Awards And The Carb Party!

I received this terrific award from my buddy, Kelly over at Happy Texans and I was so excited! What a great way to start the day!!


When receiving this award, you must list 7 things you love and pass the award on to 7 bloggers. My list of loves goes like this...

1. the husband
2. the kids
3. all the family
4. cooking
5. blogging!
6. reading
7. exercising (huh???-a new love for me!)

Blogging and being a part of the blog community has been such a blast! There are so many great ones; here's a few that I'm passing the award to...

• Cooking with Kate
• Fat Fitness Food
• Living Life Happy and Healthy
• Mom on the Run
• My Journey
• Snippets and Bites
• The Incredible Shrinking Family

Now that the award show is over, let's get to the party! The carb party that is. I have been craving carbs all day! It started with breakfast...

A Kim's Light Everything Bagel with Laughing Cow Cheese and a small dish of cantaloupe and blueberries for 4 POINTS...

Then I hit the treadmill for a 20 min.weighted walk (18 lbs.!) and another 20 min. weighted elliptical workout. I also did 20 tricep dips off my weight bench - whew, those are tough!

I put off my errands because it was just too dreary and rainy to go out today! The cold and dampness really gets to me lately. I hung around the house and worked on my closet of "expired" clothes! I have been getting rid of 13 years of clothes that don't fit any longer. Kinda fun, but kinda scary at the same time.

When lunchtime rolled around, I definitely wanted some type of sandwich. I decided on an eggplant meatball wrap made with Dominex eggplant meatballs, 1 tbsp. marinara sauce, 2 tbsp. lite shredded mozzarella in a La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Wrap. I paired it with 2 oz. leftover sweet potato fries (and ketchup!) and a fuji apple for a yummy 7 POINT lunch...



Dreary days = munchies. This afternoon they were in full force. I decided to have a snack with lot of crunch (and carbs); Kashi TLC 7 Grain Crackers and 2 tbsp. PB2 for 3 POINTS...

It was dance night with little daughter, so breakfast for dinner was the way to go. I wasn't in the mood to fuss with making something fancy for myself, so I had the same. I went with a "fried" whole egg plus one white, center cut bacon, an Arnold Sandwich Thin with Laughing Cow Cheese and 1 c. cantaloupe for a 6 POINT brinner....

Mmmm...I forgot how awesome whole eggs are; haven't had one in a while! I'm posting a bit earlier than normal tonight, so no dessert pic. Not sure if I'll have one or not. Maybe I'll just have more BREAD!!!! Mmmmm......I heart Carbs <3

Have a great night!!!

Tea With The Ladies

Happy March! So close to spring, but you wouldn't know it with the snow on the ground. More is on the way, too! Yuck! Despite the weather, I was so thrilled this morning knowing that I would NOT have to Shred today!! That is wrong, I know. Jil did fine by me and I should not be dissing her this way. I think I just need some space ;) So instead of Shred, I picked up the 5K Sunday. I was slow on the treadmill, but enjoyed the long run while watching brain numbing TV shows!

I tried not to watch any Food Network shows during my run because I was starving as soon as I got on the treadmill. I had bread on the brain. This bread in particular...


After my workout, I could not get this breakfast together quick enough. I toasted one slice of whole wheat tuscan pane and topped it with a Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge. An orange and huge cup of coffee rounded out this perfect 3 POINT breakfast that I couldn't wait to eat (notice the pre-pic bite)...


After breakfast, the daughters and I got ready and headed to my mother-in-law's for her annual Valentine's Tea. Every year, she hosts a girls only tea party for her daughters and granddaughters to celebrate Valentine's Day. She generally likes to have it closer to Valentine's Day, but due to conflicting schedules, this was the first available date. She puts out her fanciest dishes and serveware and makes wonderful tea sandwiches and desserts. I was excited this year that she provided so many healthier options. In some past years, she has made this amazing ham and cheese puff casserole-type dish that is next to impossible to not eat gobs of! Here are some of this year's yumminess...

Cream cheese and French strawberry jam on raisin bread and pink bread (how cute is that?)...

A beautiful veggie tray...

Raisin and plain scones...

Homemade chicken salad (made with chicken breast, celery and light mayo) on snowflake and egg rolls...

Homemade chocolate raisin nut candies...

take home treats (Hershey kisses and chocolate balls)...

My elegant place setting...

cute teapot place cards and perfect handwriting ...

The table was also decked with porcelain china bowls filled with nuts, chocolates, jelly beans, grapes and sliced cucumbers. She also made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the pink bread specially for the daughters!

Here is my plate consisting of chicken salad on snowflake roll, a small bite of chicken salad only, grapes and veggies. Not sure of the exact count, but I'm guessing it at 7 POINTS...

Then came dessert and tea! Desserts were poor man's cake, prune cake, more chocolates and ice cream! I decided not to indulge in the desserts except for a tiny piece of prune cake (2 POINTS) to go with my green tea...

It was a wonderful time with lots of chatting and laughing! Thanks to my mother-in-law for a terrific time! The "hostess with the mostess"...

We got home right about dinner time and since I lacked a plan, the verdict was breakfast for dinner. I'm so glad the husband and daughters love that! I decided to go with another soup and sammie night for myself. I made a 1 c. serving of Trader Joe's Organic Split Pea Soup and and eggplant meatball sub . For the sub, I used a club roll, 5 Dominex eggplant meatballs topped with a bit of marinara sauce and a lite string cheese melted on top. A delicious and filling 6 POINT dinner...

I still had room for dessert! I went with 1/2 c. Breyers Fat Free Double Churn Caramel Swirl Ice Cream topped with a crumbled Chocolate Brownie Clif Z Bar for 3 POINTS...

It's been a great weekend! Just got a call from school that there will be no school tomorrow due to snow! Yay - a sleep in morning!!!!

Don't forget to leave a comment in the Giveaway post for your chance to win the Exercise Anywhere cards! I'll be announcing the winners tomorrow!!

Whooo Hoooo!

Sorry, I can't contain myself; I'm gonna say it again - WHOOOOO HOOOO! Today was weigh-in day at WW and for the BLBE and I'm glad to say that I am down 4 lbs. from last week! Best of all, I FINALLY hit the 70 lb. mark (actually went over!), so my total loss is 70.6 lb. Wow, I've been wanting that so badly!! Now, I'm on my way to 75!



I was running a little behind this morning since I tried to fit in my workouts before going to my WW meeting. I was able to do 30 minutes on the elliptical, but only got to half-Shred before hopping in the shower. I'll get the other half in tonight. Only 9 days left! Before I hurried out the door, I grabbed a CranBran Vitatop(1 POINT) and my bottle filled with iced tea. I didn't get to snap a pic before, but here is the "after"...



For lunch, I wanted to try this new find...

These are made by the same company of the eggplant cutlets that I have also bought which are very good. These eggplant vegetarian meatballs did not disappoint! They were firm, tasty and had a great texture - almost exactly like a regular meatball. They are a bit small, but the nutritionals are terrific. A serving is 5 meatballs for 90 cal. 2.5 gr. fat, 5 gr. fiber and 9 gr. protein. This serving size is only 1 POINT! Can't beat that! I decided to stuff them into a Weight Watchers Pita with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light, lettuce and roasted red pepper. On the side, I had a serving of Cheddar Goldfish (I really need some chips!) and a dish of stawberries and blueberries with 2 tbsp. Cool Whip Free. An awesome 7 POINT lunch...

This was so filling and I didn't even think of snacking this afternoon. So far this experiment of eating a bit more at meals and ditching the afternoon snack has been working out!

Before heading out to little daughter's dance class, I prepared MY dinner for tonight: zucchini lasagna. Yeah, you know there is NO WAY the husband and daughters are gonna touch that with a ten foot pole! I bought zucchini last week after being inspired by Gina's version of zucchini lasagna. For my recipe, I used 2 large zucchini sliced thin on a mandoline (I love this thing!), 3/4 c. fat free ricotta, 2 egg whites, 1/2 tsp. dried basil, salt, pepper, 1/4 c. parmesan cheese(divided) , 2/3 c. Weight Watchers Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese and about 1 1/2 c. of my homemade marinara sauce. I put it together in an 11x7 glass baking dish and cooked it in a 400 degree oven for about 35-40 minutes. Here's the finished product...

I ran all my ingredients through the Recipe Builder and got 3 huge servings at only 5 POINTS each! It was delicious and filling. Unfortunately, there was no way to make this look glamorous, so here's a look at my sloppy serving...

And because it is my job to torture my family, I made them a side dish of sauteed zucchini sticks to go with their pasta dish. I added a serving to my plate, too for 1 POINT...

I was just noticing that I had a totally vegetarian day today! Hmmm...I like it! I did declare myself to be a vegetarian a couple years ago. It only lasted a few months, though. I started off cooking very healthy things for myself, but unfortunately, I discovered that chocolate and cheese were "vegetarian" also and things just went downhill from there ;)

Anywho, I still had a good 3 POINTS left for dessert and since today was a day of celebration for me, I decided to have Banana Caramel Fudge Cake! Wait, I didn't go off the wagon - look at this....

Heavenly! I used a Banana Fudge Vitatop, topped it with a bit of Lighthouse Reduced Sugar Caramel Dip , sliced banana and drizzled the rest of the caramel dip over the top. A 3 POINT yumfest:)

I'm off to visit with Jillian for a bit then, it's dreamland...have a great night!