Weight Watchers Continued...

The chicken fingers were delicious. You can obviously decide which sauce you want to dip them in, but be careful to calculate the points correctly for the one you choose. The fries were not awesome, they were average. Trevor didn't like them, he thought they "looked funny". I tried to explain they don't look like McDonalds because 1, they were much larger since I cut up an actual potato, 2, they were deep fried in grease so they don't get that lovely coating and 3, there was nothing on them but a little creole seasoning. So truthfully, next time I will make the Chicken Fingers alone or with another side dish. Try these out though, they are awesome!

The other WW friendly thing I came up with was a snack that just seemed to sound delicious at the time. My problem is that I love fruit, so I am all set with that, but with Veggies, i'm a little more hesitant. I do like several different things; brocoli, cauliflower, carrots, beans, salad, zuchini, squash, potatos, etc. but the problem is with about 90 % of those veggies, I like them either cooked (which adds a different points value), or dipped in some kind of dressing. (Ex. RANCH). So either way I am not taking advantage of the low points value of eating raw vegetables. This "brilliant" idea came to me when I realized we had leftover mushrooms from our Ka Bobs and some baby carrots in the fridge. I wanted to take these as a snack but I didn't want to eat them plain. So i'm weighing out the options and checking the back of the Hidden Valley bottle to see how many points the right amount of dressing would be to satisfy my need. Turns out, it's not worth the 4 points it would be to dip the entire amount of veggies. So I came up with this brilliant plan.

Ranch/Sour Cream & Garlic Veggie Dip

1 cup of mushrooms, cut, uncooked (Insert Fav Vegetable Here) (0 pts)

10 fresh baby carrots, uncooked (Insert Fav Vegetable Here) (0 pts)

2 tablespoons of Hidden Valley Fat Free Ranch Dressing (1 pt)

2 tablespoons of Fat Free Sour Cream (0 pts)

1/4 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash Salt Free Garlic & Herb Seasoning (0 pts)

0+0+1+0+0=1 pt!!

To me that is well worth it, that is a lot of veggies and the dip makes just enough so that you can heavily dip each one. Solution to my 4 o'clock "starvation" without reducing my points for dinner.

On a side note, that Mrs. Dash Salt Free Garlic & Herb Seasoning is great! You also coincidentally use it on the WW Chicken Fingers (that's why I originally bought it), but it tastes delicious and is very low in points (clearly). They have several different kinds and are good on just about anything. Check them out, they are a great addition to the kitchen!

Weight Watchers

On a Weight Watchers note, I started the program last Monday and actually ended up going with the Online Version instead. The problem with the WW @ Work was that it kept getting post-poned. It's hard enough to get back on the wagon without having a couple extra weeks to justify garbage plates and endless amounts of starbucks. The Online Version ended up being $65 for the first 3 months and then $16.95 each month from then on. So it's really not too bad when you think about the impact it will have on my life.

Anyways, for anyone who is thinking of signing up for the program, I HIGHLY reccomend the online version. I love it. I can 'build' recipes by taking ingrediants and adding and subtracting them to figure out what the best points solution can be. It tracks/calculates my points right online and lets me know where i'm at. The chart that tracks your weight loss every week is neat too. It has your starting weight and your *Goal* and then will show you in a line graph where your at. It's cool to watch it go down (I took a look at one of my friend's at work from her site, and it has a significant drop, good girl!). I'm excited to watch mine go down, this week I had a 4lb difference. Hey, you gotta start somewere!

I found a great recipe on the site that I made for Trevor and I Tuesday night before my Cake Decorating class. Here it is;

WW Chicken Fingers w/ Ranch & Seasoned Fries

3 sprays of cooking sprays
1 lb boneless, skin less chicken breast, cut into thin strips
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
2 and 1/2 packets instant oatmeal (I used one cup of bread crumbs, I didn't have oatmeal.
2 tsp Garlic Herb Seasoning, preferably Salt Free
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 Large Potatos, Russet, Peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick fries
1 tbsp Creole Seasoning
1/2 cup Fat Free Ranch Salad Dressing

Preheat over to 400 degrees, coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

Coat chicken with mustard, combine oats, garlic herb seasoning, salt and pepper into a bowl, and dip chicken strips into the mixture, coating completely. Arrange potatos on pan around chicken fingers, and coat both lightly with cooking spray, sprinkle potatos with Creole seasoning.

Bake, flipping once until chicken is cooked through and both chicken and potatos are a golden brown, about 30 minutes. Serve chicken and potatos with ranch on the side.

Yields about 3 oz of chicken, 1/2 a potato and 2 tbsp of dressing per serving.

POINTS VALUE=6

Hunter 3 Month Pictures

It’s been a couple days since my last post and I apologize. I had a very busy weekend, and an even busier first half of the week! Saturday morning we had Hunter’s 3 Month pictures taken by our personal photographer Heather! They turned out awesome of course, not that we expected any less from her!

He was being a good boy for the most part, but not quite as smiley as he is sometimes in the evening. She still got some great smiles from him though, and they came out great. Here is my favorite one, I’m not sure what it is but it just puts me in the best mood when I see him smile like that. I think Trevor agrees also, we could b.e having the worst day ever and if he smiles at us later that night all is forgotten! We are in so much trouble lol.

Sunday was a fairly quiet day. We did some housework, and my mom convinced us to come over for dinner. We had steak, salad, corn on the cob and onion rings/French fries. Correction; I had a tiny piece of steak, corn on the cob w/ no butter, salad w/ no dressing and a cup of FF Cottage Cheese. Doesn’t sound too appealing right? Well, I don’t the small portion of steak, it’s not my absolute favorite anyways. The corn was fine without butter believe it or not, and I LOVE cottage cheese so that was no biggie. The hardest part for me was eating my salad without dressing. I am a HUGE ranch fan, but my mom had 0 dressings that were FF or even LIGHT. Bummer. Oh well though, I went home and had a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich, yum. I think I even may have gotten Trevor hooked on them.

Tuesday night was my first cake decorating class at Michaels! It was a lot of fun, I got some great tips that I never would have thought of within the first hour. I mentioned the classes to my friend Jen at work a week or so ago, and she loved the idea and ended up signing up for the same class. So it was definitely nice to have a friend there to chat with. Turns out I have to buy even more supplies than my kit had, so that’s always fun! Looove shopping at Michaels. I get so excited walking in there it’s crazy! I know every time I go in that I’m in trouble. The great thing about Michaels is that they have amazing coupons, and always have sales, so it’s not as bad as you’d think. ;).
Anyways, while I was shopping after class I noticed the most adorable thing over in the decal aisle. (What was I doing there you ask? I got “lost” of course, HeHe). It was a little iron on screen print of a little skunk and th. Above it was a 3 pack of plain white cotton bibs. Hmmmm. What would a forest-animal-loving freak do in this situation? Buy it of course. And pick up a new hobby lol. Well, let’s not push it and say it’s a new hobby, I just really wanted Hunter to have a bib that has that print on it.

It was really really easy to do, and cost about $6.00 in total (after coupon of course), so it was well worth it. I don’t think I need to go into detail explaining instructions because if you decide to do this yourself, refer to the back of the iron on for complete directions!

It turned out cute I think, and as a bonus it came with a little Fox that said Foxy. Now, generally I would think that saying is totally lame. But picture a cute little chubby cheeked dragon wearing it around the ladies and then tell me you wouldn’t put it on him. I did have an extra white bib in the pack, so I saved it in my craft “box” in case I find another cute iron on that I can’t live without!

If you give a dragon a cookie....

He will smash it all over his face.

Well, I can't exactly say we gave our 3-month old a cookie (hang up the phones, we aren't THAT clueless), but we did start him on cereal. By orders of Dr. Tuite (hehe) Hunter's pediatrician, our little dragon is starting to eat very-watered down cereal by the spoon!

*Moment off topic* Can you believe that his Doctor's name is Dr. Tuite?? Yes it's pronounced just like it's spelled, like TOOT. Lol. Maybe it's just me, but I get a kick out of it every single time I say it, although, I am also very immature. But on a sidenote, he is a great guy. He was Trevor, Tyler and I believe even Heather's pediatrician when they were kids, so he obviously did a good job considering they are all alive and very healthy!

Back on topic though, apparently the reason he recomended the cereal is because I mentioned that he was just eating and eating and still wanting more. He said that if we gave him a little cereal in his bottle that it would fill him up so he would be happy and be able to go to sleep. That worked for a couple weeks but eventually he started acting all "dragony" when he couldn't get the rice out of the bottle quick enough so we put an end to that.

Now we are adding water to a couple tablespoons of rice cereal and feeding him sitting up. He is doing well...Just a little messy.


Have I mentioned that I love him.

Look who's Cookin...

Monday night in honor of the first day of WW, I decided to make a new recipe that I found. It's called WW Chicken Noodle Casserole. I know, I know, you will find that I make a lot of recipes that include chicken. Well reason being, Trevor will pretty much try anything I make as long as it contains chicken, and also because it's a pretty cheap meat of choice :). Anyways, while Trevor went for his run, Hunter and I started dinner...

Hunter is a great cook for a 3-month old believe it or not. His specialties include heating up the oven, drooling on the pan and hitting himself in the face wooden spoons. As shown above he is really got a grasp on that spoon! He's getting so big too quickly for me! Anyways, back to the recipe.




Weight Watchers Chicken Noodle Casserole

4 cups egg noodles (cooked & drained)
2 cans condenced reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (campbells healthy choice)
1/4 cup skim milk
6 oz cooked chicken, cut into pieces
1 can tomatos (I didn't add this)
10 oz frozen mixed vegetables (I used peas and corn)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Place into a 9" x 12 " pan. Bake for 30 minutes.

Weight Watchers=4 points if serving 8, 5.5 if serving 6

It was pretty good, but it wasn't the best thing I have ever tasted. Generally when I make "fat free" meals, they don't taste like they are fat free. This recipe though, tasted like it was healthy. It was kind of bland, but all in all, for the points value being so low it's worth making!

With Weight Watchers, I am trying every thing at least once, that way I can keep a broad range of foods to eat. If you ever have any recipes or tips, feel free to post them!

Today at work we all met at Hong Wah for lunch in honor of Julia's visit home! Julia is one of my old fellow co-workers at Paychex that left us for the great city of Philidolphia in May. I miss her smiling face at work so it was great to be able to see her. The problem for me was that with Weight Watchers haunting me as I walked in the door, I actually had to eat something healthy. I know, healthy at a chinese restaurant is not exaclty possible. However, Hong Wah did win an award for being the top 100 healthiest Chinese food restaurants in the country. Not bad. Plus I ordered the Steamed Chicken and Mixed Vegetables with a Spring Roll. Could be worse.

Happy it's Wednesday, I need it to be the weekend though... :)

Dum da dum dum dummmmmmmm.

Weight Watchers began Monday so Hunter and I had to "redo" the cupboards. Luckily for us, we were out of food anyways so the transition wasn't too difficult. I did my research beforehand, and made a list that consisted of some great WW friendly foods (aside from the things that are actually labeled WW). In addition, being the crazy bargain shopper I am, I signed up for a bunch of coupons because we all know that DIET food is never cheap. So I am all set with coupons in hand and my list ready to go!

My store of choice this time was WalMart. Normally i'm 100% a Wegmans lover, but in this case i've found that Walmart tends to carry the "brands" I need to get for cheaper. I chose the Macedon one because I find it's far less crowded than Henrietta... (Can't wait until they finish building the Walmart in Victor, Yay!). I got a lot stuff for the amount I ended up paying... Some great snacks i'd reccomend for "cutting" or "counting" calories are;

Skinny Cow Ice Cream Products (YUM)
Smart Ones (Have the WW points right on them)
Special K-Pretty much anything they make, I love the cereal bars
Low Fat Cottage Cheese (K maybe not for everyone but I love it!)
100 Calorie packs (Tried 'em all, love 'em all)
String Cheese (Pretty much any brand will do)
Arnold's Pita Bread
Thomas Whole Wheat Tortillas (Lovely wraps...)

Beer of choice while on WW, Miller Genuine Draft Light 64 (1 point a piece!) You could drink 22 in one day, yay!

Wine Idea of the day (given to me by my co-worker)- Mix 1/2 a glass of your favorite white wine w/ half a cup of diet sprite and voila! A wine spritzer with half the calories.

Groceries are bought, program paid for... WEIGHED IN. Ready, Set, GO!

Love the Weekends

This past weekend was a pretty busy one. Friday night we went over to Cindy’s (Trevor’s Mom) house and had a big dinner. I got to meet Trevor’s cousin Kelly who was in town for a visit (considering the party was in honor of her arrival!). That was fun, it’s always nice to get together and see everyone. Soooo much delicious food and for dessert, cookie sandwiches that were AWESOME, made by our very own Martha Stewart (Heather). Of course add into the mix a “couple” glasses of wine, an adorable 2 year old whose favorite activity is BONKING people on the nose, and one happy dragon and you’ve got a great Friday Night!

The whole crew
Picture from Heather

Saturday was Garage Sale day! All week at work, (in my free time of course), I searched for sales in the area and then figured out the best route via map quest so I could get the most out of my Saturday morning. Yes, I am a complete geek, but there’s something about looking through other people’s leftovers that puts a smile on my face. Of course, I enlisted Hunter’s help as a cute decoy to distract the old ladies from stealing all the good stuff. We started out our morning surprisingly right on schedule. Hunter with a bottle, me with 3 cups of coffee.

Trevor left for a day of golf with Kansas and my brother Kyle, and Hunter and I took off. Our first destination was Fairport, so we went to a couple there, found some clothes for Paige and a couple cute books for Hunter. Then we stopped at another sale and I bought a nice poker set for Trevor & a book of beer drinking games and an adorable wooden standing pumpkin decoration. (Talk about random, this is why I get so excited!). After that, my mom calls and says she is at my apartment stopping into say hello. So I go pick her up and enlist her help as well.

All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good Saturday morning. I got a lot of fun stuff, and only spent $30!

Then we went to the mall in Victor “to eat lunch” and I of course went overboard buying 6 Month clothes at JC Penny’s. I can’t help it, the little boys clothes are so cute! There is nothing better than a little shirt that says “Rascally Racoon” on it.

Later that night, Trevor, Hunter and I went to Applebees with our other son “Kansas/aka Mike”. It was fun, I had the WW Garlic Herb Chicken which was awesome and of course Trevor, being predictable as always got the same thing he’s been getting since we started dating over 2 years ago…The chicken fajita rollup. I really should give that a shot to see what the big deal is, it must have something special about it since he orders it EVERY single time. Hehe. Later that night we just hung out and watched “Miss March”, which was your typical high school boys go on crazy-sex filled-road trip to get a girl. It did have some funny parts to it though, I’ll admit, it was worth the whole dollar I spent on it. Ah, gotta love Redbox.

Sunday afternoon we went to my Aunt Chris & Uncle Jeff’s house (Dad’s side) in Fairport for dinner. It was fun, I got to see my Grandparents (who live in Florida half the year), and my twin cousins –Ryan and Jennifer who are going into 8th grade this year!! I can’t even believe how fast time flies. We had steak (YUM), corn and potato salad that my Grandma made, awesome. It was a good time. After that, we came home and it was pretty much time for bed.

Oh Monday. You’ve come too soon.