Egg Drop Soup

 

This is such a simple recipe and it's great for a quick lunch or a great side to start dinner with. Beginning your meals with a salad topped with low cal dressing or a broth based soup will help fill you up and keep you from over eating the main dish. I love this soup in part because I suffer from migraines and MSG is a major trigger for me. Although many restaurants have quit using it, some have not. By making my own "Take-Out" at home, I control the ingredients and can still eat my favorite things without the additives.

Makes 4 cups     Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a meal  Calories 38 per cup
4 Cups Chicken Stock (or 4 c. water & 4 bullion cubes)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried parsley
1 Egg
1 Tbsp Cornstarch (optional)*

Bring stock, ginger & parsley to a boil then lower to simmer. Whisk egg in separate bowl then slowly stream into simmering stock and allow to remain about 1 minute until cooked through- DONE!

*If you wish to have your soup a thicker restaurant style consistency mix 1tbsp cornstarch with 1tbsp water and add to simmering stock before you add the egg. This increases the total recipe by 90 calories bringing each cup to 61 calories.

Three Bean Turkey Chili

As promised, a new recipe today! Remember that Turkey Meatloaf from the other night? I had 4 pieces left over which was not enough to feed all of us and I needed something fast for dinner. Anyone else ever realize it's 4 o'clock and you haven't even begun to THINK about what to feed the family? This was one of those nights. So I turned to my trusty food storage. Those who know me, know my basement looks like a mini-mart so I generally have lots of staples on hand. You could just as easily run to the store if you didn't have these ingredients. There are only a few and you'd get some more steps in! Chili is a quick, easy, filling and low calorie go-to.

 

 

 

 

Serving size: 1 Cup  Servings: 12  Calories: 177

4 squares leftover turkey meatloaf- bacon removed*

1 8oz can Tomato Sauce

1 can Kidney Beans not drained

1 can Pinto Beans not drained

1 can Black Beans not draineed

1 Can diced tomatoes with chiles (I had Pace, you can use Rotel)

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 large yellow onion, chopped

2 Tbsp Chopped Garlic

1 Tbsp Cumin

Salt & Pepper to taste

 

 

Spray a large dutch oven or pot (I used my non-stick ceramic cast iron dutch oven) with non-stick spray. Over medium heat sautee onions & garlic just until fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Dice meatloaf and add to pot stirring until heated through. Add cumin, then scrape bits from bottom of pot.

 

 

Add all the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat for 30-45 minutes until heated through and beans are tender.

 

I served the kids' with some shredded cheddar, homemade pico and baked tortilla strips. Jason and I just ate ours as-is and it was gone so quickly I didn't even get a finished picture!

 

*If you don't have leftover meatloaf you could make this with regular ground turkey just make sure to cook it through before adding your canned ingredients.You could also leave it out and make it vegetarian friendly. Meatless each serving is 112 calories. You can adjust with your meat of choice accordingly.

 

Week 5 Weigh-In

I've been at this new lifestyle for 5 weeks now. The first two weeks I didn't even tell my husband I'd started back. I needed to make sure I was going to stick with it and quite honestly I didn't want the pressure of being accountable to someone else. How quickly I'd forgotten what a support he is! As soon as I told him what I was up to he was my biggest cheerleader and jumped right in along side me. So the past three weeks we've been working together to eat better, log our food, read the labels and consistently weigh in. Some days I could scream because men lose so much faster than women, but I'll hang in there with him.

Most days around here are crazy. The oldest three are in school- TWO different schools on THREE different schedules.. So I spend a great deal of my day sitting and driving all over town. When I began the first week I thought I'd just change my eating because I didn't see where I could fit in exercise with our schedule. Week two I began 10 minutes on the elliptical, 5 days a week- I could carve out 10 minutes. By week 3 I was doing 20 minutes as soon as I dropped the oldest off at school , six days a week. I had finally found a few minutes for myself and now it was almost a necessity. By week 4 I was up to 25 minutes on the elliptical and alternating with Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.

I know the exercise is helping not only with the weight loss but also with my mood and energy levels. Every day is not easy. It's not easy to weigh, measure or count everything that crosses my lips. It's not easy with a baby that needs to eat and a screaming toddler and 3 arguing kids to find the time, the strength or the desire to exercise everyday. When I'm finished working out for the day, things run more smoothly, I have more energy and I'm more likely to make better food choices the rest of the day. (Don't want all that hard work to be for nothing!)

Jump in and get started. Losing weight is a marathon, not a sprint. I have not ended every week with a loss. As a matter of fact, every other week I've had a small gain. It's perseverance that matters as I've seen my body adjust and begin to lose again.

 I wish I'd done measurements when I began but I didn't.. I'll see about getting some this weekend. Here are my weigh-in's from the past 5 weeks:
Beginning March 6:     227.8
Week 1    March 13:    215.0
Week 2    March 20:    216.4 (I could've gotten discouraged here and given up... I didn't)
Week 3    March 27:    211.8
Week 4        April 3:    212.8
Week 5      April 10:    209.0

Down a total of 18.2 pounds

You can do it too. Make the choice to begin today. Download LoseIt! and add me as a friend (Brandilina@hotmail.com) and I'll be your cheerleader as we take this journey to better health together.

FitBit Stats 04/09/2013

What did you do to get moving today?
I babysat two crazy kids in addition to my own and had my 2 year old wrapped around my leg all day. As such I didn't get any organized exercise in :-(

4661 steps taken

        

7 floors climbed

• You have climbed: The Tallest Dinosaur

 

1.95 miles traveled

                       

2275 calories burned

FitBit Stats 04/08/2013

What did you do to get moving today?

4869 steps taken

        

3 floors climbed

• You have climbed: The World's Tallest Corn Stalk
  

  You just climbed
  

  The World's Tallest Corn Stalk

  (3 floors)

  
  

  Next milestone in 1 floor

 

                               

2.1 miles traveled

                       

2234 calories burned

FitBit Stats 04/07/2013

Whew I've been behind on updating my fit bit stats. I'm not coming anywhere near my 10,000/day goal but I've started back to my 30 Day Shred so I'm doing more resistance/weight training then walking. Building muscle mass burns more calories around the clock! Watch for a post later this week on why Cardio alone won't cut it.

What did you do to get moving today?

5023 steps taken

        

2 floors climbed

• You have climbed: A Tall Giraffe
 

2.11 miles traveled

                       

2207 calories burned

FitBit Stats 04/06/2013

What did you do to get moving today?

6041 steps taken

        

3 floors climbed

• You have climbed: The World's Tallest Corn Stalk
  

  You just climbed
  

  The World's Tallest Corn Stalk

  (3 floors)

  
  

  Next milestone in 1 floor

 

2.52 miles traveled

                       

2183 calories burned