What I ate Wednesday #3

I forgot to do a WIAW last week so I was determined to make sure I did it today.

Breakfast was the usual oatmeal with bananas and peanut butter on top.

My Dad had to have a heart procedure done this afternoon so lunch was a 

Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut Bar

  Since he didn't have anything to eat all day, when we got done at the hospital Dad wanted to go to Longhorn Steakhouse. I was starving too and it took every bit of self control not to order the rib eye with french fries like Dad did. I was a good girl and order steak, mushrooms and sauteed winter veggies. (pic below)

 Flat iron steak w/portabello mushrooms and steamed veggies

I didn't eat all of the steak, so I got a to-go box. I plan to make the leftovers into a breakfast wrap with the steak, eggs and some sauteed peppers in the morning. It will be great to eat on the way home after Zumba.  

Well, that was my WIAW post for today. Tomorrow's mission in life is to sit down and actually do a menu for all meals for the next week, along with a shopping list. This weekend is the beginning of Nascar season. The Craftsman Truck race on Friday and the Nationwide cars on Saturday and the Daytona 500 is on Sunday...so I need to plan for the eats for this weekend ahead of time so I don't have a meltdown and use all of my points in one day. Plan..Plan..Track..Track. It's a good thing. 

What did you eat for WIAW? I'd love to hear about it. Let me know.

Chobani Giveaway!

This is "Nothing But Good"!

So I guess you are wondering what I'm talking about...It's a Chobani Giveaway. A couple of weeks ago I received a case of Chobani yogurt to try. Of course, anyone who knows me or reads this blog knows that I think Chobani is awesome. Well, not only is the product awesome but so are the good folks at Chobani. They are offering a Giveaway of 4 containers of 32oz of Chobani for my readers. The rules are simple.

1. The contest will run from Tuesday, February 21, 2012 and end at midnight Tuesday, February 28, 2012

2. Post a favorite recipe using Chobani in the comment section of this blog post. Use it in a simple or complicated recipe or use it in cooking or just whipped up in a favorite concoction, it doesn't matter. Just post it here.

3. The prize is a total of 4-32oz containers of Chobani yogurt. One (1) of each of the following flavors: 0% Vanilla, 0% Plain, 2% Plain and 0% Strawberry.

The legal stuff....

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY. The winner will be selected by a random drawing of all comment entries that offer a recipe or a link to a recipe that uses Chobani.  The participant must be 18 years of age and live within the continental United States. To be considered for the prize, you must provide a valid email address. Once a winner is notified, Chobani will be provided with the contact information of the winner and they will be responsible for shipping the prize.  The odds of winning is determined by the number of entries received. The winner will be contacted by email on or before February 30, 2012. If the winner does not claim the prize within seven days, the original winner forfeits the prize and a second random entry will be chosen from the remaining entries. Sponsored by Chobani, http://www.chobani.com/

Good luck everyone!

Monday, Monday....

"Monday Monday, so good to me, Monday Monday, it was all I hoped it would be" The song from the Momas & the Papas was stuck in my head this morning. Funny how songs become soundtracks to our life. On the other hand, I guess it is better than the Bangle's "Manic Monday"


This past weekend was cold. I mean freeze your toes, hate it for you... cold. Cold temps and blustery winds make Mary a sad girl....because I wanted to do is eat comfort food. Spaghetti and pumpkin pie. Well, I only had one very small slice of pumpkin pie.  Can you say "Carb Overload"?  I knew that you could!  Ha! And just when I thought I was being good at only having one piece of pumpkin pie...my dear sweet dearly departed (not really dearly departed yet, but he will if he keeps this up) brings me home a package of Hostess chocolate cupcakes. Yup...he brought that "crack" right into my house. I can not say no to those things. They sit on the counter calling my name with a bullhorn. *Mary....Mary....we're over here....Mary...ooohhh Maaarryyyy!* But not to worry...they are gone now. Yes, I ate them. But I'm not gonna make myself feel bad about it.  It is what it is....and they are gone. So, today is a new day. Monday....Monday...so good to me. 


For breakfast I made myself some rolled oats made with cinnamon, 2 packets of Splenda and a tablespoon of peanut butter. I am addicted to PB in oatmeal these days. Love...love....love it!  For lunch it was a piece of the veggie quiche I made yesterday morning for breakfast with a side salad. Sorry guys...I forgot to take pics again. I took chicken breast and a piece of steak out of the freezer to make stir fry tonight. I'll take pics and post the recipe later. 


The big news of the weekend was we got another puppy yesterday. Well, he's not really a puppy he is about 6 years old and he is the cutest little beagle you ever saw. From what I was told by the girl who found him was that he was dumped at the local park a couple of days ago. No chip...he's a little on the skinny side, but I'll fix that.  Charlie...(that's his name for now anyway) has TBA (Total Beagle Attidude) Haha!  I brought him home and made sure that my other hoodlums (3 boxers and 1 beagle/basset mix) met him properly and so far so good. I may end up changing my blog from my weight loss journey to "Adventures in living in a house full of dogs" Ha ha!  Not really...but maybe. 

"Downtown Charlie Brown"

I snapped this pic of him while giving him a treat. He sat right up in the "sit pretty" pose without even being told. I just told him to sit....and he did ...and then up went his little body and front legs. I'm surprised I got this pic because I was shocked. The most my other dogs do is sit...and maybe "shake" on a good day. He is so well behaved. He's housebroken and to this typing...has not barked even once. I have been calling him "Downtown Charlie Brown" ...because he is such a smooth character. That and all of my other dogs have cartoon character names...except Holly. We have Boo-Boo, Rocky and Pixie (aka Baby Puppy). Precious and Dixie have been gone for a couple of years now, so in keeping with the cartoon theme...he is Charlie Brown. He looks like a "Charlie", doesn't he? Well, I think so. 


Well...I'm off to try to figure out whether to make chicken or beef stir fry. I'm leaning towards the beef because I think I want to make skinny chicken parmesan tomorrow for our Valentines dinner. I don't like to go out on Valentines because of the crowd...so staying home and making something 'fancy' is a cool way to spend the evening with the hubs.  I'll definitely have to remember to take pics while I'm making that for posting purposes. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentines Eve. 


What are you doing tomorrow for Valentines? Are you making anything special? I'd love to hear about it...let me know!

What I ate Wednesday

This is my second Wednesday of the "What I Ate Wednesday" challenge. I was a little afraid that I might forget to take pictures so I made sure I put my cell phone in my pocket this morning so it would be handy.  Good thing I did.

The theme of this month's WIAW is Veggies!

Breakfast was just a little boring....Cheerios, but not the regular Cheerios....it was the peanut butter ones. I also used Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Milk on them so I could save a WW point instead of using non-fat milk. Besides, I like Almond Breeze better than regular 'ole milk. Maybe it's the sweetness, I don't know...but I do. Anyway, here the pic....

Lunch was a little better. Well, actually it was a lot better. I took the few left over peppers from the fajitas that I made the other night and added them to some sauteed zucchini, roma tomato and a portabello mushroom. It was pretty awesome...even if I do say so myself.  Once the veggies were sauteed, I just dumped the peppers in and let it heat through. There was enough of the fajita flavoring in them to go thru the rest of the veggies. I thought about eating it on tortillas...but I didn't want to use the points. So it was fajita flavored veggies sans tortilla and some Greek couscous I made the other day. I topped the veggies with a couple tablespoons of plain Chobani and a few shreds of 2% cheddar cheese.

The next time I make the Greek Couscous I'll post the recipe with pics. It's really very good. 

When I made the veggies for lunch I made so much I had plenty left over for dinner. So dinner was a repeat of lunch. Usually I don't do that, but it was so good...and Jim wasn't going to be home for dinner tonight, so why not?

For dessert I couldn't resist the Chobani calling my name....especially since there were so many in the fridge shouting I had to cave in. So my dessert was the Strawberry-Banana Chobani with some Bear Naked Vanilla Almond Granola sprinkled on top.

Any flavor of Chobani with the stuff on it has become my latest obsession. It's better than the milk and cookies that have been tempting me since Christmas....much better.

Well, that's it for the day. What did you eat today?  Write me and let me know. Maybe you can give me some good ideas, I get tired of eating the same thing all of the time. I love to mix it up...so let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

CHO-pel Of Love....

I had to hang around the house today for a couple of reasons. One, to wait on the insurance estimator to come and tell me how much they are gonna pay for the repairs on my roof. (sad.sad .face) And the other was to wait for UPS to bring me my complementary shipment from Chobani. Yes, yes...they sent me a case of free yogurt. Did I mention I love free stuff? And if the free stuff is Chobani....well, whatever damage the insurance guy did to my day, the UPS guys with my case of Chobani more than made up for it. Did I mention that I love Chobani? ...I'm sure I did at some point. Any who....

I walked around the property surveying some of the winter damage and came around to the front of the house to find the UPS guy leaving my package by the door. 

You talk about putting a smile on someone's face...I guess I should've taken a pic of me grinning like a Cheshire cat, but I was so excited to get in and open it...I forgot.

I opened up the box and after taking a pic, decided to take them out for a better pic...

Aren't they pretty?

I have to admit that this is the first time I have received free stuff from a company that wasn't one of those 'tiny weenie' little samples. This was a full onslaught of Chobani. Regular sizes (6oz) and flavors galore.  There were none of the new flavors included which did make me a little sad, but I have found a place here in my dinky little town that has all three. So, I'm cool.

So, what to do with all of these yogurts, you may ask? Muahahaha! I am looking forward to Overnight Oats in the morning, along with smoothies and other stuff that I will make sure I post on here when I use them. Chobani is the best Greek yogurt that I have tried. (And I have tried a few) The flavors are awesome, but even the plain is pretty darn good to use instead of sour cream. Fewer calories...more protein....it's a win-win as far as I can tell.

So, is there a particular recipe that you would like to share...I'd love to see it and give it a try.

Time to buckle down

I will have to admit that I have not been putting my whole heart into the Weight Watcher thing the last couple of months. I'm not sure if it was because of my fear of failure during the holidays...or just me. But I have to do something and soon if I'm ever going to turn this ship around and start heading into the right direction. So this is what I have decided:

1. Track...track...track...it makes a difference and I know that. I just have been doing it sort of half way for a bit.         Time to buckle down.

2. I've joined the "What I Ate Wednesday" club to put out in the blog world what I'm eating. It's one thing to log it into the WW tracker, it's quite another to admit that you've been cramming gummy bears or chips into your mouth all day. (which by the way...I haven't) But I need to be held more accountable about what I am eating. Hopefully this will help too.

3. Join the "Junk Food Free February" campagin whole heartedly. I look at it as being another challenge to myself to keep on track.

4. I have also decided to switch back to my Laurens Weight Watcher meetings. My leader (and friend) Eunice says I have a connection with them and they have helped me get to where I am. So, I'm going back. If I can drive home from Zumba 30 miles away in the dark, then I can drive home from WW in Laurens 7 miles at dusk. So, starting tonight...I'm going back to Laurens. Besides, I miss them. :)

Well, that's about it for now. I'm sure after the meeting tonight the girls will give me more ideas to help me and I'll incorporate them into the plan. By the way...I found something that is kinda awesome.  Well, maybe more than just kinda...

It's a recipe that I tweeked from Janetha @ Meals and Moves blog. Here is the link to her recipe called Apple Pie A La Mode:  http://mealsandmovesblog.com/2012/01/28/apple-pie-a-la-mode/

But here is my recipe:

1 6oz container of Chobani Apple Cinnamon
6 oz Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Milk
1 packet of Weight Watchers Vanilla Smoothie Mix
Dash of cinnamon
4 or 5 ice cubes
(Fat Free Reddi Whip, optional)

I ran it through the recipe builder (w/o the whip cream) and it came up to 7 points plus. It's pretty filling and an awesome lunch after Zumba. Combine it with a sliced apple or pear or even a small mixed green salad and you have a bang up meal.

Ok, I'm off to enjoy my version of my Apple Pie A La Mode Smoothie. Do you have a recipe for a smoothie you'd like to share? I'd love to hear from you. I am always looking for new and delicious ways to make smoothies, especially in the summer. Thanks!

What I ate Wednesday

I have seen several (well, maybe more than just several) blogs that do the "What I ate Wednesday"  (WIAW) thing and I have been tempted to chime in. The only problem with that thinking is that if I'm gonna do it, I want to be honest...completely honest about what I eat on those days. The thought has occurred to me that maybe I should start next week as my Weight Watcher leader Eunice reads these posts. I don't wanna give her a heart attack...or get the "what are you doing" lecture. But still, it is what it is and maybe this will make me be more accountable to what I'm shoving in my mouth on that particular day.  So here goes....(sorry about the lack of pics for each meal...I didn't decide to do this until now.)

Breakfast:

1 cup of old fashioned rolled oats topped with 1 tbsp. peanut butter and a banana.

2 cups (small) coffee with FF half & half and splenda

Lunch:

Chobani yogurt...Mango flavor with 2 tbsp. of Bear Naked Vanilla Almond granola

16 oz of lemon water (Sams choice)

Dinner:

2 home made beef fajitas made with mushrooms, onions and peppers....lots of onions and peppers. Topped with 1 tbsp. sour cream and 2% cheddar cheese. 

It was a terrible day as I look at what I ate. My veggies came from the fajitas and there was by no stretch of the imagination the right amount of servings for the day. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. (I'm channeling my inner Scarlett O'Hara)