Anti Weight Loss Dinner

Updated 01/16/2011
I added a recipe for the Coffee Brown Trifle.

Well, it's Sunday and it's Halloween. Happy Sunday and Happy Halloween! I was up early and it was time to eat. It looked like I'd be having yogart topped with some corn flakes for a little crunch, a bagel with PB, ground flax, and dried cranberries, and half an apple. I can't wait to get me some more everything bagels. I need a little something not sweet.

It seems like I am eating more lately and my weight just seems to jump up and down. I need it to go down before I have to start buying more clothes, which I can't afford at the moment. It will be a hard thing to do with Sunday dinners and all the leftovers we've been having, not to mention the desserts.
We got ready to go to Mom's to help with the cooking. I had to walk the dogs, grab a quick shower and throw in a load of clothes, since I didn't get them all done yesterday, and then we were off.

Mom had most of the stuff done. We just had to cook some of the meat and a few other things. As usually, we weren't having diet food. So I warn you, the food you are about to see, may cause weight gain, by simply viewing.


Here we have BBQ ribs,....

breaded chicken fillets....

and cubed steaks.

We also had green beans...

meatless cabbage rolls, which were very good,.....

the pasta salad, which I haven't tried yet, but I brought a little home....

mashed potatoes.....

seven layer salad....

Coffee Brownie Trifle, which was delicious, despite the topping sticking to the lid.....

Coffee Brownie Trifle aka Da Bomb

Ingredients

1 batch BAKER'S ONE BOWL Brownies, cooled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup brewed strong MAXWELL HOUSE Coffee (any variety), cooled, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.)PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup cold milk
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.)JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
1 cup fresh raspberries (We didn't use the rasberries)

Directions

Toss brownie cubes with 1/4 cup coffee.
Beat cream cheese and remaining coffee in large bowl with whisk until well blended. Gradually beat in milk. Add dry pudding mix; beat 2 min. Stir in COOL WHIP.
Place half the brownies in 3-qt. serving bowl; top with half the pudding mixture. Cover with layers of berries, remaining brownies and remaining pudding mixture. Refrigerate 1 hour.


And in the spirit of Halloween, there were cupcakes, which escaped the camera and mummy dogs.

Here is what I had....my camera somehow missed the cresent rolls as well, except for the one on my plate.

We also had our own trick or treaters, my two favorite girls, my grand babies. Here is Lexi in here Southern Belle/ Little Bo Peep costume...

And Mary didn't have a little lamb, she was one...and wasn't she a cute one?

So this was my Sunday. I was so tired today and when I got home I need some energy, so I had a little oatmeal muffin with some peanut butter and that did the trick. I feel so much better. I guess oatmeal and peanut butter really are energy foods.

Pumpkin Gets a Nose Job

It is a feel good kinda day, surprising, since I stayed up half the night trying to figure out what to do about my photos. Well, for now I have a fix. Hopefully it will be a permanent one. Keep your figures crossed. I still didn't sleep too well or too long, but I have felt pretty good all day. Ahhh, the sun, it's been shining today; that helps. I already knew when I woke up, what I was having for breakfast. I bought some peach yogurt last night and a couple of fuji apples. I put some of the yogurt in a bowl, I sprinkled a little ground flax on top, then I cut me up half of one of the apples, I put the apple and one of my oatmeal muffins crumbled on top of the yogurt. It was a yummy, filling breakfast that lasted a good part of the day.

After breakfast I took the puppies out and came in to do some cleaning and laundry. Since I am feeling so well, I made today laundry day. I really don't enjoy it, but I like having clean clothes, lol. DS and I also took apart our old broken treadmill, that I have been meaning to get rid of and hauled it out of here. Yay, floor space, for the puppies that is. Pepper was not happy about it though. He is the only dog I have ever seen that is afraid of tools. I use to think it was just power tools and the hammer because they make noise, but apparently it's all tools, because he didn't care for the screwdrivers, adjustable wrench or the pliers either.

Here is my little tool - phobic chicken dog Pepper

 Well, after all that work taking the treadmill apart, I was really getting hungry. DS and I had made some corn and potato chowder. I love soup. I wish I'd had some crusty bread to eat with it, but I settled for a few vegetable crackers. I loaded my soup up with some Texas Pete. I could drink that stuff. It would have been even better if it had been cold outside. It was very filling as well, in fact, I think I ate too much, but it was so good.

It has been a lovely day. I have accomplish a lot. After my chowder had time to digest a little, my sweet tooth kicked in, so I got myself a little sweet snack. I had one Little Debbie pumpkin cake left. They taste so good and look so sweet. I had a little fun with it first.

Say hello to my little friend...but wait, something is not quite right....

Ahh, my little friend needs a nose job...Now that's better. He even looks happier, right?

Well, since I had a late lunch and a snack, it is only natural that I have a late dinner. I nearly forgot to walk the dogs, so after I took them out I came back in and started trying to figure out what I was going to have for dinner.... and the winner is.....an Asian theme dinner. I not only had a late dinner, but it was a great dinner. 

I had decide to have a veggie eggroll, an Asian veggie burger, and a salad. In order to complete the theme, I had to come up with an Asian salad dressing, because I didn't have any. 

I ran to the computer, while my eggroll was baking and did a search on, you know, Food.com. I didn't have any soy sauce, so I used the recipe sifter tool that they have, to put in what I did have. I had rice vinegar and sesame oil, so I put that in. It came up with bunches of recipes, so I narrowed even further by excluding soy sauce, which brought up 31 recipes, a reasonable amount to look through in a short amount of time. The one I chose was Oriental Noodle and Crab Salad, which had a salad dressing recipe included. It tastes sort of like my Hot Kimchee Pickle (not actually mine, but one I use) recipe.  

Oriental Salad Dressing

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

1 teaspoon minced ginger (I didn't have the fresh ginger either, but subbed a little ground ginger)

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

My salad had mixed baby greens, carrot, broccoli, red onion, and cucumber. I really enjoyed my dinner. I also included a little Hoisin sauce for my eggroll. It's my new discovery and I like it as much as the duck sauce we get when eating out.

Even though I did get a head start on my post, I am rather late getting it posted so, I am off to get ready for bed. Thanks for stopping by. Please do come back.

Oatmeal On My Mind

You know I've been thinking about oatmeal quite a bit lately. When I woke up this morning, I had it in my head that I was going to make something out of oatmeal. I checked out recipes on Food.com, formerly Recipezaar.  I decided on oatmeal muffins ( a link to the original recipe, because of course I had to make it my own by adding some apple, cinnamon and vanilla). I am also posting my version.

The recipe is a bit time consuming, because you have to soak the oats in buttermilk for an hour, so it wasn't going to be my breakfast. I just can't wait that long. I didn't even use to eat breakfast, but now I am starving  as soon as  my eyes open, so I just had a bowl of shredded mini wheats. It was quick and I could get started on the recipe.

In reading the recipe, I realized I didn't actually have buttermilk, I also know I can substitute a Tbsp. of vinegar (I used white) and enough milk to equal one cup to make one cup of buttermilk. It is slightly less thick, but still works. I hardly ever get actual buttermilk, because I can't see paying almost as much for a quart as you would for a half gallon and if I buy a half gallon, then it usually goes to waste. Anyway...

what I didn't realize was that my baking powder had expired in August. I did realize it before using it, but I wasn't sure if I should go ahead with it or not.

I decided to look around on the internet to see what I could find out about it. I quickly came across a blog called Bowl of Plenty with lots of information about baking powder. Although it is best to throw it out, there is also a video that shows how to test the baking powder to see if it is still good and since this was somewhat of an emergency ( I already had my oatmeal soaking and I was out of self rising flour), I decided to test it and see. Luckily it passed the test.

On with the making of the muffins.... From there things went fairly smoothly. The muffins turned out quite well, but I do believe they didn't rise quite as well as they may have otherwise.

Here is the recipe according to the way I made the muffins:

Apple Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup quick-cooking oats 
• 1 cup buttermilk ( I used 1 Tbsp white vinegar + enough milk to equal 1 cup)
• 1 eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup margarine, melted (normally I use oil, but since this recipe said not to, I didn't)
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 apple chopped into small chunks (I think it was a fuji, but I believe a granny smith would have been better)
• 1 tsp. each - cinnamon and vanilla ( I also believe a little more cinnamon would have been better.)

Directions

1. Soak oatmeal in buttermilk 1 hour; add egg and vanilla and beat well.
2. Add sugar and mix.
3. Add cooled margarine.
4. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and soda
5. Stir apple chunks into flour mixture
6. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients
7. Bake in greased muffin pans in hot oven (400 degrees) 15 to 20 minutes.

And here are the muffins. These were very yummy and moist. 

I would love to add more photos, but I am still having issues with photo storage. I hope to somehow get this resolved eventually.


The day was another uneventful day except for my lovely batch of muffins. I spent a lot of time online trying to figure out what to do about my photo problems. I still haven't come up with a good solution, not one I am satisfied with. I got so caught up in figure it out, I was late getting lunch. It was so late, that I decide to eat something that would last a while, but not as long as usual, so I just had the leftover kidney beans in their soup/juice whatever and a little butter. I had forgotten how dried kidney beans can be. I also had a piece of garlic toast with them. 

When it was finally time for dinner, I was in the mood for some salad, but I was out of lettuce, so DS and I decided to go and get a few things from the store. It was nice to get out of the house for a little while, even though it was just a trip to the grocery store. By the time we got back, I was starving. I threw me a big old salad together with the baby mixed greens I bought, some cucumber and carrot and what was left of the tuna salad I had. I topped it with a little Light Honey Dijon Mustard dressing. Loved it!

After dinner, we watched a Netflix movie, Robin Hood with Russel Crowe. It was a lot better than I had expected, a little bloody for me, but the story line was great.

Well, luckily I managed to get some photos posted. I'm still interested in ideas of how to resolve this issue. Good night!

Great Day, Good Food

I really need to start my posts earlier in the day, while everything is fresh. I have been doing that for the last few posts. Today was one of those days, when I was late getting started. I didn't get up as early as I have been the last few days. I have really been trying to find ways to make this blog better. I've been doing a lot of reading, which has taken up more time than I would like. I am still trying, so keep checking back and hopefully I will have made some improvements.

I got up this morning and spent a few minutes deciding what to eat. I finally chose the old standby, a bagel with peanut butter and a gala apple. It was a cinnamon raisin bagel. After loading the bagel up with PB, I topped it with some dried cranberries and walnuts. I've been craving granola for some reason, but the bagel really hit the spot. I'm stuck on this oatmeal thing, anything with oatmeal in it seems appealing.

Lunch was nice too. I fixed tuna sliders, two little tuna salad sandwiches with a side of fresh broccoli and carrots and some kicked up light ranch to dip them in. I am not a big fan of plain ranch. I always add some extra garlic, dill, and blackpepper. I do like the ranch you make yourself from the Hidden Valley seasoning packets, but the rest usually need some help. 

Well, pooh!!! It seems that blogger has a 1 GB photo limit and somehow I have met my quota. I have deleted a few photos so that I can finish this post. I will have to see what I can do differently. I certainly can't afford to pay for extra storage just now. If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate it. I am new at this and obviously have a lot to learn. Thanks.

I will now tell you about the rest of the day and hopefully post a couple more photos. When DS got home from his classes, we ran over to Mom's for a little bit. She had baked some cookies and being the sugar addict that I am, I had to have one. It would tide me over until dinner, right? Cookies are so yummy, I miss the days when I could gobble up 3 or 4 at a time and never gain an ounce. Now I look at food and gain 10 pounds.

Yippee! One photo down, one to go...

Now lets go for dinner. I had Priano Four Cheese Risotto courtesy of Aldi, kidney beans, and steamed broccoli with Italian dressing. The risotto was the best. I have never eaten risotto before. I had always intended to try it, but had never gotten around to it. It really made the meal. It did have most of the cheese with it but called for 2 Tbsp. of Parmesan as well. Luckily I has some, because I didn't realize it when I bought it. Now, lets see if we can get this next photo posted. Wish me luck!

Yay! I did it!

 I've also posted a link for some coupons. I'm still looking for some good samples. Coupons are nice, but samples are way nicer.

Coupons - Febreze  products

Hot, hot, hot

I really needed the a/c today. I didn't turn it on though, hoping to help with the power bill. I didn't sleep well and was up early again today (be careful what you wish for, right?). There were a lot of tornado warnings and watches in the area last night and all day today as well, luckily no damage here. It made for a nervous night.  It has been very warm inside and out, which kept me from sleeping.

 I got up early this morning and for breakfast, I baked a can (yes, I said a can) of biscuits. These are sort of a comfort food for me, although I don't eat them often. I also fix me a couple of Morning Star Farms veggie sausage patties. I put them on 2 biscuits, sliced me an apple and I was ready to eat.

I saw, at the grocery store, that MSF also has hot and spicy veggie sausage. I am thinking of trying it next time. MSF has some new entrees as well. I've posted a link for a $1 off coupon below.

Today I received a couple more samples and lots of coupons. I love when you get coupons with the samples. One of the samples I received was a Quaker Life bar. It was the Cinnamon Roll Raisin Pecan flavor.  I just had to try it right away.  I thought it was very good. It was sort of like a soft granola bar. It had a few rice crispy type crunchies in it, which I couldn't really see, but if you've ever eaten rice crispy cereal, you recognize the crunch. I would buy these, especially since they sent a $1 coupon with the sample. They also have Banana Walnut Bread flavor.

I sort of snacked and skipped lunched today. It was so hot, I really didn't have much of an appetite, but by 5pm I was ready for something to eat. I had leftover baked potatoes from yesterday, so I decide to use those. I peeled them and cubed them up. I also cut up some onion and 4 or 5 mushrooms that needed to be used. I threw the onions in a skillet with a little oil & butter and browned them a little, then I threw in the potato chunks and after a few minutes I threw in the mushrooms. I seasoned them a little with sea salt and pepper.  I removed them from the pan and threw in a couple handfuls of skinny frozen green beans, courtesy of Aldi. I love these green beans.  I sprinkled them with a little of the sea salt and added a dab more oil and turned up the heat. I sort of stir fried them until crisp tender. This meal was both satisfying and quick. Gotta love that.

Broccoli Salad

I was wide awake this morning at 6am. I was not ready to get up. After lying there for an hour, I finally realized, I wasn't going back to sleep. I gave in and got up. I decide to have me some more of the fruit salad over another pumpkin waffle (the last one). If you haven't seen the picture, you can find it here. After breakfast, I was thinking about different things I could fix for breafast, which got me searching the internet for ideas. I found some ideas, but not just for breakfast.

One of the ideas I found was for baked oatmeal. You know, I just can't do regular oatmeal. There is just something about the texture and the look of it. I know I would probably like it, because I like oatmeal cookies and lots of other oatmeal things, but none of them are mushy. I am not sure about the baked oatmeal, because I am not sure what kind of texture it is. It looks kind of like a bar cookie maybe softer, but that is what worries me. If it is similar to a brownie in softness, I may be able to do that. I do however see baked oatmeal in my future, whether or not I like it is another story.

Another recipe I found, which was not breakfast or at least not one of the usual ones, was for a broccoli salad. I had been trying to think of something to do with some fresh broccoli  I have, to use it up before it spoils, so I decided I would try it for lunch. I was just fixing enough for me, so I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but I reduce the amounts and left out the bacon. The recipe can be found at  A Feast for the Eyes, if you are interested. It was yummy. It is blanched broccoli with red onion, sliced almonds, and dried cranberries with a mayo based dressing. The cranberries where my favorite part. I had it over a bed of spinach leaves. The spinach went very well with everything. It is something I will eat again.

A third recipe I found was for crockpot baked potatoes. I knew you could fix them this way, but I had never tried it. That recipe can be found at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. I threw the baked potatoes in the crockpot or rather my DS did. One  reason I like this method is because, I am bad about waiting until I am starving to start fixing dinner and by then, I am wanting something quick, so if I think about a baked potato for lunch, but I'm not willing to wait, I can go ahead and put a few in the crockpot and I've already started on dinner.

To go with my baked potato, I used some of the leftover taco veggie crumbles to make a little slider. I have these cute little wheat buns by Pepperidge Farm to make sliders. It looks little, but it was plenty with the baked potato. I had some of the Chipotle Mayo dressing on my slider. It was yummy, but a little  warmer the second day, still good though.

I also found some coupons, if your interested. I haven't found any good free samples yet.
Update: 1 free sample Vaseline Intensive Rescue

coupon for $3 off Clorox Green Works Detergent offer ends 10/31/10

Free Chili's Queso and Chips (Join Email Club / Newletter)

Chipotle Mayo Salad Dressing Recipe

It is pouring down rain this morning. We need the rain, but I wish it came at night. I need the sun. Even my puppies don't like the rain, except Pepper, he couldn't care less one way or the other. I always sleep later when it rains, but because I went to bed earlier, I woke up around the same time. My breakfast for today was a pumpkin waffle topped with fruit salad, yummo! The creamy fruit topping really brought out the cinnamony pumpkin flavor of the waffle.

Still raining off and on and it looks like it may be this way for several days. All I want to do on days like this is eat. For lunch I had leftover Southwestern salad. It wasn't looking too hot though. All the lettuce had wilted. It was basically just the corn, beans, cheese, etc. and dressing with some green in it here and there, so to dress it up a little and for the added nutritional value, I plopped it onto a bed of spinach leaves. I love raw spinach. It is so much more meaty than other lettuces.

A little while later, I decide I just had to have a piece of the apple cake. I had planned to have it as a snack with a fresh apple, but I was still too full from lunch to have the cake and the apple, so I just had the cake. I guess I thought the apple would make it healthier, lol. I'd like to lose about 10 lbs. but at this rate, it's not looking very promising.

I got a couple of my free samples in the mail. One was a post-it notes sample and the other was Jergens Ultra Healing and Overnight Repair lotions. There was also a $1 off coupon with the lotion. I love free samples, especially when they come with coupons. I will try to post the links for the ones I send for.


For dinner, I had a taco salad with homemade chipotle mayo dressing. I am posting the recipe for the dressing. The salad was spinach and butter lettuce, onion, tomato, mushroom, mexican rice, taco veggie crumbles, a sprinkle of cheese and tortilla chips. I like to mix up dressing for my salads instead of using the same store bought versions all the time. Here is the recipe for the dressing:

Chipotle Mayo Salad Dressing

Makes just a few servings more or less                                                                            

4 Tbsp. Mayonnaise

2 tsp white vinegar

2 Tbsp. Milk

½ tsp. dried cilantro

¼ tsp. each:

garlic powder

onion powder
paprika

⅛ tsp. chipotle powder

⅛ tsp. salt or to taste

I combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, and milk first, then add the dry ingredients with cilantro last, but I guess as long you mix it all together it will taste the same.

This dressing is spicy. If it is too spicy for you or you think it might be, you can either double the mayo, milk and vinegar or gradually add the chipotle powder to taste. You can also leave out the milk and vinegar to use as a sandwich spread.

Now for the taco salad pics.

Ok, that it for today. I'm going to check out some more samples.