I'm Back!

I'm discovering there is a direct correlation between how often I cook and blog, and my weight loss success. You may have noticed that I've been very lax in blogging, and that's mostly because I haven't been cooking. And what's happened? I've gained some pounds again. Apparently I didn't listen to myself last time I wrote when I said I was going to get back on the wagon again. So, I'm giving it another try. One thing I've learned is that it's never too late to start, or restart, if that's the case.

As for cooking, last week I made something that turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It was Cheddar Chicken with Warm Black Bean Salsa from In a Flash. It's billed as enchiladas without the tortillas, but it's really more like chicken with cheese, beans, and tomatoes. But it was really tasty! Only 5 points per serving, and quick. It's a 15-minute dinner recipe. I would highly recommend this one. However, don't forget to watch the points in the accompaniments. My preference would be to serve rice or tortillas, (or better yet, rice and tortillas), but that adds unnecessary points. They suggest spinach and grapefruit salad and diced mango with raspberries for dessert. Much healthier and points-friendly, but I'd rather have tortillas any day!

Tonight I'm going to make lentils and rice. And I'll try to be more prompt with my blogging!

Yikes!

True confession: I took my eye off the ball for a few days...well more like a couple of weeks...and now I've gained a couple of pounds...well more like 5! So, I'm back on the wagon again and working diligently to get back on track. (Did anyone notice I used three different...what are they called - metaphors? No, that's not right. Maybe cliches. I used three different cliches in those two sentences. Eye off the ball, back on the wagon, and back on track. Very poor writing.

Anyway, my lackadaisical-ness has resulted in the need for me to get back on the cooking wagon (there it is again!). So last night I made the weirdest meal I've made yet. This one was Polenta with Sauteed Mushrooms from In a Flash. I really like this cookbook because the recipes are quick and easy, but this one was quick, easy, and weird. The polenta was mixed with smoked mozzarella cheese, and topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions. But that wasn't the weird part. The weird part was that it was served with minestrone soup. I didn't have any, so I used the Progresso's Weight Watchers 0 point soup...but it was Mexican vegetable, or something like that. The polenta and soup didn't even begin to go together. It was a lot like mixing plaid with polka-dots or green with purple! I told Manny that the next time I was going to make the polenta without smoked cheese and onions, and not going to serve soup with it at all. And all this for 7 points per serving! That's a lot of points, although a little polenta is very filling.

Anyway, I've planned a few meals for this week, so I'll be posting again soon. Until then...

Chicken! Olè!

I wish I had good news to report weight-wise, but I'm still hanging at 10 lbs...sometimes a little less. Last week I got almost to 11, but then the weekend came along. Oh well - at least I'm not gaining!

I finally had the chance to cook again last night, so I made Spanish Chicken from the Day By Day cookbook, and I'm happy to report that I had no mishaps! Maybe I'm getting the hang of this cooking thing. I know some people who thought I would never be able to say that. One thing I learned is to do the prep work first, even though it takes a little longer that way. At least, with the chopping, dicing, cutting, pouring, measuring out of the way, the actual cooking seems a little less stressful.

But, I digress. The Spanish Chicken was good. It is a saucy dish...as in soupy, not sassy! (It didn't wink at me or show me it's thigh). The tip in the cookbook says to serve it in a bowl so the juice could be sopped up with some bread, and that's exactly what Manny did (I try to stay away from bread). The recipe was green and red bell peppers, chicken, prosciutto, onion, garlic and stewed tomatoes, and only 4 points per serving. The whole dish took 45 minutes, including the chopping, dicing, cutting, pouring, and measuring.

I'm still plugging away at the WII Active video. I'm on my 4th 30-day challenge now. I can honestly say that I'm noticing a difference in my physical strength, and overall I feel more physically fit, except for my knees, which protest mightily when I have to do lunges. The first set of lunges are fine, but when I have to do the second set, they scream bloody murder! And then they settle in and we get through the set...only to have the whole thing repeat with the 3rd set. I'm fairly sure that's not a good sign, but I don't know what to do about it. I'm sure the doctor will say to stop doing lunges. Nothing would make me happier...but then it throws my exercise routine out of whack. The things we go through to stay healthy!

I don't think I cook again until Thursday, so until then, happy leftover-eating!

Fettucini Fiasco

Good news - I'm finally back to 10 lbs! I had gained a couple, and have been hovering between 8 and 9 lbs. for two weeks. Finally the weight gods noticed they had been neglecting me and took those lbs. back again. Hopefully I can take off another lb. by the end of the week. There are no sabotages planned, so there is hope.

Last night I cooked Fettuccine Alfredo from Day By Day. I should never have tried. It was a crummy afternoon anyway, for reasons I won't bore you with now. If ever there was cause to go out to dinner, yesterday provided one. But no...I had to inflict more punishment on myself and cook!

I tried to be very organized. I got out the required pots and gathered the required ingredients. When it came to the cheese, though, the recipe called for finely grated Parmesan. We had a nice block in the refrigerator, and I got out my little grater and started grating away. In no time at all I realized it was going to take far, far too long to grate enough cheese by hand. So out came the handy-dandy food processor, which I might point out I haven't used in a very, very long time. So I put the whole thing together, put the cheese in the chute and turned it on. In no time at all I remembered I needed to close off the chute that shoots the grated stuff into a bowl instead of the food processing container, and I had cheese everywhere. So, after a little clean up, and a search for the thing that keeps these kinds of disasters from happening, I got grated cheese.

Then I put the pasta water on and started the pasta, only to realize that I grossly misjudged the time it would take to make the alfredo sauce and that the pasta was going to be done way before the sauce would be!

After much cussing, and fighting the urge to throw in the towel and go out after all, dinner was ready. It was pretty tasty, but I had forgotten how heavy fettuccine alfredo is. The recommended serving size was 1 cup, but I was fairly starving, so I gave myself 1 1/2 cups, and it was too much. Anyway, at only 7 points per serving, it was a rich and filling meal, without the fat that one usually finds in an alfredo sauce (this one was made with only a little butter, and some fat free cream cheese).

The good news - I don't have to cook again until Thursday, when we'll be having turkey piccata.

Til then, I hope you have better success than I did yesterday!

True Confessions

In the spirit of honesty and straightforwardness, I must confess that I gained 2 lbs. Not surprising after that camping trip. I really need to learn how to go on vacation and not eat like there was no tomorrow! My total weight loss is only 8 lbs. now. However, there is no time like the present to get back on the bandwagon and count, count, count.

In that same spirit, I decided to be more diligent about cooking, so last night I made Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes and Pears from In a Flash. Yes, sweet potatoes and pears! Who would have thought those two would go together? And I think, after having tried it, they don't really go together at all. Manny loved it, and I really liked the pork chop and pear combination, but the sweet potatoes were definitely the outsiders. Anyway, it was easy (15 minutes!), hot, nourishing, and 8 points, which is more points than I like to have per serving, but c'est la vie.

I wrote so much yesterday that I don't have anything else to say today, so happy eating, everyone!

Camping adventures!

It's going to take me a very long time to get through my three Weight Watchers cookbooks at the rate I'm cooking. Last week, I think I only cooked two meals! Thursday night I made Jalapeno Chicken from Day to Day. All I had to do was mix up a marinade of jalapeno peppers, chicken broth, cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper, and something else, but I don't remember what it was, and I didn't have to foresight to look before I left the house this morning. Then I blended it all until smooth, put it in a ziplock bag with the chicken, and left for work. Thursday night Manny grilled it on the grill (I'm not adding grilling to my new-found list of cooking skills) and we were good to go. It turned out to be very moist, and not too spicy. I was afraid it would have too much of a bite, since we used three jalapenos, but the kick was just right. I served it with rice and beans (specifically, white rice that I mixed with a can of black beans and some saffron thrown in for good measure). For those of you counting points, each chicken breast was 3 points. Very economical from a points perspective!

We went camping over the weekend. It was a fun trip - we spent all day Saturday at the river kayaking, swimming, reading, talking, dozing - a perfect day. However, at my age, one would think I would have learned about the use of sunscreen. I'm a little crackly today - hopefully I won't peel, but experience tells me that is too much to hope for. At least I had the good sense to use spf 45 on my face!

The only down side was showering. As with many campsites these days, showers are available, and after a long day in the river, they always seem like a good idea. However, by the time I gathered all my showering necessities and clothes together, headed to the shower, realized I forgot something, and returned to the campsite before setting off to the bathrooms once again, reality began to set in. I had plenty of time to think while I was waiting in line for the next available shower because there were only two, and others had the same idea as me - shower early and beat the rush. Please let me share my showering thoughts with you. First of all, doesn't everyone want to shower in the same place as hundreds of strangers? Did I remember my flipflops? Yes, thank goodness! Once it was finally my turn, then it was time for the balancing act. I had to balance on first one foot and then the other while undressing without touching anything in the shower, and I then hung my clothes...all of them (the clean ones and the dirty ones I just took off)...together... on one little hook in the shower and hope that the water didn't get everything wet. As it turns out, not a problem, because the water pressure was so low that I had to bend down to get my head right under the spout and then stand up to let the water run down the rest of my body. Repeat for maximum dampness. With the water pressure a trickle, I had to be sure not to use too much shampoo, because I would be there all day if I needed to wait for enough water to rinse the shampoo, and then conditioner completely out of my hair. Then, the balancing act started all over again, because after drying off, without touching the shower floor with the towel (thankfully the towel hadn't already fallen off the one little hook!), I had to manipulate the clothes on the one little hook so I could get dressed in my clean clothes. Next it was gather everything up and move to the sink where I could balance (again, that word) everything on a skinny little shelf while I brushed my teeth and combed my hair. Of course, everyone I know (because this is a group trip) came into the bathroom while my mouth was full of toothpaste and wanted to talk. Makes NOT showering on Saturday and Sunday morning seem like a much better alternative!

And let me say this - when the bathrooms are a ways away, why is it that we have to use them several times during the night? The first night, I didn't go at all because I didn't want to walk all that way by myself and I didn't have the heart to wake Manny up and ask him to go with me. So, I didn't sleep a good part of the night. Not very smart. So Saturday night, I stopped drinking water early, walked down to the bathroom just before climbing into my tent, walked back to camp, said goodnight and went to sleep. Manny came in at about midnight, and crawled into the sleeping bag, waking me up in the process. Of course, my first thought was about whether or not I had to go. I finally decided not to make the same mistake I had made the night before and so I made Manny get up...

And on that note, tonight it's pork chops. I'll keep you posted.

Somethin' Smells Fishy...

...and it's Salmon Teriyaki with Gingered Spinach from In a Flash. If you like that Asian/teriyaki/ginger flavor, and of course, salmon, this is the dish for you. The salmon is cooked only in a Pam spray - it's the spinach that is flavored with the teriyaki and ginger, and it was, as my Filipino friend says, quite nice. The the salmon is placed on the spinach and brushed with a teriyaki glaze - a very nice presentation and a good flavor combination. All in all, a successful dinner, and only 6 points per serving. I used more spinach than the recipe called for with no worries, because spinach has no points. I served it with mushroom risotto, which didn't go with the Asian theme at all, but I like risotto, so it doesn't matter that it didn't match. In fact, we should use that same philosophy with clothes. Love that plaid shirt? Love those polka dotted pants? No matter - wear them together. Who cares?

Now here's a pet peeve: The risotto box calls a serving 1/4 dry risotto. Now what good is that information? I'm not planning on eating a 1/4 cup dry rice - ever! Am I supposed to know how much that equates to in prepared risotto? Sure, the box says approximately 6 servings total. But I'm not going to divide the bowl of risotto into 6 individual servings, just to make sure I get only one of them. I wonder, if I complain to the company, will they send me a free box of risotto, risotto for life, maybe? That would make it all better, because I love risotto!

And, on that note...