Bloggy Dinner

So Matt had a great idea, he said that I should share my wonderful cooking with the interwebs world. So I will try. This first day is not my best effort, but its easy and quick and delicious. 2 cups of rice filled with eggs and veggies and you will be stuffed and clock in at just under 500 calories. Not bad for dinner I say.

I got this idea from the many times we go to Benihana, and wanted to recreate it at home for much less money and calories.

Shan Fried Rice
1 3/4 cups cooked calrose rice
1/4 Cup onion, diced
1/4 cup carrot- grated
1/8 cup green onion
1 Tbsp garlic
1 large egg
1 Tbsp butter
Soy sauce to taste

Melt butter in large pan. Add veggies and cook for a couple minutes. Add egg and scramble. Throw in rice, combine well, and add as much soy sauce as you prefer. I like to let it cook for a minute or two to get it nice and brown. That's it! Easy peasy.

My husband usually adds the frozen vegetable mix, but I like to keep mine simple. We have also been known to add chicken or shrimp in it as well.

Here is how it turns out:

Definitely not the prettiest dish on the planet, but man its good.


Not sure what is on the menu tonight, hopefully something blog- worthy. I am thinking homemade calzones.. Nom.

I am still here!

Just been lazy about updating. Nothing too exciting has been coming my way recently, so my bloggy life is boring.

I did lose another .4lbs, so that is something. I am thoroughly convinced it was due to the 30ds, since it really mixed up my workouts. I obviously need some variation to prevent plateaus, so I will probably be trying anything and everything. I am determined to not go crazy during the holidays, even though I have been seeing some crazy delicious looking recipes for the holidays that have made me think about throwing my diet down the drain.

Did you know ONE fun size bag of M&Ms has 70 calories? There is like 9 m&ms in there, and it is more than like an entire bag of celery. This Halloween will probably not be pleasant for me, since I will constantly be analyzing what I could be eating instead of this candy. I am not sure if that is good or bad, but really, its not like I have crazy cravings or anything, so I am thinking it is a good thing. I have always been a grazer, so if I just control my habits of not eating everything in sight, I should be all good.

One interesting thing I did last week was made my first spaghetti squash. I am in love. It is so easy to prepare, and made a perfect low calorie lasagna. Next time, I will probably just use the squash as a base and put the sauce and cheese on top, since it doesn't really hold shape very well, so the whole lasagna process was sort of a waste. Matt even took the leftovers to work and I got tons of wife points for that. Everyone loved it!

I used this recipe from my trusty skinnytaste.com. Oddly enough, I bought a spaghetti squash at the store the week before just to see what I could do with it. Then of course, my website comes to my rescue like my own personal guardian angel. I really should give that girl a Christmas gift or something, she really is magical.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/09/spaghetti-squash-lasagna.html

Squash LasagnaSkinnytaste.comServings: 4 • Serving Size: 1 lasagna • Old Points: 6 pts • Points+: 7 pts
Calories: 291.0 • Fat: 13.7 g • Protein: 19.6 g • Carb: 21.0 g • Fiber: 2.7 g
Sodium: 358.3 mg  

Ingredients:

• 2 cups marinara sauce 
• 3 cups cooked roasted spaghetti squash
• 1 cup part skim ricotta
• 8 tsp parmesan cheese
• 6 oz part skim shredded mozzarella (I used Sargento)

Directions:

See instructions on how to roasted spaghetti squash here.

Preheat oven to 375°.

In four individual 5 x 7-inch oven safe baking dishes, ladle 1/4 cup quick marinara sauce on the bottom of each dish. Top each with 3/4 cup of cooked spaghetti squash and spread evenly. Top each with 1/4 cup ricotta
Cover with foil and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the edges begin to bubble; uncover and cook an additional 5 minutes.


EASY, EASY, EASY! Loved it. Matt loved it too even though he thought he hated squash. More wife points for making him try something he thought he would hate. Man, I'm awesome. :)

This is getting long. (that's what she said)

But on one final note, I still need to find a Halloween costume. Any ideas? I really wanted to be Princess Leia in the gold bikini and have Matt be Jabba, but I am not sure my body is in good enough shape. Maybe if I lose ten pounds by then, which is doubtful. Someone help me with ideas!

30 day shread?

Am I the only one who almost dies during this workout?

We are on our week 7 "recovery week" from P90X which includes yoga and stretch and general laziness from both Matt and I. So since I figured we were not going to be working out much this week, I have been wanting to try 30DS with Jillian Michaels. It is hard! And what is great about it is its only about 20 minutes! I burn about 225 calories with the 20 minute workout, and with P90X we usually burn upwards of 400 at least, but then again, the workout is a whole hour long. Working out for an hour takes a lot of dedication, and especially on a weeknight when I still have to make dinner. But we keep trying to continue on, we are already done with two out of three months, so there is definitely no sense giving up now.

Now for the bad news. Remember how my last post I said we had been getting lazy with our workouts? Well, I paid for it. I gained 3 pounds back that I cannot seem to shed. I have been keeping within my calorie goals, and working out, but I guess it is just a road block I have to get through.

We are going to Stateline this weekend so Matt can go to a concert and I can gamble. I know we are going to have a lot of fun, but I am pretty worried about our eating choices when we are away for the weekend. I know that I will not be making prime choices, but I just hope I do not over indulge.

And before I go, I just have to praise myfitnesspal again. I absolutely LOVE that I can put all of our "regular" meals into the recipe builder and it will tell you exactly how much calories one serving is. No more guessing how much is in your portion, I just have to split up the portions when I serve it and that's it. I love it.

Hiking?

I have been lazily updating my Blog. Sorry. It is probably because I have been VERY lax in my exercising last week and felt a little guilty. But, I am back on track and really feeling it.

But, instead of exercising, last weekend we went on a very long hike! I think it is about 6 miles round trip. We went to the local watering hole to veg out in the sun and go swimming. My friends are also insane so they like to jump off of the rocks. Here is the one they jumped off:

Yeah, you see that little bit of white shorts near the top? That's my crazy friend. Here is the teeny tiny rock I jumped off and was incredibly scared doing it. It was about 2 feet high. No joke.

I also did not realize that the shadows of the rocks in this picture make it looks like there are sharks in the water. Now I am going to be scared to get back in there.

So anyway, both Matt and I are back on track. We had to redo our 7th week on P90 since we were really lazy with it. Trust me, I think we both are feeling much more out of shape now since we took a week off than we did when we started! It really is hard to get back into the groove when you allow yourself to get out of it. Lets hope the does not happen again!

See, the humans are not the only big ones in the house!

We also have huge pets. I guess we all need to go on a diet together.

So, I ripped my pants this morning.

Yep, as I got out of the car, I ripped my jeans. I guess today will be filled with waddling around hoping no one notices this big hole in my thigh. Granted, these pants have been on their last leg for a while, but it is always a blow to the self esteem to rip your pants. Add to that my own mother says "Well it sure does take a lot of pressure to rip jeans!" Yeah, shes real supportive. Now I have to go jeans shopping, which will also make me want to curl up in a ball and cry. Maybe I should have a drink first. Ugh.

And now, as I am whining about ripping my pants, I am really starting to feel guilty about my workouts. I have not worked out in 5 days. That is bad. I need to get back on it, I just get distracted, and make excuses. BUT, I have been under my calories every day still, so that just adds to the "well, I do not HAVE to work out today since I am under" excuse.

BUT, I made a delicious low calorie dinner last night. Well, it is supposed to be low calorie. I am still questioning it, since it was clearly too delicious to be healthy. I got the recipe from my new favorite website ever, skinnytaste.com. This girl is a genius.

Skinny Baked Broccoli Macaroni and CheeseSkinnytaste.com
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 1 cup • Old Points: 6 pts • Points+: 8 pts
Calories: 314.9 • Fat: 9.8 g • Protein: 17.7 g • Carb: 44.3 g • Fiber: 6.3 g • Sugar: 4 g
Sodium: 215.7 (without salt) 

Ingredients:

• 12 oz high fiber elbows like Ronzoni Smart Taste
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp light butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 2 cups skim milk
• 1 cup fat free chicken broth (vegetarians use vegetable broth)
• 8 oz (2 cups) Sargento shredded reduced fat sharp cheddar
• salt and fresh pepper to taste
• 12 oz fresh broccoli florets (I used pre-cut bag)
• 1/8 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• cooking spray

Directions:


Cook pasta and broccoli together in a large pot of salted water, according to package directions for al dente (or slightly under cook 2 minutes). Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 375°. In a large, heavy skillet, melt butters. Add onion and cook over low heat about 2 minutes, add flour and cook another minute, or until the flour is golden and well combined. Add milk and chicken broth and whisk, raising heat to medium-high until it comes to a boil; cook about 5 minutes or until the sauce becomes smooth and thick. Season with salt and pepper.
Once the sauce is thick, remove from heat, add cheese and mix well until cheese is melted. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, add cooked macaroni and broccoli and mix well. Pour into prepared baking dish. Top with grated cheese and breadcrumbs. Spray a little more cooking spray on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, then broil for a few minutes to get the breadcrumbs golden.

Here is how ours turned out

Kind of  a crappy picture, but it was Delicious none the less, and so filling. I also tried brown rice noodles instead of the whole wheat, and they were really good! Less calories than regular noodles, but they have a good flavor. I think tonight I might try skinnytastes baked ziti and spinach, since we have the biggest bag ever of spinach that we need to use. Costco does that to you.

I feel like a fool.

Warning: Mopey post ahead.

I am feeling the worst I have felt in a while. I usually try to see the positive in everything, but at this point, I see nothing at all to happy about.

I bought a new scale today. I have been using my Wii scale, which I have always known is not the most accurate, but I figured it might be a couple pounds off. I stepped on my scale and it said I was 24 (TWENTY FREAKING FOUR) pounds more than my last weigh in. I know it is not physically possible for me to gain 24 pounds in 6 days, but now I am at a loss with where to move forward. I guess the only okay thing about this situation is that I do believe the Wii tracked my progress, even though the number was way WAY off, so at least I can still pretend like I really did lose 11 pounds. I knew it was too good to be true that I was almost halfway to my goal without even noticing a difference in my clothes.

I feel really, really dumb that I have to reset my weight in myfitnesspal, make a new ticker for here, and show everyone my REAL weight, instead of my glorified Wii feel good weight. I am not going to lie, I cried about it for a few minutes, but really, what is there for me to do except continue on? I never wanted to be at this weight, and I just hope this gives me a big swift kick in the ass instead of making me throw myself into a bowl of chips.

If anyone has any advice for me or just wants to make fun of me for being so gullible, feel free.