July 4, 2011

It was a rainy 4th of July, so we ate inside and played inside.

Rummikub anyone?

Lots of good food to choose from!

Good friends and family, too!

Every time I see this picture of Beth (purple shirt) I think it's Jessica. :)

Weigh In Day #2

Today was my second weigh in at Weight Watchers and I was very happy with my weight loss. I lost 3.6 lbs this week for a two week total of 9.8 lbs! Next week I should reach my 5% weight loss goal.

Making menus for our suppers and having plenty of options for breakfast and lunch help me a lot! I don't like to be bored with my food...I need variety. Some of my favorite breakfasts are:

1 fried egg, 1 slice of turkey bacon and mustard on a toasted lite multi grain English muffin

1 cup oatmeal with about a teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter and half a banana (and milk)

Multi Grain Cheerios

Bagel with a thin spread of whipped peanut butter

fruit smoothie

Some favorite lunches are:

Whole Wheat tortilla with 2 oz of chicken or turkey, mustard and romaine lettuce and a sliced apple

Sandwich (same as tortilla only use my whole wheat sandwich rolls)

Salad

Soup

Leftovers

Some favorite snacks are:

Apple

Banana

Plain Greek yogurt with a bit of sweetener, a tablespoon of Grape Nuts and a few mini chocolate chips

Quaker makes some mini rice cakes in various flavors (I separate them into serving size and put them in little zip lock baggies)

Two Rice cakes with a small spread of whipped peanut butter

Suppers vary: soups, grilled meat, baked fish, lots of veggies!

Chug, Chug, Chug, Chug...

and no, I'm not drinking anything, I was thinking of a train chugging along the tracks ... uphill. That's my journey right now.


I continue to feel good on this program and continue to lose weight. I do weigh myself daily (I know the "experts" say you shouldn't do this, but it does help me stay on track), but I am only going to post my official weight loss here after I weigh in at Weight Watcher's on Mondays.

I'm trying some new recipes that I found on the WW's website. I've tried a really good crockpot chili with pork (pork instead of hamburger), crockpot chicken burritos (kind of like fajitas), and a few others. I hope to add recipes that we like to my food blog soon.

Exercise is still a struggle for me. I've worked out once this week. I hope to work out again today. For some reason I'm really resistant to it right now, but I know I need to do this!

Neal hasn't been here this week. He's on a business trip in Tennessee. Usually when he's away I really struggle with cooking. I usually take a kind of "cooking break" while he's gone, but I knew I couldn't do that this time. I haven't cooked every day because we've had leftovers, but I have cooked. I've also stayed on program for which I'm very thankful and excited!

I don't remember if I mentioned this before or not, but we went to a birthday party last Saturday night and I knew they were going to be serving pizza. So ahead of time I purchased a Lean Cuisine pizza and a Weight Watcher's dessert to take along with me. It worked out great and I didn't feel deprived. They also had fresh veggies, so I enjoyed some of those, as well! This is do-able!

Okay, gotta get off here and go do some cleaning and cooking. May you all have a healthy, blessed day!

Peanut Butter!

I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER!

I stood in the aisle at the market on Thursday looking for the best peanut butter. I knew Reduced Fat must have the lowest points, so that's what I looked at. I ended up buying Jif Reduced Fat. Today I decided I wanted two rice cakes with a thin spread of peanut butter on them. I got out the Jif and figured out the points again (I hadn't written them on the jar yet). There were 5 points for 2 Tbsp. I looked at the regular peanut butter next to it and figured it out (it was Kroger brand). There were 5 points for 2 Tbsp...the same as the reduced fat! Since they took out the fat, they added more sugar which doubled the carb count! I also had Peter Pan Whipped in my cupboard, so I check that and guess what? It has 4 points for 2 Tbsp! I also didn't need to use even a Tablespoon for my rice cakes because it spreads so easily! This is what I'll be buying from now on. Bye, Bye Reduced Fat Jif!

Recipes

I've posted a couple of recipes on my food blog.

Rotisserie Chicken Salad

and

Crockpot Yogurt.

I made my second batch of yogurt last night, and I used Lactaid instead of regular whole milk. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, Lactaid is a "lactose free" milk for people who are lactose intolerant. The first time I made the yogurt, I made it with regular whole milk, and let's just say it didn't agree with my system! The Lactaid worked great, and so far -- so good! :o)

The Rotisserie Chicken Salad is really good. A mixture of different flavors that come together very nicely!

Let me know if you try either of these!

A New Year

2009! Wow!

Last night our pastor's sermon was entitled "Spiritual Tools for Success in 2009." I have many areas I want to work on this year, and his sermon last night was very motivating for me.

Two of the areas I want to work on this year are physical and spiritual wellness. I need to be more consistent in my daily time with God...both in prayer and in Bible reading. I've been doing much better in these areas, but there is definite room for improvement. I also need to lose weight, but beyond that I need to get healthy! I've been working out on the Wii Fit for almost two weeks now and I can already feel the difference in my body. I've only lost two pounds, but I have improved my strength and I can see improvement in my knee pain.

The following verse really spoke to me last night:

Job 23:12 "I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread."

If I'm honest with myself and with God, I know that I do not put His Bread (the Bible) before my bread (my food). Food is like an idol to me in the sense that I eat too much and put too much emphasis on our meals and eating. With food my focus needs to be on feeding my family healthy, well-balanced meals. period. That doesn't mean they can't taste good, but it means they need to nourish my family, not just fill them up.

So, these are two of my goals for 2009. These are not my only goals, but they're the ones I want to share now with you.

I pray that 2009 is a good year for all who are reading this! God bless you!

My New Food Blog

For quite some time, I have been wanting to start a food blog. I finally did it this morning. If you like trying new recipes and finding out about different foods, please come visit me at "Teresa's Table."

Chocolate Nut Clusters

A friend of mine made these a couple of weeks ago, and they were SO good! Terribly fattening, but if you have a special occasion to make them: DO IT! :o)

CHOCOLATE NUT CLUSTERS

1 (16 oz) jar dry-roasted peanuts
1 (9.75 oz) can salted whole cashews
2 Cups pecan pieces
18 (2 oz) chocolate bark coating squares cut in half (this is about a package and a half)
1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 (1 oz) bittersweet chocolate baking squares broken in pieces (I leave this out)
1 T shortening
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a 5 quart crock pot/slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours (I check after 1 hour and it never needs more than 1.5 or it scorches) or until chocolate is melted. Stir and THEN ADD VANILLA and stir well to coat. Drop by heaping teaspoonful onto WAX PAPER (or your counter will be a mess!) and let cool for about 2 hours or until firm. Store in airtight container. I think this originally came from Southern Living Magazine. Yum!

Salsa 2008

This is what we've been doing the last two Saturdays...Salsa, baby! Saturday before last we canned 36 pints and last Saturday we canned 40 pints! We did something new this year and added black beans and white corn to some of it. We really like it!


Here's one of the pots of salsa. Total time from peeling tomatoes to putting them in the canner was about 3 hours.

Here's my trusty canner. We've had this for at least 14 or 15 years. My Mom and Dad bought it for us for Christmas one year. We've canned just about every summer we've been married (17 years). During the time we lived in Georgia we didn't can as much. We didn't have a good spot for a garden. Neal tried really hard though!


Here's some of our jars. These weren't actually canned yet. We went ahead and put all the salsa in jars with regular lids on them until it was their turn for the boiling water!

This year we also canned 14 qts of green beans. We had so many leftover from last year, that we didn't feel the need to can 70 qts like we usually do. We did eat a lot of steamed green beans though! Yummy!

How Do You Meal Plan?

The Heart of the Matter is having a "How Do You Meal Plan" meme today. Here's an excerpt from their blog: "Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Mr. Linky is set up below so please share with us your How Do You Meal Plan? We would love to see recipes of all kinds! I would especially love to find some new homemade bread, crockpot, and meatless recipes." So go on over to The Heart of the Matter and see what's cooking!

I've tried different ways of menu planning. Sometimes I plan for an entire month. I'll print out a blank calendar for the month, and write down the supper on each day. On the back of the calendar I'll write out all the ingredients I'll need from the store. That way I can go through that list and make my grocery list. This works out nicely, but it takes the effort of sitting down for a couple of hours and making the menu. I'm always glad when I do it though!

Another favorite way of mine to menu plan is to sit down and decide on about 14 meals, make my grocery list, and purchase everything and have it on hand. I post the meal list on the side of my fridge and then in the morning choose which meal we'll have that night. This works great. I like having the option of which meal I can serve that day, and not be tied to "today is Tuesday so we must eat...."

It truly does help to plan ahead and have things in stock. It saves time and money.

Here is one of my favorite meatless recipes. I make this mostly in the winter, but it's good any time!

This comes from Betty Crocker's Easy Vegetarian Classics Go Meatless (one of the little cookbooks you can buy in the grocery line)

Pasta and Bean Skillet

1 cup salsa
2/3 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
3/4 cup water
2 tsp chili powder
1 can (15 to 16 oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1. Heat all ingredients except cheese to boiling in 10 inch nonstick skillet; reduce heat to low.

2. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until macaroni is just tender. Sprinkle with cheese. 4 servings.

We like meat and we usually eat more than the "serving size" so this is how I usually adjust it:

1/2 lb ground turkey, cooked and crumbled
1 cup salsa
1 1/3 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1 1/2 cups water
4 tsp chili powder
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (16 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup shredded cheese

Follow directions above.

Zucchini Parmesan

My Monday meal was Zucchini Parmesan. My sister-in-law, Janet, told me she made this the other night and I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't have a recipe, so I kind of made it up as I went along. Everyone enjoyed it.

First, it's best to use a big zucchini. Slice it into somewhat thick slices.


Then dip each slice into an egg wash and dredge in a crumb mixture. I used fresh ground whole wheat flour, Italian bread crumbs and garlic salt (Janet used bread crumbs)


Next I "fried" them on my griddle. The ones on the left I coated with a butter spray. It made the slices a bit crisper.


Finally, after putting spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13" pan, I layered the zuchinni slices and covered them with freshly grated parmesan. Then I covered the pan with foil, and baked about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Unfortunately we got so caught up with eating that I forgot to take after pictures! :o( I fixed some elbow macaroni and heated up the rest of my spaghetti sauce. I served the zucchini on the side next to the pasta dish. Neal put his on top of the pasta and then put the sauce on top. Whatever works for you!

I served a salad with this, and that was our meal!

Thank You!

I wanted to give a big Thank You to my friend, Amanda.

After Neal's surgery we had several friends bring us meals. Amanda told me (at the hospital) that she wanted to bring us a meal after we quit receiving them from our Sunday school class. This was the week! :o) On Tuesday she brought us a wonderful lemony chicken dish which was out of this world! I've already asked for the recipe per my daughter's request! She also brought us some yummy sides: whole grain rice and a cold snow pea salad. Yum! Then to top it off, she brought us mint cupcakes. Wow! Thank you soooo much, Amanda!

Now back to my regularly scheduled meals....

Blood Work

Neal went and had his blood taken for his Pro-Time check. Last week his blood was thicker than it had been...it was down to 1.9 (it's supposed to be between 2.5 and 3.0). Today it was 2.9! We both really think he had a faulty test last week. He's almost done with the Coumadin though. He comes off of it May 28th, and they said today that they don't need to check his blood anymore! Yaah! He is so happy...SO happy in fact that he ate this for supper:



Strawberry-Spinach Salad!

Those are fresh strawberries from our patch, and the spinach is from our garden! Now, lest you worry...he's not going to make a habit of this...at least not until May 29th!

Pomegranites

Can anyone tell me if they eat and/or drink pomegranite's? I bought one because I'd never had it before, and was quite surprised when I saw the insides:

I looked up pomegranites on the web and found a sight that said to section them and put them in water for five minutes. Then the seeds will fall right out and they are edible. Okay...they were okay for seeds, but I really don't see the need to go to all that work to eat seeds. Anybody do anything else with them?

What's for Breakfast?

Last night I made a batch of blueberry muffins. Instead of putting the frozen blueberries in whole, I chopped them up in my mini-food processor. I liked them a lot better this way with little bits of blueberries spread through the muffin. Yum!

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was this new muffin pan. It's a really nice, heavy duty pan, and I had no idea how much better my muffins would do in it. Every time I've made them, they've risen up nice and high.
It's the little things in life that make me happy!

Here was Ben's breakfast this morning (actually this is what we all had). Vanilla Yogurt with Grape Nuts and a few mini-chocolate chips sprinkled on top, sausage links, and a muffin.

I am always on the lookout for easy, healthy breakfasts to serve my kids. What do your kids eat for breakfast? I'm trying to stay away from sugar cereals, but we do eat a few cereals...Special K, Cheerios, Kix, and Rice Krispies are okay here. There are other good ones, but these are the ones my kids will eat. I also make homemade pancakes and waffles and freeze them. Oatmeal is another favorite (at least for Ben and I) in our house. Neal would eat scrambled eggs every day. :o)

Here's a good yogurt I found. It has a six live active cultures in it, and as I understand it, that is a good thing. :o)

2007 (not 2008) in Review

Perri tagged me for another post, but I'm having a hard time coming up with things to write for that one...so I'll start off with reviewing 2007 (not 2008). I've typed the first sentence from the first post of each month in 2007 (not 2008). If you want to read further about that particular post, you can click on the sentence. The first three months are from my old blog. Here goes...

January: My 2006 in Review

Okay, I got this idea from my friend Perri.

February: SNOW DAY!

Shortly after waking up this morning, I shuffled into the kitchen, flipped on the radio, and started the coffee.

March: It's Working -- Too Late

I can't believe it's working now...my blog that is.


April: Baseball and Allergies

Warm temperatures, tulips, daffodils, green grass, budding trees, POLLEN!

May: Driving???

Here's Ben "driving" and Beth telling him what he's doing wrong!

June: Our Super Baseball Player

Ben had a fun season playing baseball with a local church league.

July: Happy 4th of July!

I walked through a county courthouse square,

On a park bench an old man was sitting there.

August: It's Friday! Yaah! I love Fridays!

September: I'm a Girly Girl

I found this on Amy's Blog. Let me know if you do it.

October: Potato Soup Pizza

Since I've been grinding my own wheat the last 4 months, we eat a lot more pizza around here!

November: Yuck!

Last night in the gym at church:

Ben: "I have some bad news."

December: Late Thanksgiving Post

I just downloaded the pictures from my camera and came across this picture of my Cranberry Supreme Salad.

That was kind of fun...for me, anyway. :o) It's fun to look back and see what I've written. Lots of things I would have forgotten if I had not written them down! If you do this on your blog, let me know!

Happy 2008 (not 2009 -- although I wish you a happy 2009 in another year!)!!!

Late Thanksgiving Post

I just downloaded the pictures from my camera and came across this picture of my Cranberry Supreme Salad. It was the first salad I'd made in a gelatin mold. Not difficult, just a little time consuming. I'm not a big gelatin salad fan either, but for some reason I was in the mood to try one. Several people said they liked it though. :o)

1 3 oz pkg raspberry-flavored gelatin (I used sugar-free)
2 cups boiling water, divided
1 16 oz can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1 3 oz pkg lemon-flavored gelatin (again sugar-free)
1 3 oz pkg cream cheese, softened (I used reduced fat)
1/3 cup mayo (reduced fat)
1 8 1/2 oz can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 cup whipping cream (I used 1 cup of Cool Whip)
1 cup miniature marshmallows (I used, uh, well, miniature marshmallows ;o)

Dissolve raspberry gelatin in 1 cup boiling water; stir in cranberry sauce. Pour into an oiled 1-1/2 qt round mold. Chill until partially set. Dissolve lemon gelatin in remaining boiling water; set aside. Beat cream cheese and mayo; gradually add lemon gelatin. Stir in pineapple. Chill until partially set. Whip cream; fold into the lemon mixture. Add marshmallows. Spread on top of the cranberry layer. Chill until set. Yield: 12 servings.

Taters & Maters

Neal planted sweet potatoes for me again this year. I say he planted them for "me" because it's true. He hates sweet potatoes! That's one of his "love gifts" to me. Not only is it a true love gift by planting them, he also eats them when I make them. He does admit though that our home grown sweet potatoes taste better than any store bought we've ever had.

My favorite way to make them is bake them, but with some of these 'taters, they're just way too big to bake.


To give you a better perspective on how big they are, look at them next to the tomatoes. These babies are huge! And we have a ton of them! There are some that are normal size, and I'll use them for baking.


I took "one" of these potatoes Saturday and washed, peeled (let me tell you, that was a job!), and thinly sliced it. Then I put the slices on two cookies sheets, salted them, and baked them until they were crisp. Sweet potato chips! Yummy!!!

Neal's favorite way for me to make them is to mash them like regular potatoes. I think he plays a game of pretend when he's eating them and imagines that they are white! LOL

More Pics

We had a visit from the Masked Reader this month!

I purchased some Stamen Apples at the orchard this month. I made these cinnamon apples with it (the cinnamon comes from the hard little candies)



Here is one of Beth's meals this month: Chicken Crescent Wreath with rice in the center.

Squished Frog Dessert

Or at least that's what Beth calls it!




1 can crushed pineapple (mostly drained)
1 small box pistachio pudding mix
1 8 oz Cool Whip

Mix crushed pineapple and dry pistachio pudding mix together until well blended. Fold in 8 oz of Cool Whip. Refrigerate and serve.

(Oh, another name for this delectable dessert is Frog Guts Pudding...take your pick!)