Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas

I've been watching Masterchef with the hubs, and while everyone that knows my hubs, knows that he is an awesome cook, I have a few skills myself.  Namely, I can follow a recipe pretty darn stinkin' well.  Cooking by intuition and being creative in the kitchen...that strikes the fear of Chef Ramsey in my soul.  But give me a recipe and I can probably squeak something pretty decent out of it.  Like this:

In case you're confused, the pretty picture in the background is the one from the cookbook.  The mess in the front was my dinner.  I said I can follow a recipe.  I didn't say I could plate it and then take a decent picture of it.  That really would be asking too much.

Easy Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas by Ellie Krieger from the Food Network 

Follow the link so you can see the recipe yourself, print it out, and then make these and then we can be quesa-besties!  Here's just a brief glance at the ingredients:

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 8 ounces white button mushrooms, (about 3 cups)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups cooked chopped skinless, boneless chicken breast (1 breast half)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 cups baby spinach leaves, sliced into ribbons
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 4 (10-inch) whole-grain flour tortillas
• 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese mix or Cheddar
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream

Because I'm feeling all fancy like a food blogger, I wanted to share with you a few points that will make this post memorable and make you wanting more recipe reviews:

1. I got off work at 5pm, picked up a prescription, then grabbed the few ingredients from the store that were missing from my "well stocked pantry."  And by "well stocked" I mean, "shockingly I had most of the items in my pantry/fridge by pure dumb luck."
2. I picked up a kid on my way home, one of my kids, not some random kid.  Not only would that be illegal under most circumstances, it would be downright stupid in my case.  Selling kids is illegal too, right?  Trading three teenagers for one baby?  That too?
3. I bet you're wondering where I'm going with this?  The recipe was easy enough to follow and I had dinner on the table in right around 30 minutes.  That's not to say that everyone was at the table and eating the same thing though.  That's called a miracle, people.
4. When my husband finally got home, he tried it and said it was amazing.  He said it many times.  Not just cuz I kept asking him if it was good.
5. I got overwhelmed at the tortilla aisle and got thin corn tortillas versus flour.  I like corn more than flour...but I would try this again with flour ones.
6. One child tried it and said it was good, but she wouldn't eat a whole one.  She just had a plain chicken and cheese version.  That is fine by me because I think there's just enough for me to have leftovers!!
7. Oh and what a love about Ellie Krieger and her recipes (I have two of her cookbooks!)...she cooks with healthy, whole foods, and gives you the nutrional information/breakdown along with the measurements for the portion size.

Two things hard to admit

It’s really hard to admit that you’re depressed when you don’t have a darn good thing to be depressed about.  But it happens right?  So that’s what I’m working on…getting out of the funk.  If I give it more attention than a “funk” then it seems to grow into something bigger.  I don’t want that!

My new marathon training plan that I designed is not working out real well for me either.  That’s hard to admit.  It’s a plan where you run maaaayybe 3 miles during the week and then expect your long run of 10 plus miles on Saturday to not be so bad.  I can hear Dr. Phil uttering those famous words, “How’s that working for you?”  I say, “Shut up Dr. Phil!!”

So stay with me this week as I attempt a new plan.  We’ll call it the “Snap out of it and get back to life” plan.  I must must  MUST get in all of my planned training runs AND…getting all fancy here…track every stupid morsel of food that goes into my mouth.  This will be hard for me so expect me to whine like a cry baby all week.    (And by track, I mean I am back to counting calories again.)

In other good news:

I have discovered a self tanner that doesn’t make me all sparkly.  An orange oompa-loompa, I’m ok with.  A sparkly oompa-loompa?  Not so much.

I finally finalllyyyyy figured out how to transfer my pictures from my cell phone to my laptop.  I was trying to be all fancy and transfer via wifi.  Something something firewalls bangs head on wall.  I went the caveman route at last resort and used a USB cable.  Sometimes you just don’t need to reinvent the cable wheel.  Haha, get it?! 

Do you track your food intake?

If you are trying to lose weight, you do know that it quite simply is calories in versus calories out?  The quality of the calorie is important too, in the long run.  But in a nutshell, it’s a very simple math formula.  You knew that, right? 

Sooo….this was supposed to get posted on Monday, the day I wrote it.  Maybe it would have made your Monday a little better?  I do apologize…but here’s to a fantastic Tuesday that I’m sure you will write about in your letter to your African pen pal.  (Sorry, I really don’t know how I got to be so witty.  My humor is off the hook at times.) BTW, did you know a postage stamp now costs $.45?  I did not.  I should be one of those cool people that send letters and cards to their friends and family.  I have friends, and family…I’m just not cool.  And now I need a 1 cent stamp because apparently the .44 center isn’t going to cut it.  Hot dang.

Tracking calories didn’t go well yesterday and I gave up after 2000 calories.  I was famished the whole day…or at least that’s what I told myself.

The end.  (Nice way to wrap it up, eh?!)

PS Stay tuned as I just made the most delicious dinner EVAH!  I will get that post up and have it to you soon.  Pinky promise!

I now leave with with this precious feline.  She was convinced she was helping me turn my tech t into a tank top.  I didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise.