Today I Feel...

You know those refrigerator magnets with the multiple lines of facial expressions?  You know, the Today I Feel magnets.  This is the best I could find with Google:

(I love me some Google.  I should buy stock!) 

Anyway, this one doesn't have alot of options and it certainly doesn't have "Today I Feel Yucky!" 

Which is really how I feel.  So what does yucky feel like?  I don't feel healthy or confident, I feel like I looked like crap all day.  I don't feel feel sick, but I don't feel well.  I don't feel inspired or particularly interested in anything.  I did everything I was supposed to do and there were no awful things happening so what's going on?  Perhaps its just spring fever.  I need to be careful about that.  Some folks would feed you cod liver oil as a cure for that!!  Then I know I would feel yucky for sure!!

My New Love

I would like to introduce you to the new love of my life.  First, I need to thank T.J. of the Test Kitchen for introducing me to this new love.  I didn't know I had been pining so desperately for something like this in my life.  So here is my new love:

Baked Oatmeal:

This is not the same recipe as T.J. makes but she inspired me to go looking for something I thought I would like and would be on program. 

Boy, does this ever fit the bill.  And I am still not even sure I cooked it correctly.  But I swear, this is like oatmeal heaven. 

Ok, so here is the recipe.  Try it and tell me what you think.  I think I am going to buy stock in steel cut oats!!

Baked Oatmeal

POINTS® Value: 5

Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 1/2 cup(s) fat-free skim milk
1 cup(s)  Steel cut oats
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup(s) Ocean Spray Craisins Dried Cranberries
1/2 cup(s) chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 cup(s) unsweetened applesauce

Instructions

Heat milk on medium heat until very hot but not boiling. Stir in oats, maple syrup, cinnamon, applesauce and cook for a few minutes until mixture just comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add craisins and nuts.

Prepare 1 1/2 quart casserole by spraying with cooking spray. Pour mixture in, cover and bake for 45 minutes to an hour until no longer liquid and oatmeal appears creamy.  At this point, I let this cool until. I could cut it into individual servings.

These are 6 VERY generous servings, easily a meal unto themselves so I don't have any problems with the 5 Points.
 
A couple of things I didn't do:  I didn't add salt and, frankly, I didn't miss it.  And I forgot to spray the casserole.  DON"T DO THAT!!  Unless you like scrubbing dishes.  Anyone who has any experience with the WW Points system would know that Points could be reduced (probably drastically) by leaving out the craisins and nuts.  Also if you look closely at the picture, the top 1/4 of the serving appears white.  I think I could have cooked this another 15 minutes, but it was fine just like it was too.  Very reminiscent of one of my favorite desserts of all time, rice pudding.

27 Bad Boy Pounds Lost Permanently This Time!!

Weigh in was marvelous today.  I have worked so hard to get to this point.  This is where I was when I quit WW last time.  So I have now lost these pounds TWICE.   This weeks theme was about yo-yoing and what causes it.  In my case, I don't think I was doing it for myself.  I was going with my daughter before and when she quit, I just lost interest.  But now?  Man, I am all over this!!  I am celebrating every excrutiatingly drawn out ounce of weight loss.

When I was a kid, my grandmother had a dog that when she was ready to wean a litter of puppies that she had, she walked them all out into the desert and came home without them.  I am sure she was hoping they would get lost and never return.  Ok, so she wasn't a great mother dog. (They all showed up several hours later!)  But I keep thinking she was damned smart.  

So, in her honor, I have walked my 27 pounds into the desert and I will make sure they will never find their way home.

The Recipe for the Shrimp for Dinner Tonite

Well, I am using this recipe.  But its copyrighted and as I don't know what the protocol is on posting that to my blog, I will post a link instead and you can go find it.  Looks really good.

Spicy Mustard Shrimp

Edit:  Ok, this was incredibly good.  Hubby says:  "This one's a keeper" and then he kissed the cook!!  It is very spicy.  The recipe calls for tabasco and I substituted one of my new loves, sriracha sauce.  Its got a kick, I have to warn you, but damn, its soo good.  I also substituted lemons for limes, which I didn't have any of, and squeazed a quarter lemon over everything on my plate.  Wow, ridiculous.  Dinner is over, I am still savoring it.  Awesome.

And I took a pic!!

Weigh in and Doctor Appointments

Not in any particular order. 

Lets start with Doctor stuff.  Hubby woke up last Thursday and could not see out of his right eye.  Did nothing about it all day.  Told me about it when I got home from work and I freaked out.  What in the hell do you think with, man?  You only have 2 eyes and they are very fragile.  Lets not screw around when one isn't working right, ok.  So off to the emergency room we went.  Hubby has had double cataract surgery and after (cough, cough) careful examination, the on-staff opthamologist said he just need to have his cataract lens lasered and all would be well.  Well, 6 days went by before Hubby could get into see HIS opthamologist, who did do a thorough exam and low and behold, it has nothing to do with the cataract lens, Hubby has a torn retina.  IN THREE PLACES! Sometimes, I just can't stand the ineptitude!!  So, last nite around 5 pm, a very nice Retina Specialist with a decidedly British accent operated on my less than patient patient, Hubby!!  Today, the Retina Specialist took the bandages off and examined his work and, in that very special British way, declared it "quite nice, thank you"!!  Hubby will be fine until I kill him and that could happen sooner rather than later some days.

Weigh in, - 1.2.  .4 lbs away from that elusive 25 lb loss and almost where I was the last time I was on WW and quit.  It ok, its downward movement and I am liking it.  I have averaged a .9 loss weekly since I started so I am within range on this.  If this is the way of things then I accept that.  As our leader says "Slow is faster than never".  

I also bought new undergarments today.  The Girls needed some assistance and my old stuff wasn't fitting right anymore.  I have lost 4 inches in my chest wall size, so just the around me part.  The part of me that enters the room first hasn't budged. 

Shrimp for dinner tonite with rice and asparagus.  I will post when I figure out how I am going to make the shrimp.

Get Me Drunk and I'll Do Anything!

Had a day in court today (civil suit) in which there were no winners.  Parents vs kids, really ugly Judge Judy crap that I would have given my left arm to not have been a participant in, much less a plaintiff.  There are some potential compromises on the horizon.  We shall see. 

After court, all I wanted was a pitcher of Margaritas.  I settled for two!!  I am easy!

Then when we got home, I let hubby take pictures of me before I started staggering.  So, here we go all.  My first before picture.  God help me.  And I have alreadry lost 23 pounds.  Its a good place to start I guess.

03/17/2010 - Edit:  FYI, I shared those 2 pitchers with my husband and my sister.  I am not that foolish!
03/26/2010 - Edit:  Photo moved to side bar.

Weigh In Saturday and the New Skirt

Weigh In was good, down 2.6 today.  We went dancing last nite, maybe the exersize helped.  I know I had a lot of fun.  This morning, I kicked up the Wii for 30 minutes too.  I am sitting here panting for air and sweating.  I must admit, I am not a fan of panting and sweating (at least not this kind), but that leads into The New Skirt.  I did a little shopping on the way home from the meeting this morning and I picked up a cute pencil skirt.  I saw the size but I did not try it on until I got home.  Its too small, not by a lot, but it is too small.  Now, I could take it back and exchange it for the next size up, but instead, I have decided to make fitting into that skirt my next goal.  So I put it on the hanger and I have hung it on a nail on the wall above my desk so I can see it and be reminded that I have this cute little black skirt that I want to wear so bad I can taste it.  Wonder how many points that would be?

Undergarments

Um, girlfriends, can we talk unmentionables here?  Bras in particular.  Do you have a favorite?  A comfortable bra that you wear all day and don't just scream to shed when you walk in the door after a long day at the office. 

I am busty.  And it's the last place I lose weight.  As I get older, the less tolerance I have for gouging wires but at the same time I need good support.  So what's a girl to do?  Any great ideas?

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Well, the weather here turned cruddy again (waves of cruddy!) so I decided I needed soup.  I found and tweeked the following recipe to fit the Plan.  This is an excellent recipe.  Where possible, use the brands I have named as they are the best in their league (ok, my opinion, but they are damned good).

1 1/2 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast (About 3 breasts)
15 oz canned tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel)
10 oz Las Palmas Enchilada sauce - medium
4 oz can diced green chili peppers
2 clove(s) garlic clove(s), minced
1 medium onion(s), chopped
4 cup(s) Swanson's fat-free chicken broth
1 tsp Ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder, or as much as you like
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
12 oz frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup(s) cilantro, chopped
1 tsp table salt, Taste before salting. Tomato and enchilada sauce are salty
1 tsp black pepper

Of course the spice configuration is always to your taste. 

1.Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder,  red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
Remove and shred chicken breasts with 2 forks and add back to soup.

2.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

3.Lightly brush or spray both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.

4.Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes.

To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup and garnish with avocado, sour cream, more cilantro, salsa and/or shredded cheese.

Toppings will add extra points.

This is such good soup.  Makes approximately 8 - 1 cup servings.  3 points per serving

The Price We Pay

Well, as expected, I was up 1.9 pounds today.  Exactly the amount I was DOWN at my last weigh in 2 weeks ago.  That being said, DAMN, I've gotten away with murder for the last 2 weeks.  I have not been tracking, I have been indulging in bad eating habits and thumbing my nose at the whole process.  But I am back on plan and have no intention of throwing in the towel.  Today I am making chicken tortilla soup and its only about 4 points per very generous serving.  I have made a tank load of it so I will be taking it for lunches also.  I don't mind doing that.  I am one of those that can eat the same thing over and over without getting bored!!  Especially if its something I really like and most soups seem to fall in that category.  I have also planned to make some stuffed bell peppers which are 4 points for half a pepper, which is pretty filling.

Today after the meeting, I went next door to do a little shopping (anyone have any ideas of what to do with a humongous Mexican Papaya?) and one of the other women from the meeting approached me.  She was so sweet and said how she enjoyed when I spoke up in meetings, I really had interesting things to say, she was excited about my weight loss, etc.  I thought I was being a major pain in the ass actually 'cause I am one of the participants that get excited about what's going on and jump in.  Anyway, it was nice to have some affirmation and I turned her on to the blog world.  There are so many wonderful, inspirational stories out here in blogland, not to mention tips and recipes.  I would miss you all if I had to give you up!!

Flirting

 The weather is warming up for us and I am able to wear some nicer things that aren't covered in Slankets or huge bulky coats.  God, I hate winter.  I mean, I am heavy enough without adding the 40 pounds a coat packs onto your frame.  And I am looking better all the time and damn proud of it!!  Witness the following:

There is this guy I work with, as in the same company, but totally different parts and we see each other in the morning getting breakfast at the cafeteria.  He is tall, drop dead stinking gorgeous, and I am in love.  And he flirts with me!!!  And he knows what he does to me!!  I melt.  He smiles and I am smitten. 

So today, I go to get breakfast and he's there.  I am in black slacks and a new black and white blouse, kind of form fitting, but not skin tight, pretty top.  I was wandering around wondering what I could have for breakfast that was on plan and nothing was appealing.  He stopped in front of me and I said "What do you have when you don't know what you want?"  He said "I don't know.  What do you do when you know what you want and you can't have it?"  OH, OH, OH.  The double entendre!!!

Now, I love to flirt.  And I am pretty good at it.  But this man is going to kill me.  I just quiver when he's around.  I am a married woman for God's sake!!  But I don't want him to stop, cause I haven't had anyone pay that much attention to me in a gazillion years and it feels so good to have that input.

To make matters "worse", he emailed me before I left work today.  First time that's ever happened and I have known this guy for 10 years.  His comment "I really liked that blouse this morning".  I replied "I will keep that in mind".  He shot back "I thought about it alllll morning".  I made him stop there because I could feel myself blushing, but I am soooo gonna cheat in my sleep tonite!!