Recovery Run

Thanks to all for your nice comments about my friend's Dad. I feel sad for her and I have been moping around the house all day, not doing much of anything that I should be doing. Well, except eating. I always manage to get that in. I think that even if I had my jaws wired shut, I would find some type of food that could fit in between that labyrinth of wires :)

I decided to try out a treadmill run this morning since the last of my stitches fell out yesterday. I think I am pretty well healed, so I cranked up the treadmill and did my 40 minute run. Yay! It felt so good! I can't believe how much I miss it when I don't run! I threw in 20 tricep dips and 15 wall pushups, too!

After that, I fixed a quick breakfast of an Ezekiel English Muffin with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light for 3 POINTS...


I fiddled around on the computer and did a little cleaning (very little), then it was time for lunch. I made a salmon salad wrap with a side of carrots and TJ's Sour Cream and Onion Rice Chips for 5 POINTS...

I still felt a little hungry, so I had 2 very sweet clementines -YUM for 1 POINT...

Before taking little daughter to dance class, I broke out a snack...

Another great Gnu Bar! I crumbled it onto 1/2 c. nonfat Greek yogurt for a filling 3 POINT snack...

While little daughter was in class, my friend ,Coleen and I went for a walk around the parking area and solved all the world's problems. We walked at a pretty good clip, so I got in an extra 30 minute exercise today! I love when bonus exercise happens :)

I was not into providing a creative plan for dinner that no one would appreciate anyway, so I gave the husband and daughters sandwiches and fruit and I had my leftover Polenta with Smoked Gouda and Mushroom Sauce for 8 POINTS. I added some roasted peppers to it to change it up tonight...(sorry about the pic; hard to make it look "pretty")

Here's the recipe for this full flavored dish:

Polenta with Smoked Gouda and Mushroom Sauce

• 24 oz. tube of prepared polenta
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. skim milk
• 2 oz. lite smoked gouda ( or lite smoked mozzarella), grated
• 1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
• 8 oz. container of baby portabella mushrooms, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a 11x7 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Slice tube of polenta into 1/2" slices and layer in baking dish.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in salt and pepper. Sprinkle flour over butter; whisk quickly and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk in milk and cheeses. Stir in mushrooms.
4. Pour sauce over polenta slices and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Makes 3 hearty servings at 8 POINTS each.

I ended the day with some Righteous Rounds for 2 POINTS...

And a handful of little chocolate eggs and bites, licks and tastes of Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. Ugh! Glad I took that extra walk today ;)

Looking forward to getting in bed early. Have a great night =)

Temptations

There are temptations everywhere and not the singing kind :) This afternoon, I decided to get a bit of a head start on tomorrow's "Cookie Day", so I made some chocolate covered pretzels. They came out nice and festive looking! But, did they taste good?? I had to make sure, so I ate one and a half! Then I felt bad about it for a minute. Then I decided not to feel bad, I am just cruising remember, I said to myself. I don't have to "lose" this week; just keep my head above water. It seems like these are the conversations I will be having with myself this holiday! But, I kept it with just those pretzels and did not continue down the slippery slope! I figured I should eat lunch fast before I went for other stuff. I made a turkey blt wrap with 2 oz. turkey, 2 slices of center cut bacon cooked in the micro, lettuce, tomato and a squirt of Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch on a La Tortilla Factory Tortilla. Some grapes and a serving of Kettle Baked Chips went with it. A great 6 Point lunch...





I went food shopping and then rushed home to take little daughter to another birthday party! Ugh, these dinner time-ish parties are rough on the weight watcher! I ate a Kashi TLC Pumpkin Spice Flax Granola Bar on the way. This is my favorite flavor; so good...





Well, this was an interesting party. It was at a children's salon/party place. They got hair and makeup done, dressed up, walked a runway, then got to go for a ride in a pink limo! It was insane! While the girls were getting all dolled up, a couple of the moms decided we should go to the pub right next to the party place and grab something to eat since the girls were going to be a couple hours. The menu was filled with amazingly good for you choices such as bacon cheese fries, buffalo wings, fried mac and cheese bites, giant cheeseburgers and a jumbo soft pretzel topped with crabmeat and 2 kinds of melted cheese!!! Thankfully, there was a Gardenburger on the menu!! I ordered that and opted for the fruit salad instead of the potato chips that went with it. Funny thing was that the food took so long to come to the table, we ended up having to take it "to go" so that we wouldn't be late for the girls! So, I saved it for when I got home (which was a 30 min. ride-ugh!) Here's my cold dinner to go...

I finished with my yummy Deep Chocolate Vitatop and PB2 dessert...

I still haven't come up with an eating game plan for tomorrow. I'll sleep on it and maybe it'll come to me in the morning...

Good night =)

Lunch Break

I stopped home for lunch today even though I really didn't want to. The husband had invited me to join him out for lunch, but it was going to set me back in what I needed to accomplish today, so I declined(but I asked him for a raincheck!!) For lunch I decided to have what I would have chosen if I had gone with hubby - soup and a sandwich. I went with Tabatchnick vegetable soup. I know I have mentioned these frozen soups before but, in case you missed it, here's what they look like - in the box and out...




I heard some center cut bacon calling my name, so I answered and made a BLT on an Arnold Sandwich Thin. If you are a bacon fan, center cut is the way to go - 2 slices are 50 cal. and 4 gr. fat. You get all the flavor for only 1 Point. I also had a serving of Kettle Baked Potato Chips. All this goodness for 5 Points...

That power lunch really held me over. I didn't want much of a snack so I went with a Fiber One Strawberry Yogurt with 1 tbsp. of granola. It was just enough to take me to dinner...

The family was having ravioli for dinner tonight, but I didn't want to spend the Points especially since I will be weighing in tomorrow. I decided to have one of these Cha Siu Bao that I bought at the grocery store yesterday...

These guys are steamed buns with a hoisin barbeque pork filling which is a sweet type of filling. These were so amazingly good; soft and doughy. I made these from scratch a while back with a recipe I got from Cooking Light. These tasted exactly the same (ok, better) and sure as heck didn't take any effort to make! Each steamed bun has 210 cal., 4.5 gr. fat, 1 gr. fiber, 8 gr. protein and 320 mg. sodium. One bun = 4 Points. Great for a quick lunch or a party appetizer. I had a huge side salad with some light balsalmic. A delish 5 Point dinner...

Here's the inside of this dough boy...

I ended the night with a "healthy" chocolate cake that I made. I still need to refine this recipe, so I won't share it yet - it seemed a little too "grainy " for me. It was pretty good, but not fabulous which chocolate cake should always be! I iced it with some Cool Whip Free which helped it taste better...

But, chocolate ganache icing would have made it taste MUCH better ;)