Hanging In The Rain

Another rainy morning! This is a cruel joke that Mother Nature is playing on us! I took it as an opportunity to lounge around this morning. No early start or rushing around; it was kinda nice! I caught up on some blog reading, too. Lucky for me because I came across a great recipe on Melissa's blog, Living Life Happy and Healthy, for Blueberry Oat Bran Muffins. I had to make them right away! I followed her instructions; only change I made was to use half dried apricots and half blueberries. It was a terrific combo and they baked up beautifully and in no time at all...


So wonderful with a spritz of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray...


With a jolt of iced coffee for an easy 2 POINT breakfast...

More lounging, then I forced myself to hit the treadmill for 30 minutes. I was not that into it, but before I knew it, I was finished so I was glad that I didn't blow it off.

I wasn't all that hungry, but it was getting late and I figured I should make some lunch before the hunger hits all at once. I decided on a Chicken Pesto and Goat Cheese Panini. I used a Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Pita, 2 oz. grilled chicken breast, 1/2 oz. goat cheese, 1 tbsp. homemade pesto and 1 1/2 tsp. chopped sundried tomatoes (in oil). I cut the whole pita in half (but still a round), layered the ingredients on the one round, topped it with the other, then placed it on the George Forman Grill (aka panini maker!) and let it heat through. It was delicious and full of flavor. I paired it with some sweet watermelon for a nice 7 POINT lunch...

Later in the afternoon, I had to make a quick supermarket run in the downpour. While there, I grabbed a Mocha Lite Frappuccino for 2 POINTS...

I have a big Father's Day dinner planned for tomorrow, so tonight, I opted for an easy dinner. I made Philly Cheesesteaks with crinkle potato wedges and spinach with garlic and oil. A 10 POINT family favorite...

I ended with a little dessert of chocolate Vitaheart with 2 tsp. chocolate icing for 2 POINTS...

I'm full. My stomach has not been feeling so great and I'm guessing it's due to way to much crappy eating lately. I felt like I reigned it in today, so hopefully, I can get back on track 100% this week!

Have a great night!

I'm Not A Tea-totaler

Yay for the sun! I woke up to bright skies for a change which was a terrific feeling! I got up and starting getting ready for a fun day. I didn't make time for exercise this morning, so I officially called this a day off. And boy, was it. It could also be called "The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted". You know where this is going...


I got myself and the daughters ready and headed out to pick up my mother-in-law for a fun treat. Before we left, I had an Apple Pie Larabar for 4 POINTS...


That was the last of the counting. Weight Watchers??? Huh?? Do I do that program??


I picked up my mother-in-law and we all set out to a neat tea room in our area. I have been wanting to take my MIL for a while, so we were finally able to make it here for a belated Mother's Day treat...

We started with some oyster crackers with horseradish...

Both daughters and MIL decided on the Afternoon Tea which included varied tea sandwiches (chicken salad, egg salad, cream cheese and olive, and hummus and cucumber!), mini carrot cake bites, chocolate cake, marble cake and petit fours, and blueberrry, cranberry and butter pecan scones with lemon curd, cream and preserves. All this was served with a large pot of tea for the table. Of all the sandwiches, the hummus and cucumber was the favorite! Funny, I had that same thing yesterday! Now, the daughters want to have it for their next lunch! Who knew?? It was such a delicious spread...

I bucked the system and went with iced tea. It was blueberry mango and it was amazing...


I also decided to forgo the Afternoon Tea (although I had many bites of everything) and ordered from the lunch menu. I chose the Signature Wrap which was a medley of veggies studded with cheddar cheese in a tomato basil tortilla. It was served with a side salad (all locally grown ingredients) and raspberry vinagrette dressing...

The four girls had a great time of eating and chatting in this quaint little place (big daughter was the photographer)...

After that we took a walk through a Veteran's Museum, then headed home. I invited my in-laws to come over for dinner, so they joined us later for pizza. I decided to indulge again, since I am whooping it up today! I had a slice of pizza (plus 2 crusts from the daughters leftovers) and green salad with evoo and vinegar. Mmm...mmmm...

No big dessert tonight, but I did dig into some chocolate covered raisins and a cookie which I downed too fast to take a picture.

I am soooo off program right now. I'm not sure why I'm not caring so much either. Maybe because I know I can't or don't want to do this "free eating" for very long. I have to say that I don't feel very awesome. I'm kinda bloated and feel really groggy/tired. Must be my blood sugar bouncing all over the place. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted... ;)

No Room In The Schedule

Is the sun ever going to come out? I am wearing long sleeves and jeans in the middle of June! This is not feeling like summer! The daughters are dying to go swimming, but...brrrrrr. It's too chilly! I know there is such a thing as a rain dance, but is there a sun dance??? If so, I'm learning it. Pronto.

I trudged on down the basement this morning for a 35 minute run on the treadmill. Note my enthusiasm. I actually felt pretty strong during it, though, so it wasn't bad. Then, I put on boxing gloves and hit the punching bag for 10 minutes. That was great!!! Man, what a way to get out your frustrations along with getting your heart rate up. Now I know why the husband likes it so much!

Breakfast was back to the bowl. Today was 3/4 c. Puffins, 1/2 c. unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze and 1 c. blueberries (which have been awesome lately) for 3 POINTS...

Lunch was a hummus and cucumber sammie on Arnold 100% Natural white whole grain bread. I tried a chip detox today by just going with some watermelon and carrots. Didn't miss the chips one bit. Okay, I lie. But, it's good to ditch them every once in a while so as not to form a dependancy on them. I already belong to Chocolates Anonymus and Brownies Anonymus; I have no room in my schedule for Chips Anonymus ;)

And it was a fantastic, chip-less 5 POINT lunch...

After lunch, it was time for shopping with the daughters. A lovely time. They were so cooperative and ran around so I had to keep chasing them helpful. Such good listeners that they had 2 time outs and loss of computer time and didn't ask me one time eight million how much longer we were going to be or when we were going home as if I couldn't wait to get the heck out of there. Such angels ;P

When we got home, I banished them to their rooms happily started making dinner :) A family favorite : chicken cutlets and mac n' cheese. I used another one of the Annie's boxed mac and it was terrific! The pasta was firm and the cheese sauce was mild and made with the best ingredients. I like that it's a healthy, but quick option for the kids. I'm a fan for sure! I paired it all with some leftover Gram's green beans for a tasty 8 POINT dinner...

Tonight the cookies called me, so I had one...

and half of another. Not sure of the POINTS; I'm guessing 5. Time to quit it. No room in the schedule for Cookies Anonymus, either.

Have a great night everyone!!

An Okay Day

Thank you all so much for your kind comments and prayers for my friend; it really means a lot. I'm still kinda wishy washy and bummed out today, so I wasn't up for any heavy duty workout this morning. I decided to just do a walk on the treadmill at a medium pace. I did 46 minutes while watching some morning shows and burned up a whopping 265 calories. I think I'm gonna stop wearing my friggin HRM; it's getting on my nerves. I liked it better when I "thought" I was burning more calories than I really am ;P


I wasn't feelin my cereal bowl this morning, so I went with a tofu scramble. Nothing too fancy, just a serving of Nasoya Lite Firm Tofu, baby spinach and a slice of 2% cheese. I forget how much I love these scrambles when I haven't had them in a while. To go with it, I had a whole wheat english muffin with some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray. A hearty 4 POINT breakfast...



After some home schooling of the daughters ( yes, I'm a meanie that makes them do math facts in the summer and God Bless you home school moms who do this on a regular basis cuz lord knows I couldn't -lol!), I made a twist on an old school favorite - PB&J. I swapped out peanut butter for 1 tbsp. homemade almond butter and served it on organic spelt bread. AB&J rocks!
I served it with the last of the soy crisps, last of the mini edamame crackers(came to a half serving each) and a super sweet fuji apple. It was one great 7 POINT lunch...

The daughters and I spent the afternoon at the pet store buying new hermit crabs (ugh) and made a quick stop at TJ's. I almost made it through snack time without incident, however I broke out the pita chips that I bought at TJ's and snagged a couple handfuls. Incidently, they are called "reduced guilt" pita chips (sorry no pic). How apropos :)


Dinner was a new recipe to try from Gina's awesome recipe blog called Sofrito Chicken Stew. It was easy and amazing. A thumbs up from the husband and daughters! The husband even said , "Hon, this is really good. Definitely make this again and don't do anything different to it." Fine. Squash my creativity! He knows I like to "tweak" and it scares him-lol! Anyway, I served this superb creation of Gina's with orzo(instead of rice) and some broccoli. A delish 8 POINT meal...

I was pretty full and my stomach has kind of a dull ache, so no dessert for me tonight. I'm sure I'll make up for it another day ;) All in all, it was an okay eating day.

Have a great night everyone!

Oh and I always forget to share these at the end of my posts, but I caught myself just in time! Danica is having an awesome HOLEY DONUTS giveaway. Yes, I said HOLEY DONUTS!!! Go on over and give her your best creative comment!

Who's That Porker

Hey All! I'm not up for much chatting tonight. I found out today that a friend has cancer and it has made me very sad. For me, very sad = lots of afternoon snacking. Yep, I'm a full fledged emotional eater, no doubt about it. Today, I don't care so much. It's inconsequential to the battle that my friend is undergoing. So, here's my day for what it is. No excuses, no pity party, no "why oh whys". It is what it is and that's how I dealt with things today :(


I started off strong with a weighted 35 minute elliptical workout. I tore it up this morning! While on the elliptical, I pushed hard and kept yelling out loud (very Jillian-like), So you want to eat cookies??? You want to eat cookie dough??? Nothing's for free!!! The husband was working out with me and he kept egging me on saying, "yeah, I saw you eat lots of cookie dough!" It was funny! I was dripping in sweat and cursing like a truck driver the whole time! After 35 minutes, I got off and finished up with a 15 minute treadmill run. My HRM said I burned 450 calories. Um, okay. That probably covered about 2 cookies and a lick of cookie dough. Oh well. Better than nothing ;P

I wasn't hungry for a while after that beating, so I waited for an hour before I settled into a cereal bowl of 3/4 c. High Fiber O's, 1/2 c. unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, 1/2 c. blueberries and a couple chopped dried apricots for 3 POINTS...


Lunch was a hummus wrap with Laughing Cow Light Cheese, cucumbers and baby spinach in a La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Wrap. I went with a side of good old soy crisps and an apple for a tasty 7 POINT lunch...

Then came the sad news, a trip to the library with the daughters and back home for afternoon munching. If it wasn't nailed down, I ate it.

Dinner was leftover Pineapple Luau Pork (from the freezer) served over brown rice for 6 POINTS...

Speaking of pork, who's that porker...

The daughters found that picture of me with the hubby (isn't he cute!)while rummaging through some albums down the basement. They ran up to show me saying they couldn't believe that was me. They don't remember me looking that way. Nice to know they have impaired long term memories. That may serve me well for the many "mom crimes" I have committed! LOL! Although, they'll probably remember ALL those incidents that "ruined" their childhood ;P Anyway, here's a pic of the "mom they know" taken by little daughter (excuse my hideous lack of makeup )...

Sometimes I still see that person in the first picture. It's good to know that you all don't, though :D

Have a great night!

According To Schedule

Today was the first full day of togetherness with the daughters. So far, so good. I devised a schedule for our day...

• my workout from 8 -9 a.m.
• cooking lesson with big daughter at 9 a.m. (she know where nothing is in our kitchen, so I decided it's about time she learn!)
• cleaning of disgusting rooms from 10-11:30 a.m.
• washed and dressed 11:30 -12 p.m.
• lunch 12 p.m.
• after lunch....whatever sounds fun!

There were no complaints about the schedule and it worked out pretty smoothly. I started off with a good 20 minute fast run on the treadmill and then switched over to Level 1 of The Shred. I'm going to try to up my exercise time as long as the daughters cooperate. It was a good workout and I wore my heart rate monitor for fun today, too! It's a Polar F1, so it's an older model that you have to "do the math" to figure out how many calories burned. I found an online calculator and it looks like I burned 411 calories. Not too bad! I'm not sure how accurate that measurement is since I go by the average heart rate and my heart rate goes down quite a bit when I do the strength part of The Shred. Oh well, it's cool to have a general idea anyway.

After my workout, I had a cereal bowl of Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran, 1/2 c. unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, 1/2 c. strawberries and 1/2 c. freeze dried bananas for 3 POINTS...




When all the chores were complete, I made some lunch. I was in the mood for salad today. I decided on a Chicken Bruschetta Salad made with romaine, 4 oz. grilled chicken breast, 1/2 c. homemade bruschetta and 1 slice of asiago cheese. Such great flavor for only 5 POINTS...


I needed some extra crunch, so it was a good time to try these new Mini Edamame Crackers...


A whole lotta for only 2 POINTS...

These are another rice chip-type cracker that are thin, crispy and a bit salty. I love that you get so many in a serving...

all together now...

Then, we were off to the mall to shop in the most hideous of all stores...Hollister. Big daughter wanted a few things from there, but it is the loudest and darkest store I have ever been in! I have never felt older than when I'm in that store! The lack of lights... the loud music.... the whippersnappers working there....LOL! Seriously, I did ask one girl who works there if she needed to sign a waiver against future hearing loss when she was hired. And guess what she said? She said, "WHAT????" See, it's happening already ;P

When we got home, little daughter wanted to make cookies. Lovely. That means cookie dough, chocolate chips and lots of cookies begging to be eaten. I caved. I indulged in it all. Cookie dough. Chocolate chips. And a cookie x 2...

My stomach was not happy after that. Thankfully, I had a reasonable dinner planned. I baked some mahi mahi and served it with leftover Greek Lima Beans for 5 POINTS...

Nooooo dessert tonight. I had enough for the whole week this afternoon! Gonna have to burn some serious calories the rest of this week!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Rise And Shine, It's Scale Time

My first official Saturday of summer vacation started with me getting up and hitting the treadmill by 7:30 a.m.! It was earlier than I wanted, but I planned on going to the 8:30 WW meeting and I needed to get in my workout first. I did a 30 minute run, cleaned up and went to the meeting. I was happy to be down 2.6 lbs. I am back to where I was before the snack-a-rama weeks. I feel good about my "new" way of counting POINTS, but what I think may have made the most difference is not having a snack in the afternoon. It kept me from overeating in the afternoon because I never started to begin with. I'm going to continue this for another week and see how it goes.


My breakfast was a sample bar that was given out at the meeting. It was only 1 POINT and very yummy...


I had to run a bunch of errands after that, so I didn't have time to come home for a more substantial breakfast. I decided to wait it out for a bigger lunch. But, that turned out to be a rush job, too. My Dad wanted to take us to the movies to see UP at 12:30, so I packed up lunch to take with me. I went with a roasted veggie hummus wrap made with leftover roasted veggies and 2 tbsp. hummus rolled into a La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Tortilla for 3 POINTS...

And I took some carrots and soy crisps for munching during the movie (2 POINTS)...

The daughters got popcorn and I did indulge in some of that. Why is movie popcorn so hard to resist?! I looked it up when I got home and I'm guessing I ate about 5 POINTS worth.

I relaxed to the max the rest of the afternoon and watched some mindless tv - The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Those women are nutty! While watching, I started on making dinner. I had planned on burgers and I was dying to try and recreate those Greek Lima Beans that friends brought to our last bbq. Here's the recipe I came up with...

• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1/4 c. diced onion
• 1/4 c. diced carrots
• 1/4 c. diced celery
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 16 oz. frozen fordhook lima beans
• 1/2 c. canned petite diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. oregano
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 c. water or chicken broth

1. Saute onion, carrots, celery and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
2. Add beans, tomatoes and seasoning. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Transfer to baking dish. Add water, cover and bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Serves 5 (about 1/2 cup). 2 POINTS per serving.

It was very good! Not exactly like the original, but I think that had way more olive oil involved than what I used. I also made some of Gram's green beans, too. Altogether, a great tasting 8 POINT dinner...

I went for my traditional dessert - Fudgy Peanut Chip Vitatop with PB2 for 2 POINTS. It tasted extra good tonight....

I'm looking forward to snoozing now! Have a great night!