Recipe Review: Turkey Chili Taco Soup

My friend, Elise welcomed her first child (a baby boy) into the world on May 14th!! In our Sunday school class, whenever a baby is born, we all sign up to bring meals to the family. This helps the family out and lets them focus on their new baby! I was so excited to be able to bless Elise and her family with a meal!

I found this idea on Pinterest called, Feeding New Moms, which I tried to duplicate for Elise. One of the five parts in the Feeding New Moms blog post says that you should bring your new Mom soup. So, I went straight to Skinnytaste to find a good and healthy recipe that I could make for my friends!

Thankfully, I found this recipe for Turkey Chili Taco Soup. I made this recipe according to the instructions except that I let mine cook in the Crock Pot all day, because I wanted it to be warm when I brought it to my friend's house.

Let me show you what I did...

The Ingredients

First, I chopped up my onion and bell pepper.

Next, I browned my turkey. After that was cooked I added the chopped bell pepper and onion and let them cook for a few minutes.

This is where I started to add the rest of my ingredients into my slow cooker, which is not what the original recipe tells you to do.

I was nervous about what adding a can of fat-free refried beans would do to this soup. However, in the end it all came together really well!

I added my chicken broth and spices. It's not on the recipe, but I also added salt and pepper to enhance the overall flavor.

Finally, put my turkey mixture into my Crock Pot with all the other ingredients. Make sure that you stir together all the ingredients.

I let this sit overnight in my fridge, before I cooked it all day on low in my Crock Pot.

I tried some and it was great! It's a very hearty and filling soup that I would make again!

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Turkey Chili Taco Soup
Source: Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes

Ingredients
1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
10 oz can rotel tomatoes with green chilies
15 oz canned or frozen corn, drained
15 oz kidney beans, drained
8 oz tomato sauce
16 oz fat free refried beans
1 packet taco seasoning (you can use less sodium)
2 1/2 cups fat free low sodium chicken broth

Instructions
In a large pot, brown turkey on medium heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. When cooked through, add onions and pepper and cook 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes, corn, beans, tomato sauce, refried beans, taco seasoning and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer about 10-15 minutes. Serve with a few baked tortilla chips and your favorite toppings such as low fat sour cream, jalapeños, reduced fat cheese, chopped scallions, onions, or chopped fresh cilantro. Freeze leftovers in individual portions for future meals.

Servings: 9; Size: 1-1/4 cups; 5 points plus per serving

LiveLifeActive Challenge

Last week in the meeting room, Weight Watchers kicked off their six week LiveLifeActive Challenge for current members! This challenge is replacing the Walk-!T challenge from previous years.

You can get started by going to WeightWatchers.com/LiveLifeActive. There you will take an Activity Assessment that will give you an activity PointsPlus goal to meet each week. You may also take the Activity Profile to get tips on how to add more activity to your life.

You can do any activity you want! As you track your activity online each week during LiveLifeActive you will unlock exclusive activity content. In addition, you me register for the LiveLife Active Giveaway and as you track activity you will be eligible to win weekly prizes!!

Even if you are not a Weight Watchers member, I would encourage you to take this challenge to be more active over the next six weeks.

Leave a comment if you are going to take this challenge and let me know what kinds of activity you will be doing over the next six weeks!

Move It, Love It

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Today, I want to give you the meeting summary from my Weight Watchers meeting on Saturday, June 2, 2012.

Move It, Love It
How to start — and stick with — an exercise plan.
Article By: Melissa Sperl

You've heard it a million times: Consistent, moderate exercise is a key component not just of weight loss, but of good health in general. It can help reduce your risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Also your Leader will have told you about the feel-good benefits of exercise. It can help relieve stress, boost your energy and self-esteem, and improve your sleep and brain function.

But you already know all this, so why is it still so hard to get out there and get going?

Motivated to move 
"No time" is a popular excuse, but what it's really about is a lack of motivation. You've probably heard your Leader or other meetings members talking about a powerful solution to this problem called Motivating Strategy from Weight Watchers Tools For Living.

Motivating Strategy helps you use your imagination to determine the goals you really want to achieve and then take steps toward them — whether those steps are tracking PointsPlus® values, eating more fruits and vegetables, or exercising.

It works because it connects you with an action's positive results. For example, use Motivating Strategy to find the motivation to be more physically active, and you'll envision what it feels like to be a physically active person — what you look like, the things you get to do and wear, the way you spend your time and relate to others.

Once you're motivated to be more active, it's time to take those crucial first steps. Here are some tips for getting started:
1. Choose activities that you actually enjoy. You're not likely to keep up any exercise you dread doing.

2. Start small and work your way up by increasing your intensity or the amount of time you spend doing the activity.

3. Think about the season. Now that summer is around the corner, how can you take advantage of the nice weather?

4. Buddy up. Do you have any friends or family members who are also trying to get fit? Can you do an activity together?

At your next meeting, ask fellow members what they did to first add activity to their lives and then how they stepped it up. In the meantime, here are ways to make exercise a daily habit.

A Proposed Ban

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There was an article that I read last week that seems to be causing quite the controversy.  Normally, I try to avoid controversial issues, but I thought this was interesting.

I article that I read was from CNN called, New York City seeks to ban big sodas from restaurants, food carts. Apparently, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "More than half of NYC adults (58%) are overweight or obese...We're doing something about it." The article went on to explain that they are “proposing to cap big sugary drinks at 16 oz. in restaurants”.

At frist, this article really encouraged me! I am so thankful that Mayor Bloomberg is taking the obesity statistics for his city seriously, because not everyone is willing to do something about obesity. In theory, cutting back on the availability of big sugary drinks is a good place to start.

That being said, I believe that people should be able to make their own choices. If we ban big sugary drinks, what will be next? There's no telling how many foods would be to be banned in order to reverse the effects of obesity. Not only that, but when people are told they cannot have something, that seems to turn into the only thing they want! We don't want people becoming underground big sugary drink dealers.

Obesity is a huge problem in this country. That being said, I do not think it will be fixed by banning big sugary drinks. We need to teach people why big sugary drinks are bad and let them choose to lead a healthy lifestyle. We need to provide education and support to people trying to lead a healthier lifestyle. 

What do you think about this proposal? Are big sugary drinks the answer? If not, what do YOU think would help drop the obesity rates in this country?

Surrendering Your Weight Loss Journey

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There are those moments in your life that you will never forget like your first kiss, your wedding day, the birth of your first child, and many more. For me there are some very specific moments in my weight loss journey that I will never forget.

This morning, I am referring to the day that I surrendered my weight loss journey over to the Lord. I am so thankful that before I joined Weight Watchers, I made the decision to invite God to be a part of my weight loss journey.

One night in October 2008, I was out walking and talking with God. I do this a lot, but this particular night was different. With every passing step, I poured out more and more of my heart to God. I even begged the Lord to make me healthy and skinny overnight, because I knew that He had the power to do that. If God choose to make me take the long road and lose weight myself, I asked that He would be my source of strength. I knew that God needed to be a part of my weight loss journey if I had any chance of being successful!

This was the first night that I called on God for strength during my weight loss journey, but it was not my last. To this day, I will pray to God asking for strength to resist temptations and continue to make wise food choices.

One of my favorite Bible verses is Philippians 4:13 which says, "I can do all this through him (God/Christ) who gives me strength." 

Life is hard. Weight loss is hard. However, God wants us to depend on Him in our time of weakness. We must trust the Lord to give us the strength we need to get through the hard times. 

Have you invited the Lord to be a part of your weight loss journey? 

The Lord is waiting for you to surrender your weight loss journey to Him. He wants you to admit your weakness and exchange that for His glorious strength!

^"That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10

Please don't misunderstand me. Just because you invite God to be a part of your weight loss journey does not mean that He will automatically make your healthy and skinny. However, as you surrender your weight loss journey to God, you learn to depend on His strength more than your own willpower. 

God wants to help you reach your goal weight, but He also wants to receive the glory and honor for being the one to help you get there!! 

Please take some time this weekend to talk with God about your weight loss journey. Be honest with Him about where you are at in your journey. He wants to listen to you!!

Recipe Review: Cool Whip Cookies

This is a recipe the I posted on my blog a long time ago. I've wanted to do a recipe review for a while on it, but just kept forgetting about it. Thankfully, Jon's birthday party was this past weekend. I ended up needing another dessert for his party and I remembered this recipe! These cookies were delicious!

I just wanted to let you know that I had trouble with the cookie dough being very sticky. I wrote about this below, but I just thought I would let you know up front that I couldn't make it exactly like the directions said I should.

I hope that you enjoy this recipe review!

The Ingredients

Pour dry cake mix into a mixing bowl.

Combine egg, Cool Whip Free, and dry yellow cake mix together.

Mix ingredients together until well blended.

My cookie dough came out VERY sticky. I put it in the fridge and even after several hours it was too sticky to roll into balls.

Instead of rolling into balls, I used my cookie scooper to make the dough into rough shapes.

I didn't roll the dough into powdered sugar. I just sprinkled some sugar on top of the dough before baking.

After 10 minutes in the oven the cookies were done!

I let them cool a little before eating them!

They were delicious!!

These cookies are so soft and chewy, which is my favorite!!

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Cool Whip Cookies
Source: sewzy1

Ingredients
1 egg
8 ounces Cool Whip Free
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 powdered sugar

Instructions
Mix egg, Cool Whip Free, and dry yellow cake mix together.

Roll teaspoon size balls into powdered sugar and bake on cookie sheet at 375° for 10 minutes.

Serves: 36; 2 PointsPlus per serving/cookie

Wordless Wednesday: Unwritten Symphonies