This weekend I came up with a dinner and dessert recipe. For dinner I made ginger garlic teriyaki chicken. To maximize health and minimize calories and carbs, it should be served over brown rice, but I was trapped in the house over the weekend because of an ice storm and all I had on hand was jasmine rice.

Directions:

marinate chicken (I used 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts) with onion powder, garlic powder, Mrs. dash, black pepper, 1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce, 1/4 cup of honey, 1/4 cup of Iron Chef Sesame Garlic Glaze, a few sprinkles of ground ginger & a few sprinkles of thyme. Let the marinated chicken sit covered in the fridge overnight. When you're ready to prepare, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place 1/2 tsp of olive oil in bottom of your baking dish. Place the chicken in the baking dish. On the stove top, combine 1 sliced green, red & yellow pepper into a skillet. Peppers can be expensive, so you might want to try to find some sort of package that has this variety of peppers already sliced and ready to go. I would not suggest frozen peppers. Next, add one 16 oz can of drained pineapple chunks. Then add about 1/4 cup of chopped fresh garlic root, 1/3 cup of teriyaki sauce & 1/3 cup of Iron Chef Sesame Garlic Glaze. Let the chicken cook in the oven for about 35 minutes...or until done. Let the veggies cook uncovered until tender (20 mins or so), stirring so that they don't stick to the skillet. Serve veggies and chicken over rice. You can add some broccoli, water chestnuts...or whatever you like to the veggies. It came out pretty good. Lots of ginger flavor! Now, there is a decent amount of sodium in this dish from the teriyaki and glaze, so do not add salt!

For dessert I made fat free chocolate cupcakes with fat free chocolate whipped icing! They actually came out pretty good!

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 3/4 cups of sugar or sugar substitute, 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 tsp of baking soda & 1/2 tsp of salt. In another bowl, combine 2/3 cups of fat-free plain yogurt, 1/2 cup of skim milk, 4 egg whites & 2 tsp of vanilla extract. Heat your oven to 400 degrees and then mix the dry and wet ingredients together. Pour the batter into the lined cupcake pan. You want each slot to be filled about 2/3. Bake for 20 mins. For the frosting....I made some intricate home made frosting, but realistically, to save time, money and energy you can combine 1 package of fat-free cool whip, 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder & 1 tsp of vanilla extract...voila! The cupcake I have pictured is paired with 1 scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt with fresh fruit topping.

Today is a non-gym day, so I'm just going to do a 10 min ab workout in the house. I'm trying to drink plenty of water, and snacking on some fresh cantaloupe. 5 am workouts commence tomorrow =( Till next time....