Yep. My daughter blames me for her not liking meat. You see, when I was pregnant with her, any type of meat turned me off – even my beloved burgers and steak! What did I crave? Chinese food! So my 18 year old daughter hates meat and loves Chinese food! 😀 She mentioned to me the other day that unknowingly, she’d gone 4 days without eating meat and decided to see if she could stick to a vegetarian diet.
What did I do? I cooked her chicken! Tony and I were having a pork roast, which I knew she wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole, and when I called her to dinner I told her that I had grilled her some Greek marinated chicken, she looked at me and said “Um, Mom, remember when I told you I was a vegetarian?” So her chicken became my lunch!
First off though, yesterday was “Professional Administration Day.” Basically a made up holiday, but we got bagels and fruit – the office managers gave us cute vases with daisies (which luckily I can’t kill!) and one of my bosses gave me an orchid (which I definitely will kill) and a gift card – to be used strictly for Tony and I to go out to dinner 😀 Thanks Nancy! 😀
I am nervous about the orchid. Usually plants come to my house to die!
So while I brought an Arnold thin for my breakfast sammie, I could not pass up 1/2 of an asiago cheese bagel 😀
I decided to make a wrap with Hannah’s chicken – I sauteed some red pepper and put lots of Dijon mustard on my wrap.
I actually accessories my sammie with canned soup. I know, can you believe it? I won it from Lisa a while back – I ended up eating the whole can, which was 2 servings at 200 calories – but 80% of my sodium for the day. 🙁
The verdict? It wasn’t too bad! A tad on the salty side, but I swirled in some Tabasco to make a spicy broth. I like the thick noodles, but the chicken tastes kind of rubbery to me. Speaking of Tabasco, my sister sent me a link with tons of Tabasco recipes!! Guess what my party pizza Friday pizza is going to be?? Blackened chicken pizza with spicy creole tomato sauce! Doesn’t that sound fantastic??!!
It was so nice outside, my friend and I walked for 45 minutes in t-shirts. I had to work about an hour late last night, and when I called Tony to let him know I was coming home, he asked if he could get dinner started. I knew it was going to be quick to put together – I told him to light the grill – it was then that he told me it was cold outside, and he was right! It was probably 65 degrees at lunch and it felt like 45 outside!
Needless to say, I “grilled” indoors! Super simple – surf and turf – ribeye steak (1.4 pound steak for $4.50 – it was in the 50% bin last week!) and scallops with asparagus.
Have you cooked with scallops? I have always read that you need to have “dry” scallops to get a good sear, but for the life of me, I cannot get them dry! I even squeezed each on individually in paper towels, laid them on my cutting board until I was ready to use them, and they were still wet!
My plate: 3.5 ounces steak, asparagus and 3 ounces of scallops. At the table I drizzled the asparagus with Paul Newman’s light balsamic dressing – that turned out really good! Dinner comes in at 425 calories, 5.7 carbs, 59 protein, 16.5 fat and 1.8 fiber.
And then later in the night I got the munchies! I measured out a serving of Trader Joe jalapeno crunchies – yum!
So overall my day was good – except I ended up with 200% in protein, not enough carbs and way high on sodium.
Okay, so I am caught up with Biggest Loser! OMG, tissues were definitely necessary!! Can I just say that I love O’Neal??!! Just his personality, determination – even while grieving the loss of his brother.
But one thing that I noticed – when they had the temptation to eat whatever they wanted, one of the contestants had their “typical” breakfast and it only came in at 175 calories – really? And then Sam mentions that he eats the most calories at 1,800 – which still seems low for how much they work out. Any thoughts?
I am off to put together my breakfast and lunch – not sure what it’s going to be yet because I didn’t make the quiche I wanted to and I never made the scallop bisque!
Happy Thursday!
I’m happy your boss showed some appreciation for you. I worked for some real b*st*rds so I’m glad I’m not celebrating Administrative Professional’s Day with them this year.
Crazy low calories and massive amounts of exercise are the only way TBLosers can get those unrealistic numbers on the scale to make good t.v. We know it’s not healthy to lose 10+ pounds a week but we all want it off yesterday, right?
Hi, I just found your blog. I’m diabetic and trying to lose weight too. I’ll continue reading your blog. I wish I was as good at tracking calories! I used to be and then just stopped. That’s when I stopped losing weight too. Hmm…
I agree with you about The Biggest Loser, the amount of calories they eat with the amount of exercise seems very low. They said that Dairus ate the next most highest at like 1500+, a big guy like him eating 1500 calories with exercise? How can he have the strength to stand up! I usually shoot for about 1400 – 1500 calories for a GOOD day and I don’t do a lot of exercise. This is the first season I’ve watched and it’s been interesting.
Looks like you still got a pretty good sear on the scallops, though!
Too funny about Hannah–I couldn’t stomach any kind of meat when I was pregnant with Miss D., either. And eggs? God, they sent me straight to the barf bucket!
that’s so funny about Hannah 🙂
So nice you guys got flower and bagels! Our office doesn’t do anything for us admins, so I just have to buy myself something nice 🙂
Your food photos are wonderful, making me so hungry. Could your scallops have been frozen? That would make them more watery. Don’t worry about Hannah. Things could be a lot worse than being vegetarian. Most of us don’t eat enough veggies or fruit.
Yep – I discovered you’ll only get “dry” scallops by using fresh ones – thanks Judy! 😀
Hmm. My mom must have craved salty and spicy stuff, as well as chocolate, judging from my tastes! 🙂
I’m looking forward to that pizza you’re making tomorrow.
Mmmm, scallops. You can surf that turf over here any day.
great looking breakfast! My son loves that Progresso chicken noodle soup. Lovely flowers, you deserve them 🙂
All those pretty flowers and tons of scrumptious food in ONE post…WOW! Sure would like to pop a few of those scallops in my mouth about now. And tell Hannah I’ll take the Greek marinated chicken next time and any steak or meat she passes up!
I think it’s great that Hannah is going veg! I’ve been veg and vegan and am now flexitarian but really prefer veggetarian meals. Except I can’t get over my love of bacon! hahahahaha! Anwyay, I read an article on Biggest Loser and how the contestants are so competitive that they starve & dehydrate themselves. They def do eat WAY too few calories. The point of that show is who can lose the most weight within the given amount of time and they do drastic things to win. (Wearing sweats while excercising to sweat more and drinking no water–once contestant starting peeing blood b/c of this!) Which is probably why the sucess rate of keeping the weight off after going off the show is so low. I like the premise of the show, but don’t like what it does to people. They are only learning to crash diet and don’t know what to do once they are done.
Awww – your flowers are beautiful!!!!
I really think it’s true that your kids eat/crave what you eat/crave/eat while preggers. Then again….it’s sorta the trend right now to not have meat so maybe that’s a possibility too 🙂
I LOVE grill marks too – they make food just THAT much better 🙂
so funny about hannah! sometimes i think my life might be a bit simpler if i didn’t like meat too…or sugar for that matter!
the steak and scallops plate looks mouthwatering!
When my mom was pregnant w/ me she got sick the entire pregnancy just SMELLING pasta sauce. She couldn’t eat it for months, and had to stop going to family Sunday dinners b/c every week she’d just puke. Now there is ONE die-hard rule in our house – Johnny HAS to deal w/ old pasta sauce – as in, he has to wash any dirty dishes that have touched it, or if I’m reusing leftovers he has to open the tupperware and put it in the pot to reheat. I cannot STAND the smell of old, cold pasta sauce it literally turns my stomach. I told my mom this a few years ago and that’s when she told me about her pregnancy — weird!!!
I’m obsessed w/ grill marks too! Yours look great. Giveaway on my blog!
I went through a vegetarian phase in late 2008/early 2009 and enjoyed it at first, but then realized there were certain things I missed… like sausage balls! And every now and then I crave a turkey sub or slices of steak. I’d say now I’m definitely a flexitarian. I eat mostly vegetarian, but if I really want meat, I eat it.
Are you talking about the Jimmy Dean/Cheddar cheese balls? My cousin makes those every year and I can never eat just one! 😀
great Hannah… spread the word. More and cheaper beef for me!!!
Way to go Hannah. I have gone vegetarian twice in my life, once when my pet steer ended up on the dinner table and my cruel sister asked me how Coco tasted, veggie for 4 years at age 9. The second time was after college and I gave it up while on tour for a year and the 2 weeks in Texas where the ONLY thing I could get without meat was an iceberg lettuce salad and grilled cheese with that nasty fake american cheese stuff (YUCK) went back to meat :p
Scallops you want to dry as well as you can but not crowding the pan will do more for a good sear than drying, definitely pat dry but just don’t crowd the pan or no matter how dry they won’t be as good as they can be.
Thanks Alison!! 😀
Funny about your daughter blaming you for not liking meat because of your pregnancy with her. Although I blame my mom for my love of mint chocolate chip ice cream because she ate tons when she was pregnant with me. With my brothers she ate tons of spicy food and they both love it! There must be some tie there!
I have to say that I love seeing all your food cause it always looks soooooooo good.