It's that BLAH time of fall - between fall and winter. Lots of grey days. Big pots of soup, fireplace cuddles (if you're lucky enough to have a fireplace and someone to cuddle).

Now what else to eat? "Warm" salads? Veggie stews? How will we stay OP while facing TG (the Americans) and then the ultimate diet kablammo Christmas?

Have a great week everybody

Dagmar

I just made my first ever pot of soup from scratch. Ham and pea. Delicious but certainly not really low cal. I am limiting my portions and consoling myself while looking at DH having thirds by knowing that he's not eating anything deep fried or other wise harmful.

And I'm starting this week off at 133 lbs and changing the ticker to reflect this.

It's 6 weeks til Christmas and I'm confident I'll make my goal to be in the high20's by then.

Dagmar

Good morning!

I'm back to the chiropractor in a half hour or so. Here's hoping he's good with me lifting this week. Although I haven't been very consistent, I sure miss it when somebody says "you can't do that right now".

I bought some lovely lean proteins and things I can grow yesterday. Should be a good week.

Well, even after all my screwups last week, I am down a little bit. I dropped to 129.4, which I am rounding down to 129 This week, with the assistance of DailyPlate, I am GOING to stay on plan all week long.

I have discovered that brothy soups are really the way to go for me. I add tons of veggies, a little chicken or tofu for lean protein, and it's very filling while still being very low cal. Yesterday I had a humongous bowl of this spicy shrimp and noodle soup (recipe from Food Network, if anyone wants it), which was a meal in itself, and it was only 300 cals! Perfect for bringing my own lunch to work. Now I just have to find some better containers to carry it in. I have a lot of Tupperware, but I don't like putting plastic in the microwave, and so far I've been unable to find any really good glass containers that are leakproof. However, this weekend I'm leaving the city to go visit a friend in upstate NY (where there are actual MALLS and stores where things aren't overpriced), so perhaps I'll try shopping there.

Happy Monday everyone!

Soup! I had a great soup dinner Saturday--chicken gumbo. My only problem with the meal was that I served pumpernickel bread with it and I had too many slices! But I agree that soup is great this time of year and it's a heck of a lot less in calories than my traditional comfort food (casseroles).

Ah, all this talk about soup has me wanting some homemade chicken soup!!! Wonder how fatting it is?

Anyway, the beginning of another week, another week that I'm NOT down any weight and that I'm swearing to get serious again. *sigh* BUT this time for sure!! Who's sick of hearing that? I know I am! I'm looking forward to Shane's 6 pack ab club so I need to work hard to show some improvements for my picture update in 2 weeks. ACK.

I've had two protien drinks, some grapes and am just eating some tuna right now. I'm approaching the my weakest time of time in terms of willpower so we'll see how I do.

Meanwhile, this am I ran for 60 minutes on the treadmill faster than I've EVER gone on it. I totally felt amazing!!!

Boy, this must have been a "Soup" weekend . I also made some vegetable beef soup on Saturday. Low calorie but very hearty and filling .

But then yesterday I made a beef, noodle and cheese casserole (very fattening I'm sure) . Sometimes I think I'm like Jeckle and Hyde. I can be very good one day and very bad the next.

I need to get myself in gear and try to string a few good days together this week.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Is there such a beast?

I don't tend to use recipes when cooking but I'm interested in exploring some new ones. What are everyone's favorite low-cal cookbooks/recipe web sites?

I'm using a Time/Life series of healthy cooking books that I bought about 20 years ago - time for an upgrade. I'm thinking of trying Oprah's guy's book - I think his name is Bob Green?

thanks,
Dagmar

Morning! I'm a bit surprised by how quickly the time between alarm and gotta go passes. But I wanted to say "Good Morning".

I use FoodNetwork.com for almost all of my recipes. I usually have a main ingredient that I'm in the mood for, so I do a search for that. Then I see how I can modify the recipe to make it healthier (e.g. cut the oils/butters down, and then sub some chicken broth to make up the difference). I found a GREAT tool in another section of the forum that calculates nutrition of a recipe very easily:
http://www.calorie-count.com/calorie...e_analysis.php
You just paste the whole recipe in, change a few small things, and it instantly tells you the nutrition facts. Takes less than a minute per recipe, and I love it.

Hopefully that's helpful to someone

Dagmar~Cooking Light has a great deal of recipes--low cal, low fat and yes, they have casseroles!!! I use that site ALL the time!

Cooking Light, both the magazine and the website, is my hands-down, favorite source for recipes. Almost every recipe comes out fantastic (my SO has commented to me that once advantage to my being on this diet is all the great new recipes I've found that he really likes); they give nutritional info for every recipe and it is usually spot-on (not so with a lot of other recipe sources); and most recipes fit in my calorie plan, so I don't get excited by a recipe and then find out a can't eat it when I do the nutritional analysis .

The food sections in both my local papers (the SF Chroncle and the Fremont Argus) are probably my second favorite. Again, almost every recipe comes out fantastic, they are great about providing accurate nutritional info, and the publish lots of recipes that fit in my calorie plan. They also publish lots that don't fit in my plan (some have had close to 1,000 calories per serving ), but at least the nutritional info is right there so I can see right away that it isn't a recipe for me.

I love cassoreles and I have lots of recipes for low calorie ones. I have a Tamale Pie casserole that comes it at 265 calories per serving; a ground beef, rice, and cheese casserole that comes in at 300 calories per serving; old-fashioned tuna casserole (complete with pasta) that comes in at 360 calories per serving; and an Indian-style ground turkey and rice casserole that comes in at 325 calories per serving. I have lots more. Just like meat loaf (for which I also have lots of low-calorie recipes), casseroles don't have to be high in calories.

Now I'm really hungry. Dinner is microwaving/cooking and I'm reading about casseroles. Will try those sites for new and exciting dinners.

I am going to have one piece of chocolate cake tonite (bought one piece at a fancy store called Dufflet) in honour of it being Chris Noth's birthday.

No, this is not an excuse . I feel that, being a true fan of his, I owe it to him to help him celebrate.

Have a good night everyone! I'm whoo hooing with the new O magazine and my piece of cake.

Dagmar

My accomplishment for the day: I came within 24 calories of my target today! And it was 24 under, besides. I also did 4.5 miles on the elliptical (on cross-country, so it was HARD) tonight while watching Biggest Loser, which I'm thrilled about. And finally, I cooked a really yummy dinner with two new recipes: sesame noodles and seared ahi tuna over greens with wasabi vinaigrette. Again, courtesy of Food Network.

Also, I just want to take a minute to say how fabulous frozen bananas are. They ripen and get more flavorful even when they're frozen, so when you first freeze them, they're not too banana-y and just creamy and taste like vanilla ice cream. Then in a few days they ripen, and then it's like eating banana ice cream. Both are amazing, and much healthier than actual ice cream! I love them.

Laura thanks for the tip about the bananas. I'll try that. Someone else also mentioned frozen grapes.

Do you peel the bananas and grapes before you freeze them?

Dagmar (I hate daylight savings)