Recipes!!

Wow, so I said that I would stink at updating this--and I was right. Either way...I have tried a few recipes in the last few weeks that I wanted to share with you guys!

The first one is the WW Honey Mustard Crusted Chicken that I LOVE.

Honey mustard crusted chicken:

2/3 cups lite honey mustard dressing
1/8 tsp table salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 tsp dill, freshly chopped
1 medium scallion, finely sliced
1 cup cornflake crumbs
1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4 oz pieces

Instructions:

*Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat shallow pan with cooking spray
*In a small bowl, combine honey mustard dressing, salt, pepper, dill and scallions; remove 1/3 cup and set aside
*Place cornflake crumbs in a shallow bowl. Dip chicken into dressing mixture and then cornflake crumbs; place in prepared pan
*Bake until chicken is golden and no longer pink in center, about 15 minutes.
*Drizzle remaining dressing mixture (the 1/3 cup that was set aside) over chicken breasts and serve. Yields 1 piece of chicken and about 1 1/3 tablespoons of dressing per serving!

(and it tastes AMAZING) :)

The OTHER recipe that I love and made last night was a ZERO (thats right, ZERO) point veggie soup...be sure to try this one...its tasty and lasts a long time for lunches and leftovers.

ZERO point veggie soup

6 cups broth (today I used Light Vegetable Stock)

Cooking spray
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 teaspoons garlic (from a jar or substitute four cloves minced garlic)
1/2 cabbage, chopped (or use a bag of slaw, the biggest chunks you can find vs the fine, don't skip the cabbage for it somehow makes the soup)
1/2 pound frozen green beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large zucchini, diced

Instructions:

Bring the broth to a boil in the microwave. (This is a time-saving tip that can be skipped if there's no hurry.)

Spray a Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cook until the zucchini are tender. Serve and enjoy!


So there you go! These are both so good...probably my two favorite WW recipes:)

As for my progress: I am taking it one day at a time still. Trying to eat right, some days are better than others. I have had a couple days where I just completely slip up and then get angry at myself, and I know I shouldn't. Just have to get back up and keep going haha. I will write more later...I will, I promise!

Not too shabby

Yesterday was a little better than my fumble of a first day. I ate an apple for breakfast, which gave me some energy for the morning. Instead of getting my daily diet coke in the morning, I got unsweetened tea, also a good energy booster. Like I said yesterday, I brought my lunch and resisted the temptation to just buy food from the cafeteria downstairs! I stuck with my lunch:)
For dinner, I made a WW chicken honey mustard recipe that I love.

Now ok, enough of the "this is what I ate" stuff. I have to say, I am a BIG snacker and unfortunately, one of my favorite snacks has always been potato chips and dip, I love nothing more. Clearly, this is not the best snack choice, however it was a challenge for me to at least make this snack healthier if I need to have it (this is an awesome snack for those of you that love chips and dip as much as I do).

Susan's Healthy(er) chips and dip
1 tub of light sour cream
2 packs of light ranch dressing mix
1 bag of baked lays

All you have to do is just mix the light ranch mix into the sour cream and you have a little lighter dip and some tasty chips for it! Now, its not one to just chow down on all of the time of course, but still just as satisfying as the real thing.

Oh, and I have to say (this entry is getting really long) that I resisted temptation already this morning! A lot of times people in the office will put out muffins or donuts that they have ever so sweetly bought or found for us. I have always just given in and taken the donut, however, today...there was fruit with the tray of muffins and fruit and I took pineapple instead. its the little victories as well as the big ones:)

Hopefully this started the day out well...we will see!

Nobody said it was going to be easy...

So yesterday was kinda my first attempt at starting this health plan thing. Breakfast: I didn't have any (bad idea) so by lunch, I was STARVING. Of course we were out, so we went to Houllihans where I got a grilled chicken sandwich (sounds good, right) and FRIES (I have already failed for the day).

However, I tried not to let it get me down. After work, I went to the grocery store and bought a few healthy foods like fruits and veggies, bread, salad etc...For dinner I had a pot of grilled veggies and some chicken. So it wasn't so bad, right? WRONG. I think I have learned that I have to eat dinner a little later because by the time 10 came around I was FAMISHED. I ended up eating a sandwich and some easy mac....ugh, I was frustrated. I say "was" because Im going to reassure myself that I am just going to have to do better today.

I brought lunch with me to work today. That was the first step, I also brought my gym bag so that I can work out after work downstairs. (Hopefully I can keep that up).

So in conclusion: my first day---> not so good, I stumbled through it...but hey, it happens. I will just do better today, I already had a good start with my apple for breakfast:)

And so it begins

I feel like I have been here a thousand times....

I go to a store, or a friend's house, or I just sit at work and think "wow Susan, you are huge". The thoughts are becoming stronger than anything now...its becoming "gee Susan, get off you ass and do something" and "you don't really deserve to go out or do things, people don't need to see how gross you are", or the fact that I feel just below everybody because I am fat. There, I said it...I am fat. Ugh, that sucks.

Well dammit, I'm going to do something about it this time. I don't know if doing this journal will help or not, but I am going to try anyway.