What Setback?

No workout for me. Just not feeling well at all. I have the worst ear ache that is causing a horrible headache. I'm not going to let this little setback keep me from finishing what I started and making my final goal. In the past (before the weight loss a couple years ago) I would have setbacks and just give up. Not anymore. I'm ready for this. I'm going to get sick. I'm going to have a day here or there I don't feel like exercising or I might want to indulge in a not so healthy for me piece a cake. Just because I'm on pause doesn't mean I can't press play again.

This is going to be a little hard with the holidays coming up. I know I'll indulge Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. I have a couple holiday party invites already so I'll probably indulge a little at those. And you know what, that's OK. I'll be really good in between and after the holidays. Well until my birthday a couple weeks later. Then I'll be really good 

Dinner

I had leftover chicken from our dinner a couple nights ago so I wanted to use that up. I had planned to make corn chowder this week so I decided on Chicken Corn Chowder for dinner. I made this up as I went. I wanted to make it as healthy as I could. Instead of cream I used potato and soy milk to chowder it up.

Healthy Chicken Corn Chowder

Ingredients

1 small onion chopped small pieces

1 celery chopped small pieces

1 carrot chopped small pieces

1 tbsp olive oil 

1 potato diced

3 cups of chicken stock - low sodium

1 14 oz. bag of frozen corn 

1 large chicken breast diced

1/4 cup soy milk

1/4 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

- In a tall pot heat olive oil and add the onion, celery and carrot over medium high heat. Cook until onions and celery are soft and translucent.

- Add chicken stock and potato. Lower heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes

- Add half the bag on corn and cook for 1 minute.

- With a hand blender (if you don't have one you can transfer to a blender) and blend until fully blended. If not using a hand blender transfer back to pot.

- Add the remaining corn, chicken, soy milk and garlic powder. Cook over medium low heat for 5 minutes.

- Add salt and pepper to taste. 

This was really easy and really good. I will for sure make this again. I think I'll add more corn next time. I love corn.

Here's to feeling better tomorrow so I can get back on track. I would like to get in one really good gym workout before Thursday.

Lazy Rainy Days

Still looking for that motivation. I wonder if it has to do with the weather?

I did clean out the pantry.

Dinner

BLT with an Avocado Spread Sandwich on Whole Wheat Bread and Tomato Soup

For the Avocado Spread I took
1 Avocado
1 tablespoon plain non-fat yogurt
1/4 teaspoon each or salt, pepper, paprika and onion powder
and I processed the ingredients in my Cuisinart Smart Stick Chopper.

Imagine Organic Soup
The soup was yummy and I got it on sale. Score!

Get $1 off any two Imagine Products.

This was a perfect dinner for a rainy day.

Lunch, Dinner and Work

Lunch

For Lunch I had half a almond butter and honey sandwich on whole wheat bread. An Apple and half of a large carrot. I had made a whole sandwich but I was feeling full so I just wrapped the other half up to eat later.

Today I wasn't the best when it came to snacking. I know it really important to eat every few hours. If I was being graded I would have gotten a F. I need to work on that. I also have to remember to drink my water. In the summer I never have a problem with the h2o. I still have a few hours left so I'll get my water intake in I just don't like drinking too late.

Dinner

For Dinner I had Turkey Chili over a half baked potato.

This was really good and I can't believe I've never made this before. 

Turkey Chili

1 pound of ground Turkey

1 tablespoon of Olive oil

1 onion diced

1 large carrot dices

3 celery stalks diced

1 clove of garlic ( I will use more next time. I love garlic)

1 can of stewed tomatoes

1 can of tomato paste

1 can of Kidney beans

1 can of Great Northern beans

1 cup of chicken stock

1 tablespoon Chili powder

1 tablespoon of honey

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Cook the ground turkey in a pot until fully cooked. Drain and set aside. 

Into the pot add olive oil, onion, carrot and celery. Cook until soft. Add garlic and cook another minute.

Add the turkey back into the pot, beans, tomatoes and tomato paste.

Add all the remaining ingredients.

Simmer for 2 hours 

After the 2 hours add salt and pepper to taste.

Work

Work was a little slow. We did receive a couple audition and a callback. I still have a little bit of work to do before I go to bed.

I'm really tired and will be going to bed early tonight. I would like to start my workout at the gym earlier then I started today. So this works out perfect.

Goodnight

Another Day That Just Got Away

Spent most of the day in meetings. Spent some of the day in traffic. Best part of my day was the dinner.

Dinner
A couple weeks ago I bought a bag of shredded Monterey Jack Cheese that was way too much for anyone. The last few days I've been looking for ways to use it up. Tonight I finally used the last of it. I made Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches with Garlic Mayo. I replaced the green peppers with yellow peppers. Oh so good!

I was kind of getting sick of cheese and probably will take a week or two off from it. I'm glad I went out with a bang.

Good Night!

Drinking on the Job

I wanted to post earlier but once again the day just got away from me. Working late tonight so I'm having my own little happy hour. It's a celebration drink (glass a wine). We received a booking today!!! One of our clients booked a co-star role. After it's filmed I'll share what it is. Don't want to jinx it.

Dinner

Chicken and Caramelized Onion Quesadilla
Kept it simple tonight. Shredded some left over chicken that I had baked last night. Julienned half a onion. In a pan with a little olive oil I cooked the onions over low heat until caramelized. The I added the chicken and some (about a tablespoon and a half) of my homemade Taco Seasoning, a dash salt and a little water. Cooked for a couple minutes.

In a fry pan I added a flour tortilla, a small handful of cheese (I used Monterrey jack) and some of the chicken and onion. Cooked it over medium low until the cheese starts to melt. Fold the tortilla in half and continue to cook until the cheese is fully melted.

I served mine with some low-fat sour cream.

I'll post the pictures tomorrow.

A Shopping I Will Go

Today I had to pick up a few things for the new pad.

I love the colors in the new area rug.


My new desk.

I just have to put it together.

I have a hard time passing up candles. Especially pumpkin scents.

Smells so good.


I also got a wireless router. The one we have now is weak.
Tomorrow I need to set it up. Wish me luck.

T took these while I was cooking dinner. Not bad.




Dinner
Ravioli Lasagna, Salad, and French Bread
I love this because it's so easy and I love easy.

I used Buitoni Whole Wheat Chicken and Prosciutto Ravioli, a jar of pasta sauce, and shredded cheese.

In a baking dish, I layered the pasta sauce, ravioli (in a single layer)

and cheese. I repeated the steps three times.

Mmm good!


Good Night!

"Mellow Day" - ha ha

Boy was I wrong. Today ended up being far from mellow. I'm exhausted and I'm already ready for bed.

Dinner: Vegetable Soup
1 yellow squash, 1 zucchini, 1 corkneck squash, half a red bell pepper, 3 red potatoes

Half an onion and 2 garlic cloves

Tomatoes, Vegetable Stock and Chicken Stock

I added dried oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Delish!

T wanted some chips so I cut some corn tortilla and baked them in a 350 degree oven for 10/15 minutes.


Good Night!

A New Meal out of Leftovers

I was so mad at myself earlier for not getting my morning workout in today. Then I got over it. I’ll just work out extra long tomorrow.

Today I had to pick up shirts J had brought to get embroidered for work. I couldn’t believe for the small four letters per the four shirts he had embroidered it cost $38.00 I don’t even think the shirts cost that much (thank you Ross). You’d think the machine I could hear in the back was just for show and they were doing it by hand at that price.

This daylight savings is throwing me off today. I prepared dinner at 5 thinking it was later. I’m not even hungry yet. I don’t like eating dinner early because I tend to get hungry right before bed when I do. Eating later works for us.

Mexican Casserole

To make tonight’s dinner I used my leftovers for Saturday nights dinner.
I took 3 flour tortillas and cut them up into squares.

Then I placed a single layer of the flour squares on the bottom of an oven safe dish.
I added a layer of rice I made sat. night.
Then I took the beans from the other night and drained the liquid they were in and rinsed them. In a sauce pan I added the beans and added the leftover enchilada sauce to the pan. Cooked for a couple minutes then layered the beans on top of the rice.
I added another single layer of the remaining tortilla squares on top of the beans.
Then I added a cheese sauce mixture I made by adding 1/2 cup of heavy cream (I know I’ve used a lot of heavy cream these past few days but I need to use it up) and three handful of shredded Monterrey jack to a sauce pan. Cooked over medium heat until melted.
I added two chopped tomatoes and 3 chopped green onions to the cheese sauce.



Cooked in a 350 degree oven until hot and bubbly about 45 minutes. I let it cool for 10/15 minutes for the cheese cool a bit.

This was good but a little heavy. Maybe I didn't need to use so much cheese. I will definitely have to double my workout tomorrow.

Good food choices I made today
Breakfast ~ 1 slice of whole wheat toast and 1 scrambled egg
Snack ~ orange
Lunch ~ almond nut and honey sandwich on whole wheat bread and a kiwi
Snack ~ healthy peanut butter cookie
Dinner ~ see above. ;)

Trader Joes has the best Almond Butter and Honey.


Work
Today was good. We received two auditons for clients and we received the travel itinerary for one of our clients that is flying to NY next week for a few days to hang out with the director of a big studio film to play the lead.

Looking forward to Conan's premiere tonight. Oh how I missed you.

What's for Dinner...

I decided to watch "The Matrix". Never saw it so I figured I might as well since I'm probably the only one who hasn't. I wasn't missing anything. Couldn't really get into it. I probably shouldn't say that since most of the time, I was flipping through Jamie Oliver's cookbook "Jamie's Dinners". Yummy! I also put some chicken in the oven for tonight's dinner.


I also planned out dinner for the next four nights.

Tonight: Pasta with Chicken and a Salad with Honey Balsamic Dressing

Monday: Mexican Casserole - with my leftovers from last night's dinner.

Tuesday: Vegetable Soup and Sandwich (not sure yet what kind)

Wednesday: Pasta with a Garden Sauce made out of the leftover veggies from the soup.

So we are having Christmas dinner at our home this year. Whenever we host holiday dinners I like to make the traditional dishes we have every year and everyone expects. But I also like to make new dishes to add something different to the menu. On Friday I came up with a recipe for Stuffing topped Mac and Cheese.


It was a hit with J and T so I think I'll make this for sure. Not bad for my first try. Now I just need to come up with a new veggie dish and a dessert. It gets easier and easier every year.


I have leftover mac and cheese (without the stuffing). So in a pan, I add the leftover M&C, some soy milk, and heavy cream to thin the cheese out. After a few minutes, I added some parmesan cheese, white pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. I added the chicken I cooked earlier.

This doesn't look as good as it tasted. But it was de~li~cious.

T just got home. She's been gone since yesterday afternoon. She hasn't stopped talking since she walked in the door. She reminds me of myself when I was younger.