Morning Breakdowns + A New Recipe

Sorry I missed you all this morning.  My laptop screen went kaput, so no blogging was happening til I hooked up my old computer monitor to the laptop so I can see!!!   Time for a new computer;  ka-ching, ka-ching :(   I had to spend the morning at the car dealership, too.  Thankfully, that didn’t cost much.  It’s funny how everything seems to go all at once!

Monday

I’m still surprised in the morning when I come down to the kitchen.  After so many years of the same look, it’s different to see a new look.  I really like it!

I was ready to break out the pans for breakfast.  I decided on eggs again.  This time, I sauteed sliced mushrooms in nonstick spray, added egg whites and a slice of asiago cheese.  Very tasty…

The rest of the morning was spent in clean-up mode.  Still catching up on cleaning after the painting.  Lunch time came quickly, so I made up some fast food.  I decided on another Lavash Pizza, this time topped with some leftover mushrooms from breakfast.  So easy to make;  spray Lavash bread with cooking spray, spread on sauce, top with light cheese and bake at 400 for about 10 minutes…

It makes a huge serving and I ate the whole thing along with a bowl of Tabatchnick Vegetable Soup …

 

I tried to get myself organized for the week during the remainder of the afternoon.  I had a billion school papers to read through, sign, send in money for, etc.  Whew!  And schools say they’re trying to go “green”!  I also worked on some homework with little daughter while munching on a snack of Trader Joe’s Chipotle Pepper Hummus and carrots…

Dinner was easy.  The husband and daughters were jealous of my pizza lunch, well, with the exception of the mushrooms, so I told them they could have quick pizzas for dinner.  I used Trader Joe’s Naan Bread as the dough.  They loved it!  Good for me;  no complaining :)

I dug around the freezer and found a few pieces of my Gram’s zucchini quiche, so I heated that and made a side salad with evoo for us all…

Love it, Gram!!

 

Tuesday

As I said, this morning started off a little rough with the computer glitch.  I had planned on blogging at the dealership, but since that was not to be, I gathered up a bunch of reading material to bring to my Car Dealership Camp Out.  I was rushed, but hungry, so I heated up a Blueberry Apricot Oat Bran Muffin and gobbled that up along with a Chobani nonfat strawberry yogurt before I left…

Turned out I only had to wait 2 1/2 hours instead of the 3-4 hours that I thought!  And the "damage” was minimum.  Hey, this day is turning around!

Breakfast did not hold me over very long at all.  I’m finding that the 6 oz. cups are not enough for me;  I really need 8 oz. to hold me over.  And the muffin, although delicious and healthy, doesn’t have enough staying power either.  I’m noticing, breakfast is turning out to be the most important meal of the day for me.  If I don’t eat enough at breakfast, I feel like eating more later in the day.

Needless to say, I couldn’t wait for lunch!  My stomach was growling  by 11:30 , but I managed to hold off until 12:30.  I dug around in the freezer again and found some homemade turkey meatballs that I completely forgot about!  I made a Turkey Meatball Stuffed Pita using 3 turkey meatballs (sliced to fit), baby spinach, a Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Pita and a drizzle of marinara…

Along with a fuji apple, it was a great lunch…

Little daughter had dance this afternoon, which means that we do not get home until dinner time.  I planned in advance and decided to make a Vegetable Lasagna so that it would be ready when we got home.  Now, I pretty much knew this was going to get some “eeewwws and blaaaahs” because no one but me ,will eat vegetables mixed in with something else.  But, I had this lasagna idea and I really wanted to try it out, so I said tough noogies ;P

These are the items I used for the Vegetable Lasagna…

The star ingredient was the Green Giant Immunity Blend Veggies.  I like these because they are a premium blend;  the vegetables are good quality (no broccoli stalks!) and it is flavored with extra virgin olive oil and seasoning which takes the work out of chopping, cooking and flavoring the veggies before adding them to the dish…

Vegetable Lasagna

• 3 boxes Green Giant Immunity Blend frozen veggies, defrosted
• 2 1/2 cups fat free milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 6 oz. block Cabot 50 % reduced fat cheddar cheese, grated(or other lowfat white cheese such as swiss or mozzarella)
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles
• 3 tbsp. parmesan cheese

Prepare an 11 x 7 baking dish by spraying with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine flour and milk.  Stir continuously over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes…

Remove from heat and stir in grated cheese until melted and sauce is smooth….

Add the vegetables and stir until mixed in.  *note – I think next time, I would save a bit of the plain cheese sauce to pour over the top layer of the lasagna (maybe about 1/3 cup)…

Place 3 noodles on the bottom of the sprayed dish and top with 1/3 of the sauce…

Add spinach…

Continue with 2 more layers of noodles and sauce.  Top with remaining 3 noodles and sprinkle with parmesan cheese (I added about 1/8 c. shredded mozzarella, too – again, a bit of the plain cheese sauce would have gone nicely as a topper, then additional cheese could be omitted…

Cover with foil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes…

Dinner done!  While little daughter was at dance, I was able to run over to the gym for a 30 minute beat session on The Arc Trainer.  Boy, I have missed the gym these past few days!  I worked so hard that I was actually shaky when I left.  I remembered to bring a snack in the car, so I dug into some Cocoa Roasted Almonds and felt a lot better…

Dinner was waiting when we got home!  I thought it was delish and so did the husband and daughters after they scraped all the vegetables out of it.  Grrrrrr.

I served it with some of Gram’s green beans to round out the meal…

According to the ingredients I used, this lasagna came in at 330 calories and 10 grams fat per serving  (for 6 servings).  I have a couple pieces leftover that will make a great “frozen dinner” for another night.

I’m hoping to get my new computer tomorrow and get back to my morning blogging on Thursday!  Looking forward to catching up on all your blogs, too.  It’s been a couple days and I miss seeing what you’re all up to!

ONE GOOD THING:  I was able to fit in a workout and it felt great!

Question of the Day:  What kind of computer do you use?

Sundays Are For Relaxing

My first thought this morning was that I wanted to run outdoors. It's been quite a while and I figured if I got out early enough, the heat wouldn't be too brutal. I decided to go to a local track instead of running my hilly neighborhood; I didn't feel quite up to that. When I arrived at the track, it was already 80 degrees! There was a bit of a breeze, so it wasn't too bad. I wanted to run 5k and a quarter way through, my right hip started killing me! It was so sore. I worked through it by keeping my stride short and lots of pep-talking! I finally finished the 5k in 45 minutes...





Me and my bum hip headed home for some breakfast and Advil! I had a whole wheat cinnamon raisin english muffin topped with PB2 and a sprinkle of shredded coconut...




Later, we packed up our lunches and headed to the parents' pool for our final swim there. Dad is having some repairs done and closing it up. Boo!





Before the final swim, I ate some lunch. I brought an all- leftover lunch : Mushroom Asiago Stuffed Burger, Gram's green beans and chick peas. I went bunless for the burger, but not, topless! I added an extra slice of asiago for more yum...

still delicious...

We had a very relaxing afternoon in the pool. I even lounged around on a pool float for a while! It was great.

We headed home for dinner with our guest for the evening - Gram =) I had a light, easy dinner planned : Barilla Plus Farfalle pasta with homemade marinara...

Sauteed zucchini from Mom's garden with garlic, evoo and parmesan...

tomato and cucumber salad, also from the garden...

I had a small bowl of pasta...

and plate of zucchini...

I felt satisfied after eating this, so I stopped. This is a major coup in the fact that I have rarely not gone back for seconds or thirds with pasta. It's just something that is hard for me to control, portion-wise. But, I knew I could have more if I wanted it, but since my stomach was satisfied, I decided to be done =)

It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed dining al fresco...for about 10 minutes! The bees were so annoying and the daughters are extremely freaked out by them, so we headed in for the remainder of the evening.

Before bringing Gram home, we enjoyed a cup of coffee...

I've been Splenda-free for 3 weeks!

As I am writing this, my stomach is beginning to growl! Why does pasta not hang around very long?? I may have a snack of a handful of cheese crackers; don't think I can go to bed growly :(

It was a nice relaxing Sunday! Hope you had the same =)

Have a great night, everyone!

Baby Steps

Toward the end of my superfunk, I started to feel at my wit's end with respect to how to go about losing the rest of this weight. I tried to get back to my Weight Watchers roots, everyday, pulling out my journal, ready to write down everything I ate and count up the POINTS. This had always been my "ace in the hole". Accountability in this way was key for me and I knew that anytime I wasn't journaling, I was most likely straying from the program. But, as hard as I tried to go back to the tools that I alway relied on, it wasn't working for me. I couldn't get a handle on it. Then, I thought I would try out the "non-counting" alternative of the Weight Watchers program (Momentum), but, again, there was that list of foods to choose from. I felt so lost and anxious. I knew I had to get my eating under control and back on track, but the insecurity I was feeling was overwhelming me.

After much reflection, I decided to let myself trust. Trust that I can make healthy food choices, trust that I can eat enough to make me feel satisfied, trust my body to give me the right cues and trust that I won't eat a pan of brownies because I "shouldn't" have had them to begin with. Trust that no foods should be off limits, IF I TRULY wanted them.

I started out last Tuesday with this new process. I knew this would not be an overnight epiphany. Baby steps. That's what I kept reminding myself everyday. It will take some time to undo a lifetime of The Dieting Mind, but so far my body is responding well and my mind feels liberated.

Bread + Cheese

It was way hot this morning. Too hot for an outdoor run. I hit the treadmill and planned on running 30 minutes, but got into such a good groove, I pushed it to 40 minutes. I could've run longer, but the daughters were clamoring for some breakfast!

I made myself a slice of Trader Joe's Organic Spelt Bread topped with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light and a beautious plum ...

Then, the daughters and I hopped in the car, cranked up the AC and headed out to forage for some school supplies. We all became hungry and cranky (lots of "Ouch - Quit It's and "She's Stepping, Poking, Talking to Me's"). Ugh. I needed food! I decided to use up some of the leftover salad from last night's dinner. I added some sauteed shrimp, put it over some baby spinach and topped it with a sprinkle of parmesan. I loved all the tastes...

Even though this salad was filling, I still felt like I wanted something. I sat for a bit, to see if it would pass. I think I made it to the halfway mark and decided that I would take a small handful of cheese crackers...

But, I only ended up eating half the handful. As I was eating them, I enjoyed the first few, then realized that I didn't need anymore, so I put the rest back! Whoa, that has never happened before! A small step showing that if you listen, your bod will let you know when it's had enough.

The rest of the afternoon was a joyous event of grocery shopping with the cranky people. Is it September, yet???? We got home late in the afternoon and I was feeling hungry. I thought maybe I should wait until dinner, but my stomach did not agree. I was cutting a loaf of bread to freeze and decided to have a small slice with a bit of sharp cheddar, mmmmmm...

I made up an iced coffee to get me through the rest of the afternoon with the cranky people...

I planned on grilled burgers for dinner; something we all like. I especially love this ground beef from Trader Joe's. It's 96% lean (150 cal. and 5 gr. fat for 4 oz.) and is a great price @ $3.99 lb.!

I made plain burgers for the daughters, but decided to play up mine a bit. I stuffed mine with a slice of Asiago cheese ,sauteed baby bella mushrooms and onion. They grilled up perfectly! I put it on a Pepperidge Farms Deli Flat and topped it with some baby spinach. Gram's green beans were a great side...

So good...

I did a little dessert tonight, too. I'll admit this was an impulse eat. I definitely wasn't hungry; dinner was really good enough. But, the daughters wanted to make chocolate chip banana bread and when it was done, I felt the old dieting feelings making their way to the surface..Should I, Shouldn't I? I decided it was okay. It's okay to eat banana bread. Not the whole bread, to get rid of it so you'll never have to deal with it again. Just enough to feel satisfied. So, I ate a piece...

And it was great and that was that. I don't have to worry all night long that there is still a loaf down in the kitchen or conjure up different "hiding" spots so that I can try to forget that it is there. I know I can have a piece if I want and it's okay. And knowing that makes me think I don't really want it so much anymore. Baby steps =)

Have a great night, everyone!

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!

Today I Suck

Today I suck at the Weight Watchers program. I suck at eating healthy. I suck at making good choices. I suck at exercising. I suck at intuitive eating. This has caused me to have to suck in my gut to button my pants tonight. Yes, I'm having a pity party. It's my party and I'll cry if I want to ;) Sorry. I know tomorrow will be better. But, today....I suck.

I won't even go into the massive amounts of snacks and cookies and cheese and pretzels I ate this afternoon. Ugh, believe me, I don't want to relive it all. And I decided I am going to stop pychoanalyzing to figure out the "why". It just happens. Sometimes you just feel like eating like there is no tomorrow. Then, there are other days when you feel like you got this whole healthy eating/weight loss thing in the bag. I'm not going to dwell on it. I think I realized today that "this day" will not be my "every day" like it used to be. I don't want to go back to being that 234 pound girl. I can't even imagine it. So, I'll write this day off and get back on track for tomorrow. My goal (ugh - there's that elusive WORD!) is to have more ON days than OFF. I can do that :)


Alright, I am going to now be Polly Positive and show you all the healthy eats I had today!
I am feeling an addicition brewing for Becca's milkshakes! This morning, I made one with 2 oz. fresh mango, 1/2 banana, 1 tbsp. sugar free, fat free vanilla pudding dry mix, 1/2 c. unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze and ice. So delicious for 2 POINTS...




A while later, I had a Banana Nut Vitatop for 1 POINT...


Lunch was a Dr. Praeger's Tex Mex Burger with lettuce and Laughing Cow on a honey wheat bun. Gotta have the soy chips! And some grapes rounded out this tasty 8 POINT lunch...

Here's where things went awry, but I'm not talking about that, remember ;)

And dinner was boneless pork chops with a light mushroom cream sauce, pan-fried potatoes and Gram's green beans for 8 POINTS...

No dessert because...well, you know;) If you can't button your pants, it's not a good idea. But, speaking of dessert..... I won the BSI challenge this week with my Chocolate Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Glaze! Thanks, Lara for that exciting news; it really made my day!

That's all for me, tonight. Hope you all have a great night and don't forget, there's still time to enter my FitNutz giveaway! I'll be back tomorrow night with the winner :)

Sunday Around The House

I love lazy Sunday mornings. We had no where to be today, so I slept in until 7:30 but didn't get out of bed until 8:30! Love it! I worked on things around the house and helped the husband clean out the garage. I finally got around to eating breakfast around 11. I toasted up 2 slices of TJ's Sprouted Flourless Wheatberry Bread and topped it with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light for 3 POINTS...


A while after breakfast, I did The Shred for my workout. I haven't done it in quite a while, so I went with Level 1. Totally kicked my butt. I forgot how hard it was! I upped my weights and used 5 pounders and my arms were burning. I even had to stop a time or two! I have gotten all pansy-ish again! Jil would not be happy ;P

After that workout, I deserved a nice big lunch! I decided on a tofu scramble. Are you tired of hearing me rave about these??? I can't help it; they are so good! Really! Tofu can be yummy :) This scramble was made with 1/2 block of Nasoya Lite Firm Tofu, red onion, sliced button mushrooms, baby spinach, roasted peppers and a slice of 2 % cheese. I crumble and brown the tofu first, in nonstick cooking spray, then add the remaining ingredients and cook through. Couldn't be easier or more delicious. Using the lite tofu makes this really low POINTS. The entire block comes to 5 POINTS; I count half as 3 POINTS. The veggies are zero and the addition of the cheese is 1 POINT. So, this giant serving comes to 4 POINTS! So awesome! I had room to add a serving of Triscuits for 2 POINTS and some grapes for 1 POINT. This was one filling 7 POINT meal...

Later in the afternoon, I broke out the popcorn for everyone to snack on. I always forget about this. It is a great volume 1 POINT snack...

Dinner was a Salmon Roulette, Gram's green beans and 1/2 c. brown rice. A quick tip for brown rice- boil it like pasta! I know that sounds strange and not the traditional way to make rice, but if you just put your desired amount of brown rice in a pot of boiling water for about 30-40 minutes, then drain it; it comes out perfect, fluffy and with a great texture! It got 2 thumbs up from the family. A nice, healthy 8 POINT meal...

Okay, now for the dessert. I ditched the Vitahearts and tried out my Chocolate Espresso Glaze on a Deep Chocolate Vitatop...

SCORE!!!! This was so amazing! Rich, chocolatey and very decadent-tasting! And only 1 POINT! You'll be seeing this a lot :D

I'm clocking out early tonight. I have my friend's Dad's funeral in the morning and I know it's gonna be a tough day, so I'm going to get some extra rest. But, come back tomorrow night for a really FUN giveaway!!! Have a great night!