Back to Basics = 166

Yep.  I faced the music this morning.  I stepped on the scale after a couple weeks of not weighing in and the number was 166!  I was 160.5 the last time I weighed in!  I know a lot of that is water weight – I ate more and had more cocktails over the weekend, so I can imagine my weigh in tomorrow will be around 163.5.  But this is not the right direction people!  I need to take Jen and Marissa’s lead and catch myself before the whole holiday season is in full swing!  Luckily since I am diabetic, I did not eat one piece of Halloween candy! 😀

This morning was leftovers – 4.5 ounce baked potato diced, 2 ounces lean pork roast and one egg.  Believe it or not I did not add cheese! 😀  On the side a very ripe pear!

For our Halloween party last week, I was planning on bringing a big pot of chili.  I am chili challenged, so I decided to get a mix.  It came with a spice packet and the directions said “for a little heat, add 1/3 of a package to start.”  Mind you, this makes a GALLON of chili and it was so spicy it was almost too much for me – and that’s saying a lot!  So I have a ton of chili leftover only I can eat – I may just bring it to work and see if someone else can tolerate it!  To help cool the heat, I served mine over 13 ounces of spaghetti squash and topped it with an ounce of cheddar.  You didn’t think I could go two meals in a row without cheese, did you? (I don’t know why this picture is so tiny?!)

And since I didn’t do my normal grocery shop – dinner was quite different!  I had a thin steak, about 1.25 pounds.  It had a lot of fat on it, so I picked off most of the fat and put the meat on skewers.  I just seasoned with salt and pepper – four minutes later – done!  I made a blue cheese fondue to drizzle over the top.  I saw it on Michael Chiarello’s show:

Blue Cheese Fondue (adapted to leave out onions and substituted fat free half and half for the heavy cream)

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 cups fat free half and half
• 4 ounces crumbled blue cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter, garlic and rosemary and cook about 2 minutes.  Add cream, simmer until it reduces (ABOUT 20 MINUTES).  Remove from heat and stir in cheese, salt and pepper.  The original directions gave me no time frame so the sauce I drizzled over the meat was kind of thin.  After I came back into the kitchen, it was nice and thick!

My plate had 4 ounces of sirloin with about 2 tablespoons of cheese sauce – it was really thin so it looks more than it really was!

While that was going, I had Tony’s puff pastry and snails cooking in the oven at 400 degrees.  The Fresh Market near my house sells these snails for ,89 cents a piece, with the herb butter already in it!  I’ve kept the shells in the past, rinsed them and bought canned escargot and made my own herbed butter, but for the cost (and taste!) these are better!

But I forgot to mention that I made our shrimp cocktail first thing!  You haven’t made our best shrimp cocktail yet?? What are you waiting for??!!

Best Cocktail Shrimp Ever!

• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined (ours were tails on)
• Juice from 1 lemon, reserving the rinds
• 5 sprigs of parsley (I didn’t have any so I left it out)
• 3 sprigs fresh tarragon, plus 1 tablespoon chopped tarragon leaves
• cracked ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Put all the ingredients into a big pot over medium heat.  With a temperature gage, once the water hits 165 degrees, you need to put a lid on and let sit for 2 minutes.  Quickly strain and put into an ice bath.  Once the shrimp are cool to the touch, put on a paper towel, dry and put in the fridge until ready.  This is so quick and easy – maybe 15 minutes tops??

And these are not expensive shrimp – they were on sale for $5.99 a pound! (Normally this size is around $10 a pound).

PERFECTION!  Second time we’ve done this recipe and I will never make shrimp cocktail any other way again!

Tony’s plate with snails – he ate a late lunch so Ed got most of the meat! 😀

I bake my snails in a mini cupcake tin – you don’t want to lose any of the herbed butter!

The shrimp was my favorite part!

Since Hannah didn’t come home from work until after dinner – after I saw Natasha’s Macaroni and Cheese Round Up – I knew I would make macaroni and cheese for Hannah!  At first she balked at the blue cheese, but I added about 1/2 cup mild cheddar to the mix and it resulted in the perfect combo – I especially liked the hint of fresh rosemary!

I have to give a big THANK YOU to to Errign for my applesauce giveaway that I won! 😀  I got nine containers all together in a cute lunch tote!  Best part though?  No Sugar Added and each one is only 70 calories and has 3 grams of fat!

Can’t wait to try this flavor!

If anyone is still reading this far down. . . 😀

Stats for the Day

• 1286 calories (plus about 100 calories of licks of Hannah’s mac n cheese!)
• 43 fat
• 108 carbs
• 113 protien
• 18 fiber
• 45 minute walk at lunch

I am going to try to get my ass to the gym in the morning to do some strength training – wish me luck!  See you tomorrow night.