Dinner and a Walk

I got the latest issue of Cooking Light a week or so ago. I immediately started planning to try the One Pot Jambalaya. I think I was attracted to it right away because of the awesome ladies in my group who either live in Louisiana currently or have spent significant portions of there life there. I wanted a little taste of their cuisine. Admittedly, this recipe is not completely authentic I hope it is a fair representation.

The smell of peppers and onions sauteing with the andouille sausage got things off to a great start. "I don't know what it is, but it smells delicious" was called from the other room by a hungry husband.

The recipe was super simple and quick. My biggest concern was the rice. The recipe calls for packages of pre-cooked rice (of which I am not a fan). So the night before I made a batch of rice in my steamer. I tried to estimate how much rice is in the packages and used that much of my rice. I think in the future this would be a great use for leftover rice (or maybe I should make a bit extra when we are having rice another night). In my opinion, there should have been more liquid used for cooking. I ended up using almost all the juice from the tomatoes. In the future (and there will be a future because SPOILER ALERT my husband loved it), I would add some chicken broth. I used Slap Ya Mama seasoning. When I read the recipe I didn't notice it called for a "salt free" seasoning, so I was glad when one of my ladies warned me of the salt content. In the end, it was still a bit salty, but that I can fix that next time. We are happy to have another nice cool weather dish in the dinner rotation :)

After dinner, my husband offered to ride herd on the small fry so I could take a walk  Millie was super excited to go with me. She didn't know I was actually "using" her to speed up my pace a little. 

She did a good job keeping me moving.

Headed to the home stretch I was treated to a pretty sunset...bonus!

When I got home the small fry was bathed in her jammies. It was so nice to have some snuggle time with her while looking at my giant encyclopedia of mammals.  Thank you, husband :)

Overall, I was happy with my meals for the day (calories totally on point). However, when I ran to Walmart these chips jumped in my cart (I categorically deny any assistance from me). I am the poster child of the Frito-Lay marketing department. Make a new flavor of chips and I will have to try it. The past several I have tried have been complete fails. However, this one was quite yummy. I felt the urge to strap it on my face like a horse's feed bag. Truth is I ate more than a serving (more like 2-3 servings over the course of the afternoon). Later, I read some online reviews and discovered I may be in the minority. So, the silver lining is the temptation should be gone soon since they won't be making more.  

Sadly, as often happens, after my salty indulgence I wanted sweet. There was available candy and I ate that too - ugh! Overall, my calories for the day were much better than they have been recently (between 1800-2000). However, this can't be happening every other day if I want to be successful.

The important thing is even though I didn't do everything right, I didn't throw in the towel. Today I will do better.