148.0 Soup and Veggies Meal Idea

A serving of soup is only half a 12 once can. It typically has loads of sodium in it. I love the convenience of canned soups, though. A trick that allows me to use them for meals is to eat soup over steamed vegetables. Two of my favorite combinations are the broccoli and clam chowder pictured here, and broccoli with lentil soup.

I steam the veggies separately, washing them first. It takes broccoli 45 minutes to steam at my altitude. I have only used broccoli so far, but I think carrots or Brussels sprouts or cauliflower would work just as well.

I lost .8 pounds yesterday. I went on two walks, one in the morning and one in the evening, both a mile. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, blueberries, and organic soy milk
3 eggs scrambled in a pat of butter with sauteed onion and red bell pepper
1/4 cup peanut M&Ms
1/3 can Progresso new England clam chowder over steamed broccoli
1/4 cup peanut M&Ms
10 corn tortilla chips
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

As you can see, my calorie count was quite high yesterday. I attribute the day's weight loss to the two 30-minute exercise periods, spread out in time.

I finished writing and editing my first book yesterday! It is a guide on how to get a job as a high school substitute teacher, and how to do the job so well you enjoy it. I gave it to Scott to proofread. I will post here when it is available for purchase. I surprised myself and came up with a story idea, too, and started writing that and working on a possible cover for it. Exciting times!

147.8 Bug Zapper Black Light!

We had so much fun playing with our newly discovered black light in our garage! We recently played black light miniature golf and loved that, so we had all kinds of ideas for what to do with a black light in our garage! Let's start a roller rink! Let's have mini golf in our garage! Open a disco! Of course we won't really do any of that, but it was fun to play pretend with the ideas!

I think if we were younger we would invite all our friends over to dance in the black light. We would tell everyone ahead of time so they would wear stuff with white showing. White clothing reflects the black light in a way that our eyes see it as glowing in the dark.

This brought back memories of when my older cousin Mike came to stay with us for a summer. I was 10 and he was 19 or so. I thought he was so cool. He aimed a black light he had brought with him at a white-accented tapestry that hung in our living room. Man, that looked cool with the rest of the lights turned off!

We got this Stinger black light in 2005 at Lowe's. Amazon has some you can order online for delivery! It really zaps bugs, too. :) It is not meant for indoor use, but we use it in our garage. I love it when I can use things in more than one way!

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I maintained my weight perfectly yesterday. I went for my mile walk with Oreo and Raffle in the park in the 90 degree weather. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K and organic soy milk
El Monterey beef and bean burrito with salsa
2 burritos of homemade chicken fajitas
One scoop of Breyer's mint chip ice cream that my husband surprised me with when he brought the sour cream and tortillas that I requested

Homemade fajitas:

Shredded cheese
sour cream
Small flour tortillas
beef or chicken washed and cut into strips
butter
minced onions
minced red bell pepper
no-salt spice mix

Sautee the onions in a few pats of butter on low heat for a few hours until the onions are clear and carmelized the amount you like. Stir every 10 minutes or so. Add the bell pepper, stir, and let simmer while you cook the meat. Put a few more pats of butter in another frying pan and add the washed meat that is cut into strips. Fry it on all sides at medium low heat until it is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Spice the meat with the no-salt seasoning.

Spread sour cream on the tortillas (2 per person). Sprinkle shredded cheese over the sour cream. Scoop veggies and meat and put that on top of the cheese. Roll the tortillas up into burritos and enjoy!

147.2 Gringo Tamales

Scott made gringo tamales Monday night. I had them for breakfast yesterday, and for lunch today. They taste so good! I love tamales, but I am never up to all the work that goes into slow cooking the beef or pork and then painstakingly wrapping the individual tamales in corn husks and then steaming them. Nah. I am never going to be Susie Homemaker. Nor Susana Casada.

These gringo tamales will probably make me the laughing stock of every Mexican family who ever hears of this, but I don't care. Part of my lifestyle change is making my own food instead of buying frozen and canned meals, but I still take some short cuts. Scott actually made this. Here is how:

He browned hamburger, drained it, and then added half a chopped onion, half a chopped red bell pepper, half a can of corn, a handful of sliced black olives, a clove of pressed garlic, and an 8 ounce bottle of taco sauce. He brought that to a boil and let it simmer a few minutes until the veggies were all cooked, and then poured it into this oblong glass baking pan.

He sprinkled some grated cheese over that, and then spooned over the cheese some corn  bread batter. The corn bread batter is just an egg, half a cup of milk, half a cup of corn meal, half a cup of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and pinch each of sugar and salt.

He baked all that at 400 for 30 minutes, and then it tasted just like tamales without all the fuss!

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I walked my dog a mile in the park yesterday, and I lost .4 pounds. Here is everything I ate:

1 cup of Gringo Tamales
Leftover baked chicken, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower
Half a 12 ounce bag of Pearson's Mint Patties
Beef and bean burrito with salsa

144.4 Apple Pinwheel

I gained a pound yesterday, but I was trying to. I am still under my goal weight of 145 to 149.9.

We walked the dogs two miles in the park. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk

Celeste supreme pizza for one

Three pieces of Costco combo pizza

Two apples with chunky peanut butter and Hershey's bitter sweet chocolate chips


I have more to say, but I will have to add it later as I got a late call to substitute teach today.

Added later:
Peanut butter has 180 calories per 2 tablespoon serving, so go light on it. It is healthy though in the sense that it is loaded with 7 grams of protein for those two tablespoons. This has become my favorite snack! I go through 10 apples every 4 days or so. Fuji apples are the best, in my opinion. My Wal-mart has big Fuji apples and sells them for 85 cents a pound.

144.4 Chili Dip on Keep Trim Eating!

I lost .8 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating. I was just keeping the weight off, and I lost! What surprises me even more is I had my favorite dinner last night, what you see in this picture. We call it Chili Dip. I thought it was an indulgent dish and that I would have to diet today to make up for it.

It turns out that Chili Dip is chock full of fiber and protein! Cattle Drive Chili has 5 g fiber and 20 g protein per 1 cup serving. It has 290 calories, 100 of which are from fat, and 890 mg of sodium. It looks like that is OK, because as I said, I lost .8 pounds yesterday and I had this for dinner. I took it easy the rest of the day.

I also pan roasted the red bell pepper by sauteing it in a pat of butter. Yum, was it good! The cheese is Kirkland Mexican Blend pre-grated, from Costco. The chips are also Kirkland, from Costco -- the tall skinny paper bag Kirkland corn chips. I ate 1/3 cup of cheese and an ounce by weight of corn chips. I used the corn chips to eat the Chili Dip.

Here is everything I ate yesterday and lost .8 pounds, along with briskly walking my dog 45 minutes:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk
1 strip of bacon and three eggs scrambled in bacon with sauteed onion, mushrooms and red bell pepper
Half a can of Cattle Drive Chili, 1/3 cup cheese, 1 oz corn chips, half a red bell pepper, 5g butter
Half a small banana dipped in a tablespoon of Hershey's Special Dark chocolate syrup
A cup of kettle corn by The Popcorn Factory

144.8 Dog Pee Cartoon

I walked without a coat on yesterday! It was only the second time this year that it was warm enough, 65F. It was even sunny! This morning, Spokane has returned us to our usual spring rain.

Oreo was made for cold weather. I think he is the only one in our family who is not glad it is getting warmer. You can see in this picture he is panting, even though it is only 65F. He is also about 10 years old, which may have something to do with it. He is still strong enough that I only have to work out my right arm; he gives my left arm plenty of a work out on our daily walks.

I lost .8 pounds yesterday, with walking 2 miles round trip to the post office. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk
Cup of Amy's Organic Soups - Lentil over steamed broccoli
Homemade patty melt, steamed broccoli

I used about a third of a pound of hamburger for the patty melt. I sauteed the onion in the hamburger grease for about 20 minutes on medium. I didn't have American cheese, so I melted grated Mexican Blend cheese over my patty in the microwave. I didn't use much cheese, only a third of a cup or so. I also didn't have rye bread, so I used what I had: Sara Lee Healthy Multi Grain, toasted.

I have had the idea for this "Dog Pee Cartoon" in my head for years. Yay! I finally got a picture that works for it! For a long time the idea that I had to draw the picture held me up.

146.4 No Cheese Omelette

I made this no cheese omelette for my lunch yesterday.

The trick is to fry bacon in the pan first so that there is an adequate base of fat for the eggs to not stick. I fried bacon and took it out to drain on paper towels. Next, I sauteed onion in the bacon grease on low heat. After about 90 minutes I added sliced mushrooms and sauteed them for 10 minutes.

Lastly, I beat three eggs in a cup with a pinch of garlic salt and then poured them into the sauteed veggies. I tipped the frying pan so that the eggs spread out. I let them cook for a minute, and then turned them over to cook on the over side for a minute. Here they are plated with salsa. They were good!

We went to a dinner party at Valley View Baptist Church last night. We had already eaten dinner because we didn't realize it was a potluck. Still, we had dessert. I went a bit overboard on it and gained .6 pounds. Today will be a diet day. Here is what I ate yesterday:

Small bowl of Special K and organic soy milk
No Cheese Omelette with three eggs, onion, bacon and mushrooms
Baked chicken, cauliflower, carrots and onion
Huge slice of lemon bundt cake and a big scoop of vanilla ice cream

We walked the dogs 30 minutes around the neighborhood yesterday.

152.2 Lobster Ravioli and Homemade Pesto Sauce

We finally broke out this lobster ravioli for dinner last night. I made pesto sauce and steamed veggies to go with it. Yum! It was a great dinner!

Pesto sauce is really easy to make at home. I buy dried Basil leaves in bulk at Costco for really cheap. I get a small bottle of olive oil and a small jar of wet ground garlic at the grocery store. I mix two parts olive oil to one part each of wet ground garlic and dry measure Basil. That's it!

We bought the lobster ravioli pre-made at Costco. We still have another tub in the freezer. Lobster is too rich for me, eaten on its own, but it tasted great inside pasta.

I lost .4 pounds yesterday without even trying. My activity level was high, though. I sang at church. We walked the dogs 1.3 miles.

A guy at church shared that he had been bedridden the last 5 weeks and the doctor just figured out he is diabetic. There was nothing to eat but sweets at coffee hour, so I gave the guy some of my carrot sticks and one of my Diet Cokes. It felt so good to be able to help this guy out. He commented that he had cut carrots out of his diet because he mistakenly thought they converted immediately to sugar, but then he found out it is corn that does that. I told him peas convert immediately to sugar as well, based on Dr Tarnower's book about The Scarsdale Medical Diet.

I ate all this yesterday and still lost .4 pounds on keep trim eating, without really trying:

Small bowl of Special K, blueberries and vanilla soy milk
Raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip
1 frosted soft sugar cookie at church coffee hour
6 lobster ravioli, 1 tablespoon homemade pesto, steamed Kirkland frozen stir fry veggie mix
8 Hershey's Drops

155.6 Keep Trim Day 1 of 6

Here is a picture of the Baked chicken, onion and carrots I eat so often. It is one of the easiest recipes I have ever made:

I buy everything at Costco. I get the chicken boneless and skinless in one pound packages, 6 to a bundle. I like the breasts the best, but the thighs work just as well. I buy the big bag of baby carrots, already skinned.

I pour a bunch of baby carrots into the bottom of a covered casserole, rinse and dump the chicken on top and cover it with sliced onion. I bake it covered for an hour at 400F and voila! The chicken comes out tender and moist. The vegetables and the chicken each flavor the other. [Edited later to add: I like it even better with Brussels sprouts added in with the carrots on the bottom.]

We walked the dogs two miles in the park yesterday, in the falling snow. It didn't stick. I lost .6 pounds yesterday.

I am taking 6 keep trim days around all the Valentine's Day activities on my calendar. I am going to a ladies' luncheon today at a nursing home, through one of my churches. I am wearing two hand me down clothing items from before Mom got down to size 6: the size medium purple velour sweater and the size 10 silver linen slacks.

Here is all I ate yesterday and lost .6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, blueberries and soy milk
Leftover baked chicken, onion and carrots
Hamburger patty, 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce, steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots