Judy - A dance video named Zumba just has to be fun. At least, that's how it sounds. I hope you enjoyed your dinner last night. Sounds like you had a good plan in place.
Karen - I'll look forward to the recipe, whenever you have the time. No rush. How cool that your garden was featured in a local gardening magazine! Perhaps if you ever decide to leave nursing, landscape design can be your next career! Any time you want to fly down here and get our yard in shape, feel free! :-)
John brought home leftover pizza for dinner last night. (He and one of his co-workers treated their department to pizza because they both one service awards that came with a $250.00 check.) I love pizza cold or warm, so of course I waited all day to scarf a couple of slices. I used a few flex points, but it was worth it. I don't want to use any more, though, if I can help it, because I want to have a pretty big arsenal for dinner on Sunday. I went to Trader Joe's yesterday and stocked up on a bunch of fast, easy, and low point things to have for dinner so that I don't tempt the fates. Over the next couple of weeks I plan to scour through my many, unread, cookbooks (I love cookbooks and have quite a few, most of which I've never opened). Last night I started with the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook and found quite a few recipes that would be low point and are meatless. One of my other goals is to do more meatless dinners. I have three more Moosewood cookbooks to go through, so I'm quite excited about what I may find.
Carla - digging through cookbooks is one of my favorite things to do...I only seem to do it in the winter, but I spend hours when I get in the mood. We're eating meatless much more often now than we did a few years ago. Jen is a vegetarian and shares some great recipes with me. She only learned how to cook a year or so ago...I dispaired that she'd ever learn...couldn't boil water when she lived at home. I tried to teach her from the time she could sit on the counter to watch me, but she didn't have the slightest interest...now she's passionate about cooking and baking. Good for you for showing restraint with the pizza!
Had a slight hiccup along the diet track today...someone unleashed a bag of red licorice at a meeting this afternoon, and I had a few pieces. They started up some massive sugar cravings like I haven't felt for a month. Eating SBD style has made a huge difference to my cravings...I'll have to bring along some non-sugary things next time.
I spent all morning convinced that it was Friday...I was so disappointed at noon when I realized I have to work tomorrow! Oh well...one more day, and I'll be done.
Karen - congratulations on your garden being featured in a magazine!!! I look forward to having a little more time in my garden this summer than I did last year, even with school 4 times a week. Yes, we had a great dinner out - a little too much wine but otherwise I did OK. I brought home 1/2 the entree (which I had for lunch yesterday) and really didn't snack afterwards. Of course, we got home late as we dropped something off at Krista's and Anthony showed me all his work from kindergarten.
I had a so-so day yesterday. I did a short yoga workout after work and did OK at dinner but snacked a little too much. I don't know if it's psychological, having read some more of the SBD book, but I got very snacky after having watermelon (a high glycemic index food). Anyway, I'm having as much fruit as I can possibly eat this week and over the weekend. I don't know if I'll go to weigh in tomorrow - I may or I may not. Right now, since today I'm getting my last paycheck until September, I may hold off. I haven't been there in something like 5 weeks - it probably pays for me to just re-join rather than pay missed meetings. I'll see how I feel tomorrow morning.
Have a great one!
Judy
P.S. Karen - are there any recipes in particular that you really liked for Phase I of SBD?
Karen - Evil red licorice. It's scary how fast the cravings, etc. can come back, isn't it? It's funny how the urge for, say, a home cooked meal can get someone interested in cooking, isn't it? (I'm thinking of Jen, here.) I know the feeling of thinking it's Friday and it's only Thursday. It bites. On the other hand, I used to love waking up on a Saturday morning thinking it was Friday and then realizing it wasn't.
Judy - Glad to ehar you had a good dinner out. Sounds like you did great. Sorry to hear you were in a snacky mood yesterday. I have a picture in my head of Anthony showing you all his kindergarten work and it's a cute one. I love this age - they're becoming more independent and learning and growing, but still very childlike.
I guess the snack attacks are endemic as I endured one last night too. It was a late nighter than caused me to use another flex point. I really have to start going to bed at a decent hour. Oh well, I still have thirty left, which now have to get me through dinner on Sunday and lunch at Steak and Shake on Tuesday. Tonight John wants to go to Ravinia, which is the music park, so I have to think of some low point goodies to bring. Or maybe we'll do Subway. Of course, it's cold here and likely to be much colder this evening, especially as close to the lake as we'll be, so I may try to convince him that he really doesn't want to go. We'll see.
Judy - I'm getting quite convinced re high glycemic index stuff causing cravings. It's made a big difference to me to cut out the simple carbs that are high on the index. It would cost you less to rejoin WW...if you're tight for cash for a while, maybe see how you do with SBD and maybe you can do without meetings for a couple of months. As for recipes, the ricotta creme desserts are to die for...put them in the food processor to get them smooth and creamy...the vanilla one tastes like cheesecake. Love the mashed "potatoes", actually all the recipes are very good; the Roasted Eggplant need to be cooked way longer than the recipe said. I liked the cabbage salad and the sauteed cabbage too. Try to do the slicing and dicing for two or three days at once, in the beginning, otherwise it feels liike you're always doing food prep.
Carla - Today I was so into it *actually* being Friday that I packed up and came home at 2 p.m. because I couldn't stand waiting for the end of the day! A couple of times in my life I've gotten up and ready for work only to discover it was a day off...once I actually drove to work on a day off. If you end up going to the music park, I hope it's not too cold for you!
I forgot my lunch at home today, so had to zip out to Wendy's at lunch for a mandarin chicken salad. It was good; I just went easy on the dressing. No challenges as far as eating out this weekend, it's a stay home and do chores weekend; next weekend we're going up to our property for four days. I'm going to peruse my SBD cookbook for some good recipes to try on the w/e.
The dogs are hanging around waiting for their dinner; Lucy has brought me her dish, so I'd better go and feed them. I'll check in over the w/e. Have a good one!
First of all, Carla, I owe you an apology. Somehow, I missed the second page of posts - I was a bit of a rush as there were some things to do before the kids came in for the last (and very short) day. Sorry to hear about the pizza - I know how tempting it is - there always seemed to be some leftover pizza in the faculty room this week. Any place called Steak and Shake sounds like it could be dangerous! Good luck on Sunday - I know you'll do fine. I love perusing (sp??) cookbooks too but like Karen, tend to do it more in the winter for whatever reason. I have a Moosewook cookbook but I don't think I've ever made anything from it.
Karen - yes, the ricotta recipes look great. The tough thing for me will be having dinner on Mondays and Wednesdays. One of my classes is from 6-9 and I'll probably leave for school around 5'ish. No way I can wait to eat until I get home so I'm trying to figure out what kind of things I can eat around 4pm and then take with me to eat in class (which I'm sure everyone will do in some way). The way Tony and I are going to do this is for him to have pasta on Mon & Wed and the other nights we'll eat SBD together. Good idea about the slicing and dicing although I will be home quite a bit since work-school is over. I'm going to try to stay as close to the meal plan in the book as I can although I'm sure there will be some ("legal") substitutions. I read a couple of the recipes to Tony and he was very interested in a couple of them. He was *not* interested in the "mashed potatoes" but I want to try them and plan on making them for myself.
I haven't decided what to do about the meeting tomorrow. I think I'll see how I feel in the morning. The Yankees and Mets are playing tonight and there is a rain delay (at this point) so it could be a late night. I didn't do badly at lunch today although I did have a drink (as did everyone - about 25 of the staff went out). I'm fighting the urge not to splurge - no watermelon for me tonight, that's for sure!
I'll try to stop in over the weekend but in case I don't, have a great one!
Judy
Judy - Mike didn't want to try the "mashed potatoes" either - now he loves them! I recommend a little white pepper with them. After the first few days we did lots of substituting without any adverse effects!
Oh, I forgot to mention - the ricotta dessert is best made the day before so the flavors have time to blend. I made the whole week's supply in one day and just put the ricotta back into its containers.
Karen - Good for you for packing up and leaving early yesterday! I'll have to try that Wendy's salad some day. I've tried one of the McD's salads and it was good. I'm chuckling at Lucy bringing you her dish. Beats being clawed in the head (which is what I get from Luigi in the morning when he wants to eat).
Judy - No apologies necessary. Yeah, Steak and Shake isn't exactly a low point mecca, but I figure if I stick with a small hamburger I'll do fine. They have a variety of sides to choose from, including fruit, so that's good. No shake of course - they're wicked high in points there. Luckily it's on Dottie's sight, so I can plan it all out beforehand and then plan for a low point dinner. How'd your Yanks do last night? The Cubbies beat the White Sox.
We did end up going to the music park last night. I was chilly, but we dressed for it. (And hot coffee helped too!) I ended up picking up some fried chicken from the store, so it wasn't the most point friendly dinner. I have to go figure how many flex points I used. A well, I'll keep it a low point day today and low point tomorrow up to dinner and I'll be fine.
Having a sunny warm weekend, and have been outside pressure washing the driveway and sidewalks today...unfortunately I neglected to apply sunscreen first, so I'm a bit too pink. Dinner tonight is a cajun shrimp dish out of the SBD cookbook...Mike made it a couple of weeks ago and accidently added habenero sauce instead of regular hot sauce...almost blew our heads off, but OMG was it good...anyway, I used tobasco tonight, so all should be well.
Carla - I think an evening at the music park sounds terrific...but now you've got me thinking about fried chicken. Mmmm. I haven't had any for ages. Hope you managed to find something low point to do for dinner this evening.
Karen - Tsk, tsk - always remember the sunscreen. I hope you didn't burn too badly. Oh my gosh - habenero sauce instead of regular hot sauce. I love spicy food, but that will get you. I'd probably have to down a box of Pepcid afterwards. The fried chicken was ok, but not worth spending all those points on. Tonight I made a mediterranean style beef stew from a Cooking Light recipe. I know that summer isn't stew time, but I had some stew meat I wanted to use and it's been on the cool side. At any rate, it's a great stew, chock full of veggies and at 6 points for 1 and 1/3 cup, not bad point wise. I made mashed potatoes and green beans to go with it. For 10 points, not a bad dinner.
Mike didn't want to try the "mashed potatoes" either - now he loves them! I recommend a little white pepper with them. After the first few days we did lots of substituting without any adverse effects!
