Candy Corn On The Brain

Okay, I’ll try to keep you awake with my dazzling personality, but food-wise, you may be bored to tears!  I’m still trying to get my creativity act together for some exciting meals.  Thanks for all your comments about meal planning!  Nice to see that many of you do consider planning ahead essential and an important tool in staying on the healthy eating road.

Here’s my “semi-planned” day…

I knew I had a full morning of errands, so I made sure to fuel up properly before hitting the gym.  I have been craving carbs like a mother the past few days, so I toasted up a whole wheat cinnamon raisin english muffin and topped it with PB & Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Peanut Butter.  Oh my greatness…

Then, I was off to the gym with a vengeance.  Gotta burn off those freakin’  full of sugar- made by the devil-have to keep eating til the whole dish is practically gone- tempted to buy more to fill the bowl- CANDY CORN.  I hit up The Arc Trainer for 30 minutes of hill intervals with alternating incline and resistance which was, dare I say, kinda fun?  I moved on to some arm and ab work on the weight machines for another 25 minutes.  I worked them pretty well;  my arms were all wobbly when I was done!  Be gone, CANDY CORN!!!

I spent the rest of the morning in chicken-with –head- cut –off mode.  I got in some grocery shopping, too, where I picked up a variety of meats and other things that I have no idea what I am going to do with whatsoever.  Hey, but at least I have some stuff to start with!!!  Is it possible that CANDY CORN can damage your brain somehow that you can’t think properly or concentrate?  Like it has some mind numbing properties in it that render you brainless after eating it?  No?  Okay, just checking.  Then, it’s gotta be the kids.  Always their fault ;)  I digress…

I came home with my random bags of groceries and unloaded, then looked around for an interesting lunch.  Uh………….Or as my Dad would say, “BOH”, which is his Italian version of  “uh”.  I finally decided on a can of Trader Joe’s Organic Lentil Soup.  Pay close attention.  This is a very difficult recipe… 

• take can out of kitchen cabinet (careful!  It’s a bit heavy and if you accidentally drop it on your foot, it’s a very bad thing.  Trust me.  I know.)
• using a non-rusted can opener, open can.  Again, carefully.  You can cut yourself on the sharp edges of the can top.  Trust me.  I know.
• pour contents of can into a saucepan (if you’re feeling fancy) or just stick it in a bowl and nuke away.
• eat and enjoy.  But, don’t overheat it and dive in out of starvation because you can burn the bejesus out of your tongue.  Trust me.  Yeah, I know.

The end result is this fabulous bowl of soup…

Served with a handful of nice cool grapes to put out the fire that you may have set in your mouth if you weren’t careful…

During the homework tackling frenzy, I munched on a good handful of mixed nuts…

and a few more cashew that I fished out of the container.  They’re my fave :)

I had some ground beef defrosting and planned on making Barbeque Meatloaf for dinner.  Yay for a plan!  I mixed 96% lean ground beef with an egg, some bread crumbs and 1/4 c. barbeque sauce.  I formed it into a loaf, topped it with another 2 tbsp. of barbeque sauce and baked at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.  I served it with a side of Green Giant Immune Blend Veggies mixed with some corn and a side of whole wheat orzo…

The husband and one daughter loved it and declared it the best dinner ever.  Hmmmm….they must want something…

I won’t get into the histrionics that ensued with the other daughter who shall remain little daughter nameless little daughter.  Suffice it to say, meatloaf is not her favorite.

I ended the night with a few more handfuls of crack candy corn.  Yes, yes I did.  I did not learn my crack lesson and ventured over to the dark side again.  Did you know that there is no such thing as CANDY CORN ANONYMOUS?  Seriously, I looked and looked, but there is no support group for this addiction.  How can this be??  Very sad.  Many people could benefit from this, I think :)

Have a great, candy corn-less, day!!

ONE GOOD THING:  The candy corn is almost gone ;P

Question of the Day:  What is the one food you can’t have in the house/office because it’s too tempting?

Lazin' Around

I got in too late to post last night, so here's a little update on my day yesterday...


I was slow going in the morning. My hips (now my left side hurts, too) were still sore, so I bagged exercise today. I wanted to get in some weights, but that never happened :( After lazing around, I got up and had breakfast. I wasn't very hungry, so a CranBran Vitatop and fresh pineapple with shredded coconut was just the right meal...


Still slow going after breakfast, but I managed to do some de-cluttering of various rooms in the house. By lunch time, I felt more like eating. I had some leftover zucchini and some chickpeas that sounded good to me, so I combined them and made a Zucchini Chickpea Quesadilla using a store brand high fiber tortilla (La Tortilla Factory clone) and some asiago cheese. The fruit and veg stash is seriously low (need to go to the produce store), but I managed to scrape up some grapes to go with it...


The asiago cheese makes it! I am loving this cheese lately. It is full of flavor and only 50 calories per slice so you get a lot of taste for not many calories...

I had an eye doctor appointment in the late afternoon and then a meet-up with an old friend ( hi Teresa!!!) from high school! It was so good to see her and catch up. We gabbed away, sitting at her kitchen table over some delicious espresso.

I finally left realizing I was way late for dinner at the parents! Big trouble!!! Our dinner was in honor of my nephew going off to college. Sniff..sniff. Mom and Gram made all of his favorites: tortellini, chicken cutlets, green beans with garlic and evoo and green salad. They were finished eating by the time I got there, but there was plenty left to eat! I was starving by this time and dove right in...

Right before bed, I felt a little hungry, but it seemed too late to eat and I felt too lazy to go down to the kitchen, so I headed off to sleep! I'm sure my body will make up for it today as I am already starving!!!

See you later tonight!

Have a great day everyone =)

You CAN Have It All

I have spent much of my dieting life saying, "I can't have that" or being asked by someone if I can "have that" when I was on a diet. This is one reason why I loved the Weight Watchers program so much. I was able to have whatever I wanted as long as I fit it into my POINTS allotment. But, what I noticed starting to happen was I would find ways to finagle fitting in less healthy choices just to prove to myself that I could have it. I rearranged my menus often to accomodate that sweet treat at the end of the night regardless of whether or not I wanted it. Or, I would make sure to save enough POINTS for a cookie or chips with my lunch or even to have an afternoon snack.

Years of deprivation diets and skipping meals led me to believe that I wasn't allowed to eat certain things. It became ingrained in me that there are good foods and bad foods. And knowing this , of course, made me only crave those bad foods even more. There the cycle began of killer cravings, caving in to those cravings, eating mass quantities to get my fill for the next however long and then the crescendo of crushing guilt and failure. Massive blows to the self-esteem.

What I am beginning to realize is that there is no good or bad. Well, okay, there are deep fried oreos which I'm pretty sure are bad ;P But, really I look at it as better and best choices. Nothing has to be off limits. If you are commited to living a healthy lifestyle, you CAN have it all. In moderation. Just acknowledging that has been a huge change for me. It has changed how I fill my plate and the choices I make. It has curbed those feelings of deprivation because now if I see a brownie or a bag of chips, I know I can have them. I have been taking half the portion that I think I would want because I know that I can always have more if I truly want it. More times than not, I am feeling satisfied with what I had and don't reach for more. But, I know it's there if I want it and that takes all the pressure away =)


Playin' Pool

More hot, soupy weather today! This called for a pool day for sure! I did some house stuff this morning and settled in to a great breakfast of Post Trail Mix Crunch Cereal (love) with some strawberries and unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze...

Before heading to the parents' pool, I served us up some lunch. I had a turkey hummus wrap with baby spinach and roasted peppers and a side of sweet red grapes...

At the pool, I did a noodle riding workout (so silly looking!), swam a few laps and carried the daughters on my back around the pool. Pretty good strength workout, there!

I stopped for a late afternoon snack: some Triscuits and a plum...

That tied me over until dinner time. Tonight was leftover/ eat the freezer stash night...

The Chicken and Broccoli with Garlic Sauce reheated nicely...

I paired it with a TJ's stir fried vegetable egg roll...

I ended up leaving a few bites of egg roll and brown rice on my plate; another first! I have always been the President of the Clean Plate Club ;)

I might have to send my resignation letter...

Have a great night everyone!

Chubby Chipmunk

I've recovered nicely from my oral surgery. Thank you all so much for the well wishes! I really didn't have any pain last night, but took the Advil just in case. I have some swelling today which is making me resemble a chipmunk or squirrel with a big nut in the side of it's mouth, but it doesn't hurt so I can put up with it.

I didn't want to do any hard core exercise this morning because of my stitches. I decided that the elliptical wouldn't be too bouncy, so I did 40 minutes wearing my weighted vest. I kept it at a slower pace and it was just fine. I with a quick, easy breakfast after my workout. A banana date breakfast cookie and 1/2 banana was the perfect 3 POINT choice...

It was beautiful weather today, but I didn't spend much of it outdoors. Most of the day was spent still getting the house in order, mountains of laundry and other mundane chores. Drudgery! I enjoyed the quiet in my house though. I didn't even turn on the TV until lunchtime. I was feeling pretty hungry, so I thought I would give a "normal" lunch with crunch a try and see how my mouth could handle it. I had a chicken taco wrap (basically a repeat of last night's dinner - I added extra lettuce, tomato and a squirt of light ranch) along with some grapes and soy crisps for a hearty 8 POINT lunch...

It went down just fine ;)

I came across these guys during my last supermarket trip and decided to have them for a snack...

There are 4 dried apricots in this little bag. Ridiculous, right?? I can't help it; I'm a sucker for packaging! Advertisers should love me! Anyway, these are super good for you, chock full of antioxidants, fiber and potassium. One package is 70 cal., 0 gr. fat and 2 gr. fiber for 1 POINT.

I really wasn't in the mood to make dinner tonight. We got home late from little daughter's dance class, so I just did some heat and eat for everyone. I bought one of these Kashi frozen meals that were half price and thought I would give it a try...

I liked the nutritionals...only 5 POINTS...

I have to say, I didn't have high hopes that I would like this. I don't like many frozen dinners, but this one was pretty good. The lasagna noodles were whole grain, there were nice diced veggies throughout and even lentils! I didn't love the sauce, though. It's a little too zesty jarred Ragu-ish for me. I'm picky in the sauce department. Other than that, I thought it tasted good for a "dinner in a pinch". I served mine with some steamed asparagus for a filling 5 POINT meal...

With such a low-POINT dinner, I had plenty of room for dessert! I was excited to try these...

Yummmmm....

These are terrific! Think "frozen Snickers bar"! Only downside is they are a little POINTy for the size. To give you an idea...

I think you can get a lot more from other desserts for 3 POINTS, but if you have the POINTS to spare, give these a try! You won't be sorry. Unless you eat more than one. Which I definitely wanted to do :)

The husband just got home from work travel, so I'm signing off to catch up with him. Have a great night, everyone!!!!

I'm Really Trying

I'm really trying hard this week. Trying hard to be On Program. Trying hard to eat as many "whole" foods as possible. It's going pretty well which always makes me feel better and more positive that I can get to goal :)

I woke up to a yucko day outside, so no 5K outdoor run. I decided to do some cleaning instead and save my workout for later. I finally got around to breakfast which was another open-faced omelette. This combo was 3 egg whites, 4 thin slices canadian bacon, 1/2 c. leftover chopped broccoli and 1 oz. Cabot 75% Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese. A yummy 3 POINTS...



This didn't hold me as long as I thought and I was ready for lunch earlier than I expected. I went with another Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Bun topped with 2 tbsp. homemade hummus, roasted peppers and baby spinach. Yum! With it, I had a fuji apple, some carrots and another 1/2 homemade Larabar. A very filling 7 POINT lunch...


After lunch, I did 40 weighted minutes on the elliptical and 20 tricep dips. I've been slacking on the strength training, but I like doing the tricep dips and Lord knows my "Miss America" wave could use the help!

I was getting a little hungry in the late afternoon, so I grabbed some grapes (1 POINT)...

Who IS this person that snacks on grapes in the afternoon???? I don't know, but I'm feeling like it's the right thing to do ;)

The in-laws came for dinner tonight. I decided to make a nice, healthy meal of roasted chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, salad with olive oil, red wine vinegar and a touch of honey. Of course, we had to have some amazing rustic Italian bread. I did well with my portions; about 3 oz. chicken, 3 oz. sweet potatoes, 2 oz. bread and big spoon of salad, all for 9 POINTS...

Everyone started digging into some cookies for dessert. I was planning on just having coffee, but the cookies were tempting, so I brought out the big gun...

Then, everyone wanted MY dessert! But, I'm not sharing. Nope. It's mine. All mine. muwahh haaa haaa!!!! =)

Hope you had a great weekend!

5K Saturday and Pizza Revenge

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday! I woke up a little slow; my cold seems to have surfaced. It's mild, but I was still slow going. My first thought was no way am I exercising today, but as I got up and moving around, I realized that I didn't feel as badly as I thought. I donned the sneakers and headed to the treadmill for another 5k Saturday! This was my second time and I was able to run without stopping again! I even beat my time from last week by 3 min.; I went from 61 min. to 58 min! I felt really good afterward. Depending on what I have going on, I may try it again tomorrow morning!



After my run, I had some breakfast of 3/4 c. Puffins, 1/2 c. high fiber cereal, 4 sliced strawberries and 1 c. Soy Slender...









I was craving lots of fruit today and I actually decided on what fruit I wanted before what I would have for the main part of my lunch! I went with a ham wrap with lettuce and tomato, orange slices, grapes and 1/2 oz. Kettle Baked Potato Chips. An altogether yummy 5 POINT lunch...


My peanut butter cravings surfaced again and I also wanted some yogurt for a snack, so I put them together. This was an interesting combo! I used 1/2 c. plain yogurt and mixed it with my BFF - PB2 to make peanut butter yogurt! Sounds weird, right? It was good, though. To make it even better, I crumbled a Weight Watchers Peanut Butter Cookie over the top...

Wow, 3 POINTS of PB heaven!

The husband and daughters devised an evil plot to get their pizza that I deprived them of last night! It was decided that we should go out for dinner and of course, they chose Bertucci's, which is an incredible brick oven pizzeria and Italian restaurant! This place is hard to be in; even though it is a chain -type restaurant, everything is so delicious. But, the item that is the toughest for me is this...

These dough ball rolls are right up there with brownies in the temptation department! They are served with a dish of flavored olive oil for dipping! Evil, evil, evil!!!!! So, I tried to be a good Weight Watcher and moved the rolls and the dipping oil to the other end of the table. I allowed myself one of these rolls, but I waited until the server brought my salad with fat free Chianti dressing until I dug into this doughy goodness...

Along with my salad, I ordered a cup of the Tuscan Minestrone Soup which was delicious and warmed my stomach on this cold, cold night...

I did break off another bite of roll, but didn't eat any of the pizza that was swirling around me! Whew, glad that we got out of there before any damage was done! It's a little rough going out to eat, especially when I knew that I used most of my Weekly Allowance POINTS yesterday on that mindless after lunch snacking. Overall, I was happy with my choices tonight. I have to understand that everything I ate was delicious AND good for me, even if it wasn't what I would have eaten "in the old days" (i.e. giant calzones, heavy pasta dishes, way more than one roll!). As a matter of fact, I commented to the husband on the ride home, that I couldn't imagine eating or ordering the menu items that I used to when we went there. I could almost remember the "after feeling". You know, like that stuffed and lethargic just want to lie down feeling. Again, I acknowledged my progress in this journey of trying to eat healthy! Cool!

When we got home, we played a little Wii bowling and tennis, then I had some dessert. It got away from me last night, but no way can I go 2 nights without some!!! I continued on with my peanut butter craving and had my usual dessert, Deep Chocolate Vitatop with PB2/Fluff icing. This was the last of my PB2 (sniff, sniff), but I have some on order. Can't live without the stuff, now...

The husband brought the remainder of the daughters' pizza home and one of those doughy devils home. I am using Angie's trick right now of imagining that it fell in the toilet!!! LOL! Hey, we gotta do what we gotta do to stay outta trouble!

Hope you're all staying out of trouble, too! I know, I'm NO FUN...

Reading, Cooking, Games

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone has had a nice relaxing day. Wishful thinking, huh?!



I'm posting late tonight and I'm pretty beat, so I'll try not to be too verbose and just get right to the food!



I woke up this morning and headed to the computer to catch up on some blog reading. So much fun! I love hearing everyone's stories, trials and tribulations. I can relate to so many and find these blogs so motivational! The time really got away from me, but my stomach let me know that I better get something in there. Since, it was pretty late, I went with a bowl of Trader Joe's High Fiber O's mixed with another high fiber cereal (Fiber One knockoff), some sliced strawberries and 1 c. Soy Slender...





After that, I spent some time in the kitchen; cleaning and then, messing it up again. I always do that! I couldn't help myself though; I was itching to make these Pumpkin Parmesan Scones from the Jan/Feb. 2009 issue of Cooking Light. ( Click here for the recipe). I adapted the recipe a little: omitted the butter and used 2 tbsp. olive oil, used whole wheat pastry flour instead of ww flour and used 1 oz. Cabot 75% Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese for the topping because I was out of parmesan. I also omitted the pumpkin seeds topping since I didn't have those either! So mine scones were Pumpkin Cheddar and they were delish! Kinda smallish, so I had to have two with my lunch. Each scone came to 2 POINTS with my recipe adjustments. Along with these scones for lunch, I had a cup of lentil soup and some grapes...




No snack this afternoon. I just had a cup of coffee and a nibble of a Clif Z Honey Graham Bar before heading to big daughter's basketball game. BAD MOVE! I was starving and overly anxious from the game(so exciting watching them play!) and I came home and ate a bunch of different snacky things while getting dinner ready. I didn't take pics; I guess I was moving so quickly through it all that I didn't think about it. But, here's the laundry list: hummus, carrots, pretzel sticks/rod, couple bran crackers, cheese stick and piece of chocolate. Well, I'll look at it this way; it could've been : brownies, chocolate, chips and cookies. So, I guess I didn't do too badly. I have used almost all my extra weekly allowance POINTS, though so I'll have to be on my best behavior until Thurs. weigh-in! Anyway, dinner for the husband and daughters was chicken parmesan. I breaded, I fried, I doused in sauce and cheese! Not for me, though. I opted to make a little eggplant parmesan using these...

These eggplant cutlets are really tasty. They are sliced and breaded for you, so all you have to do is bake, broil or fry them. I run them under the broiler; quick and easy. A serving is 3 oz.; 100 cal., 2 gr. fat and 3 gr. fiber = 2 POINTS. I made a 6 oz. serving tonight, with a bit of sauce and a string cheese divided over the eggplant slices. I had a side of string beans with garlic and EVOO. A very veggie 7 POINT meal...

Bread would have went nicely with this dinner, but I was out of luck/POINTS due to the overabundance of snacks. Oh well, next time :) After dinner, I did my workout since I fiddled around too much this morning to get it in. I am really sticking to my 45 min.- a-day workout goal. It feels good to follow through on that. Then, it was an evening of games with the daughters. We're all ready to wind down now and flop in bed! Have a great night!

A Sweet Experiment

Rain, rain, go away.... But, it didn't. It was a downpour all day ! I did not want to go anywhere this morning. I'm not usually put off by some rain (although some may say I would melt- he he), but I wasn't in the mood to battle it. So I stayed in and played around in the kitchen! It started with breakfast. I wanted an omelette, but was running low in the veggie department. I scrounged around the fridge and found this in the waaaaaay back...



I forgot about this Red Pepper Spread with Eggplant and Garlic from Trader Joes's. I decided to put this in my omelette with 1/2 of a Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge. Wow, what a great combo! The spread is 15 cal. for 1 tbsp. and it is really tasty paired with the cheese. I had an Arnold Sandwich Thin spread with the other 1/2 of Laughing Cow on the side. Delicious and filling; all for 3 Points...

Lunchtime was the start of playtime. I really wanted sweet potatoes for some reason. Maybe I need some vitamin A or beta carotene! I have been toying with the idea of making sweet potato chips, but I haven't found a way to make my sweet potato fries crispy, so I wasn't holding out much hope for the chips version. I cut my potato as thin as possible with my really old plastic mandoline slicer and laid them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I cooked them in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes. They were extremely tasty, however, I had to discard quite a few of them because they were burned. The remaining "chips" were not chippy, more like - chewy. This has been the problem; to get them crisp, they have to be burned! Eeewww. There had to be a better way, I thought. While I pondered this very pressing question, I ate the rest of my lunch which was a ham wrap and a sliced apple...

I felt very healthy after eating this! Lots of color; veg and fruit on the plate. Weight Watchers would be so proud of me and this "filling foods" lunch for 5 Points!

After lunch, there was a ding dong at the door and to my surprise, it was a package for me from Kristi over at Healthy Living ! Look at this stash of awesome Ghiradelli Chocolates and the nice note she sent me...

Thanks, Kristi!

As much as I wanted to dive into that chocolate( there are so many cool flavors that I have never had!), I passed on it today and decided on some pretzel rods and string cheese...

The rain quieted down a bit, so I ventured out for a few errands. While I was out, I found this mandoline. I knew it would be the answer to my sweet potato prayers! I raced home, washed it and got to work slicing paper thin potatoes. This thing is a dream to work with, too. The blade is super sharp, so there was no fighting to slice these guys. I sprayed the slices with cooking spray and salted the heck out of them (I'll watch the salt next time), then laid them on the parchment -lined baking sheets. But, here was my trick. I decided to try and "dehydrate" them in the oven instead of cooking them. I put them in at 200 degrees and let them do their thing in there for about 1 hr. ...

It worked like a charm! They shriveled a little, but the "crispiness" was there! No more soggy, chewy sweet potatoes! Now, I must admit, I was getting a little impatient during this experiment, so when there was about 10 minutes left in the "cooking" process, I beefed up the temp to 350. Bad move; see how they started to burn a bit? They didn't look like that before I upped the temp...

Yeah, patience. It's not a virtue I possess, but I'm working on it :) So, maybe a bit more tweaking, but I'm calling this experiment a crunching success!

Of course, I had to eat them for with dinner ! In addition to the chips, I had a Cha Sui Bao (remember these? It's the last one in my freezer) and some grapes...

And believe it or not, no dessert tonight!! I'm not sick:) Just trying to lay low with the food because I planned on going to my WW meeting and get weighed-in tomorrow. Hopefully all the salted up sweet potatoes won't cause me to retain a small pond before I get on the scale :)

Sweet dreams=)

Progress Not Perfection

Progress, not perfection. Hmmm, that's the realization I have come to with regards to my eating habits. I have come a long way in the past 17 months. I have lost 68 lbs., I exercise every day and I eat well. Now that I am in the home stretch, I think I am feeling anxious to get to goal and transition into the maintenance phase of life. From the start of this journey, my motto was "doesn't matter how long it takes", but it seems that I am no longer feeling that way and almost have a sense of urgency to finally get to goal. I thought about it a lot today and I am trying to readjust my thinking to take one day at a time. I also realize that I tend to look at my meals individually and so, when I go off track a little or overeat at a meal or snack, I believe that eradicates all the other good meals I had! When I look back at my Tracker, sometimes it's not as bad as I thought. Somewhere along the way, I began to think that losing this weight means that I will alway eat "perfectly" or else the weight will come back. I know that's crazy. No one is going to have a "perfect" menu every day and it's the cumulative meals that matter. So, that's where I'm at today. Okay, enough psycho-babble and on to the food!

Breakfast was (after a great 45 min. interval elliptical workout!) a toasted Arnold Sandwich Thin with PB2 and some coffee...


I went with a ginormous salad for lunch today! I used lots of lettuce, leftover roasted carrots, cucumber, a Health is Wealth Chicken Free Patty sliced on top and 2 tbsp. Kraft Light Three Cheese Dressing. No chips today, but I did have a sundried tomato and garlic roll on the side (that's the blob on the right of the plate!)...


A ridiculously big lunch for 7 Points! I was full for sure!

I sat down to a nice snack while helping little daughter with homework. I had some grapes, a half serving of pretzel sticks and a pumpkin choco-chip cookie. A sweet and salty snack for 3 Points...

Dinner was a heat and eat - all from the freezer. I had a Salmon Roulette from Trader Joe's, some mixed veggies in cheese sauce and another sundried tomato and garlic roll, all for 8 Points...

I finished the night with some tea and 2 more pumpkin choco-chip cookies for 2 Points...

* just a note on the cookies- I liked them so much better today. I stored them in a plastic baggie and they became really moist, almost like little muffins or cakes. Very yummy!

I'm so excited to watch the start of The Biggest Loser tonight, so I'm gonna sign off and head to TVland! Have a great night!!!