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

FitBit Stats 04/03/2013

Did you get moving?


6859 steps taken

        

2 floors climbed

• You have climbed: A Tall Giraffe
  

  You just climbed
  

  A Tall Giraffe

  
  
  

  (2 floors)

  
  

  Next milestone in 1 floor

 

2.99 miles traveled

                       

2356 calories burned

FitBit Stats 04/05/2013

What did you do to get moving today?

5435 steps taken

        

5 floors climbed

• You have climbed: The Hollywood Sign

 

                               

2.27 miles traveled

                       

2342 calories burned

FitBit Stats 04/04/2013

What did you do to get moving today?

Today was Jason's Birthday and I spent almost 90 minutes at Walmart getting party supplies. You can really add up the steps and miles by trekking through the store.

10634 steps taken

        

2 floors climbed

• You have climbed: A Tall Giraffe
  

  You just climbed
  

  A Tall Giraffe

  (2 floors)

  
  

  Next milestone in 1 floor

 

4.55 miles traveled

                       

2640 calories burned

SkinnyTaste Turkey BBQ Bacon Meatloaf

My kids are pretty good about eating their vegetables but I know that's not the norm. So how do you get them to eat their veggies without the dinner-time fight? You HIDE them. Thanks to Gina at www.SkinnyTaste.com for her veggie loaded Turkey Meatloaf topped with Bacon and BBQ Sauce!

Bacon Topped Petite Turkey Meatloaf with BBQ Sauce

This meatloaf is packed with flavor and loaded with zucchini and red bell pepper. What better way to use up that zucchini you have left in the freezer from last summer? Everyone in the house LOVED this and I had leftover that I made the 2 & 5 year old Meatloaf sandwiches with for lunch today. Head on over here to check out the recipe and browse around her site for more fantastic recipes. She has done the work for you and figured out the nutritional stats for each recipe, including points values for the Old & New Weight Watchers program. SkinnyTaste is one of my favorite sites for inspiration.

Produce Problems

So many times I've heard people say they can't eat healthy because it's too expensive. I could give you a list of medical procedures related to obesity that will cost far more then what you'll pay at the checkout stand. Let's be honest though, have you walked through the produce aisle lately? The prices are kind of ridiculous. There are ways around some of the gouging that takes place in that department of the grocery store, however.

My first favorite is Bountiful Baskets. Bountiful, What? BOUNTIFUL BASKETS! It's a food co-op where you make a contribution on Monday for a mystery basket to be picked up on Saturday. You can choose a Conventional or an Organic Basket. Conventional baskets are $15 and Organic are $25. I've added it up several times and generally come home with twice the produce I would get for the same amount at the grocery store. Also, because you don't know what you'll be recieving in advance, it's a great way to try new things you might not otherwise purchase! To get involved in your community or see if it's available where you live visit www.bountifulbaskets.org.

The next best thing you can do to reduce your produce cost, GROW GROW GROW! Anyone can grow a garden- house or apartment, alot of room or a little. Gardens can be grown in green houses or raised beds or garden plots or flower pots! I once read that having a garden is like growing your own money. A packet of seeds can run as little as ten cents and will produce several plants to keep you nourished all summer long. Plus you get the added benefit of Vitamin D from the sunshine and you'll burn a few extra calories keeping your garden tended.

This is the seed starter I began just this past weekend. We have three kinds of tomatoes, lettuce, watermelon, cucumber, jalapeno, bell peppers and pumpkins. If you look closely you can see some have already begun to sprout. I'll plant them outside in a few weeks when it warms up a little more and we'll have lots of basic produce all summer long. The entire growing set-up including starter green house and organic seeds cost us less than $20.

What are you waiting for? Get going and get growing!

FitBit Stats 04/02/2013

Did you get moving yesterday?

Here are my daily goals as set by the program
10,000 steps
10 flights of stairs
2,466 calories burned
48 oz water consumed


April 2, 2013

4780 steps of goal 10,000
2
flights of stairs of goal 10

2283 calories burned of goal 2466

No water entered.

FitBit Stats 04/01/2013

Did you get moving yesterday?

Here are my daily goals as set by the program
10,000 steps
10 flights of stairs
2,466 calories burned
48 oz water consumed


April 1, 2013

2054 steps of goal 10,000

1 flights of stairs of goal 10

2014 calories burned of goal 2466

No water entered. - Noticing a trend here?

Cupcakes and Frosting and Sprinkles - Oh My!

Cupcake shops are all the rage these days. Those soft sweet confections topped with beautiful mounds of creamy icing in more flavors then is even imaginable. Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel and Birthday Cake and Pina Colada ... The one flavor that seems to be everyone's favorite though, is Red Velvet. Who doesn't love that gorgeous dark red color and contrasting fluffy cream cheese icing? I was unable to resist the call of said cupcake today... but who can say no when their 12 year old says "Mom, wanna try a cupcake I made with my EasyBake?"... I'm not even counting these calories ;-)

Chinese Please!

This past week has been Spring Break for my kids. Friday night Grandma took the three oldest to stay over. Mr. Peepers and The Littlest Princess stayed home for, as Grandma reminds me, they don't sleep through the night. (Note The Littlest Princess asleep in teh background).

Date nights are few and far between but this was a perfect opportunity for an at-home date night and I like themes so it was to be CHINESE night! Grabbed some paper lanterns for $3 from Walmart and hung them over my table (It's a small town, those were my only color options) and set about preparing some of our favorite "fast" food.

Crazy Cuizine Chicken Potstickers: 240 calories for EIGHT. Super tasty and a great portion size for the calories. These are pre-cooked so just heat & eat.

 

 

 

Tai Pei Chicken Egg Rolls- 120 calories for one. Considering most fast-food restaurant egg rolls can top 200-300 calories, these are a bargain. Just bake & serve

 

 

Finally, prepared salad mix. This pic isn't exactly what we had but I couldn't find the appropriate picture. Ours was a cabbage Asian salad mix. First thing to do- ditch those fried won ton skins and the included dressing.

 

 

This is a much more reasonable dressing option and one of my favorites. Only 50 calories for 2 Tablespoons

 

 

 

I dumped the entire bag of mix in a bowl. Then cut up 4 oz. (raw weight) of chicken and sauteed it with some non-stick spray just until it was just golden brown and cooked through then tossed it with a pinch of ginger and 1 tbsp of the Kraft Light Asian Toasted Sesame dressing. I added the chicken to our salad mix and topped it off with some sliced green onions and 1/2 c. LaChoy Chow Mein Noodles for some crunch (Fewer calories than those fried won ton strips). This will make approximately 4 1-cup servings. Top each serving with an additional 1 tbsp dressing. If you are going to have leftovers of your salad, I recommend topping your individual portions with 1/8c. chow mein noodles instead of adding the entire 1/2 c. to your salad as they will lose their crunch in the fridge overnight.

 

 

 

1 Egg Roll       120 Calories

4 Pot Stickers   120 Calories

 1 c. salad mix   15 Calories

1/8 c. Chow Mein Noodles 32 Calories

1 1/4 Tbsp Dressing 32 calories

 (this accounts for the salad topping & that mixed with the chicken)

1 oz. Sauteed Chicken Breast 31 calories

1 Fortune Cookie 35 calories (not pictured)

 

Total : 385 calories

 

You can have "Fast" food. This was almost as quick as the local drive through and much healthier as well as more tasty. To top of our date night, we watched "Tangled" and then released Wish Lanterns. Date night - and even Chinese Food- can be fun and healthy!

FitBit Stats 03/31/2013

Did you get moving yesterday?

Here are my daily goals as set by the program
10,000 steps
10 flights of stairs
2,466 calories burned
48 oz water consumed


March 31, 2013

6,362 steps of goal 10,000 - this ended up being just over 4 miles

1 flights of stairs of goal 10

2340 calories burned of goal 2466

No water entered.

FitBit Stats 03/30/2013

Did you get moving yesterday?

Here are my daily goals as set by the program
10,000 steps
10 flights of stairs
2,466 calories burned
48 oz water consumed


March 30, 2013

6,750 steps of goal 10,000

2 flights of stairs of goal 10

2356 calories burned of goal 2466

No water entered.

FitBit Stats 03/29/2013

Did you get moving yesterday?

Here are my daily goals as set by the program
10,000 steps
10 flights of stairs
2,466 calories burned
48 oz water consumed

March 29, 2013

6,637 steps of goal 10,000

2 flights of stairs of goal 10

2,325 calories burned of goal 2466

No water entered.