Days 339, 340 and 341: Saturday Night, Nice Sunday, Reading, Crabcakes Recipe

First, I want to thank you all for your support! Friday was a toughie for me but you’re right- it did get better and sometimes we do just have rough days at work. I’m just so glad I have good friends and family, fun things to look forward to and a big life outside of work – not having all of your happiness in one place is nice! Thanks again bloggy friends!!

Also – I want to thank you all for your comments regarding my 11^th month assessment!! I’m going to post tomorrow and answer some of your questions (I answered in the comments – but I’ll elaborate a little on goals, what I track/why I track it, how it helps me, etc.). Yay!

So, to back up quite a bit, I made For the Love of Cooking’s crabcakes before heading out on Saturday!! 300 calories for 2 large crab cakes – FABULOUS! I had to change it a bit for 2 people (and I had less crab then she did!) – but we made it work and LOVED IT! Here’s our variation:

Please note: Mine don't look NEARLY as good as hers. Sad! Her's are all flakey and fabulous. However, mine may not look as good but we LOVED them. hehe

1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp mayonnaise
½ tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp dried mustard
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tspBay seasoning
Juice of 1/4 a lemon
1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
10 oz crab meat
½ cup plain panko crumbs
1 tbsp olive oil

Tzaziki sauce (her recipe below for 1 cup!)

Combine all ingredients except crab and panko crumbs. Carefully add crab to mixture then gently fold in panko crumbs. Form into desired size crab cake by hand (we made 4!). Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place the crab cakes in skillet and cook on each side until golden brown. Serve with tzaziki sauce on the side. Enjoy.

Our got a little burnt (but still tasted AMAZING!), so I recommend cooking for 1 to 2 minutes on each side and flipping often to avoid them getting too brown. Tzatziki Sauce: 1/3 cucumber (peeled, seeded and diced), ½ tsp salt, 3 oz. non-fat fage Greek yogurt, ¼ lemon (juice and est), ½ garlic clove. Peel cucumber, cut in half lengthwise and, using a spoon, remove all seeds from both halves. Dice into small pieces and place in strainer, Sprinkle salt over cucumber and let it sit in strainer for 30 minutes. Pat cucumber dry with a papertowel. Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until blended. Refrigerate overnight.

I ate 2 crab cakes and about 2 tbsp of the sauce – she was right, the crab is so good the sauce is not really needed! For my serving, it came out to: 301 calories, 24 carbs, 12 fat grams and 23 protein grams.

I did okay on my 2-part goal from Saturday night (not drink too much… be asleep by 3 a.m.). I did drink a good bit, but I drank lots of waters to. And I was home by 3:30…ish and asleep by 4 a.m. not bad! I had a GREAT night with awesome friends starting at Stout with a few drinks, then down to East Andrews for even more drinks, then over to West Paces for our final drink + a cab ride. I ended up at 2,241 calories, 187 carbs, 39 fat grams and 106 protein grams. Not bad for a night of drinking and debauchery, right?! I even had a sammy when I got home (cause THAT’S what I needed hehe). Here’s what I ate.

Sunday I woke up early again (9 a.m. blast – 5 hours of sleep again). I got up, got my swimmy on, made a couple of sandwiches and a thermos of water the size of my head and walked across the street to the pool. Ah. I picked up Time Traveler’s Wife (had only made it through a chapter) and got to reading!

The Essentials...

A little hungover but it's all good, right?


After a couple of hours and a few adorable neighborhood kids I took it back to the house to pop lunch in the oven and see if Austin was up – he was! We hung out, ate a Beef Enchilada Casserole (this recipe – but with lean ground beef – 96/4 – instead of turkey), and I read more…. And napped… and then it was time to go get the car, go to Trader Joe’s and meet Austin’s family for dinner (driving through from Alabama taking his middle brother back to UGA for his sophomore year). We had SO much fun at dinner catching up with his parents, aunt/uncle/brother and cousin. Before we knew it was 9 p.m. and we were heading home – geez – a 3-hour dinner! I read more and passed out at 10 p.m. with 350 pages under my belt – WOO! I ended up at 1,827 calories, 161 carbs, 92 fat grams and 86 protein grams. Here’s what I ate. Damn restaurants – the lightest thing on the menu was shrimp scampi. Seriously – it was CRAZY – I wanted to get like shrimp on a salad but didn’t want to be weird in front of his family – you know what I mean? They like to eat, and call people out…. not in a ugly way – but do you know what I mean? Anywho – it’s all good – just really upset my stomach – SO rich.

Monday was a Monday. Kids were back in school. For the first day. My 25-minute morning commute took me an hour. Shhiiiiiittt. So I started the day late. But, I got lots done, had a yummy breakfast and got in 3.5 miles during lunch. I had a busy afternoon with work and meetings, and then it was time to hit the gym again for a great 92-calorie-burning mile (4.1 mph and 4 incline) and then chest, triceps and shoulders. Here’s the workout!

I ended up burning 287 calories during lunch (52 minutes), and 303 calories after work (56 minutes) – so I burned 590 calories in 1 hour and 48 minutes - woo! I headed home and quickly put together one of my now-favorite pastas: Pasta with Sundried Tomato Pesto. I’ve only had it once before – but it was AMAZING then and again tonight – yay! Then it was time for TV catch up: Entourage (meh; not that good) and True Blood (wow… awesome as always… just crazy good). Then it was shower time and Time Traveler’s Wife – love it. I ended up at 1,813 calories, 230 carbs, 54 fat grams and 107 protein grams. Here’s what I ate.

I’ll post Tuesday’s and do some “goal talk” tonight or tomorrow morning!! Hope you’re all having wonderful Tuesdays!!! I’m catching up on blogs tonight (Austin has a work thing).