Hawaiian Chicken - Crock Pot Meal

So this is the easiest meal ever.  Hawaiian Chicken.  You'll need a bag of frozen chicken breasts (4-6 breasts).  You need one can of pineapple (20 ounces) - drained.  And you need one jar of Target's Archer Farms brand of Hawaiian-style Barbecue Sauce.  Put the 3 ingredients in your crock pot for 4-6 hours on low (you can put the chicken in frozen).  Use a spoon to chunk up the chicken - it should be tender enough, it will just cut right thru and fall apart.  Do this while it's still in the crock pot.  Not only will you have one less dish to wash, but it will help coat the chicken in the sauce.  Serve over white (or brown) rice.  We did a side of steamed broccoli.  You could also add chopped up green & yellow peppers or onions to the chicken mixture.  Totally up to you.  It's yummy - I promise.

60 Days - No pennies spent out to eat

So in the middle of January we went on the Scentsy Leadership Retreat in Riviera Maya, Mexico.  It was beautiful and all inclusive and super posh (hot tub for two in my room overlooking the balcony overlooking the ocean).  Couldn't ask for much more.  But of course, Scentsy always gives more.  And one of their trainers that they brought in for us was Chris Locurto, who is this finance trainer that went from being severely in debt to being a millionaire in about 5 years.  Scentsy not only wants us to make a lot of money with the company, but they want us to have the skills to keep it and to turn it into even more money on our own.  So they provided us with the absolute best personal financial training out there.

Now, what in the world does financial training have to do with a Weight Loss blog, right?!!?  I know you're wondering.  Well, here's how it ties in.  My husband and I challenged ourselves that when we got home from Mexico to do 60 days of no spending money eating out.  We have a few groupons and gift certificates to use up, but no actual spending of money.  Not only will we save about $1000 bucks (because we do eat out a lot) in the 2 month time period, but we'll be a lot healtier just cooking at home.

So today, Feb. 4th, we're 18 days into the challenge.  I did buy one coffee drink out - bad me.  But other than that, we're doing great.  We've saved a crap load of money and we're both down a few pounds.  Cooking whatever we want, but cooking it at home.  Healtier than our old eating out most of the week.

So starting today, I'm going to try to share with you a recipe a day.  Now sometimes we are eating leftovers or we just have salads or soup from a can or something.  But if we cook something, I'm going to try to post it.  I will not promise that all of these recipes will be healthy, but they will be yummy - in fact they will be yummier than going to a restaurant.  And that alone can help you shed some pounds!

After a month off.....

....... I've only gained back .5 pounds.  Still down 30 pounds from my originally April 11th start date.  I'm extremely happy with that.  We did all of our Summer vacationing at once.  MN/WI for 8 days, TX for 5 days, and then Lake of the Ozarks for 3 days.  We've been gone more than we've been home the last month and we've eaten out a lot.  If I never see a french fry again, I think I'll be okay with that.  Well, for a month or so at least.  Anyway, back to the weight loss plan and so excited about it.  I've got a wedding to attend in 3 weeks and I'd like to lose another 10 pounds before that.  I'm back to work - and to working out!!!!

Walking with Bugs

I'm on vacay but I'm still getting my exercise in.  Going for long walks with the misquitos of Wisconsin every morning.  Kinda afraid of the weigh in when I get home from back to back trips.  We're cooking our own food on this one, so we're being somewhat healthy - much better than if we went to a restaurant - but we've made chocolate chip cookies and drank a massive amount of wine.  Hmmmmm.....  Well, we did do our longest walk yet 2 days ago.  Almost 4 miles.  We'll see how it goes.

Awesome Website

Hey walkers (and runners), there's this awesome site out there that we just played with called MapMyWalk.com.  You can pre-set up a walk to make sure you get your distance in for the day or you can track how far you went after a walk.  It even works on nature trails.  Just have to click where you turn.  Today's nature trail and neighborhood walk ended up being 3.17 miles.  Did it with the dogs (including a couple of potty breaks and one lay down break when the dogs just didn't want to go anymore) in an hour and 12 minutes.  Not great - but not bad.  And definitely better than I would have been 30 pounds ago.

Walking Buddy

I want to send a quick shout out to my husband Rick.  Man does he push me.  It seems he always wants to walk a little further than I do.  And at a faster pace.  And I keep pushing myself to keep up with him.  Gonna shed some extra pounds just because I'm walking with him and not alone!

Walking the Dogs

Want to know the best part about being 30 pounds lighter???  It doesn't hurt to walk the dogs.  I can go on a 30 minute walk, even a 60 minute walk, with my dogs now and my knees and ankles don't hurt at night like they used to.  It's so awesome.  I'm getting healthy and my puppies are loving me for it!!!

Big Cheesy Grin

So I hit the 30 pound mark today.  Doing the happy dance.  2 days shy of 3 months.  Right on track in my opinion.  Healthy and thin - here I come!!!

Noodles & Company

So, I've decided to figure out the points of some of my favorite Weight Watcher friendly restaurants.  I'm starting with Noodles & Co.  When we go out to eat, we try to keep our meals between 10-15 points.  Or occassionally save up my points for the day or my bonus points for the week, and go for a 20-25 point restaurant meal.

So here are some meal examples from Noodles & Company.

#1 - Small Japanese Pan Noodles with Chicken Breasts and a Tossed Green Salad w/Fat Free Asian Dressing - combined total 13 points.

#2 - Regular Med Sandwich with Small Tomato Bisque Soup - combined total 14 points

#3 - Small Spaghetti with Sauteed Shrimp and a Cucumber Tomato Salad - combined total 12 points.

Here's the entire menu:

Noodles & Company Menu turned converted to Weight Watchers Points

Salads:

Backyard Barbeque Salad (includes Chicken)– Regular 14 points

Very Berry Spinach Salad (includes Bacon)– Regular 18 points

Chinese Chop Salad (no meat) – Regular 8 points

The Med Salad (no meat) – Regular 8 points

Cesear Salad  (no meat) – Regular 9 points

Noodles:

Asian:

Japanese Pan Noodles – Regular 18 points, Small 9 points

Pad Thai – Regular 18 points, Small 9 points

Bangkok Curry – Regular 13 points, Small 6 points

Indonesian Peanut Saute – Regular 25 points, Small 12 points

Mediterranean:

Penne Rosa – Regular 21 points, Small 10 points

Pesto Cavatappi – Regular 24 points, Small 13 points

Pasta Fresca – Regular 20 points, Small 10 points

Whole Grain Tuscan Linguine – Regular 19 points, Small 12 points

American:

Spaghetti – Regular 17 points, Small 9 points

Wisconsin Mac & Cheese – Regular 23 points, Small 12 points

Mushroom Stroganoff – Regular 21 points, Small 10 points

Buttered Noodles – Regular 16 points, Small 8 points

Meats (for salads and pastas):

Chicken Breast – 3 points

Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast – 4 points

Sauteed Beef – 5 points

Braised Beef – 5 points

Sauteed Shrimp – 1 point

Meatballs – 6 points

Organic Tofu – 5 points

Sandwiches:

The Med – Regular 9 points, All Veggie 8 points

Spicy Chicken Ceasar - WITHOUT DRESSING 8 points, WITH DRESSING 13 points

Wisconsin Cheesesteak on Flatbread or on Ciabetta Roll – 16 points

Mmmeatball – 16 points

Sides:

Cucumber Tomato Salad – 2 points

Tossed Green Salad - w/Fat Free Asian Dressing 1 point, w/Balsamic Dressing 2 points

Tomato Bisque Soup – Regular 10 points, Small 5 points

Chicken Noodle Soup – Regular 7 points, Small 3 points

Thai Curry Soup – Regular 12 points, Small 6 points

Potstickers – Regular 9 points, Small 5 points

July 4th Weekend

Well, I made it thru the holiday weekend okay.  Had several picnics to attend and a bunch of beer to drink. There's this thing called the 3 bite rule.  Basically, you can put any of those pot luck dishes on your plate that you want to try, but only have 3 SMALL bites of them.  That way you get the flavor and you don't feel like you're getting cheated from the holiday experience, but you also don't feel guilty or sick afterwards.  It worked great for me.  Hope you all had a happy and safe 4th of July!!!