139.6

Sorry about not posting last night but I got home late from our monthly bunco and was pooped! What did I weigh yesterday?? Hmmm....I think it was something like 139.4. Dang monthly water retention! I can't really blame today's weight on female problems, it was more like two helpings of Indian and Persian food and two helpings of trifle....more on that later.

Let's recap yesterday.....


Breakfast was Fage yogurt with a tablespoon of sugar free strawberry jam mixed it, a half cup of fiber one, a half cup of strawberries and a handful of blueberries. Finally a pic!!!




After dropping the kiddos off at school, I went to spin class. We did 45 minutes of spin and 15 minutes of abs. I met up with my friend Lisa afterwards for some sushi. I was planning on taking a pic of my sushi but by the time I remembered my plate looked like this:




I did manage to take a pic of the lovely orange the sushi chef carved up for us!




We did some grocery shopping at Trader Joes and then I went home to start prepping for our bunco party. We have bunco once a month and someone's house. We don't play bunco anymore....just eat, drink and be merry! So this month our festivities took place at Dina's house. Dina enlisted my culinary help and we decided to make it a group effort. She prepared some fabulous Persian dishes and I whipped up my favorite recipe ever: Indian Butter Chicken. This stuff is sinful.

After getting all my ingredients ready, I packed my stuff and drove the 3 minutes to Dina's and the fun began.

I started getting my appetizer ready: Spinach Brownies.


No.....they aren't really brownies with spinach. It's a silly name but I got the recipe from allrecipes.com and that was it's name. I tweaked the recipe a bit according to the reviews and it turned out fabulous!!

From the stove top:





Out of the oven:




And onto the platter:



They were attacked before I could get a picture. So, now that you're drooling, here's my recipe:



Spinach “Brownies”
Servings: 24

Ingredients:
1 (10 ounce) package fresh spinach
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 (8 ounce) package shredded mozzarella cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste
½ tsp cayenne pepper
Pinch of red pepper flakes
½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
¼ to ½ cup feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375˚. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
Saute onions and garlic in butter and then add the spinach to wilt down. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder. Stir in eggs and milk. Mix in the spinach mixture. Add most of the mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper, cayenne and red pepper flakes and combine.
Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Top with the remaining mozzarella, parmesan and feta cheeses. Bake in the preheated oven 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool a bit before serving.



Now....moving on. While all this fabulous cooking was going on, I was sipping on, quite possibly, the best beverage on the planet. Dina was so kind to buy me some almond flavored champagne. I was in love.



Next it was time to make the Butter Chicken. Here it is in my beautiful Le Creuset pot after swirling the heavy cream in:



Sauce is all smooth with the chicken added in:



And the final beautiful product:



I'm drooling just looking at this. Eat it with some basmati rice and some of this good stuff:




Yup.....here it is....the recipe:



Indian Butter Chicken (Chicken Makhani)
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
¼ white onion, chopped
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 ½ tsp garam masala
1 ½ tsp chili power
1 ½ tsp cumin
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup tomato sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste

1 tbsp peanut oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp garam masala
1 pinch cayenne pepper
¼ cup ground cashews (just grind in food processor until paste forms)
Cilantro for garnish

Directions:
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Sauté shallot and onion until soft and translucent. Stir in butter, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, 1 ½ tsp garam masala, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and bay leaf. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add tomato sauce and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in heavy cream. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat, and season with 1 tsp garam masala and cayenne. Stir in a few spoonfuls of sauce and simmer until liquid has reduced, and chicken is no longer pink. Stir cooked chicken into sauce and return to a low heat.
Mix the finely ground cashews into the sauce. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until thickened. Garnish with chopped cilantro.


Here are a couple of pics of Dina's yummy appetizers:







And some chicken kabobs:




I didn't get pictures of the two Persian stews Dina made but they were excellent!!!

Shall we move onto dessert? :)


Baklava:



Lisa's Famous Brownies (so good!!):




And the most amazing trifle that Dina made (brownies, Kahlua, chocolate pudding, cool whip and Health Bar). Um, I could die right now. Yes, I had two huge helpings and I'm not ashamed.




It was such a fun night....hanging out with friends and eating lots of yummy food! And don't forget the almond champagne!!!

So...here we are with today's recap. Nothing as exciting as yesterday I'm afraid. Breakfast was a light multi grain english muffin with a tablespoon of almond butter and a half cup of strawberries. No pic, sorry.

Dropped the kids at school and went to Step and Sculpt. Had an amazing full body workout and then ran a bunch of errands. Lunch was a Subway 6 inch turkey on wheat with everything (no olives!). I stopped by another self serve frozen yogurt place (Cool Cravings) and had half cake batter, half chocolate. Very tasty!!

Got my nails and toes done and came home to relax. The hubby is gone tonight so....you guessed it....spaghetti time!


I sauteed some veggies to throw on top:




Sorry for the crooked pic but you get the point. Here is the final delicious product:




Dessert was a vanilla skinny cow ice cream sandwich with some sugar free hot fudge on top.
And that folks, is that. If you made it all the way through this post...Congratulations. :)