From Jamaica to Greece

As promised, I am sharing my dinner pic from last eve. The Jerk Chicken was simply amazing!

I took about 10 chicken thighs and cut as much fat off of them as possible. Rubbed the jerk seasoning (Walkerswood Traditional Jamaican Jerk Seasoning...found it at World Market last week) on each of them and tossed them into the CrockPot with about 1/3 cup water to coat the bottom of the crock. I cooked on High for about 1 hour and then Low for about 7 more hours; you could cook on low for 8-9 hours and be fine as well. 

There you have it...a little taste of something wonderful placed on a bed of tri-colored couscous with a side salad of spinach, red onion, black olives, cucumber, and feta cheese. I drizzled a tiny bit of Kraft Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette dressing on top of the salad to top it off. You are probably thinking..."Why the Greek-like salad with the Jamaican jerk chicken?"  I am thinking..."Why not?!" These little salads are bursting with flavor, and I tend to get stuck on something that tastes this good for a while. :) Fact: couscous is high in protein (8 gm per serving) and low in fat (1 gm per serving) but ALSO high in calories.1/3 cooked couscous = 210 calories. That's a big OUCH! As I am plugging that into My Fitness Pal...my fingers were quivering and my gut just sank as I saw it in black and white! But...I did pretty well overall today as the final figures rolled in on the total calories. Trying to keep my limit to about 1350 per day.

Mornings are about choices....I prefer Spark since Coconut Mocha doesn't change my day for the better!

Tuesdays are always a nice reminder that I have survived the weekend and made it through Manic Monday. Seems like Tuesday through Friday all blend together and then Friday rolls around without fail. Perhaps this is what happens when you are too busy to think about much of anything except work. This week is destined to be a bit busy but I am committing to exercising most mornings so that I can proudly say that I have logged at least 15 miles on the elliptical from Sunday to Saturday. Thinking back to last Summer and Fall, it was nothing for me to log 25-30 miles a week in the great outdoors but that included 3-5 miles on the weekday mornings plus 6-8 miles on Saturday mornings. I am such a wimpy girl that needs the weather to be "permitting"...meaning at least 50 degrees if possible :) The winter months drove me indoors to the couch but the Spring is just around the corner. Last year (about this time), I was training for the Country Music 1/2 Marathon so I was pounding the pavement as I trained in the snow (January/February) and rain (March) only to run the race on a nice, breezy day (April). Nevertheless, being in TN means that I am destined to get back on the pavement within the next couple of weeks....thank goodness for seasons.


Reminiscing the April Race Day 2012

 Today, I managed to snuggle rather than find my way to the elliptical. Fail! I have a GNO planned with an old co-worker at Chuy's tonight so I probably should have burned a few extra calories. The food is always yummy, and catching up with her will surely be great. Have a great day to all! Tomorrow is Weigh Day Wednesday...hoping for a little tilt of the scales in my favor :) It's not been a full week since my last weigh in but I think it will be a good day since Wednesdays seem to break the week in half.

A little bit of goodness for your day: