KFC Cravings Be Gone!

I always see commercials for those disgusting (fabulous?) KFC bowls. I'm petrified to try one because it probably contain a week's worth of calories and I'm also afraid I'd fall in love with it.

I happened to have a butternut squash on hand so decided to try this mock version. It took about 10 minutes to make and was absolutely delicious. Plus, it filled me up - I didn't even want dessert!

HG's KFC-Ya Later Bowl! (about 5 pts.)

1 cup cubed butternut squash
1 oz. skim milk
2 tbsp. canned corn niblets; heated
1/2 oz. fat-free cheese, cheddar or American; shredded
2 oz. Heinz Fat Free Classic Chicken Gravy; heated
1 Morningstar Farms Chik Patty, Original salt and pepper; to taste

In a covered dish, microwave butternut squash pieces for 4 - 6 minutes (until tender) in a very small amount of water. Drain very well and then mash squash with the skim milk and a little salt. Place mashed squash in a medium-sized bowl. Next, sprinkle corn niblets over your squash. Prepare "chicken" patty according to package and cut into small pieces. Place patty pieces on top of your corn-topped squash. Drizzle with gravy. Top with shredded cheese and enjoy!

Best Dinner Ever!

OK - I threw together a really awesome quick summer meal. I personally used a recipe - but it's so easy, I don't think you really need to.

Tomato Garden Pasta

Boil some whole wheat pasta (or the pasta of your choice), throwing in fresh green beans for the last 5 minutes of boiling. (I cut the beans in half).

While the pasta's cooking, chop up a couple of tomatoes and put them in a bowl with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and fresh basil. (You can use any other herbs or seasonings you like.) Make sure it's all mixed together.

Drain the pasta and green beans and put in a bowl with the tomato stuff, mixing everything together. When you're ready to serve, put some feta cheese on top of the pasta (you can probably substitute another cheese if you prefer.)

YUM! It was really light and fresh -- perfect flavors for summer. I love tomatoes, basil and balsamic vinegar anyway, so this was a natural! I wonder what it would be like with a little fresh corn.

Yippee -- It's Asparagus Season!

Asparagus is by far my favorite vegetable, so when I saw it wicked cheap at Kroger, I had to pick up a bunch. I vowed this spring, I would try out all the asparagus recipes I've saved up over the years.

The first one I tried was Asparagus Guacamole. (You basically substitute asparagus for avocado in a guacamole recipe.) I love asparagus, I love guacamole - what could go wrong? Apparently everything.

I will admit that the suckiness of this recipe may be my fault. I used a food chopper, not a blender so it was a little too chunky. I didn't have light mayo, so I used Wasabi GourMayo. I didn't have hot pepper sauce, so I used Buffalo Wing Sauce. I'm thinking it wasn't the wisest of flavor combinations. Particularly the Wasabi GourMayo. It's great on turkey - bad on asparagus.

Tonight, I brushed asparagus with olive oil, added salt & pepper and roasted it in the oven. Then I put it on an English muffin and topped it with a dippy egg and some freshly grated Parmesan. That actually gets an 'A.' It was pretty good!

Things That Aren't as Much Fun as Asparagus

• The Hispanic Cowboys are gone for good. The Hispanic Cowboys were 6 Hispanic men who shared a two-bedroom apartment on the lower-level. They were my version of the groundhog. Once they came back to town, I knew summer wasn't far behind. They were really polite too. I'll probably get more loud sex neighbors to replace them. Can't wait for that.
  
  
• This Week newspaper being put on my doormat, not hung on my door. This is a free weekly community newspaper that I don't subscribe to. I get it whether I like it or not. They used to hang it on my door, which was convenient because I'd grab it and toss it in the trash as I came into my apartment. Now they've started putting it on my doormat so I have to bend over to pick it up. I didn't want it in the first place and now you're making me bend over to get it off the ground? I usually have 18 million bags with me when I come home on Thursday nights, so they all swing off my arm and hit me in the face when I'm trying to pick up the paper. Delightful.



• Super buff gym freak girls who do extra sit-ups. I was next to this really annoying girl in my BodyPump class tonight who was really into her muscles. As I struggled to get my Stay-Puff Marshmallow body to do two crunches in a row, she's doing a zillion of them. On top of that, she's doing super-hard bicycle crunches really fast. It made me want to vomit. Actually, it made me want to scream out "At least I have boobs" but I figured it wouldn't make me very popular and it would obviously be because I was jealous and that's just embarrassing.