Thought for the day and Monthly Celebration!

March 31: How will you celebrate your success this month? Reward yourself in a non-food way!
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I can't believe it is already the end of the month. When I went back to my progress page where I record my numbers every month, I lost 10 pounds this month. For me 10 pounds in a month is GREAT! I have never actually went back and figured monthly weight changes and I think I kind of like it! So, how am I going to celebrate in a non food way? I have to be careful here because money is tight, but I found that at the Dollar Tree, they have magazines for $1.00. They are from the previous month, but some come out in the middle of the month that they say on the front. I have enjoyed Family Circle, Fitness, Woman's Day, Ladies Home Journal, just to name a few, from there! So, I get $5 to go splurge on magazines that I usually do not go out and buy. I love reading magazines!
How are you going to celebrate your loss this month?
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This week has been really good, but I am really scared about going to the scales tomorrow! This is the first week since I joined WW meetings that I really feel like I finally did things right. I have been too sick the other two weeks! I have exercised everyday, but one and earned 3 AP's by doing my walking DVD. Friday(the day I said I did not exercise), I deep cleaned the house and worked really hard for two hours. When I tried to count this online I put in 2 hours of light exercise and it came up with 8 AP's. I did not even count that because I NEVER earn 8 AP's a day, but I probably should have counted it. Yesterday was just so pretty and we have been couped up in this house for just too long being sick that I took the kids, well all but the baby (I left him with daddy!), and we went to the park! We have a really small park, I can walk, while they play and still watch them. I walked for 1 hour and got 4 Ap's. I set a goal to get 18 Ap's this week and I think I might end up getting a few more, probably like 22! Walking outside felt so good! It was just a really pretty day! I also have done really good on my points even with eating out this week! Like I said I ate all of my points and I have said this before that I was doing the wrong points before going to WW and now I am doing a higher number and I am scared that I am not going to lose any. So, we will see. Most of the time I worry about nothing. I also have been trying to get in my 8 Healthy Guidelines this week(I really did not do these before going to WW) and have done really well! I had been having trouble with dairy. Well now that I have discovered WW cookies at 1 point each, drinking my milk is just not so hard! Cookie(s)( I only eat one a day!) and milk on WW! Also I have NEVER done good on getting in my 2 teaspoons of healthy oils. This week I have been using the WW website and message boards and they had a list of things to try to get in the oil requirement. I picked drizzling 2 teaspoons of canola oil on my microwave popcorn and at first I thought that just sounded NASTY, but it is my new fave! So popcorn and healthy oil at 3.5 points a day might be how I get in my healthy oil. I also started taking a vitamin, more regularly. The daily tracker on the WW e-tools has you check it off everyday so I remember! I always struggle with 5 fruits and veggies a day, but seemed to do real well this week, so I guess I will just have to wait until tomorrow to see how I really did. I hope everyone else had a great week!

Dole Joins Cantaloupe Recall

Since most of you who read this blog are trying to eat healthier and might be eating Cantaloupe I thought I would post about the recall. Here's the link: http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=544dd476-e2d0-4aaa-b0b9-c82b546a7955

My Applebee's Date Night

Dh and I went to Applebee's last night for date night. I was very surprised that what I got was really good! I got the Steak & Portobellos 7 point dinner. The steak and whatever kind of mushroom sauce was just so good. The broccoli was so good and had some kind of dressing on it that was fabulous! The potatoes were also good, but they did not have what I think looks like chives in the picture above. Then we had the Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake. I shared half with dh so it was only 2 points for me. I had read a lot of reviews online that the chocolate tasted like rubber. I will admit that the texture is different but with the sauce it is really good. I also learned something about an appetizer we always order when we go to Applebee's. It is the Buffalo Chicken Wings w/Bleu Cheese Dressing. Dh ordered it again and I ate three pieces. There were 12 pieces in the dish, I counted. I picked the smaller ones and only used a very small amount of dressing. When we got home, I asked dh if he knew how many calories and grams of fat were in that appetizer. He said no so I told him and now I am going to tell you: Buffalo Chicken Wings w/Bleu Cheese Dressing (1724 cal/132 g fat/2 g fiber/) 45 WW Points!!!!! Dh was shocked, he said, "That is deadly!" I do not think we will EVER be ordering that again! I had to use some of my 35 weekly flex points to eat the small portion that I ate. I would have rather spent those points on a Caesar salad! Next time I might just do that! If you are interested in finding out calorie and fat content of things you eat you might want to visit Dottie's Weight Loss Zone. That is the best source I have found to get that information! But I warn you, you just might not want to know! LOL!

Thought For The Day

March 29: Avoid skipping meals. Allowing yourself to get hungry usually leads to overeating!

Freezer Food Friday- Mustard-Dill Chicken in Foil Packs

Mustard-Dill Chicken in Foil Packs (Freezer-friendly)

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1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 Tbsp dried dill weed(can use fresh dill weed)

1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4 oz pieces

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Preheat oven to 350°F.Combine mustard, yogurt, garlic salt and dill in a small bowl; thoroughly coat chicken with mustard sauce. Tear off 4 sheets of aluminum foil that are large enough to wrap each chicken breast individually. Place a prepared chicken breast on each piece of foil; gather foil loosely around chicken and fold over to seal.Place foil packs on a nonstick baking sheet; bake for 20 minutes. Using oven mitts and keeping your face away from steam, open foil. Broil chicken on foil until lightly browned and cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes more.

Yields 1 piece of chicken per serving at 3 points each.
For more Freezer Food Friday recipe go to What a Crock!

Fitness on Friday #2

Well its time for Fitness on Friday hosted by Natalie at Bye Bye Fat Mom! This past week at my Weight Watchers Meeting, I was one of the few with a loss! I lost 3.6 pounds and got my first 5 point star! I have lost a total of 34.6 pounds now, 8.2 of that since joining Weight Watchers. This week was the first week that I really started to exercise again after having been sick for over 2 weeks and it felt good. I usually do Leslie Sansone walking DVD's and I really like those. My favorite one is the Walk and Kick DVD, it is 30 minutes and earns me 3 activity points! My goal is 18 activity points for this week and so far so good! Easter was not as hard for me as I thought it would be. I ate a Easter dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans. I also ate about 5 deviled eggs. I love those but had to pay a lot of points for them. Most of my kids Easter candy is gone, but I really was not into the candy anyways. I ate a bite of a rabbit and that got me over my craving for it. Tonight dh and I are going on a date to Applebee's. The have Weight Watcher meals and I want to try them. I am also going to get dessert and it will only be 11 points for dinner! I like to leave you with recipes. I love to cook so here are some links to some recipes I posted this week and here I will leave the recipe we had for dinner! Enjoy!

Crockpot Rice Pudding with Fruit- 2 points per serving

Better than Spring Lemon Cake-points depends on cake mix 3-4 points?
I also have a Diet Cola Cake recipe there, so enjoy!

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Last night, we had Mom's Pizza. I found this recipe here, but i have changed it a bit since I last posted it, so here is how I make it. This is so yummy and only 4 points per serving, depending on how you cut your pizza.

Mom's Pizza Adam's Family Style

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Cheese Pizza
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1 (13.8-oz) tube of refrigerated Pillsbury classic pizza crust*

1 small 6-oz can tomato paste (Use the flavor of your choice.)

1 packet Italian Spaghetti Sauce Mix (Any brand is fine - I use Great Value Walmart brand)

1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (Or you can use a five-cheese blend like the one from Kraft which includes low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella, provolone, Romano, Asiaso, and Parmesan cheese)

* Alternately, you can use 1 box Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix, 1 package of refrigerated pizza dough, or any other ready-made pizza crust. These are all roughly the same points value, but please note that the Nutritional Info below is based on the refrigerated 13.8-oz tube Pillsbury pizza crust.

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Preheat oven to 400º. Spray or grease cookie sheet or pizza pan. Unroll dough on greased cookie sheet or pizza pan. Press to desired size, shape and thickness. Set aside.

Place tomato paste, 12-oz of water (use the paste can twice to measure), and sauce mix in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring every few minutes with a whisk.

Top dough with pizza sauce, cheese, and desired toppings(add points for those toppings if necessary.) Bake 10-15 minutes.

Here is what I do differently, to me this pizza sauce is way too thick and tasted much better when I added 12 ounces of water instead of 6 ounces as in the original recipe. this is enough sauce for two pizza's which in my house I have to have two. Just add more cheese and other toppings. This is super easy and fast!
Yields: 8 slices

Nutritional Info:
(1/8 of pizza) 202.5 calories, 4.8 g. fat, 0.6 g. fiber (4 points per slice)
(1/6 of pizza) 270 calories, 6.4 g. fat, 0.8 g. fiber (6 points per slice)
(1/4 of pizza) 405 calories, 9.6 g. fat, 1.25 g. fiber (8.5 points per slice)

Thought for the Day

March 28th- Drink alcohol in moderation. your body will thank you.
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I do not drink anyways, so this one is not hard for me. Alcohol is just empty calories anyways! But if you drink it moderation is the key. I have so many relatives who have drank themselves to death! No joke. Too much of anything is just really bad for our bodies!