The Verdict is In!

So today we ate only our frozen meals.  Breakfast was breakfast pizza, and it was a very small portion.  Lunch was the Cuban sandwich quesadilla (delicious!), which was also a small portion (one tortilla folded in half).  Dinner was turkey enchilada casserole, which was supposed to be 4 servings, but we ate the whole thing because we were starving.  The pizza was soggy from defrosting, but I'm sure if I put it in the toaster oven it would be fine.  The quesadillas were a bit soggy, but once I microwaved them they were fine (and I'm VERY picky about texture).  The casserole was perfect, and it was so nice to take about 5 minutes total preparing dinner. Not to mention less than 5 minutes of clean up. I forgot to mention, we had the sweet and spicy chicken stir fry for dinner last night, which I served over brown rice.  I added a little soy sauce, but it was fine.

My verdict so far about the once a month cooking: It's totally worth the planning and the day of cooking.  However, we will have to make our own menus and shopping lists to fit our appetites and taste buds.  We will be lucky to have 2 weeks of food from this menu, much less an entire month.

Some of you have asked about my weight loss.  I'm down about 18 pounds, which is great.  Over Spring Break I relaxed a bit too much and gained 6 pounds (you can imagine my reaction when I stepped on the scale), so I skipped weigh in that week.  The next week's weigh in I was down .2 lbs from the week before Spring Break (so I lost 6.2 lbs, but it only registered .2 overall, I hope that makes sense).  This week I lost another .2 pounds.  I believe we only have 2 more weeks until the final weigh in, so I'm hoping that my new meal plan and the nice weather will help me get over my hump and loose a few more pounds before the competition is over.  I don't want to get too confident, but we are currently in first place with a 4% lead over the team behind us.  So unless they go crazy and loose tons of weight or one of us goes off the deep end and gains a million pounds, we've won this thing.  It helps when the other members of your team have lost over 30 and even 40 pounds :)

Day of Cooking

Yesterday we cooked all of our meals from Once a Month Mom.  It definitely took a full day and our bodies hated us by the end, but none of the recipes were "hard."  It was easy to make and package, just a lot of work.  We did some chopping and prep the night before, and that combined with our work yesterday, minus breaks, equals about 7 hours of cooking.  14 man hours if you consider Chris and I were both working the whole time (except when I had to leave the kitchen to avoid puking from the smell of banana filling the room).

Everything fit in the freezer.  What you need to do is put the food in Ziplocs, then flatten it out as much as possible.  Our tiny side by side freezer fit everything with room to spare.

The labels are a must; with this much food in the freezer it's tough to remember everything you have.  They are quick to print out, and save tons of time with labeling.

The only bad thing about the meal plan is that it only allows for 8 breakfasts, 8 lunches, and 14 dinners.  She explains this in her blog, but we didn't read that until after we had cooked.  She says this is to allow for eating out.  That's a lot of eating out!!!! So basically, we only have enough food for about 2 weeks.  We are going to try it out, and if we like it then in 2 weeks we will just double up on everything and then have enough for a full month.  So, for example, we would type in 4 instead of 2 where it asks how many people you are cooking for.  Another thing we will do is make our own shopping list.  The grocery list and the recipes don't call for the same things.  For example, 2 medium carrots does not equal 4 cups.  Also, we like more meat in our meals than the recipes call for.  In addition, the recipes don't include side dishes or snacks, so that is an added expense and something that needs to be considered while planning out the month.  So, just like everything else in life, we will need to adjust the recipes and shopping lists to accommodate our needs.  But the basic concept is amazing, and we are super excited to eat all of the yummy foods!

I do want to add that everything we made looked and smelled delicious.  We tasted the egg rolls, waffles, and minestrone, and they were all yummy.  The hardest part of cooking was making a ton of food that we really wanted to eat, but weren't allowed to.  At least we have something to look forward to over the next couple of weeks!  We are excited to have different things to eat for breakfast and lunch, instead of cereal, sandwiches, and left overs all the time. 

Southwestern egg rolls, breakfast pizza, healthy breakfast cookies

I would definitely recommend trying this out if you are looking for a way to eat well and save time.  My advice is to take the time to make sure you have enough meals to cover the month, and to adjust the portions to fit your appetite.  Make sure you add in side dishes and snacks, and compare the shopping list to  the recipes so you don't have to run to the store in the middle of your day of cooking (like we did).  If you want to try this out, but have other questions or need some advice, let me know!

Once a Month Mom

There is one thing that has kept me from thinking that I can really keep my new healthy eating lifestyle, and that is the cost of food.  Since January, Chris and I have been spending AT LEAST $100 a week on groceries, usually closer to $150 and even getting as high as $200.  A Week.  For two people.  That's freaking ridiculous! Plus having to cook every night, which takes 1-2 hours, then cleaning up the kitchen.  It's a huge strain on time and money, and while I love eating natural, healthy foods, I really don't see it being possible to do in the long term, especially once we have kids.  That is why I was SO EXCITED to find the website onceamonthmom.com on Pinterest (Thanks Andi!!!).  It's a blog by a mom who had the same problems we've been having- she wants to feed her family wholesome homemade food, but doesn't have the time to prepare the meals every day.  Instead, she has created a system where you only cook ONCE A MONTH and freeze everything.  This includes  breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  She gives you printable recipe cards and a grocery list for everything you need, and you can adjust the number of people you are cooking for and it automatically adjusts the amounts.  She gives you directions for how to cook everything on your day of cooking in order to stay organized and maximize your time.  She tells you how to freeze your foods, and how to do it if you have a small freezer (like we do).  She even gives you printable labels to put on your meals that say what it is, how to thaw it, and how to cook/reheat it.  It is the most organized system I have ever seen for meal planning.  And all of the info and printables are FREE!!!!!!

So, we decided to do it.  My amazing husband printed everything we need and organized it into a binder, complete with page protectors so the recipes don't get food on them while we are cooking (he's so organized, according to my grandma, because he's a Capricorn).  We took our printed grocery list to the store, and not even using coupons or shopping for sales, we spent... are you ready... $183.16 on a month's worth of groceries.  I was so excited I think I weirded out the cashier, talking all high pitched about how much money we saved and jumping up and down a bit (I even got a little teary eyed, but that might have been from the sappy country song they were playing and my emotionalism (yes I made that up, and yes this is a parenthesis within a parenthesis, but this is my blog and I can do what I want!)).  That included buying freezer bags, 8x8 foil casserole dishes, a box of cereal, and some yogurt that wasn't on the list.  

Saturday we are going to cook.  I'll let you know how it goes.  My only concern is that the portions will be too small to fill us up, or it'll be gross.  But the recipes sound yummy, and we are supposed to eat smaller portions anyways, right?  If anything we can supplement with healthy snacks and side dishes.  But right now, if it works out as planned, we will be saving up to $500 a month, and 48 hours of cooking a month.  And that is totally worth the planning, the 2 hour shopping trip, and giving up a day for cooking.

P.S. We are doing the March 2012 Diet menu.  There were too many things we don't like on the April diet menu.  There are several menus, including vegetarian, dairy/gluten free, and even on for baby food.

Luck O' The Irish

I'm convinced the weigh in scales are messed up.  But when it's in my favor I'm okay with that.

When I got home from school today I was over my weight from last week, so I stripped down to just shorts and a tank, weighed myself again, and was dead even with where I was last week. So I walked on the Nordic Track for 30 minutes.  Miraculously I went down 0.4 from that little bit of exercise. I threw on my coat and boots, took my sexy white legs outside in our 18 degree snowy weather, and went to weigh in.  My official weight is down 1.4 pounds from last week, a full pound less than my scale says (which matched what their scale said last week, by the way).  I'll take the higher weight loss, especially considering the corned beef and Irish soda bread binge I had 2 days in a row, and my Shamrock shake on Saturday.  I just hope it doesn't even out with my scale next week and show less weight loss, like what happened the first week.

My goal is to have lost 20 pounds by spring break.  That means losing 5 pounds according to my scale, 4 according to theirs, in 2 weeks.  I can totally do it if I don't cheat.

Dinner tonight is "fried" rice.  I got an Asian medley frozen veggie mix with little corns in it.  Who doesn't love little corns??  Mix that up with some lean marinated stir fry steak, brown rice, a scrambled egg, and some low sodium soy sauce.  Mmmmmm :)

Asparagus Chicken Cordon Bleu

Tonight I made a really yummy dinner, so here's the recipe!

Asparagus Chicken Cordon Bleu

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 4 slices ham sandwich meat
• 2 wedges Laughing Cow Cheese, I used garlic and herb flavor
• Dijon mustard
• Asparagus
• Seasonings
• Olive Oil 
• Olive Oil cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Trim and rinse chicken breasts.  Place one at a time between cellophane and beat with a mallet until it's about 1/4 inch thick (I use Press and Seal, it's thicker and doesn't tear).  Lay flat on cookie sheet.  Squeeze a stripe of Dijon mustard lengthwise onto each breast.  Lay one slice of ham across each breast.  Spread 1/2 a wedge of cheese lengthwise across top of ham.  Cut ends off of asparagus and coat leafy ends with olive oil to prevent scorching.  Lay 6-7 spears lengthwise across chicken, using the cheese like glue to hold them in place.  Wrap the chicken and ham around the asparagus like a taco, and use toothpicks to hold in place.  Sprinkle outside of chicken generously with garlic powder, Mrs. Dash (or whatever you want, rosemary would be good), and salt and pepper to taste.  Bake for 30 minutes.  I served mine with brown rice and mixed veggies.

Hey Saggy Pants

It's been awhile... oops.

Monday was weigh in.  The week before that I lost 2 pounds, woohoo!! Then I ate crap all week, but still managed to be down .2 pounds yesterday.  Since I fully expected to gain 5 pounds, I'll take the .2 and be happy with it.

We are half way through the challenge, and they had an event last night to celebrate the half way point.  We were supposed to weigh in, then have healthy snacks catered by an eatery in town, and then they were giving a prize to the man and woman who lost the most, and another prize to the person who submitted the most meaningful change they've made to be successful in the challenge, and for that prize you had to be present to win.  So I waited until 6 to go, walked in, and did get a $10 gift card to Natural Grocers.  Then I weighed in and lost .2 pounds.  The lady who weighed me in said, "Good job Betsy, I'm so proud of you!" Now I appreciate the support, but I don't know her, and I barely lost any weight.  Give me a break lady.

Anyways, I was all excited to get free healthy food, and walked up to the small buffet table with a huge grin, completely starving because I hadn't eaten in over 6 hours.  I grabbed a plate, listening eagerly for the food lady to tell me what everything was.  My face dropped as I looked at what they had to offer.  There was a fruit pastry made with buttery white flour croissant looking bread.  There were white bagels with hummus.  There was some vegetable shit full of onions that was covered in oil.  There were sauteed veggies, covered in oil.  And there was spaghetti squash with a marinara sauce, which I'm sure was equally oily.  I looked at the lady with my empty plate and realized there was nothing for me to eat.  I thought they were giving us healthy snacks!!?!?!?? If you are going to eat the pastry and the bagel, you might as well eat pure sugar. Just because you put hummus on it doesn't make it healthy.  Veggies are really good for you, but not if you cover them in salt and oil.  Chris ate it and said it wasn't even that good.  No freaking wonder people are having a hard time loosing weight, they don't know how to eat, and not even the sponsors of the challenge can lead them in the right direction.

So I was starving and disappointed, and sat down to wait for them to announce who had submitted their most meaningful change and won the money.  The way they advertised the contest made it seem like they were going to actually read them and put some thought into the winner. No. They put them all in a box and randomly picked one.  And the guy who won put "diet and exercise." Well no shit!!! By that time I was so pissed and hungry that I had to walk out. I went home and made a low calorie chicken piccata, with whole wheat pasta and green beans.

Don't get me wrong, this challenge has motivated a lot of people in this town to do amazing things for their health.  I feel great, my self esteem is way higher, and even though I only have one pair of pants that actually fit, I'm fitting shirts and bras that haven't fit in a few years.  But if you are going to sponsor a competition, then you need to have a freaking clue and not screw everything up.

At this point I'm thinking the other teams can eat the white flour and sugar and oil and all the shit they want.  MY team will eat healthy food, and exercise, and won't waste time talking about our most meaningful changes because nobody seems to care, and we will win this competition.  MY team won't eat a bunch of junk and then wonder why we aren't loosing weight.  At least when we do have bad weeks we know why, we admit that we didn't do our best, and then we work extra hard to make up for it the next week.  We are going to win.

I just hope they don't screw up the prizes.

Dinner tonight is quinoa stuffed peppers.  As always I played with the recipe a bit, but they are really yummy.  We also discovered 100 calorie frozen treats at the grocery store.  We got some fudgsicles and some sorbet ice cream pops that are AMAZING for my sweet tooth, and they aren't itty bitty either.  The weird thing is that I still crave sweets after every meal, but if I eat a cookie or a brownie or something it tastes too sweet.  It's like quitting smoking, you still crave a cigarette but when you smoke one it tastes and smells so nasty that you can't enjoy it.


One last thing, is I can't get over how yummy the turkey quinoa meatloaf is.  It is so moist and flavorful, not dry and bland like ground turkey usually is.  I really recommend trying it!!! Here is a side view.  I really like taking pictures of food, so I might as well share them :P

Go Fish!

I know I should eat fish twice a week, but I really don't like it that much.  So tonight I made sort of a one dish meal that turned out pretty darn tasty!

Brown rice (I use minute rice, and made 4 servings, I'm not sure exactly how much it was cooked, but my guess is 3 cups)

4 Tilapia fillets

2 cloves garlic, diced

Olive oil

1 bunch fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

about 1/3 each red, yellow, and orange bell pepper, diced

1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans (put them in a pan on medium high heat and stir a bit until you smell them)

Parmesan cheese

Put a little olive oil in a pan, and heat.  Add tilapia and sprinkle with some lemon pepper.  Add garlic to pan.  When fish is cooked, chop it with a spatula into bite sized pieces (much easier after it's done).  Meanwhile, cook the rice.  Mix together all  ingredients but the cheese, add salt and pepper to taste.  Heat until spinach is wilted and it's heated through.  Put in bowl, top with cheese, and enjoy!!!

By the way, I'm feeling pretty awesome about myself.  A lady that helps at my school sometimes (I'm not even sure of her name, but we say hi in passing) saw me in the office this morning and exclaimed "you look great!!!!"  I had a meeting at the district office after school, and the ladies there made me stand up to show them how good I'm looking.  Plus I wore my skinny jeans today, which normally give me a nice little fat roll over the top, and I have to take them off as soon as I get home.  But I'm still wearing them 12 hours later and they're as comfy as leggings (and no fat roll)  :)

If only my hair didn't look so stupid, I'd be feeling so sexy my head might explode!!!

This is a great mantra for anyone trying to reach any goal...