A better me - week 13 of this diet thing

I'm a little excited. I'm down 2.2 pounds this week for a total of 16.4 pounds lost.

I also have 21 reasons to stay away from clearance Easter candy. I've lost 21 inches since January 5th. That's nearly 2 feet less of me.

I hope everyone is doing well with their diet endeavors.

A better me - week 12 of this diet thing

I haven't done one of these posts in a while.

Week 9 I gained 0.4.

Week 10 I lost 0.4.

Week 11 I skipped because I wanted to stay home and throw stuff at my husband.

Which brings us to week 12. I lost 3 pounds bringing my total to 14.2 pounds lost since January 5th.

I'm a little disenchanted with WW right now. The program is fine, but they took my leader away and put someone else in the position. I'll give the new leader a chance, but so far I'm not liking the meetings much.

A better me - week 8 of this diet thing

Well, I managed to drop an even pound. That makes my total lost 11.2 pounds.

I find it hard when I'm away from home and eating out every stinking meal. I get so tired of it. I'm glad I packed sandwich fixings when I went down on Tuesday. Sandwiches and Fiber One pop tarts surely saved me.

I hope everyone is doing well on their diet. Hang in there.

A better me

Even with missing Weight Watchers last week, rhis week I'm down 1.4 pounds for a total of 10.2. I thought I was never ever going to hit 10 pounds. Now I look forward to the next 5 pounds coming off.

When I have more time I'll post a couple of recipes. For now, I need to pack.

WW update and other blatherings

The kids sent us this picture for Valentine's Day. She's getting chubby.

I hope everyone had a marvelous Valentine's Day. We were pretty laid back around here and didn't do much. Mom came over and had meatloaf and a WW potato recipe with us and watched movies.

In weight news I'm down another 1.4 pounds, putting me at 8.8 pounds lighter than I was on January 1st. Hooray! I really thought I'd gained from the week before. I'm so glad I was wrong. This first 10 pounds is being a booger to get off. When I think about the 30 pounds that needs to follow it, my head hurts. DH says he can tell a difference. Me, not so much.

Otherwise, there's not a lot going on. I'm still looking for a job and it's a little discouraging right now.

I hope everyone is having a happy Monday and looking forward to the remainder of the week.

Weight Watchers update and a recipe

I'm still plugging along. I lost 0.6 pounds bringing me to 7.4 pounds lost. It's coming off slowly, but surely.

Let me start by saying I love Hollandaise sauce. I love it so much I can eat it with a spoon. That's not a good thing at 13 points for 1/4 cup or 48 points for the whole mess. Not to mention what that butter was doing to my arteries. This is one of those things I crave and luckily WW has me covered.

Light Hollandaise Sauce
Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook 2006
Points: 1
Serving: 1/4 cup

1 large egg lightly beaten
1 cup chicken broth, fat-free, low sodium
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice*
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine egg, chicken broth, and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until thickened and starting to boil. Stir constantly. Bring to a boil for 30 seconds. Stir in lemon juice, butter, salt, and cayenne until combined.

* I bumped this up to 3-1/2 tablespoons to kill the chicken broth taste and it was yummy. My arteries and hips thank me. I love this on green beans, crab cakes, and for Eggs Benedict. Yum!

These two recipes were given at our local WW meeting.

Crunchy Reeses Pie
8 servings
3 points

12 ounces fat free vanilla yogurt, frozen
1 cup fat free Cool Whip
1 box sugar free chocolate pudding
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
1/3 cup Grape Nuts cereal

Combine ingredients and put in a sprayed pie plate and stick in freezer. Thaw slightly before serving.
************

Apple Crisp
3 servings
3 points

3 apples sliced
2 teaspoons Splenda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 packet Cinnamon Apple Instant Oatmeal
3 tablespoons water
3/4 cup fat free Cool Whip

Slice apples into a baking dish. Sprinkle with Splenda and cinnamon. Cover and microwave for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with oatmeal and drizzle with water. Cover and microwave 2 minutes. Divide into 3 serving dishes.

I haven't tried these, but the time is coming. I'm ready for something sweet.

I hope everyone is continuing their weight loss endeavor. I know it's tough, but if I can do it so can you. Hang in there.

Cold enough to freeze your buds off

Here we have our Bradford Pear tree. See those cute little buds? They're just frozen little budcicles now. It's been so warm several of my trees and shrubs thought it must be Spring and decided to wake up.

We're under the same weather advisory as every other Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas blogger out there. It's cold and slick. I got out long enough to determine that there were way too many stupid people out and decided to come home. I'm not sure why drivers think really giving it the gas is going to get the car to move any better, especially on black ice.

Weight Watchers was canceled for tonight. Our leader comes from 30 miles away and I can't say that I blame him a bit. I was looking forward to the meeting though. I did really good last week and wanted to see my loss. I think I need that little pat on the head and that-a-girl. Oh well, next week should be really good. I hope.

On that note. I can now pull my size (humongous) jeans up and down without unbuttoning or unzipping. Something must be working.

I hope everyone has a warm and safe week.

Week 3 of diet

I'm cranky and feeling deprived. LOL.

Okay, I'm over it. Not really, but if I keep telling myself that maybe it'll happen soon.

Monday's WW recipe was Tex-Mex Black Bean Dip and has 11 ingredients. I got bored after the first five. It seems redundant and I'm not likely to make it. Ever.

That said, I didn't want to cook tonight, but DH brought home pork chops. Grrr!

*Grilled Asian Pork Chops
Points: 4
Serving size: 1 chop

6 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil**
2 teaspoons lime juice**
6 cloves garlic, minced**
6 (4 oz) boneless center-cut loin pork chops (1/4 to 1/2 inch thick)

Combine all ingredients in a baggie and throw in the chops. Marinate in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Grill 3-4 minutes on each side or until done.

* From the WW Five Ingredients 15 Minutes cookbook
**I used regular sesame oil because I had it. I also subbed lemon for lime juice, and put in two heaping teaspoons of minced garlic.

DH thought this was pretty danged tasty. I liked it and would fix it again. Assuming I can get the smell of sesame oil out of my kitchen. Ick!

*Sweet and Tangy Marinated Slaw
Points: 2
Serving size (1 cup)

1 (16 oz) bag broccoli coleslaw**
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp celery seeds**
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix everything except coleslaw in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over coleslaw and mix thoroughly. Cover and chill 8 hours. Serve with a slotted spoon.

* From the WW Five Ingredients 15 Minutes cookbook
**I used angel hair coleslaw because I had it and omitted the celery seeds because I didn't have them.

We both really liked this. In fact, I like this one enough to make again and keep in the fridge all of the time.

I hope everyone is doing well on their diet.

Weight Watchers friendly recipe swap

Annie asked me what I cooked while on WW. Here are two old favorites and one new one.

*Personal Meat Loaves
3 points each
Makes 12

1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound ground turkey
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup tomato sauce

Mix ingredients together. Divide into 12 equal portions and place in muffin pan. Bake until done*.

*Recipe given at local WW meeting.

**How lame...bake until done. I think I bake mine at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I cook until they look done on the outside and then cut one open and check it. If they're done Hooray and if not they go back in the oven. It's not rocket science.

I've also used the McCormick meatloaf seasoning packet and it didn't change the point value, but added much needed flavor.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*

*Sweet Onion Corn Muffins
3 points each
Makes 9

1 cup chopped onion
1 package Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 large egg
3/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup reduced fat sharp Cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Saute onion in a small nonstick skillet with cooking spray 3 minutes or until tender**.
3. Mix all ingredients together.
4. Spoon batter evenly into 9 muffin cups (spray pan first)
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes***

*Recipe taken from WW 5 Ingredients, 15 Minutes Cookbook, Feb. 2006
**I don't saute my onions first. I chop them small and they cook in the oven.
***Who can wait 5 minutes? Not me!

*_*_*_*_*_*
*Potato Soup
2 points per cup
10 servings

28 ounce bag Ore Ida Hash brown potatoes or Potatoes O'Brian (you want the little squares)
3 cans fat free chicken broth
1 package Pioneer white gravy mix (fat free if you can find it)

Combine hash browns and chicken broth in a pot and heat to boiling. Turn down and simmer until potatoes are cooked. Mix gravy mix with 1/2 cup of water and stir into potato soup.

My notes (because I can't leave anything alone):
1. I added onion and chives because potato soup is just so stinking white it needed a little color and the flavor didn't hurt either.
2. I mashed some of my potatoes and left some whole.
3. I think you could do this without the gravy mix and be fine. I thought it had too much pepper.

* Recipe given at local WW meeting.

My husband loves the meatloaf, muffins, and soup. I usually make the meatloaf and muffins on the same night. This week I made the soup and muffins and it was really good.

Our WW's leader is good about sharing recipes so if anyone is interested, I'll post the new ones we get.