Weekend Recap and First WW Weigh In!

I had errands to run on Saturday morning, and a couple of the stores and post office didn’t open until 9, so I decided to go to the 8:00 a.m. WW meeting.  I am actually enjoying getting up early on Saturday!  It wasn’t until I got there that I realized that the meeting didn’t start until 8:30, so after I weighed in, I went a couple doors down to 7-11 and got a 1 point coffee and a cheese stick. 😀

Drum roll please . . . .

Can I just say how I love how digital the program is now?  I haven’t lost 2.6 pounds in a week since I started this blog.  And guess what?  I still ate pizza, had wine, had beer, and never once did I feel like I was on a diet.  Love it!

Let’s back up to Friday.  I decided to do a “last chance” work out at lunch.  I did another 5k, but in 41:07 – but I did it 3 minutes running/2 minute walking – but my run was at 4.8 mph – I am trying to build up my speed slowly but surely.

I also made pasta fagioli for the first time and I am bummed I waited this long to try it.  So delicious!  And a generous 1.5 cups per serving. 😀  And so simple to put together, this could easily be a week night dinner with a side salad.

Ingredients

Instructions

In a stock pot, heat oil then add garlic and cook a couple minutes.
Add remaining ingredients (except pasta) and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally, or until carrots are fork tender.
Add pasta and cook uncovered until pasta is al dente, according to pasta directions.

I used this pasta, which I’ve never tried before:

It’s really tiny dry, but really bulks up in the soup.

On the way home I had to pick up a couple things, and I can’t help but check out the 50% meat bin by the butcher.  I totally scored – not only were they already 1/2 off, but I got an additional 50% off the lowest price – so each one pound New York Strip cost around $3.25!

So I made grilled steak salads for dinner.  My salad had chopped romaine, cucumbers, carrots and diced apple with a bit of shredded cheese and 3 ounces of grilled steak on top with Newman’s Own Light Balsamic Dressing – delicious!

Saturday was a bizzy day!  After WW, one store I needed to go to wasn’t open until 9:30, so I had some time to kill.  I did all my grocery shopping and made a menu in my head while I shopped – I only spent $71 and got a ton of great veggies, lean meat and fruit.

I came home, unloaded the grocery bags, cleaned out the refrigerator, and then made breakfast.

Then it was time for Hannah and I to shop!  Other than out of town gifts, I normally do all my Christmas shopping in one day.  Hannah and I made our lists.  We went to:

• post office
• thrift store to buy ugly sweater for work on Monday for our cookie exchange – it kills! (I’ll post a picture tomorrow)
• Borders
• World Market
• Bed Bath & Beyond
• Wal-Mart
• Aldi

Of course, no shopping trip would be complete without some coffee – we stopped at our local bakery and got latte’s – a great way to get dairy in too.  😀

We didn’t get home until after four, and didn’t have lunch, so I made up some quick plates of salami, cheese, apple and tiny crackers – 8 points and hit the spot!

At the store I picked up a boneless, skinless turkey breast – check out how cheap it is!

I just put a teaspoon of melted butter brushed over the top, with garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary.  Since its boneless, it only took 55 minutes to come to temperature at 350.  It was so tender!

Here is a great tip for quick gravy when you don’t have pan drippings.  You can make as much as you need, but the ratio is 1 cup of broth to 2 tablespoons flour and 2 tablespoons of butter.  I used 1/8 cup over my turkey for 1 point.

Ingredients

Instructions

Mix together the flour and butter until it forms a paste.
Bring chicken broth to a boil. Add butter pasta and stir constantly, until thickened , about 5 minutes.

On the side I made a broccoli gratin – it makes six half cup servings – its so cheezy and rich, its totally worth the points.

Ingredients

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add broccoli and cook for 3-4 minutes, just until tender, then drain.
In a medium pan, melt butter. Add flour and stir for 2 minutes. Slowly add milk, making a thick sauce.
This will take about 5-7 minutes.
Remove from heat. Add in shredded cheese, pepper, salt. Mix until cheese is melted. Add cooked broccoli to cheese mixture.
In a 8×8 pan or a pie plate, add broccoli cheese mixture.
In a small bowl, add panko bread crumbs, olive oil and parsley. Crumble over top of broccoli mixture and bake at 400 for 10 minutes.

And I love how just a little bit of panko bread crumbs really makes the topping.

Total points for Saturday – 35, which includes my red wine and 2/3 cup Chex Mix I ate while watching Sing-Off on the DVR 😀

Tony made my breakfast yesterday morning, which sometimes makes me nervous because I never know exactly what he puts in it – he tends to be heavy handed with olive oil and cheese!  But he only used Pam spray, 2 turkey sausages, 1 corn tostada, 2 eggs, an ounce of cheddar cheese and a sliced orange around the plate – love the presentation Tony! It was delicious and so filling – oh, and he did add splashes of Frank’s hot sauce to my eggs 😀

And we also got my MIL’s goodie box – she makes the best breads and cookies.  Tony’s favorite cookies are the powdered sugar ones which she calls pecan fingers.  If I had to pick, it would be the pecan turtles in the middle – Hannah loves the Hershey kisses peanut butter cookies.  And she sent one loaf each of banana and zucchini bread – they smell heavenly!

For my cookie exchange, I made mini oatmeal cookies with cinnamon cream cheese frosting in the middle.  A few people asked me for the recipe when I showed them last week for my step-sons Christmas box – it could not be easier.  Use the Quaker Oats oatmeal recipe that’s on the lid of the oatmeal container, and for the frosting, buy store bought cream cheese frosting (I bought mine at Aldi for $1.19) and add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon per cup of frosting.  Simple!

And I made more brittle – this time using dried cranberries and pistachios for the red and green Christmas theme. 😀

Since Tony was watching football yesterday and Hannah was at work, I decided to do some exercises from On Demand.  Instead of doing the 30 day shred which I know like the back of my hand, I decided to try three new things:

• 20 minutes of kickboxx kickbutt (love the title!)
• 10 minutes yoga abs (holy shiz – this was hard!)
• 20 minutes of toning beauty sculpt (which I am totally feeling in my inner thigh muscles this morning!)

Then when Hannah got home we headed to my Mom’s church for their annual Christmas pot luck and pageant.   I started going to this church before kindergarten, but its weird to see so many faces I didn’t know last night, and the older generation (who used to be my age when I was young) are now frail and in their 80’s.

My Mom works at a local food pantry through the church, and some of the people from the food pantry came to the dinner – Hannah has volunteered at the pantry probably a dozen times.  Two clients who were at the dinner were so excited to see her!  Here she is with Caryl and Daryl, brother and sister who are both deaf.  They exchanged phone numbers so they could talk – they couldn’t stop hugging her!

I actually only ate an apple in between my breakfast and dinner because my breakfast was so filling and good.  But I was hungry as soon as I smelled all the wonderful food.  My plate: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, a deviled egg, green beans.  And for dessert – half of what you see on my dessert plate – dinner + dessert is approximately 18 points.

Stats for Sunday:

• 30 PlusPoints for food + 5 for wine = 35
• 39 Flex Points left for the week
• 60 minutes of exercise on demand

Today my office is having an ugly sweater day – I am participating so I can wear jeans too 😀  I’ll post the picture tomorrow – it kills!

If you made it down this far, thanks for taking the time today!  Hope you have a great Monday – I only work two days this week – woot! 😀