Ummmh, cake

Tonight I needed to find something to fix to celebrate my sunday school helper's birthday. I will confess that her birthday was last Sunday but it completely slipped my mind being that it was Easter. I am playing it off like I did on purpose since Easter was so busy with the kids giving a presentation upstairs. Shhhh! She will fall for it. 

 One problem though, she is a diabetic. I had a sugar free muffin in my hand but was not satisfied. I walked over to the cake mixes and ran across the new Pillsbury Moist Supreme Reduced Sugar cake mixes and icing. I thought, "why not." If I make cupcakes it will make the serving size even smaller for her which in turn is even less sugar. I made 24 cupcakes and only used half the container of icing. The cupcakes are delicious and have just enough icing on them to not be overpowering.  Though personally I prefer overpowering it with the icing. I am an icing girl. Oh no, now I have confessed that I stole a cupcake and now there are only 23 but the baker must do taste tests, true.

I went and calculated the points and one cupcake only has 3.5 points. To some that may sound like a lot but if you are really wanting something, 3.5 is nothing compared to the commercially bought cake you may buy. I know that the average birthday cake slice is 12 points. So 3.5 to 12, I will take the 3.5.

Here is the link if you want to see the product. http://www.pillsburybaking.com/products/product_detail2.aspx

On another note, last post I was bragging about how great I felt working out so much. Tonight I decided to do my Leslie Sansone video, which I have not done in a week or so. Oh my , she hurt me. I am feeling the different muscles that I do not use at the Y on the elliptical or waterwalking. Wow, my muscles are ready for bed but unfortunately it is 11 PM and I have not prepared a sunday school lesson yet. Oh am I a procrastinator. Off I go to get that done.

Tags: life, cake, workouts, hints

Getting closer

I am getting closer. I have not set a goal weight but for my official three month mark on April 17, my goal is 35 pounds at least. As of today , I am at 28, yayyy! I lost three pounds last week. Believe me , I worked for it too. My activity points were close to 30 last week. Surprisingly enough though ,the workouts are great and I am not tired or worn-out. I feel good. I vary them from elliptical two-three times a week. Waterwalking one night a week. Then I try to walk the neighborhood or do my DVD's on other days. I am on a natural high right now.

Update on my prayer request: My friend came through surgery wonderfully. She does not know the outcome yet of the lump but the doctor said it looked ok but will not be sure until it is sent off for tests. Please continue to pray for her.

New prayer request: My grandmother has had a terrible leg infection. They took a culture today and it has come back that she has the Mercer(?(sp?) infection. She turned 90 yesterday and is really upset now after hearing about this. Please pray for her healing and her encouragement.

Tags: life, weight loss, prayer requests/

No weigh in today

Nothing to report today because I missed my meeting because I was at Busch Gardens with my nephew. Therefor I will have to go tomorrow or get up early on Saturday, hmmh, I don't see me getting up early. I am not a morning person.

I missed going to my waterwalking class mainly because we didn't get home until 10 minutes before it started. Secondly because I felt my workout of pushing my dad around the hills and downhills of Busch Gardens in a wheelchair was a workout and a half. The hills were great for my heart and legs but the downhills, oh my. I had to hold him back so he would not go flying down the hill. Now that would be a sight. A 69 year old man scared half to death flying downhill in his wheelchair. We could have rented the electric wheelchair for $35 for the day but I rather enjoyed my workout. I can't say he preferred my workout though. I think he was scared his pacemaker/defibrillator may go off with me in control of the chair. He has already mentioned to my mom that I am like a race car driver. Oh well, if I push him enough , he might get up and walk a little which would be good for him. I have to give him praise though, He is doing great. This is the first time since I was a teenager ( ummmh we won't say how many years) that he has been to Busch Gardens. He said he will go for a few hours sometimes but not when it gets hot.

I do have one prayer request. A good childhood friend of mine is having a lumpectomy tomorrow. She is 35. Her aunts on both sides of her family died from breast cancer and her mom is currently battling it. This is a precautionary to get rid of something that has the potential to be cancer. She told me tonight the procedure does not scare her but going under does. Please pray for her to have peace and calmness surround her during this time.

Tags: life, dad, Busch Gardens, prayer

Broccoli Casserole

Broccoli Rice Casserole  

Prep Time:
20 min

Total Time:
55 min

Makes:
10 servings, 1/2 cup each

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 Tbsp.  butter or margarine, divided

2 cups cooked rice

1 can  (10-3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped broccoli, cooked, well drained

1 cup  CHEEZ WHIZ Cheese Dip

1/2 cup fresh bread cubes

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Cook and stir onion in 1 Tbsp. of the butter in large skillet on medium heat until tender.

ADD rice, soup, broccoli and CHEEZ WHIZ; mix lightly. Spoon into 1-1/2-qt. casserole. Toss together remaining 1 Tbsp. butter, melted, and bread cubes; sprinkle over casserole.

BAKE 30 to 35 min. or until heated through.

Try sometime with okra, hahahaha!

By the way, this is not Weight Watchers. I have not even keyed in the ingredients to even know the points because it is scary.

Tags: broccoli casserole

Okra casserole, now that is a new one

In one of my previous posts I was talking about how hard Easter dinner would be because of all the delectables. One of my favorite things is broccoli casserole. My grandmother who turns 90 Thursday called my mom and said something isn't right about her casserole. She either overcooked it or did not add enough broccoli. They had me look at it when I got there and I  noticed that it just did not look like the usual broccoli casserole but thought she maybe just overcooked it a little. Well, when I went to spoon it, I looked down and thought that looks a lot like okra. Indeed I was right. My grandmother can not see that well anymore and pulled the okra out of the freezer and not the broccoli. We all had a good laugh and surprisingly enough it did not taste bad for those of us that like okra but it was not a temptation for me to eat double portions. I do like okra but much prefer it fried than in a casserole. Oh well there is a first time for everything.

My question now, how many of you want the broccoli recipe or the okra recipe?

Tags: life, recipes

Call me Popeye!

I have a new addiction .... steamed and sauteed fresh spinach. I add Mrs. Dash and Molly Mcbutter when steaming it and it is so delicious. When I sautee I use a tablespoon of olive oil, garlic, mrs. dash and it is even better. Tonight I sauteed some portabello mushrooms with garlic and herb mrs dash and molly mcbutter then threw in some spinach with it . Oh my , I can not even explain how delicious it was. You might want to try it.

Ohhh one more thing, last night I wanted a ham sandwich. I bought that Oscar Mayer thin sliced smoke ham ( 45 calories a serving). I used two servings on my high fiber bread , then used fresh spinach instead of lettuce then added tomato with a little light mayo and mustard. It was soooo good. I even made it for breakfast this morning it was so good. Total points was about 5 and it was so filling.

Call me Miss Popeye but my spinach does not come from a can, blahhh!

Tags: life, spinach, recipes

Just as I thought

Just as I thought and you should already know because the font is black. Oh well, I gained a pound but I did not go under my 25 pound mark. I stayed right at it. Yayy!

 I am back on track and watching my points until Sunday. I know Sunday will be hard because I get up and go to Sunrise Service and our church has a big breakfast before Sunday school. I am mentally preparing myself now to not blow it so early in the morning. One good thing is that I am not a big breakfast food eater but the foods I do like are very high in points.

We also have a family dinner at 2 in which I know my mom's fabulous macaroni salad and potato salad will make an appearance. I am trying to convince her to use light mayo but she wont listen. She thinks others will notice. Did I mention that there will also be broccoli casserole?  That is another weakness at family gatherings. I think I will eat one plate full ( of all the food not just broccoli casserole, lol) and then take off across the street for the park therefore removing myself from temptation. Let's pray for nice weather.

Happy Early Easter! Don't forget Easter is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World.
Tags: life, weigh-in, food hints

Skip Week

I think this may be a skip week for weighing in this week. I have not been as horrible as I could have been and have been in the past. Today was my brother's birthday and I cooked a good dinner for 14. I made my chicken curry, meatballs with gravy, macaroni salad ( his favorite and I confess my mom made that) , rice, green beans, corn and rolls. None of the food was terrible health wise but a combination of everything threw me way over points. I confess I did go in for seconds of the chicken curry and had my share of a meatball or two or four or six, ummmh I will stop there, I can not tell all my secrets. I topped all that off with a slice of Carvel ice cream cake too.

Do I feel bad? No, it was a rare and special day. Unfortunately almost all the members in my family have birthdays the next three months and spread out so we celebrate them all separately, including my own. So I will be diligent between those special days and be lenient on the celebration day. Did I also mention Easter and my brother's wedding all come in this time too? Oh my, oh my. Maybe I will skip weighing in until June. Oh no I have come too far for that.

Another reason I am dreading weigh-in this week is I have not worked out diligently this week. I usually have 18-23 activity points going into Wednesday and I only have 11 and only one day left. I pulled my shoulder Thursday and it has slowed my down. I have tried to work-out without using my arms but unfortunately I irritated my right arch and it hurts to walk too. Oh I am falling apart. Tomorrow it is my mission to hit the Y and hit the elliptical one handed. I must not let these setbacks mess me up and I hope I do not go back behind my 25 pound mark from last week.

Oh well, will let you know good or bad on Thursday. Toodles.

Tags: life, setbacks, celebrations

Anticipation......

Anticipation, Anticipation ( sorry I don't know the rest of the song)

My weigh in date was off a day because I had to take a sleep test Thursday night and missed my meeting. When they weighed me at the sleep test I was so excited but kept telling myself that their scales could be off. So I went to Friday's meeting , well I have already given it away with the red font so I guess I should just spill it huh. I lost another 2.6 pounds. YAYYYY! That is a total of 26.6 , so I broke my 25 pound mark this week.

I am trying to prepare myself for next week because I was weighing in 7 hours earlier in the day but my weight was only off by .4 compared to the sleep clinic and that was a few hours later than my usual weigh- in time. So another words I had eaten dinner for that weigh-in and normally I haven't.

On to my next subject. Tonight when I stopped by the grocery store I was met by a big display of cake mix and icing. I gave in. I came straight home and cooked the vanilla cake with chocolate icing but I did not bake one big cake. I made three small ramekins and one loaf pan. I then icinged all the cakes and have packed up all the small ones and will give them to family members at church tomorrow. I kept the loaf pan and between the various in-house family members and my sister stopping by that cake is almost gone. I had three bites of a piece and a few licks of icing and my taste for it is gone. It was delicious but I am satisfied. The best thing is my temptation is gone too now and I get to bless some people. What an idea!

NOTE: My dad is perking up a little. He has not had many sweets since January. In the last four days he has asked for rice pudding twice, tapioca pudding twice , large Frosty and some of my cake. This man before his heart and lung problems and his recent fall has had no desire for sweets and has lost 30 pounds since January without trying. I on the other hand, eat very little sweets ever and have worked my butt off since January to lose 26.6 pounds.

 

Tags: life, weigh-in, temptation

TAG

I was tagged!

Jen over at Noodlesnest tagged me.

7 random things about me

1- I had half of Krispy Kreme doughnut yesterday. SHHH don't tell Jen, she will pull out the blow horn. It was not fresh off the press so I only allowed myself half since it was not worth the points.

2- I was very distracted during water pilates by a nice male chest that was swimming laps near me tonight. My pastor says it is lust to look twice. I only looked once for a very, very long time.

3- My nephew is my best buddy. He has been sick and I have not seen him in three whole days.

4- I love to cook but hate to clean. I believe there should be a cleaning fairy to come along at night and make everything perfect again.

5- I hate to pump gas. As broke as I always am I would pay more for full service.

6- I used to color my hair because I liked it a few shades lighter. I color my hair now to cover the grey.

7- I hate mornings. I would make a great graveyard shift worker.

Here are the rules -1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I am cheating and tagging anyone that reads my blog. All three of you, lol.

Tags: life, tag

Healthier Decision

The last few days I have been really wanting some Golden Corral. I knew that was not an option because I will overeat and mean way overeat. So I thought about what I was really wanting from that buffet. Surprisingly enough it was mostly vegetables. But if I went there I would be tempted by all the other great foods when I saw them. Steak, meatloaf, chicken, I could keep going.

Problem solved. I came home tonight armed from the grocery store. I made me some country green beans with a little seasoning, boiled cabbage with a little seasoning and mashed potatoes. I accompanied this with some sliced ham that I found to be way too salty but enjoyed anyhow. All in all the only thing I was missing was a yeast roll and I have to admit that I did not miss it after all.

Outcome: I only went over my daily points by 2.5. One of those because I had more mashed taters and the other 1.5 was a peppermint patty. Overall, much better than going to the buffet and being out of my daily and weekly points too and I am satisfied.

Tags: life, cravings

Doom Day

Unfortunately, I had a weight gain this week of .6 pounds putting me back at 24 pounds total lost so far. It really was a downer because I had 23 activity points this week. I was feeling slimmer and positive and then wham, the news.

I am trying not to be discouraged because I knew it would happen eventually but I was so psyched this week. I really wanted to hit that 25 pound mark this week. I keep telling myself:

#1 I increased my weight training this week, so some of that may be muscle gain.

#2 I am on a medicine that will cause an increase in appetite and weight gain. I have defeated the odds the last few weeks.

#3 Even though I stayed within points last week, I did not follow the food guidelines and was lacking on vegetables this week.

Oh well, maybe next week.

Onto another subject. Please uplift my father in your prayers. We were in the ER until 3 AM last night because he was having problems breathing. He is currently in the hospital getting breathing treatments and a dose of antibiotics. He may go home tomorrow. For those of you who don't already know he is also recovering right now from a fall in mid-January off the front porch in which he broke his wrist, three ribs and cracked his pelvic bones in two places.

Tags: life, weigh-in, prayer requests

But I am not hungry & Couscous adventure

I have had all my meals and still have points left. One problem, I am not hungry. I know you are supposed to eat all your daily points but I am sitting in the kitchen looking at every item thinking, nope don't want that either. I just am not hungry. I have 8 points to go. I did finally eat a chocolate marshmallow egg but that was only 3 points. I am still sitting back going, hmmh. I have never had this predicament before. I am usually an overeater not an undereater. Maybe I will go drink a little soda. I just do not want anything. Have I mentioned that?

Today I decided to be adventurous and try couscous. Has anyone else been this adventurous? I bought the broccoli cheese flavor and was so excited because I could eat a whole cup for only 4 points. Well, let me say couscous should be renamed boardboard because it tasted just like cardboard. Does anyone have any pointers to make that stuff more palatable? Needless to say that is one reason I have some points left because I scraped that right off my plate into the trash. Blah!

 

Tags: life, hunger, couscous

Tru Orange

I meant to post about this last night but figured I had already babbled about my headache. Most of the time when I have a headache I can not tolerate water. I have to have something flavored. Yesterday , I flavored my water with the new Tru Orange packets you can find at the grocery store. I add just a little artificial sweetener because you know I just do not like artificial sweetener at all. It was delicious and my head was happy too. I also now carry it in my purse and use it at restaurants too . As much as I love water there are times that enough is enough. Especially if I am eating something that I would normally have a big glass of Pepsi to accompany it like pizza. I just open a packet and add some Equal and am very satisfied. Give it a try. Here is the link so you can see what you are looking for.

http://www.truelemon.com/newfamily.cfm

There is also lemon and lime but I bought the orange because it was different and refreshing. Now my nephew goes digging in my purse to add it to his Sierra Mist too.

Give it a try.

Tags: life, orange

What a day!

What a day since 6 am! I woke up at 6 am with a splitting headache. I can no longer take my favorite pain reliever, Motrin because it sends my BP up and I especially could not take it since I realized I forgot to take my BP med the night before along with another night time med. So I started off with two Tylenol. An hour later I was working on number three. By the time I went to church at 9 am I was on 4. I was tempted to call and say I would not be there to teach the preschoolers but my helper had already called the night before saying she was not going to be there either. I get there late because it took all my might to shower and get dressed. I knew something was wrong when my brother , who is the young adult/couples teacher was in with the elementary kids and my future sister in law was sitting with my preschoolers. I then received the news that the elementary school teacher was sick and would not be there and I had both classes. Ok preschoolers and elementary schoolers with a major headache, oh my. Let me say, Praise God for videos. We moved the big screen into the children's department and hooked up the video, sad thing is that I have great DVD's but the church DVD player is broke and no one has donated one yet. Both classes sat and watched Max Lucado's Hermie the Caterpillar. It was great. Well somewhat great , I could not figure out how to turn the volume down so the video sounded like a movie theater which is not good with a headache.

Praise the Lord that one of the adults from upstairs came down to help and I snuck out thinking a Pepsi might help me. Well the Pepsi expired in December and it really had lost its zip or I have lost my zip for my wonderful Pepsi. Do you remember when sodas did not have expirations, did they taste bad then or is it psychological?One sip and it was in the trash. Praise the Lord again that when I was walking back from my soda adventure that my children's music director was early for music time for my preschoolers. She decided to work with both classes for the short Easter song they are singing on the 23rd. She finished in just enough time for snacks, YAY! After snack time, the younger ones have playtime with the weekly rotation of workers and it was not my rotation, yay again. The older ones go upstairs for worship and then children's choir. I then played hookie from big church and went home to rest.

On the way home, I decided to go to Mickey D's and get a medium soda and my stomach was queasy so I was going to try some fries, weird I know. Unfortunately it was 10:35 and were still serving breakfast and no fries. You know if I had wanted breakfast at 10:35 they would have told me they had switched to the lunch menu already. Oh well! I still bought a soda though and it did help some. I came home and opened a single bad of chee-tos, which had expired last month but hey I was desperate. I ate two or three and either I have lost my zip for chee-tos or they were not as good because they had expired. Well, my mom and nephew tried them and said it was me, so I guess I have lost my zip for them.

I then took two more tylenol, I know I know, overdose girl but I was hurting. I rested a little while and went to the YMCA pool for family day with my nephew. At this point I was numb. I did swim eight laps for the first time in 17 years, wow. I know the lifeguard wanted to laugh at me trying to swim after all those years but she just smiled. I am sure she was chuckling inside. I also did some waterwalking while I was there.

Well we went to get some chinese food, you know one cup of chicken chow mein is only 4 points so that is my best friend right now. Unfortunately I guess with my headache recovery I was extremely sensitive to sodium and could not eat my chow mein. I was sad. My steamed dumplings were not palatable to me either tonight. I guess my headache has affected my taste buds too. Despite my sensitivities I am somehow out of points, can you explain that?

What a day! What a day!

Tags: life, headache