Grilled chicken... and my Granola recipe- YUM!

The chicken last night was delicious! Unfortunately, the marinade didn't really flavor it, so next time I do it overnight instead of the 4 hours it recommends. It took about an hour to cook, and the last few minutes I put it over direct heat to brown it up more. So moist and wonderful! I browned and roasted some small new potatoes seasoned with a French mix of garlic, lavender, basil, chervil, marjoram, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, savory, and thyme. I bought the mix at Aldis of all places! I also steamed some sliced carrots and sauteed broccolini. No pics of those of course, too busy eating! I do have chicken and veggies leftover for lunch today, if I'm even hungry.

I haven't been sleeping terribly well lately, tossing and turning all night long after taking at least two hours to fall asleep. I have tried different sleeping pills and such, but nothing is really working. I have been getting so tired, I find myself waking up later and later every morning- today was almost 10am!! I'm sure a big part of it is that I'm not getting any exercise. It's been so rainy that I just haven't had the opportunity to go for walks and when it isn't raining I've been working more! Hopefully next week it will stop/slow down so I can walk.

Checked in this morning... 189.2! That's even after having banana bread at breakfast yesterday, so I felt safe enough to have granola this morning. I made some homemade last week and it's very good! Here's the recipe:

Granola

7 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup raw wheat germ

1/2 cup each sliced almonds and chopped walnuts

1 cup SF maple syrup

3/4 cup canola oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients in a huge bowl, whisk the wet in a smaller one. Pour the wet onto the dry and mix well (use your hands!). Divide mixture between two large rimmed baking sheets and bake at 250 for one hour. Stir the mixture and bake another hour. Remove from the oven and cool completely. You can add 1 cup unsweetened coconut to the dry ingredients, but Joe doesn't like it so I left it out. Also, after it cools you can add some raisins, dried currants, or even mini chocolate chips! It's not very sweet, so it's perfect I think. I bet it would work really well as a crunch topping for apple pie or something like that. Great in a bowl of milk too!!!

We're going to a play tomorrow night- Yay for sitters! ESU is doing Plaza Suite, and of course we have free tix to the summer theater shows. This will be the first time in ages we've gotten to go out ALONE, so we're greatly looking forward to it!

The new store is not going well. All this rain- at the worst possible time- is delaying the finishing of the drive-thru area. Can't pour concrete when it's pouring rain! The inside lights won't be in until Tuesday, meaning the electrician will be hanging them on the Fourth of July, so he isn't happy. They were supposed to have arrived weeks ago, but got lost somehow??? They also found out Wednesday that the pop machine Joe ordered a month ago has disappeared from the shipper? Luckily it was a second unit, but that means there won't be one out in the lobby for customers to fill their own cups. It's nuts! Like I said before- whatever COULD go wrong HAS! They had scheduled a "dry-run" for the drive-thru for Monday night. All 17 employees got 5 coupons to give their friends and family for free food from the drive-thru. They won't be ready for it Monday! Joe is stressed, I am stressed for him, and the poor workers putting this store together are getting stressed too. Can't wait for it to be over! It''l be worth it when it's over, but until then- SHEESH!

I weighed the huge cuke from yesterday- it weighs 3.5 pounds! That's insane, dontcha think? Sure is going to make a lot of sweet & spicy pickles! I will make those tomorrow.

Rain, Rain, Go Away! Well, then again...

Yes, it has been raining now for two solid days! I do have something wonderful to report tho- during a short lull today I picked these-Notice the pencil for size reference?!? The carrots are the small variety (in addition to being dwarfed by the massive cukes!) and the zuke I just really wanted to pick! It will go well with the veggie fajitas when I make them! Guess the rain is good for something after all... Sam likes it too!

The other night I made a great bean salad, but somehow the pictures got erased? Here is the recipe anyway!

Santa Fe Salad

1 can each pintos and black beans, drained and rinsed well

1 small can sliced black olives

1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1/2 cup sweet corn

1/4 cup fat free sour cream

2 tbsp lime juice

1 cup fresh cilantro,chopped

2 tsp cumin

2 cloves garlic, minced

pinch salt

Mix everything together and fridge for a few hours before serving. The original recipe called for green beans and green chiles, but I left those out. I do think it needed some chopped tomatoes!! Cukes would be good too...

Tonight I am making Chicken Dijonaise from my grilling cookbook. It's basically a whole chicken (flattened) marinated in a mix of dry vermouth, dijon mustard, garlic, pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice. It smells incredible as it's cooking now, so I hope I remember to photo it! I am serving it with sauteed broccolini and steamed carrots. I am also making broasted new potatoes, but I doubt I will eat any. Saving those calories for a glass or two of pinot grigio! ;) If I remember to photo, I will post it tomorrow.

Long week...

I haven't posted in a couple days. It's been a long week already!
The store Joe has been getting ready to move closed yesterday, and they spent most of the day tearing down the old store. That meant he didn't get to do as much in the office today. This translates into me not being able to get MY stuff done in usual fashion. I also had to drive to another town for him to take them some supplies as they have been very busy lately. MILEAGE+BEING ON THE CLOCK= NICE CHECK! The one real downside is poor Joe. He hasn't slept much in the last month, and the next week is going to be very hard physically. He also had one of those days today, everything that could go wrong did.
So on my side of the world...
I have decided to start tracking my calories again for a little while. My loss had stopped and started to go the other way a bit. Well the first day I typed in my usual morning omelet and was horrified!!! It was over 640 calories! Soooooo, a few changes and better portioning later, I got it down to a reasonable 450 or so. I am trying for about 1500/day. That may seem like nothing to some, but it's really only temporary. In fact, I have been doing this for just a few days and have gone from 193 to 190.2 today. I know that's not accurate, but it's better than it going the other way!!! I plan to do this for another week or so, then gradually move up a little. I am also cutting back on the grains and starches a bit. I would really like to just get my starch from veggies for this time- sweet potatoes, peas, carrots... I look at it as a "jump-start", and I really need one!
Well, I want to spend some time with Joey! Bye!

Broccoli with Clam Sauce a a little pasta!

I made this last night and the pasta you see is it, I had MAYBE 1.5 oz? I've made this before, and this time it was just as good as always even without the pasta! Basically it's just 2 cans of clams drained reserving the juice, a bag of frozen broccoli (cooked), a little milk, and the juice from the clams! I topped it with parmesan cheese and that's it! I also had a big salad, so there! ;)

I spent most of the day looking for a new office. Our one we're in now is just not the best situation. I found several, and one really would be super! It's in a real estate office, but up on the second floor and in the corner. It's actually two offices in one, the back main office and a front "reception" area. It would be so nice! There is a kitchenette just down the hall with a fridge and microwave that we'd be welcome to use. It's a bit more than we're paying now, but such a better deal in the long run- it even has cable TV in there?! We have to wait until Friday tho, technically it's rented already but they have yet to pay their deposit...

Not much to say now, I will try to catch up tomorrow.

Burgers and Chicken Zin

I forgot to post the burgers we had the other night- so good! Not terribly friendly mind you, but with the frustration Joe and I are feeling at this ugly plateau we're both at we didn't care! I basically made 6oz burgers from nothing more than 85/15 ground beef, then after I flipped them topped them with two slices bacon and a mix of shredded cheddar and (gasp!) a tiny bit of French's onions. Then when they were done, put them together with BBQ sauce and homemade pickles! Great with roasted sweet potatoes.

Last night I made Chicken Zin. It's from my grilling book and is based on Coq Au Vin. You marinate the thighs in a mix of zinfandel, dijon mustard, garlic, thyme, and EVOO. Then grill them alongside boiler onions and shrooms. I also added the first eggplant and baby zuke from our garden! I cooked up some sprouts to go with it, and it was heavenly! All I do for the sprouts is trim them and simmer in 1/2 cup water with a chicken cube (beef is even better!) in a saute pan. This time I added bacon pieces. Simmer it about 10 minutes until they are just about done, then remove the lid and let the liquid cook out and brown the sprouts a bit. Even Sam likes them this way!

So the big plan for today is shopping- well, sort of. Joe wants to start working on the guest bedroom. That room is so atrocious! His plan is to go find a huge rug and buy it. Then he wants to base the colors and such on this rug. Pull up the rank carpet and tile the floor (it's in the basement, so we'd need a reallllly big rug!), find an antique head/footboard for the bed, replace the closet mirrors/doors... Big project. It's either that or we repaint the living room and I'm not up for that just yet. I LIKE the color we chose this last time, even if he decided once it was on the walls that he didn't. I find it relaxing!

The garden is going crazy today. We got some rain last night, and when I was out there I found several more cantaloupes! I picked a cuke the other night to have with our burgers, but there are still two bigguns out there. The onions are about ready too! Yay for gardens!!!

Off to get the kid's hair chopped! Happy Saturday!

Garden part three!

These are my beautiful black hollyhocks. That is one happy bee!

Here are half of our carrots. We planted Purple Haze and small orange ones this year. Sam made the marker!

My clematis is very happy. It got cut back early on, then again after that late freeze. Will do that again!

I keep forgetting to photo the incredibly happy grape vine! I will try to remember tomorrow. Going to be tons of jelly and juice this year!

More garden...

Here are the sweet potatoes. There are nine plants.

Here are the canning tomatoes. There are tons in there!

And the zukes. Can you see them in there?

My pretty eggplant! I can't wait to grill these!





Happy cukes! We have already gotten two about 12 inches long, with a diameter of maybe 3 inches? These are still babies at maybe 9 inches long?!

My Garden

The pics of my salad last night were awful. I can tell you tho, it was delish! Pretty simple really- mixed greens, avocado, bacon, cheese, egg, ranch, tomatoes, red onion, and those croutons. Good stuff...

I took some pics of the garden last night for everyone. Here they are! I will have to do this in two posts.

This is the cantaloupe plant. if you look closely you can see the little melon in there!

This is the butternut. there are several in this picture.

This is the onion patch. It got quite beaten by the wind! See the volunteer tomato?

Here are the three jalapenos plants. Almost time for stuffed "mice"!

And this is the funky artichoke. You can't see, but it's covered in little red ants...

Shanghai Salad

First off I have to say-

DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO TYPE WITH A KITTY PAWING AT THE SCREEN???

Charlie has developed this obsession with pawing the computer screen in search of the little space shuttle mousie. This has now begun to get annoying- she just now knocked over my tea all over the desk! OY!

So last night I tried a new recipe. It's from that great cookbook "The Good Carb Book". It's called Shanghai Salad and can be served alone or on top of lettuce. I decided to use the lettuce for the extra veg- wouldn't have it any other way! Here's the recipe:

Shanghai Salad (this was for our two big salads)

2 cups cold cooked angel hair pasta (WW of course!)

3 green onions, thinly sliced

1 large carrot, coarsely shredded

1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts

1/2 cup chopped bamboo shoots

1 large chicken breast, cooked and sliced thinly

1 bag baby lettuce mix

Grape tomatoes

Snow peas

Red pepper, julienned (I didn't have any)

Dressing ingredients- Mix together and fridge for 2 hours!

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp honey

1/4 cup Splenda

2 tbsp sesame oil

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp finely minced ginger

1/4 tsp chili paste

1 tbsp sesame seeds

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup veg oil (or EVOO)

Toss the noodles and everything but the chicken, tomatoes, snow peas, and lettuce with 1/4 cup of the dressing and fridge for 2 hours. When ready to eat, layer on a plate lettuce, noodles, tomatoes and snow peas, and chicken. Drizzle on additional dressing if desired. You could add chow mien noodles or something, but it really is fabulous just like this!

My friend Linda- who farms the best eggs- has been sharing her "can't-wear-'em-anymore" clothes with me for the last couple months. She gave me another great bagful of shirts today that I am so excited about! I can't tell you how much she's saved me from buying lately. It's great! She also has chickens and we buy our eggs from her. If you haven't had a farm-fresh eggs before, try it once. I swear you will NEVER go back to store-bought! We switched in March, and have only bought store eggs once since then (and that was an emergency). There really is nothing like it. I eat one every morning! They have ten times the flavor of the others and they are the one thing we eat I can say are truly LOCAL. Look for a local farmer!

Garden is getting happy! There are two or three little zukes, the cukes are growing a million little ones, and I even have one small Japanese eggplant! Going to use that and a zuke tomorrow night. There are roma tomatoes everywhere- including a volunteer in the onions! My early butternut plant is covered to the tips with little babies! Luckily my friend Jane wants some, or we'd be eating it every night this fall! The cantaloupe plant has only only melon, but it's still very early. The sweet potato plants are vining out nicely, just wish I could see how they were doing underground. My artichoke finally looks like it may want to send up a stalk this year after all. I was beginning to get grumpy about it. It has sent out many new and more vertical leaves in the last two days. Seems a good sign? If anyone knows about growing them, I'd love advice!

Off to start getting things ready for dinner- BLT salads tonight with croutons made from that rosemary onion focaccia!

The weekend details...

So I couldn't say what we were doing for the weekend because it was a surprise. Over a month ago my dad's wife Suzy asked if we could possibly come to Tulsa to surprise Dad for his birthday. We had been keeping this a secret for quite awhile! So, Friday Joe worked the morning, then we all got in the car and drove to Tulsa. Not a bad drive actually, except for the kiddo in the backseat whining "Are we there yet?". We got to their house a bit later than planned (there was an accident on the freeway immediately before our exit and we had to find another way), and we had Sam go ring the bell. When Dad answered, he was floored to find Sam standing on the steps! It was great! We stayed there until Sunday morning, then came home a different route- much faster and shorter. It was a great weekend! I must say I was very surprised that he didn't suspect anything after my mysterious entry the other day...

They took us to dinner Saturday night at PF Changs. Oh man, that was sooooo good! I had the Sichuan by the Sea- scallops, calamari, and shrimp in a sichuan sauce over brown rice. The calamari was so incredibly tender, it was all so delicious! Probably a good thing there isn't one near us! I think I may be able to replicate the chicken lettuce cups we had for the appetizer too. I will work on that. So not a great weekend food-wise, but we're back to behaving this week! dad said next time he'll take me to try sushi. I have been wanting to try it, but Joe has no desire!

Another thing we did was go to a Wild Oats store after dinner. I have never been to one, and could very easily lose all sense of monetary control there. They had Larabars in seven flavors, so we got a pecan pie one and a chocolate coconut one. I bought bulk fructose and lots of bulk spelt flour for so cheap! I also bought this gorgeous orchid. It was a surprise to find out what it would look like- it was covered in buds but had none open yet. Two of them started opening in the car on the way home. I'm very happy it's so different!

Well that's all I have to report right now. Today I am working on getting back to normal!

Friday!!!

I did make the cake yesterday, but Joe is going to have to live with me making something else. I doubled the recipe because it freezes well. The 9inch pan I baked part of it in stuck a bit and the bundt pan I did the rest in stuck horribly! Needless to say, the bundt cake is in pieces in the freezer and the other I coated with a glaze to hold it together! It still tastes great tho! ;) No pictures this time however... I bet the broken pieces will make a fabulous trifle with blueberries and lemon pudding!

I made the Sausage and Peppers again last night and added angel hair pasta. It was outstanding! I even took a pic for the blog! This time I added a small sliced zucchini and the garlic I forgot last time. It was even better! Here's the "official" recipe and the photo:

Sausage and Peppers W/Pasta

4 links Italian sausage

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 red bell pepper, chunked

1 green bell pepper, chunked

1 onion, sliced

1 small zucchini, sliced

2 tsp each dried oregano and basil

1 tbsp minced garlic

Angel Hair pasta, cooked and tossed with EVOO

In an 8x11 baking dish, mix the veggies and herbs. Lay the sausages on top and cover the dish with foil. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour, then remove the foil and bake another 20 minutes or until the sausages brown a bit and are cooked thoroughly.

Serve on top of the pasta and top with a little shredded Parmesan if desired (highly recommended!).

So Dad checked my blog yesterday! Guess he knew I was thinking about him, eh? I can't wait until July when we can take a weekend and go visit them in the new house. It's going to be so nice having them only 4 hours away instead of 14! Sam is very excited about going camping with them sometime this summer. Can't imagine why... His Gramps was the first person to take him camping! We just have to convince Sam that it's okay to camping somewhere other than Arches... That may take time!

Sam took this picture of Miss Charlie last night. She must be part ferret, she is always sitting up like this! I even catch Max doing it too from time to time. They are truly bizarro kitties! I'm very happy that her mark on her forehead isn't fading anymore. The Eiffel Tower is too cute to disappear!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Swimtop and dinner...

I got my swimtop yesterday! It's really nice too! I ended up spending almost $80 after shipping, but it got here in 3 days and I got a free beach bag with it. Here is the link top what I bought, I got the black one- http://www.junonia.com/detail.htm?sid=537005&tl=1&ldid=2&sdid=5 It looks great with the boyshort bottoms I bought at Walmart. I am trying it out today. Sam passed his level in swimming yesterday, so today is a free day and I'm going to swim with him.

Last night I made a pretty tasty dinner. I have a great grilling book and got the chicken recipe from there. They are called "Thunder Thighs"! I also made yummy soba noodles with lots of veggies and some broccoli to have with it. Very good meal!

Thunder Thighs

1 package chicken thighs, boneless & skinless

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup red rooster sauce (Vietnamese chili garlic sauce)

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp sesame oil

Mix everything together in a zipper bag and marinate for about 2-3 hours. Supposed to grill them, but it was raining so I broiled them for about 10 minutes on the first side and 7-8 on the second. Yummy!

Asian Noodles

1 package soba noodles, cooked as directed

1/2 small zucchini, julienned

1 carrot, julienned

1/4 red bell pepper, julienned

1 small onion, thinly sliced

2 large mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 tbsp EVOO

2 tbsp low sugar teriyaki sauce

Saute the carrots and shrooms in the oil about 4 minutes, then add the onion and zucchini. When they begin to soften, add the noodles, pepper, and sauce and toss thru. That's it!

For some reason (maybe been skimping on the water or something?) my weight has been at 190-191 for the last few days. I think I haven't been doing well with my water and know I have had tiny bits of non-friendly foods. It may also be that I haven't been walking lately. Hope today's swimming will help a little.

Have tons to do today, unfortunately nothing I can mention here for now. Let's just say I am baking a Lemon Olive Oil Cake this afternoon for the weekend. I will try to remember to photo it and post the recipe.

Today is my Dad's 56th birthday! Happy Birthday Dad!!

Catching up! Fondue and Focaccia

I know, I know... I haven't been very good the last week or so in posting. Been busy with those calls and other work, sorry!

Sam had a friend spend the night Friday, so instead of fish for dinner we had pizza. It was good, not fabulous, and I ate way too much of it. Oh well, not the end of the world! Of course then we had leftovers Saturday night and Sunday for lunch... It's gone now tho!

I made "stuffed" cod the other night. I have the recipe for the stuffed shrooms from Olive Garden so I used that stuffing and topped the filets. The stuffing was fabulous- full of WG bread, clams, and parmesan cheese! Very tasty filling, the fish was not great tho. Cod has no flavor! Next time I will just stuff portabello caps.

Last night I made fondue for dinner. It was just a classic swiss fondue, nothing fancy. I served it with cut-up carrots, red bell pepper, and homemade focaccia! I also made a quick cucumber salad from part of one of our garden cukes and ranch dressing. All went well with a bottle of Vampire Cab. So good! Here is the recipe for the fondue:

Swiss Fondue

1# swiss cheese, cut small or shredded (I use 2% Kraft)

2tbsp WW flour

1 cup dry white wine

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 clove garlic

Toss the cheese with the flour and set aside to warm to room temp. In a medium saucepan over low heat, heat the wine and halved garlic clove to simmer. At a simmer, remove the clove and add the lemon juice. Slowly by handfuls add the cheese, waiting to add more until the last handful melts. Stir constantly in a figure-8 to keep from burning. It will take several minutes to melt and mix in all of the cheese. When all incorporated, serve with bread and veggies- apples are great too!

I made focaccia to serve with the fondue. This time I split the dough into two loaves so I could top one with the rosemary and onion and leave one plain. I did brush both with a garlic rosemary oil tho. Yummmmm! Here is the recipe for that:

Focaccia

Preferment-

1 cup WW flour

3/4 cup water

Pinch yeast

Dough-

All of the preferment

1 1/4 cup water

3 cups WW flour

2 tsp salt

The rest of the yeast packet

Mix the preferment ingredients the night before in your mixer bowl and cover with wrap overnight. It will look very dry- don't worry!

The next day your preferment will be puffy and wet looking. Add to it the dough ingredients, starting with the water. Mix in the mixer on low speed until it holds together (it should be very slack and wet still, I usually have to add more water). Then mix on low for 2 minutes, then increase to medium for another 4 minutes. The dough will still be soft. Cover it tightly with wrap and let rise 30 minutes. A great place for this is in a cold oven with the light on!

After 30 minutes, turn it out onto a floured surface and pat it down a bit. Flour your hands well! Fold one-thrid of the dough over and then the bottom third- like you are folding a business letter. Brush the excess flour from the dough when you fold, you do not want to incorprate any more into it. Turn the dough a half turn and fold again to make a packet. Put the dough back into the bowl and cover again. Let rise another 30 minutes. Repeat the folding process and again let rise for 30 minutes. Do one more fold for a total of three. Put the bundle onto a well-oiled very large baking sheet (use good olive oil!) after the last folds. Spread the dough to the edges, you may need to let it sit for a couple minutes. Cover the dough after it is spread out and let it rise another 30 minutes. This is the time I oil the loaf with the infused oil.

During this last rise, preheat the oven to 500 degrees (yes! I said 500!). If you have a baking stone, put it in there. Allow this to heat for 30 minutes.

To top the dough, I mixed some olive oil with two cloves garlic and a sprig of rosemary and warmed that and let it steep for an hour. I brushed this oil on both loaves and topped one loaf with thinly sliced sweet onion and finely chopped rosemary. I dimpled the top a bit when I added the toppings. You don't have to add the onion tho, you could just brush it with the oil and sprinkle kosher or sea salt on it!

Reduce the oven temp to 425 and put the baking sheet in right on top of the stone. Bake the bread for 18-20 minutes until deep golden brown. Remove and let cool at least 10 minutes before cutting (use kitchen shears, they work best!).

Been missing me? Yeah, right!

Ha! I just realized I haven't posted in a couple days. Been very busy with those phone calls and my other work. Today was payroll, so it was a long day anyway!
I have been very happy with weigh-in the last two days. I was nervous after the marshmallows, but as of this morning I am back to 189.6! Funny how that seems to be a magic number? So I fully expect next week to be even better. I have been holding myself to one serving of grain- if any- for well over a week and have seen tremendous results. I do not intend to change that much for the time being.
Last night I made a great dinner! We adore pasta (one of the reasons we have some trouble sometimes), and I love to make homemade sauce. Last night I did one that was fabulous, and with a little bit of pasta it made a nice two-night meal! Here's what I did:
Browned 12 oz ground round with one half of an onion chopped and one zucchini chopped. Then add in one large and one regular can of diced tomatoes and Italian seasoning (I have one called simply "marinara seasoning"). I simmered it for about 15 minutes while the pasta cooked and drained, then tossed it with 6oz of pasta (measured before cooking of course). I layered half in a large baking dish and topped it with a container of skim ricotta and some mixed Italian cheese, then put the rest of the pasta mix on top and some more cheese. I baked it for about 30 minutes until it was browned and bubbly. I did forget to take a pic (surprised?), but I can tell you it was delish! We ate half of it last night and finished it tonight. I really was good!
Tomorrow night we're having Sloppy Joe's I think, or maybe fish. I can't remember! I can't promise I will photo it, but I wish I could remember to!
So this weekend we are taking Sam fishing again. He is very happy! He's been taking swimming lessons all week and has then again next week. I am glad he's having fun there too. Monday night his friend's mom called to see if Sam could come over Tuesday and play. He did- all day no less!- and I took him back today. The friend has a big sister who is 20 and she watches him all day. I "hired" her to watch Sam today so I could work. It worked wonderfully! I got to work and give it my full attention, and he got to play with his friend all day. Sounds like a great set-up to me! I have more work to do tomorrow, but can do all of it from home. Every payroll week tho... I think he's got a place to go!
I need to order a new swimsuit soon. My old one is still in great condition, but I have lost way too much to wear it comfortably! I want to get a tankini, and can buy the bottoms somewhere like Walmart (don't plan on needing the same size next year!), but the top is a different story. Those of you who know me know WHY I can't buy tops from just anywhere! GGGGGGGoodness knows! (teeheehee!) Anyway, I have found a great top- one made from chlorine-resistant material- but it's $70! JUST FOR THE TOP!!! Of course, that part of my body doesn't really seem to be changing much, or at least enough that I'll need another top in the next several years (unless the magic reduction-fairy pays me a visit...). Now it's just going to take some effort on my part to convince Joe I really need this one and not the $50 one. I called the company and the lady said the more expensive one is much better support, so that should be enough to do the trick. Wish me luck!
Off to spend time with Joe! Good night!

Camping!

Camping was a blast! It was just the one other family and us, so it was very nice. Not too many people, and we all got along great! Sam and their son had a ton of fun swimming in the lake, fishing with the dads, and trying to avoid the poison ivy. It was really nice to go and see him have fun, and for me to be around another mom to talk to! hahaha! We had a huge meal Saturday night of beanie weenies, smoked sausages, roasted veggies, and lots of chatting. After dinner we roasted marshmallows and of course made S'mores. All the kids had a blast, and so did we! Even Joe was cool with spending half of Saturday without a shower! He agreed to go again this summer, so that's progress. Neither one of us got much sleep. The site was pretty quiet (the surrounding people didn't keep partying) except for the coyotes howling and the wind blowing 20 MPH. All in all, it was a huge success!

I did a pretty darn good job staying on-target foodwise. I did eat several marshmallows, but how do you not when they are black and gooey?! I ate some new potatoes and baked beans, but that's not horrible. Yesterday we had quite a few grains, so today we are backing off a bit. Joe actually LOST weight over the weekend? How is that even possible???

So today's food has been-

Breakfast- slice of ham topped with veggies, two OM eggs, and cheese

Lunch- lemon yogurt (the Weight Watchers stuff is good!), roast beef, cuke salad

Dinner- will be riblets with corn on the cob (yeah, I LIKE IT, sue me!)

For my snack tonight I will probably have an apple and maybe some carrots.

Here are a couple pics from this weekend! Joe caught a big catfish and Sam helped his friend bring in a big walleye! We didn't keep any of the fish they caught tho.

Chicken Wings and Green Beans

Last night's dinner was good! The wings were fabulous, even if they weren't grilled. I marinated them for two hours in a mix of

3/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp chili garlic sauce

1 tsp spice mix (ginger, garlic, white pepper)

1 tsp sesame oil

and 2 tbsp rice vinegar

Then since it was pouring outside, I broiled them for 10 minutes on each side, brushing them with the marinade (yes Grandma, I boiled it first!). They were awesome, and I will definitely make them again, maybe next time I'll use the whole chicken? The green beans could have cooked a bit longer, but they were good. I sauteed half of a small sweet onion chopped finely with 1 tbsp minced garlic in a bit of EVOO, then threw in the beans and 1/2 cup water. I "steamed" them for about 7 minutes (should have done 10?) and then removed the lid to evaporate the liquid. I then stirred in one packet of Stevia Plus. I drizzled a little tamari on my helping- YUMM!

Yesterday Sam and I made cookies. It was raining all day and he was very bored, so we looked thru my cookbooks and found a recipe for whole grain Snickerdoodles. I used sugar-sub for the sugars IN them, but did use a tiny bit of real sugar for the rolling. They turned out a bit dry, almost biscuit-like in texture? Not bad tasting tho! Yes, I did have one- they were very very small. We made them to take with us today.

Joe brought Sam home a fishing pole last night, he was so excited! He had one already (an old ice-fishing pole, perfect size for him), but it doesn't work very well. They are outside now setting it up for later. We are still going camping, even with the tremendous amount of rain we have gotten the last week. It'll be interesting to see how muddy it is out there. Could be a short trip!

I better get out there and help get everything loaded into the truck. Back tomorrow!

Yesterday...

The shrimp last night were pretty good! I hate cooking them on the grill tho, I never know when they are done and usually end up overcooking them. Not last night tho, I did good! I skewered all of them, then sprinkled some with unsweetened coconut and some with cajun seasoning (paprika, thyme, oregano, cayenne, garlic & onion powders, salt, and pepper). The cajun were the best of course, coconut shrimp doesn't work well without real breading. We ate them with cheesy cauliflower and I finished the broccolini from the other night.

Lunch yesterday consisted of a container of yogurt and then a strawberry-banana smoothie after walking/bike riding. I tried jumping on the trampoline with Sam, but my legs were just too tired!

I did have a snack last night- more nuts, some grapes, and a hard-boiled egg. I also did a terrible job with my water yesterday, only had three of my five huge cups (22 oz each). I will do better today!

Today's food will be-

For breakfast I didn't feel like going thru the hassle of making my omelet. Instead I sauteed the shrooms and onions, put them onto a thick slice of ham and nuked that while frying two eggs OM. I put those on top and topped them with shredded cheese. OH MAN! I may switch to that from now on...

Lunch will be probably a small salad with grape tomatoes, cukes, and shredded carrots.

Dinner is going to be grilled chicken wings (yeahyeahyeah, not overly SB, but we love them!) and green beans.

We were up most of the night last night with pretty strong storms. Monsoonal downpour lasted at least an hour, with constant thunder loud and strong enough to shake the house and keep Joe and I awake. I bet we got at least 2 inches of rain! I can only imagine how happy the garden is right now, but there is more rain on the way this afteroon. Gonna make for some REALLY muddy camping tomorrow! Good thing I packed extra clothes... :)

I got some of my bazillion calls done yesterday. I did come up against a couple people who were, shall we say, less than nice? One woman went so far as to yell at me that she didn't like our boss and wanted me to make sure I never called again! MEOW! This was offset by the one woman who thanked me for calling, and she was so excited about the convention I was calling about. She was very pleasant, and I should have gotten her email address to write her and thank her for being so sweet to me! Why couldn't they all be like that? I mean, is it THAT hard to be nice to people? Granted, I WAS a little rude to the anti-abortion telemarketing/fundraiser guy who called here the other night, but come on! He was asking for it! teeheehee!

Off to call more grumpy people! Good thing I'm getting paid, huh?

TGIFriday!!!