Meal Plan "Monday"; Fun Football Saturday

Happy Sunday! I hope you're all having good days! My day is going well - just catching up on TV, blogging and cooking - not too shabby after my crazy week! I'm also choosing the recipes to make today for the week. In addition to a few new ones, I'm making these:

Chinese Garlic Chicken 


Chipotle Chicken & Rice


Taco Soup


English Muffin Breakfast Pizzas


Tomato Pesto Pizza


Already excited! What are you up to today? I'm planning on a visit to the gym and just cooking and hanging with the family = RELAXING! Yesterday was pretty relaxing, yay! Started with a pedicure, then a trip to the grocery store, then a shower and then prep for having friends over for football/dinner/etc. around 5! Mon/Andy brought an awesome cobb salad, Devon/Zach brought Dev's fabulous chocolate chip "cookie balls" and Mel/Jon/Jose brought a tomato/cucumber salad and asparagus bundles in bacon - YUM. Everything was great! Me/Austin made a couple of appetizers (Italian Chicken Wontons & Crescent Pigs on a Stick) and then we served sliders! Fun to do a slider bar: fiesta sliders, meatball sliders and buffalo chicken sliders. Recipes to come! Unfortunately I took NO pictures. boo! Was just enjoying the friends, the  babies (6-month-old Dane and almost 2-year-old Madison), and the pups (Reina Blanco, Sadie Porter, and of course are Reuben & Remy). Great evening, and Auburn won - WOO!

Q: Have a favorite kind of slider? The meatball sliders went quick!


Q: What's your favorite appetizer? The crescent pigs were SUPER easy, and fun to serve on a stick with ketchup and mustard dippers!

Meal Plan "Monday", Relaxing Weekend

Happy Sunday! Hope you're having a good one so far! It's still pretty early here, but so far the pups are fed, a load of laundry is in, the dishes are unloaded and i'm about to do a bit of work before hopping in the shower - not too shabby. So I typically post Meal Plan Monday on, well, days other than Monday! I post it late, or this week, early. So it's Meal Plan "Monday." :) One of these days I'll get it together again! Truly though, I usually make my 'to-make' list on Thursday, Friday or Saturday so I can cook it Sunday. Anyway, enough chatter! Here's what I plan to make this week (the oldies - no pics of the new recipes yet!)

Upside Down Pizza - 6 servings for only 15 minutes of prep - done!

Beef & Bean Enchiladas  - going to try this new 'fold-over method' - kind of pumped about it. :)

Coconut Curry Chicken Soup - bell pepper, parsley and coconut milk on hand - this is happening!

Garlic Ranch Chicken Pizza  - I'm officially craving ranch - time to bring this recipe back out!

Mexican Breakfast Burritos with Avocado - still obsessed with these... can't stop making them... made all of the black beans already - it's on!

The rest will be NEW recipes - a new breakfast, a new slowcooker recipe & a new Asian recipe - Skinny General Tso's! I'm making most of these today so I need to head out, quick recap of yesterday:  sleep, 1-hour deep tissue massage (my first deep tissue - yowza - good stuff and i'm definitely feeling the benefits today), starbucks and football watching (Auburn's winning streak came to an end - 17-game run, wins since November of 2009 - it's (still) great to be an Auburn Tiger! And to lose to other Tigers, our sister school Clemson, wasn't so bad. Austin said, "It's like losing a poker game to your cousin. It sucks because you didn't win (of course), but you can't really hate on that." Austin was in Clemson/went to the game (jumped in last minute to a guy/Winnebago trip) and said the fans were SO nice before, during and after the game and many were checking in and making sure their fans were being nice - they said they were returning the favor to when they were in AU and we were so nice. Isn't that just nice?! So southern. Love it. :) 

After football-watching, it was time for blog-reading, recipe-finding, playtime with the poodles and just a nice, long day of nothingness. Even got some work done. SO relaxing. I guess I just needed a day alone - I've never spent the weekend alone. Truly, I've never left work on Friday, come home to an empty house and just spent the weekend alone. While I don't think this would ever become a regular thing, it was pretty nice! No obligations, no to-do lists, no goals-to-accomplish - just nonstop chilling!

Q: Ever spent the weekend alone doing nothing? I think I will definitely do this again when life gets stressful - it was just what I needed, although I of course missed my Cardens & Veloti in Birmingham, and Austin in Clemson. They were SO supportive though and understanding of my last minute 'i'm staying home for my sanity' plans. Love my friends. :)

Q: Have you been craving anything lately? I can't get away from buffalo flavored everything (pizzas, pretzels, my new wonton recipe - you name it) and avocados... I'm working avocados into everything!

Shred & Scribd; 40 Meals in 3.5 Hours

Happy Wednesday! I hope yours is going well! Mine was okay - a bit frantic but good. I had to be at work at 7 to prep for a project (so no a.m. workout), and then was running around a good bit of the day - blah. I didn't get to take a lunch break. boo. No lunch workout. But after work I did do Jillian Michael's 30-day shred Phase 1. I had never done these before! For those who have been living under a rock with me don't know, it's basically 30 days, 3 phases. First 10 days you do phase 1, then phase 2, then so on. I liked it! Lots of mixes (cardio, then ST, then abs) to where you would do jumping jacks, jumping rope, then lunges combined with biceps, then abs. Then lots of repeats and different exercises. Only 25 minutes but fast, non-stop and good stuff! Even though I didn't make it to the gym, I'm glad I did something AND took advantage of my u-verse! Outside of working out, I FINALLY got around to finalizing my first step-by-step meal plan! You may remember this picture... 40 meals in 3.5 hours!

Then my lazy bum had tweaks to make to the meal plan (i.e. which ones froze best, etc.) and I just sat on it, forgot, and procrastinated. But it's up now!

These are the recipes featured!!

Check out the meal plan at Healthified Kitchen! I used Scribd to share the document. I'd never used it before but thought it was easy to use.

Q: Ever used Scribd? How do you share PDFs or word documents on your site (if you do!)

Q: Ever tried Shred? What do you think about it?

Florida Bound, Beach Meal Plan, New Slowcooker Curry

That's so funny! I had never had sliders until last fall when I made t hem for a football get together, and I thought I was far behind the curve! Yesterday was a busy one! I got up early again, had a banana and hopped in the car with Austin for the gym! This time I did a short run (1 mile at 6.3 mph) sandwiched by a 1/2 mile walk (1/4 mile on front and 1/4 mile on back). I also did the following:

25 L-shoulder raises (5-pound dumbbells)

50 jumping jacks

25 walking lunges with leg kick back (body weight)

25 Arnold shoulder presses (10-pound dumbbells)

25 squats (5-pound dumbbells)

REPEAT

Then I did abs and called it a workout! HRM said: 39 minutes and 260 calories; 19 fat-burning minutes and 20 fitness minutes; Avg HR 138; Max HR 173. I headed home, worked all a.m., took my lunch to pack the car and take the pups to their beloved boarders (they really love them... thank god!), worked more and then we were off to Destin for our Couple's weekend to celebrate Jimmy & Mary's 5-year anniversary! Yes, long car ride, which included a Starbucks stop, chats with Austin, switch off to ride with Teresa and chat with her, and the like. When we got in we just unloaded the car, got our pre-prepped food in the fridge, did a Winn-Dixie run for ice, had a few drinks, played spades, and called it a night!

As far as food, we packed a ton! Here's what it looks like for the next few days:

post-its in front just helped me make sure I didn't miss a meal!

Thursday: breakfast and lunch (at home/already made); (dinner) skillet chili mac with corn

Friday: egg-soaked ham & bacon breakfast pizza; chicken soft tacos; slowcooker coconut chicken curry - NEW!

Saturday: egg-soaked ham & bacon breakfast pizza; chicken soft tacos; slowcooker coconut chicken curry

Sunday: egg-soaked ham & bacon breakfast pizza; skillet chili mac with corn; spinach-mushroom pizza

Monday: breaded breakfast chicken sandwich ; spinach-mushroom pizza; slowcooker coconut chicken curry

chicken soft tacos (best ever!)

skillet chili mac with corn

spinach-mushroom pizza

egg-soaked ham and bacon breakfast pizza

breaded breakfast chicken sandwich - need to take a new pic of this yumminess!

NEW RECIPE! :)

Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry
Makes 4 Servings
Adapted from Salt & Paprika

Nutritional Information: 419 calories, 49 carbs, 9 fat grams and 31 protein grams.

No, it's not necessarily beach food. Okay, it's not beach food at all. BUT, it's officially the best curry I've ever made. And probably one of the easiest too. Austin doesn't ask for a lot of things but he DID ask for me to double this recipe and bring half to the beach so there you go. If you want to try an Inidian recipe or a slow cooker one I strongly suggest this one - and yes, it's too bad it's not prettier in photos! :( Check out the Recipe on Healthified Kitchen!

Q: You're staying somewhere for four nights - do you unpack or spend the time out of your suitcase? I unpack every. single. thing. Or at least open it all up in the walk-in closet so I can easily get stuff in and out.

Q: What's one recipe that you always get requests for? Austin, like I mentioned, rarely puts in requests, but when he does it's for this new curry, stuffed shells or lasagna - he loves his Indian and Italian!

Undoing My Workout, 40 Meals in 3 1/2 Hours

That's what I was up to last night!! So glad I remembered to let Austin take a pic, even though I look rough. Stupid allergies that render it impossible to even bother wearing make up. OY. K -more on last night later, let's talk about our weight gain culprits. You know I hate to hear about your culprits yesss! I'm not the only one! but it's, selfishly, nice to know I'm not the only one struggling with their weight right now. I will say I felt better after I wrote the post. It was nice to get it out there, on paper, in my face. 'Kelly - these are the things you need to work on. You know it's true.' I feel more focused and closer to my goal than before I wrote it so YAY! Thanks to all of you for sharing your 'weight gain culprits.'

Anne Marie's and Melissa's recent comments really got to me - rewarding yourself for the great job you did working out and eating right - OY. I so do that and the counter productivity of it kills me! 'GREAT job on getting up at the crack of dawn to spin for 45 minutes and run a mile - here's 10 cookies, i.e., the same amount you burned today! Congratulations on undoing your workout!'

Q: What's the most common way you undo your workouts? Yes, i'm assuming you all have because you're all human, right? Right? hehe The main way I undo is through too many treats or too much alcohol.

K - stepping off the weight soapbox for a bit. I'll do an update every week or so on where i'm at, what's working and what's (obviously) not working. LOL Let's just call those "areas of opportunity." Allrighty.

So Monday was a busy one, starting with my 6 a.m. workout! HRM said: 40 minutes spin + 1-mile running (6.3 mph; 7 mph) + 1/4 mile walking. HRM said: 55 minutes, 437 calories; 4 fat-burning minutes and 51 fitness minutes; Average HR: 150; Max HR: 180. WOO! Then it was just work, lunch at Uncle Julio's with Stacy, more work, and then straight home to my family and a nice, chill night. My allergies are driving me CRAZY so it was good to get home and rest and drink TONS of water.

Tuesday was pretty busy too, with work, a 3.5-mile walk during lunch with Stacy, more work, and then home to test out a new meal plan. So meal planning. I love to do it but figured out something that was missing. Typically I include the recipes, photos, ingredients/grocery list and a chart that has the dates/dishes and nutritional information. As I was talking to my sis and bro-in-law/new parents, I was telling them how I cook the meat 2 pounds at a time, or how I dice all of the veggies the day before, etc. and it hit me: I should really share the exact steps, a how-to-do the meal plan. Exactly how to get this:

Last night I made the detailed meal plan with step-by-step instructions and wanted to test it. So I did - it took exactly 3.5 hours for 40 meals (7 breakfasts, 7 lunches and 6 dinners for 2 adults) including clean up, a 30-minute break, etc. I'm making a few tweaks now but will share it soon - love it and can't wait to make more plans like this!

Q: Do you think you'd be more likely to pre-cook if you had step-by-step instructions?

Q: Do you like to batch cook, or do you prefer cooking each day/evening?

Book Review, Meal Plan Monday

Happy Monday! How is your day going so far? Mine has been good! My Sunday was pretty decent too -just spent the day traveling 6 hours from Mobile back to Atlanta, then unpacking and preparing for work - lame! Thanks though for your comments, we really had a great time at the Mardi Gras ball!

So on Friday I finished up my audio book, Nora Roberts' Tribute. It followed a former child actress, Cilla, as she attempted to restore her grandmother's manor. I liked it because it had a love interest thing going on, as well as a murder mystery (did her grandmother really commit suicide?). Outside of that, she was very in to flipping houses, so it was interesting to hear her choices in the kitchen, her issues with working with contractors, etc. I liked it most when it focused on the mystery (of course) but I still thought it was a nice, well done story, with a great twist at the end. I give it a 3.5/5. It would have been a 5 for me if the copy had been tightened up a bit - little too much description in some spots and I found myself distracted until it got back to the meat of the story.

So here's what our agenda as far as eats this week! Well, these items and a few new recipes of course. :)

Upside Down Pizza - 6 servings

Green Chicken Enchiladas - 4 servings

Skillet Bowtie Pasta - 4 servings

Slowcooker Chicken Mac & Cheese - 4 servings

Sausage & Potato Bake - 6 Servings yes, this one needs a new picture!

Breakfast Nachos - 2 servings

Yummy! Can't wait to get home and get to cooking!

Q: What are you looking forward to today? I'm excited about body pump and/or spin tonight, and to COOKING!

Q: What are you cooking up this week? Anything you're super excited about? I'm pretty pumped about the nachos above - i've only made them once before and LOVED them!

For the Couscous Lovers, 4 Miles, Meal Plan (In Photos)

Hi! Still sick over here. BOO. How are you? I hope you're well! Not much is up here. Special thank you for the Nora Roberts recommendations though! And for sharing your 'shout out' stories - SO fun! I love when companies give the love back to loyal customers too! So Sunday was just sleep + travel and no workouts. Monday was just work, no workouts and lots of sleep. Now it's Tuesday and I hoped to feel 100%!! Not. the. case. Oh well, i'm just taking it easy and trying to rest and get BETTER! I even went for a 4-mile walk during lunch today. I felt better afterwards but am truly exhausted now. Sigh - i'm sure i'll fell better soon! Just taking my medicine and drinking LOTS of water. Moving on to more fun topics...

I'm a huge fan of couscous. Well really any grain - rice, quinoa, you name it! I'm a fan of carbs really. So Dana hosted a BSI for couscous, BSI being 'Blogger Secret Ingredient.' She requested couscous recipes and I submitted my Mediterranean Wrap. Guess what? It won! Dana chose it which thrilled me as the other recipes sounded wonderful. Check out her Couscous Round-up for 10 couscous-packed recipes!!

My Mediterranean Wrap

On another note, here are some items that are on the menu this week. Our menu is a little off as I had several leftover meals from my last marathon cooking, and I had some in the freezer we're getting to since I didn't feel like cooking. Anywho - here's what we're cooking up this week, once I start feeling better!

Lasagna Soup

Mexican Pizza

Chicken Fried Rice

Pepperoni Pitzas

Other than the above, i'm trying out a few new recipes (two breakfast ones, a pasta and a rice dish) - I hope they work out!

Q: What are you cooking up in the next few days? Anything new? Anything exciting?

Q: Do you like couscous? Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

Marathon Cooking, New Appetizer Recipe, Drop Dead Diva

Thanks you guys! I was really happy with how the book club food came out! And yeah... I LOVE Emily Giffin and would normally shy away from a book about infidelity, but her spin on everything is so refreshing and relatable that it doesn't bother me! Thrillers (not to be confused with Mysteries) apparently REALLY bother me though! hehe :) Backing up, y

esterday turned out as expected, chilled with Austin & Reuben and did my marathon cooking! I made the following:

• 4 servings of chicken fried rice
• 4 servings of chicken picatta
• 4 servings of chicken alfredo
• 4 servings of beef taco pasta
• 4 servings of easy Thai curry
• 4 servings of bacon/egg/cheese muffins (Austin helped with these!)

The inside of our egg/bacon packs - then I just pack a cut-in-half muffin with and 1/2 slice of fat-free cheese

The taco pasta came out well - I did it a bit different this time with diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce

Here is the recipe I used or the Texas Tortilla Twisters. I found it at Recipe Girl and modified it a good bit for smaller servings, fewer ingredients and RF or FF products:

3 oz Trader Joe’s Organic whipped cream cheese, softened
3 oz fat-free sour cream
2 whole green onions, chopped (green and white parts)
½ 4 oz can chopped green chilies, drained
1 Tbs chopped black olives
4 burrito-size flour tortillas
3 oz jar picante sauce or salsa

cilantro, for garnish

In a food processor, combine cream cheese, sour cream, green onions, chilies and olives; process until smooth. Spread mixture on tortillas. Roll up each tortilla tightly and place in an airtight plastic box; refrigerate until ready to serve. When ready to serve, remove tortillas slice each rolled tortilla crosswise into 1-inch pieces (pinwheels). Place a toothpick in each pinwheel (if necessary), and serve with a bowl of picante sauce or salsa on the side for dipping.

Review: We really liked them! And they were easy and fun to make! But next time, I may add black beans or spicy turkey breast to make it a bit fatter. I may also serve them with the salsa on top like little red berets! Me and the girls thought they looked cute that way. Lastly, I would have preferred to have fresh cilantro for garnish rather than dried - but I went with what I have on hand!

After cooking I settled in to Drop Dead Diva and Army Wives - oh good stuff. Austin is not a fan but had a bit of work to do so it all worked out. I'm SO GLAD Drop Dead Diva is back for its second season! Anywho, I ended the day at 1,653 calories, 223 carbs, 51 fat grams and 82 protein grams. Here's what I ate.

Today went pretty well - just worked, walked 4 miles during lunch, worked more, then walked 2 miles and did upper body ST after work. So glad to have my workout buddy Stacy! Then I headed home for a somewhat new recipe, Chicken Alfredo - i'll post it tomorrow!

What's your favorite appetizer? These pinwheels were super fun, and there's SO much stuff you could put in them to make them different. I'll definitely try them again!

Any other Dropdead Diva watchers out there? The first season is on demand, I watched it a good bit yesterday while doing other things. SO cute and just feel-good.

True Life: How I Became a Pre-cooker

Thanks you guys! So fun to share my pre-cooking in photos - can't believe I hadn't done it yet!! I get so happy when I have a fridge full 'o tubs full 'o healthified grub!! Therefore, this post was inspired by your sweet comments and by some of Homecookedem’s questions to my last post, which highlighted my twice-weekly "marathon pre-cooking event." Here are the results of Sunday's 2-hour event for any who missed it!

Q: Did you come up with this on your own or was there someone who inspired you to start doing this? Have you always done this or did you start when you got married?

A: This was definitely not something I did before I was married, although it really had little to do with being married aside from me getting back from my honeymoon and realizing I’d gained a lot of weight and was the biggest I’d ever been. This was when I was like okay… time to work out. I worked out. I didn’t really lose much. My clothes fit better but the scale remained constant. I knew I was going to need to alter my eating, I discovered Hungry Girl and began cooking and doing meal plans (i.e. one plan per month - here are the dinners I will have). Then it turned into here are the breakfast, lunch and dinners I will have… and it progressed from monthly to weekly. However, I was cooking almost every night, and only making 2 of each recipe (was still trying them out and didn’t want to make four servings of a recipe and not like it!). I was worried I was going to burn out!

Finally, once I really started building up a list of recipes we loved/wanted to have again (thanks to your blogs, my sister's cookbooks, my friend Monica's recipes and so on and so forth!), I realized I could make like 10-11 recipes and be DONE for the week (as opposed to 20+!). Granted, I still wanted to try new recipes, but I got more confident with what I tried and some things I just KNEW we would like (based on past recipes, ingredients lists, fabulous sources like For the Love of Cooking, etc.) so I felt comfortable making four servings straight out of the gate.

Around January 2009 I started making these ‘meal plan packets.’ A lot of the reason was because of Austin – he was tired of having to look up recipes on my blog and in my word documents. He wanted to help more but it was hard because my stuff was in multiple places on my personal computer! This ‘packet’ would have meals for 7 days, a list of all recipes and a list of all ingredients. This worked WELL for us. I wanted to make several different packets so that, eventually, I would just rotate through the packets and be done with it! I’m still working on this part – it’s hard because I feel like I still want to try new things and sometimes I’m SO in the mood for a recipe that’s not on the meal packet! I think I’m up to 12 packets (some have overlap) and am still making new recipes/packets. During October 2009, I posted How I Plan Meals: 8 Steps to give as much of an overview as possible of what I found worked for me and Austin. Also, it’s gotten even easier now that I’ve been making more and more recipes for SIX servings – this was huge for me! Haha

So to answer Em’s question, I think I slowly came up with a system that worked for us on my own. It was almost like a failsafe – I really had no excuse to not eat what was prepared and I HATE wasting food so I tend to stick with it. It’s kind of like turning the ‘clean plate club’ on its head and being like well you HAVE to eat these healthified/portion-controlled/pre-cooked meals or you’ll WASTE them! I don’t know that anyone really inspired me to do it, and I didn't even know where I was headed when I started out, but people sure supported me, especially Austin, and I think that’s what’s made it easier to keep on keeping on!

Now I usually make packets, grocery shop, and do the majority of my cooking/prepping on Sundays (while watching Friends or SATC on DVD in the kitchen), and then cook again on Thursday during lunch. (I work from home Thursday and by then it’s usually like 3-4 recipes and I’ve prepped for them on Sunday so easy peasy/1 hour tops).

So what’s next? I plan to:

• Create 20-25 solid meal plan packets that I can have on hand (I'm about halfway there).
• Organize the packets by season (i.e. chilis for my "winter" packets; fruit/sammies for my summer packets, etc.). Mind you i'm in Atlanta - there won't be many winter packets!
• Begin incorporating snacks and desserts (snacks are much easier for me... desserts are going to be a while).

I think that's it for now! Let me know if you have any questions; clearly this is something I've gotten to be a bit passionate about so don't hesitate!

To cover today real quick, I worked, walked 4 miles during lunch, finished Intensity (review to come!), went home and hung out with Reuben (Austin had a work thing). Loves! I also made a mini menu for book club Friday - i'm so excited! Backing up, yesterday I ended up at 1,766 calories, 212 carbs, 64 fat grams and 83 protein grams. Here's what I ate. Today, I haven't finished eating yet!! So i'll post tomorrow! I'll also post my assessment tomorrow - I hope I have a more successful June than May! :)

Olympics, Ramen Noodles, Snowy Pics Part Deux, The Usual

Thanks, Friends! I love that pic of me and Austin, too. :) I think it takes a great friend to catch a fun candid like that – thanks, Mon!! Speaking of pics, here are a few more snow pics I never posted! The snow weekend was too shortlived – sad – but I’m so glad we got to enjoy it. I vow to do more ‘no-going-out’ weekends with Austin – they’re fabulous!

So Sunday I pretty much stuck to the plan: meal planning, Trader Joe’s, Kroger, two Twilight viewings, blog readings and mucho Olympics. I’m just LOVING watching these athletes- how inspiring. My favorites right now were the half pipe coverage and the women’s down-hill skiing – wowza! I also love watching speedskating – it’s just amazing these skills they have! I didn’t do any workouts on Sunday, and ended up at 1,754 calories, 243 carbs, 54 fat grams and 73 protein grams. One odd thing did go down that day – I was CRAVING ramen. Like, ramen has always been a favorite – it’s cheap and fab. I only use ¼ to a ½ of the packet. Hehe I rarely have it (for obvious reasons) but must admit – it’s still a little treat!

Any other ramen lovers out there?

Any foods you eat rarely because you just know they’re junky?!

Monday was rough. It was raining. I had a pounding headache. Traffic was bad. You know, Monday. I went into the day knowing that my lunch workout was out as I had a meeting during lunch. Boo. I did get lots of work done, got to visit with my boss and her baby (she’s coming back to work next week!), got to visit with Stacy about how the wedding planning is going along and all was good. I had an offsite meeting at 2 which ended around 4 so I headed home and worked from home until the work day ended. Yes, I could have left for the gym but I decided to put on my PJs, chill with Reuben and cook! I made:

4 servings of easy Thai curry

4 servings of hummus chicken salad wrap

4 servings of tacos

Yummy! During all of this I had a wrap and then some cereal – nice! Then me and Austin and Reuben settled in for more Olympics (women’s halfpipe and icedancing… which I’m just not a fan of.) I ended the night at 1,820 calories, 216 carbs, 57 fat grams and 92 protein grams. Here’s what I ate. Yes, this is what happens when I don’t track ahead of time and “skip” dinner to eat “mini meals.” Haha

Are you watching the Olympics? If so, what’s your favorite ‘winter games’ sport and/or athlete?! I’m again slightly obsessed with snowboarding and think Shaun White is ridiculous. I want my own private half pipe trail – crazy! And I want those snowboarding pants the men and women’s teams wore this year – they look like JEANS – so cool!

Love this video of Shaun and Colbert - he just seems SO down to earth! And his chat about red bull and his red hair made me laugh, too! :)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Shaun White
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations

Snow Day, Sick, Weekly Menu, New Recipe Plans

Thank you all for your sweet comments and musical ideas!! I would LOVE to see Wicked, Billy Elliot, Annie and more! I’m going to look into that place Jacey mentioned, too! And thank you guys for your calorie feedback – the idea Kimmi posted was great so I’m going to try that today!! Thanks you guys – hope I don’t get too whiney about my weight I am happy with where I’m at, just feel like I’m getting a little more casual and my pants are getting tighter – eek!

Backing up to Thursday, ‘Mamma Mia’ night, I ended up at 1,781 calories, 225 carbs, 37 fat grams and 97 protein grams. Here’s what I ate.

Friday was a bit of a doozy on the exercise front. I drove into work – in zero traffic might I add – and everyone was like “we’re going to get to leave early – snow!” Our parent company confirmed we would leave at 2 p.m., so me and Stacy worked, went down and walked 4 miles, worked then headed out. Traffic was rough coming home but I got home around 3 p.m., worked from home until 5 p.m., then got out and took some Snow Day pics!

Snowy house

View of the neighborhood

Me and baby shih poo - to answer your question, Em, no - Reuben dislikes the snow! We have to carry him out to a pinestraw patch to use the restroom!

Austin shot some video in the backyard!

I tried to get artsy again

I thought the trees looked beautiful

Our bench looks like it's in CO or something Love it!

More snowy tree pics

The view from my kitchen window - what I spent a lot of time looking at the remainder of the day!


After our photo session, I got to cooking:

4 servings of pasta in creamy sundried tomato sauce

4 servings of chicken fried rice

8 servings of potato/egg/sausage breakfast burritos

And I prepped a few things for future meals! Then Austin got home, it snowed harder and I just never made it back to the gym. Oopsie! We had a nice night though – playing pool, playing games and hanging out with little Reuben. Good family stuff! I also took a ton of pics, and worked on my January video a good bit. Great night! I ended up at 1,973 calories, 231 carbs, 49 fat grams and 114 protein grams. Here’s what I ate.

Saturday I woke up feeling sick. Dang!!! My throat hurt, I was achey, I had a cold and felt totally crummy. However, I was PUMPED to try some new recipes. But which to try?! I decided to weave 4 new recipes into this week’s meal plan:

1. Buffalo Chicken Chili from Biz
2. Chicken and Roasted Garlic Lasagna from For the Love of Cooking
3. Breakfast Tortilla Strata from Cooking light
4. Spinach Mushroom Pizza from Fitness Magazine

My Menu

Sunday: Sausage/egg/potato burrito; buffalo chicken chili; chicken & roasted garlic lasagna

Monday: Muffin breakfast pizza; creamy pasta; chicken & roasted garlic lasagna

Tuesday: sausage/egg/potato burrito; margarita pizza; chicken souvlaki

Wednesday: Muffin breakfast pizza; chicken souvlaki; tostados

Thursday: sausage/egg/potato burrito; sweet and spicy tacos; baked shrimp in tomato sauce

Friday: breakfast tortilla strata; chicken & roasted garlic lasagna; buffalo chicken chili; spinach mushroom pizza

Saturday: breakfast tortilla strata; margarita pizza; easy thai curry

Sunday: breakfast tortilla strata; tostados; easy thai curry

I worked on this a good bit Saturday, as with new recipes I have to get them into spark people and tweak them for servings to figure out nutritionals, etc. Then I had a Big Love marathon, made a grocery list and Austin drove me to the grocery store, and by Petco to get Reuben a few things. When we got home I threw Biz’s Buffalo Chicken Chili into the crockpot and took a long, restful nap. Then I felt I was feeling a bit better so we did the usual: played some pool, played some games, had a few drinkies In retrospect, probably not the best idea as I don’t feel too well today. Duh! Oh well, I ended up at 2,136 calories, 244 carbs, 40 fat grams and 84 protein grams. Here’s what I ate and drank.

Today I’m just chilling, weighed 121 so better than 123 earlier this month! I'm SUPER excited to:

· Try Biz’s buffalo chicken chili (It smelled amazing!)

· Make For the Love of Cooking’s lasagna

· Cook some more stuff!

· Finish up the laundry

· Do some things around the house

· Hang the dining room project

· Finish my video

· And maybe hit the gym, buy a TV for my scrapbook room, and start reading my book club book (still waiting for the Amazon delivery to get here!)

What are you doing today?

What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this week?