BLTs - Bites Licks and Tastes, plus a quick weekly menu

 

I have noticed that what really gets me, are BLTs. Bites, licks, and tastes. A bite of my child's cookie, a taste of my husband's dinner and lick- okay a tablespoonful of ice cream, 3 cheetos, and 4 chips... after a while they start adding up. I think if I avoided all BLTs, I might not even need to diet. I think a lot of my calories are coming from that. My goal has been to track everything. My goal now is to track everything and avoid BLTs.

 I do really well with my exercise. I am even working super hard to cook healthy.  I have tried diligently to add more vegetables and I've come up with some delicious dinners.  But I really think that one of the biggest changes I need to make is a small change- the BLTs.  That's the goal.  Wish me luck. :)

  How about you.  What small changes could you make to get healthier?

So here is a quick list of the dinners that I made this week.  I'll get recipes up soon.  

Sunday -- Pork Sirloin Roast with mashed potatoes and salad.  I almost always serve salad. It's so filling and good for you.

Monday -- Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas. (I made some with whole grain tortillas and some with white tortillas.  My kids loved the whole grain tortillas!) They were amazing. and Salad.

Tuesday -- Very Veggie Lasagna Casserole.  You can find the recipe Here. and of course, salad.  We also had whole wheat garlic bread

Wednesday -- Grilled Cheese (on whole wheat, of course) and Tomato Soup for the family.  I had a left-over quesadilla.

Thursday -- Lower Fat Stroganoff, fresh veggies with dip and green beans.

Friday -- Husband cooks-- will probably be burgers.  I will most likely eat mine bunless with yummy avocado added.

Saturday -- oh Saturdays are always a toss up.  so Free day.  :)

 Here is a list of Breakfasts that I made this week. Recipes soon.

Sunday -- I didn't eat breakfast.  :)

Monday -- Whole grain Breakfast Burrito

Tuesday -- Whole Grain Breakfast Burrito (what can I say- if I like it, I'll eat it 2 days in a row)

Wednesday -- 1 egg

Thursday -- 1 egg, 1 buttermilk, dollar sized pancake

Friday -- 1 egg, 1 pancake

 Okay so breakfast hasn't been exciting this week.  However, I will get the recipe for the breakfast burrito up soon.  It really is tasty, fast and low cal.  

Very Veggie Lasagna Casserole- And your kids will love it!

This is good stuff.  This is three helpings good.  This is healthy! But don't tell my kids.

This is my Very Veggie Lasagna Casserole.  Seriously, this stuff is loaded with yummy vegetables that my kids normally won't eat.  In fact, it has a veggie in it that I won't eat! As in, it makes me gag to think about eating it.  It took faith to add spinach to this. I hate cooked spinach. H-a-t-e! Would rather do laundry kind of hate. I had two helpings of this, my boys had three each.  And my little princess, who won't eat anything?  Oh, she happily scarfed it down.  Even the baby liked her ground up portion.  The husband had two helpings.  I'm telling you, it's good!

Guess what's in it?  Never mind.  I'll tell you.  :)  I'm generous like that.

Spinach, carrots, zucchini! Can you believe that?  My family ate zucchini and loved it!  I'm seriously doing the happy dance.

So you may remember an earlier post where I told you how to sneak carrots into your ground beef.  If not, you can find that here. That is how I got the carrots in.  The rest- easy peasy.  But no peas.  They wouldn't work in this one.  :)

Very Veggie Lasagna Casserole
1/2 of the meat mixture (found here)
OR
1 lb meat (shred 2 carrots into the meat while it cooks and add 1/2 large onion) cooked and drained.
2 cups of your favorite marinara, spaghetti sauce or even pizza sauce.
        (I used left over home made pizza sauce)
2 cups water with 2 beef bouillon cubes, or 2 cups beef stock
1/2 of a 13.25 oz box of whole wheat penne pasta (I used Barilla)
6 oz Cream Cheese
3/4 C. Cottage Cheese
1 10oz pkg of frozen spinach
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 slice swiss cheese (this is how I keep the amount of cheese down. - strong flavor but very little)
1 C. low fat mozzarella cheese divided

 Put the first 4 ingredients in a 4 quart stock pot.  Bring to a boil and turn down the heat to medium low.  While doing that warm up your cream cheese in the microwave so it's very soft.  Stir it until it is very creamy.  I added some basil and oregano to the cream cheese along with some chili powder because my homemade sauce was too bland for my tastes.  But if you are using a commercial spaghetti or marinara sauce, you don't need to do that. Add the cream cheese to the pot along with the cottage cheese and zucchini.  Cover for 5 min.  Now I recommend that you thaw the spinach first, but I didn't remember, so I ran a little hot water over it to remove any ice crystals and tossed it in the pot.  Cook for another 10 min stirring occasionally.  Just before serving add your slice of Swiss and 3/4 C. of mozzarella cheese. Stir in, allowing to melt.  When everything looks creamy pour into your serving dish and top with the remaining 1/4 cup cheese.  Serve.  YUM!

Re-Do the Fridge

It's hard to eat healthy.  This is what we hear, what we tell ourselves and each other.  When we were kids, we didn't have a choice.  If we wanted dessert, we ate our veggies.  Dessert wasn't more than once a week and likely not even that frequent.  Snacks were carrots, oranges, apples and graham crackers.  Because that is what was available to us, that is what we ate.  We had to ask for a cookie, and mom said "no" more than yes.  Why is it that when we grow up we toss these lessons out the window?  Why are we so much more permissive with ourselves?  Is it because we are adults and should be able to do what we want?  Of course it is. But just because we can, doesn't mean we should!

I thought about this for a while, and after talking to a friend, decided that food should not be a power play.  Not for kids and not for adults.  With that in mind, I redid my fridge.  I went to the store, and I bought what I know I should be eating.  I came home and cleaned out the fridge.  I loaded the good food in the fridge in such a way that I see it first.  I also promised myself that I would have 3 healthy snacks before a sugary snack.  The first day was an apple, a carrot, and some grapes.  By the time I got to the brownie, I took one bite and I was done.  Success!!!!!

So here is the challenge:  Clean out your fridge.  Repack it with healthy food.  Allow yourself a treat, but only after 3 healthy snacks.  Follow the rules you followed as a child.  I'm hoping to find my childhood metabolism. lol.  :)  Then send me a photo of your newly re-done fridge! 

On a side note- my grocery bill was actually smaller and I didn't use coupons!

How to get all that Protein on a Budget

 Dieters and diabetics alike eat protein!  It keeps us full, it keeps us happy and it doesn't cause sugar spikes.  For most people protein means meat.  Meat is expensive!  One of the biggest reasons that people think they can't stick to a healthy living plan, is how expensive healthy food is.  Mac-n-cheese is cheap.  Steak is not.  Even Chicken is so expensive, unless you are willing to buy the whole bird, and a dieter usually only wants the white meat. And then there is the "the-hormones-in-the-meat-are-making-us-fat" argument.  I don't know if that is true or not.  This is what I know:

1) I want to eat.
2) I want it to taste good.
3) I want it to be healthy to fuel my body.
4) I want to cook one meal for the whole family (see number 2).
5) I want to be able to afford to eat this way.

I don't consider any of these wants unreasonable.  But to accomplish them all, I buy in bulk.  I buy from a place called Zaycon foods.  I buy the beef which is 97/3 and tasty.  I buy the chicken, which is boneless, skinless, hormone free and not previously frozen- so fresh.  I do buy it in 40 lb increments. It is worth it to me.  I get it home and repackage the meat into quart sized freezer bags and I add marinades to about 1/2 of what I get.  That way, I take a package out of the freezer in the morning and by dinner time, I have a nice marinated chicken breast to cook up.  Easy!  I pay $1.00-$2.00 less per pound by doing this.  When you buy 80 lbs of meat that adds up!  I think it takes my family of 6 3-5 months to go through this much chicken.  Although, some days we are having beef, but we mostly eat chicken.

For me the quality is better that my local grocery store and the price is lower, so it is worth the extra work of rebagging. I know for others this is not the case, but for me it works.

What do you do to keep the cost of eating correctly down?

By the way, I am including a link to Zaycon Foods here for you.  Go ahead and take a look.  See if they deliver in your area of the country. If so, give it a try and let me know what you think.  They have a lot of great products.  And before anyone asks, NO! +Zaycon Foods  did not pay me to write this. Yes! I like the service that much! And the only sort of compensation I might get is that if you buy something, and go through my link, I get $1.00 off on my next order.  It is not enough for me to write a blog post.  I have to actually like them.  :)

https://www.zayconfoods.com/refer/zf1982