Today, I had to go to the doctor again to have blood taken. My doctor is extremely thorough, especially since my surgery, so a visit to him always means having blood taken to run a million tests. I hate having blood taken. I have a huge fear of needles, and the experience is always terrible. My veins roll, the nurse can't find a vein at all, or when they finally get the needle in, the blood won't flow...it's always an issue and it's always painful. It wasn't a very great way to start off my day, especially because it meant I had to skip breakfast! After having my blood drawn I stopped and got a Sprite and a protein bar in hopes that I wouldn't get too dizzy and lightheaded.

For lunch, I made myself a turkey club sandwich at work. I heated up some all natural organic turkey lunch meat and some turkey bacon in the microwave and put it on a toasted Sandwich Thin with mustard and provolone cheese. It was excellent! I also ate some baby pickles and an apple with it. A couple hours later I had some yogurt covered raisins as a snack. I have recently rediscovered these delicious little treats. They're great for when I'm craving something sweet, and it only takes a small amount to get my fill.
For dinner I tried out a new recipe from Weight Watchers: Spanish Chicken and Rice. I found some of the cooking methods a little strange, so I just used the recipe as a guide and cooked it the way I thought it should be done. It turned out really well.

I started with a hot skillet and a little oil. I browned a couple cloves of garlic then added one diced onion and two diced uncooked chicken breasts.

In another pot, I cooked some long grain brown and wild rice for about 30 minutes.


After the chicken browned and the onion cooked through, I added diced tomatoes, chicken stock, ground turmeric, chili powder and the rice into the skillet and let it simmer and cook down. After about 10 minutes I added red and green bell pepper. I let that cook for 10 more minutes then added frozen peas and carrots. It took about 5 more minutes for those to heat through and that was it!


Finished product!

It turned out really well, and I loved the flavor. It was really colorful and all the veggies worked together really well. I actually ate them all instead of picking through and just eating the chicken and rice. Next time I make it, I'll make a few changes. I think it would be really great cooked int he crock pot so the flavors have time to meld together. I'll also add a jalapeno for some extra heat next time.

While I was cooking, the boys were playing video games, and honestly, I didn't want to listen to the Mario Bros theme song over and over again, so I put on my iPod Shuffle and jammed out. It made cooking dinner a lot more fun! I plan on listening to music every time I cook from now on. There's nothing like dancing around the kitchen to lift a person's spirits!

I am really looking forward to this weekend. I have Saturday off for the first time in a few weeks, and I can't wait to sleep in! We don't have anything planned. Joel's son is with us this weekend, so we are just going to take it easy and hang out. Hopefully we'll spend some time outside. The weather has been beautiful and I'm sure Christian will want to ride his scooter around. Other than that, I plan on doing a lot of resting and cooking. I hope you all have weekends as relaxing as mine is going to be!