What's for dinner?

Since we starting dieting again, The Mr. and I have done really good about preparing and eating dinner at home. Our grocery bill sure has gone up but since we aren't eating out as much, it evens itself out. One of my goals is to plan dinners out and prepare a grocery list so that way we follow our diet and stick to our budget!

Weight Watchers has an amazing online database that has a ton of recipes with the points listed which is really nice. I've also ran across a few cooking blogs that are dedicated to posting Weight Watcher friendly recipes and most of them post the point values as well! Some of the recipes look amazing and the ones I've cooked have not disappointed.

Last night we had Lighten Up Chicken Divan, (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/11/chicken-divan-lightened-up.html) which was the second time I made it. The first time I followed the recipe and stuck with Swiss cheese (not one of my favorite cheeses) and it was okay. This time around I added cheddar cheese in place of the Swiss cheese and it was amazing! Cheddar cheese is the way to go!

We've also tried a few other of Gina's (author of www.skinnytaste.com) and we always love them! Some of our favorites have been: Slow Cooked Sweet Barbacoa Pork, Skinny Tuna Noodle Casserole and Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili.

I recently stumbled across Emily Bites and she has so many recipes that I want to try! I love her recipes because they all look like "comfort" foods, just lightened up and in smaller portions. A lot of the food she cooks is in personal size or bite size form, which makes serving size a piece of cake! Every time I visit her blog, my recipe box get bigger and our grocery list gets longer! I would love to attempt to make these: Pepperoni Pizza Mini Puffs, Mini Spinach Dip Bread Bowls, Chicken Enchiladas (these look super duper yummy to me and I love Mexican food!) and Taco "Cupcakes".

I obviously have my list and grocery shopping cut out for me. Thank God The Mr. does a lot of our grocery shopping because I work most nights! I'm sure he'll appreciate the list with all these yummy dinners in order!

What are your favorite "diet" dinners?

The Scale

 Today, I am so thankful for my food scale. Without this scale my diet would be a big ol' flop!

When I first starting weighing my food, I was so surprised at how much I over estimated on my proportions and how much I was really eating. I think that's a shocker for anyone who is starting a well proportioned diet.

It's been really nice to have it, use it and knowing how much I'm eating.

Oh, great Weight Watchers Food Scale, I love thee. I am so thankful for you!

Now to get a new battery for it because it told me today to replace the battery. Sad day!

Rambo

Meet Rambo, he is a Boston Terrier and he rules this house. We like to say that this is Rambo's house and we just pay the rent. Without Rambo, our lives would be so boring.

I'm thankful for this silly dog, he makes us laugh all the time, has such a stubborn personality and knows the way to our hearts.

We like to consider him our child and I often refer to him as my son, because that's how much I love him. He loves to get rubs, especially by his Grandma and he knows just how to con her into doing it.

This dog has my heart and I am so thankful for him!

Weighin' In

Today marks the start of week 8 in my weight loss. I am doing Weight Watchers again and so far I've lost 13 pounds. The last two weeks were a little rough but after some deep self conversations and watching the scale go up a little bit, I knew it was time to get back on board again.

It's funny the way dieting works and how easy it is to fall back into old habits. I shouldn't have an excuse but with the weather starting to get gloomy, all I wanted to was sit back, eat all those yummy comfort foods and enjoy life!

The Mr. has been doing our grocery shopping and following the diet as well, so we didn't have a lot of comfort food around the house. But since I work next to Fred Meyer it was really easy to go grab some and indulge. Dang that store!

I'm not comfortable posting my weight for the world to see, so each week I plan I just letting you how much I lost/gain and how the week went. When I started Weight Watchers again, I wasn't blogging faithfully and I didn't tell many people we had started dieting again. I wanted to get a head start and feel comfortable with it and I finally feel like I'm at that point.

Here's to a great week 8 and healthy future!

The House

 

It's my first vlog! Whoop whoop! It's a video of the layout of my house for my readers who aren't nearby and can't come over and see it for themselves!

Enjoy!

hey you.

 

Today, I am so thankful that someone posted this on their Facebook wall and I read it.

Everyone knows that the world is convinced that you have to look a certain way, walk a certain way and talk a certain way. Men and woman are always trying to fit into those roles and be that certain someone that the media tells us we need to be, I'm even responsible for it.

I do love who I am, I do love all my flaws and my imperfections. If I didn't have them, I wouldn't be me. That quote is so true and so fitting for me at this moment.

Please share this picture with your friends and family, you never know who it will touch.

Starbucks

You can bet your bottom dollar that I am thankful for Starbucks. Not just because it allows me to pay my monthly bills, or because I love the company.

Today, I am so thankful for Starbucks because without it, I probably would not have made it through my day. I went to Starbucks not only once today, but twice. I normally don't drink that much caffeine but today I needed it.

I'll probably be up until the wee hours of the morning and I'll blame it on the caffeine, but without it, I would already be asleep.

Thank you Starbucks, I am so thankful for you, every day of my life.