WW Week 9

I’ve been following WW for 8 weeks and experienced 7 weeks of losses at the weekly weigh-in. At this week’s (week 8’s) weigh-in, I experienced my first gain, and while not significant, was super disappointing. I have to admit that I somewhat expected it, between taking time off from the gym and over-celebrating St. Pat’s, I was pretty sure I hadn’t lost. I had, however, hoped I’d at least maintained. I may be disappointed, but I’m not discouraged, and I’m looking forward to this week as a harder challenge: lose that pound I gained + lose another pound to get myself back on track! To do so, I’m taking myself back to how strict I was in the first few weeks; I’ll be sure to get at least 30-40min of exercise every single day and will be tracking every single sip and taste. I’m also refusing to tap into my activity points. I will definitely slip into my bonus points because I enjoy my weekend wine, but I plan not to use all 49 and those activity points are going to just sit there and remain completely unused. I’m also going back to something that worked well for me last summer when I noticed I felt super tired in the afternoons: instead of one normal lunch portion, I’m going to have two smaller lunch portions, one at 11am and the other around 230pm, with a very light snack of fruit & nuts just before heading to the gym at the end of the work day.

This week’s meal plan – breakfasts will be egg & sausage casserole; morning snacks are fiber one yogurts; early lunches will be ww-recipe corn chowder; late lunches will vary based upon leftovers. Here are the dinners I’ve planned for the week:
Monday – Chicken in a lemon/thyme marinade with grilled veggies (squash, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes)
Tuesday – Beef stew
Wednesday – Chicken fajitas (peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach) with black beans
Thursday – Tagliatelle Carbonara (without the alfredo-like sauce, can I still call it Carbonara??) – recipe below
Friday – Turkey burgers and roasted veggies (oven fries, baby carrots, broccoli)
--- made a deal with a coworker that if we both lose our goal at Thursday’s weigh in, we’re being bad for lunch (but still tracking) so I had to go with a super low points-value dinner to be safe ---

As a side note, I do try to get Dan’s input on the weekly meal plans but as usual, his response was “whatever” when I asked what he’d like for dinners this week. His only request was to pack him less citrus for his afternoon fruit because he bit his tongue and apparently the pineapple I gave him this morning really hurt that spot on his tongue so I picked him up a nectarine, gala apple, 2 pears and a red plum at the farmers’ market. OH I also checked out Colleyville farmers’ market this week; I’ve been a Bedford farmers’ market devotee for a long time but was disappointed last weekend when I learned they got their garlic from China!! I am a big believer in eating local produce and that just really didn’t sit well with me. Colleyville’s market is nice, and they have a pretty good selection, but some of their items seemed like they had been out a little too long; many of their red peppers were puckered and tomatoes bruised, which is fine for sauce but not so great for salad. I will be heading over to NRH’s market next week; haven’t been there in awhile since we switched dog parks but they had a fab selection last time I checked.

Tagliatelle Carbonara (without the alfredo-like sauce)
6 servings / 10 pts

1 lb / 16oz whole wheat fettuccine*
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (you can totally use less than this, but this is what I used for the points value since I learned I’m pretty heavy on the pour into a skillet)
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp faux butter (I use smart balance)
5 oz light / low-sodium deli ham (about 6 slices)
1 c frozen peas, thawed
Salt & pepper to taste
Grated parmesan – optional but tasty, adds to points value

- Cook the pasta according to package instructions, drain but reserve 1 cup of the pasta water; return pasta to pot
- Heat olive oil in skillet, add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent and garlic is super fragrant, about 2-3 min
- Add butter to skillet and melt, add ham and peas, cook until peas are heated through, about 3-4min; reduce heat and simmer about 5min longer then add to pasta
- Toss pasta with sauce, add salt & pepper to taste, add enough reserved pasta water to make a light sauce (I usually end up using about half)
- Enjoy!!!

*tagliatelle is just a fancy word for fettuccine, I like using it because Dan can’t say it

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

The highlight of this week’s menu is of course the jambalaya I’ll be serving on Tuesday … I have a shellfish allergy so mine strays from the traditional in two ways: 1) no shrimp, and 2) I use turkey sausage. Last week, I made a perfect copycat Cajun Chicken Pasta, one of my FAVORITE dishes from Chili’s (second only to their skillet queso). Eaten at Chili’s, the Cajun Chicken Pasta is an alarming 35pts; however, lightened up and eaten at home, you can have this same dish for only 8pts!

Our menu for the week:
Breakfasts – FiberOne Yoplait yogurts and Bacon & Egg casserole
Lunches – leftovers and soups
& of course, our dinners …
Monday – roast chicken & veggies with wild rice
Tuesday – jambalaya!!!!
Wednesday – chicken enchilada casserole
Thursday – pesto & feta stuffed chicken … we had this not too long ago but Dan so loved it that he asked for me to add it on the plan for this week, it really is just that good!
Friday – balsamic marinated flank steak with hand-cut steak fries and broccoli/cauliflower

Cajun Chicken Pasta
4 servings / 8 pp each
The base for this recipe is Hungry Girlfredo
4 wedges Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss
4 tbsp fat-free sour cream
¼ c reduced-fat grated parmesan
2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp blackened seasoning
4 c whole wheat penne pasta
1 c sliced mushrooms
½ c frozen peas
Olive oil, olive oil spray
Salt & pepper

- Lightly coat the chicken breasts with olive oil spray and season generously with blackened chicken seasoning; press the seasoning into the breasts (both sides) and allow the chicken to rest on the countertop for about 20min
- Spray grill pan with olive oil spray and heat over medium; add the chicken breasts and cook about 7-10min each side or until fully cooked through
- Lightly sauté mushrooms and peas until mushrooms are soft and peas are no longer frozen; keep warm
- While chicken is grilling, cook pasta in lightly salted water; when draining, reserve 1 c of the pasta water
- Return pasta to pot, add cheese wedges, sour cream and parmesan; add reserved pasta water by the ladleful until the sauce becomes creamy; add vegetables and toss to coat; add salt & pepper to taste
- Slice chicken breasts and serve over the pasta; dust entire dish with additional blackened chicken seasoning

Jambalaya
8 servings / 5 pp each
1 pkg turkey sausage – either smoked or hot Italian seasoning
1 lb chicken breast
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 small jalapeno pepper
2 celery ribs
1 onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 15oz or 1 28oz canned diced tomatoes
1 can / 2 c fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 c cooked enriched brown rice
Cayenne pepper
Cajun seasoning
Salt & pepper
Olive oil

- Cook sausage in grill pan until cooked through, slice into 1” thick pieces (or smaller) and keep warm
- Season chicken with salt & pepper, cook in grill pan until cooked through, cut into large chunks and keep warm
- Dice peppers, celery & onion
- Heat 1tbsp olive oil in large stock pot; add diced veggies and garlic, cook until veggies have softened
- Add diced tomatoes and simmer 10min; add seasonings and cook until fragrant (I use quite a bit of cayenne but start with 1tsp or less if you’re not a spicy person); when using Cajun seasoning, it will fill your house with a sweet smell that is just fabulous, once you start to smell that sweetness, move on to next step
- Add chicken broth, turkey sausage, chicken and add more cayenne pepper, Cajun seasoning, salt & pepper to taste (if needed)
- Allow the dish to simmer over lowest heat setting for at least an hour but preferably 2-3 hours, until the chicken is falling apart when you try to pick up a chunk with your fork
- Cook rice and add to dish just before serving

Enjoy!!!!

Happy Long Weekend err I mean Happy Presidents' Day!

My two best friends, whom I’ve known since grade school, came to town for the long weekend and we had an absolute blast! I was super proud of myself for making good choices even though we were at restaurants where I’d normally have covered my plate with queso. While it was a great time, I’m very glad to have Presidents’ Day off to recover and get my week planned out. There are roughly 4 weeks until St. Patrick’s Day and I’ve promised myself that if I stick to plan and exercise at least three times per week, I get to have all the Guinness and soda bread that I want!! (side note: it’s definitely a good thing that it’s a school night, that will keep me from over-indulging on the Guinness)

This week, I’m making an egg beater & turkey bacon casserole for breakfasts and am working through the lentil, tortilla and black bean soups stacked up in our freezer for my lunches. I was super excited to go to the farmer’s market today and see SO much fresh, locally grown produce to incorporate into this week’s dinners.

This week’s dinner menu:
Monday – make-your-own pizza night!! I’m letting Dan have pepperoni on his but I made a homemade salsa to top mine
Tuesday – chicken breasts stuffed with ricotta/spinach topped with a homemade marinara, sautéed eggplant and mushrooms
Wednesday – oven-fried chicken; we were supposed to have this last week but I hurt my knee, skipped the gym, and let Dan order pizza instead so we’ll be having it this week with sweet potato fries and green beans
Thursday – shepherd’s pie; I was crazy surprised that my regular recipe for this didn’t need much tweaking to get the points value down!
Friday – healthified chicken enchiladas

Stuffed Chicken Breasts
4 servings, 7pp each
- 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
- 1 pkg frozen, chopped spinach
- 15oz part-skim ricotta cheese
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- salt & pepper
- olive oil

1. Thaw spinach in a colander and squeeze out as much water as possible; pound out the chicken breasts to make them about ¼” to ½” thick
2. Mix ricotta, garlic and spinach in a large bowl; add salt & pepper to taste (I also add some red pepper and onion powder sometimes, when I remember)
3. Lay the chicken breasts out flat, salt & pepper the side facing up then stuff with the spinach/ricotta mix; fold the chicken breast over the filling and hold with toothpicks if necessary
4. Lightly drizzle with olive oil and bake 30-40min at 375, until cooked through

Totally optional but I’ll be adding a spoonful of marinara on top of each of mine with some sautéed mushrooms and eggplant instead of pasta, it increases the dish by about 1 pp. Enjoy!!

Valentine's Week Menu!

We aren’t really big Valentine’s people; it usually comes and goes without much fanfare in our house. For some reason, this year I decided I’d have a bit of fun with it and celebrate a little bigger (and no, not Big Love style a la 2009 when Meg, Shan and I took Dan out for vday dinner together). I didn’t mention to Dan that I was planning anything, which made it all the more fun that he made a similar decision to do things bigger this year too!! For my part, I planned a bunch of sweet treats, romantical date night and a week-long vday themed dinner menu. Dan surprised me with a 2nd fridge for the garage, something I’ve wanted for awhile but just never got around to searching (I hate appliance shopping almost as much as I hate the wireless store). The fridge was my kitchen-gift; the gift for ME was a pile of “W” stuff!! I love monogrammed items but find I rarely come across pre-monogrammed items with V or W so I was super excited; I am going to be SO obnoxious at the office, drinking out of my W mug, writing in my W notepad and using W sticky notes!! Dan also found Prosecco made by Cupcake! Cupcake wine is my current fave, and needless to say the Prosecco was amazeballs. I still don’t know what my “real” surprise is, but I’ll find out tomorrow … I can’t believe he did all this!!!!

Our romantical date night out on Saturday was fab, but not quite ww-friendly. To make up for our over indulgence, I’ve planned a very ww-friendly menu featuring some of our favorite restaurant meals, tweaked slightly of course, all meals are under 10pts total!

Sunday – Pork tenderloin medallions in a mushroom marsala sauce with roasted red potatoes, baby carrots and green beans (pictured above)
Monday – NY strip with a red wine reduction, asparagus and smashed potatoes/cauliflower
Tuesday – chicken breast stuffed with feta and pesto, green beans, broccoli and squash
Wednesday – hot wing turkey burgers (recipe follows) with oven fries and celery slaw
Thursday – oven-fried chicken, sides tbd
Friday – the jersey girls are coming, the jersey girls are coming!!! One if by land and two if by sea so I guess three since they’re flying? The jersey girls are coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hot Wing Turkey Burgers
4 servings, 5 pts each
- 1lb lean ground turkey (93/7), all white breast meat
- ¼ c bleu cheese crumbles (I used gorgonzola)
- ½ tsp Tabasco
- 1 ½ tbsp reduced fat buttermilk
- 3 tbsp bread crumbs

1. Place ground turkey in a large mixing bowl and break it up with your hands; add the rest of the ingredients and mix well
2. Form into 4 patties (at this point, you can wrap in plastic and freeze if you’re making ahead like I did)
3. Broil or grill the burgers until cooked through (internal temperature must be 170-180), enjoy!

Serve by themselves or on a bun, adding a bun will increase points. I’m going to top these with shredded celery, staying with the hot wings theme.

live near dallas? want a cupcake?

If you live in the DFW area and would love some free cupcakes, post a comment here or on the National D'Anthem Facebook page with your guess for how many cupcakes I'm baking this weekend to fill all the Valentine's Day orders I received. The person with the closest guess wins a dozen homemade cupcakes :)

GOOD LUCK!
(contest ends 10pmCT Sunday 2/13)

Sorry out-of-towners, I don't know how to mail the cupcakes without the frosting getting all messy

seriously ... more snow??

Due to unprecedented ice, snow and freezing weather in the DFW metroplex last week, we almost didn’t make it to Portland to visit my family and meet my new niece (#3 on my list). While there, I was also able to cross off #74 as wow, really, my niece Mallory is truly one of the most beautiful sights to behold! It was a fabulous visit and I can’t wait to go back; we had so much fun with the family and Mallory is just such a sweetheart, I miss her already! If only everything had gone as smoothly … what should have been a nice and easy trip, landing us in Portland at 11amPT Saturday morning ended with us not getting there until 6:30pm … thank you SO much DFW airport for being so ill prepared. I can’t say it’s entirely their fault, I mean we haven’t had weather this bad here in the almost 6 years I’ve lived here (the news said it’s the worst in 20yrs), but I’m still going to blame them because Saturday was pure misery!!

I will say that I had fully intended to be good, track points, and not go over my ww allowance even though we were on vacation. HOWEVER, by the third airport stop in ONE day, I gave up and fell off the wagon with heaping plates of chili cheese fries, nachos and quesadillas. I also over indulged during the Super Bowl, noshing on chips and dips, pizza, lil smokies and much much more. I’m not even going to count the wine, or that random mojito drink thing (which was darn tasty). I do wonder though, do I have to figure out the points value of Mallory’s cheeks? Because I sure smooched those nonstop and ate her up!! Seriously, look at that sweet face and those gorgeous cheeks; how could I not? Buuuuut, now that I’m back home, I’m back on track and planning to stay that way! We got home just before dinner Monday night and thankfully, I had a pre-made healthilicious dinner waiting for us in the freezer. After we ate and relaxed a bit, I went right to work and made my egg casserole for the rest of the week’s breakfasts and started prepping dinners. We are a little behind this week and Dan has a little more to do each night, but it’ll all be ok and we WILL stay on track!

While eating regular, normal bacon at Sunday breakfast, we started chatting about our favorite meals. Brett & Heather (my brother & his wife) were telling us how much they love meatloaf and I’ve been craving it ever since. Tonight’s dinner is a healthilicious take on one of our favorite comfort food meals: meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Turkey Meatloaf
6 servings / 4 pts OR 4 servings / 5 pts
- 1lb ground turkey, all breast meat, at least 97/3
- 1 egg white
- 2tbsp skim milk
- 1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1tbsp Worcestershire (Wooster!) sauce

Place the turkey in a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients and mix well with your hands; you can use a mixing spoon but I swear it never comes out as well, just dig in there and get your hands dirty!

Form into a football shape and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 45min at 350; check that the internal temperature has reached at least 170 before slicing into servings.

Roasted Vegetables
4 servings / 4 pts
- 1 cup chopped broccoli
- 6 small red potatoes, washed and quartered
- 10 baby carrots, halved
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 1tsp no-salt Italian seasoning

Place all the veggies into a casserole dish, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with seasoning. Bake 30min at 350 and enjoy!

snow day; day 2

Yesterday was cold and snowy and I craved soup. Today was FREEZING and the dogs and I wanted some yummy, still warm cookies!! For the doggy cookies, I made their favorite peanut butter treats and dipped them in melted carob. You know what’s not cool? Forgetting that you’re working with carob and licking what you *think* is melted chocolate off your finger only to be sorely reminded that it is carob … yuck!!!! The melted chocolate from a fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookie that I licked off my finger later totally made up for it though.

Healthilicious Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes anywhere from 48-60 cookies / 2pp per cookie if you measure out 50
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup Smart Balance 37% Light Spread Margarine
½ cup safflower oil (you can use canola, I just prefer safflower)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup mini chocolate chips

- cream together butter, oil, sugars, vanilla and egg until well blended
- add flour a little at a time until fully incorporated
- stir in chocolate chips
- drop by rounded tablespoon onto baking sheet
- bake 8-10min at 375