Treading Lightly

Another beautiful day;  can’t ask for a better holiday weekend!  I woke up without a spring in my step;  more like a hobble.  But, I wanted to get my exercise done first thing, so I headed to the basement and hit the treadmill.  Lightly.  I didn’t want to do any further hip damage, so I decided to just walk on the treadmill.  To beef up my walk, I put on my weighted vest and wore 18 lbs. while walking at a mild pace for 40 minutes.  The extra pounds help it feel like a better workout.  Here I am in my vest  (looking quite scary, I might add)…

Next up was breakfast.  I went with an Open Faced Mushroom Cheese Omelet.  Very filling …

Big daughter wanted to rearrange her room, so we all helped her out with moving furniture and de-cluttering.  It took quite a bit longer than we expected.  The girl’s got some stuff!  We finally decided to take a break for lunch.  I took out a new soup to try from Trader Joe’s – Latin Style Black Bean…

Great nutritionals (except for the sodium – yikes!)…

To go with the soup, I heated up some leftover Chicken Fajitas…

The fajitas were good, the soup…eh, not so much.  It wasn’t bad, it was just okay.  There was a strong black pepper taste that kept hitting me in the back of the throat and I wasn’t digging that.  I ended up leaving a bit in my 1 cup bowl, too.

Then, it was back to the de-cluttering.  Since, I was on a roll, I worked on some of my own downsizing, too.  I love chucking things out!  I also had a pile of recipes and scraps of recipes written on paper here and there, so I gathered them together and worked on organizing some of them.

I took the task outside to take in some of the beautiful day.  All that looking at recipes made me hungry!  I snacked on a Chobani Nonfat Peach Greek Yogurt while soaking in the sun…

The dinner plan tonight was PIZZA!  It’s been a while since I’ve had some.  I made some regular dough for the husband and daughters and found a whole wheat crust in the freezer that I had pre-baked a million years ago, so that worked out for me!  It was a pizza party for 4.  Everyone got their own just the way they liked it…

I used the leftover Grilled Veggie Salad from last night to top my pizza.  I used a bit of marinara and lite mozzarella.  It was delish, even though part of the crust broke off from bending in the freezer…

I made a spring mix salad dressed with balsamic to go with it…

and had a little more pizza…

After dinner, we all went to a local trail for a family walk.  Here’s my peeps…

It was a great way to end the night!

Hope you all had a great Saturday!

ONE GOOD THING:  After a frustrating phone call with a family member, I really wanted to eat something.  Anything.  I was tempted to just shovel something, but instead, I acknowledged the feeling, had a big glass of water, a deep breath and got out of the kitchen.  Phew!

Grocery Day and The Quest for Dessert

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had an easy start into the week. It was another nice day today, so I decided to wait until the daughters were off to school and went for a run outside. I really enjoyed it. My pace is picking up a bit, I noticed except for the hilly spots. All in all, a nice 40 minute run. Whew!

When I came in, I had a quick breakfast of 2/3 c. Cinnamon Puffins, 3/4c.v unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze and lots of strawberries for 3 POINTS...



After cleaning up, I went grocery shopping. I got tons of fruit and veggies at the produce market for only $20! This place is such a money saver. I got 1lb. strawberries, half pint of blueberries, 3 lbs. of bananas, 3 dozen eggs, 3 heads of green leaf lettuce, 3 lbs. carrots, 3 large zucchini, 2 lbs. broccoli, 1 lb. asparagus, 3 lbs. plum tomatoes and a seedless cucumber! It's the best!

As I was putting things away, I got some lunch going which was a Health is Wealth Chicken Free Patty on an Arnold Sandwich Thin with lettuce, tomato and a smear of Marie's Lite Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing. I paired it with a serving of Trader Joe's Sour Cream and Onion Rice Chips and sliced apple all for 6 POINTS...

I spent spme time in the kitchen this afternoon prepping some of the vegetables. I cut up 1.5 lbs. of the carrots, cut and washed the lettuce , washed and cut the broccoli and hardboiled a dozen eggs. I keep the produce in the fridge in ziptop storage bags, so they are always there for the taking! No excuses :] And since it was there for the taking, I had some of the carrot sticks and 2 hard boiled eggs with the yolk removed and stuffed with 2 tbsp. hummus! Hummus filled eggs ROCK! Skip the deviled eggs and serve these instead for your next shindig - they are so good! A healthy 3 POINT snack...

I got a great deal on some whole roaster chickens, so I roasted one of the 6 lb. guys for dinner tonight. I also roasted with it some potatoes that I cut into wedges, sprayed with cooking spray and seasoned with just salt and pepper. I had plenty of prepped lettuce, so I made a big salad with tomatoes and Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch. The husband and daughters love this dinner, so we all ate the same dinner for a change! My portion was 2 oz. chicken breast, 5 oz. potatoes and a serving of salad, all for 7 POINTS...

Now, for dessert. You know I love my Vitatops and I have an arsenal of them in my freezer right now, so I am going to be having them a lot! I can eat them plain, but have gotten in the habit of topping them with something which has most often been the awesome PB2! But, while I was shopping today, I was keeping my eye out for some other creative toppings for these yummy guys. And I came across one in the baking aisle...Lite Cherry Pie Filling!!!! This was just a store brand and 1/3 c. is 60 cal., 0 gr. fat and 1 gr. fiber (1 POINT). I heated a Deep Chocolate Vitatop in the micro for 25 sec. (this is my choice method for defrosting Vitatops, they come out so moist this way), smeared it with 2 tbsp. fat free Cool Whip and topped it with 1/3 c. Lite Cherry Pie Filling for a luscious Black Forest Cake inspired dessert...

Heeeello! Did you see that awesome thing???? Yes, you can have dessert and not break the bank! Unfortunately, if you're an idiot that decided to put a challenge out to everyone to do The Shred everyday in February, you are gonna have to put your sneakers on now and get your sweat on after enjoying this delightful dish!!! Gee, can you guess who that is??? ;)

My body will thank me later....

They're Baaaack!

I ended up skipping my snack this afternoon; glad I did because I ate quite a bit at my parents' house. There's something about being in the home I grew up in that makes me want to eat!! Probably because there is always something delicious to eat there! For dinner, I ate some chicken with 1tbsp. tzaziki dip(a cucumber garlic yogurt dip), a scoop of brown rice, some green beans and half of a small sweet potato with ICBINB...



And a little bit of salad and a piece of kalamata olive bread...

Then, I had seconds on the green beans and another bite of bread!! I don't know how I did Points-wise; I'll estimate it at about 10 Points.

Unfortunately, the parents still have many Christmas cookies/chocolates around. I dipped into about 3 of these small lemon coated shortbread thingies that were 30 cal. a piece and I had a bite or two of 2 other cookies. I didn't let it go any further, although I was this * close* to going off the deep end again. Instead, we got into a heated game of Wii Bowling (we got the Wii for my parents for Christmas) so it was a good distraction! I think I ended up with a 6 Point cookie dessert. I am over my Points by about 5 today. I don't think it's gonna make that much of a difference in tomorrow's weigh-in which will be a gain anyway, but I'm just glad that I am getting back on track and away from the constant Holiday Eating Buffet!!

The daughters are back and now we are back to reality!! No more "quiet nest". It's o.k. though, we like it that way. At least for tonight ;)

Yucky

I know I already established that I feel pudgy, but now I'm adding yucky. Yucky and pudgy. I think it's the weather, which is also yucky. Okay, time to snap out of it!

My lunch was not yucky; it was YUMMY! Yucky weather = soup; soup= sammie. I had a delish grilled cheese, spinach and bacon!! Really easy- just a slice of 2 % cheese, handful of baby spinach and a slice of center cut bacon cooked in the micro (gets a lot of the fat out this way) between 2 slices of light seedless rye -spritzed and grilled. My soup was the Trader Joes Creamy Tomato. My cup runneth over...


I was munchie again today. I have been picking all day. Little bites of this and that; I didn't even keep track. The pudge will continue I guess. In an effort to clamp down on this picking, I decided to have a real snack. I picked popcorn for its volume factor...


Dinner was "heat and eat"again. Remember this dinner?? I had made my own "frozen dinner" with leftovers from the other week. I nuked it and ate it right out of the container! Laaaaazy!

I still feel like eating. I grabbed these Hostess 100 calorie Strawberry Cakes to nibble while I am posting...

Goal for tomorrow -

Do not feel pudgy AND yucky at the same time :1

Another Squash Pancake

Tonight for dinner, we had baked chicken drumsticks and potatoes. I cooked it all together in a roasting pan with a little EVOO, salt, pepper, thyme, garlic powder and onion powder. I baked it for an hour -crispy and delicious. The family ate it all - yeah!! I also had some leftover spaghetti squash in the fridge. I decided to try out Roni's recipe from Green Lite Bites for spaghetti squash pancakes. These were great! I could have eaten the whole batch for my meal! This will now be my "go-to" dish for spaghetti squash. Thanks, Roni!





Well, I have eaten a lot today. But, I always feel like I need something sweet after dinner. I had the points left, so I chose these nice Holiday Ginger Cookies from Trader Joes. They are tasty, not overboard on the ginger and a good "bargain" points-wise. They are only 110 cal., 3.5 gr. fat and 2 gr. fiber for 3 cookies. Great with tea...

Now, if only chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream were that good of a bargain... ;)