Important Wordy Bits

Been forever and a day.....

First of all, sorry it's been forever. It seems like when my son is out of school I get to do stuff like my blog less and less. I'm really going to try and get this going again. 

So how have you been? I've been good. I'm a little "stuck" at almost 35 lbs. for my weight loss. I realized that my lack of routine since my son has been out of school has not helped me at all. To rectify that I have been making sure that I plan out what I am going to eat for the week. It keeps me more  on my Weight Watchers toes. I also need to start working out more. I have been so blah about it yet I know that it truly helps me to stay fit. So next week I am starting to work out again. I may not be walking outside since it's about 90 degrees on average, but I will be going back to my Wii Fit. Anything to just be fit once again.

I will be trying something new this week. I am going to be doing a whole bunch of cooking and canning with my bestie on Tuesday. So far we are thinking of doing salsa, spaghetti sauce, sweet pepper jelly, corn salsa, veggie soup and sweet and sour sauce. We both figure that we can make stuff where w know what is going in the food and it's a lot cheaper to make our own. To buy sweet pepper jelly from some place like Tastefully Simple is A LOT of money and I can make it extremely cheap so why not do it????? I'm going to take photos and I'll let you all know how it goes. 

Girl(s Day) Friday recipe - Cilantro Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa

Friday I'm in Love!! Ha...

Hello my lovelies! This week we have a recipe from Brandi. Brandi is my healthy food guru and she is kind of an inspiration for me. She uses all these fresh ingredients in her recipes and it makes me want to do the same thing. Brandi made this recipe for Girl's Day and it is just fabulous!

Cilantro Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa

Chicken:

2 TBSP fresh cilantro

2 1/2 TBSP lime juice

1 1/2 TBSP olive oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/4 tsp salt

Marinate chicken about 3 minutes (or longer....I'd say no longer than an hour or the chicken will get mealy). Grill about 6 minutes each side.

Salsa:

2 TBSP finely chopped onion

2 tsp fresh lime juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 avocado

1 c. chopped tomato (about 2)

Combine all items; mix and serve with or on top of the chicken. Both items would be awesome with tortillas.

Girl(s Day) Friday recipe - Artichoke Dip

TGIF!!!

How are all my recipe bloggers doing? I have another wonderful recipe. First off I have to credit Jennifer for last weeks recipe. Super good stuff. Next we get a fantastic recipe from Gretchen. This artichoke dip is super tasty. Anything with Parmesan and mayo is ok by me.

Artichoke Dip

1       - 8 ounce package of cream cheese – softened

1       - 14 ounce can of artichoke hearts, drained

2       cups of mayonnaise

1 ¾ cups of grated Parmesan cheese.

 

Beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Mash artichoke hearts then add to cream cheese and stir will.  Stir in mayo and parmesan cheese.  Spoon into 11 x 7 inch baking dish.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until hot.  Serve with crackers. 

Girl(s Day) Friday recipe - Crunchy Coleslaw

Hey my blog friends,

This is one seriously good recipe. I love this stuff. It's one of those meals that you can just keep eating and eating. Add chicken to change it up too.

Crunchy Coleslaw

1 bag coleslaw
2-3 green onions, chopped
1/2 stick butter
sliced almonds (half of a 10 oz. bag)
2 pkgs. Ramen noodles (discard flavoring packet)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. soy sauce

Here's the plan of action:

Saute almonds and crushed noodles in melted butter in frying pan until well 
browned.  Place in bowl, cover, and refrigerate.  Combine vinegar, oil, 
sugar, and soy sauce.  refrigerate.  Just before serving, toss together 
cabbage, onions, and noodles with the dressing mixture.

Girl(s Day) Friday recipe - Lil' Cheddar Meatloaves

Good morning!

I am posting one of my favorite recipes evah! This is from my favorite ex-sister-in-law with brown eyes :), Karen. This is such a good recipe. It's easy and tasty....two of my favorite things.

Li'l Cheddar Meatloaves

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped onion (I use a little onion salt instead)
1 tsp salt
1 lb. lean ground beef
2/3 cup ketchup
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp prepared mustard

1.  In a bowl, beat the egg and milk.  Stir in cheese, oats, onion and salt.  Add beef and mix well.  Shape into 8 loaves; place in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish.

2.  Combine ketchup, brown sugar and mustard.  Spoon over loaves.

3.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until the meat is no longer pink and a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.

Girl(s Day) Friday recipe - Tomato and Basil Pie

Hola! Time for another great recipe from my Girl's Day pals. This is from Gretchen and absolutely yummy, delish and so on. 

Tomato and Basil Pie 

This easy recipe that tastes of summer takes about 20 minutes of preparation and 40 minutes cooking time. We made it with tomatoes from Harvest Valley Farms and our backyard basil we bought at Kaelin Farm Market. 

9-inch prepared pie crust, unbaked

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

5 plum or 4 medium tomatoes

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves

4 cloves garlic

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper

Additional basil for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Unfold the pie crust, and place in a 9-inch quiche or pie plate. Flute the edges or press with fork tines. Pre-bake according to the package directions. Remove from oven and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Cool on a wire rack. 

Cut tomatoes into wedges and drain on paper towels. Arrange the wedges on top of the melted cheese in the baked shell. In a food processor, combine the basil and garlic, processing until coarsely chopped. Sprinkle over the tomatoes. 

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the remaining mozzarella cheese, mayonnaise, Parmesan and pepper. Spoon cheese mixture over basil mixture, spreading to evenly cover the top. 

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden and bubbly. Serve warm garnished with basil leaves. Serves 4 to 8.

Girl(s Day) Friday recipe - Corn Relish

Toot toot! It's Friday and here's another Girl's Day recipe. This is super yummy, filling and so summery.

Corn relish

 

1 can black eyed peas

1 can pinto beans

1 can white corn

1 can yellow corn

 

drain and combine

 

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 cup celery

1 small red onion

1 jalepeno, optional (I used half a jalepeno)

 

Chop everything to about the same size

 

3/4 c sugar

3/4 c apple cider vinegar

1/2 c vegetable oil

3 TBLS water

1 tspn salt

1/2 tspn pepper

 

Combine in a saucepan and heat to a boil and until the sugar is dissolved. Cool and pour over mixture. Chill before serving- overnight is best!

 

Admit it....You have a clothed and naked weight....plus a recipe

Hola!

I admit to it. I have a naked weight and a clothed weight. Since I have to leave my clothes on at my Weight Watchers weigh in I have to have a clothed weight ;). That weight is a half pound away from 30 lbs. lost. My naked weight is about two pounds lighter. I like that weight so much better. If I was doing Weight Watchers online I would sooooo use that as my official weight. It seems like something stupid, but when you are losing weight you want to weigh the least amount that you can. As long as I keep plugging along, following the Weight Watchers plan, there will be a day that I won't have to be sneaky and weight myself naked because my clothed weight will be so totally awesome it won't matter. For now, having that naked weight, well, it puts an extra smile on my face because let's face it, who doesn't like to weigh less????

Weight Watchers meetings really have been a God send this time around. Last time I lost on line, but it seemed too easy to kind of slip from what I was doing. This go around I religiously go to my Weight Watchers meetings. I go every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. I like Sunday because it's the natural start of the week and it's a good start for my WW week too. I have to say that I really like my meeting leader. She is uplifting when needed, my cheerleader when needed, and understanding when needed. I have realized that no matter what I do I lose about 1 to 1.5 lbs. a week. Instead of getting down my leader Diane always tells me a loss is a loss and I am more likely to keep off the weight. Little things like that make such a difference. Also, by going to meetings every week whether I lose or gain I am keeping myself accountable for how my weight loss is going. Lastly, I've met some really nice ladies at my meetings. In fact, two of them will be doing a 5k with me on June 6th. It's great having other people to push you. For me, meetings just work. 

Ok, time to wrap this up. I do have one recipe for you. This recipe is loosely based on a Giada DeLaurentis recipe. Mine is much simpler. Her recipe is Fried Smashed Potatoes with Lemon Dressing and mine is just the Fried Smashed Potatoes. Take a look below....this was super yummy. My son ate them and my mom told me that I could make these any day of the week for her.

Fried Smashed Potatoes

1-2 pounds of boiling or red baby potatoes

garlic salt

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

Boil your potatoes until a knife goes into the potatoes easily. Drain and then put back in pot with cold water. Let the potatoes cool until you can easily handle them. You will take each potato and "smash" them until they are flat. You still want them to have definition and not falling apart.

In a large frying pan, heat on medium/medium high heat. Add about olive oil two times around the pan. Sprinkle garlic salt on the potatoes and then put garlic salt side down in the pan. Sprinkle more garlic salt on the other side. Add a couple splashed of balsamic vinegar to the pan. Fry until the bottom of the potatoes are browned. Turn the potatoes and fry on the other side. Add a couple more splashed of balsamic vinegar. Fry until the other side is browned too. Serve as an accompaniment to any meat dish you may have.

For a twist, add cumin and lime juice to the recipe for a fajita type taste. Another twist could be chinese five spice or ginger with rice wine vinegar or teriyaki for an Asian taste. Just use your imagination. 

Put your weight loss into perspective

Hey there everyone!

Sometimes I get down that I lose my weight slowly. I lose 1.5 lbs here and .5 lbs there. Though I think I've only gained two times while doing the Weight Watchers program. Still it's those little losses that are sometimes irksome. Then today I really thought about the weight that I lost. Today I lost 1.8 lbs. That's almost 2 pkgs. of butter. 8 sticks of butter off of my body. If I look at a bigger picture I have 1.2 lbs. to lose to hit 30 lbs. Think about what that equals.....

30 lbs. EQUALS

Six 5 lb. potato bags

30 packages of ground beef

3.5 gallons of milk

almost 2 boxes of cat litter

120 sticks of butter

When you think of it that way it seems like so much more. Sometimes we don't see the results that we want. When that happens look at it with a different perspective. If I think of my weight loss as me losing almost 6 5 lb. bags of potatoes AND I know how heavy those suckers are I realize how much I am helping my body by not having that weight on my body. Every little bit of weight lost makes a difference whether it is 1 lb., 5 lbs. or 30 lbs. The best thing to do is not lose sight and keep your goal in focus no matter how fuzzy it may get at times.

Seriously Good Stuff.....Jamba Juice bars

While I was strolling through my grocery store I saw these frozen little goodies. I have to say that I was intrigued. I actually bought the Peach and Blackberry ones. The best part is that they are only 1 pt.!!!!! Yay!!! I love a yummy 1 pt. WW snack. There's fiber in the bars so it lowers your point total bonus! Even better than the one point is that they truly taste good. 

Now, for the bad news...there are only 4 in a package. Kind of stinks, but they are so good that it doesn't bother me that much. The taste and point value more than make up for the measly 4 bars that you get. 

A truly yummy and healthy snack!