Fast Food

I was a fast food junkie today, paying tribute to those fast food restaurants of the past.  I used to love those places.  McDonald’s, Wendy’s, pizza places;  they were all former stomping grounds.  I have always loved good food, too.  Real, wholesome, made from scratch meals, so I got the best of it all!  But, when I decided to seriously embark on my weight loss track, I slowly realized that these fast food places were not the best options for me.  Yes, there were menu items that I could eat at many of them that were better choices than what I would normally go for (i.e. quarter pounder with cheese and supersized fries!), but I would always leave feeling a bit empty and deprived.  The better choices that were available were usually salad and grilled chicken items, but often times the nutritional facts for these were still on the high side and I knew that if I had eaten at home, I could have eaten something much more filling and satisfying without having to spend the money and the calories.

My menu today reflects how I have been able to find similar, but healthier options to those favorites.  I started off with a take on the Egg McMuffin.  How I used to love those!!!  I can easily make it at home now, using a light or whole wheat english muffin, reduced fat cheese, egg whites and canadian bacon.  When I first began Weight Watchers in 2007, I probably ate this version everyday for the first 6 months.  It was a filling breakfast and would hold me until lunch.  My newest version changes it up a bit by using Eggo Nutrigrain, lowfat waffles.  My bacon, egg and cheese wafflewich uses 2 Eggo waffles, 3 egg whites cooked in nonstick spray with 1 slice of center-cut bacon crumbled into it and a slice of 2% cheese.  So good…

For lunch, it was off to the local pizza place.  Really local – my kitchen!  I had made an Eggplant Parmesan Pizza on Friday nite when Gram joined us for dinner.  She likes everything eggplant and whole wheat, so she and I shared some of this pizza…

I made this using Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough, Dominex Eggplant Cutlets that I prebaked in the oven, homemade marinara sauce and part skim mozzarella cheese.  It was delicious and just as good reheated for lunch.  I also reheated some leftover Zucchini and Beans to have with it.  Can’t get that at the local pizza place…

After a fun family afternoon at the park, we were all hungry for dinner.  That fresh air really works up the appetite!  The husband and daughters got Italian hoagies on the way home, but I decided on a good old hot dog.  I really love the Applegate Farms Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dog that I bought recently.  They are low in calories and fat, but have that traditional hot dog flavor.  I put mine in a whole wheat bun and piled on the sides- carrots with chipotle hummus and barbeque POPchips…

A little later, the ice cream man came to town.  He lives in our freezer actually;  the husband and daughters love ice cream and eat it almost every night.  I’m not too tempted by ice cream, but these guys were shouting at me from the freezer!  Mmmmm….

And thanks to this, I sang the commercial jingle all night long!  *What would you dooooo, for a Klondike bar? * The advertisers who made that one up would be happy :)

ONE GOOD THING:  I was able to include some fun fast foods into my day and still feel like they were healthy choices.  Yeah, even the Klondike:  ice cream = calcium and peanut butter = protein.  Okay, I know that’s a stretch, but everything in moderation, right? :)

Question of the day:  Do you have a favorite fast food item that you recreate at home?

Spice It Up

It’s here!  I picked up my new laptop.  It’s an HP something or other.  I’m very technical, can you tell?  Anyway, the husband said it was a good one and the price was right which was the most important thing!  So shiny and new…

No more ghetto monitor hook-up :)

 

I skipped the gym in favor of meeting a friend early for coffee.  I had planned on getting a treat at the Starbucks, so I just had a Chobani nonfat blueberry yogurt before leaving…

At the Starbucks, you know what was calling my name…

I love Pumpkin Spice Light Frappuccino !!!

Lots of gabbing went on, then I had to leave for a call about some “blog stuff”.  More on that soon ;)  Tease!

I ended up way late for lunch again.  I was past the starving point and starting to get shaky.  The easiest thing that came to mind was a wrap, so I quickly threw together  turkey, chipotle pepper hummus and baby spinach in a high fiber tortilla.  Some POPchips and grapes and I was good to go…

Gobble, gobble.  I don’t even know if I tasted any of it, except for the hummus which, WHEW, did I say this was mild before?  It seemed pretty spicy today and basically overpowered the turkey.  I really do like it, though.  I’ve never been a fan of spicy things, but some do grow on me.  I just like to taste all the components of a sandwich or wrap, otherwise what’s the point of putting it in there, right?

Since lunch was so late, I didn’t feel the need for a snack and I kinda had a stomachache anyway.  Probably from scarfing down my lunch!

I decided on a simple dinner of Chicken Cutlets and Zucchini with Beans.  The chicken cutlets are always a hit with the husband and daughters, but I knew the zucchini with beans were going to be a tough sell.  For this easy dish, I pan-fried some fresh sliced zucchini and added in a can of Trader Joe’s Marinated Bean Salad.  Before serving, I added some sliced mozzarella (2 lite string cheese, cut-up) to try to entice the haters…

Very tasty!  I think it would make a great topping for pasta, too.  The husband was good with it;  the daughters not so much.  Try, try again.

I ended the night with THE HOMEWORK WARS and a few Trader Joe’s Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites…

Have a great one!!!

ONE GOOD THING:  I’m starting to think in terms of planning for certain treats.  If I know I want something, I cut back somewhere else to accommodate for the treat and I’m not doing it in a way that seems threatening or depriving.  It’s starting to feel like a natural progression.

Question of the Day:  Do you like spicy food?

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?

The Heart Of The Home

Back to the grind!  We were up and at ‘em early to try and finish up the last painting touches and put the kitchen back together.  We had to make another quick trip to the Lowe’s,  but first some breakfast was in order.  I was in the mood for eggs, so I whipped up a Salsa Egg White Scramble (egg whites, spinach, salsa and light cheddar)…

Then, it was off to pick up our hardwares.  Since, Trader Joe’s was right around the corner, I talked the husband into a pit stop to pick up a couple items.  I scored a cool new (to me) hummus that I couldn’t wait to have with lunch…

I thought it would make a great topping for my Cuban Black Bean Patty on an Ezekiel hamburger bun…

It was perfect!  I liked the smoky flavor and the mild heat.  Definitely a keeper!

We finally finished up the last of the retouching and put the kitchen back in working order.  Only glitch was with the lighting over the table.  Seems our compact fluorescents were too big and stuck out above the shades.  I had to run back out and get smaller bulbs, but other than that, this repainting/updating job went pretty smoothly.  And the husband and I worked really well together, so no divorce papers needed to be drawn up after this project ;)

The daughters came home as we were finished and were so surprised at the change!  They loved it, though, which made me happy since the kitchen is the heart of our home and I want everyone to be comfortable in it.

I decided on an easy dinner.  I wasn’t quite ready to cook after the long, tiring weekend, so we fired up the grill and made some of these cool dogs I found at Trader Joe’s…

I haven’t had a hot dog in ages because of the high fat content of the regular ones and I found the light ones to be okay, but I question the “healthiness” of them.  However, I saw these Applegate Farms Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dogs and the “organic” and “no nitrates or preservatives” made me feel a little better about them!  Hey, it’s un-American to not eat a hot dog, right?!  Anyway, I was surprised by the nutritional information considering these are not touted as a “light” hot dog.  One dogger is 70 calories with only 4.5 grams of fat!  That’s impressive.  Can’t get away from the sodium though – 430 mg., but that’s how a hot dog rolls ;P  Speaking of rolls, I ate my dog on a whole wheat roll with a squirt of straight up yellow mustard along with a side salad and some baked fries….

I loved this hot dog!!!  Seriously good;  even the husband gave it a thumbs up.  Now, the fries…eh, not so lovely.  I bought these Alexia Yukon Gold fries and had high expectations…

The nutritionals looked good…

but the flavor was meh and some of the fries were hollow inside when you bit into them.  Somehow, the precooking process they do, cooks the potato right out of it!  Not a fan :(

All in all, a tasty dinner in our “new” kitchen.  Wanna see it???  Here’s a mini tour…

Looks good now;  I’m sure I’ll mess it up soon enough!

I ended the night with another Trader Joe’s find:  Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites…

A serving is 8 cookies for 130 calories and 6 grams fat.  They are made with whole wheat flour, oats and walnut meal.  Good ingredients and delicious!  I was satisfied with just 3 because they have such great flavor.   Just right…

Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!

ONE GOOD THING:  I was able to enjoy cookies without feeling like I had to eat the whole serving or container for that matter- LOL!  I ate what satisfied me and put them away.

Question of the Day:  What room do you consider to be the “heart of your home” ?