This cold weather is just sucking the life out of me. I can’t help but think of what Tony would say to me every day if he were still here – “why do we live here?!” He hated winter most of all, and this lingering winter would have drove him batty. And while I’ve bumped up my thermostat to 68 (I usually like it at 65), Tony would have it at about 78. 😀
Another waffle sammie for the win. These are my Bolthouse Farms vanilla smoothie waffles – 1/2 of the waffle (shown below) is only 3 points, with egg whites, ham (1) and lite mozzarella (1) and sugar free syrup (1) – breakfast is 6 points.
Since it was so cold, my sister and I walked Macy’s. You may not be able to hear it, but the song we are singing was playing in the store – we didn’t just burst into song, although I have been known to do that.
I cooked up some chicken over the weekend for meal prep this week. The whole plate is 5 points – 1/2 container of wholly guacamole (2) and 1/2 cup of yellow rice (3). After this picture was taken I added a boat load of hot sauce to the chicken – yum!
I left work on time, but just missed the 5:20 train. The 5:33 train was running 20 minutes late, so by the time I walked in the door it was 7 p.m. The house was super quiet. The kadults were napping. The dogs were so happy to see me, so when I went to change my clothes, I just laid down on my bed for a few minutes and the dogs immediately went under the covers to sleep. I closed my eyes and the next thing I knew it was 7:25 – but it was still light out and for a minute I thought I slept through the night and it was the next morning and thought I was going to be late for work!
But then I remembered I never ate dinner! Over the weekend I made yet another dish from Jessica’s cookbook The Pretty Dish. This dish is called “Our Favorite” because it’s one of Jessica and her husbands favorite dish.
I’ve been “weight watchering” her dishes, and there wasn’t much I had to do to make this sauce more weight watcher friendly. You’ll have to wait for my version of the recipe, because I forgot to grab it off the counter as I wrote my changes. I do know that I reduced the butter to just 1 tablespoon, used Jennie-O Italian turkey sausage in place of the pork/beef combo, doubled the amount of mushrooms, and subbed in Bolthouse farms plant milk in place of the heavy cream.
With those changes, each 1/2 cup serving is only 1 point (without the meat). Let me explain – I decided to leave the base of the sauce without the meat, so I could add in whatever protein I wanted. Last night I added 2 1/2 ounces of the Jennie-O turkey for 4 extra points. I don’t know why I haven’t thought to use so many mushrooms in pasta sauce before because the flavor is so meaty, rich and thick. And promise Mom and Jenn, you can’t taste the mushrooms – much like you tell me that you can’t taste the onions!
Speaking of onions, I added 1/2 a cup of onions to this sauce – I know! I can hardly believe it myself. I even showed it on my Instagram story. Um, turns out I was wearing a tank top that was see through and didn’t know it – so if you watched that video on my story #sorrynotsorry – I don’t wear a bra on the weekends and basically one minute after I walk into the house. 😀
I added zucchini to my noodles to bulk it up – one cup pasta (6) with 1/2 cup of the sauce (1) and the turkey sausage (4) makes this an 11 point dinner and worth every point.
I used PhotoToaster to edit the picture below. Hannah yelled from her room “Mom, did you use PhotoToaster?” I hid under my blanket. She’s challenged me to only use the edit mode in Instagram for the next 30 days. She’s so demanding that child!
I edited this photo using the Instagram editing, and Hannah approved of this one. If you have The Pretty Dish – this recipe is on page 112. I am going to try this again using one pound mix of ground sirloin and pork (it may be the same amount of points) but even with the turkey sausage, this was delicious. I’ll add the recipe when I get home from work tonight. 😀
Timehop showed me yesterday that I was 20 pounds lighter this time last year. From April to December of last year I slowly gained all 20 pounds back. I just need to figure out what my mindset was last year – maybe I’ll go read last years posts to get inspiration from . . . me!
I know what to do, but for whatever reason it feels like I am walking through mud. It hasn’t helped that this bronchitis is lingering. I know all I have to do is have a few days on track to get the ball rolling. Um, yesterday wasn’t that day. I had wine, which led to eating nuts while watching American Idol and I wasn’t even hungry. Gah.
Today is a new day. Make it a great day!
I think the 20 pounds is tough. For one thing, the bronchitis. For another thing, the shitty weather. I feel a little bad for the midwest and northeast and southeast this winter. It’s been brutal for all of you.
I was thinking about you and the kadults. With Hannah there you have a great opportunity to motivate each other! You just have to do it. I know my husband and I could be our best motivators or the worst “I’m too tired to go to the gym, let’s go have a beer!” Don’t do that much with the kids anymore.
It has been brutal, but just another way to use excuses not to move – the gym is toasty! 😀 But, the bronchitis has definitely been a hinder, I am hoping I am on the tail end of that shit.
You are correct – Hannah and I can go both ways – either “lets go on a walk or to the gym” to “do you want to order pizza?!”
Hugs!
You are going to need to get a commission check for promoting the cookbook. (Just kidding) Amazing recipes are hard to find so thanks for sharing them. I’m hoping you guys get a break in the weather soon but I don’t want it to get all crazy hot because I might be taking a trip that way in May and I don’t care for temps over 80. It is funny how Hannah knew immediately on the photo. She is right, the second one is much better.
Hannah definitely does have a good eye for photography – much better than mine!
Jessica’s husband jokes all the time with me that “the check is in the mail.” She and I have been blog friends since 2010 – before she was married and had two kids so I am so proud of how successful she’s become. The fact that the recipes are delicious is an added bonus!
Hey Biz – ‘Walking through mud’ – that pretty much says it all. That’s what I feel like too!. Don’t discount the power of hormones for the weight thing. It’s no joke! The hormonal ups and downs at this time in our lives messes with the ability to lose weight and then finally it just causes everything come.to.a.halt. It doesn’t mean that weight loss is impossible – just much more difficult! and I’m realizing there is little room for error in the food department. Whatever your calorie requirement is cannot be fudged by a few here and there or there’s -0- weight loss or a gain! UGH! Also, for me, I can’t ever use more than half my weekly points or I will gain – that’s what I mean by the ‘fudge factor’ being close to zero. Well those are my wise words for today! BTW – I think you look great in both your pics with your mom – smiling and spending time with your mom! – good for the soul at any weight 🙂
Thank you so much Lynne! I so appreciate this comment – I have to remember that when I lost my original 70 pounds I was 30, not 50! That being said, I know I can do better – I just wish I had the motivation – although I’ve read that motivation wanes, it’s dedication that gets you to your goals – pushing through things you don’t necessarily want to do. Gah, wish I could flip the switch to get more dedicated!
Interestingly enough, I am following a woman on Instagram, who lost 90 pounds with WW and still had about 15 pounds to go and couldn’t for the life of her get past that plateau for nearly a year. She switched to macros, her coach told her to eat 1800 calories a day within her macros and she’s lost 8 pounds in a week and a half – nearly 6 pounds her first week. She feels like she’s been starving herself on the WW plan and if she were to put in the 1800 macro plan into her WW app – it would equal 47 points.
Food for thought!
That is a really good point to. I’ve said it before – WW worked great for me – twice, but whatever switch they made when I was 40/41 (7-8 years ago), it stopped working. I had to try more things.
I don’t count calories at all anymore. I eat plenty of them though. Plenty of fat, fewer carbs than I’d like (I could eat ALL THE CARBS – and I did a few weeks ago and gained 5 lbs in a week).
Even the first time I was on WW, when I was 31/32, I hit my goal. I added points. I lost weight even faster. I was pretty much starving myself apparently. I bottomed out at 123 lbs and it took awhile to gain weight back to a more comfortable spot.
This is true, unfortunate, and depressing.
I have 6 older half sisters. We have the same dad. I was showing my mom a pic of 5 of them together, and she was able to say “#3 is going through menopause, look at her waistline!”
Ugh.