I'm off on Monday. I should investigate some soup and casserole recipes and do a little cooking.

Ugh, started writing term papers today (due in 6 days, eek). Prompty ingested two cookies and a slab of chocolate. I don't want to face the scale tomorrow. Stress! Stress!

Julie and Susan, I too have trouble with cold salads in colder weather. But my cure for that is soup. I make a huge crockpot of soup at least once a week. I've also been making a crockpot of steel cut oatmeal 1-2x a week, because it warms up so well.

I mixed up all of my cookie dough on Friday night, both sugar cookies and lemon/white chocolate chip for the cookie exchange. Yesterday morning I baked like a fiend! Probably 20+ dozen total. I baked, counted, packed up and froze all of them. I did have to "test" a few. But I didn't go crazy like I would have in years past. DD22 made chocolate covered pretzel rods will all kinds of yummy toppings. For some reason, I was able to stay away from those and the toppings.

losermom-How long do you cook the steel cut oats in the crockpot? I should try that. I love the crockpot, especially in winter! I am doing some garlic potatoes in there for supper as I write this. I have this great crockpot recipe book. I'm going to check out some of the soup recipes since I haven't done any of those.

SusanB-I like variety too. I don't eat salads a lot, but I have made up a list of good solid lunch meals that are about 300-400 cals so I can go to those when I plan meals. I'm all about leftovers and sandwiches and/or soups, though. If that's not your thing, I may not be much help.

Had a great drop on the scale and feel terrific about that. I've hit my goal for the month, but I set a very modest one because of all the pitfalls this month holds. Maybe I can do better than I thought. We shall see.

today was not so good. I worked all day, therefor had to eat out for lunch. I had some soup and 6 potato dumplings (boiled, not fried). for dinner i met up with some friends (one is leaving Turkey tomorrow) and had some wine and veggies, which were cooked in way too much oil. not the end of the world. tomorrow i have to go to the Turkish DMV fr my visa, so i will be very busy and not have a spare moment to eat more than the cafeteria lentil soup.

I finally got my rear end back out running today. It was pretty chilly and my ears were killing me - I need to find some earmuffs or something - the fact that I've been fighting a cold for two weeks probably didn't help. I plan to do a short workout video tonight too. Food wasn't the greatest, but I desperately need to get to the grocery store to buy some decent stuff to eat!

Ms.P - what is the name of your crockpot cookbook? I like cooking in the crockpot too - just made beef stew this week in there - but I have limited good recipes!

ShrinkingAmy-It's Fix It and Forget It Lightly. It's the "diet" book in the fix and forget it crockpot cookbook series. In other words, it's the only one that gives nutrition facts for every recipe and has lower fat/cal recipes.

Good morning

My plan today is to make two kinds of either soup or stew and pack it in containers for work lunches.

Nothing new, nothing exciting.

Good morning all. This morning has been a little rough. Just found out my grandma, who is VERY dear to me, is in the hospital with pneumonia and she had a mild heart attack. I had ZERO motivation to do my usual workout after finding that out, but I did it anyway. I guess that's something good.

losermom, I'm interested in how you cook your oatmeal in the crockpot, too. I've heard of it before but never tried it. I've been thinking of eating oatmeal for breakfast, but I like mine fairly overcooked so I don't have time to cook it in the morning... maybe the crockpot would be just the thing.

SusanB, what kind of soups did you decide on?

Ms Perception, so sorry to hear about your grandma, I'm sending positive thoughts your way. That's great that you worked out anyway!

After the recent conversation, I have been eating a lot less meat, and it has led me to choose some healthier things! For instance, skipping out on boneless chicken wings on Friday when the guys were eating them and making my own vegan meal instead (quinoa, sweet potato, and cranberries), and choosing a veggie calzone instead of something even worse yesterday. I'm working on finding recipes in which I can slowly use up the overwhelming amount of meat in our freezer... and skipping over the meat section in the grocery store sale ads entirely.

Speaking of crockpots... I'm making a batch of "baked" beans today in mine! It's not necessarily a low-cal recipe (there's plenty of maple syrup in it, yum) but I used lean ham instead of bacon, so it's really low fat. (And, hey, there are 6 oz less of meat in the freezer!) It's based on a Joy of Cooking recipe.

Hey Susan......I'm making soup today too. It's called "Zuppa Toscana", a knockoff of the Olive Garden version, but lower in fat. First time trying this recipe, so we'll see how it goes.

Ms. Perception.....wow, so sorry about your grandma. Hang in there, and I'm hoping all goes well!

Mayness...great job on being creative with the recipes! The beans sound yummy!

Amy...kudos for running in the cold! It takes commitment, for sure!

I just got back from a 4 mile walk in the cold myself! But I'm glad I found the will to do it! I'm on track with my eating, and I'm really hopeful I will see a loss at tomorrow's weekly weigh in. I'll let you guys know!

Um ... I'm kinda making it up as I go ... I think if you go to my fitday, you'll still be able to see my figuring for tomorrow.

Ms - sorry to hear about your grandma; I'll be hoping she gets better soon.

Sounds like everyone did really well this weekend! I didn't, but I learned from it. I earned every bit of the 3 pounds that I was up this morning - I am letting stress "get" me, and find myself making the classic mistakes that got me 25# heavier. Recognition leads to action.

Hi guys -- with 25 (?) pounds left to lose I think I fall into the Featherweight category. Well, maybe... I see most of you only have 10-15 pounds left to lose but I think I'll feel more at home here than in the "100 lb. club" or other group threads, so, hope you don't mind me being here.

Crockpot recipes are sooo good... the "light" crockpot cookbook sounds wonderful -- my roommate has so many crockpot recipes but I'm loath to making any of them unless I know how many calories, etc. they have.

kellost-I'm curious, how are you lightening the "Zuppa Toscana"? It's my absolute fave at Olive Garden and I've seen the recipe, but the heavy cream threw me, so I didn't attempt it.