Lea Ann i tried that diet too and it got me where it got you. LoL. I've never eaten mushrooms and i never will. In my country (Guyana) its not something you eat and i guess that just stuck with me, its kinda stupid but i cant eat it. My SIL loves mushrooms and my MIL hated me so much when we lived with her she put mushrooms in everything and said it was because her daughter liked it. She just hates me. Zucchini on the grill is delish and i put it on the pizza recipe katie posted with bell peppers & onions and it is so yummy. I even got hubby to eat some.

nah--we all have things we just can't eat for some reason. I'll eat almost any vegetable raw but very few cooked. I like zucchini grilled but still a little crunchy. Your MIL sounds like so many others--poor you--how childish to put something she knows you dislike in all her dishes--and then they wonder why we don't like them! I am still looking for the sun dried tomato pesto Katie uses in her chicken pitas--I can only find the basil pesto.

I havent even been to the grocery to look and thanks i need to add that to my list.

My MIL is just miserable anyway. I moved to FL from NY to get away. Its very mutual between her and myself though. She loved me until i got pregnant (which was planned but she didnt know).

I believe HeatherPP said the pesto was next to pizza sauce and like on the top shelf or something like that but it should be next to the basil.

Hey Joni! I LOVE those McD's Asian salads! I've been eating them regularly, and counting it as 1P 2V 1F 1C.

I've looked at the nutrition info on their website. With the grilled chicken it's 290 calories and 31g protein. If you order it w/o chicken it's 140 and 7g of protein.

The ginger sesame dressing (which is lite, but high in calories if you use the whole packet at 1.5 oz and 90 calories) is the condiment. If I use the packet of slivered almonds that's 40 calories and I count it as 1 fat.

What's really cool is that if you order it as part of the Adult Happy Meal, which is one of the new salads and a bottle of water, you get one of their exercise DVDs as your toy. ;-)

Today my COD had a big Open House party and the McDonalds had donated all their exercise DVD's so I got all 3! Now I just have to DO them.

Debbie--I've found the brand of pesto around here but only in the basil and not the sun dried tomato--I think I'll look on line. I think the brand is Classico.

Michelle - I'll have to look into the "Adult Happy Meal" package. One can never have too many exercise DVDs. As far as the almonds, my blue plan book says nuts are a protein. I agree with you that they should be fat. I'll ask when I go in today.

Joni, I'll be interested to know what your COD says about the nuts. The counselor at my center thought I wasn't getting my fat in, and as a "visual aid" she pulled open her desk drawer and showed me a jar of dry roasted peanuts. On the lid was written, "10 = 1 Fat." Maybe it depends on the type of nut? Or maybe it's one of those COD mysteries? Anyway, that was one scary visual because if there was a jar of peanuts in MY desk drawer, they wouldn't last through the day! ;-)

I've gotten four of McD's DVDs now - Cardio, Torso, Strength and Yoga. Maybe they'll come out with some more if the Adult Happy Meals are a successful promotion.

On another note, I also like the chargrilled chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A. It's listed in my plan book as a good option for fast food. But I thought it might be heavy on the starch because of the bun. I know we can take off the bun or tear it up, but I guess I'm not disciplined enough to resist when it's right there in my hand. Anyway I went to their website to check the nutritional info, and they have it set up in a really neat way! You can just view a page with all the nuitritional stuff, or you can use a drop down to pick the things you want and it adds up the calories, sodium, etc. I wanted to check out their salads. The salads look pretty good and they have some interesting options, but the dressings are shocking! Very disappointing on the lite choices, and the packets seem to have as many or more calories as the entire salad itself - including the chicken! YIKES! Definitely a good time to have an emergency packet of lite dressing in the purse!

Hmmmmmm.....I forgot to ask about the almonds....But, I did meet with the most knowledgeable counselor at the COD (she's VERY good), and she admitted that she's still not sure how to count the Asian salad; matter of fact, she said to limit to one a week until they figured it out. She thinks there is a lot of sugar in the marinade they use on the chicken.
McDonald's nutrition info says the grilled Asian chicken is 3.5 vegetable, 3 lean meat (I think that means 3 oz. lean meat)??, 1 fat / 290 cals (that's without the dressing packet) ; 6g Fiber, 31g protein; 12g sugar (I'm not sure if that's a lot or not??)!! Oh well, it still beat a quarter pounder with cheese!!