Meal Planning and Recipes

Recently, I've been asked to share my recipes and some of my meal planning tips. I don't necessarily know if I plan any differently than anybody else.

I'm a creature of habit and I eat the same thing every day for breakfast - a delicious yogurt worth two points. Sometimes I'll get crazy and eat a banana too, but most days I just stick with my yogurt. However, there are other days where I know that I'm not going to make it on just two points. I may have a packet of oatmeal or a Thomas' English Muffin - both are worth three points.

For lunch, I normally eat between seven and eight points. I'm a big fan of having a six or seven point "main" lunch meal, eating a piece of fruit and then having a piece of WW String Cheese (one point).

By the time I'm ready for dinner, I typically have between 16-17 points to eat. I can double up on whatever we're having or eat sensibly and have dessert later. Kind of depends on my day.

Lately, I've been having a little bit of trouble getting in all of my 26 allotted points. Crazy huh? I can tell that my stomach is shrinking and I just can't eat all of that food in one day. I don't load up on "free" food all day either, so it's kind of a balance that I need to work through. I started adding a teaspoon of oil to my food just so that I can burn points and get in my essential dailies.

Okay...so now that I've bored you with my planning...let's talk recipes!

There are a few things that we eat every week that can be portioned out and placed in your freezer for lunch meals later on in the week.

Okay...so I know that this first item isn't a reciped, but it's totally worth noting. Have you ever eaten Voila! Garlic Chicken?!! If you haven't, then you definitely should! It's amazing! It's only five points per cup and most of the time, I can eat two for dinner! Plus, it's a full serving of veggies!

Another great recipe that we make every week is the Electric Skillet Meal. The kiddos love it and it's only seven points per cup. I typically freeze three or four one-cup meals so that I can take them to work through out the week. Okay...here's that recipe:

1 lb. hamburger
1 med. onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 c. tomato juice
1 (10 oz.) can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1 tsp. or tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. chili powder1
(8 oz.) box elbow spaghetti
1/3 c. diced Cheddar cheese (Velveeta cheese works well)

Cook hamburger, onion, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until meat is lightly browned. Do not burn onion. Stir in tomato juice, tomato soup, sugar and chili powder. Simmer until thickened, stirring frequently.

Cook spaghetti as directed and drain. Add to meat mixture in electric skillet.

Just before serving, cover meat and spaghetti mixture with Velveeta cheese and heat until cheese starts to melt. Can be served from skillet with crackers and relishes for a complete meal.

I'm also a big fan of picking recipes from the Weight Watchers website and trying those out. I've made a Baked Carbonara, Macaroni & Cheese with Broccoli and Chicken and Dumplings. By far, the Chicken and Dumplings recipe was the best! Just in case you want to try it, here's that recipe too:

6PointsPlus Value
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Serves: 6

1 1/4 pound(s) uncooked boneless skinless chicken breast(s), cut into 1-inch pieces
1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, or to taste
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp vegetable oil

4 medium uncooked leek(s), white and light green parts only), thinly sliced
4 medium uncooked shallot(s), thinly sliced
2 medium uncooked carrot(s), sliced into thin rounds
2 rib(s) (medium) uncooked celery, sliced
1 leaf/leaves bay leaf
1 tsp thyme, fresh
2 1/2 cup(s) fat-free chicken broth
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp uncooked cornmeal
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
1 1/2 tsp parsley, minced
1/4 cup(s) low-fat milk
1/2 cup(s) apple juice
1/2 cup(s) frozen green peas, thawed

Instructions

Season chicken with 1/8 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Mix flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Sprinkle chicken with 1 tablespoon of seasoned flour. In a large skillet, heat oil and lightly brown chicken. Remove from pan.

In the same skillet, sauté leeks and shallots until lightly golden, about 3 minutes. Add carrots, celery, bay leaf and thyme and cook another 3 minutes. Stir in remaining tablespoon of seasoned flour and it cook until it begins to color, about 1 minute. Pour in chicken broth and apple juice. Return chicken to pot. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until chicken is cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes.

Meanwhile to make dumplings, sift 2 tablespoons flour, cornmeal, baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt together into a bowl. Stir in parsley. With a fork, stir in milk until dough just comes together. Drop dumpling mixture with a teaspoon into chicken mixture. Simmer, covered, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add peas, and cook until dumplings are done, another 2 to 4 minutes. Serve in six 1-cup portions.


So...there you have it. A few minor insights into my week. Peace and love!

Who needs a new pair of shoes? This girl!

During my average weekly visits to the fat farm, nothing too exciting or adventurous happens. My average weekly weight loss is roughly 1.4 pounds, which pisses me off considering how OCD I am about the whole process and how I track everything that I eat.

So...I'm not really sure what happened this week, but I lost 3.4 pounds! That's right...3.4 pounds. I reached another milestone and got another 5 pound sticker for my book. I missed reaching my 10% goal by .8 pounds. Oh well. There's always next week.

It's funny...people keep telling me that I have to be noticing all of this weight that I'm losing. To be honest, I don't see it. What sucks is that I don't really notice it in my clothes either. Yeah...my pants are fitting a little bit better, but have I noticed a signifcant difference? Not really. Although...when I was shopping yesterday for Ellie's birthday presents, I did notice that the butt of my pants was seriously sagging.

I mean...why do I always have to lose my ass? Why can't I loose it...let's say...in my chest? Is that asking for too much? I've been begging for a breast reduction since I was 15. I thought that losing weight would be a great non-surgical alternative. Apparently...they have a mind of their own and think otherwise.

Anyway.

So I decided today that because I reached my half way point (down 15.2 pounds), I am going to do something that makes me feel special. And that my friends involves a new pair of shoes. I'm so giddy that I can hardly stand it! Check out the pic below. Who wants to place bets that I'll break my ankle within the first three weeks? lol.





So that's my story for today. Nothing crazy or exciting. Just a girl closer to her goal of looking amazing!

Checking in at AA...I mean WW

Once again, I made an appearance at my WW meeting today. Every time I go, I feel like I'm checking into an AA meeting. "Hi. My name is Lori. I'm fat."

Well...today was no different. Stupidly...I weighed myself on my home scale. Honestly, this is plain torture. I don't know why I feel compelled to keep doing it. Maybe it's because I'm so OCD when it comes to this whole weight-loss challenge.

Anyway. I won't bore you with the ridiculous details of that morning drama. Instead, I'll just say that I lost 1.8 pounds this week. I'm now down a total of 11.8 pounds! While this is amazing...I still can't tell a difference. Well...that's not entirely true. I have noticed that I completely lost my ass. Seriously...it's gone. lol. Not that it was large to begin with, but my pants are now kind of just "hanging" in the back. And...I don't have to stuff my calf fat into my hooker boots when I zip them up anymore. WINNING!!!!!!!

So...today's topic was all about "nixing negativity". Kind of fit since I was all sorts of BENT due to the fact that my scale continues to give me false hope. Anyway. My leader challenged all of us to stop and write down one thing that we like about ourselves. She said that most of us might have trouble doing that while we are on the "weight loss journey". Um...really? Think that she has ever met me?!!!

Let me just say that I completely missed the modesty talk when I was a kid. I can completely compliment myself and talk about how awesome I am all day long! It's a complex...I think it's called "cocky". Not really sure where I picked that up at, but I've always been rather fond of myself. I mean really...I'm funny, I'm adorable, I'm smart (really...I have two degrees), I'm a great shopper, I'm funny....and the list goes on-and-on. lol. Hmmm....think that I might be overcompensating?

So, needless to say, I took her challenge and ran with it. Wow...that's about the only running that I plan on doing. Well...other than running my mouth - which is another very fine characteristic if I do say so myself. lol

Alright. Well, now that I have "exercised" my thoughts (and fingers), I'm outta here! That cupcake sitting on my desk isn't going to eat itself.

Totally earned it

Okay...I just want to start off by saying that I totally earned it! I reached my 10 lbs. weight loss "mini" goal yesterday! Woo hoo! I earned my additional 5 lbs. sticker to put in my book and also my first blue ribbon! If you can't already tell...I'm hella excited.

Okay...so now that we've gotten that minor miracle out of the way, let's move on.

I have to admit...I am SO tired of writing about weight loss. I'm about up to my eyeballs in "measure this", "exercise" and "oh shit! even though I lost 10 pounds, my clothes still don't fit".

Not really sure where I'm going with all of this, but I'm not really interested in the whole writing about my experience this week. Maybe next week I'll be back up on the bandwagon. lol.

So until then...hooray for loosing 10 pounds! Gotta keep it up...I have to look BITCHIN' for my trip to TX in September! :)

That's right...I licked it

And no...I'm not talking about my weigh in either. Grrr. I'll get to that ridiculous "plateau" story in just a minute.

I'm talking about the lid to my Fat Free Chocolate Snack Pack! I'm not the type that goes around licking things - windows, flag poles or food lids. Because I was so pissed off from my weigh-in, I skipped "awards" at the meeting and came back to the office so that I could eat my lunch and sulk.

After I plowed through my lunch, I got to my Snack Pack. (Insert Billy Madison reference here)



For the first time, I ripped the lid off and licked all of the pudding off of it! In all honesty, it was totally liberating! lol. I figured that if I was paying two points to eat that Snack Pack, then I was going to eat every last morsel that was in that container or on the lid.

So...what sparked this craze you ask? My stupid weigh-in. I totally hit a plateau this week. No, that's not entirely true. I hit a plateau AND gained .1 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now I know how Macaulay Culkin felt in Home Alone! Wow...that kid has a really big mouth. I wonder if I looked that ridiculous when I busted his move (like the picture above) pulling out of the Weight Watchers parking lot?

So where do I go from here? Hopefully, down - my weight that is - not my foul mood.

How am I going to get there? The topic in the meeting today was "exercise". My most favorite thing to do - NOT! Now, because I'm an exercise dropout, I've decided that there are a few things that should count as exercise:

• "Jumping" to conclusions


• Wearing a "push-up" bra


• "Running" my mouth (Which I'm really good at! If this were an Olympic sport I'd win Gold everytime!)


• "Stretching" the truth after I stepped on the scale


• "Picking up" cooking tips from friends

So now that I'm mad because I plateaued this week AND my list of exercise doesn't count, I'm going to go eat something.

Peace!

Alterations for my birthday suit

This week has been a little nutty. I left for Baltimore on Tuesday for a three-day business trip. Well...I say business, but I mixed in a little pleasure while I was there. I went to college there and felt like I was back at home the minute I stepped off the plane.

The best part was that I got to visit with my girlfriends while I was in town. For two days, I ate well (making good decisions and tracking my points, of course!) and laughed so hard that my face hurt. I mean seriously, who doesn't love a Maryland crab cake and some serious laughter?! It's great for the soul!

While I was there, I managed to stay on track with my points. Which in all honesty, is pretty incredible. While there, I had full intentions of making it to a WW meeting. Unfortunately, it just didn't fit into my schedule. So, I hopped my happy butt onto a scale and logged my read-out. Fortunately, my effort paid off and I lost 1.1 pounds!!

Up until now, I've lost 9.3 pounds! Woo hoo! I'm super excited about it too! I want my stickers for my fat book. I know....I feel like I'm five again and motivated by stickers. Oy!

Anyway. While I was at dinner one night, one of my girlfriends told me about the WW Barcode App. I downloaded it at the table and haven't been able to put it down since. You could say that I'm obsessed.

So here's to a new week of making alterations to my birthday suit!

A Special Treat

I want to start off by saying that I totally rocked it this week! I'm not going to beat around the bush - I'm just going to come out and say it. I worked really hard, made good choices and it all paid off.

That's right folks....I lost 2.2 pounds this week! I'm so giddy that I'm shaking with excitement. And no...my sugar isn't low.

I started this journey four weeks ago and I've seen it really pay off - even though I had a plateau week last week. So far, my total weight loss is 8.2 pounds. Now, I'm a big fan of setting small, achievable goals. At the beginning, I set a 5% and 10% weight loss goal. If I say I want to loose 30 pounds, I'll sabatoge myself. Trust me...I am my own worst enemy.

So today, I reached my 5% weight loss goal of 8 pounds and earned myself a BIG 5% star to put in my tracker. Only 7.8 more pounds to go and I will have achieved my 10% goal. Hell, if I loose 1.8 pounds next week, I will have achieved my first 10 pounds and will get my blue ribbon of achievement. I know that it sounds silly, but these little tokens of accomplishment are really helping to motivate me!

Speaking of motivation, I'm super proud to say that Justin has started to do WW with me! He started his plan today and I am super proud of him for taking this step! Together, we will be able to achieve our goals! It's great to have such an incredible support system.

Anyway...I digressed...back to me! lol.

Along with this new "rockin' body", I'm doing a little bit of an overhaul this evening. You see, I haven't gotten a haircut in six months. I decided that I wanted to let it grow a bit. Well, I can tell you that the Carol Brady "shag" isn't a good look for me! So...I have a date this evening with a pair of scissors and a vast full of wax. And seriously people...I'm waxing the Mon-chi-chi's off my grill. No need to start thinking crazy thoughts.

So as I close out this incredibly encouraging day, I'm going to treat myself to an hour of pampering because I know that I am worth it.

And seriously...eat your heart out Carol Brady!