Some like it hot

There is a small portion of the population out there that crave heat in their food.  These are the people who actually enjoy the runny nose you inevitably get when eating something hot.  The people who know when others say something is “hot” it won’t even phase them because of their extreme tolerance for heat.  The people who’ve contemplated carrying around a bottle of hot sauce in their purse/bookbag/car.  The people who have found a way to incorporate buffalo sauce in to breakfast, lunch, AND dinner.  The people who constantly get asked “you put hot sauce on that?!”

You know who you are.

This recipe is for you.

I bring you slow-cooked buffalo chicken sandwiches:

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When I first stumbled upon this recipe, I KNEW it was destiny.  Buffalo chicken dip is a staple in my circle of friends and family, so how could a buffalo chicken sandwich NOT be amazing?

Simple answer.  If you like hot food, you will love this sandwich.

The recipe was very easy to throw together. 

Throw the following into a plastic baggie to marinate overnight:

  • 4 raw skinless boneless chicken breasts
  • 3/4 of a Quart (24 ounces) buffalo wing sauce (use your favorite brand–we used Gionino’s, of course)
  • 1 package dry ranch salad dressing mix

The next morning toss the marinated chicken into a crockpot, and cook on low for 6 hours.  Once the chicken is cooked, pull the breasts out of the crockpot and shred them up with two forks.  Toss the meat back in and then add:

  •  2 tablespoons butter
  • 8 ounces of buffalo wing sauce (which is the remainder of the quart)

Cook for one hour more, and then serve on top of a toasted kaiser roll. 

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To make the sandwich even more amazing, add some pepper jack cheese. 

Awwwwww yeeahhhhhhh.

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WARNING:  Things may get a little sloppy.  But true hot sauce lovers like to become one with their food, am I right? 😀

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5 steps forward, 5 steps back

Over the past 4 months I’ve had on-again off-again knee problems.  🙁

I’ve played soccer since I was in elementary school, and never had any issues.  This past spring, I decided to take up running.  I was AMAZED by how much I enjoyed it!  About a month into my newly found passion, I had a sharp pain in my right knee during my morning run.  I didn’t twist the knee, or land funny, or make any other type of movement to cause the pain.  It just sort of happened.  I attributed the pain to weakness (i.e., “push yourself harder, Mary“) and ran about 1 more mile to my house.  That genius move resulted in me limping around for about a week or so.  I tried several times to pick up where I had left off, with no success.  I even went to see an orthopedic doctor who told me “some knees just aren’t made for running.”

Unacceptable.

Then a couple months ago I developed a plan of attack in the form of my interval training plan.  Basically, the plan was to start off with walking/running intervals and slowly increase the running time over a period of weeks until I was running the entire time.

Things were going super smooth, and I was up to 7 minutes running and 3 minutes walking…. that is until I hurt my knee again on vacation a couple weeks ago.  I think this time it was due to overuse–we did a TON of walking and I was still doing my regular intervals on top of it.

It’s been 2 weeks since vacation, and I’ve tried several times to get my run on.  This was not going well at all — I could only do 1/2 of my regular intervals before feeling the pain start.  At least I have learned my lesson and now stop running at the first sign of knee pain!

So this morning I decided to start the interval all over again… yup… all the way back at 4 minutes walking, 2 minutes running.  Slowly but surely, I am determined to get to running a 5K with no knee issues!

Breakfast #1

Leftovers from yesterday’s eggins–with one new addition:

Heinz reduced sugar ketchup.  After my ketchup post last week, I started thinking about how much ketchup I actually consume in any given week.  As much as I love ketchup, it’s really just a bunch of empty calories.  So I decided to give this reduced sugar version a shot:

The ketchup was pretty good — though it oddly tasted sweeter than regular Heinz ketchup.  I’m going to try and use the reduced sugar ketchup in place of the regular stuff as much as possible.

Stats on B#1:  161 calories, 9g carbs, 5g fat, 21g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

Overnight oats 🙂

Last night, I put the following into a bowl:

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
  • 1/2 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon

I mixed everything up and left them in the fridge overnight.  This morning I added about 6 sliced strawberries (thank you to my mom for hooking me up with these DELICIOUS strawberries) and a 1/3 cup fresh blueberries:

All mixed up:

These overnight oats never get old 🙂

Stats on B#2:  236 calories, 45g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

My all-time favorite hummus comes from Nate’s Deli in Cleveland.  A close second would be Trader Joe’s hummus.  Unfortunately, neither of my long distance relationships with Nate nor Trader Joe are able to satisfy my frequent  hummus cravings, so I’ve been on the hunt for a tasty hummus that I can find locally.

I picked this up at the grocery store last night:

I especially liked the simple list of ingredients (chick peas, tahini, fresh spinach, lemon juice, garlic, and salt) and it is only 33 calories for a 2tbsp serving!  The flavor was a little on the bland side, however.

For lunch, I made up a sandwich with a 3.5 ounce grilled chicken breast, 1 tbsp Amir Hummus, 1/2 a roma tomato, sliced red onion, and 1 cup spinach sandwiched between a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain Deli flat:

Notice that I used my tupperware lid as a plate instead of using a paper plate.  “Kelsy” would be proud 😉

Now that’s what I’m talkin bout:

I could eat this every day:

I also had some cucumber salad on the side.  This cucumber was straight from the BF’s mom’s garden!

Stats on lunch:  323 calories, 37g carbs, 3g fat, 40g protein, 10g fiber

 

Question:  Have you ever had an injury that prevented you from doing an activity you really enjoy?

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