Weight Watchers, Day 1.

I finally signed up for Weight Watchers last night. I am sick of not fitting into my clothes. There will be no more babies in my belly, so it's time to finally lose all this weight. Thanks to breastfeeding, I get like 6 million daily points, so there should be no excuse. It's a work day which is good because I really only have the food I brought with me to eat. I entered all the points last night and still have 2 to eat somewhere. Today's menu:

Breakfast
Oatmeal w/splenda + 1TBSP peanut butter
Coffee w/splenda + creamer

Lunch
Leftover steak (small)
Yoplait light yogurt + strawberries
Diet Coke

Dinner
Spaghetti w/turkey meat sauce

Snacks
100 cal Chex Mix (chocolate caramel)
Dark Chocolate Granola Thin
Animal crackers

Plus lots of water and Mother's Milk tea. Can't earn activity points today because it's a work day, but now that it's warming up, I am hoping to walk daily with the kids.

Starting weight = 173
Goal weight = 150 (this is the max healthy weight for my height, so less would be great!)

Since I am nursing, I am not supposed to lose more than a pound a week. Sigh. Ah well, slow and steady wins the race, right?

What Valentine's Day looks like when you have kids.

We couldn't go out for Valentine's Day because we have small kids. We had a babysitter, but we haven't seen her since August, and well, Lucy is really hard and should only be left with people related to her right now. So, armed with some funds graciously provided by Susan's parents, I hit up Whole Foods for the makings of a nice dinner. We put the kids to bed, cooked and ate in peace. It was lovely. No tip required, we got to eat in our PJs and didn't have to drive home. We did have to do the dishes, but it was a good trade off.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Weekly meal plan.

(I never assign things to days, I just come up with 7 meals, shop for the week and then make whatever makes sense for that day)

1. Steak quesadillas w/leftover steak from Valentine's Day dinner

2. Spaghetti (Theo's request)

3. Tacos

4. Shake and Bake chicken breasts w/roasted asparagus and sweet potatoes

5. Breakfast for dinner (didn't ever do this last week)

6. Stir fry chicken and veggies w/brown rice

7. Fend for yourself!

Food 'n stuff.

I am happy to share the flank steak marinade, as requested. I almost didn't, because I think it's one of my best meals and the one I'd probably serve you if you came over for dinner. But, I swiped it from someone else, so it's not exactly *mine* anyway. This is easily my favorite meal, I could eat it weekly.

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced (I have one of those masher things)

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 small can of tomato juice

Put this all together in a gallon bag and toss in your flank steak. Marinate OVERNIGHT. Don't skimp on the marinating time, trust me. Grill it about 5 minutes each side, depending on how you like it. Slice really thin. Seriously. Good stuff.

I finally made the creamy chicken chili (recipe linked a few posts down). It was good and I would make it again. I made it into a crock pot meal, though, because that's like half the reason I even make chili. So, if you want to do that, here's what I did: I put the (raw) chicken in with the broth, spices, chilis, beans and onions on high for 4 hours. I then took the chicken out, shredded it and put it back in. Susan hates sour cream with a fiery passion, so I took some out for her, then removed it from the heat and mixed in the sour cream and half and half as per the recipe. Came out just fine.

Enjoy those and keep posting yours! My family thanks you, so we don't have to eat spaghetti 4 times a week.

Meal plan Monday (on Tuesday).

Finally getting this back on track. I didn't think it mattered, but who knew people actually read this thing?? (Hi, Katie!) And, I heard from another friend (Hi, Daisy!) that she linked to another friend's site (Hi, Kelsi!) (not a mutual friend) and got a recipe idea from her. So cool!

We've been hit by the plague. Theo got it first, then Susan and I and Lucy is still sick. So, we've been in survival mode - cereal, take out and whatever our wonderful parents who came in to rescue us were willing to cook. So, this is the first meal plan I've done in more than a week and most of it is just looking around the house for what we've got. Maybe next week I'll be up to the grocery store.

1. Frozen pizza

2. Flank steak (I have the BEST marinade recipe), mashed sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus

3. Meatloaf, rice, fresh broccoli

4. Creamy chicken chili (never got made)

5. Turkey burgers and waffle fries

6. Breakfast

7.Baked ziti (from the freezer)

Meal plan Monday.

1. Baked ziti (from the freezer since I have to be out this evening)

2. Chicken soft tacos w/mexican rice and beans (leftover from last week since we didn't get to it)

3. Shake and Bake chicken w/mashed sweet potatoes and roasted asparagus

4. PW's Chicken spaghetti (half will go in the freezer for another night and using leftover chicken from the soft tacos)

5. PW's Penne a la Betsy (this is SO good and a splurge, but we have a GC to Whole Foods for the shrimp, plus I have some leftover wine from another dish)

6. Creamy white chicken chili

7. Fend for yourself/leftovers

Does anyone else HATE meal planning like I do? Seriously, I hate it. I don't mind cooking at all, it's the planning, list making, shopping, putting away food that I hate. When we hit it big, we are SO hiring a cook.

About those milestones ...

She must have read the blog and thought, "hey lady, I can do more than look at my hands" and so she rolled over. Rolled over like she's been doing it her whole life. Even did it for the video camera. 3 months and 1 day old. I put her on her belly in front of the mirror in Theo's room, thinking she might hate tummy time less if she could see herself. And, bloop, over she went. I yelled for Susan and when she came in, she did it again. And then one more time before she'd let us know she had enough.

We are so proud!