Hello, hello! Hope 2013 is treating you well. The beginning of the year was a whirlwind for me with work - many 9-10 hour days, and some even longer. It's finally letting up and I'm settling back into our regular pace. One thing that is new for the beginning of this year is that I'm doing the Biggest Blogging Loser, run by Jennie of SheLikesPurple. One of the items on my 101 in 1001 is to lose 25 pounds. Ideally, it would be a bit more than that (I have a goal number in mind, but I'm not sharing because it's my goal and I'll not allow myself to feel guilty about a number on a scale so long as I make healthy changes and feel better about me). It runs from January 7th through the end of March, with the final weigh-in on April 1st (I think - thankfully, Jennie send weekly reminders). The motivation and support among the 50 other ladies in the contest has been great. We have a FB group where we talk about challenges, share recipes, and cheer each other on.
Anyway, it seems like the perfect time to discuss what I'm doing (and what's been working for the 1st two weeks) and share my meal plans. I'm not setting out to do anything like Paleo or Whole30 (as some of our more brave and possibly crazy ladies are), but we're eating more veggies than ever before and it's pretty much a South Beach Diet plan, which I've been successful with in the past.
I made a HUGE pot of vegetable soup on Sunday (green beans, white beans, broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, celery, onion, carrots, etc.) and we had that Sunday and I'll have it the rest of the week for lunches. Breakfast is always (even at home on weekends or telecommuting) a 3 fresh egg white omelet with veggies and Morning Star sausage. For snacks, I have celery and cucumber pre-cut and packaged to grab when I make my lunch each morning. Afternoon snack is yogurt. I love Kroger's CarbMaster brand because it's got a lot of protein, is low in carbs, and it comes in "fake" flavors that I love. While I like Greek yogurt, many have fruit on the bottom and I can't handle the texture. They also tend to be high in carbs. So CarbMaster gives me flavor I love while keeping the sugar count low. My rule is that I only eat what I bring (unless I get really hungry, and then I steal a coworker's almonds), and that's worked well on both the diet and my budget.
Dinners this week:
- Cheeseburger wraps. I'm past the 1st phase of South Beach, so I made these with whole wheat tortillas. I skipped the ketchup because of extra sugar and just used my favorite burger seasoning instead. Funny story, we don't have a George Forman grill as recommended, so I used our waffle maker. Ours didn't look nearly as good, but they were tasty.
- Cilantro lime chicken and black bean salad. I love crock pot meals, and plan to freeze half the chicken for a later time. Hopefully this Pinterest find works out better than cheeseburger wraps in execution.
- Turkey meatloaf and spaghetti squash. I know, I've said that a hunk of turkey meat doesn't sound appetizing. But I'm determined to find a good recipe. If all else fails, I will season the heck out of it. We substitute spaghetti squash for pasta in our favorite creations a lot, but I also love it as a side. Dan makes it extra tasty with just a bit of butter (I don't use butter on hardly anything, so I don't feel quilty for a little bit in one side dish every now and then) and Spinach and Herb dip mix that I get from Tastefully Simple.
- Grilled chicken with mashed sweet potatoes. FINALLY I can have sweet potatoes!
- Steak with spinach salad. We had this same meal this past Saturday night and it was just so tasty. I love steak, and as long as I buy a lean cut and pair it with vegetables, it makes for a satisfying end to the week. Plus it always feels special to have a steak dinner :)
What are you having this week?
FYI, I'm getting spammed a LOT, so I'm turning off anonymous comments a while to see if it helps. I've set it so that anyone with a Google account can still post - if you're still unable to comment, feel free to shoot me an email and I'll see if another setting works better.
5 comments:
The best turkey meatloaf recipe I have found is on foodnetwork and it is called "turkey bacon cheeseburger turkey loaf" I have made it leaving out the cheese and the turkey bacon and it is still amazing.
If I still blogged I should join your biggest loser campaign ... As I Am officially a weight watchers drop out!
I am desperate to put on a pair of pants and not have a muffin loaf hanging over my belt. So we have switched back to Paleo - which worked wonders for me while Neal was deployed. I will say that the steamed and then pureed cauliflower with the fixin's satisfies my mashed potato craving and if you take yellow squash and peel it with a vegetable peeler until you get down to the seeds, put those peels in a strainer and coat with salt then rinse, pat dry and saute, it tastes JUST LIKE egg noodles. It's freaky actually. I can't do spaghetti squash (or yogurt) because of the texture thing. But I would like to add some sausage into my breakfast. You're loving Morning Star?
PS i totally don't blame you. I had to start approving my comments because a bitch from a past life started spewing all kinds of hateness in my comments. So, do whatcha gotta do.
I'm not sure I'd say I LOVE Morning Star, as I'd rather have real sausage any day of the week, but it's a good alternative. I definitely like the original flavor a lot better than the maple version, and the original is sold at Costco, so that's a little double bonus :)
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