Meal Planning Monday

Well its that time again, time to make beans, meat and veggies interesting....time to resist the urge to cook some of my favorites that are no longer allowed....so sad. BUT I think I've found some winners this week! The noodle-free lasagna from a couple weeks ago was a HUGE hit so that'll resurface next week.

As for this week, I'm still hoping that my sweet tooth will begin to disappear, so far I'm still craving junk almost everyday...it has gotten a bit better though.

Monday
Taco salad night, the kids will actually eat the salad, so why bother with taco shells?

Tuesday

Sausage, kale and bean soup. I know, I know, soup when its 105 outside sounds horrible, but I have kale that needs to be eaten and this is the only thing I know to do with it. Guess I should research that.

Wednesday
Church night, likely a huge salad to go.

Thursday
A new recipe that sounds FANTASTIC....
Shrimp, Sausage, Summer Squash Casserole

Friday - Kid's Choice
Chicken nuggets, Mac N Cheese, Green beans
I'll grill my chicken and eat a salad. Good thing I think Mac n Cheese is nasty.

Saturday - Cheat Day

Sunday

Tuna Cakes, black beans and salad. (PB&J for picky eaters)

I'll let you know how the new casserole fares. They do pretty good about eating squash so it should be a hit with the little people.

Wednesday Weigh In

I've wanted to wait a bit for this post...I wanted to make sure my slowcarb revolution was going to be worth it before I threw it out there....

so here it is....

on May 11 I weighed in at 160 (ugh!) I've been yo-yoing between 155-160 for a good long time and was actually holding good at 155 til our neighbor started bringing over a huge batch of sweet rolls every Monday. I gained 5 lbs in a week from eating those suckers.

I did my measurements and took my fat pics. Man that was SCARY!!! and if seeing a pic of yourself in all your fat glory isn't motivation enough, there's no hope for you. Every time I want to cheat and eat a big bowl of ice cream I just go look at it. My measurements were frankly a little startling. I'm throwing them out there anyway. My right thigh, 22 in; left thigh, 22.5 in; right arm 12; left arm, 12; hips, 40; and waist, a yucky post 4 babies 36 inches.

Its been 2 weeks from then and I'm now down to 150lbs. I haven't seen that number in YEARS!!! Like 10 years...pre-babies, pre-marriage. Thighs measuring 21 (I dont expect much more change here. My strength gains in my legs have been pretty dramatic this last 2 weeks too. I've gone from squatting about 90 to squatting 130, and my leg press is up too.); arms 11 (thats relaxed, flexed I'm 12 cause I have guns). hips are down to 38.5 and waist is down to 33.

I like the numbers, and they don't lie. They are encouraging and its enough to keep me motivated to stay on the journey to a stronger, healthier me. Its really amazing what changing what you eat will do for you. I've always thought I was a relatively healthy eater, until I noticed that what I eat on my cheat days I was eating a few times a week. YUCK!

I'll keep you posted as I go.

This Week in Food

Well ok it's Wednesday, but hey better late than not at all?

Week 3 of slowcarb is going ok, but ladies lets face it, there are some weeks you have ridiculous cravings for chocolate...and lots of it. I've been good though and resisted temptation....reluctantly.

Monday we ate tacos/taco salad, thats a staple around here. Its easy and fast and you already know how I love a big pot of beans!

Tuesday was the Noodle-Free Lasagna! I really wasn't sure if the kids would eat it. #1 eats anything and everything...and in large quantities. #2 generally eats whatever, and #3-#5 are always moody about food. I am proud to announce that #1-#5 all ate their dinner! and just about licked their plates clean!

Wednesday - Church and flying solo, so a plateful of leftover lasagna fits the bill for dinner. I'll add a side salad with that.

Thursday-stirfry night. Going to marinate some pork ribs in teriyaki and slow cook them. Then I'll do some stirfry veggies to go with that. I'd get the kids some eggrolls, but I already know I will not have the willpower to resist that!!!

Friday- Again chicken nuggets. Its good, its easy, the kids ask for it every week....Mac n Cheese for them and salad for all of us.

Saturday, sweet blessed Saturday, oh how I will have longed for you all week! Saturday, my favorite day of the week. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.....
1. pizza
2. ice cream

3. chips/tortillas

4. fruit galore

5. fries

6. whatever else my face desires.....

Sunday we'll eat any leftovers, or tuna patties.

enjoy! and make that noodle-free lasagna....you'll thank me.

Mealtime Monday

I've successfully been eating slow-carb for one whole week! Last Monday and Tuesday I felt like trash thanks to my body detoxing from carbs, but by Wednesday I felt great! I've had more energy on less sleep. I'm not intending to sleep less, but I haven't felt like I couldn't survive without a nap and I've been waking earlier simply because my body has rested and is ready to go. Jen willingly awake before 7am is unheard of people.

So I hate to tell you this, but there is nothing interesting about the food we are eating now. Everyday is pretty much the same....every meal....meat/legumes/veggies or legumes/veggies/meat or sometimes veggies/meat/legumes!

I'll give you a rundown none the less:

Monday: Stir Fry night
Lots of veggies, bean sprouts, water chestnuts

and teryaki chicken and pork

Tuesday: Chicken nuggets for the kids/grilled for grownups

Mac and cheese for the kids'

Salad and Black beans

Wednesday:

Likely a tuna salad with a ridiculous amount of veggies and beans

Thursday:

Taco night (taco salad for me)

Refried beans

Friday:

Date night--mexican food. the hardest part is saying the words "no chips"

Saturday:

This is eat whatever I want day....I'll be making a list. Also this will probably all be eating out so that there are no leftovers of forbidden food in my house come Sunday morning. This weekend I ate my fill of tortillas and queso from Taco Cabana, pizza, jelly beans and ice cream. I never got around to my chips and salsa...which surprisingly I didn't miss all that much!

Sunday:

Burgers or Tuna burgers or something easy.

We also will fire up the grill and cook all our meat for the upcoming week. This makes lunch SO much easier!

Turkey Zucchini Burgers and Cauliflower Fritters

Tonight I made Turkey Burgers with shredded zucchini added in to the meat. They turned out so good and the kids didn't bat an eye at the fact that there was green stuff in there....except for my favorite oldest son who doesn't like eating things when he can't pick out stuff he thinks he doesn't like. The girls loved the cauliflower fritters, again my favorite oldest son couldn't identify the ingredients so he had a hard time and my favorite baby boy didn't eat anything...he just wanted down to play with firetrucks.

Turkey Burgers with Zucchini:

ground turkey, 1 shredded zucchini, 1/4c seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs, minced garlic, a tad bit shredded red onion, salt, pepper....

Mix all these fantastic ingredients and make your patties. I heated our griddle and cooked them that way. Here's Syd's beautiful burger with all the fixings. And then there is my bunless wonder. I thought I was hungry enough for two patties, but these were really filling! Sydney however eats more than me and finished off what I couldn't! WOW!!! I guess all that running makes her super hungry. I'm sure that ketchup and maybe even the cheese is against those blasted "rules"....as was the sample of sushi I ate in the grocery store this afternoon... but frankly I don't care...I need a little wiggle room if I'm going to make this happen! Now I'm totally thinking sushi for my cheat day (and pizza and ice cream and jelly beans).

Slow Carb and Monday Meals

In an effort to eat healthier and lose weight I have already begun to cut the carbs out of our diet, but starting tomorrow I'm moving to the Slow-Carb diet. I've got about 1 month until my trip to Italy, so I'd really like to lose the rest of this weight and this is sure to help. The Slow-Carb diet is based on eating foods with a low glycemic index. Foods with a low GI break down glucose in your body slowly, keeping your blood sugar levels constant throughout the day.

There are a few rules that we were mostly following anyway.

RULE 1 - Avoid any carbohydrate that is, or can be, white. The following foods are prohibited, except for within 30 minutes of finishing a resistance-training workout: all bread, rice (including brown), cereal, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, and fried food with breading.

RULE 2 - Eat the same few meals over and over again. I plan to find a way to use a little creativity cause if I get bored with this I'm out. Each meal should include protein, legumes, and non-starchy veggies (no carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes)

RULE 3 - Don't drink calories. Stick to calorie free drinks, mostly water, tea or coffee....no milk. This is not a big loss for me. I don't like milk anyway.

RULE 4 - Don't eat fruit (but tomatoes and and avocados are ok). This will be the hardest for me. I eat a LOT of apples and bananas. I have read though that its just fine to eat them within a 2 hour post workout window.

RULE 5- Take one day off and eat whatever you want. That's my favorite rule of all.

So all of that being said, here's a look at the week ahead in food.

Monday- The turkey burgers and cauliflower fritters that we didn't get around to this week. I'll skip the bun.

Tuesday - Turkey Casserole featuring yellow squash, beans, and feta cheese. Also a side salad.

Wednesday - I'll eat something as a meal replacement since Bobby is working and its a church night.

Thursday - Mexican Stackup -- a family favorite --layering quinoa, beans, taco meat, lettuce, tomato, cheese, salsa. It gets big and very filling....I'll miss the chips for crunch.... boo.

Friday - healthy chicken nuggets (I'll grill some for me with no breading), fruit salad for the kids and a spinach/pepppers/tomato salad for me.

Saturday - This will be our cheat day, so it's likely going to be pizza, but we'll make it at home for some quality control.

Sunday- Tuna melts and veggies.

The Roo turns 6!

I can't really believe that my Roo is 6. Goodness. She is totally my girlie girl, so we indulged her love affair with all things unicorn and all things pretty and had a very girlie time.

She and her girl friends had as much fun playing in the backyard as they did with everything else. They didn't want to come inside, but when they heard the words "nail polish" and "face painting," they changed their minds. It was my first time trying to do some fancy face painting, so you definitely wanted to be at the end of the line. :) I got better as I went along.

Here are some pictures from our fun time.

New Recipes

I've been using my kids as my guinea pigs lately as I test out new stuff. Mostly its on the fly recipe adapting. I've been adding in lots of extra veggies that need to be eaten. Some stuff they'd probably eat anyway, but then there's things like squash and zucchini and sweet potatoes that they "don't like".

Soup has been big on the menu since they've been sick and its been cold. One night was chicken soup. This consisted of pureed squash, zucchini, onions and garlic added to some chicken stock, chicken, corn, sweet potatoes and red potatoes. I think I may have thrown in some peas or beans for good measure. Heated everything through and topped it with some cheese. They ate a ton of it and loved every bite.

Another night we had tostadas with rice and beans on the menu, but they said they wanted soup so I just put all the ingredients into a pot and made soup instead. Browned my ground turkey with peppers (diced as small as possible) and onions. Then added a packet of cilantro lime rice that I picked up for $0.25 after my coupon. Used extra water, added in a can of refried black beans and some velveeta at the end. Topped with sour cream and crumbled tostadas.

Tonight we went off the meal plan for some breakfast for dinner. Sydney requested waffles so I took that opportunity to try something new. Found a recipe in a healthy food cookbook that I should probably be using more often... Brown Rice Waffles. I just happened to have about 1 serving of brown minute rice left in a box so that worked out great. They were quite tasty and very healthy.

Here's the recipe:

1c. sifted whole wheat flour
3/4 c. sifted all purpose flour

2t. baking powder

1/2 t. cinnamon (optional)

1/4 t. salt

3T honey

4T veg. oil

1.5 c. low fat milk (I used 2%)

1 c. cooked brown rice

3 large egg whites

1/4 t. lemon juice

Stir together dry ingredients (flour-salt). In a small bowl mix honey and oil until well blended. Add milk and beat until well combined, then pour into dry ingredients. Beat just until incorporated. Fold in brown rice.

In a clean medium sized bowl, beat the egg whites and lemon juice with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whites into the batter. Now get to makin' those waffles!