Fastest EVER Pasta Salad

Hi guys!  Happy Thursday!!  I made pasta salad last night for today's lunch- SO YUMMY, so easy.  AND so quick.

Oh the Burger...

Hi everybody!  I'm sooooo happy to share that the weight is STILL going down!  151 on the nose yesterday!  4 lbs to go!!  ALLLLLMOST THERE!!

I started the day with a LOVELY Breakfast Cookie

Lunchie was an Apple with Almond Butter and Chili, with a loverly Larabar for a mid-afternoon snack.

Dinner took a little while to make (BUT IT WAS SOOOOO WORTH IT!), so I snacked on a little bit of Barbara's Shredded Oats.  LOVE this.

So I have to share my dinner recipe. THANK YOU GENA AT CHOOSING RAW!!!!  I gotta tell ya, these are the best veggie burgers that I have EVER made.  Ever.

As you can see, I was copying the recipe LIVE from Gena's site hehehehe.

Here is her recipe, from choosingraw.com :

Gena’s Homemade Sunshine Burgers

1 cup sunflower seeds, ground in a food processor or coffee/spice mill

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 tbsp ground flax seed

2/3 cup chopped carrot

2/3 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped onion (optional) (**I did put this in**)

2 tbsp water

1 tsp Herbamare seasoning (or to taste) (**I used whatever herbs I had in the spice cabinet**)

--------------------------------------------

Here's what I did:

Preheat the oven to 375

In a food processor, process the sunflower seeds, then process everything else.

Mold into patties and place on an oiled baking sheet.

Bake 15 min, then turn over and bake 15 more.

DEVOUR.

 

I put mine on toasted TJ's Sprouted Bread with Tomatoes, Lettuce, and Brown Mustard.  O.M.G people, this is the best veggie burger ever.  Thanks for sharing, Gena!!!

Dessert was a date, that I got on SALE at Kroger!  Can't beat $2.99 for a big old box of dates!!!

Have a lovely evening, all! 

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Good Tuesday morning to you all!  Hope you had a nice weekend and didn't have a case of the Mondays! 

I don't have a whole lot of time, so here are the highlights.  More pictures, less chitter chatter, right?!

Breakfast Sunday-

Barbara's Cereal with Pineapple and Almond Milk.  I don't know why I hadn't been putting this yummy fruit on my cereal earlier!!!!  YUM.

I then went to Trader Joe's,

And picked up some B vitamins since we're getting away from most all animal products now.

They were kind of big, so I took it with a piece of Sprouted Bread and Peanut Butter.

I exercised on our bike with hand weights and burned 200 calories in 30 min!  NOT TOO SHABBY!!

Once lunch time rolled around, I ate a leftover Veggie Burger with Avo, Tomatoes, and Salsa on top...mmmm...  and some Cherries. 

I cleaned the house a bit, did some laundry, and a little bit of work, and snacked on a TJ's Whole Wheat Tortilla with PB and J.

I was really hungry that day- not sure why.  Oh yeah... maybe it's because I'm on a diet....


For dinner, I made Brenton's FAVORITE.  Tempeh Chili.

Oh yes yes- that's yummy stuff right there.  And what better dessert than a big old date?!?!?

Tasted like honey-  the best!!  Weigh in of the day-  151.6  (woot woot!)


Monday rolled around, and I made another Breakfast Cookie Beast!

And of course, my cocktail of pills-

People often ask me what I take everyday, so there it is!  Vitamin D, Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, and B Complex.  They're all about actual size...  pretty big.  Good thing I'm a pill champ!!

I packed up lunch, ready to go to work-  An Orange, Tomatoes and Celery, Hummus, TJ's Tortilla with Peanut Butter, and an Oatie.

I decided to take some time and go eat my lunch at the Airport and watch planes land.
















Too much fun.  I'm obviously ready for vacation LOL.


For dinner, I made Spinach and Pea Pasta.  Yeah, it's pretty fabulous. 

And finished the day off with Pineapple and a Date.

Dates are my new favorite dessert.  SOOO NUMMY!!!


Morning weigh in:  151.4! 

I wasn't going to tell you until tomorrow what today's (Tuesday) weigh in was, but heck- why not?!  151 on the button!  Sloooooowly but suuuuurely, creeping down!  Thank you for all of your kind words and support.  You ROCK!!!  Thanks for keeping me motivated!!!

Holding Steady

First of all, I am happy to say that I am holding steady at 152.8!  That's a good sign, right?


I started the day off on Saturday with a yummy bowl of Oatmeal, topped with Pineapple and Cherries.  If you haven't tried this oatmeal combo yet, you are missing out.  YUM YUM YUM YUM.

I worked out about an hour afterward (burned 200 calories in 28 min!  NICE!), and made myself a MASSIVE salad.

Topped with black beans and avo-  oh sooooo good.  Paired with pineapple and one of Averie's Peanut Butter Protein babies, it was the lunch-o-champions!

After lunch, I ran out and did some errands all over town.  So much for a relaxing Saturday!!  Once returning home, I decided to get a little creative with dinner.  Still having a fridge full of lettuce, and being semi-tired of salads, I created a Quinoa Salad that rocked my face off!!

I cooked the Quinoa according to the package directions, then drained it and tossed in Broccoli, Lettuce, Garlic, and some Brown Mustard.  Stirred it all together and that's what it looked like!  SOOOOO yummy, if you like Mustard.  Brenton wasn't a fan-  he doesn't like Mustard, so the next time I make it, I'll leave the sauce off.

I also had an Orange and an Oatie....





























mmmmmmm Oatie...

By about 8pm, I was hungry again.  This is what working out does to you, I swear!!  So, I had a piece of Sprouted Whole Grain toast with Peanut Butter and an Apple topped with Cinnamon.

I feel like I'm eating a TON!  But, the combo of low calorie foods and exercise will do that to you I guess.  I am happy to say, though, that today (Sunday), I weighed in at.... are you ready for it???....


151.6!  (whoooo hoooooo dance dance dance spinnnnnnn jump jump)

On the up and up!

Hi everybody!  Sorry I have been MIA for the last day or so-  summer has hit me with a BANG!  Running here, running there, doing this, doing that.  PHEW!

So here's an update!  Friday, I weighed in at 152.8!!  (dances)

For breakfast, I had the breakfast cookie-o-champions:

Massive.  I used Gina's recipe, and then added a little more oats and replaced the nut butter with a little bit of chia seeds.  OH and topped it with a ton of cinnamon.  Yum to the max.


Lunch was about the same as the day before, a TJ's Tortilla (whole wheat, of course) topped with Avocado, Lettuce, Salsa, and my dad added a Tomato.


















And a nice juicy Apple with Almond Butter (oops, forgot to take a picture of the AB.... oh well, you know what it looks like HAHA)

All day I was GIDDY because our CSA was going to start!  I went to my sister's house and picked up this week's shipment-  Organic Greens and Organic
Cherries.  FAB!!!

And some of HEAB's Oaties hiding underneath.  My sister won her Oaties from Angela's Shop 4 A Cause a few weeks ago, and she was kind enough to share with her oat-loving sister.  How nice!


I had to try one!















Pure....heaven.....

So, since we had massive amounts of Lettuce and Cherries, I decided to make a Stuffed Potato and have a CUP of Cherries on the side.  MMMMMmmmmm....

For my Stuffed Potato, I baked a Potato and cut it in half, then topped it with a HUGE handful of Lettuce, a chopped Celery stalk, steamed Broccoli, and a dab of Salsa.  This is one of my favorites.  FILLING!!

Are you participating in a CSA this year?  How about going to Farmers Markets?  I'm excited to see what we get next week!!

Have a LOVELY rest of your Sunday!

So Far So Good

Happy Friday to you all!  What a short week it has been (which is fine with me)!!  Any big plans this weekend?  We don't have too much going on-  couple of grad parties, laundry, cleaning...the norm.  OH!!!  My CSA is supposed to start today or tomorrow.  I'm SO excited!  If you don't know what a CSA is, it's "Community Supported Agriculture", where you pay a certain amount and get veggies delivered to your house by a local farmer.  Ours is organic (YAY) and local Ohio produce (also YAY).  The hard part is that you don't really get to pick what you get-  you're delivered whatever is in season and ready each week, so our menus will be getting interesting!  I'm up for the challenge!!  If you're interested, you can check out Local Harvest for information.

So on to yesterday!  I weighed in at 153 and felt pretty good!!  I started the day off with some chocolate oatmeal topped with blueberries.




















MMMMMmmm...

Chocolate Oatmeal

1/2 c Oats, cooked in 1 c of Water
1 Scoop Chocolate Amazing Grass Powder
1 T Chia Seeds
Dash of Vanilla and Cinnamon
1/2 c Frozen Blueberries

Mix it all together!  YUM.


Lunch was a good variety, and completely (unplanned) made with what we happened to have in the house.

Apple with a small handful of Almonds (snack)
Whole Wheat TJ's Tortilla with 1/2 an Avocado, handful of Arugula, and a drizzle of Salsa (YUM)
Celery with Almond Butter (snack)

This kept me going until about 3pm, where I needed to pull out my trusty Larabar

This kept me content until dinner.  God Bless Larabars.

Dinner was another HUGE salad like the night before, REQUESTED BY BRENTON.  What?!?!!  He wants to eat salad?!??!?!  I was just as surprised as anyone!!

Yum.  This salad was loaded with Arugula, Spinach, Avocado, Celery, and Tomatoes, topped with my home-made Mustard Dressing.  I did a little bit of work and then made my own version of Averie's No Bake Peanut Butter (High Protein) Cookies.

In a bowl I mixed together:

1/2 c Peanut Butter
1/2 scoop of Protein Powder
1 T Cocoa Powder
1 t Vanilla Extract

Once mixed, I plopped little dollops onto a plate, and put them in the freezer to harden.

I could have rolled them, but you know, you do what you gotta do.  Once hard, I ate one with an orange.

(YUMYUMYUMYUMYUM!!!)  I can't believe how GOOD these little beauties are!!!

So I did a little more work and then did 20 min on the bike, complete with hills and all.  I was totally huffing and puffing.


I finished the day with another protein ball (YUM) and an apple topped with Apple Pie Spice.

I feel like I ate a LOT, but I hit right at my BMR of 1520.  Exercise burned 170 calories, leaving me at a deficit of 322 for the day.  Not too bad!


Have a lovely day everybody!  (oh... I weighed in at 152.8 this morning (dance dance dance dance))