On today's menu...

This morning's breakfast (excuse the Sunday paper mess in the background). 8 Points Plus of yumminess....





Grapes & a pear: 0 points
Thomas's everything bagel thin: 3 points
1Tbsp of butter: 3 points
Weight Watchers chocolate smoothie with frozen berries: 2 points

And lunch....






3 Points Plus for all 6 stuffed peppers.
Peppers: 0 points
3 ounces of neufchatel mixed with Tastefully Simple Fiesta Party mix seasoning: 3 points. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. So yummy!

Yum!

I have been obsessed with Mediterranean food lately. So much so that we've eaten it like 8 times within the last 2 weeks. Since getting it out was getting expensive, on Sunday my husband spent hours recreating it for me.  We had falafel, muhammara, and feta stuffed dates with pomegranate sauce on them (below).





And then tonight we went out again for more. This is the gyro Josh had...



I meant to take a picture of my feta cheese pie and salad, but I was too hungry to pause that long. Yummy.  I'm glad I feel this way about healthy food instead of craving fried food like I used to. Yay for Weight Watchers and the ways it's changing my life.

15 point lunch

I am quite pleased with today's 15 point lunch. Next time I will do less salad dressing to reduce a bit, but it was so yummy.

Tomato basil pesto "pizzas" made with Arnold's Thins buns, cheese and green olives. Yummy side salad with Italian dressing and cheese. I also had some 0 calorie peach iced tea.

LID: Day 2

I've made it through another day of the low iodine diet.  Woohoo!  Today's important lesson: salting the unsalted organic peanut butter with iodine free salt makes a big difference. I'm trying hard to be positive and see the little victories, but I have to be honest....

Ok, I'm already sick of fresh fruit.  And my stomach is tired of the extra acid.  I didn't even bother logging my calories today because I hardly ate anything.

Breakfast: Homemade turkey sausage from the LID cookbook, a banana, and some sugar free kool-aid. My husband is so awesome with cooking this stuff for me. I really appreciate it. The sausage was pretty good when it was fresh and not so great when it was reheated in the microwave.  Tomorrow I will be reheating it in a pan on the stove top instead.





Lunch: An Archer Farms pomegranate fruit bar and a chapatti flat bread along with Coke Zero Vanilla.

Dinner: Matzo crackers with organic unsalted peanut butter and red grapes.

Snack: Homemade popcorn with sodium free margarine and non iodized salt.

Last night, I also tried a baked apple (with brown sugar & cinnamon) from the LID cookbook. It was pretty yummy especially since I could add the margarine.

Low iodine diet (LID): Day 1

Today was the first day of my low iodine diet.  For those of you who aren't well versed in the whole thyroid cancer world, the low iodine diet or LID is necessary in preparation for radioactive iodine. I will be getting a small dose of radioactive iodine at the end of the month for scanning purposes so this diet is necessary for me. So why low iodine of all things?  Because our thyroid cells are the only ones in our body that uptake iodine.  The logic behind the LID diet is to starve the thyroid cells of iodine so that when the radioactive iodine is introduced into the body, those cells will suck it up like a sponge. For about 3 weeks, I will need to do this diet.  And it SUCKS!  If you want the full scoop on LID, please visit the Thyroid Cancer Survivor's Association  for more info.

The hardest part for me about LID is that I can't eat the foods that were a big part of my healthy eating plan such as turkey bacon and dairy. Fresh fruits and veggies are great, but they can get boring in a hurry for me.  The challenge for me is to make the fresh fruits and veggies interesting.  This is hard to do when so many key ingredients are on the "not allowed" list for LID.  We did hit Jewel today and found a butter substitute which makes life easier.  Fleischmann's margarine does not have any dairy or salt in it.  Woot!  I am also very lucky to have a supportive & empathetic husband who loves to cook.  He made me some Indian flatbreads that I can either eat plan or use as a sandwich wrap.  They are a little plain but beggars can't be choosers, right?

On today's LID menu was:
*bananas
*raisins
*homemade chappattis (those flatbreads)
*orange juice (which I normally don't drink because of the calories)
*fruit strips--my only "packaged food" of the day
*sauteed onions, tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms--these were great with the chappattis.
*Aldi's fruit punch drink mix (happily does not have the disallowed dye)
*about 4 ounces of grilled chicken

For my healthy eating plan, I typically eat 1850 calories per day.  Today I ate 1178.  Yay for eating less of course because I am working on losing a lot of weight.  But what sucks is that I feel like I ate less.  I feel hungry and just "off".  Hopefully tomorrow will be a little easier for me.

My favorite foods for today:






Chapatti, chicken, sauteed veggie sandwich:

Chicken Pesto

People always have a hard time believing me when I say that doing the South Beach diet isn't actually that bad because the food is really tasty. So I thought I'd share some proof.

My favorite South Beach recipe:

Baked Pesto Chicken (Phase 1)

Description
Store-bought pesto and reduced-fat mozzarella cheese are all it takes to turn tender chicken breasts into an incredibly easy-to-make dish that will likely become a new family favorite.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 (6-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup pesto (from a jar)
2 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (1/2 cup)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
Heat oven to 375°F. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Spread 1/4 cup of the pesto in a 9" by 13" baking dish. Lay chicken breasts over pesto in an even layer and spread with remaining pesto.

Cover baking dish with foil and bake chicken until cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Uncover and top with cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, 5 more minutes. Serve hot.

Nutritional information
Per serving:
390 calories
20 g fat (5 g sat)
2 g carbohydrate
46 g protein
0 g dietary fiber
450 mg sodium

Birthday & Anniversary Pics!

So although our anniversary and my birthday were both pretty rough this year because of Abby's broken leg and my Dad's diagnosis, we did make the best of both days.

On our anniversary, our awesome friend Matt came and watched the kids so that Josh and I could go out for dinner to our favorite place, Nat's on Maple. This was prior to our new camera purchase, so it's all camera phone pics.


On my birthday, Josh and the kids took me to Rosati's which is my favorite pizza place. Love their stuffed cheese pizza! They gave me a Hello Kitty that they made at Build-A-Bear. She is sooo soft and she has a heartbeat you can press and hear and feel.

One of many...

One of the many reasons I love my husband is that he's an excellent cook. Yesterday's lunch: falafel pita sandwich.

Not just a cupcake, *the* cupcake

Awhile ago, my sister and I noticed this bakery for the first time in Sycamore. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It's in an older strip mall kind of tucked away. Once you open their door, you are transported to baked good heaven. Since that 1st time we sampled cupcakes from Sweet Dream Desserts, I've been back many times. I've tried the mini bread loaves, the cupcakes, the cookies, and the cinnamon roll. It was all heavenly. My favorite is the cupcakes though. Picture a Hostess chocolate cupcake, now imagine that cupcake tasting a million times better...that's a Sweet Dream cupcake.

Yummy, yummy iodine

To celebrate the end of the 3 week long low iodine diet and my good scan, Josh took me out for dinner. The thing I was missing most during the LID was cheese so what better way to indulge than with a pizza. It was really nice to be able to eat pizza & beer nuggets....two things that there's no way I could even eaten on the LID.

Abby's tea party

Since Abby has been working so hard in therapy to get that leg working again, I felt we needed to do something special for her.  So Saturday, Josh and I threw her a surprise tea party at our house.  Josh made some yummy treats for the party and of course we had tea.  Surprisingly both my children like to drink tea. 

Our guests were Grandma, Aunt Joan and of course Aunt Cassandra who the kids both call "Ahh".  

We made tea hats to wear during our tea which was a lot of fun.

Modeling our hats...


Ahh:





Grandma:





Aunt Joan:





Abby:






Me:





Cupcakey goodness:





Tasty treats:





When drinking tea, remember ladies...pinky out.

Back from break

Today was the first day back from spring break.  Back to class and back to reality. No more watching trashy tv, playing Sims 2, and taking naps. It's refreshing to get back to my schedule and be at school though.

I think my spring break was a success.

I got my hair cut.

Scrapbooked with Amy.

Visited Alycia and baby Ethan.

Had lunch with Josh.

Had a visit from my father-in-law.

Got a new car.

Did some research for my primate cons. class.

Broke my glasses, but ordered 2 new pairs from Zenni Optical

Some photos of it all:

New glasses:

Lunch:



Kids:

Cute Gracie photo:


Checking out the new car:

Josh and his Dad...

Just think in a year and a half, he'll be getting his learner's permit!

Hello 2009!

Happy New Year to you all!

We celebrated quietly this year. We went out to the Chinese buffet which I think is our new tradition. It's easy and the kids behave while we are there...I'm all about easy and kids behaving. We also watched movies and ate too much.

Here are some photos from our dinner:

Abby holding up her fortune cookie fortune:



My favorite boys:





Sugar buns & rice.






I made a resolution for this year. I am not going to swear anymore. If I do, I have to put a quarter in a jar. Unfortunately I've already deposited a quarter in the jar. Nuts. I also decided to follow a livejournal friend and make a list of 101 things I'd like to accomplish in the next 1001 days. You can follow my progress here. If you decide to make a list of your own, I'd like to follow your progress too.

Abby playing with her new favorite toy:



And I will leave you with this: