8/9 Points Plus Ground Chicken Burgers with Balsamic Basil Salsa!

So I was walking through the store the other day looking for ground turkey, Cause it is low points and filling and all that Jazz. But Boy oh Boy is Ground Turkey expensive!!! Well while looking I came across a little gem of ground Chicken! only 2.99 a pound! The Ground Turkey was 4.49 a pound on sale! So my cheapness took over me and I purchased it and made Ground Chicken Chili and it was Delish! And while I was computing the points I realized that Ground Chicken is EVEN lower points then Ground Turkey! Super Wahoo! So it got me thinking, I love Hamburgers, but I'm just not that huge of a Fan of Turkey Burgers, and I really really really do not like Black Bean Burgers. Sooooo why not try Ground Chicken Burgers! And since my Basil plant is growing pretty well and I love Tomatoes and Red Onions I was thinking a nice Basil Salsa! A 1/4 a pound of Ground Chicken (raw) is 3 points, so I figured you can have a pretty sizable burger for low points. Soooooo, I decided to make these tonight, and here is what I came up with. (bad pictures, sorry everyone about that, but This is the first cooking post, I have to get some things down) (Plus, it's hard to remember to take pictures when you are cooking!)

Ingredients (serves 2)

Chicken Patty ( 3 points each )

1/2 lb Ground Chicken

1 tsp Ground Pepper

1 tsp Kosher Salt

Balsamic Basil Salsa (you can say this is 1 point, as all of this is 0 points, but together it might equal 1)

1/4 Red Onion

1/4 Large Tomato

4-6 Leaves of Basil (to your taste)

1 Tbs Balsamic Glaze

1 tsp Ground Pepper

1 tsp Kosher Salt

1 tsp Garlic Powder

Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Rolls (3 Points Each)

Reduced Fat 2% milk Swiss Cheese slices (if you want cheese) (2 points a slice)

Making the Salsa:

Dice up the Tomato and Onion and Basil add the Balsamic glaze, salt, pepper, and garlic and let it marinade for about an hour. (you can always make this before hand and just keep it in the fridge, the longer it marinades the tastier it becomes!)

Making the Patty:

First divide the chicken into 2 patties. Then add some Salt and Pepper to the patties while you form them. Voila! They are ready for the grill!

Heat the grill up to about medium and put the ground chicken patties on there flipping every 3 mins until they are thoroughly cooked. about 6-9 mins. (don't overcook as they will become dry, but make sure they are fully cooked!) While you are finishing up the patties you can put the buns on the grill and get them a little toasty!

After grilling up the burgers assemble them on a plate with the bun, the burger, the Swiss cheese, and a ample serving of the salsa! There's no need for Mayo or Mustard because the salsa is enough tastiness!!

Close up the Burger and enjoy! It's a delicious filling 8/9 points of yummy bliss!

Teaching and cooking.

So I guess my life isn't too exciting. I haven't been posting on here lately, but I have a little bit of info that is sort of exciting and also I've had an epiphany about what to post on here. So I'll start by telling the exciting news.

I got a one night a week teaching job at ITT Tech. I'll be teaching a Sustainability course. Which should be great, and a little extra money. Also, I've found that when the economy goes down, so do the architecture jobs, and there isn't to to much more you can do with a Masters in architecture except teach. And I found out when I lost my job earlier, that well, you need experience to teach, so I'm getting it! starting off small but it should be a great opportunity and I'm looking forward to it! If anyone has an teaching hints and tips I'm totally open to it! I start next Tuesday night! So I'll fill you in on how things go!

Now on to the Epiphany, well.. I've been doing weight watchers the past 5-6 months and I've been doing pretty well, lost about 40lbs. But here's the thing. I've been making their recipes online and well, they stink.

I mean sure you'll find a gem here and there, but I've come up with some of my own recipes and ideas since joining that I think are kinda better, so I'm gonna start posting weight watcher friendly recipes up here for anyone interested!

:-)

Hope everyone is well!!

Gumbo

So since October Mom, Mika, Aunt Nancy and I have been doing weight watchers! We're all doing really well. Combined we've lost over 110 pounds! (Which is insane and awesome!) We are always looking for yummy food and how to take old recipes and make them healthier! Tonight I made gumbo, but I didn't make the Roux and everything, I made healthy gumbo! Hooray! It was delish and full of yummy seafood!! I just need to remember the recipe and write it down before I forget it. I have a terrible habit of not writing down the things I cook. So tonight I'm off to writing down the recipe! Maybe I'll post it on here for anyone who's interested in a yummy gumbo that doesn't have 2 cups of oil and 2 cups of flour (like real gumbo!)

Here it is!

Here's Scout on the new duvet!



And here's Stella and Scout :-) This is how I get pictures of them together :-)

Sooo sorry!

So I knew this would happen it was bound to. I knew if I started a blog I would neglect it. Well I am going to try and change that. (yeah yeah yeah) You've heard it all before. Julia's gonna do this, and Julia's gonna do that. Well all I can say is that I am going to try my hardest!

So I am sure you might have heard, I got a job! Horray! It's absolutely wonderful! It's a small architecture firm (it's just me and the owner / architect) so very small. But It's two blocks from my house! I walk to work, walk home for lunch, and walk all around!! It's great! We are currently working on Clubhouses and Homes. It's a huge change from the type of work I was doing before and the type of office I was in, but change is good.

I have extra time on my hands now because I lack commute! Horray! So I've been trying to use the extra time to organize around my apartment. Now I'm almost done and perfectly content with the organization, so guess what that means? More time for Blogging!! (hopefully...)

In other news, It was freezing today here, which is funny cause it's not freezing here at all in compairison to the rest of the country, but it was cold enough for me to bundle up and wear my Ravenclaw Scarf I got in Harry Pottery World with my sisters!



Horray!!

The last couple months

So I haven't been posting to my blog the past couple months... which I know is kinda pathetic, since I just started the blog and all, but I've been in a rut. A couple days after I started the blog, I unfortunately found out that I was getting laid off. Which threw me for a loop.... in a bad way. So I've been looking for jobs.... and sadly... it appears.... there aren't any! Hooray! :-( but I'm gonna keep plugging away and hope that something comes around.

A week or so after I lost my job, Michael got a new job! Hooray!! But it's in Tallahassee, so we are working hard at keeping our relationship going strong from a distance. He comes in every Friday after work so we get to spend every weekend together! So I look forward to every Friday with all my heart!!! I wish he could be here everyday, but I know that we are gonna make it through this and it will just make our love stronger!

Besides looking for jobs I've started walking more and trying to stay active and learn new things. You really don't realize how long a day is until you aren't working or sticking to a schedule. So I'm starting to paint again and hoping I can get together a collection of work and maybe see if people want to buy some of them! Also learning to make webpages, and knit.

I'm also trying to expand my job search, to see what else I can do with this Architecture degree, besides Architecture. I am looking to see if there are some teaching jobs out there, maybe sell some art, and I've toyed with the idea of going into reality... but I have no idea if the reality thing would pan out, with the housing market being a disaster right now.... so basically i guess I'm doing a lot of job and soul searching.

Here's hoping everything will fall into place soon!

Space!

I've lived in my new Apartment for about 6 months now. It's a great little place just for myself. It's in my favorite part of town, I can walk everywhere and it's not a bad drive to work! (I'll post pictures of my apartment and area of town in another post) So after 6 months you'd think I'd have everything figured out and organized, but it seems like little things start to bug me after a while and then I'm off to Target to find the perfect organizational piece! The most recent area of concern is in my bathroom. Since this is just a one bed / one bath apartment in an old Carriage house it's not too big or fancy. Currently I have an over the toilet cabinet (target style) and the space under the sink. But still for a place to put extra toilet paper, tissues, towels, hair dryers etc etc. Good Lord you never realize how many things go into a bathroom till you have one all by yourself. So currently the space between the sink and the wall has been functioning as the extra toilet paper holder and hair dryer area. Which... has gotten on my nerves for long enough. So I measured and checked out some things online to make sure they had organizers that fit in less then 12 inches. Poof! They do! So off we go, I didn't want to pay too much money for something so I found a little perfect shelf and cabinet build it yourself from Target that was only 26$ Perfect! So i don't know about you all, but I have a love / hate relationship with these build it yourself things. I love the idea if building them, but hate that they give you just a bag of stuff and pretty shotty instructions, but a girls gotta do, what a girls gotta do. So I started the construction phase this morning.

So here is it!

Stell Bell decided to come help, by sitting in my lap... not so much help Stell, but... I love you too..

so after some restraining.....

Ok, She's all taken care of, now time to put this baby together. I was extremely happy to see that Target has this new thing they do with all the pieces. Check this out! HOLY MOLY!

See! Even the little pieces are all stuck together after you take them out!

Everything is all together and labeled on a piece of cardboard. Brilliant Target! Now for the instructions... meh.... they were ok... The last page was a little tough with putting the cabinet door on but Poof! Success!! The bathroom is now organized!

Stella was extremely happy that we were done cause she could run around again!

AND!! While putting the towels away, I found my Saints inflatable helmet that Michael told me he'd wear if the Saints won the SuperBowl! HOORAY!!!!


WHO DAT?!

Hello World!

So I decided it might be pretty neat to start a Blog, so people might know what I'm up to. Not cause I particularly am up to anything too exciting, but because I live far away from some friends and family who might be interested. I'm gonna try and keep this pretty open ended and hopefully entertaining by posting about all my different interests. Probably mostly talking about Architecture, Art, Cooking, Gardening, possibly some about myself etc etc etc. So I hope everyone enjoys it.

Here's some pictures below I hope everyone enjoys!

Michael and I :-)

Stella Bella, my Doggie Dog.