Low Carb, High Flavor Enchilada Casserole

As a fatty, I love mexican food. I mean I really LOOOOOVE mexican food. So I HAD to find a DS friendly way to make my beloved enchilada casserole. And tonight I think I perfected it!! I don't really measure amounts when I cook so this is more of a tutorial than a recipe.

The Ingeredients:
-Your favorite meat (I use crock pot roasted pork shredded up; recipe coming soon!)
-Mexican style shredded cheese (or use colby jack like I did tonight since we're out of Mexican)
-Macayo's Enchilada Sauce (or sub your favorite red enchilada sauce)
-canned mild diced green chilis
-zucchini, sliced VERY thin (I use my mandoline)

The Assembly:
-Smear enough enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan to just coat it. This prevents zucchini from sticking.
-Place a layer of sliced zucchini down to cover the bottom.
-Layer on some meat, the more the merrier!
-Scoop ~1 small can of green chilis over the meat and spread out
-Add a nice layer of cheese... don't be stingy!
-Cover with encilada sauce
-Repeat zucchini/meat/chili/cheese/sauce layer as deep as your dish will take
-Bake at 425 for ~30 mins.
-THE CRUICAL STEP: you have have have have to let this sit to thicken. It will be very liquidy when it first comes out, but give it half an hour to sit and it sets up just like if you had used tortillas instead of zucchini

The result:
OM NOM NOM NOM!!!!!

Gotta love Fall!

We fired off our woodstove last night for the first time this season. I swear, there is NOTHING better than a cold evening curled up next to a blazing fire.

In another note, I'm down 72lbs as of last Tuesday. That is hard to believe. I'm damn close to losing my first 100lbs and I think I would be more excited if that seemed more real. Right now it seems more like a concept or a phrase someone says. It's hard to believe that I ACTUALLY will have lost that much. Even now it's hard to believe I've lost 2 large bags of dog food (I like to put my weight loss into real life conceptual comparisons). Granted the entire 72lb didn't happen after surgery (42 since surgery, 30 pre surgery) but still!

And I don't feel deprived at all. I eat eggs and bacon for breakfast if I feel like it. Or yogurt. Or some goat cheese with all-bran crackers. Lunches lately have been caprese-esque with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and a generous spoonful of pesto. Dinner: amazing roasted pork, sometimes plain and sometimes with a little enchilada sauce and cheese melted on top. This surgery ROCKS!

Caramel Apples and Cupcakes

I was obsessing over the caramel apples at Safeway. OBSESSING. Like for almost 2 weeks obsessing. Finally I decided it was damn time to have one and to hell with the sugar content. While I was in the Safeway bakery picking out my apple, I saw and immediately bought a S'more Cupcake. (picture was not taken by me)

Just look at that bastard, in all its glory! I got back to the office and recruited a friend to come partake because I knew I would never be able to eat all my loot (nor did I really want to).

I unevenly cut the cupcake in half and took the smaller half. Holy shit! Really there is no other explanation. The cupcake was orgasmic. Not to be outdone, I sliced off about 1/4 of the caramel apple and ate that. Very good and satisfied my craving, but didn't hold a candle to that damned cupcake.

And the consequence? Yeah, explosive unpleasantness in the bathroom. Worst smell I've had yet.

The verdict? WORTH IT!!!! But I won't be doing that again for a LONG time.