30 Day Smoothie Challenge: Day 7 plus Baked Fajitas!

Day 7

7/15/12

Sunday

Morning weight: 161.5

Today's Goal: Watch what I eat very closely

This week's goal: -2 lbs

This month's goal: -10 lbs

Vitamins: yes

Breakfast: Smoothie (3 bananas, Spinach, 1/2 apple, Watermelon, Greek yogurt)

Mid-morning snack: none

Lunch: Turkey and cheese Sandwich

Mid-afternoon snack: none

Dinner: Spaghetti and home made meat sauce

I think I gained that pound back from dinner last night.

# of bottles of water: III

The last two days was pretty boring. I need to remind you guys that weight fluctuations are NORMAL. Seriously. Even though I'm weighing myself everyday, I take each weigh-in with a grain of salt. If you had a big dinner, you'll probably weigh more the next morning. If you didn't drink as much water the day before, you'll probably weigh less the next day then bounce back up. Don't sweat it.

I did want to tell y'all about this Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie I had on day 6. I found the recipe on 'This Chick Cooks' and it was good. But not good enough for me to drink a big glass of, like all of my other smoothies. It would probably be a good milkshake replacement smoothie. I would probably add cocoa powder or something to it because I got bored with it REALLY FAST and I am in love with chocolate peanut butter milkshakes. 

I've been on a cooking kick the last few days, and I'm really excited about the meal I found on 'Six Sisters' Stuff' because I love Mexican food. 

You need :

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 large bell pepper, seeded and sliced
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 2 t. chili powder
• 2 t. cumin
• 1/2 t. garlic powder
• 1/2 t. dried oregano
• 1/4 t. salt
• 12 flour tortillas, warmed to serve

First, combine your spices and vegetable (I used olive oil) oil in a small bowl. I had to replace the oregano with basil because we didn't have any and that was the closest substitute. 

 Next, slice your thawed chicken into strips and put them in a casserole dish.

 Add your sliced up bell pepper and onion to that.

 Finally, the rest of the ingredients go in. Our grocery store either hides or doesn't carry green chilies in a can by themselves, so I used two cans of Rotel's diced tomatoes and green chilies (10 oz each).

I tried to mix them all together right before this picture, but that didn't really work out.

This is the finish product (after we ate some of course)

I've reached this weeks goal and even passed it by losing 3.5 lbs total!!! Baby steps!! 1/10th of the way to my goal :)

"To Try" List

• Grape fruit
• Cucumbers
• Oatmeal (or oats) 7/14/12 You could barely taste it and it only changed the consistency a tiny bit
• Broccoli
• White beans
• Pinto beans
• Avocado 
• Nutmeg
• Cinnamon
• Peaches 7/14/12 YUM YUM YUM! Even though I could barely taste it in the smoothie I made, it added lots to the smoothie.
• Pineapple
• Kiwi
• Papaya
• Mangoes
• Cottage Cheese
• Blackberries
• Carrots
• Bell peppers
• Almond milk
• Tofu
• Kale
• Mushrooms
• Flaxseed
• Pears
• Oranges
• Apricots
• Parsley
• Cooked sweet potato
• Pumpkin
• Green tea
• Things I find at the farmers market!

Let me know if there is anything you are DYING for me to try and I'll consider it :)

Day 5: Down 3.5 lbs in 5 days!

Day 5

7/13/12

Friday

Morning weight: 160.5 lbs

Today's Goal: 4+ bottles of water

This week's goal: lose 2 lbs

This month's goal: lose 10 lbs

Vitamins: yes

Breakfast: Smoothie (Spinach, OJ, honey greek yogurt, watermelon, 2 bananas, 1/2 apple)

Mid-morning snack: Plain green tea, 1 boiled egg

Lunch: Stroganoff, Sprite

Mid-afternoon snack: 1 boiled egg

Dinner: 2 chicken thighs, smoothie (honey greek yogurt, Spinach, OJ, blueberries, banana, watermelon)

I was really nauseous this morning, and had a problem right before breakfast (I threw up :( ). I still didn't feel 100% at lunch so I had a sprite, I  wouldn't have otherwise

# of bottles of water: IIII

Even though losing 3.5 lbs in 5 days is a HUGE deal, my biggest news of the week is that my physical therapist is putting me on the elliptical on Monday!!! I was in a car accident in December and, other than about 18 times in January/February, I haven't been able to run like I wanted to. My New Year's Resolution this year was to run a half-marathon and lose 30 lbs. Number 1 didn't happen (duh), but I'm going to try and be ready for one mid-spring. Number 2 is what I'm trying to do now.

Thanks for your support!

My dinner time smoothie was interesting to say the least

These are my ingredients (I added OJ later because it adds more flavor and nutrients than water).

The watermelon and banana are the only frozen things I added. Also, I've learned that adding spinach first with a liquid helps it blend best.

This is what it ended up looking like, even though it was a little browner in real-life. It tasted kind of like I remember the bubble gum fluoride toothpaste from the dentist's office. After a few big sips, the fluoride flavor went away. I didn't like the way it made my teeth feel, but I figure I'm going to brush them before bed.

Oh! and this is our WONDERFUL new blender!! The blender we used to have was the one they received as a wedding present almost TWENTY-NINE YEARS ago. My mom finally decided I was right in needing a new blender when it started smoking. Yeah, that's a problem.

Soon, I'll also be posting a list of things I want to try in my smoothies. I'll let you know how each thing goes and when I try it. Even if it isn't good, I'll drink all of it. Pinky swear.

Let me know if there is anything you want me to try! Disclaimer: the food has to be something you would also eat, and I reserve the right to say no (like meat, yeah not putting that in a smoothie)

***I am not doing this diet under doctor supervision and if you do it also, you do it at your own risk. Since you are only adding a smoothie to your diet it should be safe, but I claim no responsibilities. 

30 Day Smoothie Challenge: Day 3

I haven't blogged in a while because, really, I've been lazy. I've been home since Mother's day and I cooked a ton until June 7th (my Nana's birthday) when I had to have knee surgery for a car wreck I was in in December. But I am now forcing myself to blog about all the food I make and my new weightless goals.

On the day before the accident, I decided I was going to run a half-marathon this year and lose 35 lbs while doing so. I'm not a big girl at all, but I am not satisfied with my body. I have actually lost 4 lbs since the accident, which is huge for having to be mostly sedentary. I attribute it all to the food I put in my body. With 6 months left in the year though, I need to hop onto my diet plan and stick to it.

I really like making smoothies for breakfast, because they're easy and fast. Plus I can hide lots of veggies in them. When I was looking for smoothie recipes, lots of people were talking about this 30 day smoothie challenge. While I have yet to find a website with all of the 'rules', I have taken rules from different 30 day challenges and combined them to make my own.

The rules are:

• add one smoothie (homemade is best) to what you eat every day
• it's best to have a fruit and veggie smoothie, but just fruit or just veggie are okay
• You aren't SUPPOSED to use it to replace a meal with the smoothie (but I drink two a day and replace breakfast with a smoothie since I usually don't eat breakfast anyway)

The best part about this is that you can experiment with different fruit and veggies everyday! I've also read that you can lose as much as 15 lbs, feel better, and your completion is better with this!

On day 1, I started a food, weight, goal journal and I haven't perfected it just yet, but I'm only on day 3 of having a food journal I actually use. I'm not trying to count calories as much as I'm trying to eat better and be more aware of what I eat. I weigh myself every morning/before I eat or drink anything and write in my journal as I make my smoothie. 

My journal is written out like this:

Day

Date

Day of the week

Morning weight:

Today's Goal:

This week's goal:

This month's goal:

Vitamins: (yes/no)

Breakfast:

Mid-morning snack: (if applicable)

Lunch:

Mid-afternoon snack: (if applicable)

Dinner:

Notes section

# of bottles of water: (This is a tally and on the very bottom of the page)

So since I'm on day 3 It looks like this

Day 3

7/11/12

Wednesday

Morning weight: 163 (down 1 lb)

Today's Goal: Drink more water

This week's goal: lose 2 lbs

This month's goal: lose 10 lbs

Vitamins: (yes/no) yes

Breakfast: Smoothie (Bag of cantaloupe, low-fat vanilla greek yogurt, 2 handfuls of baby spinach, 1 cup of grapes, 1/2 apple, 1 banana, 4 pieces of celery)

Mid-morning snack: (if applicable) none

Lunch: 1/4 chicken breast, potatoes, green beans (leftover) ***didn't eat very much***

Mid-afternoon snack: (if applicable) smoothie (1 apple juice box, 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 handful of frozen strawberries, 2 handfuls of baby spinach)

Dinner:

Notes section

# of bottles of water: (This is a tally and on the very bottom of the page)III

It's only 4 o'clock so I haven't finished yet, but you get the gist of it. Also, I have a 600 mL camel bak I drink out of because it's easy to know how much I've had to drink. The goals are each a step up from each other but none of them are insane for me to get to with the amount of activity I'm allowed to do only being a month out from a major knee surgery. 

The smoothie I have pre-made in my freezer is from AllRecipes and is super easy!

It calls for 

• 1 banana
• 1 cup of grapes
• 1 (6oz) tub of vanilla yogurt 
• 1/2 an apple, cored and chopped
• 1.5 cups of baby spinach 

It's a good basic recipe, but really who is going to measure out all of that every day? I pre make them!

On Sunday or Monday, I'll go to the store and get a bunch of bananas, 2 bags of grapes, 7 tubs of LOW-FAT GREEK vanilla yogurt (Oikos comes in 6oz already), apples, and a big container of baby spinach. I'll divide all of the fruits into sandwich bags for in the mornings, so when I wake up I just have to grab a handful or two of spinach, the yogurt, and the fruits to make my smoothie. (I don't bother measuring out the spinach for real because if I have too much, oh well. It's better for me. Also, this makes two servings and says it's 205 calories on the website, but the yogurt I use is really good and low-fat, so I don't think it's even that much.

After making about 10 smoothies in the last 2 weeks I've learned a few things.

1. A blender that is 27 or 28 years old doesn't work very well
2. If the blender is smoking, it's time to replace it (and my wonderful parents did)
3. Putting the spinach in first with a little bit of liquid works best, otherwise it takes forever to blend.
4. I probably need to cut the apples into smaller chunks.
5. You can't taste the spinach because the banana over powers it.

Now a word of warning, this smoothie will be BRIGHT GREEN. Get over it. It is so yummy I could eat it every day.

Today, I experimented with the basic smoothie and added cantaloupe and celery to my smoothie. The cantaloupe was delicious, but I could kind of taste the celery at the very end. Does anyone know what can cover this up?

For my smoothie this afternoon, I just combined the frozen/fresh fruits I had (1 apple, an apple juice box, a banana, a handful of frozen strawberries, and 2 handfuls of spinach). Aside from the strawberries being tart, which I didn't know before hand, and the vomit-like color of the smoothie, it was delicious! 

I wasn't kidding, it looks gross.

I promise I'll try and post on odd numbered days in the challenge with my journal page for that day, a smoothie recipe, and tips I've learned in those two days!

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

1/4/12

      I love easy, delicious food (hence why this contains lots of easy food). These cookies were easier than I thought they were going to be, because I had to make meringue first.

I got this recipe from Devine Baking and it looked delicious!

The ingredients are:

    -Nonstick vegetable oil spray
    -1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces), divided
    -3 large egg whites, room temperature
    -2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided (I used 2 cups)
    -1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    -1 tablespoon cornstarch
    -1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 

2. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray. 

3. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave, stirring twice, about 2 minutes. Let this cool while you do the rest

4. Using electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl to soft peaks. Gradually beat in 1 (I halved the sugar here) cup sugar. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft marshmallow creme and has stiff peaks (stays up when you put a spoon in it and pull the spoon out)

5. Combine 1 cup powdered sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. On low speed, beat dry ingredients into meringue. 

6. Add chocolate and 1/2 cup chocolate chips (dough will become very stiff).

7. Place 1/2 cup powdered sugar in bowl. 

8. Roll 1 rounded tablespoon dough into ball; roll in sugar, coating thickly. Place on prepared sheet and spacing 2 inches apart. 

For step seven, I recommend only putting in 1/4 a cup at the beginning and adding more as needed because I had tons of left overs. 

I had never sprayed the sheets before I started doing this, but it is life changing! It is so much easier to get everything off the pans. Also, I recommend using a mixer because: 1. It's hard to make meringue without one and 2. The mixture gets very, very thick once you add the chocolate.

Honey Mustard Chicken

1/3/12

         Yesterday, I found a recipe on Pinterest for Honey Mustard Chicken. Now if you know me, you know that my favorite food combination of all time is honey mustard and fried chicken. Now that I've gone gluten-free again, however, I can't have fried chicken breaks my heart. This recipe made me regain hope, though. Also, it's a Weight Watchers recipe, which doesn't hurt anything at all.

You can find the original recipe here: http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeid=57621

Sorry I don't have pictures, I just decided to start this blog after I made the next post.

The ingredients are:

    -Cooking spray (It says to use one but I used a couple more)

    -2/3 cup of light honey mustard dressing 

    -1/8 tsp of salt

    -1/8 tsp of black pepper

    -2tsp fresh dill finely chopped (I used 1tsp of dried and could have used less. Also, I feel like this is optional)

    -1 medium scallion, finally chopped

    -1 cup of cornflake crumbs

    -4-4oz chicken breasts

1. Preheat oven to 425F.

2. Coat pan with cooking spray. 

         -I also put aluminum foil over the pan before I sprayed it for even easier clean-up

3. In a bowl, combine 1/3 cup of honey mustard dressing, salt, pepper, dill, and scallions

          -set aside the rest of it for after

4. Place cornflake CRUMBS on a plate. Dip chicken into dressing then cornflakes and place in pan.

5. Drizzle (or dip) remaining dressing mixture over chicken and serve.

After making it, I recommend putting a wire cookie rack in the pan to keep the bottoms of the chicken from getting soggy. Remember to read the recipe first so you don't use whole cornflakes instead of crumbs; which I forgot to do and burned some cornflakes. 

We didn't use most of the dressing I set aside.

 Next time, I would just let people use what they want to so there isn't as much waste.