Saturday night we wound up at our friends house, and we ordered in from a pizza place. They all ate pizza and fries and I asked if they had vegetable soup and they did, so I ate that. Who knows for sure how many calories were in there, but that's what I decided to do. I so prefer eating at home. I get to eat so much more food because I know exactly what ingredients are going into it. But I can't always stay in my safe haven, gotta venture out sometimes, which we often do on Saturday nights.

Sunday night was yummy. I made fresh spinach, tons of mushrooms, onions and chicken strips. I sauteed it all in about 1 tsp of olive oil with tons of fresh garlic and at the end added some chicken broth. It was really good.

Dinner tonight will be thin boneless pork chops which I cook on the stove with sliced onions, salt and pepper. Each time I make them I sprinkle on different spices/seasonings. A friend gave us a great gift last Christmas- a gift box of all different seasonings and spices from Penzeys Spices.

We like Barbecue of the Americas, Bicentennial Rub, Sweet Curry Powder, Northwoods Seasoning, Chinese Five Spice, and Galena Street Rub the best.

I buy big bags of frozen vegetables at GFC and steam the veggies separately, serving both meat and veggies together on the plate. The various spices and seasonings add no calories, but they DO add wonderful flavor to the food.

Tonight I think I will use the Sweet Curry Powder.

Happy eating, All!

Cheryl

Cheryl,
I'm a big fan of steaming frozen veggies. I've basically given up on fresh veggies for the most part because I was tired of them going bad on me before I could use them. I buy mine at Costco.

I'm also a fan of beans. We have beans almost every day and usually twice per day. Today I am crockpotting some beans for the week. If you can't tell, I'm also a big fan of leftovers so that I don't have to cook every night.

I am going to make baked chicken breasts with mushrooms and onions in a lemon, garlic and wine sauce. Cauliflower on the side.

Tonights menu is grilled sirloin (I'll measure and weigh my portion before I start eating), steamed veggies and huge salad.

I am a beef lover so we still have beef regularly, I've just learned that a small portion fills the need, I don't need an 8oz steak all to myself! 2 oz. is usually just about right.

Nelie I also buy a lot of frozen veggies from Costco. Their birdseye frozen mixed veggies are fabulous with just a little salt and pepper on them, no need for margarine! We eat them steamed, but I also add them to almost everything! They always get mixed in to rice, for sure!

Tonight is a quickie post-gym meal - pizzas on whole wheat pitas with grilled chicken, broccoli, bell pepper, and red onion.

Curried vegetables (green and red peppers, onion, tomatoes, eggplant) served over quinoa. Maybe some kidney or garbanzo beans thrown in for protein ... enough for planned leftovers for lunch at work the next day.

Wow, so many great ideas here!

I was thinking of orange chicken and broccoli for dinner, but I think I may switch to some turkey burgers w/Swiss and bacon on wheat buns. I'll still make the orange chicken, but I want it more than just one night (that's how much I love it!), so I will make it and portion it out for lunches for the rest of the week.

Everything here sounds absolutely delicious!:chef:

Thanks for the ideas everyone!

Cheryl

Veggie burgers - portabella flavored.... very very good!!

tonight was leftover night here- I had a small taco salad...

shrimp and scallops, sort of an asian maple sauce, brown rice, broccoli

Someone PMed me for my orange chicken recipe, so I thought I'd post it here so others could see it, too.

I don't really measure things, so I will try to be as specific as possible. I did measure some ingredients yesterday to try for a more accurate calorie count, so let's see if I can remember correctly:

• 1 package (mine was about 1.33 pounds, I think) of boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks (I use 99% lean tenderloins--easier to cut into small pieces)
• Marinate and cook in the following mixture (I cook it in a wok so I can add the broccoli all to the same pan):
  • 3-4 T soy sauce (I use reduced-sodium)
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 1-2 white cooking wine
  • 2 t ground ginger
  • 2 shakes crushed red pepper
  • garlic and/or onion powder to taste
  • 3 T honey
• Once the chicken is cooked, add 1 jar sugar-free (or no sugar added?) orange marmalade. Cook and stir until the marmalade mixes with the rest of the sauce and the chicken is cooked.
• Add 2 small bags of frozen broccoli florets and cook to desired crispness.

I made this last night and split it into 4 containers for lunch for the next 4 days. The chicken and all sauce ingredients come to about 260 calories per serving (when using the above amounts for 4 servings--I didn't worry about the number of calories in the broccoli).

last night was beef noodle casserole... yummy!! 342 calories for 1 cup.
tonight I'm saving up calories.. chicken fingers and fries... and some sort of fruit or veggie. I find that if I do good all day I can have a "normal" meal with added veggies. I used to always fail when I had to make myself a seperate meal.

Dana

I've got two words for ya Jilly - YUMM MME