Day 110

Yikes, I didn't realize it had been eight days since my last post! The time really gets away from me sometimes. But I'm here now!

This post was meant for last night, but my homework ended up taking longer than I expected and I was up until 10:30 finishing it. So we're doing a daytime post instead!

First item: So, as expected, my weight did go up a pound when I weighed Friday morning. But it's no big deal...after measuring myself, I've found that the pounds matter less than the feeling that I'm being healthy. The real reward is seeing inches coming off! So I'm going to stick with the program and hopefully there will be some good news on the scale this Friday.

Second item: I finally got around to planning dinners for the week and stocked up on groceries! Here's what's on the menu:

Monday

Cobb Salad (my recipe)

Tuesday (today)

Shrimp with Mustard-Horseradish Sauce

Wednesday

Black Bean Soup

Thursday

Greek Salad

Friday

Yellow Split-Pea Soup

Saturday

Black Bean Burgers

Sunday

Leftovers!

Looks like pretty yummy week, eh? I also have it on my mind to try Susie Bee's tasty-looking Blueberry Banana smoothie sometime this week, so I'll let you know how that goes.

This particular grocery trip was somewhat of an adventure, as I was supposed to buy ham hocks for the split-pea soup. Let's just say I took one look at them and declined. Gross. I think I'm going to try using bacon instead. I know people use ham hocks all the time, but after I looked it up on Wikipedia and started think of them as pig ankles, I couldn't handle it. I would never survive as a vegetarian, but I can sympathize. I don't like being able to visualize the animals I'm eating. Ham hocks actually look like pig ankles. Ew.

Yesterday, I made a delicious Cobb Salad for dinner (and had the leftovers for lunch today). 

Now I know what you're thinking...that doesn't exactly look like the healthiest salad. And I would agree. Bacon is never the healthiest choice - it was definitely a treat. BUT, it's a good hearty meal if you're craving a good hearty meal. It's also low carb and has green things in it and beats a cheeseburger hands down! And it's filling and delicious.

Here's my informal recipe:

A few handfuls of spring mix greens

Goat cheese

Canned corn

Canned black beans

Fresh diced tomato

2 slices bacon

(You can also add a hard-boiled egg, but I decided that, with the bacon, the salad was already fattening enough! Maybe I'll swap it out for the egg next time)

I also made a low-fat spicy ranch dressing:

Low-fat sour cream

Ranch dressing mix (I just kept adding until it tasted right)

Paprika

Cayenne pepper

Black pepper 

Hot sauce

(I like spicy, in case you weren't sure)

As you can probably tell, I'm not much of a measurer when it comes to cooking. I usually just add until it tastes the way I want it to. And with a salad like this, that pretty much always works! 

Yum!

So we're having shrimp tonight! I plan to get my homework done earlier today so I can actually post tonight. That reminds me, I better go get the shrimp out of the freezer.

Love y'all!