January 2008

On my free days we usually go to Whole Foods and eat out but when I woke up, I just wasn’t in the mood for it. So I decided to go to Kroger to check out their “natural food” section. It wasn’t nearly as bountiful as Whole Foods, but I picked up a few things. I was surprised to see that some of the things were more money at Kroger than at Whole Foods because I believe Whole Foods is one of the most expensive grocery stores I’ve ever shopped at! lol

It’s pretty late now but hubby and I are going to have a few drinks and then I’m going to make a cheeseburger. I’ve only eaten around 2200 calories so far today, be it with mainly fattening, unhealthy, but otherwise DELICIOUS foods LOL. I typically go around 4000-6000 calories on my free days, but I’ll probably end up around 3500 calories or so today. Yeah, a whole pound worth of calories and I don’t feel one ounce of guilt. After the workout I had today, I could probably take a free day for the next 7 days and feel great about it! I did 30-40 minutes of strength training, followed by over an hour of INTENSE cardio on my elliptical; I was hovering over 8MPH for more than half of the hour. I was dripping with sweat but it felt great. I wouldn’t mind doing a routine like that every single day, I enjoy it very much. I still can’t believe I’m saying that LOL!

So, at Kroger I picked up a California Pizza Kitchen Sicilian frozen pizza — MMMMMMMMMM! It was SO tasty but I only had 1/6th of the pizza and it wasn’t very big to begin with lol. For 1/3 of the pizza, it’s only 310 calories, but I always overestimate my cheat day calories, just in case. I keep a rough calorie log of what I ate that day, so I put the small piece of pizza down as 350 calories lol. Silly, I know, but it’s not like someone is keeping score anyway. hehe For 310 calories you’d think I’d just work something like that into my regular menus, but at 5g of saturated fat per serving and 910mg of sodium, I’ll definitely savor things like that exclusively on free days!

After pizza we had a skirt steak; my husband really likes the Jack’s Daniels one from TGIFriday’s, so I thought we’d try one at home and it came out incredibly awesome:

Very juicy! Mmmm! I put less sodium teriyaki sauce on it and WOW was it tender and tasty! YUMMY! I jotted this down for 450 calories lol. It could be more but oh well. It was about 6 oz and had very little fat on it. Great stuff!

Then we dug into the Ben & Jerry’s frozen yogurt; this is my husband eating it right out of the container:

180 calories per serving, we had about 1/2 a serving each — I put it down for 400 calories, even though it’s only 180 calories per serving. hehehe I’m SURE I’ll have more of it later on though, so it’s already accounted for just in case lol.

Right now I’m sipping cognac as I write this… forgive me if I make typos, I might be tipsy! *giggles*

2 glasses of cognac later I made 1 Laura’s lean beef (92% fat free) hamburger (160 cal) on a Pepperidge Farm 100% whole wheat bun (120 cal) with a slice of Jarlsberg lite swiss cheese (50 cal), lettuce, tomato, onion, Hellmann’s Canola mayo and Heinz salt free ketchup. On the side I had 1 and half chicken tenderloin strips and Cascadian Farm baked fries. Not a completely terrible meal considering half of it was made with fairly wholesome ingredients LOL.

I didn’t go as overboard today as I usually do on free days, but I still managed to sample a lot of yummy foods. Probably because I couldn’t find as many delicious things to buy at Kroger that I do in other stores LOL. My next free day is on Valetine’s Day so I’m definitely going to make a feast, I better start planning it now! hehe

I also bought 2 boxes of Cascadian Farm granola bars; Chocolate Chip and Fruit & Nut — OMG the chocolate chip tastes like cookie dough! I thought it would be dry and well, like a typical granola bar lol but to my delight it was soft, chewy, and very tasty. Yeah, there’s a lot of sugar in them but the whole grains make up for that, right? lol! For 140 calories each, they’re nice little treats. Kind of expensive though, they were on sale 2 boxes for $6, 6 per box. Then again, pretty much all groceries are expensive now, geesh! Almost everything I picked up was around $5 and the only bargain I got was Perdue chicken breast for $2.99/lb. *sigh* I haven’t seen many sales in the stores here in Atlanta like I did in NY. I remember Shop Rite and Price Chopper having really awesome sales but Kroger doesn’t have nearly as many, from what I have seen. I’m glad we’ll be back in NY soon!!

EDIT: Shortly after I started typing this, I fell asleep! LOL I had about 3 glasses of cognac but I have a very low alcohol tolerance. Sorry for the late update!

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I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I felt pretty out of it all day. On top of that, I’ve been SO hungry all day long! I ate lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks right after one another. I don’t know what’s with me today but I also woke up feeling really puffy and bloated. It’s like Aunt Flo decided to wait until the end of her stay before I started retaining more water. I was 2/10 of a lb heavier when I weighed myself this morning, so I’m probably hanging onto an extra pound or 2 of water from her visit. All the sodium I’ve been eating the past week hasn’t helped much either. As bloated as I feel right now, I’m considering postponing tomorrow’s “free day” to a day later in the week but I have Valentine’s Day coming up in 2 weeks, so I’ll take tomorrow. After a good night’s sleep, hopefully I’ll wake up feeling better than I did today.

My first little meal of the day was lunch; 2 Wasa light rye crackers (60 cal) topped with tuna:

As hungry as I was today, I could have eaten 10 of these! hahaha I made tuna fish salad with: 1/4 cup (56g) Bumble Bee low sodium tuna (70 cal), 1 TBSP Hellmann’s Canola mayo (45 cal), 1 TBSP Smart Balance fat free mayo (10 cal), 30g diced red onions (15 cal), 1 diced plum tomato (15 cal), and a dash of black pepper. I spread the tuna salad on 2 Wasa light rye crispbread crackers and dug in! For only 215 calories, this is a REALLY nice little lunch that is pretty filling and tasty. Probably a bit too much onion for most people, but I LOVE raw onion! Especially the crunch. Mmm! I love Wasa crispbread because they are so big and sturdy, perfect for piles of yummy tuna salad.

That was a great “appetizer” lol — but, I wanted more, so I started making dinner shortly afterwards:

1 can of Health Valley no salt added black bean soup (280 cal) topped with .5 oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (35 cal) and 2 TBSP Breakstone fat free sour cream (30 cal). With a side salad made with 3 cups fresh baby spinach (20 cal), 1 plum tomato (15 cal), 30g red onions (15 cal) and 2 TBSP Maple Grove Farms of Vermont Dijon vinaigrette (25 cal) with a splash of red wine vinegar. The soup was SPECTACULAR! You don’t miss the salt at ALL in it. YUMMY! It sort of tasted like chili to me, minus the meat. It was great! I can’t wait to get more of it. I couldn’t finish all of my salad, I think I put a little too much Mrs. Dash lemon pepper on it. After eating that warm and tasty soup, I just couldn’t get into chomping down on the cold salad that I over-seasoned. Oh well! hehe For 430 calories, it was a nice meal, despite the salad with the wrong flavors. The Health Valley soups are so tasty that I am going to use them as an ingredient in other dishes. I don’t think I’m going to Whole Foods tomorrow though, I don’t feel up to the trip. It’s only 9 miles away but the traffic makes it a half hour one-way trip! I wonder if other stores carry it… I’ll investigate!

I didn’t eat breakfast until around 11:00PM tonight lol. It was a nice almost-midnight snack:

1/2 cup Egg Beaters (60 cal), scrambled with .5 oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (35 cal), 1 slice Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat toast (50 cal) and 1/2 tablespoon Smucker’s strawberry Simply Fruit (20 cal). Grand total: 165 calories!!! How many full-sized breakfasts can you make for so little calories? Well, maybe not full-sized but medium-sized? hehe For under 200 calories, you could add a side of yogurt or turkey bacon and still keep calories to a minimum. Cool, huh?

I’m going teepy teepies now, I have a LOT of exercise to do tomorrow — not to mention, some delicious foods to eat!

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My head is spinning, I had so much to do today lol. We woke up late and of course, we’re staying up late, again, for like the 100th day in a row. We’re going to break this cycle soon, somehow, some way!! lol I did manage to make my exercise routine come in at the top of my list today. So I ate a banana and I did 30 minutes of strength training; my arms were sore and I didn’t realize it until I got on my elliptical, but my legs were sore too! I really went at it today. I like to put a lot of effort into my exercise, it doesn’t feel right if I just sort of go through the motions without working up a really good sweat and exhaust my muscles. hehe I was telling people today that if you don’t like drinking water, work up a good sweat and you’ll LOVE a nice cold glass of it. Seriously, water is my best friend during and after a workout, so refreshing.

After I showered I started dinner, which turned out sensational:

6oz before cook shrimp (180 cal) cooked in 2 teaspoons of sesame oil (80 cal), with 1 cup Birds Eye frozen broccoli (30 cal), 60g onions (30 cal), 1oz fresh baby carrots (15 cal), 78g sugar snap peas (40 cal), and 2 TBSP of 100% apricot fruit spread (70 cal) on a bed of 1 cup cooked brown rice (210 cal) for only 655 calories.

The rice takes a while to cook, so I started with that and when it was done, I steamed the veggies in the microwave in a semi-covered bowl and a bit of water; weighed out the shrimp and added it in my nonstick frying pan with 2 teaspoons of sesame oil; added in the veggies are they were parboiled and at the very end I mixed in 2 TBSP of 100% apricot fruit spread. I made a bed of rice and put the shrimps and veggies on top; IT WAS DELICIOUS! So SO so SO GOOD! Sesame oil gives Asian-style dishes so much flavor and a little goes a long way. This dish was so fresh and it was nice to actually taste the rice, shrimp, and veggies without them being saturated in oil and sauces like you might get from Chinese restaurants. So just 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and 2 TBSP of apricot fruit spread were all this huge plate of food needed to taste great. Yum!

I made a ham panini for lunch that came out really, really good:

1 slice of Tusacan bread (140 cal) cut in half with 2 slices Oscar Mayer Naturals ham (40 cal), 1 oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese, roasted red peppers (10 cal), and a handful of fresh baby spinach leaves (5 cal). I gave my nonstick pan a quick spray of Pam olive oil cooking spray and put the sandwich down in it, covered it with a piece of nonstick foil and used a can of sauce to weigh it down. When it was golden brown on one side, I flipped it and let the other side get toasty and put the foil and can back on it to smoosh it together. With a side of Kettle Bakes baked white cheddar chips (60 cal – half serving) this quaint little lunch came out to just 325 calories. Oh by the way, I rinsed the ham under water and then dried it with a paper towel to try to remove *some* of the sodium in it — LOL Every little bit helps, right?

I’m pretty tired right now but I still have over half of my menu to finish. I’ve been trying to use up some things I have in the freezer and fridge because I know on my “free day” I’m probably going to go buy more things to experiment with! *giggles* We don’t know unless we try, right?

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When I was growing up my parents, grandmother or somebody within fork-and-plate proximity always made a huge pot of tomato sauce every Sunday with. The sauce was always used for pasta and sometimes something else, like: eggplant parmesan, chicken parmesan, and etc. I didn’t appreciate it back then as much as I do now. I ate nearly everything they cooked when I was little, but I guess I was spoiled by all the home cooking for so long that I didn’t miss it until I went without it for a long time. Now that I have rekindled my passion for cooking and baking, I tend to revisit a lot of childhood favorites, only sometimes it’s with a healthier, lighter approach.

Sunday supper was a meal made in healthy lifestyle heaven:

My version of “Chicken Parmesan” with a side of pasta; only 630 delightful calories! And this meal could easily fit in to anyone’s menu — even you 1200-1500 per day people.

You would not believe how near effortless this meal was. First I started boiling the water for 1oz whole wheat Rigatoni pasta (105 cal); put 1 cup Hunt’s no salt added tomato sauce (80 cal) in a small sauce pan with 60g onions (30 cal) to simmer; weighed 118g chicken breast on my food scale; pounded it thin between 2 pieces of wax paper and let it sit there while I mixed: 1 TBSP whole wheat flour (25 cal) with garlic powder and dried oregano. I then took the chicken breast and dredged it in the flour and spice mixture; coating it evenly. In my frying pan I put 2 teaspoons of olive oil (80 cal), spread it around the pan evenly, put the burner on medium, waited about a minute, and added the floured chicken breast in. Being it was thin, it only took about 6 minutes on the first side and about 5 on the other. I suggest cooking it on medium until golden brown, be careful not to overcook or cook on a very high temperature, olive oil has a very low heat tolerance.

When the chicken was thoroughly cooked, I removed it from the heat and let it sit in the pan with a foil tent. When the pasta was done I drained it, put it back in its pot, put the skillet with the chicken breast back on the stove with half of the tomato sauce and 1oz part-skim mozzarella cheese (80 cal). Then I put the foil tent over it and let the cheese melt on low-medium heat for a few minutes. When I plated it, I added the rest of the sauce to the Rigatoni pasta and 1 TBSP grated parmesan cheese (20 cal). I actually used half of the parmesan cheese on my pasta and half on the chicken.

And you know what? With just a light dredging of flour, you don’t miss the egg or breadcrumbs at all! It was FANTASTIC with just the flour, cooked in olive oil and it didn’t even use all of the tablespoon of flour. That’s good to know for future reference because I was worried it wouldn’t be enough, but I probably could have used just half of a tablespoon and it would have been plenty. Nice! This meal came out just as good as I expected it to, even though I’ve never tried making it like this before LOL. It was sooooo filling and yummy, yet I still had room to have another one of my cupcakes for dessert. *giggles*

I know I say it all the time, but meals like this TOTALLY make exercise worth it. Is it wrong to exercise more just to eat more? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Years and years ago, people naturally moved more while working and maintaining a household, then many of them had hearty lunches in the middle of the day and big family dinners at night. In fact, a lot of countries around the world still live in tradition like that. Food is NOT the enemy. Less activity can definitely be what makes food seem like the bad guy though. I know for most of my life I tried to maximize my laziness by doing as little as humanly possible and then working on my computer for nearly 10 years now has contributed to a lot of weight gain. Maybe if I gotten just a half hour or hour of exercise everyday for the past 28 years I wouldn’t have gained as much as I did. It’s more than likely. Of course overeating is a big factor, but I think the sedentary lifestyles many of us now lead can be just as much to blame. If you can move, DO IT as often as possible!

Lunch was a scrumptious egg salad sandwich on whole wheat toast:

I made the egg salad with 1 large hard boiled egg (75 cal), 1 large hard boiled egg white (20 cal), 1 tablespoon Hellmann’s Canola mayo (45 cal), 1 tablespoon Smart Balance fat free mayo (10 cal) and a dash of black pepper. I toasted 2 slices of Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat bread (100 cal) and put Romaine lettuce leaves and 1 plum tomato (20 cal) on it. With a side of Snyder’s unsalted mini pretzels, a WONDERFUL lunch for only 325 calories! Isn’t that gorgeous? It tasted as good as it looks! Mmmmmm!!

I still have 3 snacks and breakfast to eat from my menu LOL — ugh, when will I quit this ridiculous schedule? I did 30 minutes of cardio on my elliptical (of course) at highest resistance after dinner being today was my alternate Sunday of cardio. It just flew by! I guess when I don’t do strength training first, a mere 30 minutes of cardio is no big deal to me now! 6 months ago I was out of breath walking upstairs to our bedroom! It’s nice to be going in a healthier direction. Kinda funny to think that I will be in better shape at 30 than I was at 21. I’m a late bloomer I guess! lol

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