When staying up late...

...don't make the same mistake that I did last night.

Here's the background.  I went to the store to get milk and a few other items that we needed.  I had plans to make yogurt...again, since we've all been eating it *including me*.  This last batch was 71 calories per 1/2 cup.  I digress.  Milk was on sale for $1.57/gallon, so I figured I'd make yogurt using the entire gallon *because you can.*

I put the milk in the crockpot *I used a bigger one; it's 5 or 6 quarts* at shortly after 8.  The girls were put to bed and I started making granola.  I made this delicious granola that can be found here.  I didn't make the 30 servings that it suggests, but cut it in half.  For my purposes, it still made 30 servings *I'm figuring about a 1/4 cup per serving...you probably could use less*.  I also didn't use all of the ingredients listed *I didn't have:  sunflower seeds, oat bran, pecans, or maple syrup.*  Instead of the oat bran, I used flaxseed meal *but only a 1/2c instead of 3/4c* and instead of the maple syrup, I used sugar free breakfast syrup.  I also used 2 tablespoons of regular butter and 6 tablespoons of light butter instead of the vegetable oil.  I omitted the raisins.  After baking it and allowing it to cool, I needed wanted to taste-test for quality assurance, so I had some of our homemade yogurt with the granola on top.

At about 10:30, I checked the temp on the milk.  It wasn't there yet.  At this point, I was already fading.  I'd had some decaf coffee and some dark chocolate.  Then I had... and ....

Are you seeing a pattern?  I was having difficulty staying awake long enough to get the milk ready to go in the oven.  My coping mechanism for staying awake is food.  I did this in college...often.  When it finally  got to temp, I then needed to cool it.  Ugh!  More waiting!  I got the wrapped crockpot into the oven shortly after midnight.

There are several morals to this story.  #1--It takes quite a bit longer to get a gallon of milk to temp than a half gallon...so start early.  #2--If you're not wrapped up in making yogurt and you're very tired...Go.  To.  BED!!

If you get caught up in this dilemma, remember to track everything.  Things like this happen and we just need to keep ourselves accountable.

**Edited to add:  1/2 cup of my yogurt *the one I made with myself in mind* works perfectly with 2 tablespoons of the granola.  Yum!

Day 3--Ugh!

Oh boy...trigger-city!!  I've decided that, for as much as I love my girls, they are one of my triggers for my sugar addiction.  We all have bad days, but I'm realizing that when we have those bad days, all I want to do is eat comfort foods (ie: simple carbohydrates, chocolate, salty stuff, etc).  I'm so glad that I'm beginning to realize this so that I can start to nip it in the bud.

My choices to nip it?  Some 78% dark chocolate, a Coke Zero, and 1 1/2 cups of my soup that I made yesterday.  Surprisingly, I feel full and satisfied with no desire to run back to the kitchen for more.  I'm also drinking my water.  How much water have you had today?

I tried a new recipe for breakfast.  This morning I had an omelet of spinach, onion and 2 laughing cow cheese wedges.  It was very tasty.  I also had my Kamut Puffs.  We are having a roast chicken for dinner tonight.  I still haven't decided on sides to put with it, but I'll get that figured out before I start making dinner.

Ooh!  I just found a recipe for rolls!  Yippee!  They're just 2P+ per roll.  Here's the recipe.  I'll let you know how they turn out.  We'll probably have broccoli and a salad to round things out.

Off to make rolls!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so maybe you don't celebrate it, but we do a little here in our house.  We don't do anything overly fancy, but we like to share a little extra love on this day especially.

I bought some Dove dark chocolate hearts to share with the girls.  Umm...those can be lethal.  Those little tasty tidbits are just 1P+ per heart!  They say dark chocolate is good for you, so maybe a little isn't all bad.

Last night, I made up a double batch of these bad boys.  I made them smaller *half the size that they suggested in the directions* and I didn't include the sauce.  The other half of them, I threw in the freezer for another meal later in the month.  I love being able to do that.  It makes meals later in the month a breeze.  To round out the meatballs, I had leftover brown rice, and stir fry vegetables *that had a sauce packet with them*.  I cooked the veggies in the skillet for 8 minutes, threw the meatballs in to heat them through, and added the sauce packet.  While that was becoming tasty, I heated our rice in the microwave.  Dinner was awesome!  Picky middle kiddo didn't want to eat.  Everyone else enjoyed them immensely!

I had planned to make a goody for my hubby before he got home from work, but since he came home with some extreme back pain, it had to wait until after dinner.  I made some homemade peanut butter cups.  **If you are really desperate in love with peanut butter cups and want to eat a whole half of one, you can find the recipe here.  But don't say I didn't warn you.  They are evil too delicious for words.  And you can call me all sorts of not so nice names behind my back because I showed that to you.** The reason why you plan and check the calorie content/points of an item ahead is so that you don't have more than one!!!  Then you learn from it and move on. :)

I hope you've had a GREAT day, regardless of how you've spent the day.

Sometimes your best laid plans...

....can be derailed.  Ever since we got home this week, I've struggled.  I'm not sure why.  Some of it has to do with the fact that I'm at home, not as busy as we were while we were gone.  Another portion could be because I haven't had the chance to get my exercise in *I did get a walk in and I've been doing the abs challenge*, but it's not the same.

So my plan tonight was to have 1/4c of the Spinach Dip with 5 crackers, 3tbsp of light ranch dip and veggies, a serving of the sausage and lentil stew, and possibly some dessert.  I ended up with far more of the spinach than I'd intended, I had garlic bread with my stew, and then turned around and had pound cake with strawberries.  It is not one of my most outstanding moments, but I guess we're all human.

The first thing that I did when we got home *aside from getting the girls ready for bed* was to log my points.  Let me tell you, even though I cut the cake into 10 slices, it was still 5 *yes FIVE* P+ per slice.  Ouch!

I'm sitting here trying to figure out how I went from having a fantastic week away, watching everything that I ate, staying on plan in one of the most difficult situations ever, to coming home and having a super hard week.  What's up with that?  I was telling hubby that tonight didn't go as I had planned and that I was frustrated with myself, and he told me not to let it get to my head.  He also told me that I need to remember not to let it affect the rest of my week.  Isn't that what I tell people all the time?  Maybe I'm rubbing off on him or he's rubbing off on me.  Either way, I needed him to say that to me.

Even though I logged everything tonight, it can be a very slippery slope.  I need to be diligent tomorrow.  I need to get my exercise in.  I need to pay attention to how much water I'm drinking *again*.

At the end of the day, I'm still me.  And...I am only human.

Happy New Year!

I simply can't believe that it's a new year already.  Where oh where did 2011 go?  It went by far too quickly for my taste.  Do you remember when you were a kid and the time seemed to d-r-a-g by?  I think as we get older, the time speeds up to light speed.  Seriously.

So, how did last night go?  I splurged last night.  I planned on it.  I made cocktail dogs, hot spinach dip from Skinny Taste, and we had summer sausage with cheese.  Uh, the spinach dip.  Yeah, that was good stuff!  Two thumbs way up from at least the three oldest members of our family.  Also...I tracked it all.

One could say, "Resist temptation."  Or.  "Plan on a splurge.  Count it.  Move on."  I am not saying plan a splurge ALL of the time, but once in a while it's nice to have a few things you wouldn't normally have.  Also, don't beat yourself up about it.  Every snack/meal/day is a new one.

In starting the new year, my beloved husband has bought a juicer.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  I asked him if it was part of his 'resolution' and he said 'yes.'  So, I'll be intrigued to see how long he lasts.  He said that in order to lose weight, this will help him.  It sounds a bit like Slim Fast to me; drink two juiced beverages a day to 'replace' two meals.  I did tell him that he needs to stop eating bad stuff in addition to drinking these beverages.  He's standing in the kitchen as I type figuring out how to put the juicer together.  If nothing else, I figured I could use the juicer to help make smoothies.

Here's to a healthier New Year!