Give a Little, Get a Lot

We decided to sell a bunch of things on Craig’s List that were taking up room in our garage to the point that its hard to walk in there. So far we sold our bicycles, which we hardly used and my treadmill, which was also barely touched. No one wanted to take it apart and bring it upstairs to my gym, so we sold it. Actually, my husband’s exact words were, “I’d rather just buy a new one than take it apart and bring it all the way up there.” Whatever you want, sweetie pie!!

When I placed the ads on Craig’s List, I browsed the “Wanted” category to see if anyone was looking for anything we were selling, and that’s when I saw an ad for a mother with 4 children that needed dishes. I had been setting aside a pile of mine that I decided I no longer use or want, so I contacted them and offered the ones I had. They accepted and picked the box up the next day. I didn’t know anyone else that wanted them, so I was glad to find a home for them instead of throwing them out. I highly recommend that you check out Craig’s List or other local classified ads where people look for things they want or need. You know the saying, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure!” So true. I prefer donating tangible items or physically doing something more than just blindly handing over money to a charity. This week we’re making our usual toy contribution to Toys for Tots and dropping off cat and dog food to the local ASPCA. I try to be charitable all year long, but especially so during the holiday season. Even if you don’t have any money or time to spare, perhaps you have coats, clothes, pots and pans, and other household products that you no longer use that would make someone’s day. Instead of throwing out unopened canned and boxed food, consider donating it to your local food bank or church. Keep it local and simple.

Highlights from the past few days eats:

Kashi Honey Puffs 7 grain cereal (120 cal) mixed with 55g Nature’s Path Flax Plus Pumpkin Raisin Crunch cereal (210 cal) and 1 cup skim milk (90 cal)

Aww, cuuuuuuuuuute gingerbread man bowl! hehe

Meh, not my favorite way to consume 420 calories, but I was craving a bowl of cold cereal. I realized that I do NOT like raisins in cereal, at least the ones that cereal. They are so hard and hurt to chew. I think that’s why I never cared for raisin bran, too hard on my teeth. I like just the bran flakes, though.

Health Valley no salt added split pea soup with 1 Pepperidge Farms sourdough roll (140 cal) and a lovely blue salad drizzled with Bragg’s Healthy Vinaigrette + red wine vinegar

WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much at once. I ended up eating all of the salad, the roll and less than half of the soup. The soup is a little bland on its own, but I added in a few splashes of Tabasco and a very light sprinkling of potassium chloride (salt substitute) and it perked it right up. YUM!

I’ve been trying to find AlsoSalt, a salt substitute, but haven’t been able to find it. It’s used in Heinz no salt added ketchup and tastes great, so I’d like to try it now and then, but not too much. I tread very lightly with salt substitutes, though, being on prescription diuretics, I can use more potassium in my diet, but I still use it as sparingly as possible; not even close the the full serving size in a week, much less all at once. If I can find AlsoSalt, I’ll post my review.

I did find a sodium-free Asian marinade made by Ken’s Steakhouse that tastes awesome:

Serving size: 1 TBSP, 30 calories — and the list of ingredients is pretty decent, too, for something that’s store-bought. I used 1 TBSP (30 cal) on a 3.5oz salmon filet (105 cal) that I baked in the oven on 425F for just 9 minutes and nearly burned! I figured it would take 12 minutes and it ended up being well-done in just 9 minutes. Geesh, good thing I checked!

While the salmon baked, I boiled 2oz spaghetti (210 cal) and steamed Trader Joe’s frozen asparagus in the microwave. When the salmon and pasta were done, I tossed in the asparagus and mixed it with another TBSP of Ken’s Sesame Ginger sauce (30 cal), then placed the salmon top.

SO GOOD!! It came to just 400 filling-and-flavorful-calories. Yum!

Today I woke up craving tuna salad and A LOT of it. So, I mixed a whole can of Trader Joe’s no salt added Tongol tuna (~120 cal) with 2 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (100 cal), then put it atop of a bed of mixed greens that I tossed in red wine vinegar and 2 TBSP Bragg’s Healthy Vinaigrette (90 cal) on my Snoopy and Woodstock platter:

Toppings: grape tomatoes, red onions, 14g reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (40 cal)

Deeeeeeelish! I love, love, LOVE salads!! <3 I was feeling pretty full, but had a smallish Granny Smith apple and a Kashi fruit + nut bar (120 cal) right after this to round out the meal a little more. But would you believe that after ALL of that I was HUNGRY 2 hours later?! My appetite has been insatiable ALL week! I've been good about watching my sodium intake, so I am dropping some water weight, but I think my increased hunger is due to all the activity I've had this week; we've been shopping, I've been walking an hour a day in my homemade obstacle course around my living room/kitchen, AND doing 45-60 minutes of recumbent biking, 15-16 miles everyday. No wonder why I'm so hungry! And I'm actually going to be even busier tomorrow. We have to pick up my cake (OMG, wait until you see this year's!! I think it's going to be AWESOME), I have cleaning to do, exercise, shopping, work, planning my birthday party and dinner for Saturday, going out to eat Friday night, and then after my party we are going to a comedy club with my cousin and her boyfriend. Meanwhile, we haven't even started Christmas shopping yet! Well, actually I bought a few things, but I haven't even scratched the surface yet. It's going to be a looooooooooooooong, but FUN month. I love December, it's such a go, go, go time. I complain, but I really do enjoy it. We're also practicing being more time-efficient and might even dodge Christmas Eve last-minute shopping. We'll see I guess! lol

Well, I've been fighting my hunger for the past 2 hours, I think 4 hours is enough time to have passed before I eat again. I usually don't fight my hunger, if I'm hungry, I eat, but I mean come on, that meal had it all; veggies, fiber, protein, fats, DESSERT, and flavor. I thought it would hold me for a long time. Nope! Ugh. Off to eat!

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