OK, ladies. I THINK I'm all caught up. Here's a LONG POST with personals for ya! I may have crossed one person's comment/question with another, but it's all in there, I believe.



Grab a mug of tea, sit back and enjoy the novel coming:
Mary-isn’t it AWESOME looking at the calendar and seeing NOTHING!!! I’m planning the same thing as you…a healthy dinner and some quality time in the kitchen making a few things to carry me into the next week. What will you be making??????
Chrissy- Go rock your final, girl! Good luck! Then enjoy your break between now and July. As for the event in NYC in October, I’ll see if I can find a link or website (unless you can share it here with me before I get the time to look it up.) My kids Birthdays are both in October (the 17th and 29th) and I like to do something different and special with them that month, so this may very well fit the bill. My mom likes to take these trips with us, so when I get a chance to look at the timeframe and my calendar, I’ll make a definite decision. How certain are YOU that you’ll be doing it, and how far from NYC are you? When you and I make a definite decision, I’ll pose the possibility to the rest of the tri-staters. Finally, I thought the EXACT same thing about those earrings on TBL last night! LOL How about Jerry, how AWESOME he looked!
Rachel-all your talk about your friend’s projects makes me want to finally get to my bathrooms. lol I’ve been putting it off and putting it off, and other things just pop up. What a friend you are for doing this with/for them!!! And you’re right about those double wave loads…they’re deceiving and sneak right up on you and bite you in the butt (or whatever muscle you’re working)! As for our clothing drive, it took us 45 minutes to load all those bags, and we were laughing because it was 4 women, a 6th grader and a Kindergartner doing the work! LOL No men in sight, besides the truck driver! And thanks for the compliment….I often think, too, how ironic it is that some of us are so busy and yet make our physical well-being a priority, yet others with LESS things to do and more help at home say there’s just no time for working out. NONSENSE! CONGRATS on the meal with DH and not snitching from his plate. That was one thing I used to do too, but have stopped!
Julie-did you see my response about the Glutamine powder??? I put 1 teaspoon in my shake or a glass of water in the morning…it’s tasteless so it’s not bad in just plain water. As for ‘not having anything significant to report’….keep on chugging along and you WILL. I have to say that my results I’m getting from STS REALLY started showing when I cleaned up my eating at the start of Meso 2. As for posting pictures….picturetrail.com is a good sight. I used to use them but let my membership run out. You can upload pictures to your profile here on the Cathe boards for free. If you can’t figure it out, let me know. It’s not that hard. Finally, I’m sorry to hear of all the stress you’re under right now, for STBX, the kids, etc. All we can do is take it ONE DAY at a time. Cliché, yes, I know. But it IS TRUE! What else CAN we do? If we look at the big picture, we’re just setting ourselves up for a long haul. ONE DAY AT A TIME, and you KNOW you have us hear to chat with if you ever need. I wouldn’t mind sharing my phone number, too, if that would help you to have somebody to actually TALK to beside your professional (and yourself, lol).
Jo, I LOL at the squirt gun comment. Enjoy your long weekend….not sure if I missed what your long weekend was for. What did you think of TBL finale last night???? Can you BELIEVE how Helen looked? Mike? When Helen stepped out I KNEW she was going to win….and I’m glad she did! Tara rocked it all season, but I think she was starting to get a bit too big for her own britches toward the end.
Kim, tell me what you planted in your garden. I’m putting my kids in charge of ours this year and letting them choose ALL the stuff we put in there. As for
Chicken Cordon Bleu. Here’s how I make the healthy-version….I take a chicken breast and butterfly it open making sure NOT to cut all the way thru to make 2 pieces. Open it up and on the bottom part, start piling in what you want….I put in 1 or 2 thin slices of lean ham, some chopped broccoli, and a wedge of the lite Laughing Cow Cheese. Then I lay the top on it, squeeze it closed and ‘pin’ it with toothpicks (maybe 3 or 4). Then I season with either Seasoned Salt (for DS and guests) or Mrs. Dash salt free seasoning (for me). Then I put it on a metal cooking rack (that I use for cookies, etc) and place the cooking rack on a baking sheet so that it raises the chicken off the sheet so it doesn’t sit in the juices that come out. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. If the chicken gets done before the rest of the meal, I will wrap the cooking rack with the chicken on it in foil to keep it all moist so it doesn’t dry out. It got RAVE reviews this weekend from everybody, and DS ate his ENTIRE piece. It was delish! As for DS, Doc said walk in the boot for 3 more weeks, and we go back on June 1st for another x-ray where he anticipated releasing Jacob completely. Keeping my fingers crossed we’ll be done with it all at that point. Now, on this holiday weekend you have coming up….PLAN AHEAD and you’ll be fine. Think of us back home here, waiting for a favorable beach review from you! ENJOY yourself!
Cendrine-did I miss a post from you yesterday? You out there somewhere??? I found myself last night, at that website again (the healthiest food site, forget what it’s called), looking for a soup recipe that uses canned pinto beans. I cleaned out my pantry last night and have 2 cans that I need to use up before the expiration date. I decided on my Tuscan Chicken Soup (recipe below), but that only uses ONE can…..any chance you have a yummy recipe at home that calls for a can of beans (I can sub any bean for any other bean, so it doesn’t matter what it calls for). Are the kids all recooperated today??? And I apologize, but I missed the daisy field picture….what’s the scoop on that??? It sounds LOVELY!!!!!
Now, girls, on the topic of “the twin girls”, “the girls”, whatever we call them. I’m in the SMALL but MIGHTLY category here. Not too much on top to hold me down while doing push ups! LOL The biggest I ever was, was when I was nursing my boys! Then it ALL went SOUTH!
As for our Memorial Day Challenge, I’m rock solid and loving it. Sunday’s ‘free day’ of treats and indulgences was okay, JUST okay, but I love the feeling of just eating clean and KNOWING that I’m doing something good for my body. I have to admit that I was a bit afraid of waking up Monday morning because in the past, after a ‘free day’, I’d fall into that gloomy mood of “well, 2 days won’t hurt me. 3 days in a row won’t hurt me”. But I stopped it after just that ONE DAY and got right back at it. MEMORIAL DAY, here we come!!!
OK......take a breather! LOL Did I get everybody???? I hope my pea-brain got it all! The grass has been dumped. I'm making a quick call to Lorrie (LSass) in Ohio, then I'm out the door for 3 errands.
Here's the recipe I'm making later....I LOVE this soup:
Tuscan Chicken Soup
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ C chopped onion
1 lb ground chicken breast
2 14oz cans f/f low sodium chicken broth
½ C uncooked orzo
14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes, chopped and undrained
16 oz can great northern beans, rinse/drain
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp ground black pepper
6 oz. bag fresh baby spinach
6 tsp shredded Parm cheese
• In a large saucepan over medium heat sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, sauté garlic and onion for about 5 minutes until just tender.
• Add chicken and cook 5 minutes, stirring to crumble
• Add broth, orzo, tomatoes, beans, basil, oregano and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 22 minutes or until orzo is done.
• Stir in spinach; cook 3 minutes or until spinach wilts.
Notes:
• You can use ground turkey or lean ground beef in place of the chicken.
• I’ve also added other veggies to the onions; like carrots and celery.
Yields: 6 servings, about 1 ½ C each; 4 WW points per serving
Numbers per serving: 216 calories, 2g total fat, 23.9g protein, 25.5g carbs, 4.5g fiber
Original Source: Weight Watchers Easy Weeknight Favorites Cookbook
MWAH!! KICK OUT YOUR DAY!!
Gayle
p.s. Guess I'll find out if there's a word limit as soon as I hit REPLY!