Favorite Recipe: Sante Fe Skillet

My mother has some recipes that she has made FOREVER and therefore they are some of my favorites. There were several recipes that I took with me to college and now re-create in the Foster home. One of these is Santa Fe Skillet.

Santa Fe Skillet is cheap, quick, easy, absolutely delicious and not to mention healthy. Yep, you heard me, its a Weight Watcher's Recipe, and you would NEVER know! After feeding this to Greg, I let him in on the secret that it was a Weight Watcher's recipe and he was shocked! So, needless to say, this is one that the men absolutely LOVE!


What you need:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 3/4 cup onion, chopped
• 3/4 green pepper, chopped
• 1 can Rotel, drained
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 cup instant rice
• 1 1/2 cup beef broth
• Grated Mexican Blend cheese (or cheddar)

What to do:

In a large skillet, brown the meat with the onion and green pepper. Once browned, drain the grease off of the meat. 

Add the rotel, salt and pepper, instant rice, and beef broth to the skillet. Immediately cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top and re-cover for two minutes. Once the cheese has melted, serve with tortila chips and a salad. Viola!

Fitness: Best Treadmill Workout I Have Found

Hehe. Yep I do this. Every time. Competitive Much?

At the beginning of last December (December 2011), I decided to commit and go against all odds and become one of those "hard-core-I-wakeup-at-the-crack-of-dawn-and-workout-before-work" kind of people. It was really an experiment. More of a challenge. 

There was a day when my sweet endearing husband said "I don't know if you could do it". Of course, he only said this because my nature is to stay in bed and sleep till noon, given the choice. Well, if anyone knows me, they also know that me being told that I "can't" do something is straight up a challenge. Something to immediately prove that I CAN do. And that's also what he was doing. By telling me that I couldn't do it, he knew that it would spur me to want to prove him wrong.

And it worked! Almost 8 months later, I still wake-up early 4-5 days a week and go get a good workout in. Naturally, I've had to change my workout every so often to give me something to look forward to, but I've gotten into a rhythm and have developed some staple workouts throughout my week that I absolutely love. One of those workouts is the one that greets me every Monday Morning.

Brace Yourself.

I start out every Monday with some cardio. Actually, let me clarify. Its hill intervals on a treadmill. Aka death on a Monday. On the blog I pulled this from, Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life, she titles this workout "Sweaty Mess" Incline Intervals. That should give you some insight into what you could get yourself into here. But in the end, after I'm sweating profusely and vastly out of breath, I love it!

If you're looking for something that will burn a TON of calories, help improve your endurance, and tone up your legs, this is a great workout to try out this upcoming week. Keys to success for this workout: a water bottle, some good tunes to keep you pumped up, picking your knees up on the hill sprints, and "driving" your elbows to keep you moving. You'd be surprised at how easy hills become when you pick your knees up and drive/pump those elbows. Just a little trick I learned from my distance running hubby.

Have funnnnnn! :)

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

**Recipe Adapted from Simplylovefood.blog.com

Found this recipe and was skeptical that I could get the hubby to eat these. After looking at the ingredients, I knew I'd have no problem convincing him that these would be delicious. And that they were! Not to mention, each pepper only has about 375-400 calories. AKA, I eat one and Greg eats two. Win!

Serves: 10 (AWESOME for leftovers!)
Total Prep & Cook Time: About an Hour

What You Need:

• Olive Oil
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 heaping tablespoons homemade taco seasoning (or the packaged kind)
• 2 cups cooked rice - I used Minute Brown Rice
• 5 large bell pepper, cut in have and seeds removed
• I used 3 and did 2 poblano peppers since my hubby is picky about his peppers!
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 (15 -16 oz) jar of salsa 
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Toppings:

• Sliced Avacado
• Sour Cream

What to Do:

Pre heat the over to 400 degrees. Once all of your peppers have been sliced and seeded, lightly coat the peppers with the olive oil and roast in a 9x13 baking dish about 20-25 minutes. 

While the peppers are cooking, brown your meat, cook your rice, and chop your onions. Once the peppers are done, remove the peppers from the oven. In a very large bowl, combine the cooked ground beef, chopped onions, taco season, rice, black beans, corn and salsa. Stir and mix well.

Carefully spoon the mixture into each of the peppers. You will have enough to make them almost overflow. Cook the peppers for another 15-20 minutes. 2 minutes before they are done, remove the peppers and sprinkle the tops with cheddar cheese. Place back in the over for 2 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Remove from the oven. Top with some avocado and a dollop of sour cream!