Feel like I did pretty well on eating yesterday...

did I mention these sweet potatoes were really good?

portioned out my 14 baked tortilla chips, was wanting more, so ate some celery w/ the hummus

roasted chicken (from the grocery store. I just had the breast and took the skin off. The potatoes are called "Crash" potatoes - basically you boil a potato till you can stick a fork in it. Then you spray a cooking sheet w/ Pam, put the potato on the sheet and use the bottom of a glass to crush it. Then you drizzle a little olive oil on it, spring S+P, and bake it at 450 for like 20 min. It was ok - I used red potatoes, and the skin was nice and crispy, but overall it was kind of bland.

the broccoli is just regular Steamfresh Broccoli w/ lowfat cheese sauce from the freezer section. It was a quick easy meal - but just ok.

After dinner I was craving something sweet, so I had a handful of marshmellows. 

Did I mention I'm up .4 this week? 284.8.... Yeah, bummer. Kind of expected given the food fest this weekend, but it still sucks.

This is a new week, and today is a new day. And today I'm going to have a healthy portion controlled snack after work, followed up by a healthy portion controlled dinner tonight.

Also going to try and get some of that "E" word in tonight. Not exactly sure what form it will take... but yeah.

Today's Grub:

 Do yourself a favor and be careful w/ the Fiber One..... not only for your health, but for the health and well being of those around you. :/

Left over cheeseburger from last night...

The Monterey Jack and Sundried Tomato Sunchips are pretty tasty!

This yogurt is pretty good - not really chocolately, or even remotely like a Black Forest Cake, but still pretty good.

***Update***

I actually did have a nice portion controlled snack after work! I ate the allotted 18 pretzel sticks + the LC cheese.

I also tried this Vanilla Honey Camomille Tea. I've never been much of a hot tea kinda girl.... but it always sounds so warm and cozy and relaxing. Hot liquids are also supposed to curb your appetite (right? or did I make that up in my head?) So it was pretty good... I don't know if it necessarily curbed my appetite so much as kept my hands/mouth busy. Whatever works, right?

Anyway, on to dinner. Garlic Peppercorn Pork Loin, Cajun Sweet Potatoes, and Steamed Green Beans w/ RF butter and garlic.

I LOVE these sweet potatoes! lovelovelovelovelove! They were spicy, but still sweet. I could eat them by themselves as a snack. What an awesome healthy dinner!

So I feel pretty good about today. On to tomorrow!

Consider........ the Sweet Potato

Did you know Yams and Sweet Potatoes are two different things? I thought they were the same, but according to about.com, the Sweet Potato is the orange critter we all know and love for pies and as a vessel for melted marshmallows. The Yam is actually popular in Latin American and Caribbean cuisine, is generally sweeter, and can grow up to 7 feet in length!

There, now don't you feel enlightened?


Anyway, one of my (many) goals this year is to step out of my culinary comfort zone and make some new and interesting recipes with some new and interesting (and healthy) foods. I've done pretty well so far I think  - the chicken tortilla soup being the stand out star so far.




Tonight, I will attack the Sweet Potato.



Now I've made sweet potato souffle, and candied sweet potatoes, and all sorts of variations of the two. The problem is they're always more of a Thanksgiving/Christmas type side dish (that could easily do double duty as a dessert), and any health benefits are essentially negated by the copious amounts of sugar, marshmallows, jams, juice, and more sugar added to the mix.

I could do the standard baked sweet potato - but what do you add to that? brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter?

So my challenge to myself is to make a healthy savory sweet potato side dish for dinner tonight - and for my husband to eat it.

And that, my friends, is the true challenge here.

I love my husband, I truly do. He's my best friend, my confidant, my lover and my accomplice. But he's not the most adventurous eater. He tends to like his meat and potatoes (and by potatoes I mean white), his burgers and fries, his hamburger helper and... well, need I say more?  The tortilla soup was a stretch for him. He didn't like all that "stuff" floating around together in there so he had to close his eyes and take a bite on a leap of faith. (BTW, he really liked it!)

He's never eaten a sweet potato outside of a holiday dinner. Not even a baked one w/ all the sugar and stuff.

I am about to change that.

Tonight we're having roasted pork loin, steamed green beans, and...............................

CAJUN BAKED SWEET POTATOES. 

Are you excited? My husband doesn't know it yet.... He'll see them when they hit the plate. They have really good reviews at allrecipes.com, so I've got high hopes!

A little sweet, a little more spicy.... I'm hoping this can be a regular into the rotation! I'll let you know how it turns out!

World Nutella Day?

I just read today is World Nutella Day

Have you tried Nutella?

Once you sank your spoon into that jar of creamy chocolately hazlenutty goodness, did you stop yourself short of swiping your finger in the corners to get the last little bit?

I have bought Nutella on 3 seperate occasions with the purpose of using it in a recipe, or trying it on a bagel or toast or something.

I have never, not even once, made it to a piece of bread. Much less into a recipe. If I was pressed at gunpoint to give a favorite food in the entire world, Nutella might be it.

If you haven't tried it, and since this is a diet blog, I suggest you don't. If someone hands you a spoonful of Nutella, RUN - do not walk! Immedietly de-friend them and block their number from your phone. They are evil and have nothing but bad intentions for you!

Just one small teaspoon full will cause immediete and intense cravings coupled with over production of saliva, shakes, and acute irritability.

Consider yourself warned.





UGH

Today I could feasibly beat someone to death with a tape dispenser. Know what I'm saying? It's Monday, it's that time of the month, the computers at work are acting up, my boss is asking me to do stupid crap... people's very breath is annoying me. There's really no shortage to the list. I don't know what has set me off..... but man, watch out!

Aside from being generally annoyed, I'm a little disappointed in myself, too. This weekend was pretty bad. I didn't feel good, and basically let that give me permission to eat whatever I wanted.

I've been pretty lax in taking pictures of what I've eaten, too. Here's a recap of the past couple days....
Wednesday:

 

Not so bad...

Not so bad. Notice 1/2 the baked potato...eh? eh??? 

Choc Milk for dessert... I was still hungry.

Thursday:

there's that other 1/2 baked potato and leftover pork chop (baked, not fried!)

bagel thin w/ RF cream cheese when I got home...

uh oh.... carry out! Spicy Thai Basil Chicken. Didn't eat it all though!

Friday (here's where we start going downhill....)

 

a bowl of chili and 3 hot wings.


and cake......

but it's made better by lowfat yogurt later, right?

Dinner Friday? Leftover chili......

Feeling like crap Friday night... lowfat hot choc, Ibuprofen PM, and a heating pad makes it all better....



Saturday:

mid-day snack, and doing ok so far...

uh oh. How did we end up at a Mexican restaurant??? Those chips! That cheese!

Did I mention the cheese??? 

Due to some issues, we ended up getting a free order of Queso. Which is EXACTLY what I needed. *sigh*

 

 *Not actually my fajitas. My fajitas had chorizo and cheese on them.

I'd talk about being proud I didn't eat all of it, but truth be told I couldn't because I had just stuffed my face w/ cheese dip. :/

Super Bowl Sunday:

 oh goody, leftover chili again....

and since it's the Super Bowl - you have to eat the appropriate food, right?

Domino's deep dish pepperoni and mushroom pizza.... (4 slices, I believe)

 and a Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake.

So, I put my sins before you.... admonish at will..........

I know ya'll are too nice. You'll tell me to get back on the wagon. And I have. I've done well today, I took a quick 10 minute walk earlier to get my head back on straight, and I plan on trying to get a little bit of the "E" word in tonight between laundry and house cleaning.

I was feeling crampy and yucky and generally sorry for myself, and I comforted myself as I knew how. I can't say it won't happen again, but I'll try to deal with it better next time.

So here's what I've had today:

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin w/ Promise Spread



A bowl of Fiber One Raisin Bran Crunch + 1% milk for lunch. I'm sure it was more like 2 or 3 servings instead of 1... but it's lunch and hopefully it will keep me full for awhile.

oh yeah, and an orange. BTW. I'm getting sick of peeling oranges. I want someone to peel my oranges for me.



*Update*

I told my husband to get rid of the leftover pizza. Of course, there it sat in the fridge when I got home - waiting for me like a venomous spider.

Is it some kind of internal self -loathing that had a piece in my hand before I even knew it? It wasn't even all that good! But I kept eating it - even while I was thinking What the F@#*! am I doing?!

I threw the rest out, and in the grand scheme of things 1 piece isn't that bad.... but I'm disappointed in myself.

Evil, thy name is cheese. .......or pepperoni. Definitley one of the two.

Anyway, had a decent dinner:

Cheeseburgers and fries - with 96% lean beef, RF cheese, and oven fries. 

and a pudding cup