Sweet Treats

Happy Valentine's Day! A day of love, romance and.....CHOCOLATE! The husband was so sweet to give me these beauties instead ...

So lovely and will last much longer than chocolate would ;) The daughters got some goodies and lots of chocolate, but *eyes closed* I have no idea where that chocolate is!

Well, today I decided to not do my 5K Saturday. I wrestled with myself on this, but I have been having issues with my right foot (planter fasciitis is acting up) and I thought it would be better to give it a rest. I still did the Shred - only 14 days left! I hope to make up the run tomorrow - it'll be 5 K Sunday instead! A question for all you runners out there: how often do you run? Is it bad to run everyday? Do you vary the duration of your runs? Okay, that was 3 questions! I'd appreciate any feedback on that since I'm new at this!

After shredding, I made a Thomas' Light English Muffin with PB2 and a tsp. Smucker's Sugar Free Grape Jam. I had a bowl of sweet strawberries to go with it. A satisfying 3 POINT breakfast...
For lunch, I went with some leftovers. A little different from my normal lunches. I thought I'd see if this was any more satisfying for me than my traditional lunch. I had a serving of leftover turkey meatloaf, asparagus and 1/3 c. of israeli couscous for 8 POINTS...

Like dinner for lunch! What do I call that...dunch or dinch??!! I don't know, I'll just call it good -even the second time around!

Now, I have been thinking about trying to eliminate my afternoon snack. If I try to eat according to my body's needs, then most days I notice I don't really "need" a snack, but I eat one for fear that I will be ravenous by dinner and eat the house down. So, the past couple days, I haven't felt hungry in the afternoon and I have been foregoing the snack. It was okay. I was able to wait for dinner and didn't feel the need to overeat. However, today I became hungry around 4 p.m. and since we had big daughter's basketball game late, I knew I wouldn't make it until dinner which would be around 6:30-6:45. I decided to have 2 hardboiled egg whites and a lite string cheese for 2 POINTS...

Guess what? Then this triggered the munchies! I had a handful of pretzel sticks...

and a handful of TJ's Sour Cream and Onion Rice Chips, 3 small chocolates (I opened my eyes!) and a handful of M&M's. I used my Weekly Allowance POINTS for all that, so I'm o.k., but that was an interesting experiment! I think it may be better for me to avoid an afternoon snack because it seems like when I do lately, it's a snowball effect. I think I will make a goal this week to not snack in the afternoon and see how that works out. I will make sure I eat a bigger breakfast and lunch to get the calories I need. I'm keeping dessert though! We'll see how this goes...


When we got home from big daughter's game (they won - YAY!), I rushed to get dinner on the table. I made the husband and daughters some gnocchi with marinara sauce and a side of broccoli. I decided to have a Salmon Roulette and a side of broccoli for 4 POINTS...

I also made another fancy drink with the POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice.

This time, I mixed 2 oz. juice with some Sprite Zero. Very refreshing!

Valentine's Day would not be complete without these decadent chocolate covered strawberries. I decided to count them as 3 POINTS since one was a bit bigger than last night's...

I'm off to snuggle with my honeys tonight! Hope everyone had a sweet day!!!!!!

Pizza And POM

Hey, happy Friday! This has been a fun weekend type of day since the husband and daughters were off today. We got to sleep in a little and mosy around. I went for an outdoor run this morning for about 30 minutes, then hopped right in the car to pick up some groceries for our pizza night with my in-laws. I didn't get to eat breakfast after the run, so I picked up a Starbucks coffee with sugar free vanilla syrup and some nonfat milk for 1 POINT to get me through...


When I came home, I made a yogurt granola bowl. I used a Fiber One Vanilla Yogurt topped with 1/2 c. of quinoa granola for 4 POINTS...


I bet you're asking "what the heck is quinoa granola?" Well, I came across this recipe in Bob Greene's Best Life Diet Cookbook. I have never been a fan of quinoa, mainly because I didn't really know how to use it. I know it's a "wonder grain" being that it is considered a complete protein. I'm always willing to try something again, especially if has the word "granola" in it! I LOVE granola. So, I made this last night in anticipation of eating it for breakfast today. I tweaked the recipe a bit to make it a little more POINT friendly; basically I just dropped a tbsp. of the nuts to lose a POINT. I used a combo of dried cranberries, raisins and almonds. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. I forgot to copy it down before I came to post! Too lazy to venture to get it ;) Anyway, I liked this and it stuck with me a really long time (about 3 hours)! After breakfast, I got in my Shred. I must be honest - this was a half-assed Shred. I was tired from my run and not in the mood to do it, but I knew I wouldn't be able to fit it in later tonight. I mainly concentrated on the strength training and sort of bagged the cardio. I think it still counts though, right??!!! Only 15 days left!

When I was finally ready for lunch, I was READY for lunch! Funny how it hits you all at once! I needed something quick, so I threw together a turkey sandwich using 2 oz. turkey, lettuce, tomato and a squirt of dijonnaise on an Arnold Sandwich Thin. I also had a serving of TJ's Sour Cream and Onion Rice Chips (love these!) and a juicy orange. A fast 5 POINT lunch...

After lunch, we went for a "neighborhood clean-up" walk. I have been noticing during my outdoor runs that my neighborhood was getting "trashy" with random items that didn't make it into the trashcans or blew away, etc. We put gloves on, got a big trashbag and walked the whole neighborhood picking up all the debris. We filled the whole bag! It doesn't look like much when it's strewn all over, but it adds up! So, not only did I get another exercise in, I also did community service!! Two birds, one stone :)

The in-laws came for pizza night and to hang out with the daughters. I made 3 pizzas: 1 plain, 1 pepperoni and a whole wheat with lite mozzarella, baby bella mushrooms and baby spinach. I went with 2 slices of whole wheat and a salad dressed with Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch for 8 POINTS...

Along with our dinner, I made everyone a fancy POM spritzer! Diana at POM Wonderful was kind enough to contact me and ask if I would be interested in sampling this POM Wonderful 100 % pomegranate juice. I have been intrigued after seeing it at many of the grocery stores, so I was excited to have the opportunity to try it! Our pizza party was the perfect opportunity to make these lovely spritzers...

Everyone loved it! It is not as tart as I thought it may be. The husband and father-in-law loved it straight up the best! After reading about all the health benefits of this "wonder" juice, they loved it even more! Especially the parts about prostate health and erectile function - you know how men are! LOL!! The website is full of amazing recipes, too (love all the cocktail recipes- see you can be healthy and have a few drinky poos!). An 8 oz. serving is 3 POINTS, which is a little POINTY, but when cut with some sparkling water, it's basically free. I only used 2 oz. of the juice and the rest was water; put in a wine glass and garnished with a slice of lime. Fancy and free!

For dessert, we had some amazing chocolate covered strawberries that my parents gave us for Valentine's Day! I had two of these guys. I'm not exact on the POINTS; I did some searching and came up with 2 POINTS. I don't know, but hey, I'm goin with it! They were DIVINE...

Well, tomorrow's the big day! The day that CHOCOLATE swirls all around you. Everywhere you go! The husband loves me and hopes to live a long life, so I'm fairly certain that he will NOT be giving me any chocolate ;) How about you??? What are your VDay plans? Are you worried about the CHOCOLATE???