Eating Right

Let's back up for just a minute.

I really shouldn't have been blogging yesterday. I really shouldn't have let myself interact with other human beings at all. Because honestly... I don't know what I was thinking. This is an open, public blog. This isn't livejournal (one million cool points for each person that knows what livejournal is).

It sort of went in a chain of events. I had to do something Saturday afternoon that upset me. Then Sunday came and where the last two years I've treated that as sort of my Victory Day, I was just... well, hormonal. Let's be frank.

Today I was STILL upset. Crying. I nearly stayed home from work but I'm so glad that I didn't.

I get downstairs to lunch. I'm warming up the recipe that I will share with you shortly, and boom. I flip over the plate... it runs down my pants... and the plate breaks on the floor. And I just started bawling.

Until I realized that I was crying for absolutely no reason. I didn't even really feel bad. I just felt like crying, so I did. My eyes were swollen and hurting for nothing.

I thought about the things I said yesterday. I won't delete it; sometimes it's true. It really is a shame to be so young and be divorced. There are younger people than me, though. I had a guy in my physics class Freshman year of college that was 19 and divorced. It seems more and more likely. It's absolutely due to social pressures. I think the economy has a lot to do with it too. We have this stigma that couples can't live together without being married, but it's really hard to be young and live by yourself when things cost what they do. Why I say being young is not many of us jump out of college and into a large salaried job. Some people do. But not me.

The more I think about it though it was really just my self-absorbed hormones talking. You know what? Love honor and cherish is kind of a two way thing; if you won't do those things for me I'm not obligated to do those things for you. Some people might disagree, but I didn't want to live my life miserable since I only get the one. So screw it! Seriously! Now let's look at everything I've accomplished since. Let's do that:

I bought a freaking house.

I moved 1000 miles away from home, found a JOB and bought a freaking house.

I'm not sure what he can say for himself, but in three years that's not really a bad stack of accomplishments there.

Not to mention all the weight I've lost.

Which brings us to the topic at hand. FOOD!!!! We love food, don't we?

I had mentioned before that I give myself a $40 a week grocery budget. I almost never go over that. The only time I do is when I need to stock up on cleaning supplies or something, which technically isn't food, but they do sell it at the same store. I try to buy those things separately, but it's just sort of a convenience thing. This week I used coupons and I've noticed that when I use coupons I buy much more than I necessarily need. I bought 2 boxes of cereal (okay, that will get eaten) and I got two boxes of Chewy Fiber One bars for my morning snacks at work. The coupons stipulated two of each of those. I would say when living alone, and buying for one, nix the coupons. They'll only make you want things you don't need. But even with the coupons I only spent $35. Met my budget, per usual!

I tried a few new products this week. I'd been addicted to the Special K Chocolate and Pretzel bars, but I found that if I left it out in my car for the duration of my trip to the gym, I would come back and it would be hard as a rock. Not very fun to chew. So I had the Fiber One coupon and I'm usually pretty pleased with Fiber One stuff. I got a Chocolatey Pretzel one and a Peanut Butter and Chocolate one. Both were DELIGHTFUL. And both were only 90 calories. Both are probably the reason why I have too much sugar in my diet, but I digress.

Another thing I tried this week was the Lean Cuisine Fajita Spring Rolls. You get two-200 calorie servings in one box. I just finished eating the second one. It comes with one of those crisper sleeves like the ones that Hot Pockets come with, so you do have a little crispier of an experience. They're really good. I was surprised. The chicken inside was actually pretty tasty. And they were a little greasy. Greasy enough to let you feel like you're being bad, but really the only thing you're doing bad is eating something out of the freezer. But ssssshhhh. That'll be our little secret.

Let's get on with the fresh food:

Yesterday I made a casserole that I saw on Pinterest but I was absolutely appalled by how many calories a serving of that stuff had. Something like 531 according to my calculations. My version, at 6 servings, came out to 262 calories per serving. They called it a “Chicken Florentine Artichoke Bake.” Here's what went down...

8 oz bowtie pasta (or, if you're like me, and didn't have 8 oz of the same pasta, mix and match!)

1 small onion, chopped

2 eggs

1 ¼ c skim milk

1 tsp italian seasoning

½ tsp crushed red pepper

2 c. cooked chicken breast, chopped

4 oz. colby jack cheese

10 oz frozen spinach, thawed

8 oz can of quartered artichoke hearts in water, chopped

can of diced tomatoes

Preheat your oven to 350. You might consider cooking this at 375. After 30 minutes it still wasn't “done” with the eggs and milk being part of it. Cook the pasta according to package directions.

In a medium skillet, cook your onion until tender. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk eggs. Add milk and seasonings and whisk that together. Stir in your chicken, 3 oz of your cheese, artichokes, spinach, tomatoes, cooked pasta and onion. Make sure things are cooled down. You are throwing them into a bowl of eggs and milk. Transfer this bowl of goodies to a 13x9 dish.

Bake covered for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the last oz of cheese on top and bake for an additional 10 minutes uncovered.

I ended up cooking this for an additional 12 minutes covered after that. It just wasn't setting. Once I gave it the extra time, it was fine. I had some for lunch yesterday and today so I can safely say it was tasty. Unfortunately, this was the dish that I had to scrub off of my work pants while standing without pants in the bathroom at work... so my lunch buddy that usually benefits from my kitchen experimentation ran to Wendy's. And she brought me back a Junior Frosty, since I had tears. And that was 200 calories. And I tracked it.

The other recipe I'll be making this week I won't actually post here, but I'll link you to it, because it's not nice to steal! I really enjoy checking out a blog called GreenLiteBites. I saw this and just wanted to eat it right off of the screen. I've got the stuff to make her Chick Pea and Cucumber Salad with Dried Cherries and Cheese. I'm going to just put this together at work tomorrow. Can't wait! Of course I'll take some casserole in for my lunch buddy so she can give that a try first.

I like updating on Monday because I can tell you that I lost .8 this week on the official weigh in. I'm very happy with that. Because now MyFitnessPal tells me this:

MyFitnessPal - Free Weight Loss Tools

Now if anyone is just tuning in, I know that it looks sort of snobbish... “Oh! She's only lost 15 pounds... why on earth should I listen to her advice about eating!” That's 15 pounds since I started using MyFitnessPal (which I love). Let's be reminded that that's 62 lifetime pounds gone. 48 pounds since August of 2010. WHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOO!!!!! I'm excited. I hope you are too.

I'm excited too that I'm about to head out to my dance class tonight! This will be my first time going. I'm looking forward to it and looking forward to telling you how it goes! Yay for different ways of exercising.

Damn, am I feeling better or what? Stupid hormones.