Food just isn't good to me anymore....

Those are some harsh words. Okay, so maybe food isn't good to me right now. How can food not be good to someone who loves all things food, a "foodie" if you will? I don't know!! But everything I have consumed today in the way of nourishment has just been a disappointment. Maybe I have discovered the deep, dark secret of why I am, and have always been, a little on the heavy side......I expect food to be more than just nourishment!! Perhaps if my love for food, cooking, restaurants, food magazines, food blogs, and grocery stores were to cease, I could possibly be thin. But then that wouldn't be much fun, now would it? Alas, tomorrow is another day...!

Breakfast was probably the most satisfying meal of my day. I heated up yet another Trader Joe's Triple Berry Bran Muffin and had a cup of skim milk. I was really craving a glass of cold moo juice.

Lunch was leftover from yesterday's lunch at Subway. YESTERDAY, I really enjoyed the new buffalo chicken sub. I had it loaded up with veggies and it was really yummy. TODAY, on the other hand, the bread was mushy and all the veggies were soft. I could barely stand to eat it...

At least the baked Cheetos were okay...

Even my afternoon snack was unsatisfying. I had Wallaby organic maple flavored yogurt with Trader Joe's pumpkin spice granola. Once I at the granola off the top, I realized the yogurt was a little to thin in texture for me so I gave up on my snack all together.

For dinner, we ran up to Johnny's NY Pizza (mind you, we are in Georgia). Eric got a Hawaiian (ham and pineapple) stromboli while I went for a side salad and their house calzone. Again, none too impressed. Wish I would have gotten a Hawaiian stromboli....Eric's meal was a hundred times better than mine.

So for today, I am giving up on food. I am sure this is just a phase...do not worry my foodie friends. I am sure I will be back to loving all things food tomorrow.

In completely unrelated food news, I was looking for a picture to take with me this weekend so that hairdresser knows how I want my hair for the wedding. (I am matron of honor in my bestie Becky's wedding). Looking through photos, I came across some of my bridal portraits. I can't believe its been three years!!!

Night ya'll!

Perhaps O'Charley's was a bad idea....

Let's just say my tummy woke me up at 2:30 am. Enough said. No more O'Charley's for a while!

Because I had an upset tummy, I decided to have a lunch that my mama would most certainly approve of:

chicken noodle soup, crackers, and clear liquids

bland, bland, bland

I finally made it out of the house for a few errands. While I was out and about, I kept dreaming of Starbucks after seeing that Marisa had broken down and gotten a Pumpkin Spice Light Frappuccino. The nutritional stats weren't bad at all, so I had to get one myself.

I also needed yet another snack just a few hours later

After picking up my bridesmaids dress from Toni, the seamstress, it was time to cook up some dinner.

Roasted chicken from Costco, whole grain rice/ orzo, biscuits (1 point per biscuit!) and roasted tomatoes with parmesan cheese

I had enough points left for a little bite of desert:

Got these little yogurt parfait bites from Costco (wow! we buy a lot at Costco!). Four points for such a small portion...I'm not quite sure they're worth it!!

Night ya'll!

Where have I been?

So I've been somewhat MIA the past week. The rains in North Georgia were horrible. The worst of it came this past Monday - at one point, I was using the Shop Vac to stop the water that was coming in through the main wall of our basement while Eric was amassing sand bags for the side of house adjacent to a creek. I was at my breaking point!! I called my parents out of desperation for them to check the weather forecast for me...I had to know when the rain would stop. And since both the internet and the satellite were out, I had no access to any news media. My daddy (the best daddy in the world) could most certainly sense my distress and offered to drive three hours in the terrible weather to come help. How could I say no? Although the worst of the rain had stopped by the time he arrived Monday evening, I was so happy to see him! He ended up being more help than we could have imagined. We ended up needing to do a lot of work in the basement to prepare for the installation of a waterproofing system so that minor flooding will no longer be an issue. Daddy to the rescue for sure - we could not have done it without him!

Needless to say, eating healthy and exercising were not my priorities for the past week. But I am now back to some normalcy, so here comes the food.....

Saturday

Breakfast

Trader Joe's Triple Berry Bran Muffin and reduced sugar orange juice

Lunch

Trader Joe's Stir Fried Vegetable Egg Rolls x2 with hot mustard (only 2 points each!)

CP Shrimp Wonton Soup (only 2 points!)

Dinner

Salad: red leaf lettuce, chopped tomato, 2 tbsp rf shredded cheese, light balsamic vinagrette

hot dog rolls: rf hot dogs wrapped in rf crescent rolls

baked onion rings

a little bit of ketchup for dipping

Sunday

Breakfast

Eric "cooked" breakfast for us before church! He reheated leftover hot dog rolls from Saturday night, fried an egg, and sliced up a tomato. He even let me drink the rest of the reduced sugar orange juice. What a good husband!!

Lunch

Pepperoni pizza from the Costco food court. How will I ever get to goal weight with a Costco membership?!?

Dinner

I didn't feel like cooking, so we took advantage of the O'Charley's 2 for $14.99 meal deal.

I started with a salad to get some greens in.

O'Charley's rolls are the DEVIL. I only ate ONE - that is indeed progress!

The "healthiest" option on the 2-for menu was the Baja Chicken. It was good but I am sure not nearly as healthy as I wanted it to be.

Now it's bed time. I have to start getting up early in case the schools call for me to sub!

Night ya'll!

'Twas a good weekend!

I started this weekend off with a little trip to Weight Watchers on Saturday morning. Because of Labor Day and then Becky's bachelorette party, I had not been to a meeting in two weeks. I was a little nervous of what the scale would say, but I had decided it was time to recommit (again!) to the program. I was pleasantly suprised when the scale said I had lost another 1.6 pounds. I am only half a pound away from being down 10 pounds. I know 10 pounds doesn't seem like much, but it's a lot to me!!

At the meeting, I got myself a few treats:

I always wait to eat breakfast AFTER my WW meeting - every fraction of a pound counts? After I weighed in, I had a Peanut Butter & Jelly LaraBar. I LOVE THIS BAR!! I am not a big bar eater because they carry a high amount of points (4 for the PB&J). However, for a quick yummy to break the fast, it was phenomenal. I will definitely be grabbing more of these at the store!!

 

 

For lunch, Eric and I hit up Chick-fil-a. He had coupons for free sandwiches so we got out on the cheap. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and splurged on their yummy waffle fries:

 

Eric got the fried delicious traditional chicken sandwich and waffle fries as well. We couldn't decide if his chicken patty was shaped like the state of Texas or South Carolina. What do you think?

Amy and I decided to hang out for the evening. The original plan was to shop at Perimeter Mall and then head to the Dekalb Farmer's Market. Although we did make it to the mall, all of the shopping made me hungry so we decided on dinner instead of the farmer's market. We decided to hit up Fox Brothers BBQ for a foodie adventure! The menu offered too many things that we each wanted to taste, so we ended up getting LOTS (and I do mean LOTS) of different things to share:

 

The menu

The wings

The Tomminator

(Tots smothered in Brunswick Stew and topped with Melted Cheddar)

 Fried Dill Pickles

 

Fox Bros. "Burger"

(Chopped Brisket topped with bacon, tomato, red onion, pickles, melted pimento cheese, and jalapeno mayo)

Veggie Plate

(Whole fried okra, brisket chili, mac & cheese, green beans, and collards)

My partner in foodie crime, Amy.

I said it was a lot of food. Maybe you didn't believe me at first.....

With so much excitement on Saturday, I was happy for a low-key Sunday. We had lunch at my MIL's. I do believe the highlight of the day was Eric trying "Sweatin' to the Oldies."

 

Move over, Richard Simmons.

Night Ya'll!

in the words of missy elliott....

...I can't stand the rain. We have been drenched for what seems like days and the ground is finally super saturated (that's the unemployed science teacher in me talking). Thanks to all the wetness, our basement decided to get weepy...yep...flood #3 since moving in four years ago. THANKFULLY, we realized it pretty quickly so the damage was minimal. Clean up will be a PAIN, but we are actually going to have some foundation companies come out and give estimates for fixing our wet basement. I want to enjoy my finished basement and both hubs and I would like to finally be at ease every time it rains. So needless to say, I'm a little behind with my blogging. Here's the update from yesterday...

First, let me introduce you to my nice little find from the Williams Sonoma outlet:

All three beautiful melamine nesting mixing bowls were only $12.99!! I love a good deal!

I used the middle bowl in the creation of yesterday's breakfast:

One muffin was only 2 points so I added a glass of reduced sugar orange juice for a yummy breakfast.

Hubs finished working around lunch time so I met him out at Subway for a yummy lunch. The sub of the day was turkey breast - with the sub of the day, you get a 6-inch sub, a bag of chips, and a drink for only $3.99. A good deal fo sho!!

Later in the afternoon, I finally made it to the gym. Hooray!! I walked on the treadmill for 15 minutes and then did the elliptical for 25 minutes. By this point, the monsoon-style rains had begun. I got home and was a little shaky so I rummaged through the kitchen for a post-workout snack:

Yes, that is turkey breast and peanut butter. But I did not eat them together. I am all about different food combinations but never would turkey and peanut butter end up on the same sandwich. FIRST I ate the turkey THEN I ate 2 tablespoons of the peanut butter. Said flood occurred soon after my snack and our early evening was a little hectic. By the time we had shop-vac'd all the water up, I was in no mood to cook. Hubs had a left over quesadilla and I whipped up a breakfast sandwich and a bowl of grits.

Breakfast sandwich: WW bagel, ff cream cheese, one egg, a slice of ham, and sliced tomato

The secret to fabulous grits? A little garlic powder in the water before the grains go in.

I'm caught up with what happened yesterday. Assuming we don't float away, I'll update you on today's events soon.

Night ya'll!

just another manic monday....

Playing the part of housewife while looking for a job may not allow me to refer to a Monday as "manic," but I was busy nonetheless. I awoke a little too late for my liking, straightened around the house a bit, checked email + FB + job postings, and then put on my gym clothes. I heated up a Jimmy Dean D'Light breakfast sandwich before heading out the door.


I had to go to the Vinings area to kitty sit one last time this go round. I sometimes can't believe my only current source of income consists of checking on a former boss's cats every so often. Funny how life unfolds before our eyes!! After checking on the kitties (they really are super sweet cats!) I headed to the bank and to Kroger for my weekly grocery trip. I got lots of fresh veggies, but I also stocked up Lean Cuisines. Kroger has a promotion where if you buy 10 LC's, the final price per product is only $1.67 PLUS I had a $1 off coupon. Frozen dinners aren't the healthiest meals to have on hand, but they are convenient and won't bust the Points bank when I'm in a hurry or low on fresh lunch ingredients. In fact, for lunch, I heated up the LC shrimp alfredo.

I doctored it up a bit by sauteing some sliced mushrooms (on sale at Kroger for $1!) and it turned out to be a tasty little lunch.

I rounded out my meal with 100 calorie yogurt cup. (crappy blurry photo...sorry!)

Hubs came home shortly thereafter; I whipped up a turkey sandwich for him before we headed out the door. He drove me to a customer of his who does dress alterations; time to get my bridesmaids dress looking good for Becky's wedding in three weeks!!

I got hungry around six-ish and began to whip up dinner. While the turkey burgers and oven roasted potatoes cooked, I had a little appetizer - oven roasted brussel sprouts. SOOOO STINKIN' GOOD!! I had never had brussel sprouts before but had heard they were delicious when they were oven roasted with a little bit of EVOO, salt, and pepper. I grabbed a few out of the bin at Whole Foods last week just to give them a try. They roasted for about ten minutes and were absolutely delicious. I made hubs try one - he was not impressed. How can I make him love vegetables as much as I do?!?

I had my turkey burger on an Arnold Sandwich Thin with a slice of asiago cheese, tomato, dill pickles, ketchup, and mustard. And of course I never go wrong when I make these oven roasted potatoes.

I have already written down in my Tracker than desert is a Kudos bar (perhaps of the Snickers variety???) and a glass of skim milk. Not really hungry, but would really like the taste of some chocolate. We'll see what happens between now and bed time!

Night ya'll!