Never trust a Skinny Chef

Well, I hit my first mini-goal. I set my first goal for 10 pounds and I hit it today. It has been so much easier this time around with hubby doing so well. Well, ha, better than well, he has lost 50 pounds so far. Men, grr…

I really can’t complain at all since I just started WW this month. He began shortly after Thanksgiving and has been really eating well and exercising a lot. I’m doing very good on the healthy eating part, but the exercise is not very appealing to me (yet). I hope I get to the point that I at least try every other day.

My next goal is a 19 pound mini-goal. That is my 10% goal that I am setting for myself. I don’t see the 10 pounds loss on my body or in my face yet. So, I’m hoping that the next goal will show some results.

I have been tinkering with new recipes this last week. So far, I’ve invented two of my own creations. I’m generally good at copying recipes, but not creating something new from my own ideas. The first one is called a “Burrisadilla” - It’s like a grilled quesadilla burrito. I was trying to avoid the family favorite dinner “Fried Burritos” and came up with my “Burrisadilla”.

The second one was a dessert that my mom and brother helped me with. I think we are calling them “White Chocolate Blackberry Napoleons”. I took a picture of the napoleons tonight, so hopefully I will post the recipe tomorrow. I will have to wait until the next time around for the Burrisadilla pictures.

Okay, well I caught up to the weight loss wagon and jumped on. Well, I guess to lose more weight I should walk or run next to the wagon, but you know what I mean.
I started back on Weight Watchers on January. I’ve done really well so far. Aside from 2 days when the serious munchies hit, I’ve done well. The good thing is that even when the munchies hit, I didn’t eat as much as I would have pre-WW. So, I felt good about that.
It is much easier to attempt this when hubby is eating well too. In the past, I would eat well for a week or two, then on a busy night he would say, “just go get something to eat”, aka: fast food. It would then be the first bad decision of many. Now that he has given up fast food, soda and snacks, it is so…. much easier to do this.

Last night, we decided to go eat dinner at my favorite restaurant. We waited in the lobby for about 10-15 minutes and then we were seated. My husband looked at the menu and told me that my favorite thing wasn’t on the menu. I never look at the menu, so I thought he was just joking. The waiter came to our table and I gave him my order. He said that they don’t serve halibut anymore, but have salmon in its place. I couldn’t believe it. He said that the menu had recently changed. The ONLY reason I go to this restaurant is for the halibut. So, we left. I was so sad. This was supposed to be my splurge meal and I was not going to waste it on something I didn’t like. We ended up at Rubio’s and I know that I ate much, much, much less than what I would have eaten at the restaurant. So, it turned out to be a nice evening with hubby.

I’ve never entered a contest like this before, but for a year’s worth or popcorn and movies I’ll do my best to figure it out. Okay, so here goes.
Go to Roni’s website to learn more about the contest and check-out all the great varieties of Healthy Snacking popcorn at Orville’s site.
I would love to try the Buttery Salt & Cracked Pepper popcorn. I also love their Caramel Popcorn cakes.
Yum-0!

Well, I’m getting close to jumping back onto the healthy eating wagon. I’ve got lots excuses and extra pounds, but I’m really wanting to eat healthier again. We just moved into a new house that has an enclosed patio that we have dubbed, “The Gym”. It has a treadmill, exercise bike and lil’ stair stepper. We also have a TV with a dvd player to play exercise videos. I haven’t used it yet, because I need an exercise mat to workout to the videos (see: excuse).
Jenn

I have many excuses. I don’t think I’ll go into detail on all of them, cuz’ the list would be very, very, very, very long. Short and to the point, no money= no shopping for the healthy foods that I need to be successful. I didn’t work all summer and don’t get my first paycheck until the end of the month. It’s been so tight, we’ve eaten dinner for the last week at my mom’s. She provides the food and I get to cook it. I love to cook so it’s not too bad, but I’ve not been cooking healthy at all.
On a better note, I have not been drinking soda and when I cook the ground sirloin, I still rinse it with hot water to remove the fat. I just feel blah. My heartburn is back, which was almost completely gone when I was on plan. I’m still going to the chiropractor three times a week for my back and luckily it is feeling much better.
I think I’m a little depressed since I found the results of my x-rays on my back. I saw the x-ray and he told me my spine is curved. I’m pretty sure it is from the extra weight on my tummy. Now my weight is affecting my spine, on top of the heel spur on my right foot and my heartburn.
I’m upset because I was “in the zone” and was in a great state of mind. Then I blew it. I totally take responsibility, now I’ve just gotta figure out how to get going again - before payday if possible.

Well, I went back to school last week, so my new Barbie is appropriately named
“Sleepy Barbie”. I came home last Monday and went straight to my bed to take an
hour long nap. My 13-year old took a nap too. I think we’re getting a little more
adjusted to our “new” hours because we didn’t take any naps the rest of the week.
Today, I really, really want a nap, but I have too much to do.
I tried to go to bed early last night - 10:00 p.m., but then realized that I did not have
anything for the kids lunches, not even enough to scrounge for a day. So, at 10:10 I
went to the grocery store. Came home, put the groceries away and went straight to
bed. Hubby wanted me to go in the a.m. before school, but I am NOT a morning person,
although I’m starting to think I’m not a night person either. Hmm! What am I - SLEEPY!
[url=http://www.meez.com/jennscookin][img]http://images.meez.com/user15/04/09/08/040908_10025152135.gif[/img][/url]

We loves Smoothies! I’m not a big coffee drinker, so we drink Smoothies instead.
My mom found me a Vita-Mix Blender at a yard sale a while back and it makes the best Smoothies. Any blender will do, but I love my Vita-Mix.

Here is our favorite version:

Strawberry-Banana Smoothies
Smoothie Pic

2-3 Servings

1/2 cup coconut milk or coconut pineapple juice (whatever is the lowest in points)
1/2 cup Fat Free Milk
1 1/2 cups crushed ice (it’s easier on the blender)
1 container lite Strawberry-Banana Yogurt (or any flavor you like, I like Lime too)
1-2 cups frozen strawberries (slightly thawed, it’s easier on the blender)
2 bananas
Big Straws

I add the FF milk, juice and ice into the blender and begin to mix. Then add in
one at a time, the yogurt, strawberries and bananas.
Garnish anyway you like. Serve with a straw (the straw is important, the Smoothies taste much better with the straw when you drink em’ with a straw - I don’t know why)

you’re off plan. Ugh! I was doing so good on Weight Watchers and then BLAM!!! KAPOW!!! CRASH!!! What happened? I’m not even sure. I do know
that old habits die hard and my bad habits need to be crushed.

I can blame it on many things, school starting, college continuing, chaos, money, but it all comes down to my choices. I started WW on July 16 and other than the occasional restaurant night out, I stayed on plan. Then last last Wednesday I went back to school (work) and both days they catered meals for us. The first day I did well, although they ran out of food so it was easy to make good choices because there was only fruit left. The second day there was chicken with a weird stuffing inside, so I just ate the chicken. But they had warm french bread - my weakness!!! I had two pieces. I justified the two pieces because I hadn’t eaten one the day before. Then the bad choices became easier and easier to make. All of a sudden it’s 11 days later and I haven’t tracked my meals in my journal or made many good choices. Despite my lack of good choices, I weighed in today and I am surprisingly only up 1.5 pounds. Thank God it’s not more. Okay, now that I vented I can move on.

I’m going grocery shopping today and I will make a list of my week’s meals. I am also going to buy those little throw away containers so I
can bring leftovers to work. I have 5 of those Lean Cuisine’s in the freezer at work, but I only ate 1 all week. I prefer home cooked meals to those things. I’ll probably keep them there for emergencies though. Anyway, now that I’ve let this all out, it’s time to get back on track. Not back on a diet, just back on plan.

I had been craving stuffed bell peppers recently for some reason, even though I hadn’t had them in years. I knew the family would not eat the peppers, but the filling is so good that I wanted them to try it. I made the regular version of stuffed bell peppers for me and I came up with “Stuffed Bell Pepper Potatoes” for them. They both turned out great. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com and altered it to WW, I love that site.

SAUCY STUFFED PEPPERS
Saucy Stuffed Peppers Pic

Yields 8 servings
From Allrecipes.com, Submitted by: Moeliz
Rated: 4 out of 5 by 49 members

8 large green bell peppers
(I boiled them a little prior to filling to make them softer)
+ ½ bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 Tbs. light butter or Pam Cooking Spray
1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin
1 can low-sodium corn
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Garlic, to taste
2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 gallon tomato juice
Garnish with Parmesan Cheese

1. Wash the peppers thoroughly. Make a circular incision around the
stem to remove it. Once stem has been removed, remove seeds, and
rinse the inside of the pepper. Discard seeds and stems and set peppers
aside. (I boiled them a bit at this point).

2. In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and saute onion until
translucent.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the onion, bell pepper and ground
sirloin and mix well by hand. Sprinkle in salt, pepper and garlic to taste.
Add Worcestershire sauce. Slowly pour in the rice, while mixing by hand.
Add in corn. Mix thoroughly.

4. Stuff the meat and rice mixture into the peppers. Place filled peppers
into a casserole dish. Pour in tomato juice until peppers are covered
(over the tops of peppers and fill the casserole dish).
If there is leftover meat mixture, form into balls and add to the tomato juice.

5.Bake in 350 degree oven for about 1 hour.

SAUCY STUFFED PEPPER POTATOES
Saucy Stuffed Pepper Potatoes Pic

8 Baked Potatoes, (pre-cook in oven or microwave)

After potatoes are cooked and cooled a little, cut off top and scoop out
some of the potato to make room for the filling.
Follow directions for Saucy Stuffed Peppers, substituting potatoes for
the bell peppers.

So, I know everyone has probably tried this that is doing WW by now. But, I thought I’d post it with a pic anyway. I found that you really have to add 2 egg whites, otherwise it becomes a sticky, crumbly, gooey, mess. I’ve made three or four batches now (lost count). Here’s what I tried

Chocolate Cake mix with Diet Pepsi - Okay, I could taste the “dietness” though

Chocolate Cake mix with Diet Pepsi Jazz - (Cherry and Vanilla, I think) - the flavored diet soda was better than the regular

White cake mix with Diet Sprite - horrid, we threw it away.
Despite this disaster, I think it does have potential. I may try one more time with diet Cherry 7-Up and either
extract in the batter or in the Cool Whip frosting (or both).

Chocolate Cake mix with Dr. Pepper - the best by far! No “diety” taste at all.

Diet Soda Cake
Diet Soda CAKE
Diet Soda CUPCAKES