According to Plan

Yay, berries other than strawberries were actually on sale!  Still can’t wait for fresh, local Summer berries but having raspberries to add to my yogurt and Kashi this morning was a welcome change.

When I was going through my cupboards making this week’s meal plan I came across a can of navy beans…that immediately made me think of making enchiladas…but instead I turned them into a quick and easy bigass salad topper.

In the big silver bowl: spinach, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, red pepper…dressed with 1tsp olive oil.

Toppings:  1/2 cup navy beans warmed with 1 tbsp salsa, 1 oz finely shredded old white cheddar, 1 tbsp salsa and 1 tbsp light sour cream.

Would have been perfect with some crunchy taco chips! 

Australian Gingerbread People to the snackeroo rescue.

Dinner tonight took place while viewing another Canucks vs Blackhawks game at 5th Street Bar & Grill.  Let’s not talk about that game though.  *sad face*

Going into the evening I knew I had to plan ahead to make a good meal choice and keep the cost reasonable.  Maybe I should think about getting cable…it would be cheaper than going out to watch every game!

I planned for one beer so started out sipping Diet Coke until after I ate.

For dinner I knew I wanted the chicken strips as long as I could get salad instead of fries.  No problem on the substitution…yay! 

I was still a bit hungry and stole one (!) chicken wing from the other girls but I walked out very pleased with myself for sticking to my plans!

Too bad our Canucks didn’t stick to the plans!

[photo source]

At home after the game it was still relatively early and my tummy started to rumble so I decided to calm it with half of an apple with almond buttery goodness.

Chances are I’m going to be hungry laying in bed trying to sleep like I was last night.  I always have so much trouble with extra water, veggies and fruit actually making me feel super hungry…but the only way around it is to ignore it.

Anyone else struggle with that feeling?

PS:  Did you see my first Sooke Harbour House post?  It was a fun time, I promise.

Simple Measures

A little something pink to brighten the day…

So today I decided to take charge of my eating habits…well I decided to at least take a step in the right direction…portion control.  One major component of my losing and maintaining weight was being diligent about measuring my portions….which I completely stopped doing at some point.

Big shocker…I’ve been using twice as much milk & sugar in my coffee these days. 

This is one cup of strawberries and half a cup of cereal to mix with my yogurt.

For months now I’d say I’ve been doubling the cereal and halving the fruit.  Tsk tsk.

For lunchtime I made a bigass salad…but today I actually measured my “sploosh” of olive oil.  Trust me it’s not two teaspoons when you just splash it on out of the bottle.

I even measured my sunflower seeds and the Bacon Jam I put on a toasted English muffin half with half a wedge of light Laughing Cow.  That was deeeeeeelish by the way.  Especially with some egg yolk!

In keeping with the theme of keeping things under control I opted to skip a trip out for afternoon coffee and made tea instead.  I’ve been struggling with getting enough water for weeks now, and as some lovely Twitter supporters reminded me…herbal tea is a good way to sneak in the hydration.

Come dinner time I noted all I had written on my meal plan was “stir-fry”.  Nothing like leaving myself a vague note!

My friend Lisa gave me a Peanut Sauce recipe a while ago so I decided tonight would be a good night to test it out.

Mix together:  3 tbsp Hoisin sauce, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp grated ginger, 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1 clove grated garlic.  Cilantro would be nice too, but I’m out.

My peanut butter was a bit stiff so I heated everything over very low heat to get it to combine. 

For my stir-fry I made sure to measure the cooking oil, the rice noodles (by weight) and the veggies…carrots in particular actually go up in calories, etc when they are cooked.

In addition to carrots my stir fry included red pepper, red onions, and spinach wilted in near the end of cooking.

I used 1.5 tbsp of the sauce, thinned with water to coat all of the veggies and noodles.  Topped everything with shrimp sautéed with garlic & red pepper flakes.

Quite delicious!!

While everyone else was watching the first game of the NHL Playoffs (Go Canucks!!!) my lack of cable and procrastination of work on my contract job left me home sulking at my computer.  Oddly, while I don’t get a local hockey game I do  get FOX so I was able to listen to American Idol while I worked.

I picked James from the very beginning because I’m in love with the show actually having a rocker on board…but Scotty and Casey are pretty cool and individual too.

That apple made me hungrier than I was before I ate it!  Do you ever find that?  Fresh fruits and veggies (and water) trigger something in my tummy that makes me feel ravenous.  Super duper annoying!

But my goal for tonight is no toast before bed (I usually have some sort of carby snack right before bed that never gets blogged about….bad girl!) so I can’t let that damn apple get the best of me.  Bad apple!

It’s a Small World

(you can thank me later for getting that song stuck in your head)

So by now a lot of you must know about newbie blogger Ali over at Fat to Fit…she’s super cute and fun!  Well anyway, turns out I know her hubby from back in the day.  Too funny.  Pop over and see her cuz she is giving away a Lululemon water bottle!! (back off biznatches…it’s mine! hahahahaha.)

So here’s something I’m struggling with.  You know how I’m all cool and proud because of my new fitness regime?  Well what I can’t sort out is how much food I need now. Today is an off day from the gym so I decided I should go lighter on the carbs and calories.  I ended up starving!!  So here it is 8pm and I’m actually hungry.  Annoying. 

Lunch was admittedly light because I got caught up in my conference call and hadn’t planned ahead.  I had a green smoothie…the basic, but in my opinion the best:

In the KA today:  banana, ice, spinach, flax meal, unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze (which henceforth shall forever be known as UVAB because I get sick of typing it all the time!).

With an afternoon snack of this super yummy Pinata apple with 1.5 oz of light cheddar cheese cubes. 

Apple + cheese = droooolfest.

For dinner we rocked some leftovers Pioneer Woman style.  We still had lots of her Italian soup left, so I made up some extra meatballs to go in it…

I added an extra cuppa beef broth, extra cuppa water, and an extra scoop of tomato paste to stretch it out a bit…

And served it with a salad to complete my veggie intake for the day.

Mixed greens, carrot, grape tomatoes, cucumber, cabbage…drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice…

Dessert is going to be a mini cupcake!  The cutest baby mama came door-to-door today letting the neighborhood know that she’s selling baked goods to make $$$ as a stay-at-home mom…and gave a couple samples.  Smart girl.

Haligonians:  melissadmiller.blogspot.com  :)

Anywho, this post is crazy long now so I shall run off and enjoy the boob tube with FH.  Oh, and torture myself with some Booty Camp DVD butt pain exercises.  eeeeek!

Do you struggle with knowing how much to eat to feel satisfied?

Big Food Day

I’m full.  As in my body feels full…as it should.  But funny enough, I’m still hungry.  I think my early latte followed by late smoothie buggered up my eating schedule today.  My body doesn’t know how to react!

Lunch today was leftovers…well, mostly leftovers…I steamed up some more carrots and baby bok choy to mix in with last night’s stirfry and noodles.

 

For dessert I couldn’t wait to jump into my fresh container of Liberte Coconut yogurt.  Heaven!!

Mixed with 1/2 banana.  It’s a creamy tropical treat!!

During my weekly conference call I always like to have a snack…so I grabbed the remaining bakery bites from last night’s dessert.  That peanut butter bar bit melted in my mouth! nom!

Dinner’s meaty protein was from the Pete’s Frootique meat counter.  We had such luck with that stuffed pork tenderloin that I decided to grab a couple more prepared items to try.

For me, the Chicken Bouquet…a chicken breast rolled up with asparagus, mozzarella, and I think roasted red peppers…

FH doesn’t care for chicken with the skin on (I peeled the skin off mine anyway, but still…) so I got him a stuffed pork pinwheel.  Not entirely sure what it was stuffed with but it was different than the tenderloin stuffing.

 

And for something completely different…polenta! 

I saw the tube of prepared polenta in the deli and decided on a whim to buy it.  After surfing around the internet looking for recipes I opted to go the simple route and just season and crisp it up in a frying pan.

1/2” slices…

Brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with s&p…

Cooked in a hot pan with a dab of melted butter.  3 minutes per side, until slightly brown and crisp…

Sprinkled with parmesan when plating…

All served up with steamed brussel sprouts…

Verdict:  chicken was kind of bland (maybe because I removed the skin?), pork was yummy (some kind of cheese in the stuffing), and I thought the polenta was pretty tasty while FH thought it was tasteless (booooo).  Fine…more for me! ha!

Now…I don’t need dessert…however I think more yogurt might be in my future.  I am making myself sit through Mercy and a cup of tea first, and if I’m still hungry after that then I can have my snack before bed.  :)

Does anyone have a great polenta recipe they want to share?