You clicked on it because you're wondering. What? How is there an ugly side to weight loss? Its all fun and daffodils and butterflies and all things filled with pixie dust, right?
Wrong.
I've touched on this before but not really put my heart into it. So. Here goes.
When I was 260 pounds and decided to start losing weight, I thought that since I wasn't doing it drastically like getting gastric bypass or a lap band that things would gradually just come out to be what they were before. Sure, it was naive but I had seen others gain weight with pregnancies and they didn't look bad after they lost the baby weight. I thought that since I was taking the gradual and natural approach that things would reshape along the way.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Pinterest Junkie
Ok, I'll admit it. I can add one more thing to my menagerie of random things that I absolutely love. Pinterest is the newest.
Have you ever been on Pinterest? It is by far the most amazing thing I've come across. The concept is that its an online pin board for you to virtually pin different items. Say, that new pair of pants you've been spying online... a good looking recipe... a hairstyle seen in a magazine... You can pin them all on your own pinboard and it saves the link of the site for you to refer back to.
I'll admit. I found some pretty tasty recipes on there. Ones that are not healthy and should in no way be taken as every day food. I mean, Chocolate Covered Oreo Truffles sound good in theory, see a pin I made from the one and only Bakerella for them here. Yes, I know. Thats like giving crack to a baby and trying to take it away.
But, there are a TON of useful recipes, like the one I found here for Grilled Portobello Mushrooms. What I like to do is to take the recipes I find on Pinterest and make them a little healthier. For instance, the delicious dinner I made the other night (recipe can be found here) I modified to make it a little healthier for you by subbing quinoa noodles and adding veggies.
There is plenty of opportunity to find recipes that will suit nearly any appetite, diet modifications included. I have found many vegetarian, tofu, chicken, seafood... if you can dream it, I'm sure someones pinned it.
Happy Pinning!
Have you ever been on Pinterest? It is by far the most amazing thing I've come across. The concept is that its an online pin board for you to virtually pin different items. Say, that new pair of pants you've been spying online... a good looking recipe... a hairstyle seen in a magazine... You can pin them all on your own pinboard and it saves the link of the site for you to refer back to.
I'll admit. I found some pretty tasty recipes on there. Ones that are not healthy and should in no way be taken as every day food. I mean, Chocolate Covered Oreo Truffles sound good in theory, see a pin I made from the one and only Bakerella for them here. Yes, I know. Thats like giving crack to a baby and trying to take it away.
But, there are a TON of useful recipes, like the one I found here for Grilled Portobello Mushrooms. What I like to do is to take the recipes I find on Pinterest and make them a little healthier. For instance, the delicious dinner I made the other night (recipe can be found here) I modified to make it a little healthier for you by subbing quinoa noodles and adding veggies.
There is plenty of opportunity to find recipes that will suit nearly any appetite, diet modifications included. I have found many vegetarian, tofu, chicken, seafood... if you can dream it, I'm sure someones pinned it.
Happy Pinning!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Udi's Gluten Free
It's nice to know that all my rants actually are seen by people other than my mom and friends.
I had made some comments on the lack of delicious gluten free breads/cookies/pizza crusts etc back in December. Well, someone at Udi's Gluten Free happened to see my rant and wanted to set me on a better path to find great products.
They sent me a Bloggers Box with Pizza Crusts, Snickerdoodle cookies and Cinnamon Raisin bread. I had received the box on a Friday night, right before dinner. It did not stop me from opening the box of cookies. I took a bite and was pretty amazed at the texture, the fact it was not dry but more importantly, that it actually tasted good. I ate another... then I waited for my man to get home and had him try one. He didn't know it wasn't gluten free.
Inspired, I wanted to make one of the pizzas for dinner the following night. I got one of the crusts and topped it with mozzarella, a little shredded parm, some basil, capers and baked it. I was hesitant with it, because all of the gluten free pizzas don't stay crisp at all. You bake them until they look like they're about to burn, and when you take them out- the center is soggy after you put it on the plate. Its disgusting. So, given the poor expectations I had going into it, I was happy when the pizza stayed crisp, but the center of it didn't get mushy. The only thing I can compare it to would be the consistency of a New York style slice. It wasn't crisp, but it wasn't soggy. I fully enjoyed both of them and are going to purchase more at my local Sprouts the next time they do their Gluten Free sale.
The cinnamon raisin bread is very tasty. Its rather dry if you try to eat it without toasting it, but if you plan on using it for toast, its perfect. Great flavor, perfect toast texture.
Overall, the Udi's products really did kind of open my eyes that there are many options to choose when eating Gluten Free. I've found that the Glutino brand is awful. Anything of theirs is awful. I like the Mi-Del arrowroot crackers. One of my friends actually had a handful of them thinking they were animal crackers and had no idea they were Gluten Free. But, for the dollar, I'd say Udi's has the secret recipe for the best Gluten Free options.
I had made some comments on the lack of delicious gluten free breads/cookies/pizza crusts etc back in December. Well, someone at Udi's Gluten Free happened to see my rant and wanted to set me on a better path to find great products.
They sent me a Bloggers Box with Pizza Crusts, Snickerdoodle cookies and Cinnamon Raisin bread. I had received the box on a Friday night, right before dinner. It did not stop me from opening the box of cookies. I took a bite and was pretty amazed at the texture, the fact it was not dry but more importantly, that it actually tasted good. I ate another... then I waited for my man to get home and had him try one. He didn't know it wasn't gluten free.
Inspired, I wanted to make one of the pizzas for dinner the following night. I got one of the crusts and topped it with mozzarella, a little shredded parm, some basil, capers and baked it. I was hesitant with it, because all of the gluten free pizzas don't stay crisp at all. You bake them until they look like they're about to burn, and when you take them out- the center is soggy after you put it on the plate. Its disgusting. So, given the poor expectations I had going into it, I was happy when the pizza stayed crisp, but the center of it didn't get mushy. The only thing I can compare it to would be the consistency of a New York style slice. It wasn't crisp, but it wasn't soggy. I fully enjoyed both of them and are going to purchase more at my local Sprouts the next time they do their Gluten Free sale.
The cinnamon raisin bread is very tasty. Its rather dry if you try to eat it without toasting it, but if you plan on using it for toast, its perfect. Great flavor, perfect toast texture.
Overall, the Udi's products really did kind of open my eyes that there are many options to choose when eating Gluten Free. I've found that the Glutino brand is awful. Anything of theirs is awful. I like the Mi-Del arrowroot crackers. One of my friends actually had a handful of them thinking they were animal crackers and had no idea they were Gluten Free. But, for the dollar, I'd say Udi's has the secret recipe for the best Gluten Free options.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Delicious Dinner
Let me just say, out of all of the stuff I've put together for dinner. . . tonight was by far one of the best ones we've had and was completely vegetarian.
I used this recipe I found online for the baked 'fried' zucchini slices. I followed this recipe about 98%. I used panko bread crumbs instead of any other ones. However, the only recommendation I have is to put the zucchini on either parchment paper or foil directly to avoid the coating from coming off. I had used a rack that I put them on and struggled to pull them off of it without stripping the coating. . . They tasted amazing. I think next time, I might use the same coating method, although use baby portobellos instead to see how that flavors out. And, I snuck in a veggie with dinner. WIN!
For the main part of dinner, I read this recipe and decided to fiddle with it. I decided against parsley and used basil instead and added red onion.
I used a box of quinoa spaghetti noodles. I did use the full 8oz box.
Why you ask? They are traditionally healthier for you than regular noodles and quinoa has an immense amount of nutrients and protein that you wouldn't really expect for a type of grain.
While the zucchini was cooking...
- a pound and a half of roma tomatoes and diced them up (removing the seeds).
- about a quarter cup of red onion
- a quarter cup of kalamata olives
- three tablespoons of garlic
- about two tablespoons of capers
- three tablespoons of basil - I used this instead of fresh basil due to the cost (and it tastes the same)
- about a teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper
I added the six tablespoons of olive oil to the pan and instead of just using it raw like the recipe recommends, I added all the veges and seasonings above and put them in a large deep pan on the stove. I put the heat at medium low and covered it. This broke down the tomatoes a little more and made the onions more palatable since they weren't crunchy anymore. I think the total cook time on that was around 20 minutes. Just watch the liquid in there; if it looks like its burning off (every stove is different) turn down the heat- you want this liquid.
Once the pasta was done, I strained it and added it to the tomato mixture and added the quarter cup of feta cheese and mixed well.
Needless to say, it was enough to feed the both of us and for me to have a little more than three servings (about 1/2-3/4 cup) for lunches or dinner later this week. My man even said the spaghetti was really good. He is a true meat eater, so after tasting it, I believe either a grilled chicken breast diced in there or shrimp would be amazing.
Enjoy!
I used this recipe I found online for the baked 'fried' zucchini slices. I followed this recipe about 98%. I used panko bread crumbs instead of any other ones. However, the only recommendation I have is to put the zucchini on either parchment paper or foil directly to avoid the coating from coming off. I had used a rack that I put them on and struggled to pull them off of it without stripping the coating. . . They tasted amazing. I think next time, I might use the same coating method, although use baby portobellos instead to see how that flavors out. And, I snuck in a veggie with dinner. WIN!
For the main part of dinner, I read this recipe and decided to fiddle with it. I decided against parsley and used basil instead and added red onion.
I used a box of quinoa spaghetti noodles. I did use the full 8oz box.
Why you ask? They are traditionally healthier for you than regular noodles and quinoa has an immense amount of nutrients and protein that you wouldn't really expect for a type of grain.
While the zucchini was cooking...
- a pound and a half of roma tomatoes and diced them up (removing the seeds).
- about a quarter cup of red onion
- a quarter cup of kalamata olives
- three tablespoons of garlic
- about two tablespoons of capers
- three tablespoons of basil - I used this instead of fresh basil due to the cost (and it tastes the same)
- about a teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper
I added the six tablespoons of olive oil to the pan and instead of just using it raw like the recipe recommends, I added all the veges and seasonings above and put them in a large deep pan on the stove. I put the heat at medium low and covered it. This broke down the tomatoes a little more and made the onions more palatable since they weren't crunchy anymore. I think the total cook time on that was around 20 minutes. Just watch the liquid in there; if it looks like its burning off (every stove is different) turn down the heat- you want this liquid.
Once the pasta was done, I strained it and added it to the tomato mixture and added the quarter cup of feta cheese and mixed well.
Needless to say, it was enough to feed the both of us and for me to have a little more than three servings (about 1/2-3/4 cup) for lunches or dinner later this week. My man even said the spaghetti was really good. He is a true meat eater, so after tasting it, I believe either a grilled chicken breast diced in there or shrimp would be amazing.
Enjoy!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Busy little bees
Hello friends.
My lack of blogging has finally started to catch up to me. I'm getting comments asking when another post will be available. I have no real excuse other than working, school and planning a wedding (oh, is that all?) I know that in order to keep people interested in your product, you need to constantly be in their face. I don't know about you, but pushy salespeople make me want to pelt them in the face with rocks. So, lets just go with that I'm not trying to be pushy. How's that?
How was everyones holiday? Did we all do well watching our waistlines? I, was ok. I did indulge a bit. Well, alot. New Years Eve was a feast of sorts at my place. I took that day to make all the food I always wanted to make, but never do because I know JUST how bad it is for you. I made pizza dip with crusty bread to dip it in, buffalo chicken blue cheese eggrolls and garlic parmesan pull apart bread. For dessert, the piece d' resistance, sopapilla cheescake. Yes, my friends. I indulged. I also looked at the scale on January 1 and almost fell over. I'm surprised the glass didn't break when I stepped on it. I moved it, thinking it was wrong. I moved it again. Then, I had a long conversation with my pants. My pants must have shrunk. Did I accidentally throw them in the dryer? Were there extra calories hiding in my pants adding to the extra padding? It was an eye opener. I let myself, after being good for so long and watching what I ate, careen into a few extra pounds on top of what I had lost.
My lack of blogging has finally started to catch up to me. I'm getting comments asking when another post will be available. I have no real excuse other than working, school and planning a wedding (oh, is that all?) I know that in order to keep people interested in your product, you need to constantly be in their face. I don't know about you, but pushy salespeople make me want to pelt them in the face with rocks. So, lets just go with that I'm not trying to be pushy. How's that?
How was everyones holiday? Did we all do well watching our waistlines? I, was ok. I did indulge a bit. Well, alot. New Years Eve was a feast of sorts at my place. I took that day to make all the food I always wanted to make, but never do because I know JUST how bad it is for you. I made pizza dip with crusty bread to dip it in, buffalo chicken blue cheese eggrolls and garlic parmesan pull apart bread. For dessert, the piece d' resistance, sopapilla cheescake. Yes, my friends. I indulged. I also looked at the scale on January 1 and almost fell over. I'm surprised the glass didn't break when I stepped on it. I moved it, thinking it was wrong. I moved it again. Then, I had a long conversation with my pants. My pants must have shrunk. Did I accidentally throw them in the dryer? Were there extra calories hiding in my pants adding to the extra padding? It was an eye opener. I let myself, after being good for so long and watching what I ate, careen into a few extra pounds on top of what I had lost.
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