And the mystery ingredients are...

Brussel Sprouts

On my quest to try new vegetables and fruits every week I decided that there was no better time than the present to try brussel sprouts.  I can honestly say that I have never tried them.  I don't know much of anything about them really other than the fact that it seems as though you either love them or hate them.  It comes from the cabbage family, it is a leafy green color and it contains vitamin A&C, folic acid and dietary fiber.  Good enough benefits for me to eat it.  So I started thinking about how to prepare this for the first time and I wondered if anyone has any good recipes?  I hear that people steam them, bake them, boil them and even chop them up and throw them in salads and pasta!  So adventurous!



Mango

My new fruit of the week (which isn't "new" because I have had it) is mango.  I have had mango before, but it isn't somthing that I usually buy, so I decided to grab a few since they were on sale.  I am trying to break out of my current habit of buying apples, bananas and grapes.  There is so much more in this world than those 3 fruits and I am determined to try as many as possible.

Lunches for the week are salads galore.  Packed with proteins (egg, grilled chicken), more veggies (carrots, slaw, onion, peppers, tomato) and a dash of vinigrette.  I am really excited to be doing a mixture of salads. I have realized that I usually eat a heavier dinner, so I am trying to keep lunches lower in carbs to balance out my evenings.  I do think its important to have a mixture of carbs all day long.  It makes me feel icky when I just eat vcarbs late at night and then go to bed.  Yuck!

Recent food temptations fought: buffalo chicken pizza, donuts and potato wedges. I decided I am going to try to turn my temptations into reality somehow, so I am bound and determined to make a healthy spin on buffalo chicken this week, so be on the look out for that.  Happy Tuesday!

Lunch....My Favorite Meal of the Day

When I was growing up my parents owned several restaurants in my hometown.  It was awesome because I always had somewhere to work and somewhere to take my friends to hang out.  I also thought it was awesome that I could eat there for free.  I am starting to realize that it was in fact not so awesome.  No, I am not going to blame my weight gain on my parent's restaurant.  That would mean that I was taking no responsibility for what I was putting in my mouth.  I know that there were salads on the menu and I chose burgers and fries instead.  I also know though that if it wasn't so easy and free to get food there I wouldn't have had the opportunity to eat whatever I wanted.

I worked as a waitress for 6 years before I started my "big kid job" that I do now.  I loved being a waitress!  I loved always having cash in hand.  I loved seeing regulatrs who felt like family and tipped me really well.  I also loved that I was on my feet all day.  I was constantly moving and never sedentary like I am at my current job.  I used to work the lunch shift which was about 10-2.  I would then clock out and order some serious food.  I would be starving because I never ate breakfast.  I was usually still half sleeping when I would get to work.  I am not really a morning person.  I honestly had to practice getting up early enough to make it to my "big kid job".  Sad, I know.

Okay, so back to lunch food.  I usually ordered a grilled chicken sandwich that was either covered in swiss cheese and bacon or buffalo sauce and blue cheese.  Just typing it makes my mouth water.  Is that bad?  I would usually get the 1/2 and 1/2 with it which is 1/2 french fries and 1/2 onion rings extra crispy.  I would then dip everything in homemade ranch dressing.  The food at my parent's restaurant was awesome.  All of the sauces were homemade and delicious.  We also had two lunch specials everyday which were things like; spaghetti, meatloaf, beef stroganoff, hot turkey, hot beef, goulash, baked chicken and so on.  They were either accompied by bread or mashed potatoes smothered in homemade gravy.  It is no wonder that I gained approximately 50 pounds or more from freshamn year to senior year!

So, lunch no longer looks like that for me for many reasons. For starters my parent's no longer own those restaurants and I no longer live in my hometown.  The most important reason though is that I am choosing a different way of life.  I may not want to eat healthy right now, but I want to feel healthier and look better.  So, that is my driving motivation right now.  Although my lunches of yesteryear are mostly a thing of the past lunch is still my favorite meal of the day.  I feel like lunch is exciting and always changing and never boring.  Lunch breaks up my day and makes me realize that my work day is half over.  Lunch means socializing with friends and take a much needed break.  Lunch is delicious!

So, what does lunch mean for me now?  What do I eat to satisfy my hunger all the way to dinner?  I am a big sandwich person.  Sandwich usually means carbohydrates, which I try to eat less of, so I by bread that is light, whole grain and fiber filled.  I want it to make me feel full longer.  I like to make wrap sandiwches, regular sandiwches, panini's, salads and soup for lunch. 

Flatout Wrap sandwich with turkey, lettuce tomato and onion sprinkled with herbs and garlic powder.  Side of raspberry/blackberry mixture along with some Veggie Straws.

Mixed Greens, lean beef tips, feta cheese, tomato and Newman's Own Lighten Up Roast Garlic Balsamic Dressing.

In a general sense I stay away from frozen meals.  I usually find them to be less filling, more sodium filled and more carbohydrates than just making my own lunch creation.  The one exception to this is Smart Ones Santa Fe Rice and Beans.  It is my cure to a chipotle craving.  I really miss Chipotle sometimes, so I make this Smart Ones meal and I put it over salad greens to make a sort of homemade burrito bowl.  It really does the trick and makes the craving go away!

Santa Fe Rice and Beans Smart Ones

This is what it looks like before it is mixed.  Yum!

This is making me really hungry for lunch.  Today I have a delicious wrap sandiwch just like the one shown above!  Tomorrow's post is about clothes.  Those that fit, those that don't and those that hopefully will soon!

Salads and two mini NSV's

I am obsessing over salads lately.  Something has me craving them non stop, which is a good thing of course!  I have been buying a lot of different salad toppings so that I can always be adding variety into my life.  Last night I made a Crunchy Garlic Sausage Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing.


Key players:


Garlic Sausage Links (Trader Joe's)
Romaine Lettuce
Baby Tomatoes
Broccoli Slaw
Green Onion
1 Tbs Boathouse Yogurt Honey Mustard Dressing

Some delish sauteed mushrooms

Trader Joe's Garlic Chicken Sausage Goodness

Yummy dressing!  (The best part is that is healthier for you and the flavor is intense in a good way so you only need a little bit of it!)

My beautiful creation!  It was so good I am having it again for lunch!

So, onto my NSV!  I have two of them to share and I am really excited about both of them.  The first one is that I walked to the bus yesterday past this restaurant that serves up hamburgers, french fries and other fried foods and for the first time this year (because it has been so cold)  I was able to smell the food cooking inside.  I can say for the first time in my life I was grossed out by the smell of greasy fried food being cooked.  I started to speed up my walking just to get away from the odor.  It is sort of a silly NSV, but it is meaningful for me because when I would smell food in the past it would trigger a craving and the next thing you know is that I am in the drive through or at a restaurant induldging my craving.  So, this was definitely a win for me since I went home and ate a salad.

The next little NSV is relating to riding the bus.  I am probably the only person in the world who has anxiety riding the bus because of her size/weight, but it's true... I don't like to ride the bus.  I always feel like people are looking at me strange or judging me (who knows, it might just be in my head).  Usually when I ride the bus I find this small chair that is by itself and doesn't require you to have someone sit next to you.  I was always so paranoid about encrouching on someone else's space or being squished next to someone.  Well, twice this week I decided to sit in a chair that has two very close seats next to each other.  I chose the window seat both times and waited to see if someone would come sit next to me.  It is not that I smell or that I am strange or scary that would make people chose another seat, but rather that I was bigger and there were other seats open that would allow them more space.  I had someone choose to sit next to me immediately both days and there was plenty of room for both of us.  It may be a small silly NSV, but it is something that has made me confident that I am not only doing that right thing, but that it is working.  I am losing weight and looking and feeling better already!