So sad. :(

My Mom called last night to tell me that her brother has passed away quite suddenly.
I am so sad for his family. What a shock this must be for them.
They live in California and come to visit us occasionally. This picture was in 2004 (Sorry for the poor quality.) I'm sure we've seen them since then but I can't find a more recent picture.
I remember the first time I met Debbie, his wife.
It was the summer of 1985. I was 15 years old and newly married and pregnant with Kayleigh. Dennis and I had moved to southern California just before Uncle Terry married Debbie.
My grandparents had us meet them in Fontana for the wedding. It was about an hour away from where we were living at the time.
I recall that Terry and Debbie made us feel very welcome and unjudged. That really meant a lot to me at a time in my life when I felt so very judged.
My cousins are really great people which must be a credit to Terry and Debbie. I've never been really close to them but my impression has always been that they are very mature and respectful.
Roger and I always comment on how the boys conduct themselves when they are here to visit. There's never a need to ask for help with extra chairs or dinner preparations because they are always right there doing what needs to be done before you have a chance to ask. Good boys. I'm sure my Uncle was quite proud of his sons. I'm sure he was proud of all his children.
My heart breaks to think of his family without him. His passing was very sudden, just like his father (my grandfather) nearly 14 years ago. Which must be both shocking and comforting. I know that their faith is strong though. And I hope it will bring them comfort.
Much love to Aunt Debbie and the cousins.

One more time....

A year or so ago I bought a home hair cutting kit thinking that I'd cut Jaxon's hair myself and save us a few bucks. I mean, it's boy hair. How hard could it be, right?
Oh my goodness, was it bad! We ended up taking him to the salon anyway to get it fixed. So we didn't save any money at all!
After that it was so short that another haircut wasn't required for quite some time.
When it finally needed to be cut again we took him to a salon where Roger had to wrestle him down for the cut. Jaxon screamed and kicked at the poor pregnant stylist like some kind of wild animal.
I tipped her extra for the trouble.
But now look. The hair is back. I've been putting off dealing with it for at least 2 months now. Maybe longer. It's extra bad in this photo because Roger insisted on gooping it up with some kind of hair gunk last night.
It's finally bad enough now that I figured I couldn't make it any worse if I tried cutting it again.
And he sat quietly on my lap while I worked my magic! No wrestling. No screaming. No exorbitant tipping required.
Okay, so it's still not perfect. But it's better than last time.

Recipes we tried this week...

~For the family dinner last week I made a side dish called Brown Rice and Bulgur Salad. I found the recipe on the WW website. The original recipe calls for lemon juice and a choice of mint or cilantro for flavorings. I went with lemon and mint. Some of the kids didn't care for it so I'm thinking I'll do it again with lime juice and cilantro instead. When I do, I'll post the recipe.
This was my first experience with bulgur and I had a hard time finding it in the store. I finally found some Bob's Red Mill brand. I'm glad I looked so hard for it because I really liked it. It's a bit chewy and nutty and added a nice flavor and texture to the brown rice. This is a side dish that will probably show up a lot for us during the summer grilling season.

~For breakfast one morning I made the Fruit and Cheese Stuffed French Toast from the WW in 20 Minutes cookbook. It was delicious! Emily and Jaxon enjoyed it as well.

~A definite keeper was the Turkey-Green Chile Tacos recipe from WW in 20 Minutes (page 159)
Very fresh and super easy dinner. I served the tacos with the Black Bean, Mango and Tomato Salad that I blogged about last week (or the week before?). It was a light, crispy, fresh dinner which was in total defiance of the snowstorm brewing outside our kitchen window that day.
I've always loved hard shell tacos so I was extra happy.
For some reason Emily has never had a hard shell taco before. How did that happen?!? She LOVED them and asked for leftovers later that evening and again for breakfast the next day.

Meal Plan

Dinners
~Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas, Rice, Black Beans, Salad
~Easy Pepper Steak, Bulgar, Roasted Asparagus
~Homemade Pizza, Salad
~Gingered Pork, Pineapple and Pepper Skewers with couscous, veggie
~Shake N Bake Chicken, Veggie, Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
~Date night for Roger and I. Chicken and Chile Casserole from the freezer for the kids.

Week Seven Weigh In

Down only .6 this week.
That's a sad little number. But when I look at my average over the past seven weeks (1.9 lbs) I see that I am well within the 1-2 pounds per week loss that is considered healthy and more likely to be permanent. So I'm cool with it.
I'm pretty sure (As sure as an irregular woman can be) that this is my pre-you know what week too. So maybe next week will be better.
I've also lost about 13 inches overall and my clothes are feeling SOOO much better. In fact, they all fit now. Which I haven't been able to say for more than a year.
Maybe the weather will improve enough soon that I can get out and walk.
I'm also thinking of breaking out my Leslie Sansone - Walk Away the Pounds DVD. I could clock a few miles in the living room each week if I put my mind to it.

I'll just keep on keepin' on!

That recipe website we were talking about in the hospital

Is right here....

SUPERCOOK

Hope that helps you get creative with what you have on hand.

A very good day.

We welcomed our new grandson today!
Maveryk arrived at 3:10 pm.
He and Heather are doing very well.

Meal Plan

Breakfasts and lunches will be the same as always.

Dinners
~Chicken and Coconut Curry, rice, Sauteed Green Beans and Red Peppers
~Turkey-Green Chile Tacos, Black Bean, Mango and Tomato Salad
~Easy Pepper Steak, Bulgar, Roasted asparagus
~Stir Fried Pork and Broccoli with Hoisin Sauce, rice
~Pizza, Salad
~Dinner out for Roger and I to celebrate our new grandson. Frozen pizza for the kids.
~Grilled Chicken and Veggies, Brown Rice and Bulgar Salad, ice cream and sherbet for dessert.

Recent Recipe Trials

Lots of good stuff this week!
Below is a pic of Chicken and Coconut Curry (from WW in 20 Minutes p.134), Brown Rice and Sauteed Green Beans and Red Peppers.
This was so delicious!!! The sauce was a little thin but I think it's because I used my own frozen cauliflower for the dish. I don't think that using fresh cauliflower would increase the cook time much at all and it would probably result in thicker sauce. I'll try that next time. And there will be a next time. The flavor of this dish reminded me very much of one of my favorite dishes from Thaifoon in Gateway Mall, called Evil Jungle Princess Chicken. YUM! It could have been a little spicier but that might be solved with the fresh cauliflower/thicker sauce thing next time. This time we just stirred in a little chili oil on our plates. Definitely try this one! Even Emily declared it a keeper.
Below is a pic of Pork Chops with Cranberry Pan Sauce and Butternut Squash (WW in 20 Minutes p.110) and Baby Lima Beans.
Another winner! Similar in flavor to a high calorie version that I've been making for years. Again the sauce was a little thin. I'm not sure why. Or why I'm obsessed with thick sauces. LOL But the fix was as easy as a little corn starch and water paste added at the last minute.
Everyone enjoyed this one too. Jaxon was especially fond of the squash.
"Mmmmm...Me LOVE it! Delicious!"

Some of the other recipes we tried this week were
~Moroccan Spiced Pork Chops with Apricot Couscous (from the WW website) and Roasted Asparagus. This one was pretty good but not fantastic. It would be improved by a little pan sauce from the skillet that the chops were cooked in. A little white wine and chicken broth would have made a nice sauce for the meat and couscous. Again, I have a thing for sauces I guess.
~The baked Oatmeal with Peaches was not so good. I tried too hard to reduce the calories and therefore the points per serving. It ended up just being very bland. I'd prefer to have a smaller portion of the higher calorie version with more fresh fruit. Today I made the original version using 2% milk, Splenda instead of brown sugar, and butter flavoring instead of butter. Cut into 9 servings this is only 3 points per serving. With a half cup of 2% milk on top and lots of fresh fruit this was very satisfying and about the same number of points as my usual peanut butter on toast and banana breakfast.

Now this one! This one I have changed enough to call it my own so I'll post it here.
Pre WW I was soooo not into pizza. Blech! The grease! The soggy crust! Ugh!
But I tried the Basic Cheese Pizza recipe from the WW New Complete Cookbook and we enjoyed it pretty well. My changes this week brought it to a whole new level!
Although Kenzie still won't say it's better than delivery. LOL
I disagree. It's better! And healthier!
The original recipe was pretty good but I found a way to pump up the flavor A LOT without adding points.
And except for the time to let the dough rise, it comes together pretty fast.

Basic Pizza Dough
Makes 2 (12 inch) pizza crusts
1/12 of dough (1/6 of each pizza) is 3 points

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 package active dry yeast
1 Tablespoon olive oil
4 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1. In a 2 cup container, combine the water and sugar. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the oil.

2. In Kitchenaid mixer bowl (using dough hook), combine the flour and salt. With the machine running on Speed 2, slowly pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture. Knead for 1-2 minutes or until well mixed and dough has formed a ball.
I have to stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl after adding the yeast mixture. Then I let it knead for a couple of minutes.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until smooth and elastic.

3. Spray a large bowl with non stick spray; put the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl lightly with plastic wrap (I also spray the plastic wrap with non stick spray) and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
I put the bowl in the oven with the oven light on for warmth.

4. Punch down the dough, then cut in half. Refrigerate or freeze in floured Ziploc bags at this point or use as directed in recipe.

Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce
Makes approx. 5 cups
1 point per 1/2 cup

1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 (14.5 oz.) cans fire roasted tomatoes, drained
(I used Muir Glen Organic)
1/4 cup dry red wine
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 Tablespoons dried Italian Seasoning blend
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1. Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat; add the onions and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until golden and softened, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, salt, ground pepper and crushed red pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the flavors are blended and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 25 minutes.

Use the sauce, as is, if you like chunky sauce. I prefer it to be a little less chunky so I put it in the food processor and pulsed to a finer consistency.

At this point I usually use 2 cups to make pizza and then freeze 2 cups for later use. (Because I make two pizzas at a time for our family. Freezing in 1 cup portions would be more convenient for one pizza at a time.)
This week I used the remaining 1 cup of sauce for pasta for lunches and it was excellent for that purpose as well.

Pizza
1 (12 inch) pizza
Entire pizza has 27 points

1/2 recipe pizza dough, at room temperature
1 cup fire roasted tomato sauce
3/4 cup (or 3 oz.) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1)Arrange one rack on the bottom rung of the oven. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

2)Combine the two cheeses in a small bowl.

2) Sprinkle a work surface lightly with flour. Turn dough onto the surface; knead lightly. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll into a 12 inch circle. Transfer the circle of dough to a nonstick pizza pan or baking sheet, gently pulling the dough back to a 12 inch circle.

3) Spread the tomato sauce over the dough, then sprinkle with the cheeses. Bake on bottom rack of oven until the crust is golden and the cheeses melt, 12-15 minutes.

When I made the pizza this week I had some mushrooms I needed to use up so I sauteed them and added them after the sauce and before the cheese. Any zero point veggies would be delicious added to this pizza.

Week Six Weigh In

I'm down 1.8 lbs and another inch in measurements this week.
And I've been wearing clothes this week that I haven't worn since summer before last. And they were too tight then!
Go me!!

Carrie Underwood does Motley Crue

I like it! Especially strong vocals in the last minute. To this untrained ear anyway. ;)
My two worlds collide. LOL Wild child me meets middle aged mom me.

This makes me happy

Fabric.
Sewing.
Creating something beautiful and useful.
I LOVE planning a project and shopping for the fabric.
I am thrilled to spend two hours in a fabric store finding just the right combination of fabrics.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.

These fabrics are for my next project. My grandson, Maveryk's nursery set.
I'm in love with the fabrics for my current project too but I can't post a pic right now.
It's a super secret "lovey" project for my sweet friend.
More on that later....

Tastes Like SUMMER!!! Two points!

I roasted a couple of whole chickens for dinner with the kids and grandkids last night. I made mashed potatoes and gravy but I wanted something low cal to have with my chicken.
Here's what I made...
This was FANTASTIC!!! I'm going to post the recipe here because summer is coming and this would be so great with just about anything (Chicken, Fish, Shrimp) off the grill!

Black Bean, Mango and Tomato Salad
from the WW website
Makes 8-1/2 cup servings - 2 points per serving
1 large mango(es), diced, divided (about 1 3/4 cups)
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp table salt
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup tomato(es) diced
1/2 cup sweet onions, diced
1/4 cup mint leaves, or cilantro, fresh, cut into thin slivers
I used cilantro this time. I'll definitely try mint sometime this summer.
1 tbsp canned jalapeno peppers, or fresh, minced
I used canned. Fresh would be great too.

In a large bowl, mash 1/4 cup of diced mango with a fork; whisk in lime juice, water, oil, cumin and salt.
My mangoes were plenty ripe but I still found it too difficult to mash them with a fork so I put all this in the blender and pureed it. Then poured this over all the other ingredients in a large bowl.

Add remaining diced mango, beans, tomato, onion, mint or cilantro and jalapeno to bowl; toss to mix and coat. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate up to 1 day. Yields about 1/2 cup per serving.

Everyone loved this. I had two servings myself. Why not? It's only 2 points!

Week Five Weigh In

Down only .2 pounds this week.
And 3/4 inch overall. 1/2 inch where I least want to lose it. And 1/4 inch where I most want to lose it. Doesn't that just figure. LOL




That dinner at Market Street Grill last Tuesday was so not worth it.
I certainly do not want to deprive myself of the things I enjoy. But at this point in my weight loss journey it just wasn't worth the slow down in weight loss.
And honestly, eating what I ate in the portions that I ate was a bad choice. As I said before, I would have been just as happy and satisfied with HALF as much as I ate that night. But I chose to eat every bite and worry about the consequences later. Which is exactly the behavior that got me to the point of needing to lose nearly 50 pounds.

Other than that bit of reflection, I am not terribly disappointed. I'm still well within the range of losing a healthy 1-2 pounds per week and I am still fully committed and on my way to being FIT BY 40!!

Meal Plan (and recent recipe trials)

The plan for this week is the usual hot cooked breakfast for the kids. We did buy a couple more boxes of cereal for a once per week treat for the kids.
I was buying ingredients to make baked oatmeal and just as I reached for the frozen blueberries the idea came to me to make it with the frozen peaches from our tree instead. I can't wait for that one!

Dinners will be
~Moroccan Spiced Pork Chops w/ Apricot Couscous, Roasted Asparagus (Held over from last week since we had C.O.R.N. last night.)
~Roasted Chicken, Potatoes, Gravy, a yet to be determined WW side dish, And veggies
~Greek Chicken Soup (made over leftover Greek Lemon Chicken and Potatoes from last Sunday) Bread
~Homemade Pizza, Salad with homemade blue cheese dressing
~Pork Chops with Cranberry Pan Sauce and butternut squash, fresh green beans
~Spiced Turkey Burgers w/Yogurt and Chutney, Brown Rice, Cooked Carrots
~Chicken and Coconut Curry, Rice and Sauteed Green Beans and Peppers

We're already going to have one meal held over to next week since we attended the baptism of a friend of ours today and the food was ABUNDANT at the gathering afterwards. My friend is a crazy person when it comes to cooking for a crowd. One of the reasons I love her so. ;)

As for recent recipe trials...
We tried the Greek Lemon Chicken Thighs and Potatoes from the Weight Watchers website for a family dinner with the kids and grandkids. The kids and grandkids didn't say much about it. I liked it. Roger didn't care for the lemon factor so we probably won't have it again. After all there are plenty of things we both enjoy eating. There were lots of leftovers though so I'm going to turn those into a soup this week by adding chicken broth to the diced chicken and potatoes. Hopefully the broth will tone down the lemon enough for Roger to like it. I'll stir in some spinach and whatever else occurs to me when the time comes.

I also tried the Roasted Brisket recipe from the WW website and I was disappointed. The meat was tough despite roasting for 3 hours. I've made good brisket before but I don't know why this one didn't work out.

The picture below is Orange Chinese Chicken from the WW website again. This was a big hit with the whole family. I served it over brown rice with my go-to veggie side for any chinese meal, Sauteed Green Beans and Red Peppers.
I got the idea for the green beans from a Rachael Ray show a couple of years ago. Here's the deal.
Using RR's method for measuring, you grab a handful of fresh green beans per person you're serving. Clean and trim the beans. I only remove the stem end with the stringy thing. Technically speaking.
Now throw them all in a large skillet with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water and some salt.
Cover and simmer for a few minutes till the beans turn bright green and are just beginning to soften.
Remove the lid and add one red pepper, sliced.
Now let the beans and peppers cook together till the water is completely evaporated.
Add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Cook and stir over fairly high heat till beans are crisp tender and the beans and peppers begin to brown. (I like them with lots of color!)
Garnish with some toasted sesame seeds if you've got them.
In the words of RR, YUM-O!!

I stumbled across a yummy movie watching treat. Let's see, I surfed from the WW website message board to the personal site of one of the members. She had this great recipe that she calls Cauliflower "Popcorn".
I took it and put my own spin on it. CURRY!! Delicious!
Curried Cauliflower "Popcorn"
Cut one whole head of cauliflower up into small pieces the size of popcorn.
In a large bowl combine the cauliflower with 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
Add curry powder and chipotle chili powder and salt to taste.
Toss to coat well. I put it all in a bowl with a lid and shook it till it was all well distributed.
Spread the cauliflower, in a single layer, on a large cookie sheet which has been sprayed with PAM.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring about halfway through.
Let it get nice and brown and crispy.
I did this mini batch in my toaster oven which uses some kind of space age light bulb thingy so it didn't brown as much as it would in an oven.
Let cool and then munch away. The entire recipe is only 4 points.

When it comes to popcorn I really like Kettle Corn so I had this crazy idea that cauliflower is such a blank slate that I would totally try salt and Splenda sometime. When I do I'll let you know how it goes.

Below is a picture of Gingered Pork, Pineapple and Pepper Skewers. Again from the WW website. These were pretty tasty and we will definitely make them again. My original plan was to grill these outside but a snowstorm arrived just before dinner and I took pity on Roger, who is the official griller around here, and I broiled them in the oven. I suspect they will be far tastier on the grill. Per the recipe, these were served with scallion couscous and Broccoli with Orange-Sesame Sauce. Also from the WW website. The broccoli was just so-so and probably won't show up around here again.

According to Jaxon...

THIS...
is a "Cycle Bike"
I love toddler speak.

I did a BAD, BAD thing.

But it was SO, SO good!!!

~Crab Stuffed Mushrooms (9 points per serving)
~Green Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing ( I'd guess about 5 points)
~Fresh Alaskan Halibut Oscar (33 points per serving. I should have only half next time. :P )
~Buttered Parsley Potatoes (I'd guess about 4 points)
~Raspberry Almond Tort (The whole recipe is 95.5 points. Yikes! But it sure is DIVINE!
1/8 would be almost 12 points. 1/6 would be almost 16 points. I'm not sure how they cut it for each portion.)

YUM!!!

We've had a Gastronomy Gift Card laying around for many months and decided to use it for a date night last night.
One of the reasons we haven't been in a big hurry to use it is that our last two visits to the Cottonwood location were a bit disappointing. So this time we went to the South Jordan Market Street Grill location and we were not disappointed. So delicious!
I was just guessing that I had used up all my weekly WW points on this meal and what was left of my points for the day yesterday. But just now I saw that their website has the actual recipes for these dishes. So I could figure out the exact number of points. But do I dare????
If I decide to figure it out I'll come back here and add the points values to the list above. Ya know, for future reference. ;)

This splurge resulted in a 1.5lb weight gain from yesterday morning. Yikes! I think I'll be able to recover by Sunday's weigh in though. And I was surprised to find that this indulgence didn't set me on the slippery slope at all. I was happy to get back on the program immediately.
It was really good though.
A nice reward for an impeccable month on the weight loss plan. :)
*OMG!! 67 point dinner!?!?!
I need to go to Heather's. Maybe I should walk.

Thai Tuna Wraps

My friend Glenda had this recipe on her blog, The Little Red Hen Food Site, and it looked good to me. Today I decided to make it Weight Watcher's friendly from ingredients I had on hand. It was a delicious and filling lunch! I calculated the points to be 5.5 made this way.
Combine the following ingredients:
1 6-oz can chunk white albacore tuna in water, drained
juice of half a lime
1/2 - 1 teaspoon soy sauce (to taste)
2 Tablespoons shredded carrot
1 finely sliced green onion
5 basil leaves, finely sliced in ribbons
2 Tablespoons reduced fat sour cream
1 Tablespoon mayo
1 packet of Splenda (Maybe a little less. This was a little too sweet.)
Mix well and then stir in:
1 1/2 cups finely shredded napa cabbage
Roll all this inside a Healthy Grains Flat Out bread. It's a lot! Roll carefully. LOL
Enjoy! (Thanks again for the inspiration Glenda!)


Below is a pic of Jaxon's lunch. A peanut butter sandwich. No jelly. No crust.
Actually, this is a pic of the half sandwich he had immediately after a whole one.
Lately I swear he could eat his weight in peanut butter sandwiches on a daily basis.

Week Four Weigh In!

Down another 1.8 pounds and 1.75 inches this week.
Interesting that the inches and pounds lost mimic each other so closely each week.




I am definitely noticing the difference in my clothes. The jeans I bought for Christmas are almost too big to wear now. Almost.

In May of 2008 I used a sharpie to write my weight on the bathroom mirror. I thought seeing it every day would motivate me to do something about it.
I did something. I proceeded to gain 11 more pounds in the next 9 months. LOL
But now, in just 4 weeks, I am back to that number I wrote on the mirror.
I cleaned it off a couple weeks ago. It's all behind me now. ;)

Meal Plan (and recent recipe trials)

We went ridiculously over budget last week. We spent more than twice as much as we had budgeted. So, to correct that we cut back to $70 for this week and the next two.
We went shopping today and we did pretty well. We spent $90 ($10 of that on rechargable batteries to fix our phone problems) but when we got home there was $47.50 in rebates checks waiting for us in the mailbox. I'll add the extra $27.50 to the budget for the coming two weeks.

Breakfasts for this week will be hot cooked meals, as usual, but I did get a 97 cent box of Frosted Flakes as a special treat for the kids.

Dinners
This week I'm trying recipes from the Weight Watcher's website rather than from my cookbooks.
~Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce, Cumin and Chipotle Roasted Broccoli
This was leftover from last week's meal plan because we had a C.O.R.N. last night to prepare for grocery shopping today. I switched it up a little by using a combo of broccoli and cauliflower this time. Roger liked the cauliflower better than the broccoli. I liked the combo.
~Greek Lemon Chicken and Potatoes, Salad, Pita Bread
~Gingered Pork, Pineapple and Peppers, Broccoli with Orange Sesame Sauce
~Frozen Pizza for the kids, Date Night for us!
~Roasted Brisket, Garlic Mashed Potatoes
~Orange Chinese Chicken, Sesame Sauteed Green Beans and Red Peppers
~Moroccan Spiced Pork Chops with Apricot Couscous, vegetable to be determined.

This week I made Pork Chops with Corn-Bell Pepper Relish from the WW in 20 Minutes Cookbook (page 104) And a black bean side dish to go with it.
The pork chops were fine. Pan fried, nothing special. But the corn-bell pepper relish was fun. A new and interesting way to have corn that made me forget that I usually just drop a half stick of butter in it and call it good. I'm really shocked at how little butter we use now. And a little embarrassed about how much we used to use. yikes!
The black bean side dish was something I threw together.
2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of RoTel tomatoes, undrained
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander
Simmer till hot on low heat. Remove from heat and stir in a handful of chopped cilantro.
Yummy and low in points.
Use "Milder" RoTel if you're a lightweight. We like it to hurt a little so we use "Original". ;)

Cowboy Jaxon!!

(He could really use some chaps, huh?)

He loves his "Tenzie".

Fight Like a Girl!

Found it on the web finally!
Enjoy!

Click here!

I love you, my girls!

Possibly the bravest woman I've never met...

I might be a little late to this party but just in case some of you haven't heard of Stephanie Nielson, please check out her blog.

nienie dialogues

Grab a box of tissues. What a moving, inspirational, courageous love story you are about to behold!

Chicken with Feta and Tomatoes, Herbed Brown Rice, Baby Lima Beans

This meal was a hit with everyone except the picky princess. She only ate the chicken without the topping. LOL
The Chicken with Feta and Tomatoes recipe comes from WW in 20 Minutes (page 139). It was delicious! I was skeptical of the reduced fat feta but I shouldn't have been. I could barely tell a difference. I have a very strong suspicion that the leftovers would be fantastic cold and stuffed in a pita pocket for lunch the next day. Maybe a good idea for my working WW pals.
The Herbed Brown Rice is from WW New Complete Cookbook (page344) and it is a great accompaniment to the chicken recipe. I haven't bought instant brown rice so it took a little longer to cook but if you use instant brown rice this meal would come together really quick and easy.
Hey, the rice could go in the pita pockets too!
I served some baby lima beans along with this meal and the points total for one serving of each course is 6. Not too shabby. :)

My Favorite "Hoagie" Sandwich

Years ago my friend, Paula, showed me how she makes hoagies. And it's how I've been making them ever since. We've had them this way hundreds of times. But we have always made them on a big loaf of french bread (Usually FREE and warm from Albertson's LOL)
But the French bread was never my favorite part of the sandwich so it was easily adaptable to the new plan. :)


Take one piece of Flat Out bread. Spread one wedge of Laughing Cow cheese on it.
In the center of the bread, place 2 ounces of lean roasted turkey breast, several slices of cucumber, several slices of tomato, as many slices of red onion as you like and as much fresh cilantro as you like. I like a lot! A few sprinkles of salt.
Roll it up and devour it!
Just kidding.
Eat slowly and savor the fresh crunchy veggies and the perfect seasonings of salt and cilantro. I swear it's a perfect flavor combo.
I LOVE it!
I hope you will try it and love it too.
The whole thing is only 4points and has at least one serving of veggies. More if you want them. :)

Meal Plan (and recent recipe trials)

I'm still cooking breakfast for the kids every day. I usually eat before they get up.
(Coffee, Toast with peanut butter and a banana almost every day. I like it and it doesn't take much brain power first thing in the morning. Keeps me full till my snack 3 hours later.)

Dinners this week:
~Portabello Mushroom-Garlic Burgers, Fresh Veggies and Hacienda dip
~Basic Cheese Pizza, Salad with Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing
~Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce, Roasted Broccoli with Cumin and Chipotle Butter, Black Beans and Rice
~Orange Crumbed Baked Chicken, Brown and Wild Rice with Walnuts and Cranberries, Stir Fried Cabbage
~Pork Chops with Corn-Bell Pepper Relish, Black Beans
~Chicken with Feta and Tomatoes, Herbed Brown Rice, Baby Lima Beans

As for recent recipes...

The Basic Cheese Pizza Recipe from WW New Complete Cookbook was great! I use the whole recipe for the crust and make two pizzas for our family.
A single recipe of the Basic Tomato Sauce was more than enough to make Pizza for our family twice. (4 plus pizzas) One note: The second time I made the pizza recipe I just chopped the fresh basil up and added it to the tomato sauce rather then sprinkling it on the cooked pizza as the recipe suggests.

We had the Portabello Mushroom-Garlic Burgers on Sunday. The recipe is from WW in 20 Minutes, page 234. Roger and I absolutely LOVED these and we will definitely be making them again. We weren't even the least bit tempted by the beef burgers we fed the rest of the family for Sunday dinner. In fact, they seemed a little intrigued by OUR "burgers". LOL Maybe we'll grill up some portabello burgers for a family dinner this summer.

I served the burgers with fresh veggies and hacienda dip. I usually make hacienda dip with a block of full fat cream cheese and jar of salsa and we eat it with corn chips. I wanted to try it with fat free cream cheese to see if it would make a yummy dip for veggies. It did. But I had to mix it in the blender due to the texture of FF cream cheese. I'm not sure how often I'll make this as reading the ingredients label of the FF cream cheese made me a little uneasy about having it very often. But it was tasty and the crunchy veggies made the potato chips on the table easy to resist.

I made the Linguine with Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce from WW in 20 Minutes (page 218) it was really, really good. I was delayed in taking this picture so the sauce separated a little but, trust me, it was a very good recipe. I'm sure we'll have it again. Next time I'll use whole wheat dried pasta rather than fresh as the recipe calls for. Fresh is pricey and I'd rather have the added fiber of whole wheat. And if you decide to try this recipe don't forget that Dollar Tree sells 12 ounce bottles of roasted red peppers for $1 versus $3 or $4 at the grocery store.

I served the Linguine with Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce with Focaccia from WW New Complete Cookbook (page 71). I opted not to use the suggested toppings. I just sprinkled on some grated parmesan and figured the points out on the points tracker. It was 1 or 2 points per 1/12th of the whole loaf. The Focaccia was really good too. A little crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. Very nice to mop up extra sauce. We'll have it again.

The Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe from WW New Complete Cookbook (page278) was not so great in my opinion. I'll find another recipe that is points friendly if I decide to try again. I've never been a huge fan of spaghetti though so who knows when that will happen. LOL

Should I cut my hair like this?

What do you think? It's more bangs than I usually do.
My hair is longer than Jessica's and shorter than Reese's.
I want to keep it long for now.
Get back to me. :)

Some recent purchases for our new way of life.

I have always liked wheat bread better than white. The family doesn't know this yet, but I am thinking about not buying white bread anymore. Jaxon doesn't know the difference yet so he'll happily eat wheat bread. And the others can make the adjustment knowing that it's healthier for them.
I was using whole grain farm bread for myself when I made the switch to healthier eating (even before that) and it counts as two points for one, large slice on Weight Watchers. I had heard that this Sara Lee bread counted as only 1 point for two slices so I decided to give it a try.
I won't be buying it again. It's more expensive. It contains HFCS where the farm bread did not. I'm not anti HFCS to the extreme but I don't mind avoiding it when I can. And it just isn't good. The flavor and texture are not enjoyable. When you toast it, it becomes dry as sawdust. blech.
In short, I do not recommend this product.
I really like this product a lot. They are a bit pricey. ($3 something per package) You get 6 pieces for the same price that you would pay for 10 whole wheat tortillas with the same points value. I'll try the tortillas next week for sandwich wraps and see how we like them compared to these. But these are very good and only 1 point each. If I remember correctly there was a variety of these Flat Out breads that was labeled "light" but had the same points value but less fiber then these. I'm choosing higher fiber when it's available. I've been using these to make wrap sandwiches for my lunch this week.
While bread shopping I spotted these sandwich pockets and grabbed some. The points value is 1. I havent' tried them yet but I think they'll be great stuffed full of veggies, lean meat and low cal dressing for lunches.
I purchased these english muffins to use for the bun on some protabello "burgers" that we had for dinner one night. I actually bought two varieties, this "light" which has a points value of 1 and another whole grain or multi grain (they're downstairs in the freezer and I'm too lazy to go check) version which I believe was a 2 points value. I think they'll be great for breakfast sandwiches as well. English muffin plus one scrambled egg plus one Laughing Cow Cheese wedge (see below) would be a 4 point breakfast. Add some zero point fruit to balance things out. Sounds good to me!
FYI At Walmart and Albertsons there were peelie coupons for $3/3 pacakges of these.
Laughing Cow Cheese. These are a pretty good substitute for mayo and/or high fat cheese on a sandwich. I also used a piece to dip fresh veggies in and it was pretty tasty. The "light" varieties are only 1 point per wedge. I forgot to check the points value of the non light varieties. Which is a bad thing. I don't want to get in the habit of eating processed "light" varieties of foods. Especially if the regular variety is comparable in points values.
One round package of this cheese is around $5 at most of the grocery stores I checked. But you can get 3 round packages for $7.12 at Sam's Club.

Do I HAVE to call it a "diet"?

Ya know...I don't really like to say "I'm on a diet" or"I joined Weight Watchers".
I think it sounds like I'm doing something extreme to gain a temporary result.
Because I've only ever dieted once before.
It was extreme. (It was Atkins.)
And it was temporary.
Hence the new weight loss goal which is really just the old weight loss goal. AGAIN.

I'd rather say...
I've made a conscious decision to go back to eating reasonable portion sizes, more fresh fruits and vegetables, less processed foods and just generally take better care of myself so that I can avoid having to depend on a less than stellar healthcare system as I age.

That's reasonable. Right?

Week Three Weigh In

Down another 2.8 pounds this week.
AND another 2.75 inches less of me overall. Woohooo!!!