Pizza Night!

Let me just start by saying that I'm disappointed that my cooking has dropped to only one night a week lately. Well, disappointed is probably overexaggerating - I'm not disappointed to not be cooking - it's not really THAT much of a treat for me. But I was hoping to blog more often. Maybe I'll write about something other than cooking on my off days.

And, I was supposed to be showing weight loss progress, too, but since I'm hovering around the 10 lb. mark, there isn't much to write about. It really does seem to be a direct correlation to how often I'm cooking.

Anyway, last Thursday night I made Artichoke-Pepper Pizza With Feta Cheese from Day By Day. I've been eyeing this recipe for a long time because I love a good pizza. But I have to say that I was disappointed in this one. The flavor was really strong. The crust was Boboli, and you spread the crust with a mixture of artichoke hearts, low-fat mayonnaise (I used fat free) and some salt, pepper and garlic that was pureed in the food processor to make a nice spread. Then you top that with the red and orange peppers and sprinkle on the feta cheese. It was just too much flavor. Maybe it's because I used flavored feta cheese. Who knows? Manny liked it, but I think he was being generous.

Where they get you is on the points-counting. It was 6 points per serving and each serving was one slice. Let's do a story problem. Two people are sharing one pizza that has been divided into six equally-sized pieces. If each person eats three slices, how many points did they consume? In case any of you went to Nevada public schools, as I did, you might need some help. The answer is 18 points! Now, of course, one doesn't need to eat three slices of pizza, but one slice? It's just not enough. I guess I could have made a salad to go with it, but I have a thing about pizza - if I'm having pizza, I want pizza. Not salad with a side of pizza.

So, I'm on a roll with recipes I don't like. Tonight I'm making something with chicken. Maybe it will be more exciting...although it's relatively hard to get excited about chicken! We'll see.

Size DOES Matter!

8 lbs! I'm so relieved to finally have some forward progress, especially since I haven't been able to cook all week. As I said in an earlier blog, this is an eating-out week, and has been difficult at best.

I learned a valuable tip last night. At our weekly try-to-speak-Italian get together at a friend's house one of the group brought pizza. To be specific, it was a Papa Murphy's Gourmet Vegetarian pizza. If you haven't had one, I suggest you try it - they are...I can't even think of a good word to describe them...tasty, delicious, yummy - those don't even come close. The good thing about their gourmet pizzas is that they use white sauce instead of red sauce - and I'm a sucker for white pizza. Having only one slice is as impossible as eating only one Lays potato chip, so I had two. But I made sure each slice was small, so in total I had the equivalent of one slice, but it took longer to eat it and so I had the illusion of eating more. Apparently size matters!

Continuing along that vein, I've been told that one of the keys to successful weight loss is to chew slowly. Frequently I tell my husband that I didn't get enough chewing pleasure, and then I'm scrambling through the cupboards trying to find something to satisfy that chewing need (what am I, a teething baby?), or even worse, having seconds of whatever we had for dinner, when it would have been better not to eat so quickly - to extend the chewing pleasure, if you will.

Anyway, tonight is yet another eating out venture. This one will be easy - I already have my meal choice made - another good tip for whenever you already know what's on the menu.

I'm going back to cooking again on Saturday - I know it's hard to believe, but I'm actually looking forward to it! What IS this world coming to?