Today was a grumpy day at my house. I am hoping the kids were just over-tired from last night's VBS festivities - I know I was exhausted! They were all grumpy, which made me grumpy. There were a few times I wished I had a Pepsi to drown my sorrows in, but I didn't and the nearest one was a 20 minute car ride (with said grumpy children) away...totally not worth the effort. So I settled for grumping back at them and we somehow made it through the day.
Tonight's dinner was another tin foil packet experiment and it turned out GREAT. Unfortunately, I waited too long to cook it so we had to speed eat and never really got to enjoy it - and now it's almost 9:30 and we are STARVING. Gotta' hate that! I do have some NSVs to report though!
I actually COOKED dinner on a busy night - instead of hitting the Wendy's drive thru on the way to VBS
I made it through VBS without hitting the snack counter. Oh I looked! But there was nothing Point worthy...though the chocolate cake was uber tempting!
I stayed completely away from the Pepsi cooler
Instead of sitting on the floor or at the table watching my youngest daughter play, I walked with her around and around and around the room...I have no idea how much walking we did - but it was about an hour's worth.
Tonight's dinner was a tin foil fish & veggie packet - super easy to make and ooooooh so good!
4 12x15 sheets heavey duty tin foil
6 oz seasoned taboule
1 c water
4 (4oz) fish filets (I used grouper and cod - any will do)
frozen veggies of your choice
spray butter
lemon juice
spices of choice - I used thyme and marjoram
In a bowl, mix 6oz taboule with 1 cup water and divide equally among the foil sheets. Place filet on top of taboule. Sprinkle fish with seasoning until well covered. Top wth about 1 tsp of lemon juice and a few squirts of butter. Layer frozen veggies around the fish. Fold down the top and sides of of the packet and cook at 450 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes. You could replace the taboule with couscous - not sure how it would work with brown rice, but I plan to try it in the future.
We have food allergy issues at my house (youngest is allergic to all dairy, soy, egg, potato, chocolate and red dye #40) so we don't eliminate whole food groups like meat LOL But, BellyDancing did request vegetarian recipes and here's a great site. If you go out to the main menu, you will actually find LOADS of WW Flex and Core recpies. Fabulous site for hard core WW'ers! So here's the link for my veggie pals :-)
We have to take my oldest to a specialist in another city tomorrow and will be gone for most of the day. Not sure what we are doing for food, but I'm sure it won't be pretty. I'll pack lots of water and be as selective as possible though!
I used boneless skinless thighs in place of the breasts because I just bought them yesterday and they were still in the fridge. I did remove all the visible fat though. I used a hickory smoke BBQ which was Fab-O! It permeated the meat and the chicken was soooo tender. I used broccoli, cauliflower and carrots in place of the peppers, etc - but not nearly enough since they reduce down so much upon cooking. I'll definitely add more veggies next time. If I were eating it at home, I'd probably serve it over brown rice or couscous.
I think it's only 1 point on WW Core (from the BBQ sauce) and it would be 5 on Flex because I used about 4oz chicken (chix is still 1 pt/ounce, isn't it?)
Anyway - it was goooooooood and I'll definitely be making it again
Preheat the oven to 350°F Tear off four sheets of foil (preferably heavy duty), each about 12 by 15 inches. Smear about a tablespoon of barbecue sauce in a rough rectangular shape in the middle of each sheet.
Divide the chicken slices among the four sheets atop the barbecue sauce. Add the peppers, potatoes and any other vegetables. Drizzle another tablespoon of barbecue sauce over top.
In half-inch pleats, fold the foil over itself first lengthwise and then crosswise to create tightly sealed packets. Note: Don’t wrap the packets so tightly that the contents might poke holes in the foil.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 50 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. Carefully cut open the packets. Note: Opening the hot, steam-filled packets is a job best left to adults.
Note: Left sealed, the packet contents stay hot for a long time, making this technique a supper stabilizer for nights when everyone’s on different schedules.
I was sooooooooo strong last night! Mr Evil sat next to me and ate 3 pieces of pizza and I wasn't even tempted. Then he and the girls finished the rest for lunch today and I had...NONE! Go me
And as a nice bonus - I was down 2 pounds this morning *yippee!!!* Of course, nothing counts until Friday, but it was still nice to see a lower number peeking back at me!
We are going to a potluck dinner at church tonight and I am prepared. I made a WW friendly broccoli salad and orange fluff for dessert. I have to make chicken for my youngest daughter and I may make some extra for me in case there isn't anything point-worthy at the dinner. It feels good to be in control!!!!
Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad
1 head broccoli (tops only)
1 head cauliflower (heads only)
1 large diced red onion
1/2 C raisins
1/2 Tbsp sunflower seeds
1/4 cup bacon bits
1 C FF mayo
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
sweet-n-low (to taste)
Mix mayo, vinegar and sweet-n-low. Pour and mix over salad. Let sit overnight. Stir well before serving.
Now, I can never follow a recipe...mainly because I rarely have all the ingredients LOL So here is what I made:
1 head broccoli
1/2 C grated carrots
1/2 C raisins
1 Tbsp sunflower seeds
I left out the onion, cauliflower and bacon bits because I didn't have any. There was too much "sauce" since I left out the cauliflower (and didn't double the broccoli) so I didn't use it all. This really should sit over night so the flavors can all combine and the broccoli can get soft...but it works OK after 4-6 hours in the fridge too.
So I did pretty good today until....we went to the birthday party at the park and they brought out the pizza. I did great - at first. As the pizza was being served, I took my youngest daughter who is food allergic over to the playground to play and chased her around while everyone was eating. Then she wanted to eat, so we walked back over to the pavillion and I got out her lunch and everyone started pushing the pizza on me (ok ok, a few people offered me a slice! But it felt like pushing at the time LOL) I said no the first 5 or 6 times, but I eventually gave in and had one slice.
Now one slice of pizza is not going to kill me and it certainly won't throw me off program for the week or even the day. But I'm annoyed that I couldn't just stick with NO! I mean, it wasn't that good - semi-cold pizza in 95 degree weather isn't ever really good and certainly not worth 7 Points! The thing is, pizza is one of those foods that calls to me. I crave it - constantly. It rarely tastes bad to me. But it is sooooo bad for me and my weightloss goals. I need to get it out of my life like that evil Pepsi.
BTW, they had a cooler full of Pepsi at the party and kept offering it to me - and I said no EVERY TIME. I didn't even bum a sip off hubby (whom I shall affectionately refer to as Mr Evil).
As we were leaving the party, E pushed a whole pizza on us! So now, my evil nemesis is calling to me from the fridge. But I WILL NOT have any more pizza tonight. Not gonna' do it!!!! I am strong. I CAN resist the craving. I WILL resist the craving!!!
Tonight's dinner got rave reviews from everyone - and that's a rare thing at my house.
spicy tilapia
steamed broccoli
baked potato
salad
fruit salad
orange fluff
I should have served the tilapia over couscous, but I didn't think about it until it was almost ready for the table. The original recipe can be found here http://www.recipezaar.com/99709 I had to make some changes because I have a food allergic daughter and because I didn't have some of the spices on hand. I'll post my modified recipe below:
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp basil
3/4 tsp Italian seasoning
4 (4oz) tilapia filets
1/2 cup seasoned cornmeal***
3 tbsp minced onions
3 tbsp dried parsley flakes
2 tbsp safflower oil (any oil will do)
***I have a packaged fish fry seasoning that's cornmeal mixed with salt, garlic and paprika.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a small bowl, combine the spices from salt through Italian seasoning and set it aside.
In a shallow container mix cornmeal, dried parsley and minced onions.
Rub the spice mix on all 4 fish fillets (the original said to use 1tsp/filet - I needed more than that for good covereage - I just used as much as it took and added any that was leftover to the cornmeal mixture.
Add oil to mixture and blend with your hands.
Dredge the fish in the cornmeal mixture, coating well (the mixture wasn't oily enough for me to "dredge" - so I patted it on there until it was covered fairly well)
Place the fish on a baking pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray (I can't use the spray due to dd's allergies - so I coated it with safflower oil)
Bake for 6 minutes
Turn over and bake for 4 minutes.
Turn over again and bake until flaky - about 4 more minutes.
Serve immediately.
All 3 of my daughters (ages 8.5, 5 and 2.5) LOVED this fish and DH said it's better than any fish he's ever ordered in a restaurant. To be fair, I've known my husband for 18 years and don't recall him EVER ordering fish in a resaurant...but I have - and it's better than any I've ever ordered (BTW, the best restaurant fish I've ever had was at Denny's - how weird is that?!?!)
For dessert I made that fluff stuff (I think that's what I'm going to call it from now on LOL) with orange jello and vanilla pudding. If you like Dreamsicles - you will LOVE this dessert. It was soooooooooo good and tasted just like the real thing. Too yummy!
You know how you feel when you are super busy doing something - like moving or painting or doing yardwork and you feel so tired, but you have no idea HOW tired you are until you STOP working??? Well that's how my headache has been the last 5 or 6 days. I knew I had a headache, but I had no idea how much it REALLY hurt until I got up this morning and was left with nothing more than the lovely migraine after-headache. *pure bliss* I feel so much more energetic and I've gotten a lot done today....not as much as needs to be done, but WAY more than I've done in the last week!
This is day 3 of my new Pepsi-free life and I'm doing pretty well. I even had a few NSVs yesterday:
ordered water with my meal at the restaurant
didn't buy any Pepsi on our grocery expedition
turned down hubby's offer to buy me a Pepsi on his way home (I TOLD you he was evil LOL)
I've just finally decided that I need to STOP - it's got too many calories, it's bad for my health, it's bad for my teeth, it's too expensive and it's WAY too addictive for me to even drink it once in a while. This is not the first time I've given up Pepsi - but this will be THE LAST TIME I ever do it!
Today was WI day and I was up a little (.4). I'm going to weigh again tomorrow to make sure the gain wasn't the result of the MSG in last night's Chinese buffet. We've really gotta' stop eating there on Thursday nights! It was tasty and I was pretty selective about what I ate - though I did consume a lot of MSG. We'll see what happens on the scale tomorrow, but I'm not too disturbed by a .4 gain this week.
Last night's grocery trip was a HUGE success. I got lots of fresh fruit, grouper, tilapia, shrimp, crab, chicken, ground beef and even some FF cheese to try. There are a few new recipes I'm going to try out this week - skillet lasagna, spicey tilapia...and a few others that are eluding me at the moment. Of course we'll have some old favorites with a reduced calorie twist - tacos with 98% FF whole grain shells, seafood enchiladas with FF cheese and WW shells, spaghetti with WW pasta...Are you sensing the total switch to whole grains? Hubby isn't thrilled, but I told him he's either gonna' have to cook for himself or learn to love it! I feel bad, but I keep reminding him that his grandfather died in his 40s from heart disease and that the only reason his dad didn't have the same problem is because he exercises, sees his dr and is a very healthy eater. As we get nearer to 40, he's starting to listen to me a little better ;-)
Believe it or not, I am on DAY 2 of NO PEPSI!!!!! Yeah sure - I've said that before. But this time it's going to stick! I am kind of cheating the caffeine withdrawals by drinking tea, but I don't like tea all that much. Shhhhhh - don't tell anyone. I live in the south now and not liking tea borders on blasphemy!!! Anyway, I don't like it all that much *shhh* so I'm not drinking it (or wanting to drink it) 24/7. I do have a slight caffeine headache, but I'm not all nauesous and dizzy like I was the last time I did this. I'm just trying to back off the caffeine slooooooowly...so nobody get's hurt! Why I got re-addicted I'll never know...but this time is THE LAST TIME I will go through detox. No really. I mean it!
Unfortunately, the scale is showing an almost 2 pound gain today. I can only hope it's from the salty garlicy dinner I had last night. I will drink lots of water today and see what tomorrow's WI brings. I had quite a bit of pasta this week, so I will accept a gain if that's what happens and then work my tail off for a big loss next week. My TOM is still extremely wacky. Don't know what's up, but I'm going to POAS this weekend just to be sure. I'm still feeling all funky - gotta' rule something out!!!! Point being, maybe that's the cause of my gain??? A girl can hope!
Last night's dessert was very good! But, and I'm serious now, it DID look like Pepto Bismol. I feel the need to prepare you LOL
For tonight's dinner...I don't know. I'm stumped! We are going to the grocery store so we'll probably eat out. Maybe. Unless I get my act together and have dinner on the table when hubby gets home. But, truthfully, that's just NOT going to happen LOL
