A recipe from our leader (I dunno if they all get the same ones to give out or not...)

Cheesy potato casserole:

Preheat oven to 350. This will bake for an hour once you put it in. It makes 1 cup servings at 3 pts a cup. I think its about 6 servings as I recall - but my recollection is probably off. I served up a measured cup for me and divided the remaining for the family.

1 bag thawed (but purchased frozen) hash brown-style potatoes
1 small onion, chopped up
2 tsp pepper
1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup, condensed
1 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese, shredded
2 Tbsp margarine

Mix it all up, put in a 9x13 pan you've sprayed with cooking oil.

It's actually quite good! I serve it with toast (high fiber, reduced fat at 1 pt per 2 slices) and fruit salad for a low point meal.

~*~

It's good to be back. I needed to get "right" in my own head before I could do this again - and I found, sadly, that I just felt inadequate reading everyone else's posts. I fixed my head (at least for a while) - so its time to start again.

I didn't put on the weight over night. I'm not gonna lose it that way either.

The weekends go much too quickly.

I'm sitting here resting from doing the 1 mile WATP tape. Its a struggle to get energetic at 5:30 am. But I did it. I'm not sure what my evening will be like so I wanted to be sure and "make it work" as Cynthia would say about not having excuses to miss exercise.

I had a wonderful day down at mom's. We worked outside all day long. We moved, we lifted, we carried, we heaved and we ho'ed. It was a beautiful day - in the sixties but with the March gustiness. It felt so good to work in short-sleeves. We accomplished a lot for her. They live on a farm and dad tended to collect iron junk. He also tended to just leave it whereever. So we're helping her to sort out the good stuff and what can be hauled off and get stuff moved around. We were exhausted but exhilerated by our accomplishment. I expected to hurt bigtime on Sunday, but thanks to all my recent exercise, it was very minimal. I also managed to avoid the food disaster that normally happens. I walked on by the cookies and desserts and only ate lunch and couldn't eat much then at that. By the time we got home (2 hour drive) it was 28 degrees.

Linda - Congrats on your 2 pounds gone! I hear you about the exercise bike. The minute I get on any type of exercise equipment, I start thinking "I can't make it" and I try to recognize that its a sign of boredom and occupy my mind with music or TV. When you hate the exercise though, its hard to get motivated. I used to have one of those Easy Rider things which I hated. I could barely last two minutes before my arms gave out. Just find some movement you can do when you can't swim that you enjoy and doesn't cause pain.

Jen - Thanks for the recipe. I love that casserole but only fix it at holidays. Mainly because I forget but your menu idea is a perfect "comfort food" fix with a healthy twist.

: to us all at this start of the week. I better get my butt moving and get ready for work. The management staff in our department is putting on a chili lunch as "manager appreciation" day for our staff. I've got two batches of chili in the fridge and a container of brownies. I will "find a way" to eat what I need and avoid too much.

Have a great OP day!

Morning, ladies!

Today's challenge is dinner out with a friend - it's her turn to pick the place, and she's chosen Lonestar Steakhouse. Yipes!

I haven't yet managed to eat more than my minimum points in a day - so I'm set, points-wise, for this... but its sorta scary from a newly-returned emotional perspective.

We're meeting prior to our knitting guild meeting tonight; she's planning to open a yarn store (and I plan to work there part-time). She's going to show me what's arrived so far (with the plan of a mid-April opening).

Have a great day!

Good morning!

Last night's challenge was met well with grilled chicken and salad with low fat dressing and poorly with steak fries. I had over 20 pts left for the day when I arrived at the restaurant. :-)

Today's challenge: all day travel (we're headed to Chatanooga TN) with the associated restaurant meals. I'll do fine though. :-)

I hope your days are filled with goodness and challenges that can be met!

WOW, I get depressed and don't post for a while and JEN & LINDA come home.

WELCOME HOME LADIES!!!!

I'm really not motivated (I HATE that word). Every morning I get up all ready to begin a new day and by 10AM BOOM!, it's down the tubes. I know I have to change my morning pattern but I can't come up with one that works. I'll just keep plugging along. I know one of these days everything will click and I'll get back OP. Just wish I could get it together.

JEN: I'm going to try that potato recipe. Sounds great. I'm soo glad you are back. I MISSED YOU!

SHERRY, MRSHUMMER: WELCOME
Glas you've joined us. I don't have a lot of time right now. I'm at work. So I'll greet you more nicely later.

LINDA, CYNTHIA, TERRI: Love you guys. I promise a nice long catch up post later today.

Y'all take care and stay OP!

j-ann

BACK AGAIN

Today went fairly well. Still eating a few too many carbs., but on the whole, I was OP.! YAY! Jusy got back from an hour and a half in the Y pool. I'm tired but it's a "good" tired.

TERRI: Chilli Cookoff? I could pass on that one. Never met a bowl of chilli I could eat. Don't even like the smell. Now, cookies ... those I could taste test all day. Bet Bear enjoyed his walk. We're still innundated with snow but we may see 50º by the weekend. Spring is in the air. MMMM

JEN: A yarn store? You will be in your glory. That knitting machine will be running at all hours if you can get an employee discount on yarn. Good Luck! Hope you enjoyed your trip and met your meal challenges successsfully.

LINDA: I remember you and your gardens. You enjoy them so much and you live where flowers abound. Congrat's on that two pounds. I know that had to make you feel FANTASTIC! It's like old home week around here. I'm so glad we're all back together.

MRSHUMMER: You've joined a great group. We sometimes don't post as often as we should but we are plugging along and doing our best to become healthier, thinner, more active women. Take care of that heart and take your meds. Getting the weight off will help you a lot. Anything we can do to help ... just ask. My question to you: Are you Sherry? or am I confoosed???

CYNTHIA: Singapore???? Wow, you and DH get around. Good for you!! Your exercise program is great. Between that, and your new eating habits, you won't know yourself by the end of the year. You have reason to be PROUD.

Well, like I said before, I'm going to keep on trying. Y'all will hear from me again soon.

j-ann

Good morning - and hello, J-ann!

Yesterday was a disaster, point-wise. I haven't even taken the time yet to calculate lunch. You see, there's this restaurant in Florida that we LOVE. I mean really and truly LOVE. But its in Florida, so that's okay. We go once a year. I eat heartily. All is forgiven.

Yesterday while in Cleveland, TN we discovered that family has opened a sister restaurant here. Oh. My. God. So I had two small chicken fajitas, salsa and chips. Yeesh. And Yum. Plus, yeesh again.

So, let's figure the points:

2 6" flour tortillas: 4 pts
3/4 cup fajita chicken: 3 pts
lettuce: 0 pts
1/3 cup refried beans: 1.5 pts
1/4 cup Spanish rice: 1 pt
1 cup salsa: 0 pts
35 tortilla chips: 9 pts
TOTAL: 14.5 pts

Okay, so it wasn't as gawdawful as I thought. Combine with dinner (1 taco at the Bell, 5 pts) and breakfast (2 Slim Fast bars, 4 pts) and snack (another Slim Fast bar, 2 pts; air popped corn, 1 pt) and I'm at 26.5 pts for the day - or right on track. That was unexpected!!

On the other hand it was heaven. And it's still 3.5 hours from home so it won't become a daily (or even weekly or monthly) treat. (And did I mention YUM yet?!)

Today I plan to eat like I was already skinny - today will be all about moderation and filling, low point, high fiber foods. Yay, me!

Just stopping to say "good morning" and to wish you all a great OP day.

j-ann

GEEZ LOUISE! I came home to find a letter from the Federal Court system. I've got Jury Duty for A MONTH, in April. I'm going to have to ask for an exception for 4 days. I have travel plans and I don't want to defer the whole thing. I just want to get it over with.

j-ann

We made cookies last night! Actually we just decorated them. These are my three - (3 cookies, 1 pt + frosting, just a guess 2 pts) - aren't they cool? I ate all three last night, but didn't worry about the frosting points as I was WAY low yesterday (ending the day at something like 20 pts outta my 26 - 31).

Terri, I hope things settle down at work - insane work weeks (months) can be soooo hard. My mom is the budget gal at the University of Florida's libraries and she has two really, really awful weeks every year while things wrap up.

J-Ann, Jury duty for a month sounds dreadful! I've always wanted to serve - but putting my life on hold for a month would be, well, rough.

Today I'll finish a sweater I'm working on to wear to an event I'm going to this weekend (a machine knitting seminar). My teen is coming with me - bonding time, doncha know. Food should be great as she's always super supportive. We've already started a box of healthy treats to take along with us.

Those cookies are beautiful.

Yep, DH and I are back. Man, were we tired the first day back. We went almost three days without seeing a bed or shower, due to the flights and the layovers. Hawaii was gorgeous though we didn't get much time there. We did get to hike, though, and that was way cool - part of it was a bamboo forest. Singapore was interesting, rather urban and modern and all. The food courts were fantastic, especially if you like Thai and Asian foods. A whole meal for $2 to $3 U.S. We even hit Raffles hotel and had a Singapore Sling. But glad to be back and in my groove.

I lost 4.4 lbs this week, so you can tell we walked a LOT! I was also very careful about portions, kind of guestimated on the points for some things. DH and I started Aikido Tuesday night, so that will be interesting. See just how clumsy we an be I guess.

I did read the past messages, you guys got pretty talkative while I was gone - that's great!! Glad to see some "oldies" back, .

Well, still catching up on things around here and I have to get on my bike. Take care all and "talk" with you again soon.

We're headed off to Columbia - just the teen and I - in a few hours. This weekend I'm attending a knitting conference, while the teen plans to use the pool and work out room and watch the telly and so forth. We've already gotten quite a few healthy (or healthier) snacks for the trip put together in a box. The plan is to remind each other how important it is to keep our bodies their best (sure, she's already there - but she's soooo supportive!).

I posted a picture of the sweater I finished here: http://www.jenanne.com/blogger.htm It's hard to take a picture of yourself! LOL!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Pretty sweaters there woman. Thanks for the pics.

And speaking of pics, I've changed my avatar. A little wishing here since the weather's so nice this weekend. Time to get ready for GOLF!!!