Alright - I'm a little perkier now.

Thought I'd share my weekend's successes and stumbling-blocks:

Successes -

Saturday at lunchtime I was sitting on my tush, it was gray and cold outside, and I was HUNGRY, but could not think of a thing I wanted to eat. I was *thisclose* to heading to the store or worse to fast food, when all of a sudden I thought "hey, I know I have a can of green beans, I'll eat that!" When I got into the pantry I found a can of lf cream of mushroom soup, and in the end I mixed that with frozen green beans and soy beans. It totally hit the spot, and there was enough left over that I had it for lunch yesterday too!

Today I was in a similar state of mind at work, was about to go to the pricey sandwich shop down the street, when I realized I had an apple and a can of tuna - presto! Instant lunch!

Stumbling Blocks:

I made shortbread cookies, and proceeded to eat about 1/4 the batch before giving the rest away. Eh, coulda been worse - I coula eaten them all.

Last night I was feeling down because I lost part of my garden (long story... involves someone who was trying to be helpful weeding the wrong bits, and stepping on some plants ) and a commercial for McDs came on, and honest to goodness, I got in my car, drove to the drive-thru and got one of those new Southern Chix sandwiches. It was not good. In fact, it kinda made me want to puke.

So, that was more or less my weekend! I have to laugh at y'all's discussion about ac and hot weather. We're having one of those strange June days in the 50s, and the ac won't turn off! I'm huddled in front of my 'puter wearing a huge Aran Wool cardi and rubbing my hands together!

YES ... YES ... That was exactly how I felt. I loved all the setup for what is to come, but Phury ... bleh!

Chelle - I really want Rhev, but I am likeing the new "angel" He sounds cool, not to mention the chick who awakened at the end of the book - WOW!

Anyone here Plurk?

I like it, no LOVE it actually on those thin rice crisps! And on celery. My girls will start with a couple crackers and then ask for spoons too!

Please send some heat to Seattle! I'm *head hungry* when it's soggy and grey out.

Yeah, I used to love going to salad bar restaurants and now know that while meaning to be "healthy" was being quite the opposite. I do love creamy Blue Cheese dressing, but never eat it anymore.

Speaking of dressings: what's your fav? I like Paul Newman's light Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Very cool, MJ!!

BTDT! I almost killed DH last year.

Nope, never have. Do you?

Woohoo - mechanic called and it was a simple $50 repair (on the side, no reciept) this time and my car is running. Now I gotta run and get $50 cash to pay him though... Got an application into CU for a car loan though. I know I'm on borrowed time. We have 2 old, well-used cars. Mine has 195,000 miles and DH's has 215,000!! His Honda seems like it will just keep running.

I looked into software also. When I get home tonight I will send you the name of it. We did not install it becouse it would not work on my old system but I did research it. We have had trouble with her on some other stuff (not bad like drugs or alcahol) but enough to know we have to stay on top of her. We have 3 older children and they did not go thru any of the stuff that she is trying so we figured since she is the last one she is going to be the one that drive us crazy the most.

Mine fave too!

And a Honda will never die...

Only when I drink too much. ( Sorry, the heat has fried my brain. )

Fav Dressing--I like all of Paul Newman's light dressings. I don't necessarily need dressing on my salads but any of those will do.

I wish I didn't NEED dressing. Salsa & sour cream works if there's ground turkey and chips on my salad!

I love mixing whatever is on hand and seeing how it turns out. Tonight I had shrimp that had to be eaten before they went bad, some overripe avocado, a mini cucumber and a tomato with some diced, stuffed olives and balsamic vinegar, and it was very tasty!

Well, the heat itself is quite nice for those of us who like it
But I am with you on the appetite. I've been eating a lot of "cooler" foods like fruits and veggies (and spending too much $$$ on them!)

If my salad has some fat in it already (avocado, tuna, sardines, olives, cheese etc) I just like to put balsamic vinegar on it. Adding the olive oil just makes things seem a bit greasy.
If a salad consists of veggies that aren't avocados (ie nothing oily) then I love hidden valley low fat ranch, though I use it infrequently.

Okay I am so making a salad for lunch tomorrow. I've eaten all of my frozen meals and am debating if I will ever buy any again--maybe just Kashi meals--oops just checked and I still have two more meals. I will eat them this week. All that to say that I really have to plan for something to eat for lunch from now on rather than just grabbing a frozen meal.

Avocados, egg yolks or a soft cheese like feta mix well as a dressing! If I have a little something juicy, like a tomato or something citrus....no need for dressing at all!

I just had to throw an avocado away. So sad. I hate wasting good food because I forget I have it...

Maria - I adore stuffed olives! Especially jalapeño stuffed ones!

It's stormy tonight here and our power has gone out twice so far for short times. And it keeps flickering...better hit "post" now!

Since switching to a more "whole foods" diet I've eaten a few frozen entrées and am so shocked at how they do not stick with me for long. Do they for others? 5 years ago when I worked full time I ate them 5x/week. Now I can hardly tolerate them. Besides, when I do work on Mondays and Fridays, I provide the lunchtime entertainment while I assemble my lunch. I guess it's interesting to others to see someone eat "real food" and get to eat quite a bit of it at that?

All this talk of salad dressings makes me want to share a recipe. It's called Sesame-Ginger Dressing and it's from Vegetarian Planet. It's positively the best freaking dressing. Ever. I've had it on regular old salad and also on cooked quinoa. I swapped the amounts for the canola and sesame oils last night since I love sesame and it was really good.

In a food processor combine until smooth:
- 1/2 TB minced fresh ginger
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 1 TB smooth Dijon mustard
- 3 TB apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup dark sesame oil
- 1/2 cup canola or corn oil
- 1/2-1 tsp chile paste (optional)

In other news, I did a 4.4K run tonight to my DS's soccer game. I wasn't able to eat until 45 minutes before my run so I was really sluggish with a stomach full of smoothie. Ugh. I knew I should have only had half of it but it was so yummy and I was so hungry!

In even other news, my car problems are fixed. It turns out that the supposed gas leak in the car was actually an oil leak because DH didn't put the oil cap back on when he topped up the oil the other day. I'm happy that it was a quick and free fix but on the other hand I wanted to yell at DH. It's a good thing he's hot. And gives me good foot rubs. And bought me a Garmin.