February 2008

We slept so long last night, I think I got about 12 hours of sleep! I was exhausted and it felt really good to catch up on my Zzz’s. The first thing I woke up to was my PB2 delivery! YAY!!!

A 10 jar order of the greatest powdered peanut butter ever! I still have 3 jars from my last order, but when the stock gets low, I must refill ASAP! Just in case. I wanted to make sure I had enough for my upcoming road trip and to take to NY with us being we’re going to have 2 houses for awhile lol. I also want to make oatmeal peanut butter cookies this weekend with it, they’re going to be delicious, I hope lol.

Then I checked my e-mail and noticed that I had a ton of new members at Calorie Cyclers and a lot more e-mail than usual. To my pleasant surprise, it turns out that I was on the front page of SparkPeople!! My SparkPage was in the “spotlight” — how awesome is that? I love it! I met so many great fellow Spark members today, it was a lot of fun. I have a lot of e-mails to reply to and tonight my ISP is not letting me receive or send e-mails, grrrr. I think its having DNS issues. *sigh* I’m really excited to be on there and my humble gratitude to everyone that nominated me as a “Spark Motivator”, I appreciate it very much!

So the day after a “cheat day” there was minimal damage on the scale, I was actually the same exact weight I was before I even had a free day, so it was like it never even happened lol! I thought for sure I’d be 5 or 6 lbs heavier with all of the sodium I ingested, but nope. Nadda. I was back to normal. Nice, I like that! LOL

I didn’t check my voice mail until later on in the day, but there was a message from my doctor’s office on it. The nurse called to tell me that my cholesterol test came back and the doctor said it was excellent. YIPPY!! She said she’d fax the results to me if I give her our fax #, but I think I’ll just swing by there and get a copy of it. I want my medical records from yesterday anyway. Besides, I’m a numbers freak and I want to know what my exact numbers were so I can compare them to healthy ranges and see to see where there could be room for improvement. hehe

So, it’s the day after a free day and I’m back on target and that means a “1200 calorie” day. Actually, I woke up hungry but after I ate, I haven’t been that hungry today. Usually on 1200 calorie days I’m ravenous but I actually forgot to eat a few times today, then I noticed my tummy was rumbling and ate something lol.

I started off with a cute little breakfast of cereal and toast:

I used my ramekin to make 2 TBSP (12g dry) PB2 powdered peanut butter (54 cal), then I spread the PB2 on 1 slice Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat toast (50 cal) and then used the same ramekin for my cereal; 16g Kashi Heart to Heart (55 cal) with ½ cup skim milk (45 cal). The remaining PB2 on the ramekin gave the cereal a slight peanut buttery flavor. Yummy!! It was a nice little breakfast for just 204 calories and only took about 2 minutes to prepare. No time for breakfast? Nonsense!

Lunch was small too, but tasty and filling:

I’m addicted to red onions on my turkey sandwiches after I had it yesterday. Today I made ½ a sandwich with 1 slice Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat bread (50 cal), 1 teaspoon Grey Poupon Dijon mustard (5 cal), 2oz Boar’s Head 47% lower sodium turkey breast (60 cal), ½ cup Spring Mix lettuce leaves (3 cal), 1 plum tomato (15 cal), 6g red onions (2 cal) and a 14g side of Snyder’s unsalted mini pretzels. I swear the turkey sandwich with Dijon mustard and red onions tastes so much like an Arby’s Market Fresh turkey sandwich, only with much less sodium and calories. It’s awesome. And for only 190 calories, this half-size sandwich gave full-size satisfaction. YUM!

1200 calorie days don’t leave me much room for a “big meal” so I try to get the absolute most out of the calories I have to work with. A great big salad always works well when you’re working with a small calorie budget. I decided to try a different source of protein this time: black beans. It was great! After you put dressing on them, it almost tastes like another type of cheese on the salad. I wish I had tried it sooner, they go great on a salad:

My husband said it looks like a fireworks display lol. Pretty, isn’t it? I made it with: 3 cups (84g) Spring Mix lettuce (15 cal), 1 plum tomato (15 cal), 30g red onions (15 cal), ¼ cup Eden Organic no salt added black beans (55 cal), 1 oz Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese (70 cal) then drizzled 2 TBSP Smoky SASS yogurt ranch dressing (32 cal) and red wine vinegar (10 cal) over it. It was fantastic!! I can’t wait to have it again. Black beans are a great source of fiber and protein and so bean-u-tiful. Such a lovely and filling salad for only 212 calories!! I was actually full for a few hours after eating this, it’s the perfect low-calorie salad.

After dinner I had 2 Late July Dark Chocolate sandwich cookies (100 cal). Oh, they are so rich, I love them! They remind me of Pepperidge Farm Milano and Geneva cookies. They have that very dark chocolate flavor that I love SO much. I hope I can find them again, they’re wonderful.

I have yet another super busy day tomorrow. We have so much to get done before we leave for NY on Monday, ugh. This is going to be fun, I hope!!!!! LOL I was supposed to do 30 minutes of cardio today, but I only did 16 on medium resistance. I’m going to do another 20 minutes tomorrow morning. It doesn’t really matter when I do it, it’s all about staying in range for the week, that goes for cardio too. I don’t mind spreading it out throughout the day or even over 2 days. Of course, as I get to lower weights, I won’t have as much wiggle room for that when I start exercising 6-7 days a week LOL. Ah well, that’s not such a bad thing. I honestly enjoy being active now. Except for this tickle on my throat I got from breathing in the cold air while I was on my elliptical yesterday morning.

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I am so full that I can barely move. OMG I ate so much today, at least 4500 calories worth of food. I had a doctor’s appointment for 11:00AM today, so I packed an innocent lunch for Dustin and me to take with us so we could have a picnic in the car after we left the doctor’s office. I made us turkey sandwiches on whole wheat with mayo and swiss cheese. I used Jarlsberg lite swiss on mine with Hellmann’s Canola mayo and mustard. Being it was a “free day” I didn’t weigh any of it, except for the Kettle Lightly Salted chips — I weighed out an ounce of those, which was quite generous. They are made with safflower oil, so they’re loaded with polyunsaturated fat (7g per serving of “good fat”) and very little saturated fat, about 1g.

The sandwich was delicious! I put about 3oz Boar’s Head 47% lower sodium turkey breast on Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat bread with 1 slice Jarlsberg lite swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onions, Canola mayo and mustard. It tasted like an Arby’s Market Fresh turkey sandwich, yummmmmm! I also took along the Kettle chips, a Cookies & Cream Delight Luna bar and Cheetos for hubby. Then I bought a bottle of water inside the pharmacy in the medical building.

My doctor was surprised to see me again being we were supposed to move over a month ago lol. It was a great checkup though, she was really impressed by my weight loss and both her and her nurse asked me how I lost it all. The nurse weighed me and left the room, then came back in a minute later and asked how I was losing weight. She was like, “Wow, you’ve lost 20 lbs since the last time you were here!” — I was like, “Yeah, I know!” lol. I mentioned to my doctor awhile ago that I was just “eating 1800 calories a day” to simplify it back then, but I went into more details today and explained how I calorie cycle and to my surprise, she was familiar with how that works! She even said that it’s a great method because you don’t feel so restricted and it’s hard for people to stay on low-calorie diets. Well, I couldn’t agree more and I was so excited and relieved to hear an extraordinary gastroenterologist validate my weight loss beliefs and methods. I even told her how I take “free days” and that today was actually one of them and she said something along the lines of how that’s “good” and of course I agree with that too lol. I think she was taken aback by how much progress I have made since I started seeing her last summer. It seems like every visit to her I am 10 or 20 lbs smaller, but she wanted to make sure that I was actually trying to lose weight and that it wasn’t coming off without me doing anything! lol So, she gave me another prescription for my diuretic and I had her check my cholesterol, just out of curiosity. I headed to the lab after I left her office and got poked with a needle. It only pinched for a second but it’s still a little sore now. I should have those results by tomorrow, hopefully it isn’t very high and hopefully it’s normal.

So, hubby and I had our little picnic in the car, it was fun! Then we headed home, which was only 21 miles away yet takes about in hour in Atlanta traffic. We didn’t get much sleep at all last night, we fell asleep around 1:00AM and we were wide awake by 3:49AM, 2 hours before the alarm was set to go off. lol When we got home from the doc’s we took a 2 hour nap, then went to Whole Foods. While we were in the medical building, an office must have had Chinese food delivered for lunch and it smelled soooooooo good, so Dustin and I were going to go out to dinner tonight, I wanted to try P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, but after I checked their web site menu, I was sort of turned off. I don’t know. I’ve never been there, but it smells fantastic every time we visit the mall. I wonder if it’s very commercialized, like a Chinese Chili’s restaurant or is it better than that? I’ll have to get some more reviews. After checking out the calories, I decided I’d get another Kashi Sweet and Sour Chicken frozen dinner lol! Even though it was a free day, I don’t know if I wanted to spend 3000 calories on one meal that I didn’t know if it would be worth it. Plus, they don’t have the sodium content listed on their nutritional info, which scares me. I consumed thousands of milligrams of sodium today, 5 or 6 times more than I usually do, but I know Chinese cooking is notorious for using MSG and I’m wondering if P.F. Chang’s is any different.

But just because I passed up one restaurant doesn’t mean I was an angelic eater today LOL. I ate EVERYTHING in sight. Mainly sweets. I went to town on frozen yogurt, ice cream, candy, and cookies. Ugh. When we went to Whole Foods I bought mostly “snack food” because I am already stocked up with more food than I need and I shouldn’t have even gone shopping being we’re going to NY next week, but I’m a weakling when it comes to free days and Whole Foods lol. I just HAVE to make sure they aren’t selling something new and delicious that I don’t have lol.

Oh, speaking of sodium, when we got home from the doctor’s office one of my deliveries came:

After I found Mr. Spice salt free honey mustard, I looked up more of their products and found that they have salt free hot sauce that I’ve been searching for on this web site: http://www.healthyheartmarket.com — it’s an online store that sells low sodium/sodium free products! I was so excited, so I bought a few other products. The service is excellent and the prices are reasonable. I placed my order last Thursday night, it was shipped out last Friday and arrived today and the shipping cost was only about $8, which isn’t bad for a fairly heavy box full of bottles and cans. I’m very happy to have found it, it’s not easy to find a lot of low-sodium products and one-stop shopping makes it a dream.

Continuing on my low-sodium quest, I found more low and no sodium things today at Whole Foods:

I saw that they carry Eden Organic salt free beans and began loading up the cart, until I saw the shelf right above them sold Whole Foods 365 brand that were also no salt added. I have a feeling that Eden Organic just might produce their product with Whole Foods’ 365 brand on the label? Well, anyway, the 365 brand was only .79 cents per can and the Eden Organic was $1.69 each. So for half as much money, beans are beans, right? How different could they be? lol I’m willing to bet I couldn’t tell the difference.

I couldn’t find too many new things to buy in Whole Foods, I probably have a mini Whole Foods in my pantry, cupboards, and freezers. lol I did happen to spot Late July cookies that I remember someone mentioning on a message board. So I got 2 boxes of them:

I tried them as soon as I got home and WOW!!!! They are WONDERFUL! The Dark Chocolate ones have only 150 calories for 3 cookies and the Vanilla Bean ones have 110 calories for 2 cookies. For 100 or 110 calories, I can have 2 of either of these as a nice after dinner dessert or a snack. The Dark Chocolate has such deep, dark, chocolate flavor. Love them! I hope I can find them again, they’re really, really tasty.

After we left Whole Foods I stopped at another “specialty store” called Fresh Market to see if they had a Kashi Sweet and Sour Chicken frozen dinner being Whole Foods had every flavor EXCEPT that one. Fresh Market didn’t have it but they did have these:

Oh my CHOCOLATE GODDESS! Godiva chocolate is exquisite. I ate 3 pieces of them lol. I could have eaten the whole box, but I tried to control myself. I’ve had a sugar overload today. I don’t know what’s with me, it’s like the ghost of Aunt Flo was whispering in my ear all day making up for what I missed last week! lol I was on a chocolate and ice cream binge today! And I enjoyed every second of it.

After sampling way too many sweets, we decided to order a cheesesteak pizza and Chicken Kickers from Domino’s. I don’t care for Domino’s AT ALL, it’s NOT real pizza. But their cheesesteak pizza is sooooooooo yummy! lol! And being we’re moving to the middle of nowhere again, we won’t be seeing any kind of food delivery anytime soon. So this was our “one for the road” pizza delivery:

Nice and greasy huh? lol I don’t like their regular pizza, but the cheesesteak one tastes like a cheesesteak sandwich, which is one of my all time favorite foods. I had 2 slices of the pizza and 2 Chicken Kickers:

I refilled my plate after that pic. The pizza was full of fat and sodium but OMG it tasted so good lol. Not quite as good as REAL pizza or even my homemade whole wheat dough pizza, but good in it’s own junk food right. I looked up the calories on their web site, just for fun and I estimate each slice was at least 450 calories, maybe a little less, but I doubt it. I really don’t care about the calories but the sodium just makes me blow up like a balloon. I would have eaten the whole pizza if sodium wasn’t such an issue for me.

I’ve been craving banana chips lately and I had always thought they were just dehydrated bananas, but I was wrong. Every package I picked up in Whole Foods had a ton of coconut oil added to it and one even had 22g of saturated fat. What the heck? So I quickly put them back down, I had no idea. While we were in Fresh Market I saw a middle of the store displayed piled high with Bear Naked granola, which I just discovered it awesome yesterday. I noticed they had a Banana Nut flavor, so I got a bag, kinda pricey at $5.39, but when I got home and tasted it, it made every cent worth it. It’s so yummy and has only 140 calories for ¼ cup/30g, 2g saturated fat, and it tastes GREAT!! I love it. I ate at least 2, maybe 3 servings of it today lol. It’s very addictive but a better alternative to banana chips that are overly sweetened and loaded with saturated fat. Not like it matters today. I probably had 5000g of sugar and 3000g of saturated fat. lol

I’m extremely tired, I did strength training for 30 minutes and 30 very intense minutes on my elliptical shortly after I woke up this morning. I was supposed to do 60 minutes of cardio, but I was just wiped out. I couldn’t do anymore and didn’t want to force myself. I can pick up the slack tomorrow or the next day, which is probably best anyway.

Oh, in between stores today I got a cheeseburger from Burger King, I was craving that flame broiled flavor really bad, so I just got one and inhaled it in like 30 seconds lol. I looked up the nutritional info when I got home and 330 calories isn’t TOO horrible, but 780mg of sodium in one itty bitty burger? Ridiculous! It was like 5 or 6 bites, or 4 big chomps! lol I used to eat 2 of these, plus fries. Insane. My sodium intake must have been in the ten thousands before I started watching it. It adds up so quickly. I know it’s not a big deal for most people, but I retain water just looking at a salt shaker.

Ok, I think I’m done eating for the day. I just had more ice cream with hubby a little while ago that surely brought me up to the 4500 calories I might have been overestimating an hour ago, but not anymore lol. Then he wanted me to drink beer or something with him. HAHAHAHA Not happening. I’m so full, I’d just get sick. I can’t drink alcohol on a full stomach, it’s just a waste of time and calories at that point. I might have room for one more piece of chocolate though. *giggles*

Free days (cheat days) might freak some people out, but I think they actually help my weight loss. The month of December/January I had 5 free days; my birthday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and lost 12 lbs from my birthday to January 12th. That was with taking twice as many free days as I usually take, so skeptics might say they’re bad and risky, but I find them to be extremely fun and possibly even helpful to my weight loss efforts and sanity.

Time for beddy byes!!

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I tried Bear Naked heavenly chocolate granola for the first time today and I LOVE it. The heavenly chocolate flavor (130 cal for 30g or ¼ cup) sort of tastes like almond biscotti or Amaretto with a hint of chocolate. Yummy! You get a pretty generous serving out of 30g too, which is always a plus. You do so much chewing that the serving feels much bigger than it is lol, I almost got tired of chomping, but the flavor is great and made with very wholesome ingredients. I’m going to ration out servings of it in little baggies to take on our road trip. If you’re craving something sweet and crunchy, this would definitely do the trick. They have a lot of different flavors: http://www.bearnaked.com — I want to try them all.

I packed a lot of food into a 1400 calorie menu today, although a lot of it contained sugar. Oh well. My menu consisted of several strange (by most people’s standards) foods. My black bean omelet from the other night made an encore presentation into this morning’s breakfast:

This time I decided to put 1 TBSP Fage Total 0% yogurt (8 cal) on top, just like sour cream on a southwestern omelet. It was eggactly what my tummy wanted!! LOL I put it on a 6″ plate with 1 slice Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat toast (50 cal). I didn’t use that much cooking spray in the nonstick pan so the bottom of the omelet stuck a teensy weensy bit, but that’s ok, it still tasted great. This was a filling breakfast for only 223 calories and took about 5 minutes to throw together. Simple is good on the day before a very busy day.

I have a doctor’s appointment in Atlanta at 11:00AM tomorrow and it also happens to be a “free day”… soooooo, hubby and I are going to pack a great big picnic in a cooler to take with us. It will be so much fun! Every time we go to my doctor we pack a lunch, but I’m usually on a planned menu, this will be the first time my appoint coincides with a free day. I’m so excited! Hubby and I can even eat the same thing for a change LOL. I wonder what I’ll make? Hmm. I better decide soon! lol

My lunch today was something a lot of people might find to be repulsive, but my nanny used to make these sandwiches for me all the time when I was little and I just love them! Spinach cooked in garlic and olive oil on whole wheat bread:

Nothing fancy, just 4 cups (84g) fresh spinach (20 cal) sauteed in 2 teaspoons olive oil (80 cal), 1 clove minced garlic (5 cal) and served on 2 slices Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat bread (100 cal). Some people might think it would be tasteless and boring, but it’s not. It’s surprisingly full of flavor and delicious. For just 205 extremely-healthy-calories, I could have eaten 2. So if you love spinach and whole wheat bread, you’ll love this sandwich. The bread gets a little soggy from the olive oil, but that’s actually one of the qualities I like about it. My nanny used to make these for me on Roman Meal bread, that’s the only bread my entire family used to eat actually. I was raised eating very wholesome foods, I just got addicted to fast food and other things of the sort. Now that I’ve found my way back to healthier foods, I’m finding it so much easier to balance the good choices and not-so-necessary choices. I used to be embarrassed when other children ate at my house, they didn’t know what whole wheat bread was or would say that they didn’t like “brown bread” lol. I love it. Any kind of bread for that matter; white, brown, purple, rainbow… whatever, ’tis all good. I’m a little disappointed though, I checked the ingredients on Roman Meal bread a few months and found that it’s made with high fructose corn syrup. I am sure the recipe has changed from 20 years ago when high fructose corn syrup became more widely used in the past 10-15 years. Shame on you Mr. Corporate Giants! I’ll stick to Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat for now, just 1g of sugar and 50 calories per slice and no high fructose corn syrup. *crosses fingers that they don’t change their recipe*

Tonight I went with another favorite version of homemade pizza: Pita pizza!

This is a pretty good picture to see how thin Joseph’s pita bread (60 cal) is. It makes a fantastic thin crusted pizza, I love it. I spread 2 TBSP Hunt’s no salt added tomato paste (30 cal) over it and topped it with 2 slices South Beach reduced fat mozzarella (120 cal), dried oregano and garlic powder, then baked on 425F for about 6-8 minutes, keeping a close eye on it. With a side salad, this second night in a row pizza dinner was only 295 calories! The pita pizza by itself is only 210 calories, isn’t that awesome?! I love it. I would eat these daily if the sodium wasn’t so high. I really like to use the no salt added tomato paste on them because it’s low in sodium, obviously, but because it’s so thick that it gives it excellent flavor without needing the salt. YUMMY!

I have an extremely busy day tomorrow; exercise, doctor, shopping, etc., so I’m heading to bed super early and waking up as early as possible tomorrow. Fun!

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After speaking with our real estate agent in NY today, we finalized our moving plans. HOORAY! Except for one thing: I’ve never been away from my “diet kingdom” before lol. I mean, I’ve taken free days since I started, but for the past 8 months I’ve been cradled by my familiar kitchen, pantry, and home gym — I’ve never dieted in the “real world.” I don’t want to leave my diet-friendly nest! We’re leaving on March 3rd and being this is just our initial trip there to sign papers and get keys to our new pad we won’t be taking everything but we are taking a trailer on our SUV so I can load up a bunch of stuff; like my weights, food scale, etc. I’m trying to convince my husband that I NEED a second elliptical for our 2 or 3 week trip LOL. He says if we get another one that we can have side by side races on them to see who can do a mile faster. I’d win of course, he’s out of shape. LOL

So, yeah, I have a LOT of planning to do. It’s going to be like a 16 hour road trip, but we’re going to do it in 2 parts and stop halfway through to stay a hotel, which I hope has a gym. I am going to pack a cooler with healthy snacks and sandwiches to take with me, so I am not tempted to eat fast food while we’re on the road. But when we get to NY, all bets are off! I’m going to be taking several “free days” to visit my favorite old restaurants and of course, pizza!! Oh and the closest Whole Foods from where we’ll be living is 55 miles away and in NJ, but I plan to still go there with ice and coolers. hehe So when we get to NY we’re going to take a trip there to scout it out and make sure I like it. If not, we’ll have to plan on going to the one that’s 67 miles away. Yes, I love that store THAT much! ROFL I’m so silly. The things I worry about huh? I feel sorry for my husband.

I think packing a picnic for the road will be easy, I’m not going to worry about calorie cycling while we’re on the road, even though it would be easy. With the stress of the trip, I’m just going to “maintain” on 2000 calorie menus while we’re driving and then my free days will of course be outrageous. Once we have the keys to the house I can start filling the new kitchen and pantry. The next house will be much smaller than our current house and the kitchen isn’t nearly as big or nice, but that’s ok because we’re building our “dream house” in the next few years and my kitchen will be spectacular. Even if the bedroom will be the size of a shoe box, I don’t care, the kitchen is all that matters to me. hehe It’s my favorite room of the house; it’s where my family gathers, where I experiment with food, where our kitties stalk us LOL.

If I don’t get another elliptical for the house in NY, I might get a gym membership. I know a fabulous one that specializes in women’s fitness and it’s run by a friend of the family, which is a plus. I guess I’ll see when we get there. Our house is on 2.5 acres, so maybe I’ll find activities to do outside. Nothing could replace my beloved elliptical though. <3

Well, those are my plans for now. They’re subject to change at anytime. I’m just going to take 1 or 2 free days when we get to NY, for fun. Then I’ll go back on menus when we get into the house and I stock the fridge with food. I’m going to drive my husband insane about taking me to the Whole Foods in NJ! LOL So, I’m thinking I’ll take a few free days the beginning of the month, then hold out until Easter weekend for my next set of free days when we come back to NY. My mother is staying here in Atlanta with the kitties and house, then my cousin is coming down with us for Easter. Ugh, this month is going to be hectic! So many road trips, so much moving. I need a vacation! No, wait, that would just be more free days LOL. Where does it end?! *giggles*

Anyway, I’ll be updating my blog everyday, even when we’re on the road. My husband and I both have laptops, so when we get to a hotel we’ll be online. YAY! Most of you know that we’re major nerds and can’t go too long without our computers and Internet access LOL. I wish I could get a stable Internet connection in the car, that would rock!

Ok… that’s a bit much.

I’ve had a very busy day today, but I still managed to get a nice strength training workout in and 30 intense minutes on the elliptical. After I was all sweaty and yucky I took a nice, long bubble bath and tried to process all the events that were happening all at once. *sigh*

After my bubble bath I made lunch, which was just TURKEYRRIFIC!!!

4oz before cook Perdue ground turkey breast (110 cal), 1 slice Nature’s Own 100% whole wheat bread (50 cal), 1 slice Jarlsberg lite swiss cheese (50 cal), 60g red onions (30 cal), 1 TBSP Roadhouse BBQ sauce (20 cal), 1 serving (84g) Alexia parmesan olive oil oven fries (130 cal) and 1 TBSP SASS Smoky yogurt ranch dressing (16 cal). Wow, this was SO YUMMY! I could have used a whole wheat bun, but I opted for just 1 slice of bread, cut in half and saved a bunch of calories. I didn’t miss the bun at all.

I baked the potato wedges on 450F for about 8-10 minutes while I was cooking the turkey burger in a nonstick frying pan. I put the onions with a bit of water in a covered bowl in the microwave for 60 seconds; drained them and added them right into the pan with the turkey burger. Just before the burger was cooked, I added in the BBQ sauce and mixed the onions around in it. When the burger was done, I shut the heat off, piled the onions on top of the burger, put the Jarlsberg lite swiss on top of the onions, covered it with foil and let it melt with its own heat for a minute or 2. I toasted the bread, sliced it in half, then put the burger on top of it and plated it along side the oven fries and ranch dressing. If you’re craving BBQ, this burger is the perfect quick fix! It had so much flavor and just a little bit of BBQ sauce went a LONG way. I loved it! I dipped my fries in the yogurt ranch dressing — SOOOO good!!! Great alternative burger ‘n fries combo for only 406 little-fat-big-taste-calories!

As if lunch wasn’t wonderful enough, I had to make dinner even better!

Homemade pizza made with homemade whole wheat dough, fresh mozzarella and piled sky high with veggies! FABULOUS! Oh, I could eat this every single day.

The dough was the same one I made a few weeks ago, only slightly less oil this time:

½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 tablespoons warm water

= 290 calories (I can’t find an accurate calorie count for yeast, so I made it 10 calories *shrugs*)

I made the dough earlier in the day, it’s super simple. Just put the water in a bowl, add in the yeast and honey; mix, add in flour, mix until dough ball is formed, coat with the olive oil, cover and let sit in warm place to rise.

When I was ready to make the pizzas, I preheated the oven to 500F, shaped the dough in a thin, rectangular shape onto a baking sheet lined with nonstick foil, using just my hands. Then I topped it with: 2 diced plum tomatoes (30 cal), 40g green bell peppers (10 cal), 2 black olives (10 cal), 30g red onions (15 cal), and 1.5 oz fresh mozzarella (120 cal). I baked it in the 500F oven for about 8-10 minutes, I kept a close eye on it to keep it from burning. Just before I ate it I drizzled 1 teaspoon olive oil over it and sliced it into 4 large pieces. Oh my, it was so simple yet so delicious!! And big, talk about BIG! Because I made the crust thin like I prefer it, I’m able to stretch it really far and make it a really huge foundation for all the veggies and cheese I pile on top of it. With a side salad, this beautiful pizza dinner was only 690 healthier-veggie-lover-calories! I definitely have to try this with a meat theme someday, I’m sure it would be great too. If you prefer a thicker crust, you can add another ¼ cup flour to the recipe and adjust the calories or just not roll it out as thinly as I do. It’s definitely a toss up between pita pizzas and this recipe now… so hard to decide, I love them both so much! hehehe

After dinner I tried a Kashi Cherry Dark Chocolate granola bar (120 cal) — they’re awesome! They cherry flavor is very sharp, almost sour, but I like it. Not very many chocolate chips on it, but delish anyway. I’m not sure how often I would eat one, being I think I’d really have to be in the mood for that sharp cherry flavor, but either way, I liked it. I have fallen in love with every Kashi product I have tried so far, they’re batting .1000 in my taste bud book.

It’s been a very, very, very long day and I’m doing this update for the previous day on the morning AFTER! lol I need sleep… Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!

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