Late Quickie Check-In

I was hoping to post earlier...but you know life! Anyway, I'll just post a quick one with the HYC news and one crockpot ( my iPhone wants to call it "crackpot"- hee!) recipe.

First of all, I went to the show and ate very salty movie popcorn on Friday- right before my Saturday am weighin, ergo my loss this week: zero pounds. It's back down now again; so I think it was just water retention. I'm ok with slow weight loss (sticks off better?) but fast is more fun. Kwim?

I didn't workout as much as I should have, but when I did, I felt good. I still need to get to bed earlier (surprise!) and drink more water!

I do feel proud of doing a crockpot recipe from my fancy crackpot recipe book (art of the slow cooker) that I've shared a long time ago. I always feel proud when I do a cp recipe- like I'm super organized or something.'lol. Yes, I know there's someone out there that used one everyday for a year! Small steps for me!

I don't have the chicken cacciatore (the slow cooker recipe's) points yet: I'm having trouble logging on to ww for the recipe builder! Anyone else have trouble with that site? I'll post more dets tomorrow! I am supposed to be getting to bed earlier! Eh?


-- Post From My iPhone

Thankful for Thanksgiving

I had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend! My mom visited from outside Montreal, and we had a birthday celebration for her on the Monday- and one for my sister, Laurie, on the Sunday. (Can you sense the danger: Thanksgiving AND cake!) Just the fact that I didn't eat myself to a state of feeling stuffed (like I always used to do on Thanksgiving), is definitely a cause for extra celebration! woo hoo!

I tried a few recipes over the weekend. For the Thanksgiving dinner at Laurie's, I brought a pumpkin pie from Cooking Light- Classic Pumpkin Pie (4pts) and a side dish from Healthy Cooking magazine, Cheddar Mashed Potatoes (4pts) from their Thanksgiving section. The pumpkin pie was really good, though I had to cook it a little longer than called for (after reading the reviews, I noticed that one person had discussed this.) The pie called for 12 servings which made for a pretty tiny piece, but it was enough, really, if one didn't gulp it down as usual. At least that's what I'm telling myself! ;) The pie was a big hit, especially with dd10.

I also made the Pumpkin Spice Bagels from Healthy Cooking (3pts) yesterday. Mine looked pretty pathetically shrunken (lol), but they were pretty tasty and I was pretty jazzed that I actually made bagels! I'm going to try them again and see if they go better. I don't own a bread machine, btw, but they have instructions for without (and with).

I also made an Angel Food cake for my mom's birthday. I cut it in half and put strawberries and a teeny bit of whipped cream (left over from the pumpkin pie recipe) in the middle. I'd like to experiment for other variations. I looked for a pumpkin version, but didn't find one.

...and finally, in terms of HYC check-in, I had another successful week at my Weight Watcher's weighin: I was down over 3 pounds again (3.4) for a loss over 10 pounds thus far and surpassing my 5 percent. woo hoo! I do need to pump up the exercise-I was better this week though. So far, I got out for a speed walking session with dd 13 on Monday, did boot camp today (Tuesday) and have a gym workout date with my friends tomorrow. Hope I can keep it up! Hope you all had a good week, too! :)


--Post From My iPhone

HYC Check in

I thought I'd start doing the Tuesday check-ins again for the Healthy You Challenge. I'm having a few banner issues (had to take down my old "lost 20 pounds" one, since I found them again- sigh!) Anyway I'm going to leave my weight loss reflections for Tuesday (or Wednesday morning).

Anywhooooo. ;) I had a successful Saturday weighin: down 3 pounds- yeah! Some of that weight was last week's loss- where the scale didn't budge on wi morning, but I knew I'd lost. I'm down further now, but we'll see if it sticks till Saturday. (Don't trust those tricky reappearing pounds!) I should be at a 10 pound weight loss.

I survived our birthday month, avoided lots of party foods while having an occasional high points food in moderation. (Pictured: my salad share with my friend, Karin from the bday trip to TO.) I worked out at boot camp and once (eep!) at the gym. I need to get a few more of those in this week.

Hope everyone had a great week!

Post From My iPhone

Monday, Monday!

Actually, it should be titled "Weekend! weekend!" since this post is about recipes that I tried on the weekend. Today, I had left over chicken tossed in some curly noodles and sauteed veggies. Tasty, but a tad boring to discuss. ;)

Anyway! On the weekend, I tried a couple of Cooking Light recipes from the new magazine (Oct. 2010). The first pictured is Greek-Style Skewers. (5pts) It was a really quick and easy recipe and everyone enjoyed it, except for dh who didn't like the garlic. The garlic does have a good bite in these, as you brush on the marinade AFTER the chicken is cooked. Interesting, I thought! I really loved the flavour. Also, there was a lot of the olive oil based marinade left in the bowl (how much can you brush on to cooked chicken? 3 tbsp is a lot!), so I think the point value might even be closer to 4 in the end, but I counted it as a 5.

Some changes I made: I didn't have fresh oregano (everyone else got their CL copy first, my grocery store was out!), so I used about a tsp of dried and I used grape tomatoes instead of cherry ones (as that's what Costco had). Shocker, I know! Oblong rather than round. It changed the taste completely! ;) I really liked the grilled tomatoes, btw. I haven't had them grilled for awhile. That's what's good about following a recipe, even an easy one like this, just getting out of the regular routine!

I also tried the cover recipe from this month's issue Peanut Butter Banana Bread. (4pts) This recipe dh could get behind, though dd10 didn't like it. It's a dense banana bread with a lovely peanut butter sugary glaze on the top. What's not to love? I always enjoyed the peanut butter and banana sandwich, so here's a chance for a flashback, right? I also have an overload of ripe bananas in the house (and my family only eats green tinged ones), so I might be trying some more banana recipes from this issue!

Post From My iPhone