Week One of Summer

Yes, I've been missing in action for a bit. Sorry! I've missed you, my weightloss blogging friends. And to make matters worse, usually when I'm not around here posting and checking in, it's because I'm out being B.A.D.- bad, as in, eating wildly, not drinking water (but calorie laden cocktails at parties instead) and not exercising. June is always a super busy month for me and often "the busy" leads to poor food decisions. Well, with my boot camp, at least I've been exercising. I'm starting to feel stronger, though my muscles are buried under more muffin top again. ;P

We spent our first week of summer with a summer bug- dd11 got it first on her first day of holiday, passed it to dd8 a couple of days later and now I'm stuffed up and exhausted. Also bringing me down, one of my co-workers had a health related incident while driving and ended up killing 3 people. I can stop thinking about this sad turn of events and how someone's life can change so suddenly. :( So sad all around.

Anyway, I'm pledging to make this a summer of fit- as opposed to fat. Going to turn things around from here on out. The girls are feeling better. Boot camp's first week sessions were great in the new yoga studio where our trainer found a place for us this summer. (Plus it's beside Starbucks: low fat Chai after strenuous workout!) My delivery of organic vegetables this week brought lots of summery greens.

Pictured is my bagel from yesterday with Cooking Light pesto made with fresh organic basil and tomatoes. Love summer's offerings. I'm going to try to get back to centering my eating around what I get in the delivery. I've got a number of unread magazines and cookbooks to check out. I'll try to share some of my new finds with you all, too.

Happy July 4th to my American friends, btw! Hope it was festive and yet healthy, too! :)

Weekend Eats

I had a nice weekend. Got a couple of workouts in (boot camp and a run/walk Saturday morning). I've got to get back on program better though. I get out of the zone when I'm (a) tired or (b) stressed or (c) busy and June with all its activities has plenty of all three.

I did manage to try a number of new recipes this weekend in spite of the "busy." Saturday we fired up the grill and I tried another recipe from Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of Grilling borrowed from the library. I made "Souvlakia" (lamb) with a side of Tzatziki. It's served with warm pita, sliced tomato and onion. I was the only one who tucked the souvlakia inside the pita with the tzatziki and toppings. It was tasty! I heart pocket sandwich meals. The family doesn't know what they're missing.

Tonight's BBQ meal was one I've done and blogged about before: Cedar-Planked Salmon with Barbecue Spice Rub. dd8 helped me mix the rub and rub it on the salmon. She didn't enjoy the rubbing part in the end- too unexpectedly "sandy" for her. Another "rub," dh left the salmon unattended too long and came back to the plank on fire, but though a bit singed around the edges, it was still delicious. (and dh took all the applause on it, what with blowing out the cedar plank fire and taking the fish off the BBQ and all. ;)) We had the salmon with rice, broccoli and/or greens and avocado. I had my salad with Renee's Asian dressing, which seemed to compliment the salmon perfectly with it's sesame flavour.

Finally, I finally got around to using up my organic box rhubarb and making the Raspberry-Rhubarb Pie (5 points) from the new Cooking Light (June 2009). It was a pretty quick recipe to make (we made it pretty much while the salmon was cooking), with the cool already made for you- just-unroll-it crust! Anyway, dd8 and I really liked the pie. dd11 decided she wouldn't like it before hand, but did try a little and dh was too full from the salmon so his review is on standby. I really liked the almond taste in the topping (which is a crumbly mixture, avoiding the need for a crust on top- which includes some slivered almonds and almond extract: very nice!)

The one downside to my dessert tonight was the lack of vanilla ice cream. I thought we had some on hand (of the low fat vanilla yogurt variety, of course), but we didn't, so we had it with a bit of cool whip. I think a scoop of vanilla ice cream would have put it over the top of deliciousness.

Guess what Janet's planning on buying on the way home from work tomorrow? ;)

Summer Organics and Balsamic Pork

Yes, I've been missing in action for awhile: missed 2 checkins, even forgot to weigh in this a.m. Oops! I'll just say, June is busy. Summer is coming fast though!

Hope everyone has been doing better than I with staying on track. I've been gaining pounds rather than shedding, but I have been building some muscle keeping up with my exercise: boot camp and running. I ran a hilly 5K race yesterday. I felt good. My back has been cooperating, too. Yeah!

I haven't tried any new recipes lately- well until today! :) We didn't have any extra activities (other than a trip to the library), so I tried a new recipe from the new Clean Eating magazine: Balsamic-Marinated Pork Chops & Grilled Peaches.

The chops were very tasty and easy. Even dh, our non-pork lover, liked it. My peaches weren't ripe enough (I just bought them after work), so I'd really like to try it again with juicy, ripe local peaches when they are in season. Mmmmmm...

Yesterday was my first summer organic box, and I was excited that I got some rubarb. I'm going to try the rubarb raspberry pie from the new Cooking Light, possibly tomorrow. I'll try to post in a timely fashion if I do. :)
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HYC + Summer Salads

HYC check in: I had another good week exercisewise. I even ran walked a 10K which I haven't done for quite a while. (with my sweet friend and brand new and still shiney and enthused running partner Karin. :)) My step group got their fancy new workout shirts that look great and most of them are excited about possibly making an exercise video next week. FUN! Bootcamp has been great- working in muscle work 2x a week.

My eating did not go that well though! I started off the week fine- even reflected in the scale dipping down to a new low, but then I squashed it by going to a party with my old running group- go figure! Why? Chinese food, apps, cocktails, chocolate dipped strawberries served at a mansion like house. Eeeee! :P I'm so weak at times, esp when faced with treats, weakened by cocktails.

So anyway, now I think my weight will be back to where it was last week: no loss. I'd say this week will be better, and it will be except I'm going to a scrapbook convention: lots of sitting around and American Super Sizes. *sigh* Say a little prayer for the muffin top...may it crumble and not Super Size before summer.

My picture above is a salad using my organic greens from this week. Don't you love the colours of summer? :)

Hope you all had a great week! Happy Memorial Day if you celebrated it today- hope it was skinny! (unlike all my holidays)

-- Post From My iPhone

Sunday BBQ

Why does weekend pass so quickly? Why? *quiet sobbing* Okay, I'm over that and moving on...

We had a nice one. My sister, Laurie, husband and our nephew came out for the afternoon. The girls practiced baseball (baseball has started: a sure sign of summer) with Uncle Rich and dad, while I made the marinade for the chicken. Later I went to a local farm for strawberries with Laurie. Love most things "summer"!

The marinade recipes for the chicken and the flank steak came from Williams-Sonoma's "Essentials of Grilling" that I borrowed from the library this week. The chicken was "Citrus-and-Honey Chicken Breasts." The steak was "Ginger-Soy Flank Steak with Grilled Green Onions." Both were very enjoyable. :) The chicken has a definite citrusy flavour. It reminded me of the Cooking Light chicken brochette recipe that we tried a few weeks ago. I loved the flavours of the flank steak marinade also. with the soy sauce and sesame oil and ginger. mmmm...

The dinner was capped off with some homemade ice cream made by Laurie in her ice cream maker: vanilla with dark chocolate and almonds. It was very, very good. Laurie says that she cuts back on the fattening ingredients where possible, but we'll just count it high and move on- adding a side of low-point strawberries. ;)

Hope you all had enjoyable weekends! (Happy Memorial Day tomorrow to my American blogging friends!) Here are the recipes in brief as I couldn't find them on line. I haven't calculated the points yet, but they seem pretty low. :)

Citrus-and-Honey Chicken Breasts

zest and juice from orange, lemon and lime

3 tbsp chives I used some of my newly planted garden herbs from Costco!

1 tbsp fresh mint

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp wildflower honey I used regular honey

Marinate 6 boneless (pounded flat) chicken breasts in a glass dish (after reserving 2 tbsp of the marinade for basting) for at least an hour up to 4 hours. Remove from fridge the last 30 minutes and add sliced lemon, orange and lime to the marinade the last 15 minutes. Discard marinade and grill.

The chicken grills for 4-6 mins per side over med.-high heat; the fruit for 1 min per side. Baste with the reserved marinade.

Ginger-Soy Flank Steak with Grilled Green Onions

1/2 c soy sauce

2 tbsp veg oil (I used canola)

1 tsp Asian sesame oil

2 tbsp packed golden brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp grated fresh ginger (My organic ginger has kept well wrapped at room temp.)

1 flank steak (625-750 g)

12 green onions (I used my organic spring garlic)

1 tsp veg oil (I didn't use. Just grilled my garlic as is. Missed this oil part. :P)

Mix marinade. Marinate steak for 20-30 mins at room temp and discard marinade. Grill 4-5 mins per side. Grill onions 3-4 mins. Serve steak on a bed of grilled onion. (Mine are just pictured in part. There was more steak not shown and it was more well done than it looks here. Dh likes well done meat: have to supervise him or he'll burn it all. lol.)

adding fish to the diet

Happy Hump Day once again. Another busy day of rushing- though it was one of my two weekly days without exercise. (Hard to tell, what with the rushing. :P)

Anyway, one of my goals is to add more fish to our diet, and not just the battered stuff that we like best, of course. Anyway, driving back from my after school appt, I stopped in to Costco and bought some tilapia. I used a recipe in the new Cooking Light (May 2009) to prepare it: Snapper with Basil-Mint Sauce." (5 points) I happened to have mint and lime in my fridge and basil on my cupboard (see post from yesterday. ;)) so I was good to go without another trip to the store. Anyway, dd8 ate at a friend's house (ironically, they were having fish, too, so yeah! lol), but the three of us remaining liked the recipe.

I really, really loved the sauce. It has a delicious minty-pesto flavour. As mentioned, I used tilapia instead of the red snapper, after googling it as a possible replacement. The tilapia is very mild. Even dd11 enjoyed it, saying it was like salmon (her idea of the ideal fish). LOL Overall, I'd definitely do this recipe again.

My side salad has some light Renee's Caesar, my dd's favourite. Our organic shipment this week was very good, so I'll have lots of good greens this week. Not pictured, we also had our usual raw carrots. Oh, well, small steps of dietary change.

HYC garden fresh promises

Another week, improved muscle tone and better fitting clothes, but probably no weight lost. Why? Didn't track again this week (though I pay for the right to), didn't drink enough water and ate too large portion sizes in the snacking dept (due to the non-tracking issue). So, in summary, not a horrible week, I'm starting to feel a lot fitter, but I need to make further changes to get the scale moving in the right direction again.

My back is feeling a lot better: Yeah! Only modified 1 thing in boot camp tonight. (the full sit up: I'm afraid of ripping apart my back on the first jolt up) :P

No recipe to share tonight- had a very delicious egg sandwich for dinner tonight with lots of garden fresh toppings and light mayo. Mmmmm... Anyway, I thought I'd share a tip from my organic delivery people, instead, that made a world of difference to the quality of my fresh basil.

The basil we get in the delivery comes with the roots attached. I was finding that the basil would still turn black pretty quickly if I didn't use it right away. Well, one week, the veggie experts told us not to put the basil in the fridge- it's too cold, but rather, put it on the kitchen counter in some water. I took their advice and my basil lasts perfectly, right till I need to use it, even a couple weeks later! Sidenote: It also makes the kitchen smell garden fresh. :)


-- Post From My iPhone