Dessert on Sticks

Today I spent some time in the kitchen. My sister is getting married in March and I am going to be making some desserts on sticks. Cake pops and S'mores were the plan today. Needed to see how many one cake makes and how long it takes.. so I know what supplies to get and how long it takes to make enough.

S'mores on sticks = easy easy easy.. and fun! Take the marshmallow.. dip in melted chocolate.. stick the stick in there and then sprinkle with crushed graham crackers. Twirl them over an open flame to toast the edges and they are ready to go!

Next time I am thinking I will not crush the crackers so fine.

Next up.... Peanut butter / chocolate cake pops. This was my first adventure with cake pops.. I have done a lot of cake balls.. but this was the first time getting them on the stick. I did not think anything about it.. until I had the ball slide right down the stick in to my hand. Needed a plan.. so I decided to take the cake ball.. then dip the stick in the melted chocolate and slide it into the hole and stick them back in the fridge for a bit... it worked!! Yay!! Dip and cover in crushed peanuts!

I made a few more... everything was the same.. but instead of peanut butter in the cake I added a chocolate cream cheese thing I made up... and then half of them I dipped in crushed MnM's ( again I crushed them a little too much.

I also left some plain.. just chocolate/chocolate. I was thinking all the time about the different things I could dip them in... or thing I could put in them.. I could put a rolo around each bit of cake.. or maybe a jr mint... I really want to do some coconut ones. I am thinking I need something with a white cake.. not everyone loves chocolate.. hmm I could do those in white chocolate.. any ideas there?

The Emotional Roller Coaster.. Food

Holidays... everywhere there is food! Yesterday I had some big highs and some big lows... all related to food. My college son is home for the week, and I want to cook all his favorites.. instead I offer him diet chili... healthy burger with no bun... which he eats with a smile.. only makes me want to cook something even more. Sorry Patrick, no holiday treats here :(

Yesterday we were planning on doing the grocery shopping so I am getting ready to go. I am trying to figure out what to wear and decided to try on some of the clothes that were in the too small tote... two new pairs of jeans fit.. size 18! Same size I was when I met Dave... mind you they are still a little tight.. but I wore them out shopping *happy dance* I am not even half way to what I want to lose total but it is moving right along.

Now to do the price matching and coupon matching for my grocery shopping trip.. lay out all the fliers and start going through them.. Arghhh :( Everything Thanksgiving is in there.. every baking item you would ever need... every frozen treat... candy... cool whip.. pies.. yams.. turkeys.. anything and everything I WANT IT ALL!!! I get none of it *pout* Think size 18... size 16... think muscle not fat.. think.. skinny... think healthy... ok I am back on track and ready for the store.

Or so I thought... talk about a battle... looking the to the left... cookies... to the right.. cider...eggnog... more baking stuff and treats... piled at the end of every aisle is everything Not on my list... all the pretty colors... this stuff is trying to jump into my cart. I am going through the store as quick as I can.. grabbing my rice cakes.. my V8 and my cauliflower and just trying to get out of there asap. I wish it was asap.. instead we get to spend 30 minutes in checkout .. everyone else in the store has all their Thanksgiving stuff in the carts.. and I just stand there watching it all scroll down the belt.

Into the car... headed home.. and the tears start... so much balancing... I love being able to wear my smaller clothes... I love being able to tie my shoes... I love that my feet do not hurt me all the time (wish it was helping my shoulder) there is so much wonderful happening right now as each pound falls off... but I do miss cooking.. and baking.. and feeding people and just enjoying food. I have used food as comfort for a long time... I have "taken care" of people by feeding them... food makes things better... but not really.. I mean it still can... I can still cook and bake and feed people.. but healthy food is not yet fun or comforting to me.. even though Dave said I make a good chili out of some horrible vegetables.

This phase of our diet is hard because the foods we eat are so limited that there are not a lot of options on what and how to make things... starting next week we are back into the 3rd phase and it brings more selection and options and that will help.. I am totally making a cheese cake again :) I also know that I just need to hang on and keep at it and that I will be able to find comfort in cooking, eating and feeding people again... I am sure it will be even more comforting knowing we will all be healthier for it.

Reaching Goals

Today I am doing a serious happy dance... I have reached a goal! Today I got on the scale and I am down 30 lbs from where I started almost 3 months ago. I still have about 50 lbs to go.. but right now my next goal is to reach -40 my half way mark.. ten more pounds! Today I am wearing a whole size smaller jeans than I was last week.. and 4 sizes smaller than when I started. Let me tell you... my music is playing loud and I am having a hard time even sitting still long enough to write this post!

I have a long ways to go... but with every pound that comes off it is getting easier and easier. I am having less cravings for unhealthy food... and thinking about my future so differently. I am moving more... exercise is a whole different story now than it was 30 lbs ago.... I can do so much more so much easier.. one there is less weight to move around. Two I am seeing things happen.. which makes it much easier and is great motivation to keep things happening!

We have weekend hiking trips planned this spring.. hiking to ghost towns.. and over mountain ranges... sleeping in the woods and playing in the creeks. I am thinking about all the beautiful photos we can take of flowers and animals and even bugs. The time we will get to spend just being together out in nature watching the sun set and sleeping under the stars. I am so excited for the doors that loosing this weight is opening!

No Sugar Cheese Cake

Added a few extra berries here... it is my favorite part :)


I made this last Thursday.. super easy and simple and it taste great. I made a half recipe and put it in a pie pan with a thin graham cracker crust. I did not have any fruit in the cheese cake itself.. just fresh berries on top. I also did not add the butter to the cheese cake but used a little with the cracker crumbs. Cut it in 8 pieces and figured out the math so that each piece (minus berries on top) was about 150 calories. The full recipe says it makes 12 servings.

Cheese cake recipe from HCG liquid diet Phase three recipe (lots more recipes at the link too)

• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups Plain Yogurt Plain Greek yogurt is good!
• 1 tablespoon Stevia
• 16 ounces cream cheese Softened
• 2 tablespoons butter melted

Directions

In a large bowl, blend together eggs, vanilla, sour cream and stevia. Slowly add butter and cream cheese. Spoon about 1/2c mix into another bowl and add raspberry flavoring (sugar free, any flavor) Mix well. Spoon remaining mix into a 10 inch spring release pan or 12 ramekins.(see photo) Add dollops of raspberry batter on top and swirl thru. If desired, you can make a crust from 1 1.2 cups ground almonds, 1/4 cup splenda and 1/4 butter. Mix all together like you would graham cracker crust and line pan or ramekins. (calculations do not include crust) Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-25 min if cooking ramekins, 35-40 min for spring pan. This will not look done, but will firm up when refrigerated. Place ramekins in a water bath or place a shallow pan with water in overn below the pan or ramekins. Garnish with fresh raspberries and whipped cream if desired (not included in counts) This can be frozen. Number of Servings: 12

I let it cool a bit then put it in the fridge.. I got busy and forgot to cover it and it sinked down and cracked a bit.. next time I will cover right away.. and eat the next day.. we ended up not eating it until Saturday night.. it had dried out a bit too much.. but was still good :)

Hidden Vegetable Chili / Soup

We are doing a very VERY low calorie diet, the HCG liquid diet, and can only eat certain foods. We have two servings of fruit, two of protein and 4 of vegetables. Mind you.. only certain foods in those groups. With a honey who does not eat any vegetables.. wait he will eat iceburg lettuce... no other lettuce or vegetable at all though.. so this has been a bit tricky.

This is what I came up with and so far I have done two versions of it.. the only thing that is different is the spices. Today I am doing the chili one since it is his favorite, the other one is Italian spices in it.. that is my favorite.

Hidden Vegetable Chili Soup

recipe is for one serving.. just multiply by whatever number of servings to make more. I make a big pot of it and then just warm up a bowl at a time.

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup of beef broth

1 cup of diced onion

1 cup of diced celery

1 cup of diced cauliflower

1 cup of diced tomato

1 cup of red and green peppers diced up

3.5 oz of ground hamburger ( either in a patty on the side or in the soup )

Boil until tender then mash up... I like it to have some texture but for us it can not look like vegetables at all... the texture would be all up to you.

Add some chili seasoning.. again.. as much or as little as you would like.

1 big bowl of the soup equals 4 servings of vegetables and one protein!

Sometimes we eat this like a soup and have a burger patty on the side.. sometimes we cook up the hamburger and put it in the bowl and pour the soup over and mix it all up. We do sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese on top even though it is not on the approved list of foods.

In a couple of weeks when we are eating a bit more I will also be adding carrots to this mix.

For more recipes from me, my family and my friends.. check out my kitchen blog

Coffee, Tea and Recipes

Dinner

We love fish and chips...and we used to eat it often.. 4 big pieces of fish dipped in all sorts of batter and fried up nice and tasty with a big piles of fries on the side. Well... totally not on the menu these days.. but we still love fish... so I took one of our cracker servings and made it into a powder and added a bunch of spices.. rolled the fish in it and baked it. So now instead of a pound of fish we get 3.5 oz. and instead of fries we have a big green salad and some cucumbers. I have to say it is in no way the same.. but it is really good. It makes the house smell so good and it looks so pretty.. and afterwards we have energy to do things.. used to eat the big pile of fried food and then have to sit around for an hour with a tummy ache. ( yes that is how we got fat ) Learning to eat until it is enough instead of eating as much as we can is a huge step in this... better choices in what we eat and how much we eat. It is awesome to be losing weight but the best part is how much better we are feeling.

Eating on Our "diet"

This new way of eating is working out really good for us... Lots of veggies and some fruit and some healthy meat... Since Dave does not like veggies I have been making up a soup that gives him 4 cups of veggies in every bowl. Today I made up a huge pan of it so that everyday I can warm him up a big bowl of it to go with dinner and he is happy and healthy :)

After this stage I give it a little puree so he can not see the veggies

I also baked a bunch of chicken and then cut up each serving into bite size pieces and put them in baggies we can have for lunch... and made 5 lbs of hamburger ( the 96/4) into 4 oz patties in the freezer. This week we added 15 servings of cod to the freezer too.. all frozen in single little servings I can just pull out and pop in the oven :) Eating like this is proving to be simple and easy.. to shop for.. to cook for and to eat.

It amazes me to think that in the last 17 days I have used no sugar.. no butter.. no breads.. no pasta... nothing preserved or boxed or fake.. everything has been fresh.. I did use stevia .. two little packets.. one when I made bbq sauce and one on some strawberries.. but that is it. I may not have lost a hundred lbs yet.. but we are both feeling so much better.. more focused and cleaner and in great spirits. A lot of people tell me negative things about this hcg diet... but a lot of them do not get it... for some of us, everyone is different, but like for us here.. being fat is a big mental thing.... this diet is teaching us how good we feel when we eat right.. and showing us some pretty bad habits we had.. we were not eating because we were hungry.. we were eating because it was habit. This diet has taken the hunger away and is letting us learn a lot about ourselves and how we work and allowing us the chance to change our habits and how we think about things. Not every "diet" works for every person...but this one is working for us.. not only are we losing weight.. and inches.. but we are feeling amazing... and learning so much and making huge life changes in how we eat.. what we eat.. and why we eat.

Focused

I can not seem to get focused.. my brain either seems to be stumbling around with nothing or it is in overload. No need for blonde jokes here :) I know this is part of the bi-polar and I am keeping an eye on it because right now it is in overload (upswing) so many cool fun things going on.

1, Started a group on Facebook Stanwood Area Barter Group Hoping to get lots of people involved and start getting some bartering going on in the area.

2, The diet Dave and I are working on... post about that here it is going great.. a lot better than I had expected... day 13 of 40 days and feeling great!

3, Coupons... coupons and coupons... yes I am addicted. It is crazy how many coupons are out there for so many things. I spent a couple of hours just this morning signing up to have samples with coupons mailed to the house... I may not need to ever by any tampons, pads, shampoo, soap, or anything else for the bathroom for years. My facebook and my email are not filled 98% with coupon related things... I am printing and gathering and stacking and sorting and organizing like crazy... I love it! I am ready to take my first envelope to the store this week for our weekly trip... I may only save a couple of dollars ( not going too extreme here... yet) but it is a couple of dollars we would have spent last week. Our grocery list is changing .. food wise we are only buying meat and veggies and fruit right now.. so I am only using coupons for cleaners and stuff for the next couple of weeks.

4, Working on some new craft projects. Have three new projects I have started.. but they are not really ready to be talking too much about yet :) Next week I should be ready with a blog post for at least one of the projects!

5, Cleaning the house... this may sound odd.. but now that the kids are out.. and Dave and I have everything how we want it... I am so in love with cleaning it. The best part is.. it is so easy now. When I clean the kitchen ... it stays clean. Sometimes I clean something and then spend the day walking past it just amazed that it is still clean. My kids were not dirty or messy.. in fact they were a lot cleaner than most teenagers I know.. it is just so different now.

Ok that pretty much wraps up what is going on this week for me. I am on an upswing.. not too high though.. should be fine.. and I am getting bunches down and feeling great! Hope everyone else is having a good week too.

*a huge hug and a prayer for someone I know who is in a hard place right now, it will get better*

This little butterfly bush was planted in April, post here a friend had given me the little one inch start that was almost dead... it did nothing for months.. then all of a sudden it started growing and now it is about 2 feet tall and around and has little flowers. Yay!

~Michelle

Keeping Track of my Weight

Started a new diet thing ... yes I know people hate the word diet.. but I am ok with it.. for me it is just a short way of saying I started a new way of watching what I eat and paying attention to how I am feeding my body and how I am taking care of myself. A couple of years ago we started a "diet" where we cut out the junk food.. stopped going to fast food restaurants.. this not only saved us a lot of money but we figured between fast food... soda.. and pizza.. we were eating close to 8k calories a day.. yes that would be number one on how we got fat.. plus we were not doing any form of exercise... those two things together and the pounds just flew on. We stopped eating all the ick and started walking almost every day and hiking and we stopped gaining weight.. even started losing....then life happens and we end up being too busy for the hiking and the walking starts to be less and less and the weight slowly starts coming back on... and we start eating out more.. and here we are on the up hill again... we know what we need to do... we need to eat healthy and exercise more... having a hard time getting back on that track though.

A couple of people I know started a liquid HCG diet and Dave and I were talking about it... then we learned some good friends were also starting it and we decided to jump in too. Some people love this and some hate it... I am a bit nervous about it but I do see it working with people and I am going to give it a try. Plan is to use it as a jump start... since we are having a hard time getting motivated and started again I am thinking this is going to be a great cleansing to be able to get back to no junk food and better eating schedule and being able to exercise a lot more... anyone who wants to talk to me about the harm it can do.. I have heard it.. and I do not throw away the concerns.. but.. there is also the thought that being fat is doing a lot of harm. I am not posting this to debate if this is a good "diet" or not... I am here so I can keep track of how this is working for me and my progress with it.

We took our measurements and got on the scale.. I know that last time I was losing weight it really helped when I shared it here... it holds me accountable and makes me work harder. When the whole world can see what you are doing (I know the whole world reads my blog..holds its breath just waiting for me to post ) or not doing it helps.. last time I listed my weight.. so sharing that is not a huge deal for me this time around.. but writing down how big I am in inches for anyone to see.. wow that is a hard one... just looking at it on paper myself is hard. I will be weighing in everyday and measuring once a week. I will be updating on this post and not starting new posts for any of this ( at least that is the plan )

That all being said... here goes

Week 1 ~ This was not as hard as we had thought or in the ways we had expected. The drops really help with the cravings and with being hungry. My biggest problem is I am not hungry at all... I am having to force myself to eat to be able to get enough calories each day. The water is going through me as if I was a funnel... not sure what good it does when it goes through so fast. Dave is having almost no problems with any of it. Last night was his first night of feeling a bit hungry late at night... he was up working... but he dealt with it fine. He is getting his veggies in a soup every night.. boring but he likes it so that works. Learning a lot about things we do, mostly with food, because of habit.. really paying attention to those things and keeping notes... really focusing and talking a lot about how the healthy eating will continue in our lives. Will be keeping LOTS of veggies and fruits and smaller portions and staying away from sugar and carbs. This week will be trying some new recipes.... That is one thing I do not discuss with Dave.. he does not want to know he is eating vegetables. *smile*

Weight

Date Weight Total loss

8-19-11 ~ 255.6

8-26-11 ~ 247.6 -8lbs

9-2-11 ~ 242.6 -13lbs

9-9-11 ~ 238.0 -17.6lbs

9-16-11 ~ 237.0 -18.6 lbs

9-23-11 ~ 234.0 -21.6lbs

9-30-11 ~ 232.4 - 23.2lbs

11-8-11 ~ 225.0 -30.6

11-18-11 ~ 222.2 -33.4

2-2-12 ~ 213.8 -41.8

Measurements

8-19-11 ~~~~ 9-23-11 ~~~~ 9-30-11 ~~~~ 11-18-11 ~~~~~2-3-12

Neck ~~ 15 ~~~~ 14.5 ~~~~ 14.25 ~~~~~~ 14 ~~~~~~ 13.5

arms ~~ 15 ~~~~ 14 ~~~~ 14.25 ~~~~~~ 13.75 ~~~~~ 13.25

chest ~~ 50 ~~~~ 48.5 ~~~~ 47.5 ~~~~~~ 46.75 ~~~~~ 44.75

waist ~~ 51.25 ~~~ 51.5 ~~~~ 47.75 ~~~~~~ 44.25 ~~~~~ 41.75

hips ~~ 55.5 ~~~~ 53 ~~~~~ 52 ~~~~~~ 50.25 ~~~~~~ 48.75

legs ~~26.25 ~~~~ 24.5 ~~~~ 24.25 ~~~~~~ 22.75 ~~~~~ 22.25

9/30/11 ~Today is day 43, that is two binge days and then 34 days on phase two and now 7 days into phase 3. I am down now to 232.4 scale goes up a little and down a little every day... pretty much staying right about here. What has amazed me the most has been the inches I have lost in this last week. All of a sudden the inches came off and I lost almost as many in this last week as I did in the last month. Which is nice because I now am able to wear a size smaller and I have clothes in this size I have been saving and hoping I could wear again... now I am working towards the next size smaller. Will do phase 3 for a couple more weeks... then a little bit of phase four and start back on phase 2 around the 21st of October.

11-18-11 Into the last week of Phase 2 round 2 and I am down a total of 33.4 lbs and 21.75 inches. Next week is Thanksgiving... and then we have a road trip planned and my Birthday and Christmas and New Years... some big challenges coming up.. time to really stay focused. Will start another round in Jan... I am going to try to work hard.. lots of exercise and eating good between now and then to be as close to under 200 lbs as possible

2-3-12 Last week of phase 2on the third round.. this one has been hard. Does not help that we went through Thanksgiving.. Christmas... son being home.. two road trips ... and news years eve... before we started.. had a bit of a hard time before we started this.. all in all we did pretty good. Had gained back 4lbs that had to be lost in this round too. I did it :) I am really seeing a difference now.... started in a size 24 jeans and now a 20 is lose.. I can put on size 18 but not really wear them yet.. I do expect to be able to very soon.. which will mean I will need new clothes very soon. I have one pair of jeans and one pair of Capri pants in that size.. then nothing smaller. I have been wearing all my summer clothes just because they are getting super baggy and by the time summer gets here I will need all new clothes in that area too. I am not planning on doing another round of the hcg diet for awhile.. I want to give it 3 months or so.. really focus on working out and eating healthy and getting things toned up and adding some muscle... then possibly will do one more round end of April and then this summer will be all about hiking and working out and eating right. I Want Muscles!!

Road Trip 2010 Restaurants We Loved

We went on a 2+ week vacation in the motor home with the two youngest teenagers and travelled through 8 states. One goal we had was not to eat out very often... and when we did we tried to make it something really good or cheap and easy. I believe we ate out 4 times which is a lot less than we would have eaten out if we had been at home.

Once was Denny's because it was easy to find and cheap and we knew what we wanted... as a special treat we decided we would get a piece of pie afterwards. There were four of us and per piece was $3.75 and a whole pie was $9 needless to say we got the whole pie and to go. We went and did some sightseeing and then came back to the motorhome for the night.. settled in and cut some pie.. well tried... it was frozen solid.... I had not thought about that... and then even though it was good... Denny's pie is NOT special... it is just a frozen pie that you can buy at walmart for half the price... Lesson learned. We did cut it into 8 pieces and had dessert for two different nights :)

The second place we will be visiting again is MacKenzie River Pizza Company (which has a great website. This is in Montana... and they have one in Idaho too. We had the lodgepoles to start with. "Fresh baked natural grain or sourdough sticks brushed with olive oil, garlic and melted cheese. Served with marinara." OMG so good... and the marinara is Really good. Then the pizza came... We ordered 2 small thin crust of the StockMans, "Steak strips, pepperoni, bacon, Italian sausage, jack & cheddar."

I will have no problem getting in my jeep and heading to Montana just for the pizza... but they also have a lot of other wonderful things on their menu that I want to try... oh and there was another item on that menu that we did try... and I would go just for this item too. Mack Lovin' "Chocolate chip cookies served piping hot with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. A must share delight" They are right..this works really well as a shared item.

My only regret is that I only had my cell phone camera and these photos are not near good enough to show how wonderful the food was. The service was incrediable too... friendly and fun. The place has the feeling of a huge mountain lodge... your pretty sure there is a river right outside. It is the kind of place that is very nice.. but very relaxed and comfortable... you can go in while traveling with the kids ... or for a nice dinner with friends. The price was good too... I had expected it to be a lot more from the looks of the place. I am thinking I might need to spend a week in Montana just so I can eat here every night and try some different things :)

We did end up stopping at one more place....in Cle Elum, Washington. We had been here before for icecream and had planned on stopping in town for milk shakes but traffic on the interstate was so stopped up that we decided to have dinner. We stopped at the Homestead which is right off the freeway.. does not seem to have a website but linked you up with a review page.. seems people LOVE it or hate it. It is known for it's bbq sauce... and we did not order anything that had to do with BBQ but we did try the sauce on some fries and it was good.. great taste.. a bit thinner than I like. We did have some great shakes... and the fish and chips were wonderful. Cost a bit more than we like to spend.. but all in all it was a good place. No special trips for it.. but if going through and wanting a bite to eat.. would stop again :)

Once we ate at burger king... just quick burgers because it was so easy to find. Neither of those were bad experiances... they were what we expected.. cheap and easy and food we know and love :) Some comfort type food is always nice on vacation and I did enjoy the breaks.

Two of the meals we had were above and beyond and they are places we WILL be going back to... helps we want to go back to the areas for other things.. but... even if we did not... I would go back for the food.

The first was the BBQ in Silverton, Thee Pitts Again I do want to say that their website sort of stinks. It does not appear to have been updated in a long time.. since we ate the store that the site says is "coming soon" I would suggest they get the site updated.. and that they ad some photos of the food. If you scroll down ( on the right hand side ) to "featured on tv" you will be able to watch a video from when they were featured on Diners, Drive'ins and Dives, on the food network. This place has won many awards and I can understand why. They have awesome food and a fun place and they are friendly with good service and a clean restraunt. The fried twinkie with icecream was as good as the BBQ sandwhichs and the beans and the potatoe salad too. If you like your sauce a little spicy... be sure to ask at the counter as they keep the spicy sauce back there so no one accidently ads it :)