Kitchen Sink Chop

Today, the really nice lady who I work for saved me. I went to work this morning unprepared for a proper lunch. I had eaten a high fiber cereal for breakfast, with blueberries. That usually keeps me full enough so that I don't think about food while I work. I also bring a sliced apple to snack on and I usually don't think about eating until I get home.  I stayed a little later than normal, and I did get hungry. My boss is always offering me food and I always decline. Today she tempted me with a hard boiled egg. She said, "you should always keep hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator for a quick healthy snack." She is so right. By the time I got home I was hungry again and tired too. Tony came home a few minutes after me and he was also exhausted. Neither one of us wanted to think about cooking dinner. Today was not the right day to think of something new and creative to cook.  We took a nice walk up to our neighborhood restaurant, The Valley Inn,  and I had a "kitchen sink chopped salad" with vinegarette on the side.  There wasn't a lot of protein in it, but it certainly did the trick. Tomorrow I have the day off of work, so hopefully I will get my act together!

Boring!

It's sort of hard to keep this blog new and interesting. It's obviously just as hard to keep my diet new and interesting. I need to find a way to jazz things up a bit. When I was a Nutritarian, I was on an actual plan, and it was pretty easy. I think I have given myself too much freedom. I need to find a new plan to share. I should be showing you a picture of some great low calorie dish that is worthy of Patti's plate.  But, I will be honest with you. Most nights are really difficult to keep low calorie and exciting. Take tonight for instance.  My husband worked most of the day from home, and then we went to an afternoon movie.  When we got out, we tried to decide what to eat for dinner.  We had leftovers from the last few days, so I knew we had food to eat. He had the fattening spaghetti, and I made another boring salad with the same old chicken I had a few days ago. I was too lazy to add colorful vegetables to my salad, so my green salad and the green chili chicken look the same. I need inspiration.

Sunday Dinner

Today, my daughter texted me when I was on my way to church and informed me that tonight we are having family dinner at 6pm at our house. Family dinners are what we used to do for years every single night. Even when the kids were involved in sports, plays and orchestra recitals, we almost always managed to sit down together in the dining room and have a lively dinner. That all came to a pretty abrupt end when Anne left for college. Sure we would still have family dinner now and then, but the boys were often busy and slowly it became just my husband and I eating dinner in front of the TV. Recently, we somehow have managed to have a full house again. Family dinner is still pretty much a thing of the past or resurrected on a holiday or special occasion celebration. I miss it, and to be honest I think our family misses it too whether or not they realize it. So this afternoon, when deciding what to make for dinner, I settled upon a family favorite, "spaghetti in a pot". It is definitely not diet friendly, but it is a traditional comfort food that I know everyone likes. I'm making a choice again. It's only one meal and I will continue my diet tomorrow. To be honest, I am going to add a salad and I may just have a small enough portion of spaghetti that I will be fine anyhow.  The important thing to me is I will have my family around me, eating a meal that I have lovingly prepared. I just miss Ted.

Success!

I did not have one chip tonight! That is really pretty big for me. I copied everything that my sister ordered. I had one glass of red wine instead of my usual double margarita. We had a white meat only chicken tostado with boiled beans and no tortilla. (Shouldn't that just be called a salad?) Honestly, it wasn't really that hard to eat this way tonight. I am not sure if it was because I promised myself before I went that I was going to be good, or if having  someone else at the table eating the same way made me feel less alone. Whatever the reason, it worked! If I ate with her very often I think this blog would be out of business pretty darn soon!

El Adobe....Part 2

My sister and I thought we would both go to dinner tonight with Mom. Of course my husband always likes to take advantage of the proximity of my Mom's house with Lucy's El Adobe. If you read last Saturday's post, you know that it presents a problem for me. But rather than avoid the restaurant, I have decided to tackle the problem head on. I should follow my "skinny" sister's example and eat what she eats. I know she will stay away from the chips. I will try to also. Wish me luck. To be continued...........

Roasted Chicken

There are so many types of food to choose from when I go out to eat. I could easily go out for pizza, tacos, enchiladas, spaghetti, or even just a plain old hamburger and French fries. I tell you this to try and get you on my side before I tell you what I ate. I know I am not going to wake up any thinner than I did today. But.......there is a slight chance I won't wake up any heavier either. I've had a pretty good day. I had high fiber cereal, blueberries, and non fat milk for breakfast; a honey crisp apple for lunch; and a cup of homemade chicken soup as a snack when I  got home from work. For dinner, I went to a restaurant that had a roasted chicken Friday night special on their menu. I ate a chicken breast, green beans and baked potato for dinner.  Should I tell you what I didn't eat? No, I didn't have wine with dinner. I did not have sour cream with my baked potato. And, I definitely did not have dessert! Not at the restaurant, and not when I got home where I still have left over Halloween candy. Do I deserve to wake up thinner? I think so. Will I be satisfied if I wake up the same weight? Yup. It was a nice night and I didn't have to cook.

Mrs. Renfro

I know I often talk about my crock pot, but I guess I just can't say enough about it. Today I was craving a steak. Since beginning my Nutritarian diet a couple of months ago, I have had red meat only once. I actually was going to post about it a couple of weeks ago, but I got distracted. Anyhow, I went to the store today to buy a steak for dinner tonight and I just could not get myself to buy it. The price was almost $20.00 a pound! Granted, I was shopping at Gelson's but even Costco is $12.99/lb. and you have to buy almost $60.00 worth! So, I came home with a package of chicken breasts. ....again. Just how many ways can you make chicken? One of my all time favorites is chicken breast fillets in the slow cooker. I rinse them and put them in the pot on low. A couple of hours later I add Mrs. Renfros green chili sauce. The ingredients are all natural, (no preservatives)  and there are only 5 calories per tablespoon. The chicken falls apart, and most of my family make tacos out of it. I took out a few pieces, added a half of a sweet potato and an arugala salad. Delicious!