Old Man Winter GO HOME!

Hi!

How cold are you? I'm pretty chilly with my fleece sweats and long sleeve t-shirt. It is always such a shock to us when this happens, I mean how many winters are we going to need to go through not to complain about the changing of the season. I personally like when it changes, not just one temperature all year round like boring old Arizona!

I didn't get a pic of my breakfast (thin bagel with laughing cow and yogurt) or lunch (salad with a piece of ham and pineapple pizza from cafeteria) today as work is a WHIRLWIND right now with the contest tomorrow. You would think the president is coming as much as people are preoccupied with this thing. Only time will tell but I'm not seeing a "W" in my near future. :( Oh well, it was fun trying.

I did however host Biggest Loser night tonight at my house and served the Chicken Tortilla Soup that I had your mouth watering with last night. The inspiration came from IGE but I jazzed it up with a few different things. It makes a ton so if you make plan ahead for freezer space or invite some peeps over.

Chicken Tortilla Soup with Chiles in Adobo Sauce

• 4 chicken breasts, thawed (really could as much as you wanted here)
• 1 15.5oz can corn
• 1 15.5 oz can black beans
• 2 10 oz cans Rotel Diced Tomatoes w/ Green Chiles
• 1 20 oz can mild red enchilada sauce
• 1 can (smallish not sure on size) chiles in adobo sauce
• 1.5 medium onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
• 1 T minced garlic
• 3 t chili powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 8 cups vegetable broth (can use chicken broth here too)

Put everything into crock pot. Heat on low for 8-10 hours. Fish out whole chicken breasts and shred in hand food mixer or with two forks. Put back into crock. Serve.

I served ours with Chile Lime Tortilla Strips, taco flavored shredded cheddar, light sour cream, sliced green onions, and diced avocado(which totally makes it!). This soup was SPIC-AY! I mean HOT! Delicious but will totally clear your sinuses. It is the chiles in adobo, leave them out or use half if you can't handle the HEAT!

It made 10 servings of 2 cups each! That's a ton! Each serving is only roughly about 280 calories! So yummy!

Worked out this morning because I knew the gals were coming over and got in 2.36 in 39 minutes, not my worst and not my best. I had to keep getting off the gazelle to make jello. Signed up to make a layered jello mold for the weddin'.  On a side note, the dog that I own is CRAZY! He always tries to lick my legs when I get done working out, presumably from the salty deliciousness of the sweat but I snuck a pic of it this am. What a cutie!

Remember yesterday, when I told you about the awesome deals I found at the Salvation Army? Well here is the super cute dress that I got for $1!!!!!!!! I think we can all agree that its really cute!

On that note, I'm out, big day tomorrow. Did I mention next week I only work 3 days? YIPPEE!!!!!!!!

Who's Ready for A Quickie?

A Quick Post that is!

Get your head out of the gutter!

Gotta get to bed so I'll just show the eats for the day.

Food day at work remember:
Breakfast: Biscuit and gravy (all processed and not really that good, not worth 310 calories)

Lunch: I try to just take "tastes" of things that looked good so here's what my plate was:

• Loose meat w/ ketchup & mustard on it
• pickle wrap dip w/ a few bagel pieces for dipping
• Thai broccoli slaw
• spinach dip
• buffalo chicken dip
• cheesy hamburger dip
• 1 meatball (not pictured--woops right in the kisser!)
• tortilla chips
• oatmeal cheesecake bar(TO DIE FOR!)

Dinner: 4 Cheese Ravioli (from freezer section) w/ Garlic Toasted Sandwich Thin (took like 10 minutes to make everything=LOVE!) Kinda strayed from menu plan made on Sunday but needed something quick and healthy.

After work, I had to run to the store get some milk for the hubs then ran to Salvation Army to get some Halloween digs. I came in at the right time, all this week 5 pieces of clothes for $5?!?! WTF! So I got:

• an American flag t-shirt
• flannel for the Halloween contest
• strapless off white and brown dress (that is way to small for me but might fit someday or eventually I'll let a skinny friend have it)
• a pair of running pants
• black coat/blazer.
• black boots for the costume
• pair of brand new brown walking shoes.

...for the grand total of $20!!! HOLY MOLY!! Locals, sale is on for the rest of the week, all gender of clothing included. Salvation Army across from Fareway on Euclid. Nice deals!

What a score!

Rode the gazelle for an hour, got.2 more miles than yesterday (4.4ish) because I am SO MOTIVATED right now. Weighing in and having it be your new low is so AMAZING! Wednesdays are the only days on record but it still feels great each morning when I am down just a bit.

Do we see 37+ lost next week? I freakin' hope so!

Night all! Stay tuned for tomorrow with my brand new Chicken Tortilla Soup that I just put in the crock!
And maybe a pic of me in the costume...think good thoughts for our team to win!

Weigh in Wednesday

It's that time of the week again!

And the results are......down 34.6 lbs!! I guess carefully planning all your meals, following through on them, and exercising everyday (with that one awesome rest day) really DOES work! Next weeks goal: 37lbs! 40 seems so close!!

Thanks for all the support and get ready for another post tonight. It's food day at work, let's see if I can manage something healthy. I'm bringing the mac and cheese(not healthy) but also am bringing my regular in case there isn't anything healthy to choose from.

You haven't seen this handsome devil recently so ENJOY!!!

Glad That One's OV-AH!

What a freakin' looooooooooooong day!

Got up at 6 MF AM to workout because I knew I was going to have to stay late at work. WHY? Your hourly you say?

Holy shit bag! Best workout that I have done in the morning in a long time! I got started 9 minutes late due to the husband being up and insisting on watching the news. Do YOU think I can really give it my all if I am watching the NEWS instead of the tramps on Jerseylicious? I DON'T THINK SO!

My place of biz is LOCO for Halloween. NOT KIDDING! It's a week looooooooong of activities including but not limited to:

• mini pumpkin decorating contest
• guess how many zillion candy corns are in this huge jar
• coloring contest (are we 5?)
• department wide food day
• color coordinated clothes to wear to work day
• THEMED decorating contest

Each "team" has to decorate their area in a theme that is literally judge by others from other departments (I guess there was an uproar and demand for recount (there are 3 judges people) one year so now others have to do it). Keepin' it short, IT'S INTENSE! So far the themes that I have conned people into telling me are:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Vegas Baby! --> Reigning 4 year champions
• Lego-land
• Where's Waldo?
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Redneck Wedding --> My Teams

We are hoping for the big "W" this Friday(judgement day) since we have a side bet going on with the champions for a fully catered in breakfast. PUKE! No one know how to cook on my team so I will be bearing the brunt of this loss so fingers crossed readers!

Food wise, day was pretty standard:
Breakfast: oatmeal, grapes, & cottage cheese(I could tell yesterday I need a bit more to sustain to lunch)

Lunch: Huge salad with the fixing's with Ken's Steakhouse Light Sweet Vidalia Onion with CROUTONS!

Snack: Baby Carrots with Yogurt Dill Dip

Dinner: 2 pieces of pizza(Margarita and sausage), catered in while we worked late :) Didn't get a pic, co-workers would think I'm a freak but it was from Centro for those locals. YUMMY!

Snack: two glasses of wine :) :) :) White Merlot from the BOX! Easier to stop when from the BOX!

Now I am off to make some Crock pot Macaroni and Cheese for tomorrow center food day. Chose that because I had all the ingredients on hand and it's pretty damn tasty, if I don't say so myself!

I'll leave you with 5 Things you MAY or MAY NOT have known about your favorite GINGER!

5 Things Maybe You Just Didn't Know About Me
1.  I am super competitive. ·       Whether it’s a team or individual sport, I need to win. Whether it is a recipe contest or a game of cards with the family, I will take anyone down in my path. Sometimes I race cars out of the parking garage to see who can get out first. This has resulted in going down the wrong way and getting into multiple crashes, but I always WIN!
2.      I cannot paint fingernails or toenails. ·       I simply can’t perform this task without a shaky hand. I am not going through street drug withdrawals of any kind, but none would be the wisest if they try to watch me do it. Paint all over the skin, the floor, anything near the teeny tiny brush.
3.      I loathe the process of showering/getting ready. ·       I mean unless I am in my wedding, I don’t care if I have showered. Yeah sometimes it is really refreshing and awesome, but most of the time I am just mad that I had to spend money on the shampoo, conditioner, body wash, razors, shaving cream, face wash, etc.! Another big business scam!
4.      My favorite food of all time is popcorn. ·       Salty or sweet is such a good treat! Or dinner, breakfast, lunch. This is a good healthy snack all aloe but it even gets better when you drizzle on real butter and a sprinkle of salt. Don’t get me wrong, the cheesy kind or kettle corn can satisfy me as well, but butter and salty is the best COMBO ever!
5.      I am very nosey. ·       I want to know everything about everyone that I know or even briefly come into contact with. I mean if its their business why can’t it be mine?

 THANKS FOR READING AND GOOD NIGHT ALL!

Motivation Monday!

Hi all!
It has been a really good day for a Monday, well for me at least. I usually am a sack of assholes on Monday due to a weekend full of debauchery and horrible eating. Since that was NOT the case this weekend. Monday flew by with flying colors!

Meals at work were simple and thought out:
Breakfast: grapes and oatmeal with hot tea (flavor was berry zinger)
Lunch: Salad with grilled chicken and 3 Cheese Ranch dressing (my fave store bought kind!) and water
Snack: Celery sticks with yogurt dill dip(recipe to come--thanks Lindsey's grandma!) and water

Dinner Chicken Manicotti & garlic toasts and iced tea (recipe to come with pics-this was already froze)

Snack: Popcorn and water (LOVE!!!!)

Another KEY thing to my weight loss, I think, is the amount of water I put down each day. Overall, I am very fast drinker of any type of liquid. Ask both my friends and enemies that I can put down some beverages even when I'm not meaning to :) I would say my daily average is well over 100oz then between cooking and while working out, another 50 oz or so. I'm really washing out all my sodium laden foods that are so near and dear to my heart(see 3 Cheese Ranch & popcorn above ).

Calorie wise, a pretty good day! I need to incorporate more than one serving of fruit per day although aren't fruits and veggies all lumped into one? I get more bang from my calories going with the veggies that I like as they don't have a lot of natural sugar.

Here is a screen shot of all my inputted food today on the BodyBugg program. How amazing is that? It doesn't take a lot of time and is so helpful! If you don't have a BB, then I suggest using another either online site to track food or a journal you take everywhere you go. I still have to do that most of the time until I can log everything in.

I was motivated when I got home to get a great workout in too since I had eaten well all day so I pumped out over 4 miles on the gazelle in an hour, whilst finishing off an Amazing Race episode and half. I'm not sure why I am watching it this season, I'm not really into any of the teams yet. Though I would let Nick do dirty things to me in an afterlife ;)

When I track my mileage on here (see widget on the left from DailyMile) Its a good estimate based on the steps that the BodyBugg tracks for me. This tool is great and horrible at the same time. It motivates while I am working out to go faster to get more steps in but also shows me just HOW lazy I am can be sometimes! Beat my goal today!

On that note, I'm off to finish this popcorn and watch some trashy TV for a bit before zonking out. waking up at 5:45 is for the birds but not working out to NOT an option for me anymore! I'll leave you with some thoughts for Motivation Monday, feel free to leave a COMMENT on this page with your goals and/or motivators!

Top 3 Goals that I am Working Towards
1. Running a 5 without any walking breaks.     I don't really care what my ending time will be but inevitably it would be my fastest time since I would never be walking.
2. Wearing a swimsuit in front of others besides my dog and not feeling ridiculous.     I'm not talking string bikini here folks, I'd be OK with a tankini or a nice one piece. Just something I am comfortable in.
3. Wearing a pair of Seven jeans(not plus size ones)with black point boots that go over my not so fat anymore calves.     Even if it’s the largest size they make, I am OK with it. The boots are the real victory in this scenario.

Top 3 Way I Stay Motivated
1. Weigh Every Morning      Sometimes this can go the other way. When it goes down, it really makes me want to workout and eat healthy throughout   the day. Sometimes, it can have the opposite effect, if the numbers have went up. The latter is a rare occurrence but does happen, even if the numbers are up a bit.
2. Shirt Behind My Dresser     I keep a shirt sized large(although I think it is a smaller large) that I glance at while working out each time to remind myself of what I am working towards. Kinda like that special k bikini commercial. It's a dark grey with a collar of sparkly sequins. I love it a lot.
3. My BodyBugg     As I have said before, it motivates me to eat right because I hate inputting crap into it. I feel as if the little icon lady is looking down at me when I enter 120 ounces of Bud Light. Also, I have a never ending goal to beat my highest calorie burn all the time. As you lose weight, you burn less calories so the current high has been there for sometime. I WILL BEAT IT!



THANKS FOR READING! NIGHT ALL!

I Need a Break!

I have been in the kitchen all day and I LOVE IT!

Slept in a bit later than usual today, especially since I wasn't slinging brewskis yesterday when my fave HAWKS lost! :( It's over and done with but still stings a bit! It was a good game and CONGRATS to the Cyclone readers out there. I mean, the sun shines on a dog's butt every once in and while....JUST KIDDING!

Anywho, up and ready to roll around 9:30 when I promptly got started on my crock pot apple butter. I perused the Internet looking for a low sugar recipe and found one I liked here but when I went to make it I only had the apples, apple juice, and cinnamon. I still went with it. It is bubbling away still so we will see! All I did was slice up a 3lb bag of apples(that I scored last week for 99cents), 3 cups of low sugar apple juice, and some dumps of cinnamon(to taste). Then I will put into blender and freeze it, I still have half a jar from my friendly neighbor who gave me the idea when he made it a week or so ago; he has an apple tree and an abundance of apples right now.

After this, I took a break to seat some lunch(Jimmy John's-WOOPS!) and watch the latest episode of Sons of Anarchy! Holy mother of hell! What a great show! And keep the shots of Jax's butt in the scenes just not with trashy porn stars!

Next up was making Asian turkey pot stickers. I have wanted to make there for um, near like 9 months so I finally took the plunge! I saw the recipe from IGE a long time ago then I had some at a local resturant/bar while having brunch and have been in love ever since. Since Star Bar, I also located a ginormous box of them located at Sam's Club for under $10 so I've bought those a couple of times before today. I would estimate that this probably cost me about $7 to make for 41 of them. Overall, it took me probably an hour to assemble everything from mixing to freezer and it's about the same cost per piece so depending on taste I may just stick with the store bought ones. Only time will tell!

Then the hubs and I watched some more of our fave shows from the DVR while I prepped my salads and his sandwiches for lunch. I went through the same process as I always do but this week I really will take a picture of at least one, if not them all! I did some laundry(gross) and took a small nap straightened up the bedroom then got started on dinner.

What are we having? Chris bought a package of chicken breast from the store on Saturday and you know and how long he thinks meat can stay around so we had to use that and I had some eggplants given to me from my mama so I went to town this last week looking online on how to make things with them. It was between eggplant fries and vegetable lasagna. So what did we have for dinner you ask?

AND

Chicken Cordon Blue and Green Beans (for him) and Eggplant Fries(for her)!

Overall, this dinner was simple to make. Follow these steps:

1. Started by pounding out the chicken breast, covered in plastic wrap with a can of beans(or a meat pounder thing)

2. Spread a thin layer of laughing cow sun dried tomato mozzarella and basil over the chicken (1 wedge per chicken piece).

Does anyone else see boobies here below?

3. Cover with ham and favorite cheese flavor. We had Havarti, which is slowly over taking muenster as my favorite cheese.

4. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, give or take some time. Chicken just needs to be done.

5. DEVOUR! This was so moist and delicious. Some of the cheese oozed out and got a bit crunchy on the edges which I am HUGE fan of so that was delightful!

Now onto the eggplant fries. I really liked this tutorial so adapted what I did from there, kind of.

1. Start with any amount of eggplants, I had all baby ones. Peel the skins off. Cut into sticks

2. Put into plastic bag, add 2-3 tablespoons of flour, liberal amounts of garlic salt and white pepper, sprinkle parsley and oregano, and grind in some black pepper.

3. Shake it like ya mama gave it to ya!

4. Bake for 18 minutes at 375 then hit it with broil for 5 minutes, then flip them all over and broil for 5 additional minutes.

5. EAT! These were pretty tasty and lend itself to the mindset of eating french fries as they were pretty crispy yet the huge pile I had was only like 60-80 calories and totally zesty!

Gotta get on the gazelle for at least 30 minutes, that's my new daily minimum(except rest day) even though I totally crushed my calories burnt by just cooking in the kitchen all day! Love when you do that doing things you enjoy!

But first Menu Plan Sunday!

This week is a little crazy but I will give it a try:

• Sunday: Chicken Cordon Blue and Veggie Side(GB or EP)
• Monday: Chicken Manicotti with garlic sandwich thins
• Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup with Chili Lime Tortilla Strips (BL/dinner night!)
• Wednesday: Hamburger & fries for him and turkey burger & broccoli for her with
• Thursday: Ham Braid (stay tuned, this is a doozie!)
• Friday: No plans, never work when I plan something
• Saturday: See Friday.

FYI I am also hanging up my ass hat for the next two weeks so I can jump start some weight loss again. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that I am maintaining the weight loss but want/need the scale to start going back down so I think a small hiatus from all things barley and hops related will help me.

Thanks for reading and good night moon!