the movie with my dear friend Cree and then of course I went and downloaded it! Its so fun!
Yeah yeah so thats what I have for ya now! I dont want to overload you will my thousands of songs so TUNE in next time for some more TUNES!ha!
