New Progress Pictures

Starting weight 323.8 pounds


Today 280.6 Pounds

I went to Weight Watchers tonight. My leader weighed me in at 280.6 pounds and wrote that I had a 2 pound loss. After sitting down and thinking, I realized she had made a mistake. So, I took it back up to her and she refigured it and I had lost 3 pounds. Now how I lost three pounds I really do not know. I have been doing the same things I always have been doing. But I am really proud of myself! I have now lost a total of 43.2 pounds since January 7th and 16.8 pounds of that since going to Weight Watchers. I have to lose 29 pounds to get to my 10%, so I have 12.2 pounds to lose to get there! I still got a long way to go, but I know I can do it!

Menu Plan Monday

Time to plan another week. At my last Weight Watcher weigh in, I lost another 2 pounds which means that I have now lost over 40 pounds. Planning my meals really helps me stay on points. I usually plan 7 meal and then decide throughout the week when I want to fix them. This is my plan until I go back to the grocery so it is a little longer than a week.

1. Beef Stroganoff Casserole(see recipe below)

2. Salisbury Steak(see recipe below), mashed potatoes, green beans

3. Deep Dish Pizza Casserole, 6 points; salad w/lite dressing, 2 points

4. Swiss Chicken Casserole- 6 points, green beans, mashed potatoes

5. Fat Free Hot Dogs on wheat buns-3 points; Baked Doritos-2 points, corn

6. Chili Dog Casserole(see recipe below)

7. Ranch Chicken- 8 points, salad

8. Spaghetti Casserole Bake (7 points), salad

9.Doritos casserole-7 points; corn

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Beef Stroganoff Casserole

1 can 98% Fat Free Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 can 98% Fat Free Cream of Chicken Soup

8 oz. reduced fat sour cream

12 oz. uncooked egg noodles

1 pound lean ground beef

1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated

Brown ground beef and drain. Combine soups and sour cream. Add beef and noodles, mix well. Cover with foil and bake in a 10 X 13 dish at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until bubbly.

Serves 8. 7 WW points (Please check your ingredients and your points, this one can have different points for egg noodles, etc.)

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Salisbury Steak

1 pound lean beef

1 pack onion soup mix

1 can Healthy Request cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup water

1 cup FF beef broth

2 tablespoons quick oats

small can mushrooms, drained

Mix water, meat, quick oats, and onion soup mix. Make into 4 large patties. Cook on med/high heat and brown both sides. Combine other ingredients, pour over patties. Reduce heat to med/low. cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes.

4 servings, 5 WW points

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Chili Dog Casserole

5 Low fat Hot Dog Bun

8 Fat Free Hot dogs

1/4 cup diced onions(optional)

2 tablespoons mustard

1 (15 ounce) can Turkey Chili

2 cups Fat Free Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the bottom of the casserole pan with butter-flavored Pam. Break buns into bite size pieces, and place in bottom of pan with outside of buns on bottom. Slice hot dogs into bite size pieces and place on top. Mix mustard, onion, and chili and pour on top. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Serves 8, WW points per serving 4

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Go here to see more plans.

FlyLady?

Someone asked me what FlyLady was and I am sorry I did not give you the link. FlyLady is an online resource to help you organize your house. Do you ever clean all in one day just because you have company coming over? FlyLady might be for you. She sends daily e-mails to help motivate you to get your house clean. Her whole thing is baby steps. So, cleaning 15 minutes at a time really will eventually get your areas cleaned. Purging is also important. You should only keep what you need and love. Also, her big thing is cleaning your sink every night before you go to bed and always keeping it clean. She works in zones and usually gives a week to each zone. Like, this week is the master bedroom. We also get a mission each day to work on in the zone. Like this week was cleaning off your dressers one day. Go to her website and learn more. When I was doing her system I felt like I was just picking up a little each day. Things seemed to stay cleaner and I would never mind if someone was coming over. I need to work on getting to the just picking up part so I can have more time with my kids this summer. I know some people feel this is just too much but really you need to make the plan work for you even if it means changing it to fit your needs. I really loved it but quit while I was on bed rest with the twins and never went back. My house is constantly a wreck and I NEVER have enough time to clean it. I have to invite people over sometimes to motivate me to clean it. Basically, it is not dirty just cluttered. Having four kids has really made this happen fast! So, with baby steps I may get my house back to being clutter free. Also, she has a lot of great things that go along with Weight Watcher ideas like vitamin everyday, 6-8 glasses of water, and 15 minutes of activity a day. She also has a book called body clutter that is really neat. So, I think this will work real well with what I am already doing with Weight Watchers.

Doing Flylady Again!

Well, I have decided to start doing the Flylady system again. I got dressed early today and got a lot done and felt better!
Here are my goals for today!

1. Laundry

2. Get dishes caught up and sink cleaned out

3. Mop kitchen floor

4. Clean off kitchen table

5. Clean off night stands in my bedroom

6. Pick up living room

7. Make my bed

Weigh In

Well I lost 2 more pounds last night at my Weight Watchers meeting. Do you know what that means? It means I have lost over 40 pounds!!!! I am so excited. I loved being a loser on my birthday yesterday, it felt so good! I now weight 283.6. Trying to get to the under 270 goal I set for myself! I am getting there!

Happy Earth Day!

Menu Plan Monday April 21-27

Here's my plan for the week:
Monday- Spaghetti Casserole Bake(see recipe below) (7 points), salad
Tuesday- Fat Free Hot Dogs on Wheat buns (6 points), 1/2 cup corn (1 point), Baked Doritos(2 points)
Wednesday-Cheeseburger Rollups- 7 pts (see recipe below), mixed veggies
Thursday-Ranch Chicken- 8 points, broccoli
Friday-Mom's Pizza (for kids)- 4 points, White Pizza for dh and me- 4 points, salad
Saturday- Lasagna Margherite (8 points), salad
Sunday- Chicken Doritos Casserole(see recipe below, corn
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Chicken Doritos Casserole (8 servings)
2 large skinless boneless chicken breasts- cooked (approx. 12 oz)
1 can 98% Fat free cream of mushroom soup
1 can 98% Fat free cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cups skim milk
12 oz baked Doritos- nacho cheese flavor
1 cup fat free grated cheddar cheese
nonstick cooking spray
Spray a large metal cake pan with the nonstick cooking spray. Put the Doritos in the bottom of the pan, do not crush. Cut up the chicken in bite size pieces and spread out over the Doritos Mix together the soups and milk and pour over the Doritos and chicken. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Take out and cover with the grated cheese, cook until the cheese melts.

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Cheeseburger Rollup

1 lb lean ground beef

6oz Kraft Velveeta light

2 tbsp onion powder

8oz RF crescent roll dough

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook beef and onion powder until down. Drain. Return to skillet. Add cheese and stir until melted. Remove from heat. Unroll dough and press into 15x8 inch rectangle. Top evenly with meat mixture. Roll up starting at one of the long sides. Rearrange if needed so roll is seam side down. Bake 20 min or until golden brown. (make sure to let mixture cool some or it will be harder to roll dough)

6 servings, 7 WW pts each

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Spaghetti Casserole Bake

12 oz box Reduced Carb Rotini

2 (26 oz) cans traditional Spaghetti Sauce

1 pound lean ground beef

1 cup pizza blend regular fat cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pre-cook pasta 6-8 minutes in boiling water. Brown beef in a skillet. Combine pasta beef and sauce together. Place in a casserole dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, and top with cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Makes 6 HUGE servings, 7 WW points per serving.

Go here to see more plans.

Going out for my birthday!

Next Tuesday is my birthday so dh is taking me out to dinner tonight to Applebee's. I am really excited! We even have a babysitter coming to our house. I like that so much better than taking the kids to Grann'y house because we only have to take one car. Then we go to my favorite place The Dollar Tree to see if they have any new dollar magazines. they have old magazines one month or newer for $1 buck and I love to go see what they got! Can you tell how poor I am, little things like this make me excited!

Favorite Ingredient Friday

Awesome Fruit Dip
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12 oz ff cream cheese
7 oz marshmallow cream
1 orange
Get cream cheese room temperature, mix together with marshmallow cream add juice from orange. You can even add a little of the pulp. Dip any fruit you like in it.
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We used to make this at Pampered Chef parties when I was a consultant. It is really good. it is 20 WW points for the whole recipe, but I do not know how many servings it makes? This would be a treat for me now.
For more great recipes go to Overwhelmed With Joy!

Slow Cooking Thursday-Swiss Chicken Casserole

This is another recipe that I enjoyed the full fat version before doing Weight Watchers, but this one is really just as good! Enjoy!
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Swiss Chicken Casserole
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1 pkg. Stove Top stuffing mix
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breast
4 slices non fat Swiss cheese
1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
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Place Stovetop stuffing mix(dry ingredients) in a sprayed crockpot (with fat free PAM). Add chicken breast over stuffing mix. Add the 4 slices of non fat Swiss cheese over chicken pieces.Spread cream of mushroom soup over the top of the chicken and cheese. Drizzle 1/2 cup warm water around the edges. Cook on LOW in crockpot for 6 hours. If you prefer you can cook in oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Makes 6 servings (1 breast and 1/2 cup stuffing) at 6 WW points each.

Slow Cooking Thursday is sponsored by Diary of a SAHM go look there for more recipes.

Tasty Thursday

You will be amazed at how much this taste like a Snickers candy bar who would have thought and it is made with low fat ingredients and Grape Nuts. Enjoy!
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Snickers Pie
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12 ounces (1.5 cups) fat-free vanilla frozen-yogurt, slightly softened
1 small box sugar-free instant chocolate pudding mix
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup Cool Whip Lite
3 ounces nugget cereal (Grape Nuts)
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Mix all ingredients together and pour into 8" dish and freeze.
Yields 8 servings
Nutritional Info: (per serving) 131 calories, 4 g. fat, 1 g. fiber (3 WW points)
Note: Once the pie has sat in the freezer for a few hours, it gets incredibly hard. If the frozen pie is too hard for your tastes, you can let it sit out for 10-15 minutes, or microwave for 15 seconds, before serving.
Trista over at The Pumkin Patch is the host of Tasty Thursday, head on over to her blog to see more tasty recipes

Weigh in

Last night I lost .4 pound. Yes, that is all. I have decided not to worry about my weigh ins. I can't do anything about it except do the best I can on selecting my food for the week, so that is what I am going to do. So now I have lost 38.2 pounds. That's good, only 17 more to reach my WW 10 percent!!!
Last week, I had a Weight Watcher Smoothie every morning with ff milk for 3 points each and you get your two dairy in. So, I did not do as well last week at drinking my milk, so I have been reading and lots of people say when they do get all of there dairy in that they seem to lose more on those weeks. So, I am going to try it this week. I know there is lots of research to prove this theory, so now I am going to see if it helps me? I love the new orange WW smoothies! Taste like a dreamsicle!

Menu Plan Monday- April 14-20

Here's my menu for this week:
Monday-Hungry Girl's Whoppers-4 points; Baked Doritos-2 points ; corn
Tuesday-Diet Coke Sloppy Joe's with Wheat bun- 5 WW points (See recipe below), corn
Wednesday-Fat Free Hot Dogs on wheat buns-3 points; Baked Doritos-2 points
Thursday-Doritos casserole-7 points; corn
Friday-Mom's Pizza (for kids and babysitter) We are going to Applebees for my birthday
Saturday-Stovetop Meatloaf Muffins- 2 points each, green beans, mashed potatoes
Sunday- Ranch Chicken- 8 points, broccoli and cauliflower mix, green beans (for kids)
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Dessert- Chips Ahoy Dessert (see recipe below)
Chips Ahoy Dessert
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1/2 cup fat free milk
18 reduced fat Chips Ahoy Cookies
2 cups fat free milk
1 8 oz. fat free Cool Whip
1 small box chocolate fat free, sugar free pudding mix
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Pour 1/2 cup of the milk in a shallow bowl. Dip cookies in the milk very briefly and line 8 X 8 dish with them. Take 1/2 the Cool Whip and spread over cookies. Mix the chocolate pudding with 2 cups milk. Layer over top of Cool Whip. Dip next 9 cookies in the milk and lay on top of pudding. Top with remaining Cool Whip. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
Makes 9 servings, 2 WW points.
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Diet Coke Sloppy Joe's
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1 lb 96% lean ground beef
1 med onion, diced
1 1/2 tablespoon flour
1 can Diet Coke
2/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
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Brown beef and onion, drain well. Stir in remaining ingredients. Mix well. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve on wheat bun (add points for bun).
Makes 6 servings
3 WW points per serving
Note: If you make this with Morning Star crumbles this recipe becomes 2 WW points per serving.
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Go here to see more plans.

Contest

Head on over to Red Sox Mommy's, Natalie has a great giveaway going on right now for 3 girls t-shirts and they are cute!!! There's one in the picture!

Freezer Food Friday

This is really yummy, you can make one for dinner and one for the freezer in a very short amount of time.

Lasagna Margherite

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1 (26-ounce) jar fat-free tomato-basil pasta sauce

Cooking spray

1 (15-ounce) carton part-skim ricotta cheese

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt6 no-boil lasagna noodles

1/2 cup (2 ounces) pre-shredded fresh Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
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Preheat oven to 450°. Spread 1/2 cup pasta sauce in bottom of an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine ricotta, 1/3 cup basil, crushed red pepper, and salt. Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; top with 1 cup ricotta mixture and 3/4 cup sauce. Repeat layers, ending with noodles. Spread remaining sauce over noodles. Cover and bake at 450° for 25 minutes or until noodles are tender and sauce is bubbly. Uncover lasagna, and top with Parmesan and 2 tablespoons basil. Bake lasagna an additional 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

4 servings
NUTRITIONAL INFO: CALORIES 386(30% from fat); FAT 12.7g (sat 7.6g,mono 3.6g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 24g; CHOLESTEROL 43mg; CALCIUM 620mg; SODIUM 959mg; FIBER 3.7g; IRON 2.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 42.4g

Source: Cooking Light Magazine November 1998

For more Freezer Food Friday recipe go to What a Crock!

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken
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6 whole chicken breast halves without skin -- skinned and split

1 dash pepper

To taste paprika

20 ounces pineapple tidbits in juice

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 clove garlic -- minced

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Arrange chicken in bottom of crockpot. Sprinkle with pepper and paprika. In a small bowl, combine drained pineapple tidbits, mustard and soy sauce. Pour over chicken. Add minced garlic. Cover and cook on LOW 7-9 hours or HIGH 3-4 hours.

Makes 6 serving. Per Serving: 194 Calories; 2g Fat; 28g Protein; 16g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 68mg Cholesterol; 483mg Sodium.

Slow Cooking Thursday is sponsored by Diary of a SAHM go look there for more recipes.

Lighter BLT Pasta Salad

Lighter BLT Pasta Salad Recipe
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3 2/3 cups cooked large macaroni shells
4 cups tomatoes, cut up
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 cups of thin sliced lettuce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1/2 cup fat-free mayonnaise
1/3 cup light sour cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
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In a large bowl mix together shell, bacon, tomatoes, and lettuce. In a small bowl mix the sugar, vinegar, mayo, sour cream and mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Pour over shell mixture, stir and chill.
Serves 6, 1 cup servings at 3 Weight Watcher Points Each
Trista over at The Pumkin Patch is the host of Tasty Thursday, head on over to her blog to see more tasty recipes.

A Better Look

My Weight Chart:


I think this chart better shows my progress from when I started on Jan 7 of this year!

My Weigh In...

Well my meeting was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was worried because last week I had only lost .8 pounds. I knew I had done GREAT this week. Stayed on points, exercised everyday, so why was I worried? I got on the scales and I had lost another 2.4 pounds! I was so excited! This puts me at 286 pounds. Since going to Weight Watchers I have lost 11.4 pounds! I have lost a total of 37.8 pounds since I started! 32 pounds would have been my 10% if I had started going to meetings when I started, but now I have to lose 29 pounds while going to meetings to get my 10% key chain. I only have 17.6 pounds to go to reach my 10% and get my key chain. I will get a 25 pound charm before I get my key chain to put it on. I am feeling so much better. I went to the grocery and got some different foods that I think will help me with this rut I am in. I thought it was kind of funny that after the lady had rung up my groceries, she said man you sure do eat healthy. I never thought someone would say that about me! lol!
Well off to start another good week, I HOPE!
Oh and the red star is my first 5 pounds, the pink star is an additional 5 pounds and the line is where I need to get to reach my 10%.

Menu Plan Monday- April 7-13

I have really gotten tired of my meals, so I am trying a lot of new things this week! Here is my plan.

1. Hungry Girl's Whoppers-4 points; fries for kids and hubby; corn


2. Chicken and Broccoli Laughing Cow Fetticuine Alfredo -8 points each, salad


3. Slow Cooker Lasagna- 8 points, salad


4. Mom's Pizza (for kids)- 4 points, White Pizza for dh and me- 4 points, salad


5. Dorito casserole-7 points


6. Ranch Chicken- 8 points, broccoli and caulflower mix, green beans (for kids)


7. Swiss Chicken Casserole- 6 points, green beans

Desserts:

Cheesecake Dessert-2 points

Soda Cake- points depends on cake mix, I am trying a reduced sugar one, devil's food and Coke Zero Cherry Soda

Go here to see more plans.

My kids

It is rare that I get a picture of them all together!

I lost my BLOG ROLL! :(

I want to say that I have not been posting much over here. I have kind of been frazzled since changing my layout on this blog. I gave all my information to the person who redid my blog. I thought she would save everything and put it back on for me. Well she did not save my blogroll and I am going to have to find the time to recreate it! I miss it! It was so easy to go and visit blogs everyday, unfortunately I will probably loss some of them forever! I also can not just go to the top to get to the dashboard anymore and that has kind of been different for me. I also need to add the book I am reading to the side too. Eventually I will get this place back in shape, so please bear with me. So, if you visit here please leave a comment to this post so I can put you back on my blogroll. Thank you! Next week I am going to be working on my blog roll.

Favorite Ingredient Fridays

Well desserts are not something that I get to enjoy a lot these days since starting my new healthier lifestyle, but every now and then you just want something and these kind of recipes take the guilt out of it! So, for now my desserts are going to be WW friendly.

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German Chocolate Cake

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One box German Chocolate cake mix

12 oz. diet coke or diet Dr. pepper

1 small box sf/ff butterscotch pudding

1 3/4 c. skim milk

1/4 c. flaked coconut

1/4 c. chocolate chips and/or chopped pecans (optional)

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Mix cake mix and diet soda thoroughly, pour into a pam-sprayed 9x13 pan, bake as directed on package. While still some what warm remove from pan and put on serving plate. Poke holes in top of cake. Prepare pudding with the milk and before fully set pour gently over top of cake. While still wet sprinkle coconut and, if desired, chocolate chips and pecans. Refrigerate and allow to set for a few hours before serving.Special Notes:The pudding is a decent substitute for the usually decadent coconut/pecan icing. Since you are just sprinkling them on top you don't need too much.Makes

18 Servings: about 3 Points per Serving, please check this with the ingredients you use, as some cake mixes NI are different!

For more great recipes go to Overwhelmed With Joy!

Tasty Thursday- Lighter Alice Springs Chicken

Awhile back, I posted one of my favorite recipes, Alice Springs Chicken. A dinner I loved at the Outback Steak House. Well now I found a lighter version that I still really like.
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Lighter Alice Springs Chicken
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MARINADE
2 cups water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. liquid smoke
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (3 oz. each)
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HONEY MUSTARD SAUCE
1/4 cup light mayo.
1/4 honey
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. white vinegar
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OTHER
4 slices of bacon
2 slices of Colby Jack cheese
2 cups fresh mushrooms
Cooking spray

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Mix marinade ingredients well. Pour into Ziploc bag and add chicken. Chill in fridge for at least 3 hours. Mix honey mustard sauce ingredients well and chill. Preheat grill. While heating, fry bacon until crisp, place on paper towel to drain grease. Grill chicken 7-10 min. each side. Preheat oven to 375. As chicken grills, prepare mushrooms by spraying skillet and sauteing them 10-15 min. Transfer chicken to large baking dish. Slather each breast with sauce, 2 halves of bacon (side by side), mushrooms and cheese. Bake in oven for 7-12 min. or until cheese melts.

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4 WW points per serving, Recipe makes 4 servings

Trista over at The Pumkin Patch is the host of Tasty Thursday, head on over to her blog to see more tasty recipes