Tasty Tuesday on a Wednesday!

Yes, you did read that correctly! I totally forgot about Tasty Tuesday so I am here to offer up an amazing meal that we had tonight (last night I was still cleansing, so nothing good was cooked to offer up!)

Tonight I cooked Gourmet Sandwiches, which is really just a yummy Eggplant and Goat Cheese Sandwich with creamy tomato basil soup!

So here it is- I'm getting straight to the recipe and then I'll tell you about my awesome day!

Eggplant and Goat Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
1 red bell pepper
1 bunch of spinach
1 oz of goat cheese per sandwich
2 tbsp store bought pesto (or you can make your own)
Pam cooking spray
salt and pepper
bread- I used a whole wheat baguette 

Preparation:
1. Preheat broiler.

2. Arrange eggplant slices in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Spray both sides of eggplant with Pam. Cut bell pepper in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membrane. Arrange bell pepper halves, skin sides up, on baking sheet with eggplant; flatten with hand. Broil 4 minutes; turn eggplant over (do not turn bell pepper over). Broil an additional 4 minutes; remove eggplant from pan. Broil bell pepper an additional 7 minutes or until blackened. Place bell pepper in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand for 15 minutes; peel and discard skin. (or don't do that, because I didn't! I was hungry and didn't care about the skin!)

3. Broil bread slices for 2 minutes or until lightly browned, turning once. Spread 1 tablespoon pesto on one half of the bread slice, I did mine on the top.  Layer each bread slice with 2 eggplant slices, 1 bell pepper half, and 2 eggplant slices. Put the spinach in there somewhere!  Spread 1 tablespoon of goat cheese on the other half of the bread slice; then put together and enjoy!

Tell me that doesn't look amazing!!

This next recipe is part already made, and is sort of a cop out, but I didn't have much time! So I just did what I had to do to make soup!


Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:
2 Cans of Tomato Basil Soup- I used Campbell's Healthy Heart
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tsp dry basil
1/2 tsp garlic salt
2 bay leaves
2 tsp sage
black pepper to taste
1/4 cup of fresh basil
1/2 of a tub of light sour cream ( I used an 8 oz tub), use more or less depending on your taste

Preparation:
1. Just dump the cans into a pot on medium on the stove and let simmer, add in all the dry herbs, bay leaves and the pepper.

2. 2-4 minutes before serving, turn down the heat to low, as low as it can go, give it a really good stir and add in the sour cream and stir until incorporated. And serve! It's so good, and the light sour cream takes the place of heavy whipping cream! Enjoy and feel free to add more or less sour cream.

Soup and Sandwich

All that yummy good-ness

---

Now on to my day!! First things first!! I LOST 7 pounds on that cleanse!!! That's a lot of water weight!!! I mean maybe some of that is real weight, but holy cow!! 7 pounds!! I like this cleanse, and will keep it in mind for the future.

Today was my first day of 5k training! I went out and almost made 2 miles!! But I am doing a version of the couch to 5k. And so I ran for a minute and walked for a minute and a half. It's slow going, but I did run! At the end I sure was dragging though!

That's not to say that I won't gain some of it back, I'm sure I will. But I was nice to cleanse my system of extra water and toxins. Now I just need to be sure to keep drinking lots of water. I was drinking a gallon + a day.

It was around sunset when I went out, and I had to get a couple of pictures of this lovely pond! I went running around a golf course that my brother lives on. It was nice and cool, except near the apartments! 

I'm all sweaty and red faced!! But this is the smile of a chick who is going to run a 5k in a couple of months!!

Gotta love the trusty inhaler, I really need a fanny pack or something to keep all my crap in. My leggings don't have pockets, so I dropped my purse with my keys off at my brother's place and then ran. I meant to put out my gallon of water on the car for when I passed by, but I forgot so by the time I made it back to Phillip's place I was sooo thirsty! The sad thing was that I was so tired that I didn't remember that I had my purse slung over my shoulder and could have easily put my inhaler in there!

Here is a 100% unflattering picture of me guzzling down water out of my gallon jug! Yes I'm one of "those people" who carry around gallons of water and drink out of them. Yes I may not be a weight lifter, but I'm getting loads of water in my system!! 

I'm very proud of myself for starting this! Just one more goal in my giant bucket list of things to accomplish!!

So sore today

Today... yes today... what to say about how I'm feeling...

PAIN

I am so dang sore from painting and then doing my 15 HITT and THEN doing 30 minutes of toning. I didn't do much this morning, but I decided that I needed to get out of the house and DO something rather than just sitting on my bum all day. So I called my brother and told him that I wanted to go biking around his neighborhood, its awesome! Golf corse and lots of road. Around three I headed over, we sun-screened  up and headed out! We rode around for about an hour. He lives close to Corey's work, so at the end of the ride we stopped by and said hi!

Then I came home and rested for about half an hour and then did my Fire 45 minute class. I am so darn sore, I just can't complain enough! I can't raise my left arm above my head!

I mapped the route and tracked my time, here is the screen shot of my phone of our route and times and mileage

It was actually one long screen, so I had to scroll down and take two pictures.

---

Today before I decided that I wanted to go ride bikes, I realized that going into my third month of this weight loss challenge that I can never go back. I just can't go back to the way I was, not just how heavy I was or even what I ate. I LOVE eating healthy. I never have cravings for bad things like chips or anything like that. Although at the end of this cleanse, I could totally go for some chips because I'm hungry and the dang thing won't let me eat after 7. ANYWAY! Its not about the food or weight, its about how not active I was. Everyday I feel like I have a craving to get out of the house and DO something! I realized today that I'm not happy just to sit at home and watch tv shows on netflix anymore.

Did I need to go out and bike today? Nope, I just wanted to get out and do something for me. And it was so much fun! Tomorrow is my day off, and I am going to go run (I would have on Sunday, but I had to work).

Speaking of running! While on our ride today, Phillip and I decided that we are going to run a 5k, its something that I have wanted to do ever since I started trying to lose weight years ago. I want to do be able to do it by the time Corey gets home from his two months in Huston. So I'm going to find a race in August, and we are doing it! I figure if we go ahead and sign up for it and pay for it, we'll have to do it!

So tomorrow starts the real training for my 5k run!

---

I was just going to stop with the running and activity bit, but I also wanted to do a little run down of the cleanse that I was talking about yesterday! If you didn't read yesterday's blog, I did Dr. Oz's 48 hour weekend cleanse. It was actually really good. I didn't really plan to lose weight on it, but I did lose 3 pounds as of yesterday! So something must have been in my system that needed to get out! I will let you know how I feel tomorrow when I start eating stuff other than fresh veggies, fruits and soup! But it really hasn't effected my energy (which is evident because I have been so active these past two days!). I think my stomach shrunk a little because I was going to have a salad with my soup tonight, and just couldn't eat it!

I liked the juice, I did make some juicer juice, and it was interesting. The day before I didn't have time to make the real juice and got it from a can of pineapple (no sugar added!) and then the pomegranate juice from a bottle, but I thought it tasted better than the nature juicer juice. But hey, thats just me. Maybe if I hadn't had to add the kale or cumber in there, it would have been better! But they both filled me up.

The soup was good, much better with the sauerkraut in it! And I drank tons of water!

I'm very impressed with cleanse! I didn't feel icky or lethargic or anything. And I really didn't feel hungry (except tonight when I want something to eat after 7!) during the day.

I will be doing this again!

So total pounds lost.. 23 so far overall!!! Not bad!

(edited to add this after my first taste of dandelion tea) In the cleanse it wants you to have a cup of dandelion root tea before bed, to fill you up I think, and the first night, I didn't have any so I got mom to pick me up some on her weekly run for almond milk. I made a cup tonight, I added my wonderful Truvia (I can't give this up!!) and it tasted and smelled just like an old ash tray. You know that taste you get in the back of your mouth when you inhale the sent of an ashtray (especially a wet one.. *shudder*) well this is what that would taste like, only your whole mouth is full of it.

I ended up drinking as much as I could before I felt like I was going to throw up (about 6 ounces) and then tossed the rest. I had ginger tea the first night, I'm having a soothing cup tonight after that nasty nasty taste!

Vegetarian for a day

So my original goal to go without sugar has lasted two months! (But more about that later...)

A giant Bluejay I saw at the bank on Saturday

Saturday was Corey's 29th birthday and so we were going to celebrate by doing whatever Corey wanted to do. We went to the Greek Food Fest, played DDR (dance dance revolution), watched Battleship (which was REALLY good!!) and then we went to eat at Cajuns Wharf.

At the Fest, I did something really bad... I had baklava and ice-cream! I really really wanted it, but it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered it was. It was way to sweet. The baklava only has honey in it, but the ice cream has real white sugar.

Sundae in Athens

DDR was fun, and so was Battleship. Now to what I'm sure you really want to know... was I good for dinner? No... I ate way too much food, but all of it was pretty light. It was rich though, and it messed my stomach up.

Oysters Beneville

That picture is one of the things I ate for dinner. It was sooo good, but like I said, very rich.

---

I have been feeling so dang bloated lately, I think it might have something to do with MMV (Mr. Monthly Visitor- for lack of a better term). But I don't know if that's the only problem. It has been more than just this past weekend. It wasn't just all the crappy eating.

So in light of this I have decided to do a small cleanse, just to get all the added sodium out of my body and to also get out any toxins. I mean I workout every day, and things build up in your body from that and from what I eat. So it will be good to eat fresh and healthy foods for two days!

I'm doing Dr. Oz's 48 Hour Weekend Cleanse, I like it because it isn't about depriving your body of healthy things. You drink water, you eat veggies, and it only lasts two days.

So the cleanse has gotten me thinking. I lasted two months without knowingly eating refined sugar (I may have eaten it, but not on purpose) I am going to keep staying away from refined sugar, but I'm going to start adding back in natural sugars, like honey. My initial goal was to go without for a month!

With the goal to go two days without meat, I've been thinking maybe my next dietary goal is to go without meat. I'm going to try it for a month. And that's starting today! No more meat! I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but I'm going to do my best!

My yummy salad!

Cabbage Soup? Tastes like Chicken Pho

Oh I also wanted to brag about myself, today I worked out, but before that I painted my mom's new porch roof! I painted it white. I still have some to do, and part of a wall, and the ceiling. I worked from 10 this morning to about 4! My bodybugg loves when I'm active all day and I do too!

This is only half of the porch

Confessions

They say that confession is good for the soul, so I have one to make, but I'll get to that later!

This is how the Festival is set up, it looks empty because everyone was in my line!

So today my office (remember, still have a part time job! But part time is better than no time!) went to the Greek Food Festival you know the thing that I was blabbing about during yesterdays post. I was soooo excited, but the best time of the year turned sour! We went at lunch, we even went early so that we would beat the rush, well I think that the rush thought the same thing. Plus they were just starting to cook and so they were backed up.

My lunch: Falafel, Pita (wrapped in foil), Tabouli Salad and Hummus

My favorite thing of all time is the falafel, you can't get it like this anywhere else. Trust me- I've tried (hence my overweighted-ness). No one makes it as good! We all got in what we thought was the line and it was suuuuper long! I mean gobs of people were in this line, and we waited and waited and waited until finally one of the volunteers came up and told us that we could get in the line for the type of food we wanted. There were three different ordering areas and each had signs by it that listed the different foods they served. One had Souvlaki, which is a kabob with part of a pita wrapped around it. They had Spanakopita at another, "Delicate filo dough brushed with butter and layered with a filling of feta cheese, spinach and herbs." - Yum right? Then the third was the falafel with hummus. 

Yum Falafel, up close!

Well apparently you could order any of the things on any menu from any one of the lines. They didn't do it like that last year!! And the guy that was telling the people this, did get far enough back for other people to hear, which included us. So I only heard part of it, and went to find the line for what I wanted to eat. So  after another 10 minute wait, I got my food, and the rest of my friends were still waiting because they didn't switch lines. I went and found seats for us and then ate lunch! And I waited and waited and waited. They waited about a hour for food, including the time that I had stood in line.

All my coworkers waiting in line!

Not to mention that it was hot. Did I say it was hot? It was, not a cloud in the beautiful blue sky. The high today was 88, but we read 92 on our way back to the office.

Me and Phillip waiting in line! Love this!

Finally everyone gets back with their food, and the greek salads with the Souvlaki meat that my friends got were awful! One person had all lettuce and dressing and the other person had all the cabbage, olives, feta and no lettuce! Plus they said that the salad was hot and wilted. I felt really bad for them. Everyone felt kinda queazy from standing in the sun for so long, and then eating a hot meal. So we left, mainly because I needed to get back to the office to get to work!

Cooks out in the sun!

We were going to go back tonight for Corey's birthday, but it just didn't happen because Phillip, my brother, who had gone with the office to the festival (he had the salad with all the stuff and no lettuce) rebelled and said that he would walk home before we went back tonight! So we ended up going out to eat!

Now comes my confession... I ate way more food than I should have today. I logged everything I ate, but I really think I ate more than what it said I did... so I'm estimating maybe 200-300 more calories than the bodybugg program said.

That confession over with... at dinner our waitress brought out chocolate covered strawberries for Corey's birthday, and I ate one. Corey was giving me such a hard time about it, and I finally had to tell him to quit because I was already giving myself enough of a hard time, I didn't need his teasing to make me feel worse. I guess the good part was that it was yummy, but most of it was a fruit! It had semisweet chocolate on it and real whipped cream. Yes I loved it, no I'm not going to go out tomorrow and eat myself silly on sweets. It was nice, but I'm just going to keep on trucking and ignore other sweets. Is it sad that I could refrain from eating sweets on my birthday but on Corey's I couldn't? Hmm...

I'm posting the screen shot of my phone of what my bodybugg says I've burned and eaten and such so you can get an idea of what I do during the day.

Cool huh? Only needed 529 steps to complete the day! The Calories Deficit on the side is how many calories I burned during the day

 It has these cool graphs that you can see, but mainly only when you plug it into the computer. I plugged mine in for an hour this morning so there isn't anything on the graph past 6. The funny thing to to me is that it recorded me getting up at 3 and 4 am and taking steps... I did get up at 4 to pee, but I don't know what happened at three!! Maybe I sleep walk? You can see it below!

You can see that little bit at three and then at 5:30/6 for my workout

Tomorrow I have my regular workout, but I want to make sure to get out and do my Couch to 5k! I'm super excited about it. Maybe I need to find a race and just resister for it, one that is in two months, so I have motivation to get out there and run!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

For most people, the most wonderful time of the year is Christmas... my favorite time of the year is May, not because of my birthday, but because of the Little Rock Greek Food Festival. Talk about amazing food! We are going tomorrow at work, and then we are going for Corey's birthday celebration. So that's two times I'm going to eat there! Scary! I'm terrified of over eating!

The bodybugg says I should be eating 2000+ calories because of my weight and because of my activity level. When I had calculated previously how many calories I should be eating it was around that number. But every other place I went said that I should have 1500 calories. So I'm going with the bodybugg because for now, that's how I'm counting calories. Maybe that's why I have been having cravings, because my body wants FOOD! Just because I get extra calories, doesn't mean that I'm going to gorge myself on bad food! Now I get just a little bit more meat.

Anyhow, all that to say that I do have some extra calories to throw around. Plus I have a half hour workout tomorrow. I'm very excited now that I can see how many calories I'm burning, its just more incentive to work out! How many calories do I burn when I do yoga and my 20 minute core workout? 800! Crazy!

Tonight, because my bodybugg said that I should walk 10000 steps, and Corey needed to go for a walk/run. So I did what I have been wanting to do for the past two months, which is start training for a 5k. Today we did the first run/walk and went 1.5 miles, in 25ish minutes, which is great considering that that's a little less than a 5k! So now just to keep going! Maybe in a couple of months I'll be ready to run a 5k with my hubby!

OMG... so in an effort to walk more I went outside to walk some more with our dog Honey. We walked up and down the street (trying to get her to go to the bathroom). On the way down the street, a bug flew down my tank top!!! I was wearing a tank top that had gotten too big, and I had two sports bras under it for when I ran (I didn't run in the tank top). And I had to fish around in my cleavage and grab the bug and throw it out. It might have been a moth, but it buzzed around and it didn't feel soft like I thought a moth would feel like. Needless to say it freaked me out, and I covered my boobs up way better.

Something that I have been wanting to do is to is every 10 pounds to talk about the benefits of my new loss. I think it will be interesting to look back, because I won't really remember what changes my body had gone through when I have lost 50 pounds, or 100!

A 20 Pound Difference:

• My tight blue jeans fit
• I have more energy
• My husband is starting to be able to tell a difference!
• My double chin is getting smaller
• I can fit into clothes right out of the dryer
• I don't feel like I'm going to die every day of the week
• I RAN!! Not just jogged, but RAN!
• Some of my clothes are loose
• My wedding rings are loose
• When its time to eat a meal or snack, its time to eat, my body gets hungry really easily

Updates

So this past week hasn't been that eventful! No job yet, so lots of frustration there, but everything on the weightless track is going well.

This weekend I gave myself a three day break, because I'm so dang tired. I told myself not to feel guilty for not working out on those days. Sometimes your body just needs a break. But I started back yesterday and went ahead and worked out today to compensate for my not working out on Monday.

So I have good news!! But first you have to get through me talking about my weekend. On Friday, Corey and I went and saw Dark Shadows. Well, when we got home my mom was standing out in the front yard with her pjs on and boots. Apparently the transformer had blown and then caught on fire. And it was dripping molten plastic on all the leaves. It was raining so thank goodness that nothing caught on fire. The fire department showed up and the electric company and they eventually got it taken care of.

This is the fire dripping molten insulation/plastic

Fire Truck!!!

For mother's day we went to Wynne to celebrate with Corey's family. It was the weekend of kittens. About 6 weeks ago, Corey's mom's cat had kittens and I wanted to see them, so we stopped by the house to see the babies, they were sooo adorable! There are three of them, a calico, gray stripe and a white and orange. If anyone wants a kitten... let me know! The calico is spoken for, but the other two need homes. 

These are the three kittens! You know you want one!

Then we went over to his grandparents and ate lunch, we found out when we got there that there were 4 other kittens at Granny's. Three were abandoned by their mom, and Granny started feeding them because they were about 6 weeks. Then Corey's cousin Taylor found a kitten on the side of the road with its litter mates, that didn't make it. And so she took that kitten.

This is Taylor's kitten. She is going to be fluffy! She is beyond adorable!

The other three were the abandoned, one black with a bobbed tail, a calico and a gray striped. The gray striped was the runt. The other two were half wild but the run wasn't because I guess she was too slow, and just kept getting caught. She was sooo cute!

This is what happens to a half wild kitten when you hold it and love on it!

The other two were half wild, they didn't want to be picked up, Corey's step mom picked up the black cat and it cried and yowled and hissed until finally it just gave up and started sleeping on everyone.

I don't have pictures of the other two! Wish I had gotten some!

My good news is that I've lost 20 pounds!!!! TWENTY!! I can't believe it! Clothes fit me better, and I feel better, I am starting to find that I make excuses to not work out, and I need to stop! I'm so happy! 

I'm going to post some pictures of when I started and now! I have a 10 pound picture. I don't look very happy, but I am!

I don't know if you can tell a difference yet... but I know I can tell a difference!

Last but not least I got my bodybugg today!! It's super awesome! I'm going to wait before I give a full review of it, but so far I think it will be cool, I've only had it for 3 hours though! I don't know how much I'm going to like the calorie counter just because it doesn't have nearly as many foods as my other calorie recorder... but we'll see!

There is a bugg on my body!

Anyway lots of good things to blog about today! Sorry its so dang long! Maybe if I kept up lately this wouldn't happen. I promise to post tomorrow, no matter how boring it is!

I Make My Own Sunshine

After feeling so down and feeling sorry for myself for the past week or so, I decided to just get over it. No one can make me feel better than me, and no one is going to lose the weight for me. It's my body and it's my time! I have to do the best I can every day.

I was watching TV the past few days and I kept finding myself humming a song and didn't realize where it came from. It's actually called "I Make My Own Sunshine" by Alyssa Bonagura and it was on a Lowe's commercial. Sometimes music just fits into your life, and I really feel like this song has given me motivation to keep going.

You can listen to the song here on youtube:



"It don't matter if its raining, nothing can phase me, I make my own sunshine. And if you think you can break me, baby you're crazy, I make my own sunshine!...

Even if a cloud start's forming on my lovely day theres nothing, no nothing, that can stand in my way!"

How awesome are those lyrics? There are more than just that, but I love it. And the song is so catchy!

So I'm back on track no matter what other birthday parties I go to this month (because Corey's is a few days away, and we are celebrating a ton at the end of the month) I have to stay on track. Because nothing, not even the chance to be bad is going to stand in my way.

Some random thoughts for today:

I don't think that I should get cheat meals during the weekend. It's nice, but I feel like I spend my whole weekend trying to recover from the crappy food I am eating. I hate feeling like I'm trying to lose everything I lost during the week!

I'm obsessed with other people's success stories. I will go and read them just about everywhere. I find them on Pinterest when I search for healthy recipes, or in blogs or on weight loss websites. It helps me keep going.

My mom wanted to start doing Turbo Fire with me! Its fun to have a workout partner again! So I did the first day with her, and she made it through. It was yesterday when I was feeling so down, she talked me into doing the workout with her, and we both made it through! I am super proud of her for trying something that is so demanding! She says that she has lost weight just eating healthy like I have been doing, which is awesome. Turbo Fire totally gets you moving.

I got my Tropical Strawberry Shakeology in the mail yesterday... and I am so so sooooo glad to have it back. I missed it oodles. I will have to be better about using too much this next month. It is totally worth the money, and it is about the same cost as having a starbucks coffee everyday. Not that I was doing that before, but I defiantly was buying unhealthy food that would have added up to a bag of shakeology. I don't know if I could have started shakeology if they hadn't come up with the strawberry.

I told you that I got my heart rate monitor, well it wouldn't stay connected to my heart rate... so I am returning it. It makes me sad. But I want to something that is going to work. I know my heart didn't stop beating, so it had to be the chest strap or the watch. Instead I'm getting a Bodybugg. I am super excited about it! Happy Birthday to me!

I hope that whoever you are, if you are feeling unmotivated or uninspired or down, blue, sad, depressed or whatever that you will take heart and just find something that works for you. Losing the weight is worth every minute of pain, of sweat of denying yourself the things you like, of changing your life for the better. Because you only get one life to be healthy and so we all have to grab it by the horns and live it. No one can do it for you.

I saw a fellow in the grocery store tonight who was very overweight and was unable to walk, so he was in one of those electric carts. I just wanted to tell him that he didn't have to be in that cart, that if I could lose weight, he could too! I didn't, because its not my place. But, maybe instead of photography when I lose all of this weight, I will be a personal trainer, I think I want to help other people feel good about themselves. I feel so inspired to share what I am doing and how I've done it. Everyone deserves to be healthy!

Frustration

Where to start...

I know it has been a couple of days, but to be honest, I haven't felt very motivated. Lets play a little catch up: Thursday night Corey and I went to see the Avengers at the midnight release and it was great. Saturday night my family celebrated my birthday by having dinner, we had veggies and steak. Sunday I didn't feel like working out, so I didn't. And so enters the guilt for not working out on Sunday. Yesterday was my 26th birthday, and I worked out because I knew Corey was going to get Indian food and I was going to gorge myself on it. I also worked out yesterday because I knew that I would feel guilty again if I didn't.

Friday I ran out of my Shakeology... and I had a little bit of chocolate and greenberry. Both tasted good, but the greenberry totally messed up my stomach yesterday. Almost throwing up. I got my Strawberry in the mail today, thank goodness, because I don't know if I could have gone another day without it.

You know, there are just sometimes when no matter how much weight you have lost, that you feel fat. I feel fat, I feel unmotivated. I know if I stop, I will lose every single bit of ground that I have gained. Even telling myself that I need to stay on track isn't doing it for me. I don't know what's going on. I'm frustrated with Turbo Fire, this month is the exact same thing, week after week. At least last month it was new, and it shook it up every week. This is the exact middle of my month, and I know I have another week of this. I didn't even work out today. I know I still can, but I don't want to. I'm just going to count this as my off day and workout tomorrow instead. That way I don't have any workouts to make up.

I know I just need to keep on chugging. Changes won't happen if I'm not doing anything. But I just don't want to do anything. I only lost one pound, and I weighed on Saturday because I knew I would be eating too much and I would have a ton of water weight to lose.

I'm so frustrated with myself. I guess I need more determination today than motivation, because what do you have when you run out of motivation? So no tasty tuesday because I have the Tuesday blues. :(

My Jury Duty Experience

This has nothing to do with weight loss! Last month I got a notice in the mail about serving for federal court on jury duty. It was an interesting experience. The letter I got, told me that I needed to call the night before to see if my name was on the list, and it was. Sadly I'm still an "S" so I had to listen through half the alphabet before it came to me! They wanted us to be there at 7:30 am.

Thank goodness that I didn't have to workout today! Love my days off! Getting up at 5 am would have not been any fun! So I got up, and got there right at 7:30. We had to sign in and then waited about 45 minutes. Then we watched a video about jury duty and what to expect. There were about 100ish people there. The lady in charge told us that we would have a 20 minute break and then we would get a call from the judge to go upstairs to the court room.

Well 2 hours later we were still waiting to hear from the judge. I had meant to bring a book, but I forgot. And I really wanted to bring my kindle, but because we were told not to bring our cell phones, I didn't think I could have it with me. So I didn't take it, but when I was going through security one of the security guards said the lady in front of me had something electronic in her purse, and she held it up and said that it was a kindle... so I probably could have brought mine. As it was, I was bored out of my mind. So I sat there after the 20 minutes and a lady (Kyla, I learned later was her name) came and sat down by me, and we started to talk, mostly because we were both bored.

Then we went to the bathroom and came back and sat down, and the lady (Lisa) that I had walked into the building with started talking to Kyla and I. They were both mothers of three, and it was really fun to just sit and talk to them. I guess they were in their 30s and they would talk about something and I would be like "whats that?" and they kept saying "she is so young!" it was really nice to feel young when I'm 5 days away from 26! But they were really sweet, and it was fun to get to know them!! And they made the time pass much faster.

FINALLY, they said that we would go up to the 4th floor to the court room. I really wanted to go up the stairs because I had no intention of getting stuck on an elevator with all those people. Plus I figured that I could beat the many trips of the elevators. There was another elevator on the other side of the building, so half the people went to that one. We stayed with the close one, and waited on Kyla so that she could run to the bathroom real fast, because we didn't know how long we would be in the court room.

We made it up to the courtroom only to wait more, because apparently the other elevator got stuck and we had to wait. Eventually, the court reporter said that they would just do the people stuck in the elevator separately. So the judge came in and talked for about 10-15 minutes about how great the American justice system was. He told us that at the last minute the accused criminal (did I mention it was a criminal trial? because it was!) confessed to doing it. So he had the lawyers introduce themselves and I knew one of them! She used to work for my former bosses business associate, it used to be Hatfield and Lassiter at the office I worked for (its Hatfield and Sayre now) and the girl I knew had worked for Lassiter. I was kinda excited that I might get picked. But there was no way because I knew her.

Kyla, Lisa and I left and were starving and we walked to a place close by and chatted and ate lunch. They said that I probably won't get called again, but I'm on call for the rest of May. I hope if I do get called, that Kyla and Lisa are there. We exchanged emails, and I hope to hear from them, it was very nice to have met some super awesome ladies!!!

That was the best thing that I got out of the day!

Tasty Tuesday: Beyond Awesomeness

Tonight I have two recipes. I'm saving my taquito recipe for an off day, I said yesterday that I would post it today, but I found something better!! Which I made for dinner tonight.


First off I have two recipes, the first was my dinner, which is Spinach Lasagna Rolls, and the second is Blueberry Cheesecake Pie. Yes it is sugar free... and yes, it's amazing!


I got this awesome recipe on skinnytaste.com  but as always I added some stuff to it because I just can't help myself. So feel free to go over there for the original recipe. I added some turkey sausage and some spices to the tomato sauce. I wanted a little meat to mine. I also used whole wheat noodles.




Ingredients: 

• 9 whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooked
• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
• 15 oz fat free ricotta cheese 
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and fresh pepper
• 32 oz tomato sauce
• 9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1.5 tsp oregano
• 1.5 tsp garlic powder
• 1.5 tsp onion powder
• 6 Jimmy Dean precooked turkey sausage links (its two servings) chopped up

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350

Combine spinach, ricotta, parm, egg, salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp garlic,1/2 tsp onion powder, turkey sausage in a medium bowl. 

Also combine tomato sauce, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder in a bowl. Ladle about 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto baking dish. Rinse and repeat with each noodle. 

Ladle the rest of the sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over dish and bake for 40 minutes or until cheese melts. Makes 9 rolls.

This is the whole 9 rolls

This is what one serving of it looks like!

I decided to do a separate post for the dessert because it is an Experimental Baking post. So I am going to share the link with you here. But I'm also going to post the recipe here, because I want to have them both on this page for you who are reading today. 

Blueberry Cheesecake Pie

Preheat oven to 400

Pie Filling

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1- 8 oz pkg fat free cream cheese (room temperature) 
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1- 9" unbaked pie shell
• 2 packets of Truvia (I guess maybe thats 2 tsp)

In a blender whip the cream cheese then add in the eggs, vanilla, salt and milk together. Blend it all together, it should be smooth so if it is lumpy you may need to let it warm up a little and then try whipping it again.

Pour into pie shell. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 325 and continue baking for 20 minutes. Let pie chill for about 15-20 minutes before adding the topping.

Blueberry Topping

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (or 1 bag frozen) blueberries
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 packets of Truvia

In saucepan, combine all ingredients. Cook, stirring constantly, until it has thickened. 

Cool slightly. Spoon over cream cheese pie. Chill.

The reason there is a piece missing is because Corey doesn't like blueberries. So I cut him a piece so that he could try it. He said that just the cheese cake didn't taste sweet. But I think it would have been sweet to me because I don't eat sugar.

It was crazy delicious! 

Calories in 1 serving of Pie:

Calories: 205, Fat: 8.5 g, Cholesterol: 54.4 mg, Sodium: 308.7 mg, Potassium: 43.7 mg, Carbs: 23.6, Sugar: 5 g, Protein: 7 g

Experimental Baking part 4

I am super excited about this post! Finally a recipe that tastes just like I think it should! I loved it so much and I hope that you do too! It took so little time, and was terribly easy. Plus I want you to check the calories at the end of the recipe. 200 calories may seem like a lot of calories but if you compare that to a cheese cake factory piece that has maybe 400-500 calories, its really not that bad for a treat! I'm going to have to give some of it away because knowing me I'll go and eat the thing. So I'll pick out two more pieces and give the rest to my mom's office. 

Anyway! Here is the recipe!

Blueberry Cheesecake Pie

Preheat oven to 400

Pie Filling

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1- 8 oz pkg fat free cream cheese (room temperature) 
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1- 9" unbaked pie shell
• 2 packets of Truvia (I guess maybe thats 2 tsp)

In a blender whip the cream cheese then add in the eggs, vanilla, salt and milk together. Blend it all together, it should be smooth so if it is lumpy you may need to let it warm up a little and then try whipping it again.

Pour into pie shell. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 325 and continue baking for 20 minutes. Let pie chill for about 15-20 minutes before adding the topping.

Blueberry Topping

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (or 1 bag frozen) blueberries
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 packets of Truvia

In saucepan, combine all ingredients. Cook, stirring constantly, until it has thickened. 

Cool slightly. Spoon over cream cheese pie. Chill.

The reason there is a piece missing is because Corey doesn't like blueberries. So I cut him a piece so that he could try it. He said that just the cheese cake didn't taste sweet. But I think it would have been sweet to me because I don't eat sugar.

It was crazy delicious! 

Calories in 1 serving of Pie:

Calories: 205, Fat: 8.5 g, Cholesterol: 54.4 mg, Sodium: 308.7 mg, Potassium: 43.7 mg, Carbs: 23.6, Sugar: 5 g, Protein: 7 g