Menu Plan – February 7-13

I took last week off but gotta get back at it. This is going to be a busy week for Keith so I’m on my own for getting dinner done. My best chance for minimizing stress will be my menu plan.

Tonight – leftover pasta
Tomorrow – Cheeseburger Pie
Rest of the week –
Craving a chicken/noodle dish, will need to look up recipe
Mac N Cheese, will probably look for a new recipe for this too)
Grilled Cheese
More pasta leftovers

Its not the best plan but its a place to start.

Anyone want to share their tried & true Mac and Cheese or Chicken/Noodle recipes?

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I’ve almost made it to the Top Ten Working Mommy Blogs!!

Wednesday, er Saturday Weigh-In

I had this post ready ahead of time to go after my Weight Watchers meeting on Wednesday. However, an “Arctic Blast!” terrorized the Houston area for 3 days and threw everything off. I wasn’t able to go to a meeting until yesterday. So this is my Saturday Weigh-In!

Wednesdays are going to be my weekly meeting/weigh-in day for Weight Watchers. I swear I didn’t pick that day so I could have alliteration in my blog titles…but it sure is handy!!

So far its been easier than I’d thought to stay within my PointsPlus target. We went away over the weekend and therefore ate out quite a bit but just made the best choices I could with what was in front of me. I’m sure I took advantage of my Allowance points!! One great aspect of Weight Watchers I found so far is that you don’t have to feel deprived. Its made starting out so much easier!!

This week resulted in a loss!! I was pretty excited because I didn’t feel as “on program” as I could have been. I didn’t do as well with my activity as I’d like either but I’ll keep working on that! And I’m even tracking on the second biggest eating holiday…Super Bowl Sunday! Its not pretty but I’m tracking it anyway!

Anyone else have a happy surprise on the scale this week?

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Gettin’ My Skinny On!!!

Going to Weight Watchers is something I’ve been thinking about doing for awhile.  The numbers on the scale have been slowly creeping to a level that I’m just not okay with.  Fortunately, the stars have recently aligned making it silly for me to procrastinate any longer.

I went to my first meeting yesterday and I’m so glad I did!  The leader was very friendly and welcoming.  The members were very interactive and enthusiastic.  It was pretty much the experience I was hoping for.

They recently changed the program and I really like the direction they’ve taken.  The focus is on what I consider healthier foods, not necessarily low-calorie foods.  That probably seems counterintuitive but its really not.  Now ALL fruit and most veggies have PointsPlus Values of 0 so you can use them whenever you want to attack hunger pangs and stay full.  Woot!!  Pass the grapes and baby carrots!!

I’ll keep y’all updated on my progress and share any fun tips and tricks I learn along the way!  Ultimately I’d like to lose about 40 pounds to get myself to a healthier place. You can see ticker below and I’ll also add it to my sidebar. My first tip: take a big drink of water between every bite during a meal. This will keep you eating slower and help increase your water intake!

Was losing weight or getting healthier part of your plan for the new year? Or do you have any tips for me as I start a new weight loss plan?

What are we doing out here Mom?

The meal plan for the week has long flew out the window.  In my defense, it was not for lacking of trying!  Monday I had not anticpated a stop at CVS for a prescription to take close to an hour.  After trying to keep Brooke occupied there that long, there was no time or energy for dinner preparations.  Daddy brought home Wendy’s.  Fast forward to last night when I had planned to just slide Monday’s dinner of Spaghetti and Meatballs into Tuesday’s slot.  That was until I turned the faucet to get Brooke a drink of water and realized the City was still working outside on a water pipe issue and our water was turned off.  So much for making pasta!  My confession is I probably could have come up with an alternative but at that point, I gave up!!  Last night became pizza! pizza! night at our house and Keith picked up Little Ceasar’s on the way home. 

My favorite quote is by John Lennon…”Life is what happens to while you’re busy making other plans”.  I’m going to keep meal planning but when things don’t work out according to plan, I just gotta go with it!

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Now, on to Working Mommy Wednesday!!!

 We had a choice of writing about our favorite or most annoying celebrity or write from our child’s perspective of a time when they had to wonder what the heck her Mom was thinking.  I chose the latter.

Last February in an act of homesick desparation, Brooke and I made the trip back to my hometown in Michigan to visit family & friends.  The February before that I swore that I would NOT be visiting February again.  I like my Texas winters for a reason!!  As mentioned earlier though, I was really homesick so off we went!!

Now Brooke is a native Texan and this would be her first encounter with a Michigan winter.  So of course everyone was excited to see her reaction to the cold and most importantly, snow!! 

One of the last nights of our trip we got Brooke all bundled up and plopped her down on the snow.  I wanted to get pictures so my dad helped her stand up in the snow which was that really crunchy kind that doesn’t really give under your feet.  Standing wasn’t really working too well so we sat her down and I’m sure her butt must have instantly frozen!!  She looked at me with this pitiful face and after a couple more pictures (I’ll admit it!) we headed back inside.  I can only imagine what she must have been thinking and I know she had to wonder what I was thinking…

Menu Plan Monday – Jan 24-30

I did much better with the menu plan last week. I had trouble putting a plan together this week because I feel like we’re just going to eat the same things over and over. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

Monday – Spaghetti & Meatballs
Tuesday – Tuna Casserole
Wednesday – Chili Mac
Thursday – Taco Pasta (Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures)
Friday – Cheeseburger Pie
Saturday – Deconstructed Broccoli & Cheese Stuffed Chicken (Cooking During Stolen Moments)
Sunday – Freebie Day

Things may not work in exactly that order but I think it will be pretty close.

What’s on your menu???