Goal Weight

I typed out a full blog post the other day, but it vanished into cyber space. This is just a test post, sans picture even.

In summary, my previous post: I reached WW goal weight (near the top of my healthy range), reached Lifetime after maintaining over Christmas (go me!) and now am attempting to keep at least a 10 pound padding (wrong word to use?) to keep WW Lifetime going!

I'm going to blog recipes and workouts here again. Cooking Light magazine is no more (boo!), but I'm doing a food delivery box: Good Food, which I can also review. YEAH! love it!

Hope to make this writing a regular thing as a motivation to a Healthier ME! Happy blustery Sunday, everyone!

Kodiak Power Waffles

First week of summer vacation is almost over and I haven't posted in weeks! My goal is to post at least once a week this summer, especially if I test a new recipe. Tonight, after being inspired by Weight Watcher peeps using Kodiak waffle mixes, we drove to Buffalo, bought some and I made Lemon Strawberry Kodiak Power Cake Waffles from TwoPointsforHonesty's blog tonight.

They were soooo tasty! I'm excited to try other recipes using the mix. My daughter served up the non-fat cool whip a little heavy on our plates. It should be a tablespoon. I promise I didn't eat it all. Pictured is my husband's plate- my first attempt at the waffles. He DID eat all the Cool Whip, but he's not on WW.

Next time I'd use more of the lemon. I was rushing as we were eating late, so I just used the half lemon that I had in the fridge. The waffles just had a hint of lemon. I'd like a bit more and the recipe called for more. They smelled so good, too. TwoPoints blog has these as 3 point waffles. I didn't have non fat syrup, and used a tsp of maple syrup which is always in our fridge, eh? So that added a point. I added another for the extra Cool Whip that I did eat.

In weight loss news, I lost my 10 percent on my Weight Watcher's adventure that started in late April. I WAS down a couple pounds this morning, but with a Cheesecake Factory meal for lunch (though I did choose carefully), and this late night waffle eating,  we'll see if my weight bounces up a bit tomorrow morning at my official weigh in.

I also joined Boot Camp this week and survived my first session on Wednesday. I felt sore today, walking around searching for waffle mix, but am excited to see how I can improve my fitness and hopefully tone up!

Anyway, I look forward to more blog reading and blog sharing, as it will (usually) mean that I've tried something new. I need to keep my interest levels up for successful muffin crumbling..

Have a great weekend!

One week in with a side of Grilling!

Rosemary-Lemon Chicken Breasts.

One week in and I've been enjoying the new Weight Watcher's plan. I was down 4 pounds at weigh-in. Tonight's lamb burger (from our local butcher's) was a little high point-wise, but delicious. I HAD PLANNED on eating only half of it, but once I started, I couldn't stop. lol. The bun was a good WW find though at 3 points. I found the buns at Metro-they're called "Flatout Foldit 5 Grain and Flax." -really tasty and kind of cool in its wrap-arounded-ness.

The fries were fresh cut Yukon gold in my T-Fal ActiFry. They only take a bit of oil.

Also, pictured here, a BBQ chicken recipe that is a change from how I USUALLY do Rosemary-Lemon chicken- slightly more olive oil. I made a Cooking Light buttermilk dressing with the Kale slaw. I sacrificed points for the warmed Naan on the side. Delicious!

Here's hoping the warm weather continues. I missed walking today as my usual Tuesday workout partner had to babysit. Wishing everyone good weather and good food!

Back to Healthy Eating!

Just finished my first week back on Weight Watchers and first week back (in a long time) in being committed to healthy, but interesting meals. So... am recommitting to this blog. I have a stack of new cookbooks to test and a new WW program to get used to. Hope to find fellow bloggers for inspiration.

That is all for now! Have a nice rainy weekend!

Fresh Starts

It's been awhile! I'm back to a focus on healthy eating- back to a desire to lose weight and so I thought I'd come back to The Crumbling Muffin Top to encourage myself to try some new recipes. Go me!

One of my new recipe books (a Homesense find) that I'm going to try a recipe from tonight is this one:

I love books with clear tabs- so easy for flipping through, and I love summer grilling, but I get stuck doing the same thing, so this should be good!

I am going to try to add more fish in our weekly diet, so the one I'm trying tonight is "Cedar-Planked Salmon with Quinoa Salad." I'll let you know how it goes. We do cedar-plank salmon pretty regularly in the summer, and I've posted a Cooking Light cedar-plank recipe here, but we haven't done Quinoa Salad as a family and my husband was recently complaining about the spice in the CL one. (He's picky, and I have to sometimes not listen to him or we'd never try anything, but maybe he'll like this one!) I was also drawn to this recipe (besides the cedar planks) because you soak the cedar plank in water and Sambuca! Interesting! We have a full bottle of Sambuca that we got as a gift ages ago.Score!

I'm also back to Weight Watchers. We just did an "At Work" program this year at my school, and while meetings are off for the summer, I'm going to keep going online.

The recipe works out to 10 Smart Points according to the nutritional guide, though that doesn't include the sugar stats, which aren't given in this book! I'm thinking that the grilled vegetables have sugar, but I'll leave it at 10 for now. (Not sure if there's still a recipe builder in the online program. I'll have to check it out.)

I notice that most of the blogs that I used to follow are inactive, so I hope to find some new ones to follow.

I have to start regular exercise again. My fitness has been sporadic!

okay, off to make some quinoa...

Is this thing still on?

It's been awhile, I know! Starting back posting soon. Just checking to see if everything is in working order. :)

Fall into Fitness

This is the way to stay on program for me: a week of tracking, of getting workouts in (mainly power walking) and trying new recipes. Why do I let myself slide so far off track when being on program feels so much better. *sigh* I'm basically starting all over again. No use crying over spilled milk, as they say. Anyway, I was down 5.4 pounds at weigh-in this morning. See tracking does work, Janet!

Anyway, let me share some of the recipes that I tried. I love the page of smoothie ideas in the September

issue of Cooking Light (Peanut Butter Berry) and it was refreshing though a bit tart. (My smoothie drinking child added sweetener.) I used skim milk instead of their suggested 1%, since that is what we have in the fridge, I had raspberries which I picked up at Costco and had forgotten to serve (so yeah!), and using one of my many over ripe bananas (my family basically eats green ones), I was good to go on this one without an extra trip to the store.

I've actually never (in recent memory anyway) used pb in a smoothie, even though it's a staple in our house. Not sure why! Easy protein- which I probably don't always get enough of.

The other smoothie I made from the double page spread was the Creamy Mango, Avocado and Lime one. I did it in the middle of the morning rush before work, even. Didn't enjoy dealing with the mess involved while rushing to be on time, but the smoothie itself was very refreshing and kept me feeling satisfied until lunch. My mango was a little unripe- I'll have to do it again with a ripe one, I had an avocado already on hand (love those things) and our garden has been taken over by mint- so that made me really want to try this one. It was unlike any smoothie I've ever made, and very refreshing. It made me think of something that might be served at a fancy spa before your facial and mud bath. har.

I also tried Crisp Lamb Lettuce Wraps from the August 2012 issue this week. I have to admit I didn't tell my family it was lamb. It was really tasty- loved the hint of cinnamon and with the lack of a bun, the two Boston leafy cups of lamb and veg was only four points. No one in my family would try the hummus/yogurt/pinenut sauce (why I served it on the side- since I know these people), but that was really good, too. I didn't go out and buy the suggested red pepper hummus, as my fridge is filled with other flavours of hummus and I'm trying to work on wasting less food (as well as losing weight), so I used the pinenut hummus we had in the fridge. 

Another CL dish I tested on my family this week, which I didn't have to pretend was something else, was the recipe makeover recipe in the September issue:  Chicken Nuggets with Crispy Potato Chips and Honey Mustard. My kids really liked them, especially my 13 year old and both my children took leftovers ones (I had way more nuggets than the suggested serving size) for lunch the next day. The cool thing about this recipe is that you marinate the chicken in pickle juice and buttermilk before dipping it in panko. It gives the chicken a nice pickle flavour. I did try the chip recipe, but couldn't find the required purple sweet potato, used a regular sweet potato (I like the chips, but my kids didn't really.), as well as fries from our low-fat chip maker (which I knew everyone would like). The whole meal deal was definitely one I'd make again. Plus, I bought that really large bag of panko from Costco, so...you know, the whole not wasting food thing... 

Summer Samplings

Hey any readers I have left! Trying to start off the summer eating healthily with actual tracking going on.

This weekend I made some CL pesto from fresh basil, crepes also from the Cooking Light binder (filled with eggs ala Cora's and Greek yogurt and fruit.) and cedar plank salmon with a tossed salad with CL vinaigrette.

Quick Test using a new app

She went to the cupboard and...

...the muffin dome was cracked and empty! Cracked because her children now did the dishes (erg but also, yeah!) and empty, cause she's not been baking because of other stuff going on. No reviews to do tonight.

I did have a pretty good week last week- losing 2.7 pounds at weigh-in and about halfway thru Christmas pounds. I only had a couple of workouts though and still need to get back to regular workouts. My goal for the week is to fit 3 workouts in before Saturday's weigh-in and to drink more water. Will let you know how that goes!

Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

Ok. just typed a long post and lost it! argh!

I'll skip the parts about the gym and a culinary disaster (for another day!) and just share my 6 point salted caramel hot chocolate with you. It was delicious and well worth the points, but you could easily cut back on some of the points if you had to. It is a decadent chocolatey treat however!

My hot chocolate mix (pictured above) worked out to 3 pts plus. Next I added salted caramel syrup (which I found at Winner's, but you can find them at any coffee supply store) for 1 pt. It's 3 points if you use 2 tbsps, but 1 tbsp is 1 and it's still a lot (you could cut back there). I used my milk frother and 1/2 c of skim b/t my dd13's mug and mine (so 1 point), and then a drizzle of caramel sauce for 1 point (the amount again was small in terms of allowed serving size). Finally, for the salt, I used my big chunky kosher salt.

and about the salt, and things that make you go "hmmmm" -at Starbucks they are always running out of this part of the drink. Why? I ask you? seems like the last thing they'd run out of?

and on a final sidenote, my fun mug was a Christmas gift from a friend. Anyone else love True Blood? :) Have a great week everybody!

-- Post From My iPhone

New Cookbooks for a New Year

Happy New Year ten days in! (better late than never?) Anyway, here's to your better health and fitness in 2012! Following that idea, I FINALLY made a New Year's resolution/pledge to my personal better health in 2012 (and my family's) by pledging to planning menus and trying new, healthy recipes. I aim to plan a number of recipes on Sunday of each week, attempt to better use what I have on hand (less waste in 2012!) and make a shopping list so that I don't have to make trips to the grocery store each day after work.

I did get a number of new cookbooks over the holidays that I plan to work from- besides my favourite magazine, Cooking Light and issues of Weight Watchers magazine. I have a couple other new cookbooks not pictured (am I a cookbook junkie or what, eh?), a new Clean Eating one from my sister given to me on my birthday in November and a healthy eating one by Canadian Living from our school library fundraiser.

I had a rather fattening Christmas holiday, making many of my recipes from Martha Stewart's holiday issue and this magazine from our liquor store (eep!):

Of my recipes that I planned this past Sunday, I made Potatoes, Leeks and Carrots in Parchment from Martha Stewart's Food Everyday Light (with the yellow cover above). I skipped the optional butter and the veggies were tender crisp and tasty anyway. My family ate most of it (saw some leek bits left behind) and it was very easy. The picture looks a little bland. It was prettier in real life! I didn't have any thyme (no joke there), so that would have added a little something, something to it, too, I'm sure. One serving worked out to 3 points plus.

I also made one crockpot recipe: Chicken Tortilla Soup from the Williams-Sonoma The New Slow Cooker Cookbook. I really enjoyed it, and even my dubious family liked it overall. Only dd11 was not enamored, though even she ate quite a bit of it. I cut back on the jalapeno pepper a little (using 1/2 of one as opposed to the 1-2 suggested) and I used fire-roasted tomatoes, instead of regular canned ones. I loved the addition of avocado (mmmmm...avocado!), but my family wouldn't try it or the cilantro (my picky dh influences my children with his dislike of certain foods, but our hamster also didn't like cilantro, so dd11 was influenced by him. True story! ;) )

I guesstimated the soup to be around 8-9 points plus with the avocado, corn and the shredded chicken. The chips are extra, of course!

Finally, from Cooking Light's new The Complete Quick Cook, I tried Pork Medallions with Port Wine-Dried Cherry Pan Sauce. It was delicious! So delicious that I forgot to take a picture of it! oops! I did snap the following pic while I was cooking it. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I used regular red wine (not sweet or port) and I cooked the pork medallions longer than suggested in the recipe. The instructions were a little vague for my liking in that regard, suggesting it done on "low temperature." I did it on medium.

My family liked it, too, though no one really gave the sauce a fair shot- dh said it "wasn't bad" but he'd already slathered his with his beloved HP sauce. lol. The sauce was delicous. Trust me! Well worth the 9 points for 4 medallians and 2 tbsp of delicious sauce. :)

Mac&Cheese Love

Long time, no post again. Though offline, I have been staying on program- well, the last couple of weeks anyway! (After my summer that wasn't very ww friendly.) I feel so much better when I'm eating properly and working out.

Speaking of working out, I've recommitted to my gym membership and didn't sign up for boot camp (which moved out of my school). My goal is to try out each of the classes offered at the fancier gym of the local gym chain and do my other workouts- on days I don't have much time, at the crappy gym across the road from school. Tonight we worked out there: perfect for a good treadmill jog with time left to make supper.

Speaking of supper, I made the cover recipe from September's Cooking Light: "Creamy, Light Mac and Cheese." (10 points plus for 1 1/3 cup.) It was very good. I didn't modify the recipe at all, other than skipping the parsley at the end. I like the idea of adding butternut squash to the sauce- sneaky way to get some veggies in for my family of non-lovers of the orangey vegetable. With the sharpness of the 3 different cheeses and the tart yogurt, they never noticed the squash. Another nice aspect of the dish was the crunch on top- toasted panko, rather than potato chips, but still good. Overall, it was well worth the investment of points for a nice bowl of a favourite comfort food.

I had my mac with a serving of plain arugula (nice and peppery- good mixed with the cheesy pasta and a bit of salsa (sides with zero points, too!)

Hope everyone is having a good, healthy week.

Post From My iPhone

Summer of Fitness

Long time no post, I am well aware! This year got busy with online courses (2) and general, regular life busy stuff.

School got out on Thursday and after doing poorly at my weigh-in again this morning- no surprise there- I'm recommitting myself to Weight Watchers and regular exercise. I didn't sign up for boot camp this summer, but instead plan to make use of my neglected, already paid for gym membership and involve my family in exercise, too. Dd13 is doing both soccer and baseball this summer and wants to do weight training and walk/runs (though hopefully where no one sees her with her mom). ;P

I plan to share our progress thru the summer here and hopefully catch up with many of my favourite healthy blogs. I will also try to review at least one Cooking Light or WW recipe a week. That's my goal anyway.

And speaking of my goal: I'm aiming to make it before Christmas: 139 toned pounds.


Wish me luck!


-- Post From My iPhone

10 point chicken

But kinda worth it! Made this CL chicken parm recipe last night. Will post link later.






link later! much later! Sorry! Click here.

(online course done now...Janet will try to become a better blogger again!)

-- Post From My iPhone

Dusting off my blog

...with a March 2011 Cooking Light recipe.

The November issue looks good! Hope that I can try a few recipes this month and share them. Anyway, pictured above, is Meyer Lemon Chicken Piccata (5 pts plus) with a side of fries from my beloved T-fal ActiFry (4 pts) and a salad (organic greens from Costco, 0 pts for them, 1pt for the homemade salad dressing.)

The chicken was very good and very easy to make. I just used the lemons that I already had in my fridge and because I shopped at Costco for this recipe, I omitted the parsley which they don't sell (at mine anyway). The capers I had in the fridge already (woo hoo!), but I cut down on the amount used since I didn't think my family would be jazzed about them. The recipe calls for pounding the chicken thin between pieces of plastic wrap, something I usually do with boneless chicken breasts anyway- though not to thin Piccata cutlet thickness.

The sauce for the chicken was really tasty and tart. I really liked it. dd10 wouldn't try it, dd13 liked it and dh, who likes his chicken dry didn't really try much. "I like my stuff dry," was his review, so 2/4 on the sauce from my family. (But can you really count someone's opinion who gives "dry" as his texture of choice?!? just saying. ;))

Well, I haven't posted for awhile, so I haven't shared that I'm down 25 pounds since starting in September. (as is my friend who joined with me.) I will add some bling to the site later to celebrate and share a picture of my Weight Watcher charm. (Yeah!) I'm taking an online course again, so my time is being spent online but not in weight loss blogging areas. *sigh* I'm going to try to catch up on my favourite blogs soon. Hope everyone is doing well.

-- Post From My iPhone

A Good Week

...well, except for wiping out on the icy parking lot at my daughter's Glee class on Tuesday. That kind of cancelled out my will to exercise since Tuesday- having a sore neck, low back and (truth be told) sore backside. Ouch!

I did have a good Saturday weigh-in: down 2.6 and this week has been good food wise. I should be down further this Saturday. I've been tracking and feeling in control. Yeah for that! I have felt hungrier this week.

I tried a couple new recipes this week which were good. Chop 'Til You Drop Suey by the Looney Spoons ladies (featured on the Food Network) (6pts) was really tasty on Saturday night. I definitely would make it again. I had most of the ingredients and bought the veggies for it at a local grocers who specializes in local produce and has amazingly fresh stuff and interesting food finds. I didn't make their suggested side of Vegetable Fried Rice, due to time constraints and lack of frozen veggies, but rather served it with plain basmati rice.

I also made another slow cooker soup recipe: Parmigiano Pumpkin Soup with Frizzled Prosciutto from my favourite slow cooker recipe book, The Art of the Slow Cooker. To decrease the Weight Watcher points involved, I omitted the oil and used olive oil spray and used half of the half and half cream and topped the cup with skim milk. We don't have fat free half and half here in Canada. Next time I might try it with light cream- though Andrew Schloss recommends that you use at least 10% cream. I had unopened prosciutto left over from Christmas, but I think I'd skip that part next time or try a little bit of bacon. Didn't love the prosciutto enough to warrant the points. (not point worthy- or at least the type I had!)

Hope everyone had a good week! Stay off the ice (or keep your stick on the ice, as we say in Canada- for balance!) ;)

Post From My iPhone

Christmas cost a pound...

I'll take it and run! I was up one at my weigh-in, but with all the Xmas bonbons I consumed, with only being up 1 (after my cleansing week on program after the holiday and before wi), I'm happy with that.
Wish I'd stayed on program during the holiday, of course, but maybe next year when I tell all our relatives to store the chocolate at their houses, I'll do better. It's a dream anyway.

In other news, I did some good workouts and recipes this week. I will upload the pictures now and then see if I can link recipes tomorrow? Have a great night everyone. Yawn. (exercise is tiring.)

Update with links: my chicken was by the Looney Spoons ladies. I've been watching their show on demand (we recently got the Cooking Channel- woo hoo!) I tried their "Faux Fried Chicken." It was very good and pretty easy @ 6pts. dd13 loved it best. ("Please make this recipe again, Mom and often!")

My soup was from my favourite slow cooker recipe book: Andrew Schloss' Art of the Slow Cooker. The soup was Curried Coconut Chicken Soup and really good. I found a blog with a review and the recipe here. I also lightened up the recipe to make it more point friendly (to 6 pts). I omitted the vegetable oil and used olive oil spray to grease the pan instead. I used low-sodium organic broth, 2 lemongrass stalks instead of the called for 3 (not for calories, it was what I had), light coconut milk, light peanut butter, and low sodium soy sauce. The soup is very flavourful. My dh really liked it (and he's not a curry guy) and though my girls were hesitant to try it, dd13 liked it in the end. I definitely plan to make it again!

-- Post From My iPhone

Sick but on program!

Finally came down with the family's Christmas cold/ flu. Dd10 was sick too, so we stayed home from school together. In-between bouts of coughing I managed to track points for what I ate. Go me!

With the new PointsPlus program, I do find myself making better choices. smoothies are more attractive than ever with the free fruit and the reasonable points for low fat milk products. I had half a bagel instead of a whole one (bagels increased in the pointage) with my chicken noodle soup.

I thought I'd share a picture of my froth making machine I posted about yesterday. A lovely frothy chai latte is wonderful in-between bouts of hacking. I love my little machine that literally takes seconds to do its magic.





-- Post From My iPhone

Homemade delicious chai

Well, kind of homemade in the preparation at home dept. My dh bought me a frother (sp?)(after I pointed it out and drew a map to the store!) for my bday in November. It's great for my fave Starbucks drink the Chai latte. With the Starbucks chai mix from the grocery store (2pts) and skim milk froth (1pt) it's not bad pts wise either! I want to try the London Fog one, too- another good latte. I'm addicted to the flavoured coffee creamer, but I think the skim milk froth would be a good change and a points friendly one, too!

As promised, here are a couple of recipes from the WeightWatchers New Complete Cookbook using the PointsPlus values.


When my sister sent us home with some left over ham on New Year's Day, I decided to look up a scalloped potatoes recipe to go with them. The binder has a 5 point one Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese. They were tasty and dh (not a potato guy) even asked for seconds- as did the girls. The recipe divides into 8 pieces, not huge, but enough.

I was rushing the cooking of the potatoes (almost 2 hours long for after work), so I kept the temperature at 350 for the whole cooking time. They browned up a bit in spots, but it all worked out. The two other changes I made were (1) they didn't have red potatoes at Costco, so I just bought honking big white ones from PEI there and (2) I never see fat free half and half in our stores (can you buy it in Canada anywhere?), so I used light half and half and skim milk, so pointswise, it worked out the same.




I also made the Slow Cooker Lasagna from the PointsPlus: Getting Started book. It counts for 11 points, but if I made it again, I might add another layer of the 3 lasagna noodles- separating the cheese section. I think it would firm it up a bit, too. I'd have to look up the points. It shouldn't add more than 1 point? Anyway, we all liked the lasagna, but the family told me they like my regular lasagna (a family party staple) better.

At my Christmas cocktail party, as I said before, I tried a number of starters from the Weight Watchers PointsPlus binder: Classic Guacamole (2), Baba Ghanoush (2), and Keema Samosas (2). They were all good, the Baba Ghanoush was my least favourite, but I think I used too much eggplant (mine was large), so I might try it again. I love Baba Ghanoush! The Samosas were my favourite. I accidently added a 1/2 tsp extra spice, so they were extra spicy (yee haw), but still really good. My dh is not a curry fan, though, so if I remake them another time, it will have to be a time when we have company! Perfect for starters anyway, right?

Post From My iPhone