Expanding My Horizons

The husband has been having computer issues, so we are all sharing my computer which cramps my blogging style hence no post last night! Here's what my day looked like yesterday...


I tried something new for breakfast. I have a love/hate relationship with oatmeal. I would love to love it because I know it is good for me, but I hate the texture. I also hate that, to make it taste good, I have to add a bunch of extras (toppings, milk, fruit) which puts it way up the POINT (calorie) scale. But, I'm willing to revisit it every once in a while. I came across a recipe for overnight oatmeal in The Perfect Recipe for Eating Great and Losing Weight. All you do is mix oats with milk and dried fruit, put it in the fridge overnight and in the morning, you have "instant oatmeal". You can eat it cold, but I nuked mine for a minute so it was warm. My mix was 1 c. oats, 1 c. unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze ,1/4 c. dried cranberries and a pinch of salt. This made 2 servings at 4 POINTS each... for a measly little bowl... :(



I have to say that I actually liked it. The texture was not "gluey" at all and the taste was great. For me, the volume eater that I am, this just doesn't cut it for 4 POINTS. Plus, it doesn't stay with me long enough. I was starving by 11:30 a.m.!


Needless to say, lunch was a bit earlier than usual. I had a Health is Wealth Chicken Free Patty on an Ezekiel Bun with 2% cheese, lettuce and dijonnaise. To go with it, I had my usual soy crisps, but an unusual-for-me fruit - papaya! I found this little nugget in my produce store and I decided to give it a try. It has many black seeds in the center which I scooped out; not sure if you can eat them or not - anyone know?? It was sweet and juicy. Another fruit I can add to my rotation! Altogether, a delicious and filling (unlike my breakfast) 9 POINT lunch...


Later, I snacked on a Pumpkin Spice Cupcake with Orange Glaze for 2 POINTS...

Then got some dinner going which included this mystery veg... (*in my best Ben Stein voice* anyone? anyone?)

Well, if you said jicama, you would be right! I really had no idea what to do with it, but thought it might be an interesting addition to my dinner salad tonight. I peeled it and cut it into sticks with my mandoline. It has a different taste than I expected. I guess because it sort of looks like a potato, I was expecting a bland taste, but it has a bit of a sweet bite to it. Interesting. I can't say I loved it, but I would like to play with it in maybe some type of slaw recipe. I think it would be good within that kind of preparation. Anyway, I added it to my Grilled Chili Lime Scallops Salad with Guacamole dressing. I seasoned sea scallops with chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and a squeeze of lime, then grilled them for about 4 min. per side. I arranged them over a mixed salad with red pepper strips and jicama sticks. Then topped with guacamole dressing that I made using 1/4 c. prepared guacamole (I buy Trader Joe's guac) thinned out with a little fresh lime juice and skim milk. I also had a cornbread muffin to go with it. A nice "beat the heat" 8 POINT dinner...

I ended the night with bites of this and that, which included Cheez Its, a couple chocolates and licks of Cookies and Cream Ice Cream! UGH! A way over POINT day, but I did make sure to get in a 45 minute weighted elliptical workout with 20 tricep dips and 30 wall pushups.

Next goal - make better choices!

Have a great day!!!

Game Day Eats

Well, I didn't Shred last night. It got too late and I wasn't in the mood to get all sweaty right before bed. But, I made sure to do it first thing this morning! My goal is to do it every day in February; maybe by then, I'll be shredded as Jillian says ;) After Shred, I had a cereal trifecta; 1/2 c. Puffins, 1/2 c. TJ's High Fiber O's and 1/4 c. high fiber select. I topped it with 2 strawberries, 1/2 c. blueberries and 1 c. Soy Slender. Good stuff for 4 POINTS...


After my super -cereal, I headed to the basement and did another 25 minutes on the elliptical. So far, I think I have hit my 45 min.-a-day exercise goal for the whole month of January!

I was craving hummus again, so I had to fit it into my lunch. I made a turkey hummus wrap using 2 oz. turkey, 1 tbsp. hummus, lettuce and roasted pepper rolled in a La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Wrap. So delish! I had a serving of Sea Salt and Pepper Rice Chips and a beautiful orange to go with it. A filling 6 POINT lunch...


My snack was a Weight Watchers Strawberry Yogurt (1 POINT - you can't beat that!!) and a serving of Puffins (yes, again!) for 1 POINT...

No Superbowl parties for us tonight; we planned on just hanging out and having a fun dinner in the family room. The daughters aren't really interested in the game anyway, so we watched the beginning while we were eating. My fun Superbowl dinner was Happier Hour Sliders . These are adorable mini burgers! The key to these are the cute little buns that are made with this...

The dough is divided into 12 equal pieces and baked for about 20 minutes and viola - mini buns! Here's what they looked like when they came out of the oven...

For the burgers, I used 96%lean ground beef. Each burger uses about 1 1/4 oz. of raw ground beef (yes, I weigh it) and I got 12 patties. Here are some of them...

I pan-fried the burgers in a nonstick skillet and topped them with a bit of 2% cheese. I split the buns and loaded on the burgers and some fixins. Not the best picture, but aren't they cute???

The sliders come in at 5 POINTS for 2 of them. I paired mine with some yummy Black Bean Soup that I made this afternoon. I found the recipe on Heather's awesome blog! I also had some broccoli with garlic and evoo. A great 7 POINT dinner. Touchdown!!!

No dessert tonight. I'm full, so I'm going with it and not forcing anything else down the pipes!

Hope everyone is enjoying the game! See you all tomorrow for some Monday morning quarterbacking =)

Run, Eat, Read

Hi Everyone! I'm going to try to make this post quick, as I am deeply into reading Twilight and can't put it down! I got this for big daughter for Christmas. She has already seen the movie, but hasn't had a chance to start the book. I decided to read it to "check it out" and see what all the hubub was about and now I know!!!! It is very enticing, dark, but romantic at the same time! It's neat because I get to a certain part and then ask big daughter about it and she tells me what happened in the movie. We're sorta having our own book club! Fun ! Okay, so let's get with the food...



This morning, I headed to the basement for my "5k Saturday" treadmill run. I think I will definitely try and keep this routine. I was hurting a little from my outdoor run yesterday. It affected me differently than the treadmill; I guess the impact from the asphalt is a little rougher. Anyway, I powered through which felt good afterward. For breakfast, I made the same egg sammie as yesterday. I was actually salivating when I was on the treadmill, thinking of this breakfast! It is a very yummy 3 POINTer...







For lunch, I morphed the Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tenders leftover from the other night into a yummy wrap. I reheated the chicken in the toaster oven to recrisp/reheat them and placed them in a La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Tortilla with some lettuce, shredded carrots, chopped celery and 1 tbsp. Marie's Light Blue Cheese Dressing. Wow, this was amazing! Just went with a side of Kettle Baked Potato Chips for a terrific 7 POINT lunch...




A little after lunch, I made some Coffee Cocoa...

Before going to big daughter's basketball game, I had a snack of 3/4 c. Puffins, 1/4 c. high fiber cereal, 3 strawberries and 1 c. Soy Slender...

After the basketball game, we came straight home and I got started on dinner. I was making Shrimp Scampi over Linguine for myself and just straight-up spaghetti with marinara sauce for the husband and daughters who would not touch shrimp with a ten foot pole. Oh, the horror! It was terrific, they don't know what they are missing :) I made a side of sauteed spinach with garlic. This was a nice 8 POINT dinner...

Unfortunately, during the dinner making process, I started noshing on some crackers, pretzel rod and hummus. I shut it down pretty quickly, though. However, I didn't think until after I had already done the deed, that I should have employed my "gum trick" from last night! DUH! That would have worked. I did recognize while I was noshing that I wasn't hungry, just feeling a little anxious(those games do that to me!); so maybe next time I'll be able to talk myself out of what I am recognizing!!!

I had some ice cream for dessert tonight. I went with some Edy's Slow Churned Peanut Butter Cup ice cream; this is a light ice cream - 130 cal. and 8 gr. fat. Very good! But, honestly, I like the fat free just as much if not better and it's less POINTS. I also had a pumpkin choco-chip cookie from the freezer...

(sorry for this bad pic)

Well, some noshing continued later with the daughters' Goldfish Crackers, nuts and a couple Girl Scout Cookies. I feel o.k. about it because I have the Weekly Allowance Points to use, but I wish I wouldn't eat just to eat. It's over now and I'm glad it didn't turn into something more. Okay, I already went on longer than I told you I would!!!

Into the Twilight...

5K Saturday and Pizza Revenge

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday! I woke up a little slow; my cold seems to have surfaced. It's mild, but I was still slow going. My first thought was no way am I exercising today, but as I got up and moving around, I realized that I didn't feel as badly as I thought. I donned the sneakers and headed to the treadmill for another 5k Saturday! This was my second time and I was able to run without stopping again! I even beat my time from last week by 3 min.; I went from 61 min. to 58 min! I felt really good afterward. Depending on what I have going on, I may try it again tomorrow morning!



After my run, I had some breakfast of 3/4 c. Puffins, 1/2 c. high fiber cereal, 4 sliced strawberries and 1 c. Soy Slender...









I was craving lots of fruit today and I actually decided on what fruit I wanted before what I would have for the main part of my lunch! I went with a ham wrap with lettuce and tomato, orange slices, grapes and 1/2 oz. Kettle Baked Potato Chips. An altogether yummy 5 POINT lunch...


My peanut butter cravings surfaced again and I also wanted some yogurt for a snack, so I put them together. This was an interesting combo! I used 1/2 c. plain yogurt and mixed it with my BFF - PB2 to make peanut butter yogurt! Sounds weird, right? It was good, though. To make it even better, I crumbled a Weight Watchers Peanut Butter Cookie over the top...

Wow, 3 POINTS of PB heaven!

The husband and daughters devised an evil plot to get their pizza that I deprived them of last night! It was decided that we should go out for dinner and of course, they chose Bertucci's, which is an incredible brick oven pizzeria and Italian restaurant! This place is hard to be in; even though it is a chain -type restaurant, everything is so delicious. But, the item that is the toughest for me is this...

These dough ball rolls are right up there with brownies in the temptation department! They are served with a dish of flavored olive oil for dipping! Evil, evil, evil!!!!! So, I tried to be a good Weight Watcher and moved the rolls and the dipping oil to the other end of the table. I allowed myself one of these rolls, but I waited until the server brought my salad with fat free Chianti dressing until I dug into this doughy goodness...

Along with my salad, I ordered a cup of the Tuscan Minestrone Soup which was delicious and warmed my stomach on this cold, cold night...

I did break off another bite of roll, but didn't eat any of the pizza that was swirling around me! Whew, glad that we got out of there before any damage was done! It's a little rough going out to eat, especially when I knew that I used most of my Weekly Allowance POINTS yesterday on that mindless after lunch snacking. Overall, I was happy with my choices tonight. I have to understand that everything I ate was delicious AND good for me, even if it wasn't what I would have eaten "in the old days" (i.e. giant calzones, heavy pasta dishes, way more than one roll!). As a matter of fact, I commented to the husband on the ride home, that I couldn't imagine eating or ordering the menu items that I used to when we went there. I could almost remember the "after feeling". You know, like that stuffed and lethargic just want to lie down feeling. Again, I acknowledged my progress in this journey of trying to eat healthy! Cool!

When we got home, we played a little Wii bowling and tennis, then I had some dessert. It got away from me last night, but no way can I go 2 nights without some!!! I continued on with my peanut butter craving and had my usual dessert, Deep Chocolate Vitatop with PB2/Fluff icing. This was the last of my PB2 (sniff, sniff), but I have some on order. Can't live without the stuff, now...

The husband brought the remainder of the daughters' pizza home and one of those doughy devils home. I am using Angie's trick right now of imagining that it fell in the toilet!!! LOL! Hey, we gotta do what we gotta do to stay outta trouble!

Hope you're all staying out of trouble, too! I know, I'm NO FUN...

Stop The Insanity

Hi Everyone! A much better night sleep was had by all, so we are feeling more like normal people today instead of zombies ;)

I managed to get my regular workout in early this morning which felt good. After the daughters were off to school, I had a bowl of Trader Joe's High Fiber O's mixed with the storebrand high fiber cereal, 1/2 c. blueberries, a few strawberries and 1 c. Soy Slender...



I spent the remainder of the morning working around the house. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch. I was looking forward to trying these guys that I picked up at the grocery store the other day...


They are a krinkle-style baked potato stick with ketchup flavor! How fun is that? The serving size is the entire 1.2 oz. bag and for 120 cal., 3 gr. fat, 2 gr. fiber, it was a yummy 2 POINTS! And what goes best with fries? Yup, a burger! I went with a Boca Burger in the original vegan flavor (which is only 1 POINT!) served on an Arnold Sandwich Thin with a slice of 2% cheese, lettuce and ketchup. Some sweet grapes were the perfect side to round out this 6 POINT all-american lunch...

After lunch, I had some errands to take care of and while I was at Target picking up something for the husband, I saw these.....

A new product from Kashi! I haven't met a Kashi bar that I didn't like, so I decided to give these a try (plus they were on sale!). Oh my, they are yummy! Like a granola bar topped with an almost gooey frosting and sprinkled with some nuts. This flavor was pumpkin pie...

I have to say, it really did taste like a well spiced pumpkin pie! What a nice 2 POINT snacky. I also picked up the chocolate raspberry flavor; can't wait to try that one!

I wish I could say that was my only afternoon snack, however, it wasn't. I got really munchie and snacked on some other things: 1/2 pretzel rod, handful of baked potato chips, couple bites of little daughter's soft pretzel, piece of chocolate. Carbs and sugar. The usual suspects! Well, that sucked :( I don't know why I do that stupid snacking right when a weigh-in is coming up!! Sorry, Team Angie :( But, guess what? I stopped the insanity! Believe me, it could've gotten UGLY; I was in that kind of mood to eat and eat. However, I shut the pantry door, ran upstairs to get my running shoes on and headed to the treadmill for a 25 min. run! I don't know if it will make that much of a difference for my weigh-in, but at least it helped me do damage control. I'm thinking that was progress :)

My dinner options became fairly limited due to the oversnacking. I estimated the extra snacks at about 5 POINTS and because I don't have any Weekly Allowance POINTS left, that gave me only 4 POINTS to work with for dinner. I decided to make an egg white omelette with baby spinach, a tbsp. of Trader Joe's Roasted Pepper Spread and a shredded light string cheese . I also had a side of leftover string beans with garlic and evoo...

That 3 POINT dinner left me with one lonely POINT which I should have let go, but I knew I had these Mrs. Freshley's 100 calorie mini chocolate cupcakes...

They are 3 mini cakes for 1 POINT, so I broke into them and had some tea to go with these little guys.

I'm gonna call it a night and watch the Biggest Loser. Hopefully, that will inspire me to not eat any more food tonight!!

Reading, Cooking, Games

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone has had a nice relaxing day. Wishful thinking, huh?!



I'm posting late tonight and I'm pretty beat, so I'll try not to be too verbose and just get right to the food!



I woke up this morning and headed to the computer to catch up on some blog reading. So much fun! I love hearing everyone's stories, trials and tribulations. I can relate to so many and find these blogs so motivational! The time really got away from me, but my stomach let me know that I better get something in there. Since, it was pretty late, I went with a bowl of Trader Joe's High Fiber O's mixed with another high fiber cereal (Fiber One knockoff), some sliced strawberries and 1 c. Soy Slender...





After that, I spent some time in the kitchen; cleaning and then, messing it up again. I always do that! I couldn't help myself though; I was itching to make these Pumpkin Parmesan Scones from the Jan/Feb. 2009 issue of Cooking Light. ( Click here for the recipe). I adapted the recipe a little: omitted the butter and used 2 tbsp. olive oil, used whole wheat pastry flour instead of ww flour and used 1 oz. Cabot 75% Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese for the topping because I was out of parmesan. I also omitted the pumpkin seeds topping since I didn't have those either! So mine scones were Pumpkin Cheddar and they were delish! Kinda smallish, so I had to have two with my lunch. Each scone came to 2 POINTS with my recipe adjustments. Along with these scones for lunch, I had a cup of lentil soup and some grapes...




No snack this afternoon. I just had a cup of coffee and a nibble of a Clif Z Honey Graham Bar before heading to big daughter's basketball game. BAD MOVE! I was starving and overly anxious from the game(so exciting watching them play!) and I came home and ate a bunch of different snacky things while getting dinner ready. I didn't take pics; I guess I was moving so quickly through it all that I didn't think about it. But, here's the laundry list: hummus, carrots, pretzel sticks/rod, couple bran crackers, cheese stick and piece of chocolate. Well, I'll look at it this way; it could've been : brownies, chocolate, chips and cookies. So, I guess I didn't do too badly. I have used almost all my extra weekly allowance POINTS, though so I'll have to be on my best behavior until Thurs. weigh-in! Anyway, dinner for the husband and daughters was chicken parmesan. I breaded, I fried, I doused in sauce and cheese! Not for me, though. I opted to make a little eggplant parmesan using these...

These eggplant cutlets are really tasty. They are sliced and breaded for you, so all you have to do is bake, broil or fry them. I run them under the broiler; quick and easy. A serving is 3 oz.; 100 cal., 2 gr. fat and 3 gr. fiber = 2 POINTS. I made a 6 oz. serving tonight, with a bit of sauce and a string cheese divided over the eggplant slices. I had a side of string beans with garlic and EVOO. A very veggie 7 POINT meal...

Bread would have went nicely with this dinner, but I was out of luck/POINTS due to the overabundance of snacks. Oh well, next time :) After dinner, I did my workout since I fiddled around too much this morning to get it in. I am really sticking to my 45 min.- a-day workout goal. It feels good to follow through on that. Then, it was an evening of games with the daughters. We're all ready to wind down now and flop in bed! Have a great night!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!! I am really looking forward to starting a fresh new year. I am happy to be starting this new year a LOT healthier and trimmer than last year and I can only hope for the same for the coming year. I have had some thoughts about goals for the new year, but haven't given it as much attention as I wanted to since we have still been busy celebrating and entertaining. I hope to have some quiet time this weekend to get my goals and affirmations together and in place! Well, let's get to the food...



A quick recap of last night; there was a ton of food at the party! I decided on salad to which I added some shrimp from the shrimp cocktail platter, some of Gram's green beans that I brought, a slice of pepperoni bread (so yum) and a piece of soft pretzel...





Looks pretty good, right?? Yeah, well let's just say that soft pretzels are just as evil as brownies especially when they are fresh from the pretzel bakery!! I ended up eating a whole one and another half piece. I also brought a honey bun cake which was not WW friendly at all (i.e. sour cream, oil, brown sugar, milk), but I had to have a piece to make sure it was o.k. to serve to the masses (wink, wink)...

Uh, it was o.k. And super sweet. After that I dug into various other treats. Little pieces, but quite a few. No way to count Points for it all. There was some damage done, but not binge-like. I kept it pretty under control. I wanted to talk more to keep myself busy during the whole eating party, but I lost my voice (no, I haven't been screaming at the daughters) so it was a little difficult to keep conversing without really straining my voice. But, believe me, I tried!

Here's the husband and me, striking a pose during the festivities...

It was a long night, but we all made it to midnight, even the daughters!! They LOVE to party! We finally got to bed by 1 a.m. and since, no one in this house likes to sleep in (except me) we were up and at 'em by 8:30 this morning. Ugh. I hit the treadmill and ran for 15 min. then hopped on the elliptical for another 15 min. Not my best work, but hey, it's New Year's Day and you're supposed to really want to exercise with "resolve" today!!! I decided on a quick breakfast of Trader Joe's High Fiber O's mixed with a Fiber One knockoff high fiber cereal and 1 c. Soy Slender...

We had both sets of parents and Gram over today for New Years lunch. I had a roast pork sandwich with cheese, roasted peppers and baby spinach. My Mom brought some sushi rolls, so I had one of those and I made a wonderful Black Eyed Pea Salad. I had never tried black eyed peas before; they are delicious...

I had also made some lentil soup which I didn't eat today, but stored some in the freezer for another day. As I was cleaning up, I nibbled on two more sushi rolls and a slice of cheese :(

Then, came these guys...

My mother-in-law makes these awesome peanut butter kandykakes and although I tried to resist them, one made it's way into my mouth!! YUM.

We spent the rest of our afternoon playing Wii bowling and some card games. All in all, a nice family day!

I went with a lighter dinner tonight and a repeat from the other night; lighter spinach frittata and a salad with evoo and vinegar...

I wish I could say that was all I had today and gee, isn't this a great first day of a new year of eating right! However, I ate a bunch of junk following this lovely dinner ranging from more kandykakes to some chocolate to a soft pretzel with cheese!!!! I think I was still in "holiday entertaining" mode and once I shake this, I can regroup. I realized part of the overeating issues are just plain being out of a normal day schedule. The daughters are home from school, the husband is off from work and it is making my normal daily routine out of sync. This, in turn, throws my eating out of sync, too. Not that being an excuse, just an observation into the "whys". Anyway, TOMORROW (there's always that day!!) will be better!

I wish a wonderful, happy and healthy new year for everyone! I have been hearing some great mantra's for 2009. Last year was "gonna be great in 2008". My niece, Nikki asked me last night what mine was for this year. I said , I'm gonna lose my behind in 2009! Ha Ha! Her's was a lot better, "gonna get to the finish line in 2009"!!! Leave me a comment with your mantra for 2009! I'd love to hear it!

Dare I Say It

Dare I say the words, "back on track" today?! It seems like I have been saying those words, but not actually following through with them for a whole day! I need to though. I feel like heck this morning. As I anticipated, I did not have a restful sleep partly because of the sugar overload and partly because little daughter decided to wake up 750 times. My body is very upset with me and letting me know it. I am achy and groggy and drained of energy. I think this is enough now. So, yes, I will say it is time to get "back on track" today!

Nothing was appealing for breakfast and I honestly could have skipped it altogether, but I know what nastiness that brings later in the day. So, I finally decided to go with 1 c. high fiber cereal with 2 strawberries and 1 c. Soy Slender. A good 2 Point start...

Now, it's off to the treadmill...

Just Cruising

Sorry for the non-food post yesterday, but did you like the Screaming Banshee???!!! My mom sent that to me last year and it cracks me up! I am the Screaming Banshee!! Life was so busy yesterday. I ran errands, wrapped presents, ran more errands, did some returning, cleaned, cooked, planned cookie recipes, organized stuff and wandered aimlessly around a couple stores looking for some last minute gifts (to no avail, so I'll be doing that on Mon., too!). Craziness.

Soooo, let's talk about the food. It's true confession time. When I committed myself to doing this blog, I resolved that I would be completely honest with myself and anyone who reads about my food intake. There is no perfection, no eating on program 100% and always choosing all the healthy and proper food groups , EVERY DAY, ALL DAY. As much as I would like to live that way, it doesn't always happen. But, this is part of the weight loss journey and I suspect, part of the maintenance lifestyle, too. So that being said, I will admit to not tracking yesterday and pretty much going downward at warp speed. I didn't snap pics of my indiscretions, either. I thought maybe that would make the junk I ate not exist, but I'm just playing games with myself. Anyway, I'll take you through a quick run through of the eating debacle. I started off with some cereal and Soy Slender. Note to self: this is Not a good enough breakfast! It did not stick with me at all. I kinda knew it wasn't going to, but I was in a hurry and it was the quickest thing I could wolf down. I was starving an hour later. Not good; this could have been the start of it all. I think I need a bigger breakfast during these holiday, goodies abound days. I came home starving for lunch and decided on PB2 and SF jelly on an Arnold Sandwich Thin, a serving of Kettle Baked Potato Chips and 2 clementines. So far, so good. Later, when the daughters came home is when it went downhill fast. I had a snack of Fiber One Strawberry Yogurt and a Weight Watchers 1 Point Oatmeal Raisin Bar. And some pretzel sticks and more pretzel sticks, and some crackers with hummus and a Kit Kat and a Crunch Bar(stinkin leftover Halloween candy!) and some cheese and who knows what else! That's all I can remember, but there may have been more of those little candy bars involved. I was in an eating trance. Ugh. I finally reeled myself in, back to reality, and decided to get back on track for my next meal - which I should have skipped because I sure wasn't "hungry" anymore! I did "force" myself to eat a healthy dinner. I did take a pic of that...


So, I think I am feeling back in the game today. However, tomorrow is "Cookie Day" at my mom's house. We bake a ton of cookies (and eat them, too). I don't know what my game plan is for tomorrow. Eat, not eat, plan and track Points, don't. I don't know. I think I will play it by ear. I am feeling pressure to still be losing, but I think maybe I should get through this holiday not worrying so much about a loss, and try to make the best choices I can. No pressure, just cruisin. January is right around the corner and then it'll be crunch time!

This morning, I learned from my breakfast yesterday so I had a filling one. I went with 2 Egg, Cheese and Bacon Muffins and a Thomas' Light English Muffin...

Here's hoping it's smooth sailing in the healthy eating department today...

According To Plan

No need for the coffee pit stop. The Power Pumpkin Pancakes held me to lunch. I love when that happens! I stopped home for lunch and when I walked in the door, I was instantly hungry. I decided to make the quickest thing possible. I went with a turkey and cheese wrap. I used 2 oz. turkey, a slice of 2 % cheese, lettuce and a squirt of dijonnaise all rolled in a La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Tortilla. I also had 2 clementines and a serving of pretzel sticks. A smart and delicious 6 Point lunch...





I've been craving a smoothie, shake or cold drink today, even though it's nippy outside. I used to have smoothies for breakfast, but they just don't hold me long enough. But for a snack, it works out o.k. I was getting ready to pull out the yogurt and fruit, but then I saw my new love, PB2! I thought it would be great in a shake! I was thinking chocolate (of course!) and peanut butter, so here's what I ended up concocting: a PB2 Black and White Shake. These are the top billing stars...

Soy Slender is another awesome product. It is 70 cal., 3 gr. fat and 3 gr. fiber for 1 cup. That is 1 WW Point and it tastes great, even in cereal! So for my shake, I used 1 c. Soy Slender, 2 tbsp. PB2 powder, 1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder and about 6 ice cubes all whizzed up in the blender! That's it, easy and yum for only 2 Points! I took it "to go" and sipped it while driving little daughter to dance class (she demanded I make her one when we got home!)...

Another quickie dinner tonight. I decided to subject the family to eating the delicious Cha Siu Bao that I really like. They put up a fight, but ended up eating it! It's doughy and soft - what's not to like people!!!! Okay, I'll stop yelling :) I made a salad with cucumbers and Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch Dressing. It was just right for a late dinner. A good tasting 6 Point dinner...

Now wait until you see dessert! I remembered I had a couple Deep Chocolate Vitatops in the freezer and I thought it should marry PB2!! I am really getting my fill of this stuff today. I defrosted the Vitatop, mixed up the PB2 and used it as "icing" on the Vitatop. I sprinkled with 1 tsp. mini chocolate chips for cuteness. Can you stand this- and for only 2.5 Points (the .5 Point is the tsp. of mini chips)?? Oh my greatness, if you are a chocolate and peanut butter fan, this is your new best friend...

BFF's =)