Busy Weekend & Two Recipes!

Okay, for some reason Again, another extremely busy weekend! Friday flew by for me at work!  It was my first no-meat Friday of lent.  I started out with an egg and toast for breakfast.

I had cheese & crackers for my morning snack.

Lunch was the Szechwan Noodles that I made the day before.

I honestly can't remember much of Friday itself.  It was busy, but just a regular day at work...

That night we went to a family friends' house for dinner.  She made a fish stew that was fantastic, and had a salad and bread with it.  I even had 1 1/2 glasses of wine, and I counted every bit of it! Luckily, I gave up dessert for lent, so I didn't stuff my face with my aunt's Amaretto Cake (my favorite cake EVER!)  I didn't take any pictures because I felt a little odd doing so.  Maybe after doing this for a while I'll feel more comfortable...  We didn't get home until 12:30!  WAY past my bed time!  (I can't believe I'm saying that! My 15 year-old self would be smacking me saying what's the matter with you!?)

Saturday morning I woke up early to do my workout on EA Active, then hit the showers to get ready for the tea.

Saturday was the day of the Irish Tea hosted by the Delta Lions Club.  Another family friend belongs to the group.  She was the first woman for that group and she hosts the tea every year.  It's just a lot of fun.

The tea is held at the Grand Island Mansion every year in Courtland, CA way out in the delta.

Our tea started out with fantastic scones.  There were enough for us to have 2 each, but I was very good and had just one with some clotted creme and a little jam.

I think the scone was white chocolate and maybe cherry, or some light red fruit.

My tea cup.  Everyone had a different cup.

The hostess, our friend Jeannie, and her 2 granddaughters came over to say hi.

Naya with my aunt Patty.

Jeannie with Eliza

Next came our tea sandwiches.

There were egg salad, corned beef, cucumber and olive, and mini quiches. I had one of each, then an extra egg salad.

I tried to eat as much fruit as I could because the dessert plate looked great, and I couldn't eat any of it.

This is what I got.

After the tea, we went to walk around the downstairs of the mansion.  We used to be able to go upstairs, but this year there was an event going on that night so it was closed off in preparation for the event.

Theatre room.

Downstairs dining room.

Women's Dressing room.

The bar.

The Pool room with a very large fire place.

Gentlemen's Dressing Room

Looking for treasure!

The front of the mansion. From left to right- My aunt, Naya, Me, and our cousin Mark.

Yes, Naya is giving my aunt and me bunny ears!  Here's Naya with her mom Jennifer (Jeannie's daughter).

We had a great time at the tea, and look forward to it every year!

When we got home, we rested for a while, then freshened up to go to the Greek dinner held by Eastern Star (our next door neighbor is a member) which is the women's group for the Free Masons I believe.  I know it has something to do with that.
They brought out a Greek salad first (it was tiny and I only ate the green bell pepper and cucumbers.  I didn't like what was left in the dish.

Next came the main course.  Dolmades (not a big fan of, I tried a little bit of one), a Greek Beef stew that I can't remember the name of, but it was very good, over rice pilaf, and another thing I couldn't remember the name of.  It was like Spanikopita, but with 3 cheeses and no spinach.  That was very good too!

They held a silent auction and I put my name on 2 different things in which I didn't win either one...  Oh well! That's money I still have in my pocket!

Sunday was a more relaxed day.  I went to mass that morning, then came home to get my shopping list, then went straight to the store to get all of my stuff.  I also had a quick breakfast.  1 egg and toast, with an orange.

I made a salad there at their salad bar and grabbed a small baguette to have for dinner as well.  I also had 1 oz. of Madrigal Swiss Cheese with an ounce of the baguette thinly sliced to make it look like more. I only ate roughly 1/2 the salad.  I forget that I'm not much of a meal salad person and it makes me feel full sooner than it should.  I can't explain that, it just does.  I added some hard boiled egg, onion, beans, and sunflower seeds for protein.  I got a side of ranch dressing and dipped my fork in it to control the amount of dressing I used.

I love Madrigal Swiss.  It is naturally lower in fat.  Only 2 pp for 1 ounce!

I spent most of the day cooking.  I made a slow cooker lasagna that's been going around the food blogs I read.  It was FANTASTIC.  I'll post the recipe after the photos.

I started out by browning an onion.

I added 1/2 pound mild Italian Sausage.

Then I added 1 pound lean ground turkey.

While that browned, I pureed 2 large cans of whole peeled tomatoes.

Add that to the pot.

Then add 1 6 oz. can of tomato paste.

Follow by 1 cup Merlot.  I used FetzerFetzer so I grabbed that.

Plus, they are earth friendly!  (It's the hippy in me that get's excited in those kind of things!)  Then I added some oregano, Italian seasonings, and minced garlic.

I let it cook for a half hour or so, then added salt, pepper, and some splenda (I like my sauce on the sweet side) to taste, along with a big bunch of chopped fresh basil.

While that was cooking, I mixed together the cheese layer.  fat free ricotta, part skim mozzarella, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and garlic flakes (ran out of fresh garlic!)  Mix it all together and set aside.

Then it up in the crock pot with no cook lasagna noodles. Sauce, noodles, cheese, and repeat.

Top with 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Pecorino Romano.

Cook for 2 hours on high, or 4-5 on low.  I cooked it on high because it was getting late.

While that was cooking, I cleaned up and made my chili egg puff muffins.
Whisk 5 eggs until light and lemon colored.

Add 1 cup fat free cottage cheese, 1 cups low fat monterey jack, 1 can green chiles, 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, salt, and pepper.

Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray (the kind for baking works best I find, but I didn't have any, so I used my EVOO spray, and I hate saying that but I need to finish this up!)

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  They are done when they spring back to the touch.  You get 2 muffins for 5 pp!  I love them!  Such great flavor, and the cottage cheese add a lot of moisture!

Lasagna is done!  You get 1/6 (a HUGE piece) for 13 pp.  You could really turn it into 8 or 10 slices for less points.  It's a tall lasagna.

My aunt made an asparagus fritatta and we had some bread with it.  MMmmmmm!

Then, because it's Sunday and you can have/do what you gave up on Sunday.  So my aunt made sugar free mousse from a box recipe.  It was pretty good.  It was mocha flavored.  I sliced some strawberries and added some splenda and a little water to "macerate" them.

It was only 3 points for 1/2 of the recipe!  Yum!

Okay, I'm finally done, and it's after midnight, so I'm going to have one helluva day tomorrow from lack of sleep!  Night all!

Fantastic Discoveries por Moi! Plus a Fantastic Recipe!

 First let me start off with my morning.  When I got into work, I noticed that the lights were out and I was thinking to myself, SWEET power-out!  But nope, the computers and everything else was working.  Oh well! 
It was still a productive day at the office.  I had an egg and toast for breakfast.

A little bit later I had 2 mandarin oranges which didn't taste that great.  I think they were a little old because the skins on them were hard...

I had cheese and crackers for my morning snack.  I love those laughing cow cheeses.  They are so flavorful!  And a pear.

Lunch was just a turkey and Swiss sandwich.  Nothing fancy.

 

I at at my desk, like usual, but I was working during that because I needed to spend my whole lunch studying with the other person at work who's also taking the licensing test.  It's for property and casualty insurance.  Fun and exciting stuff!

With all of the stuff I had to do at work, I didn't get my afternoon snack in, so I was starving by the time I got home, which wasn't until after my pit stop at Raley's to pick up what I couldn't find at TJ's on Wednesday.

Oh sweet Lord, I finally tried coconut milk for the first time.  Oh how did I live without you in my life?! And people who know me know that I am not a milk drinker.  I don't know if that had anything to do with the fact that my mom didn't breast feed us, but either way, I don't like it, but I LOVE this stuff!

I had a bowl (which turned into 2 bowls...) of Cascadian Farm Honey Nut O's.

I couldn't help it!  It was so good! I may not be a big cereal fan for breakfast because it's not enough food, but darn it if it doesn't make a FANTASTIC snack!

I tried a new recipe from the Hit the Spot WW cookbook. 

It's Szechuan Peanut Noodles.  It looked great as you can see.  I calculated the new PP and it comes out to 8, but you get 1 1/3 cups.  That's a lot of food!

 I started out with putting a pot of water on to boil for the pasta.  While that was heating, I broke out my new "piccolo pot" that my mom gave me.  She got another one exactly like it so she gave me her old one, which was barely used.  Into the pot goes 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter, 6 tablespoons water, 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce, 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce (I knew I forgot to add something! I didn't miss it though, at least I don't think so), 1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil (I used regular), and a pinch of cayenne (I used red pepper flakes because it's what I had).  Mix it all together and let it come to a boil.

Take off the heat and add to a large serving bowl.

When the pasta water is boiling, add 1- 8 oz. box of whole-wheat or whole grain pasta.  I used spelt pasta which I was a little hesitant with because I've never eaten spelt anything before.  I must say it was really good.  It didn't have that whole wheaty bite to it like normal whole wheat pasta does.  It tasted like real pasta.  (and yes, I said whole wheaty!) While the pasta is cooking, finely dice 1 small yellow bell pepper and 1/2 of an English cucumber (de-seeded) and add to the bowl.

The spelt pasta hardly took any time to cook, I was surprised!  Once the pasta is done, drain, then rinse (I have never done that before, so I tried it.  I may try without rinsing next time to see if there's a difference.) and drain again.  Add to the bowl.

Toss to coat.

Each serving is 1 1/3 cups.  It was a lot of food.  Add sliced scallions to garnish.

This was a fantastic dish!  I didn't even eat all of it.  Although, I could blame the *cough* two bowls of cereal *another cough*.... At least I had the points for it!!! :D

I finished the day off with a 30 minute EA Active workout that kicked my butt, and had a lunabar after because I had the points and I really wanted to try one of the ones I bought! The "Nutz over Chocolate" one was just meh... I tried the one I thought I would least like.

Time to hit the showers and get to bed! Night all!

Ash Wednesday

Today is the official start of lent...  As you can see, I went to mass this morning.  (Don't ask me what was going on with my hair!) I got a nice big fat black cross on my forehead.  And everyone was staring at me today!  Of course it HAD to be the day of our monthly meeting so the whole office noticed I was the only one that went to mass.  :)  Oh joy!  Ha ha!  I only kid though.  I'm glad I went.  For Lent I am giving up junk food, candy, and I am going to say some prayer everyday. I heard a priest say one time that you should think more about what you can do instead of what you can't do during lent, and I thought that was a good idea.  Actually, I think that priest just became a bishop in San Francisco...  Anyway!
For breakfast I just had a 1/4 cup of low fat granola.  I wasn't very hungry and I was running late to get to mass at 7, so I didn't have time to make my breakfast.

For a snack, I had a sheet of Ak-Mak crackers, a mozzarella sun-dried tomato laughing cow cheese wedge (say that 3 times fast!), and an orange after our 1 1/2 hour monthly meeting.

We had our monthly appreciation lunch (instead of breakfast this time) and it was El Pollo Loco which I could have worked with.  I could have had a chicken breast and a couple of tortillas with some guac and salsa and been pretty good, but I forgot that it's a no meat day for Catholics, so I brought an Amy's Vegetable Lasagna with me.

I did go in and sneak a couple of tortillas with a little sour cream and guacamole.  I'm not a huge fan of guacamole, but theirs is really good! 
After work, I headed over to Roseville for an appointment.  I had an hour or so to kill before the appointment, so I went over to TJ's which was just down the street.  I needed to get a few things for a new recipe I am going to make tonight.  It's Sechwan Peanut Noodles.  It looks really good!  So I'll have to post pictures and let you know how it comes out.
When I got home I was starving!  I ended up sauteing the mushrooms I had, heated up a mini whole wheat pita (split in 1/2) with 2 slices of light Havarti cheese melted on top.  I threw the sauteed mushrooms onto the pitas and had a mock mushroom taco/mini pizzas whatever you choose to call it!  It was extremely filling because I sauteed 2 containers of the mushrooms!
Anyway, that was my day!

Mardi-Gras, Weigh-In Day & Sunday Recap

Have you ever had one of those days where you just have no energy?  I have those a little too often.  I know I need to get my lazy butt moving more.  I actually tried to do a 30 minute medium difficulty workout on EA Active and not even 1/2 way through it the batteries died in my heart rate monitor.  You can't play the game without them, and I didn't have any AAA batteries!  I couldn't believe it!  I started using my weights instead of the cheap resistance band they give you and I actually really like using the weights much much better.  I feel it more and the bands chafe my hands, not to mention they are just awkward to use.  I will need to use them for a couple of exercises I think but for most I'm glad I can use my weights. 
Continuing from our movie night, on Sunday we woke up around 7 and went to breakfast at the Pancake House in Rocklin which has the best pancakes called 49er Flapjacks (again I was dork and forgot to take a picture!) they are these MASSIVE yet thin pancakes.  They give you 3 plate sized pancakes.  They are like Swedish pancakes in that they are very thin.  They are SO good!  I ordered a side of fresh fruit and an egg for protein and didn't eat the whole thing so I was proud of myself.  I only ate the egg whites, and not even all of them because they undercooked it!  I HATE runny egg whites.  So gross!  I usually get a poached egg and don't ask me why I didn't this time!  I forgot!
Anyway, after breakfast, we left our cousins to go back to Sacramento.  We stopped at the weekly Farmer's Market in downtown Sacramento under the freeway, then we went to mass at the Cathedral where my boss's boss is one of the main cantors.  She has an amazing voice.  After that, we decided to take a drive into Davis to see their new TJ's.  It's nice.  Really, once you've seen one TJ's, you've seen them all, but I like Davis and I want to see more of it so I can get the lay of the land in case I move there, if I can afford it anyway.  Definitely a college town.  Most of the people in there were college students, you could just tell! And I'm guessing at least 90% of the employees were college students as well.
After that, we finally got home, and Rusty was not happy with us that we went away leaving him alone for the night.  He soon forgot about that after we have him some much needed attention.
The rest of the day was dedicated to studying and putting things away.
Tuesday, I brought my typical egg and toast with me for breakfast.  I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch because I don't like to eat anything too heavy so I don't gain water weight before my weigh in, which ended up being a 2 pound gain.  But that's okay, it  could have been much worse!
I cannot believe today is Mardi Gras!  Lent is tomorrow!  Holy cow! I'm celebrating by going to Hungry Bear for dinner with my aunt after our WW meeting.  I've been craving a burger and their barbecue burger is my favorite!

Movie Night!

Three to four times a year (I wish it were more!) my aunt and I go to our cousins house in Lincoln to have movie night.  They have a spare room and we stay the night.  It's like a mini getaway and it's just a lot of fun.  At first, we ordered pizzas an had salad and stuff like that.  Now, since we are all (except for 1 cousin) are on Weight Watchers, we try to have healthier meals.  I offered to make dinner this time so I made a big pot of chili and corn bread, both weight watchers recipes and it was really good and filling.  Being the dorky forgetful person that I am, I forgot to take a picture of it!  I wanted to take a couple of pictures of their fantastic view, but it didn't work out.  Next time, I will try to take some!

We got to their house in the afternoon and chose our typical 3 movies.  Our cousin Mark (who lives 5 minutes away and joins in as well) picked Taken, my aunt picked Roman Holiday, and I chose Return to Me.  We watched in that order and I'm glad because Taken was an intense, I mean INTENSE movie.  It was hard for me to watch! So it was good to have the two light hearted movies after that!  We have such a great time when we are there.  We're going to try to have another one soon so we can take a drive up to Nevada City so I can see (wait for this one) snow for the first time...  Yes, I have never seen snow before!  It's not my fault!  My parents just never brought us to the snow!  So I can't wait and I hope that I can get a chance before this season ends!  I've never been to Nevada City and I've heard it's a really cute town so I've been wanting to go there as well.

Well, that the recap for Saturday.  I'll post tomorrow for my Sunday update.

I'm Back... Sort Of Anyway...

Well, I'm done with my classes.  They went pretty fast.  It was total information overload though!  But I survived.  I meant some nice people including one woman who works for the same company just in a different office in the area.  Now I need to study my butt off (don't you wish you could literally do that!?) and pray to God I pass the test. 

So I won't go into any other details about that week because it was very uneventful.  On Saturday (I had a 1/2 day class that day too but at least that was the end of it) I did a TON of laundry and my mom came up in the afternoon to spend the night.  We went to mass at the Cathedral in downtown Sacramento, then went to Frank Fat's for dinner.  I've had their food before but never ate in the restaurant.  The food is fantastic there but for the 2 of us, it racked up to almost $90 before tip!  We ordered a sampler appetizer because we didn't know what to try, orange chicken (too fatty and heavily battered for both of us), walnut shrimp (which was the best and lightest I've ever had), steamed rice, and green beans with a garlicky sauce.  Okay so not the healthiest for the entrees (or the appetizer for that matter, pot stickers, egg rolls, fried calamari, and these pork ball type things which were the only thing we really liked) but the food was really good and now we know that we really don't need to order as much.  We're used to left overs with Chinese food so we tend to order enough to do so.
Sunday, we went to the mall and found out my mom's favorite store, Pottery Barn, closed down in that mall.  I discovered a store that I love although I can't fit into their clothes yet (I didn't see anything bigger than a 14 in there!) but as a goal for myself, when I get down to that size, I am going to get myself an outfit there.  My mom left around 4:15 to get home to watch the academy awards and I made a sweet potato shepherd's pie. The filling was really good (I add a small head of curly cabbage to mine to add a lot of bulk and vegetable without calories) but I could do without the sweet potato.  I saw this recipe (although I used my recipe for the filling so that could be why it didn't come out that great with the sweet potato) on another blog I read and it looked really good. Next time I'll just stick to my own recipe. 

Monday, was uneventful (as usual) I had a lot of stuff to catch up on at work. (that I will be catching up on for a while, this is what happens when you're off for a week!) I watched a mini-marathon of Being Human they had on SyFy.  And I was annoyed with myself because I forgot Chuck was on too!
Tuesday, I was completely exhausted and didn't end up going to Weight Watchers...  I know I should have but I didn't and I'm really going to try this week because I know I can do this! I watched Raising Hope, then went to sleep.  (I have such a wild life don't I?!)
Now onto Wednesday... My first day of the WW week.  I had a big huge bowl filled with a container of chobani pineapple yogurt (please PLEASE don't do what I did and forget to read labels because this was low fat instead of non-fat!) 1 banana, and 1/4 cup of TJ's low fat granola.  It is really good and EXTREMELY filling.  I didn't even eat the whole thing as you can see from the picture, it's a lot more than you'd think!

 I went to Panera with a friend from work and had their Asian Chicken Salad and I was a good girl in getting an apple instead of their awesome bread.  (10 pp.) Dinner was just left over Shepherd's pie.
Thursday breakfast was the same and lunch was 1/2 of the serving of shepherd's pie I had at work, I was getting really tired of it.  I was invited to be a fill in for my aunt's bunco group.  It was at my Godfather's house (his wife is in it) and guess what she had for dinner since it was St. Patrick's day themed?  Shepherd's Pie!  So I have had my fill for a while!  I was hoping she'd do corned beef and cabbage, oh well!  It was still pretty good.  She had this amazing wheat french bread from Raley's.  I was good and only had 1 serving of the pie and 1 slice of bread.  They put candy and peanut bowls at each station for bunco so I did have some of the peanuts and a couple of pieces of candy, but it could have been worse.  I counted it still.  Then I went on and had a piece of this pistachio bundt cake she made.  Oh my God it was amazing! 
Friday was payday and I got an extra big one because of the overtime I had from last week so I was lucky to get a head start on paying my bills for the month!  Plus I still have to do my taxes to get that nice chunk of change.  I'm trying to save for our trip to Disneyland (and if we go, Tahoe!).  I'm so excited!  I can't believe it's only 3 months away!  Breakfast was the last of my yogurt and some grape nuts (ran out of the granola). 

For a snack I had a small whole wheat pita with 2 tablespoons of Better n' Peanut Butter and some low sugar jam on it.  I just can't get into the Better n' PB.  I know some people LOVE it, but it has an off taste to it.  I'd rather have 1/2 of Skippy!  I don't eat it often anyway because I get sick of PB fast. I am going out to lunch with the same friend from work that I went out with on Monday and Wednesday (it's been one of those weeks for both of us!) and we went to one of my new favorite Japanese restaurants.  It's called Tokyo Steakhouse.  They have the best chicken teryaki.  It is right off the grill so you taste the charred flavor.  They do have huge portions so I have to be careful, but as long as I really push myself and stay disciplined I know I can do it. After eating that I used up most of my points for the day.  I only had 4 left, but at least I had some. 
After work, I went to get some groceries at Nugget to make chili and cornbread for our movie night.  I got an Amy's Lasagna to have for dinner which is 8 points, but I still have extra weekly points so I wasn't worried.  When I got home I sauteed some mushrooms that I had on hand and while I was cooking them I thought, I'll make a mini pizza instead.  So I took one of the whole wheat pitas (then decided to open it up to have 2), took 2 pieces of light havarti cheese and broiled them in the toaster until the cheese was melty.  Then I topped each with equal amounts of the mushrooms.  It was so good!  Only 4 points! I decided to have a couple of my girl scout Lemonades cookies for 4 pp extra.  They are really good and I'm glad I only got one box of those!

Well, that's it for my recap.  I know it's a long post, but I'm caught up now!