Hey all, sorry I've not been posting often in this thread.

I finally got around to making that veggie polenta casserole. I used chicken broth and thought it was good but I definitely have to tweak the broth and cornmeal ratio since it was a bit too wet for my taste but I'm not sure if polenta is supposed to be like that, I'd prefer it to be more firmer. I thought the flavor overall was awesome. I did it a bit different from the recipe, using what I had on hand. I used green peppers and mushrooms in place of yellow squash, added more italian herbs, tomato paste instead of tomatoes. I also added some tomato paste in the polenta mix. Thanks for sharing that recipe, Munchy. A new addition to the rotation, for sure.

That corn chowder sounds good, care to share?

Tonight's dinner was homemade chicken and spinach alfredo pizza using a homemade thin crust dough. I halved the recipe, used half whole wheat and half all purpose flour and added Italian herbs.

For the "alfredo sauce"-
Less than 1 tbsp butter
Minced garlic (1-2 cloves)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
Less than 1 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in sauce pan, add garlic and cook until fragrant. Mix milk, water and cornstarch then add to sauce pan with butter. Once thickened, add Parmesan cheese. Mine was a little lumpy with the Parmesan cheese.

Ideally, cauliflower alfredo sauce would be better but I didn't have any cauliflower left.

Anyway, had 2 slices with a huge salad.

Hi everyone.

Happy to report I lost another pound this week, making a total of 20 so far. After the extremely stressful week I've had I'm happy to have any kind of loss at all!

Have to go grocery shopping today as we are basically out of fruit. I plan on getting the ingredients for the vegetable polenta and the Suddenly Salad broccoli dish if I can find the Dreamfields pasta.

I have a challenge coming up on Saturday -- a gathering of my husband's family, at his mom's house, with pizza on the menu. I will do what I can to lower the temptation factor -- have a bowl of soup before we leave home, and I will bring my own food, one of the Jenny Craig Italian dishes and a BIG Italian salad. I'm going to contact the gal responsible for the food and ask if she'd like for me to bring salad for the rest of the gang, too, or if I should just bring it for myself. I would be more comfortable if other people were eating at least some of the same stuff I have ... I would duck out of this gathering if I could but half of them are coming for out of state and since my husband has made a big effort to get along with the decidedly strange members of my family I have to do the same in return.

Wishing everyone a good beginning of their weekend.

I just found this recipe for Crispy Baked Asparagus Fries on Pinterest. It won't let me copy & paste so I'll try posting the url and hope y'all can see it.
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/or...3b0b69d2be.jpg

Amandie I'm glad you liked it - odd that yours wasn't very solid. I used Quaker grits, so maybe that's why mine did. It was a solid layer to cut through. I'm making it again, but definitely tweaking it. Mushrooms are an awesome addition and one of my favorites!

Last night I had a salad and fish tacos (my favorite ten minute meal, haha). I lost 2lbs as of this week, so I'm just 11 away from my goal and 14 away from my ultimate ICANTBELIEVEIMHEREASANADULT goal.

Tonight we're having "walking tacos" as my daughter's choice. It's basically all of the taco toppings (ground turkey, 2% cheese, light sour cream, scallion, jalapeno, tomato, lettuce) scooped into a crushed bag of tortilla chips. I'm having mine in corn tortillas, per usual. We can thank my boyfriend for introducing her to this crazy meal.

Has anyone heard from Larry? I PMd him - I hope all is well...

amandie I almost forgot! The corn chowder came out delicious. I told my mom to make it and I think it will be in my regular lunch rotation because it freezes so well.

Corn Chowder

ladynredd- congrats on your lb down!! Sounds like you have a great plan in place for this weekend.

Munchy- Walking tacos sounds awesome! Well, it was solid but not as solid as I expected? I've never had polenta so I'm not sure what the consistency is supposed to be like. I also thought it was a lot of polenta too like 1 1/2 inches. I'd halve it, bake it a bit then add veggies and bake it again or reduce water. I used a bag of cornmeal so I dunno. I still ate it all, lol.

It should be slice-able, but not hard. The 6 servings were so so filling with all of that.

You can also eat it sort of like porridge like this meal I've had my eye on for years and never made.

Or you can chill it in a pan and cut it into squares to pan sear when you're serving them. I like to do that, then make a quick ragout of sliced turkey sausage, peppers, onions, marinara, spinach, etc and serve it over the browned polenta. The squares are cooked like this:


ETA: I mistakenly thought that recipe was served with it soft! Whatever, it's still a mouth-watering one
This is what I meant.

ladynredd Good to meet you!! Welcome!

I have been incredibly busy lately, taking care of my DW and her vertigo which is finally better, Volunteering with the Shriners, preparing a new garden raised bed and cleaning up my 5 acre yard.

I was extremely fatigued and I suspected that maybe my anemia was back. My doctor had blood work done and yes I am once again anemic but my doctor says so far it is mild. He said my blood test showed my good and bad cholesterol ratio was excellent. He also said my total cholesterol was too low. I have never heard a doctor tell anyone that their cholesterol was too low.

I have been trying to incorporate more beans in my meals. Tonight's was.
Progresso Light Italian Style Meatball , 2 Cup
Bush's - Black Beans Reduced Sodium , 1 can
Great Value - Cut Green Beans (No Salt Added), 1 3/4 Cup
545 calories for a large Volumetrics soup

Larry, good to see you're back.

I wanted to let you know that last night I tried your idea of using a Progresso soup as a base for a "souper meal." I started by chopping up a whole onion, some celery and a medium zucchini, lightly spraying them with a mist of olive oil, and cooking in a nonstick skillet until they softened, then added Progresso Light Chicken & Cheese Enchilada Soup. I added a couple strips of broiled chicken that needed to be used. Ended up with a humongous bowl. My husband was out visiting his brother so I didn't have to concern myself with making dinner for him. First time in a long time when I've had so much food I wondered if I could eat it all. MyFitnessPal told me the whole thing was 398 calories. I think I'm on to something here!

Thanks to you (and the others who have been posting in this thread) for sharing your experience, strength and hope ... I know I'm feeling much more hopeful than I was a few days ago when I realized I wouldn't be able to continue with Jenny Craig ...

ladynredd Your additions sound delicious. I am always amazed by how good food tastes and the large quantity we can eat when we lower the calorie density using Volumetrics. We end up with a very filling and low calorie meal. I encourage you to experiment in other meals as well. Vegetables can be added to casseroles, As a matter of fact you can usually double or triple the vegetables in any recipe and greatly lower the calorie density. Eating out is another area that Volumetrics can be used. I ate at the Golden Corral tonight and I had two huge plates of food. If you looked at my plates you would have thought that I was a vegetarian, I am not, but my food choices with the exception of a baked fish filet was entirely vegetables. They have a large selection to choose from and they are tasty. I stay away from all fried foods and red meat at Golden Corral. That is the secret to enjoying larger filling portions of low calorie dense food. I also had a 1/2 cup of plain rice and topped it with salsa and jalapeno peppers.

Experiment, experiment, experiment and you will never get tired of the same old boring food. Do this and and you will love your diet.

Hi folks! Sorry I haven't been posting here, but my volumetrics approach is usually based on lots of raw veggies or fruit and I don't cook much so I don't have lots of interesting recipes to share.

I celebrated the first day of spring with a big mesclun mix salad and Japanese (bottled) low calorie ginger dressing. I love the salad days of summer!

Other than that, I have been doing well with my WOE. I actually had to add in some more healthy fats because I was losing a little more quickly than I wanted (I've been walking a lot).

I'm pleased to report that the salad was a big hit at the Saturday gathering of my husband's family. We have one of those big glass salad bowls you buy at Walmart -- it was pretty much full to the top and when we went home, there was maybe 2/3 C. of salad greens left, which we split as part of dinner. Several people thanked me for making it and said it was delicious, so I'm very glad I ignored my mother-in-law's lack of enthusiasm for the idea -- she doesn't eat "rabbit food," as she made a point of commenting (again.) Ah, well, she's going to be 89 in a couple months, kind of late for me to change her mind about greens at this point in her life!

I will be totally honest and admit I succumbed to temptation a little bit and had one piece of crazy bread, but it only put me 100 calories over my range and in the grand scheme of things that isn't going to make a difference.

Looking forward to staying home today, finished up the @#$% tax prep, and spending some quality time with my sewing machine.

This past weekend went well. I splurged a bit and had a few wings on a day that was otherwise pretty low. I went to a party and really didn't drink much or take a bite of any food.

My boyfriend hugged me the other day and noted how he could feel and see my weight loss. I can see it too - mainly because I'm not bloated now that I cut out the champagne!

Today's plan:

March 24, 2014
B: Hot tea w/lemon and agave (30), 1 cup spicy tomato soup (118) = 148 (3)
S: None = 0
L: 1 cup corn chowder (171) = 171 (2.5)
S: Baby carrots/cherry tomato (50) w/ light ranch (80), banana (100) = 230 (4)
D: Turkey pumpkin chili (280), jalapeno, cilantro, scallion (5) = 285 (6)
S: 28g TJ puffs (130) = 130 (2)
TOTAL: 964 (17.5)

I'm going to try to eat the banana and the puffs so I don't end up too low, but I won't know if I'm hungry enough for them until later.

I'm having my son and his little family over for dinner tonight (Adorable Baby rolled over for the first time yesterday! Yay! ) and plan to serve:
giant green salad
baked chicken with parmesan coating
rice pilaf
broccoli
carrots

I haven't figured out what to have for dessert, I'll have to root around in my Pinterest files and see what I can find ...

How is everyone else doing? Y'all have been quiet the last couple days.