Day 306: 2 New Recipes + Book Review + June Assessment

Sorry – this post will likely be a bit packed – eek! So like I mentioned I woke up HUNGRY and feeling mucho crappy yesterday. Grrrrr. Regardless of my pounding head, I wanted to make new recipes damn it. So I started off with a frittata. Austin says it was good. I had to pass as it took so long to cook that I ate leftovers. Here’s the Ham, Mushroom & Cheddar frittata recipe straight from For the Love of Cooking!


8 eggs
2 Tbsp fat-free milk
3/4 cup fat-free cheddar, shredded (divided)
1/2 cup of ham, diced
1/2 cup white mushrooms, sliced
1/4 sweet yellow onion, diced
1 tsp olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Green onion for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add olive oil to a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and mushrooms and saute until tender, remove from heat & set aside. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Add 1/2 cup of cheese, ham, mushrooms, onions, salt and pepper to taste. Coat a tart or pie pan with cooking spray and add the egg mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Top the frittata with the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese and return to the oven for 10 additional minutes. Remove from the oven cool for 5 minutes before cutting into 4 servings.
Nutritional Information: 266 calories, 16 carbs, 12 fat grams and 23 grams of protein.

Then me and Austin settled in to the upstairs den for Movie Day! Gotta love a rainy Sunday following a busy weekend! After a couple of movies it was time for lunch so I headed down to surprise Austin with Spaghetti & Meatballs! I had never worked with ground turkey before so this was a good time! Here’s the recipe modified from For the Love of Cooking’s for 2 servings:

Meatballs:
8 oz. of ground turkey
1/8 cup of mushrooms, chopped finely
2 tbsp Reduced Fat Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp sweet yellow onion, diced finely
½ clove of garlic, minced
¼ tsp dried basil
1/8 tsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
½ egg
Other:
½ tbsp olive oil
4 oz. pasta of your choice (I used spaghetti)
1 tsp Reduced Fat Parmesan Cheese
1 cup Trader Joe’s organic mushroom pasta sauce
6 basil leaves, chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Combine ‘meatballs’ ingredients in a large bowl and mix gently with your fingers. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Roll the turkey mixture into small balls. Once the pan is hot, cook the meatballs for 2 minutes on each side then remove from skillet and place on the baking sheet. Place in the oven and cook for 5-6 minutes or until cooked through. Set a large pan on medium-high heat and add tomato sauce. After a few minutes, place the meatballs in tomato sauce for 2-3 minutes to soak up the flavors. Cook the pasta per instructions. Once the noodles are cooked and drained, spoon them into the marinara and meatball mixture then stir until thoroughly coated. Serve with fresh basil sprinkled on top as well as grated Parmesan. Enjoy. Nutritional Information: 550 calories, 52 carbs, 20 fat grams and 41 protein grams. We loved them!! I thought it would be more difficult but it was actually super easy! Next time I will add more salt to the meatballs and she recommended 1/8 cup breadcrumbs but I didn’t have them on me so maybe next time. Also – I want to leave out the egg. I don’t know why but I just don’t think it needs the egg!

After lunch we split up – Austin playing video games and me blogging/watching Gilmore Girls/doing laundry/etc. GREAT afternoon/evening. We got together again for dinner and I threw together an Angel Hair Pesto with mushrooms – yum – then it was back to doing nothing!! Loved it. Even with all of the yummy, fab pastas I ended up at 1,515 calories, 202 carbs, 47 fat grams and 78 protein grams. Not too bad, friends! Here’s what I ate. Unfortunately I could not get to bed so I ended up being up well after midnight then “slept” horribly. Blah.

And to give Indelible it’s due… I loved it! It was no Karin Slaugther’s Triptych, but it was definitely better than her A Faint Cold Fear and completely restored any faith I may have lost in the Grant Park series. I liked this one because it was 2 stories in 1 – one from the present and one from the past – it solved several murders and the past and present merged in an unexpected way. I was THROWN the whole way through it and loved the twists and turns. Definitely a pageturner and I read it QUICK. Can’t wait to read more in the series!

Now for My Tenth Month: June 2009 Monthly Assessment

By the Numbers

Pounds Lost: -1 (115 to 116)
Highest Weight: 116.5
Lowest Weight: 112.5
Pounds left to Lose: 3 (would like to be at 113)
Posts: 15
Days Worked out: 19
Miles of cardio: 100
Great Nutrition Days: 15
High Nutrition Days: 15 (eeek…)
Injuries: none!
Days out for injury: 0
Vacations: 1 weekend in VA
Days out for vacation: 2
Day worked out during vacation: 0

Interesting Charts

Click on charts to make them larger!

June Weight


June Calories, Fat Grams and Carbs



This was another tough month for me. After last month’s 5-pound gain I gained another 1. And to see that carb chart – WHOA. I’ve got to get it under control and track the day before instead of the day after. I’ve GOT to get on the HRM thing and see what’s going on. And the whole foods need to happen too – and lower-carb foods. Sigh. I think July is going to be a tough one but I’m ready to give it a go and walk another 100 miles and hopefully get a handle on these carbs!

A Look Back: June Goals

1. Figure out how many calories I need. Experiment – try to stay around 1,750 to 1,850. This is quite the work in progress for me…. Still on it.
2. Walk 100 miles!!! DONE
3. Do strength training 3 days/week. I did better, but wasn’t as consistent as I need to be.
4. Introduce 3 new recipes and 3 new healthy, whole snacks. DONE
5. Update the home blog 4 days/week AND fitting back in 4 days/week DONE
6. Read 2 books. DONE
7. Get dining room painted; hang fan in guest room; install lights in hallway upstairs. Didn’t happen at all! Eek! Hoping to take care of this in July!
8. Research HRMs – maybe get one – and research CFW ideas. I DID research HRMs and am going to get one in July. I did not look into CFW but will in July along with researching lower carb snacks.
9. Take measurements! I want to start taking measurements every Thursday morning. No Excuses! 1st and 15th just wasn’t working – I never know what the date is! I did better with this but am still not hitting every Thursday. :(

A Look Ahead: July Goals

1. Keep calories at or under 1,750 5 days/week (or 20 days this month) – track BEFORE not after
2. Walk 100 miles
3. Do strength training 3 days/week
4. Introduce 10 new recipes. (yes, I want to cook A LOT this month)
5. Update the home blog 4 days/week AND fitting back in 4 days/week
6. Read 3 books.
7. Get dining room painted; hang fan in guest room; install lights in hallway upstairs
8. Get an HRM.
9. Research CFW ideas and low-carb snack ideas
10. Take measurements every Thursday!

These are very similar to last month’s but I need to get better at this fo sho!! I think out of the 10 goals the biggest challenge for me is going to be the 3 day/week strength training and the calories (tracking before and not after). Wish me luck bloggie friends! And tell me your goals for this month!