Lentil & Barley Soup (Vegan)

I used yellow, red and orange carrots, but any carrots will do.

Now that the weather's cooling a bit (okay, seriously, it's 88 degrees outside!), I like to start making soups for dinner (and to pack for lunch).  This lentil soup is easy, filling, and totally inexpensive to make.  It cooks up in an hour, and is delicious.  Since I always have lentils in the cupboard, onions, carrots and celery in the fridge, it's my go-to soup when I can't think of what to cook.
This receipe makes about 5-6 good-sized servings





Ingredients:
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 cup lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
6 carrots, sliced
6 medium stalks of celery, OR the inner part of the celery with the leaves and such, chopped
4 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbsp of olive oil (or 1/4 cup water to saute)
8 cups water
1 can diced tomatoes (optional) and/or bouillion
Salt and Pepper

Rinse and wash lentils and barley, checking for little stones.

In a soup pot, add oil or water and saute and chopped onion, garlic, celery and sliced carrots until onions are translucent.  Add lentils and barley, stir.  Add water.  Cover, and simmer for one hour.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until lentils and barley are soft *but not mushy - about an hour.  Serve with lemon wedges.

NOTE:  I have added diced tomatoes and I have also added vegetable bouillion...but I like it just as described above.  It's not overly salty, the flavor of the onions, garlic, mushrooms is not overpowered by the broth.  

Heart Healthy Garlic, Mushroom & Kale soup (with barley)

If you live on the West Coast like I do, it's hard to think of making soup in September, unless you happen to love soup like I do.  Soup is so soothing, and easy to make.  I had gone to Sprouts market and bought some mushrooms and kale last Saturday.  On the bus ride home, I was looking up recipes for kale on the Vegetarian Times website.  They had a recipe for garlic kale soup (different from this) but that's where I got the inspiration for this soup.  It came out great.  I ran the points on the WeightWatchers site and a good size portion, which is about 1.5 cups is only about 3 points...and very healthy for you. Mamajan (my mom) has been staying with us and is always surprised that she doesn't miss the meat, because the recipes are so flavorful.  This is a heart-healthy soup because so many of the ingredients are good for your heart:  kale, garlic, whole grains, mushies!!!  Enjoy! 8 cup(s) vegetable broth                                                                             3/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used plain ol' mushrooms, but it would probably be great with a mixture of different types) 20 cloves large garlic cloves , peeled and sliced 2 Tbsp olive oil 1/2 cup rice vinegar 2 small red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes 1/4 cup pearl barley 1 bunch baby kale (regular is fine too) Salt and pepper to taste Cook barley in 8 cups vegetable broth and 2 cups water. (You can use vegetable concentrate broth or vegetable bouillon, or broth in a carton) Cooking the barley will take about 20-30 minutes til tender. Cover your pan while cooking and use low heat to avoid bubbling over.  In a nonstick pan, add oil and cook sliced mushrooms turning with a spatula. Cook about 10 minutes until the mushrooms are brown and glazey looking. Add sliced garlic and cook another 10 minutes. Your pan will have all this nice brown sauce stuck on it. Add 1/2 cup rice vinegar, and using a wooden spoon, loosen all that sauce, stirring, and then allow the vinegar to evaporate out.  Add the mushrooms/garlic mixture to the broth/barley mixture. Stir, cover and simmer for about 10-20 minutes allowing all the flavors to come together. Add the chopped kale and cook another 10 minutes until tender. (If you're using regular kale, cook a little longer).  Serve hot. with a little parmesan cheese grated on top.  Add more water if broth absorbs into the barley. Season with salt/pepper to taste. Good with a squeeze of lemon too. Makes 8 good-sized servings. 3 Weight Watchers points plus per serving

Thoughts on Success

Last week, my WeightWatchers leader approached me saying that we were beginning a new unit in our meetings.  The topic for the next month was going to be about Success.  All of the WW's meetings were asking various members to speak on this topic about their own personal success with WeightWatchers and she asked if I would speak at our meeting.  I questioned this.  Surely he had me confused with someone else.  I have been anything but successful with my following plan.  I told her so.   "Why me?  I'm not a success.  I've been here since February, and I've only lost 15 pounds.  I've been up and down for months.  Why not choose someone who is actually successful?"   "But you are successful.  Because you keep working at it.  You keep trying.  You keep coming back."  She handed me a sheet with 4 questions on it and asked me to write down my answers and present them at this past Wednesday's meeting.

I thought about success all week.  I was on the Avon Walk.  I felt that was a success.  I mean how many of my friends can walk 39.3 miles in 2 days?  I thought about the fact that I was walking with my brother, and my sister-in-law by my side...and my sister and my husband were working on crew.  I had success in my family because we all loved one another.  We have close relationships.  I thought of my past history with breast and colon cancer....I was walking and I am healthy.  I'm successful in that way.  So all was good.  

Last Wednesday, I went to my WW meeting ready to speak.  I had answered my questions and was ready.  But at weigh in, I got on the scale and my weight was up 1.8 pounds.  Really???  I mean after walking over 40 miles this past weekend.  After all the training.  I was even careful not to eat too much junk always asking myself through the weekend, "Is it worth it?"  Not only that, but I hadn't been feeling well since Saturday evening and had only eaten a little soup and crackers for the past several days.  And a weight gain???  And then to add salt to the wound, my friend who started the same week as I did back in February, hit her 40 pounds lost...and I just felt so low and defeated.  I have worked so hard to track my food, drink my water, stay active, eat healthy.  And now I'm supposed to get up and speak about success?

So our leader gets up and introduces the new topic.  And she invited me up to speak.  I wanted to share with you my thoughts on Success:

1.  How did you feel before you joined WW?  I had lost a lot of weight in the past.  I used to weigh 60 pounds more than I do now.  But I have been 20 pounds less than I am now as well.   Being that I have always been an emotional eater, when my daughter got married last year, and then after that, dealing with my empty nest, my weight started coming back on.   I was feeling really out of control.  I thought that I had to do something.  And that "something" always ends up being WW because the plan is a lifestyle change.  It's healthy, and it fits in well with my life.  So I re-joined...again...with my friend.

2.  What helped you believe you could succeed?  Believing in success in one thing.  Believing in fighting for what I want is another.   I am a fighter.  I am a 3 X cancer survivor.  I'm all about determination and believing.  This past weekend I walked 39.3 miles in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Santa Barbara.  Training for that walk was all about giving up Saturdays for 12-15 mile walks.  And I made it all 39 miles.  But despite all the training, despite the 39 miles, the scale is not moving.  I have been plateauing for over 4 months.  And it's very difficult to sit here week after week and hear about all your successes when I'm working so hard for mine...and nothing's happening.  (At this point, I lost it and started crying...so embarassing...but it was just all coming out.  I went on.) So when Sandy asked me to speak today about my success, I asked her, "What success?  I'm not a success."  (Then I really start blubbering...and my nose is running...I feel stupid.  I'm standing up there, and I'm looking at my paper.  And I keep reading ). But there are other sucesses that are important too.  And I guess that's what it's about.  I'm like the Little Engine That Could.  I keep saying, "I think I can, I think I can."  It's not easy.  I have a lot of stresses in my life.  Dealing with cancer, follow ups and check ups, family, taking care of my mom, running a homeless outreach, trying to build my own business, holding down a full time job.  (At this point, I look up up, and half the members are standing up...giving me a standing ovation.  Which was so sweet.  Once I saw them and smiled, they started applauding. My leader brought me a tissue.)

3.  What did I accomplish once I started believing success was possible? Again, I'm not seeing the big successes on the weight loss front. But staying on plan has definitely made me feel more in control.  it's definitely curbed the mindless eating.  I am more balanced in the way I am eating.  I'm getting a grip on the emotional eating as well.

4.  How do you keep nurturing that belief so that it stays strong?  Life is short.  I have this image that I keep in my head a lot.  When I was at y heaviest weight, I went in for a stress test.  i did the treadmill and then I got the chance to see my heart on the screen, pumping, with all the infrared colors.  That was my ah-ha moment.  I remember being very emotional thinking that I was looking at my heart...this amazing organ that has been pumping to keep me alive since the day I was born.  And I was thinking about all the abuse I had put it through, through all the mindless eating, fast food, high fat, no exercise...stuff that wasn't good for me.  I keep that image close to me.  

I am on this journey.  The goal is to be healthy.  I know what I need to do.  I need to track, stay on plan to the best of my ability.  I need to move.  But above all else, I need to be honest and take responsibility.  If I can do my best, if I can track and truly know in my heart that I did the best that I could, then I can call that a success.

For me, I wish I could just drop the pounds.  But it's not what my body is doing.  y body has it's own individual agenda.  As much as I wish I could measure my success by the scale, my success has to have a different measure.  It has to be measured in knowing that I am eating right, that I am well for now, that I am being honest, accountable and doing the est that I can on the road to being healthy.

**********************

What are your thoughts on success?  How do you measure your success?  I'd love to hear from you. 

xoxo

Recipe: Healthy Oatmeal Bars

I recently had a bunch of tests run, and despite the fact that I'm a vegetarian, my cholesterol levels came back high.  I was totally shocked by this.  I do eat eggs and cheese, but not in an overabundance.

So my doctor suggested a few things to help me lower the cholesterol.  The first is that I must exercise daily about 1.5 hours.  Doing so will lower my cholesterol 5-10 points.

And the second is to eat oatmeal EVERY DAY!  He said that doing so will lower my cholesterol 5-10 points.  Now that can be as cereal or in the form of a "healthy" cookie.

So I started looking at cookie recipes.  As you know by now, I follow Weight Watchers.  And with only 26 points to eat in a day, the last thing I want to do is waste too many on a cookie.  Most recipes were filled with sugar and nuts.  So I decided to try my own recipe.

This recipe will make about 20 oat bars.  They do NOT taste like your typical oatmeal cookie.  They're not sugary sweet but have a natural sweetness.  Each bar has only 2 points plus.

Healthy Oatmeal Bars

3 cups oats (I used Quaker Oats but any good oatmeal is fine.  You just don't want to use instant.
1 ripe banana (ripe, like yellow skin wih a few brown freckles)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup egg whites (Or I suppose you can use a whole egg or two but i'm tryin to cut cholesterol.
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped unsweetened organic turkish apricots (I bought these at Trader Joe's)
1/2 tsp salt  (I didn't use any, and I felt that it needed it)

OPTIONAL: Now, if you would like to add sugar, I'm guessing that 1/2 cup brown sugar would probably be plenty.  You can also add chopped walnuts.  Because I'm trying to keep these low calorie/low points, I didn't.  But feel free to experiment.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9x13" baking pan with cooking spray.
Use parchment paper and cut it to the size of the bottom of your plan.  Place parchment in pan.
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl until moist.   Pour on top of the parchment and press into the corners, keeping the whole thing even.  Bake for 30 minutes or golden.

Remove from oven.  At this point, I free the whole thing from the pan and remove the parchment backing placing the whole slab onto a cooling rack.  When warm, use a large knife to cut into 20 pieces.  Enjoy.
Cut into 20 pieces - 2 points plus
Cut into 16 pieces - 3 points plus

Checking In: What week is it again???

Hi Everyone!  I haven't been on here for a long time and I guess it's because I don't have anything exciting to report.  I have been staying on plan, but actually plateauing for about 5 weeks now.  I lost 1.8 pounds...and then the following week the scale went up 1.8 pounds (though I have really no idea (honestly) why.  Then the following week I was down .6, and then up .4 and then down .2.  Ridiculous!!

What have I been doing wrong?  And what have I been doing right?
Okay, wrong things first:  So I can't reallly think of anything that I've been doing wrong, per se.  One thing I tried was to cut down on my fruit consumption.  Even though WW says fruit points are 0, the reality is that they still do have calories and carbs...and I started thinking that maybe I was eating too muh fruit.  It's summer, and I love the stone fruits of the season, like peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums.  So I told myself that I would limit my fruit intake to 2 a day. So for that week, I did lose!!!  Woohoo...I thought I had solved my problem.  The following week I did the same thing....and I gained.

Things I'm doing right:  This list is easier:
1.  Showing up to meetings.  Do you weigh at home?  I know we're not supposed to, but I do!! I have to.  So when Wednesday comes along and I don't see that the scale has moved, it's my first instinct to tell myself that I'm not going to the meeting that afternoon.  But I talk myself into it.  it's more than the number on the scale.  This is an investment in my health, in myself, in my progress.  So showing up to my meeting is the first thing I've done right.  I make sure I go.

2.  Tracking.  I track.  I track it all, even when I go over my 26 points for the day. (This is okay because we still have the 49 bonus for the week).  So I do track...everything that I put in my mouth.

3.  Drink!  I lots and lots of water.  Throughout the date at work, I fill my water bottle at least 4 times.  So that's not the problem.

4.  Stay active.  I have the active link monitor...and I am averaging getting to 97% to 100% of my weekly goal.  So that aint it either!!!

But the thing that I'm telling myself is this:  It's all about the journey.  Seriously....this time around it has to be a lifestyle change for me.   I have been to WW so many times in my life.  If I had just stuck with it, I'd be at lifetime.  But no.  I got discouraged.  I stopped showing up to meetings.  I started thinking I could do it on my own.

Sooooo....I'm still here.  And while I'm waiting for that scale to move, I am still going to stay on plan, eat healthy, exercise, and do what's right for me.  I'm still better off that I was 16+ weeks ago!   And I'm enjoying the ride.

How are you doing?

Checking in: Week 16: Life Happens!

 I can't believe I haven't posted in 3 weeks!  So much has happened.  First off, I had this incredible loss (1.8 pounds)  at week 13...and hit my 15 pound mark.  Yay!  Well, that victory was short lived.  So here's the story of the journey.

Week 14:  We took a girls weekend trip to Vegas...me and some of my work friends. I have to say that I don't understand my weight gain because even though we went to Vegas, I was still very moderate in my eating and I walked A LOT.  I even reached 150% of my activity goal for both Saturday and Sunday that I was there!  "Must be the alcohol," you say.  Nope.  I wish (now) that I could attribute it to that, but Friday evening I had one beer.  Saturday night at dinner, I had one mojito.  So I was okay with going to weigh in on Wednesday (I returned on Sunday)...and was not happy...and totally surprised to find I had gained 1.8 pounds (exactly what I lost the week prior!)  Grrrrr!!!!

At the meeting, we discussed mini goals....small little plans that we were going to work on during the week.  Week 15 was going to take us to Chicago for 5 days to visit family and our beautiful granddaughter Grace.  So my goal for week 15....."try to track my food as much as I can.....and SHOW UP TO THE MEETING!!!"  Why is this a big deal, you ask?  Because in the past, I have been very scale oriented.  If the scale moved down, great!  I'm so there.  And if the scale move up...or if I feel the scale is going to move up that weigh in day, I've not shown up, thinking, "I'll make up for it this week on my own, and go weigh in next week."  So showing up to meeting, after gaining the week prior...and after having 5 days on vacation is a big deal for me.

Week 15:  Chicago.  I went armed for battle.  I bought a few WW snacks at the meeting for

Me and Grace...she's so yummy.
She's looking very contemplative here!

the plane...(at least I'd know what I was tracking).  I packed fruit and snacks for the airplane so I wouldn't be tempted to buy the snacks.  We had a great time playing with the baby in Chiago, and visiting with my step-daughter, brother-in-law and cousins.  We hosted a BBQ for the family on Memorial Day.  I made some WW recipes (no one knew they were low cal).  Tracked as much as I could, walked a lot....both on our own and with Grace in the stroller!  Got back on Tuesday night.  With weigh in on Wednesday, already, when I went to bed on Tuesday night, I was making the excuses why I wasn't going to go to weigh in.  Seriously.   I didn't even get on the scale on Wednesday morning.  On the busride in to work, I was talking myself into it.  "It's not about the scale...it's about the journey....you need to go the meeting....good or bad.  Own up to it.  Life Happens!!"

Lunchtime came and I went to weigh in.  Stepped on the scale...and I had actually lost.  Not much, mind you, but I didn't gain!  I lost .4 pounds!  So, like almost a half pound.

So here's the lesson.  It's all about the journey.  Repeat after me.  "It's all about the journey."  Life happens.  There will be times when you are right on the money as far as being on your weight loss plan.  And there will be times when you'll just have to do the best you can given the situation at hand.  Own up to it.  No one is perfect.  We are on this journey to get healthy together.  If you're following Weight Watchers:  Remember that the meeting is not there because things are going perfectly;  They're there for support....and to hear what's working (and what isn't) for other people on the same journey.  So it's important to go when things are not going well.

Okay, I'm getting down off my soapbox now!!!
I hope you're all having a great week!

P.S.   I'll share the recipes I made for the BBQ!  Stuffed jalapenos and Asparagus/Tomato Salad!  Yum!

Checking in: Week 13: 15 pounds!

TA-DA!!!  I hit another Mini Goal today!
Another 5 pound marker and a total of
15.4 pounds lost!!

This will be short and sweet.  Today was weigh in....and I couldn't stay for the meeting but I did go check in.  And I lost 2.8 pounds this week hitting and surpassing 15 pounds!  I'm at 15.4 pounds gone! YAY!
Made some changes this week.  Tried to change things up a bit and it worked.  I did try to move whenever possible.  I even got off the bus when it broke down and walked home two miles.  I did bathroom counter pushups throughout the workday to combat my jiggly arms.  More big salads too.
So the moral of the story is (after last week's slight weight gain), don't lose heart on small set backs.  Be consistent and keep your focus!
Now for my next mini goal....another 4.6 pounds by Memorial weekend!!

Week 5 update: Getting moving

Week 5: Another .6 pounds down!

I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with my little weight loss this week.  I did follow plan but the scale only showed a
.6 loss.  But that's okay...it's going in the right direction, AND I'm appreciating every ounce lost this time around.  Still, it's natural to get a little disappointed when others are losing so much faster.  This time around, I'm understanding this a little better though.  Case in point, I am going to WW meetings with two of my coworkers.  My one friend started a full week after me and met her 10 pound mini-goal this week!  (in 4 weeks).  And that was after spending the weekend on vacation and eating.  But the reality is that no two people are alike.  There are other factors too:  the amount of muscle mass, age, height, metabolism.  We're all different, so why should our weight loss be the same?  6.2 pounds lost so far.  Woohoo.

On Wednesday (weigh in day), I completed the 7 day assessment wearing my ActiveLink monitor, and I've started this week, trying to meet my daily challenge of earning 2 activity points.  The way it works is this:  I wore it for a week and it assessed my activity (or lack of).  Now that I'm in the actual challenge portion, I wear the monitor every day and it counts all the activity I do.  I can check where I am throughout the day.  It lights up when I place it on the counter. Each light lit is 25% of my activity goal for the day.  So this has gotten to be "fun" for me as I try to make my monitor go up to 100%.  So I'm doing all sorts of things to up the activity. This evening, I was only at 75% of my goal.  So I asked Neddy if he'd like to play with me...and we hooked up the Wii and did Wii Fit for an hour. It was fun!  (Yep, you heard me!  Activity was fun.) I have surpassed my goal today...I'm at 111%

So that's it for this week.  I'm going to continue on with my activity and tracking and we'll see what Wednesday's weigh in brings.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Spaghetti Squash Marinara with Mushrooms

I distinctly remember the day my mom brought home our family's first spaghetti squash in the late 70's. .  It was big, yellow, hard and the size of a football.  We didn't really know what it would be like, but mom had heard that once cooked, the inside flesh would make strings like spaghetti.  She had also learned that you should eat this squash with lots of butter and brown sugar. And so that's what we did.  She cooked it in the oven, fluffed up the strings, mixed all kinds of butter and brown sugar in it and served it up in its own halves.

The strings may look like spaghetti, but the texture is not soft like pasta but still firm.  I remember thinking that I didn't particularly think the taste was that big of a deal, but hey, put butter and brown sugar on anything and it will taste good.

Once I grew up and got married and had my own household, I didn't pay much attention to spaghetti squash.  And then now that I'm following Weight Watchers, I'm experimenting with low cal/low points alternatives and I thought I'd revisit spaghetti squash given that it has 0 points (yes, you heard me right....0 points!!) as opposed to 5 points for a cup of spaghetti.

So this time I made it with traditional spaghetti in mind.  Using very few ingredients.

Here's what you'll need:

1 spaghetti squash
Pre-made spaghetti sauce (I found one for 2 points per 1/2 cup)
1 box sliced fresh mushrooms
1 yellow onion, chopped
salt, pepper, garlic powder &  red pepper flakes

I started with my oven at 400 degrees.  Baking your squash is going to take about an hour.  Line a pan with foil, use a sharp knife to poke some holes in your squash.  Put it on the pan and stick it in the oven for about an hour.

When it's done, it should yield to gentle pressure but still be holding it's shape.  Heat up your sauce.  In a nonstick pan, spray your pan with PAM (or the like).  Saute your onions and mushrooms...and then put a little water in it and cover to steam.

When your squash is ready, pull it out of the oven, carefully cut it in half lengthwise.
Allow to cool a little so you can scoop out the seeds.  Once you've got the seeds out, fluff up the squash with a fork keeping the strands long like spaghetti.  (This is the point where my mom would put on the butter and brown sugar.).  If you'd like to toss in some olive oil, this is the point to do it.  I am trying to cut the oils out so I didn't add any oil, but I did season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Serve on each plate with a ladle-full of spaghetti sauce.  Top with a spoonful or two of your mushroom and onion mixture.  That's it!

Serving size:  1 cup
Points plus value - 2-3 points depending on your sauce
The rest has 0 points.

Do you have a way you like cooking spaghetti squash?  I'd love to hear from you!
Here's a book that looks interesting.  I can up my squash intake if I knew what to do with it.  : )

Lentil & Butter Bean Salad

2.5 cups lentils (I like to use the Melissa's steamed ready-to-eat packaged lentils from Trader Joe's)

1 - 15 oz. can butter beans, drained

1 - 8 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained

2 large tomatoes, chopped

6 green onions, thinly sliced

6 stalks celery, sliced 

1 Tbsp. olive oil

Juice from 2 lemons

salt and pepper, to taste

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, optional

1 tsp cumin

Combine the beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, celery together.  Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, cumin and mix.  Serve chilled.

Makes 6 - 1 cup servings

I don't have either of these cookbooks, but they look pretty good!

Points Plus Value:  6 points

Anush's Bulghur Veggie Salad

This recipe started out as an attempt to make "Eech", a favorite Armenian lenten dish.  So I got the bulghur out, poured the water in, and then realized I didn't have 1/2 the ingredients I thought I did (tomato paste, green pepper, parsley...none of them).  So I thought about what I liked about eech.  I love the sauced taste of the bulghur and the crunch of the pepper...so I used what I had ...added cucumber instead.  The end result was very delicious.  This packs really well for take along lunches.

2 cups fine Bulghur

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1 bunch green onions, cleaned and finely sliced

1 Tbsp. Aleppo pepper

1 Tbsp. Sumac

5 Persian cucumbers

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1 1/2 c. boiling water

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp Olive oil

First off, boil your water.  In a large bowl, measure out 2 cups of fine bulghur.  Pour 1 1/2 cups boiling water on top of bulghur.  Add an 8 oz can of tomato sauce, sugar, Aleppo pepper (sweet roasted pepper flakes), Sumac and set aside.

Saute onion in a large pan with olive oil until the onion is soft and translucent.  Stir often so as not to brown.  Add onion to the cooled bulghur mixture.  Now add the chopped cucumber, tomato and green onion.  This would also be great with chopped bell pepper and parsley added at this point.  I just didn't have any to add. Next time.  This salad is great to a bed of mixed greens.  

This recipe makes 9 cups of salad.  If you're following Weight Watchers, the points values are as follows:

1 cup serving:  5 points      1/2 cup serving:  3 points

I pack my lunch every day and I love having the right containers to take it in...here are some I found that are cool:
                                                              

Checking In: Getting Healthy One Ounce at a Time

Ta-Da!  Week 3 brings me a little
closer to my goal with a .8 pound loss

I realized that I reached the end of the work week and I never checked in.  So here I am.  I went to my weekly meeting with all these high hopes for a good weight loss, but alas, the scale went down only .8 ounces.  A half a pound.  Hey, at least it's movement in the right direction!  But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed.  I have been tracking my intake, staying within my allotted points and trying to get "some" exercise by walking - but, I also have to be honest.  I did manage to lose a half pound while still having a normal life: "normal" meaning that I wasn't on some freaky fad diet.  I did enjoy going to happy hour with friends, I did cook for my family and enjoy eating the same food that they did (just not in large portions).  So I'm on the right track.  It's a lifestyle change.

But just to pump myself up a bit, I started thinking of all the times that I had started Weight Watchers in the past, and then got discouraged because I lost .4 ounces here, and .2 ounces there...and then "just 1 pound"...and then stay the same, and then .2 ounces.  Okay, well, y'know, if I'd have just stuck with it, I would have been at my ideal weight, right?  And so let's say that I continued to lose .8 ounces a week.  That would be a loss of 26 pounds in a year.  So you say, a whole year, to lose just 26 pounds?  Excuse me?  JUST 26 pound?  Losing 26 pounds without killing myself doing it would be pretty awesome.  And hopefully there will be weeks where I lose more :::HOPEFULLY:::  So anyways, you get the idea.  I'm keeping the bigger picture in mind.  This is not a race. This is my life here...my beautiful life that I intend to enjoy!

And.....I have lost now, a total of 4.2 pounds in 3 weeks.  YAY!!  Hopefully this week I will lose another .8 and hit 5 pounds in a month! (5 pounds in a month is 60 pounds in a year!) Wait, did I just say that?  (hoping for a .8 pound loss...hmmm, I must be learning something!)

I will get there!  Even if it's one ounce at a time!

My Big Batch Mushroom & Barley Soup

This is a big batch soup recipe.  Enough for you to have some for dinner and freeze some for later.  OR, you can feed your family.  It's a vegan recipe, but it has a nice rich flavor because I used wine in the broth.

Serving size: 1 1/2 cups    Serves 9

Weight Watchers Points Plus Value:  5 points

Ingredients:

1 cup barley

8 oz. crimini mushrooms, washed, trimmed and sliced

3 - 32 oz cartons of organic vegetable broth

1 pound of carrots, sliced  

1/2 cup. red wine (I used a cab that I had in the fridge)

2 large onions, chopped

2 Tbsp. olive oil (because I'm counting points, yes, I measured)

8 oz. chard, washed and chopped

5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

                                                                Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions: 

In a large soup pot, add the olive oil, chopped onion and sliced carrots.  Cook on medium heat around 10 minutes until the onions and carrots start to soften.  Add 1/2 cup red wine.  Continue cooking the onion/carrot mixture.  Add vegetable broth, barley, sliced mushrooms, garlic and chard.   This has to cook until the barley is soft and tender.  It's going to take about an hour.  Stir occasionally.  I added another 4 cups of water at this point because I like my soup brothy, but if you like you soup more stewy, you can leave it as is.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

NOTE:  I would normally have added chopped celery hearts to the onion & carrot mixture.  I just didn't have any to add.  

                                                         

Baked Kale Chips - Light and Crunchy

 I went to explore the La Canada Sprouts Market today.  I've been curious since they opened, and I needed a break from making jewelry, so off we went.  It was very nice.  Great produce, and the prices weren't too bad.  I bought all kinds of veggies, one of which was kale.  I remembered a recipe for kale chips and thought I'd make a batch to snack on.  Needless to say, I haven't stopped eating them!  They're baked, so low cal, and they're fun to eat because they are very light and crunchy.  And simple to make. Here's what they look like when they're done. (see pic on left).  They should still be green, yet a little  brown on the edges.

Ingredients:
One bunch of kale, washed and dried
Pam cooking spray (or the equivalent brand)
Salt
Garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Wash your kale well, and pat dry.  If you have a salad spinner, this is a good time to pull it out and use it.  Use a sharp knife to cut away the stems from the leaves (see below).  Toss the stems.

With the stems gone, you should be left with a pile of leaves.  I baked my kale on a pizza stone, but you can use a parchment lined baking sheet as well.  Recipes I've read call for olive oil.  I'm trying to cut calories and maximize points, so I used PAM spray and lightly sprayed my kale.  Then I sprinkled with salt and a little garlic powder.

This is how it looked right before baking.  It's shiny from the PAM spray.   Once you've sprinkled with seasoning, bake in a 350 oven for 18-20 minutes.  Keep an eye on it.  My original recipe called for 10 minutes.  At 10 minutes, my leaves were still floppy and not crunchy.  So 18-20 minutes at 350.  Remove from oven.  They should be papery and crunchy.  If not, throw them in a while longer.

Cool.  Store in an airtight container.

0 Points!
  

Vegan Breakfast Idea: Tofu Scramble with Fresh Spinach and Sweet Peppers

Just because you can't eat eggs during lent, doesn't mean you can't enjoy a warm breakfast with your family. This is a simple recipe that everyone will enjoy.  You can change up the vegetables.  In the past I've used green onions to add a nice flavor.  Tomatoes are good, but they tend to add a little too much moisture...but they're good.  So are mushrooms.

I actually prefer my tofu scramble over traditional scrambled eggs.  It's a lot lighter than eggs, less fat, but more importantly, it doesn't have that funky egg smell.

This recipe serves 1 or 2.  If you eat it all, then it has a total of  4 Weight Watchers Points Plus.  If you share it with someone, you can count it as 2 points.

Here's what you'll need:

 8 oz of medium firm tofu, drained
2 sweet peppers, sliced
1 bunch of fresh spinach, washed well and chopped coarsely
1 tsp curry powder (for color and taste)
salt and pepper
Italian seasoning
Garlic powder (optional)

Spray a nonstick pan with Pam (or the like).  Saute your sliced peppers and spinach until they're softened.  Put your tofu on a flat plate and gently break it up with a fork.  Add the tofu to the pan and stir, getting it all nice and warm.  Add the seasonings and the curry powder, stirring gently to mix thoroughly.  NOTE:  Because of tofu's texture, you don't want to aggressively "stir".  Instead, gently turn it over on itself with a spatula.  You may want to cover it and just steam it to get it nice and hot.  I like adding a little hot sauce.  Serve as you would scrambled eggs....with toast, fruit, coffee...etc.  Enjoy!


 I actually have these Orgreenic pans and love them.  They truly are nonstick and work really well.

Anush's Veggie Pasta "Sauce" (or side dish)

I concocted this recipe on Valentine's day.  I'm lucky to have an organic farmer's market in the plaza at my workplace every Thursday.  This week I bought cherry tomatoes, spinach, brussels sprouts and mushrooms I was making pasta for dinner, but didn't want the traditional red sauce but instead a chunky vegetable dish to serve on top.  Here's what I ended up with:

Ingredients:

1 pound brussels sprouts, washed, stems cut and cut in half

1 basket of cherry tomatoes, cut in half (about 2-3 cups)

2 cups sliced mushrooms

2 TBSP Olive oil

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

Once bunch spinach (washed well), not shown in picture

salt to taste

pepper

Herbs d' Provence (or good Italian seasoning 

In a large wok, add olive oil and minced cloves of garlic.  Cook til fragrant.  Add brussels sprouts and cook, stirring every few minute until brussels sprouts soften and get tender.  Add tomatoes and mushrooms and allow it all to cook until the tomatoes start to soften.  The tomatoes will create their own "sauce" and the mushrooms will add to the flavor with their liquid.  Add herbs, salt, pepper, and continue to cook a few minutes more until all the flavors are married together.

At the end, add the spinach (not shown), stir in to cover, and put a lid on the pan and let the spinach steam until wilted.

Serve on top of pasta (which is really delish) or just as a side dish (which is equally as delish).  I made 4 servings out of this for 4 points using weight watchers points plus.  But I like a LOT of veggies.  The serving size was about 1 1/2 cups.

If you try it, let me know how you liked it...what you'd add or remove, and how you served it.

Checking in: Week 2

Ta-Da!!  Week 2 brings me .6 pounds
closer to my goal!

Happy Valentine's Day!  How is your week going?  Mine went really well....considering.  I had a lot of challenges this week.  Dinner out with my friend, out to lunch for business, and had a friend pass away unexpectedly, but through it all, I managed to track everything I ate for a second week.  Despite my successful tracking, today's weigh in showed only a .6 pound loss.  Yep, only a 1/2 pound.  BUT, I was okay with that.  I will tell you why.

1.  The night before weigh in, I met my friend for our annual bday dinner.  We have mutual birthdays and we always meet at PF Chang's.  So losing .8 pounds the day after you went to chinese, with all it's salt....not bad.

2.  I was honest.  It would be different if I didn't track, or tracked only SOME of what I ate.  But I was honest.  I tracked everything...good and bad.  So it's okay.

3.  It's more than a number.  Has it really taken me all these years to come to this revelation?  I am more than a number on the scale.  If you base your success solely on that scale number...then when your number isn't what you'd like it to be you're going to throw in the towel and get frustrated.  Nope.  Not this time.

So, 2.8 last week, and another .8 this week.  That's 3.6 pounds lost in two weeks.  I'm good with that.

So it's Valentine's day!  What's on the agenda for today?  Every Thursday at my work, we have a Farmer's Market that sells great produce.  Today I bought fresh brussels sprouts, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and spinach.  My mom has been staying with us, so for Ned and mom I had cheese ravioli and for me, bow tie pasta.  I left the pasta plain and then I made this great "sauce" with the cherry tomatoes, brussels sprouts, mushrooms and spinach and served it over the pasta.  We had garlic bread (olive oil and crushed garlic), salad and grilled eggplant which I made on the Foreman grill.  The result was fantastic.

Here's a photo.  Tip:  I used my scale to measure out 2 oz of dry pasta to cook.  Once cooked it was about a cup and a half of pasta.  I piled the veggies on top and added the salad.  It was great.

That was it!  So what did you do this Valentine's day.  Whatver you did, I hope that you were good to yourself!

Here are links to some great Weight Watcher's Cookbook you might want to try out:

My Diet Friendly Cilantro Hummus

I tried something new today.  With lent starting on Monday, I needed some good protein alternatives that wouldn't rob the Points bank.  Instead of using a base of garbanzo beans as in traditional hummus, I substituted one can of garbanzos for a can of Cannelini beans (white beans).  This cut the calories and fat.

I also opted to NOT add olive oil, since the tahini already has enough fat.  Do I have your curiosity? Okay, let's go:

1 - 15 oz can garbanzo beans drained
1 - 15 oz can white cannelini beans, not drained
1/4 cup sesame tahini (I measured for sure!)
Juice of one lemon
About 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, washed and removed from stems
salt
garlic powder
cumin
cayenne pepper

In the food processor, combine garbanzo beans (drained) and white beans and their liquid.  Add 1/4 cup sesame tahini and lemon juice.  Add cilantro and spices and blend til smooth. Adjust the salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

This recipe makes 3 1/2 cups of hummus.
If you're on Weight Watchers and following the Points plus program, I calculated this through their recipe builder.

Serving size:  For 1/2 cup serving = 3 points (you can dip all kinds of veggies (0 points) and have a 3 point lunch or snack.

OR - if you just want a 1/4 cup serving, there is just 1 point.
I have it all divided up in little containers to "grab and go" for lunchtime! Give this a try and let me know what you think.  I would love to hear from you!

********************************************************************
Here's a pretty cool spice rack  if you're looking for one.  I like the bottle shape and overall design. And here's a "Practice Makes Hummus" tshirt.  : )

Checking In

Ta-Da!!  Week 1 Loss: 2.8 pounds!

Finally!!!  A time to just sit down and check in!  I've got my pot of jasmine tea, my Pandora radio is on my Joni Mitchell station, I've got my favorite fluffy blankie keeping me warm and am ready to let you know how it's going.    It's been a hugely busy week.  My days start at 5:00 a.m., and I need to be out the door by 6:15 to walk to the bus stop to catch my bus to downtown.  After a day at the office, it's back at home to fix dinner, spend time with Neddy and my mom, dishes, and then I'm getting ready for the Armenian Artists show in Orange County on March 2.  So you can see that the "balance" thing is just not happening in the sleep department.

But good changes happened this week.  Last week I made the commitment to join WeightWatchers.  There's a meeting at lunchtime and a couple of my friends and I decided to join and support one another.  So I followed the plan,  and I tracked everything that I ate, and for this, I was rewarded with a 2.8 pound weight loss for the week! Woot!

This coming week, my focus is going to be on exercise, which I don't seem to have time for (other than walking to the bus stop and back).  I know this is something, but I don't feel  it's enough.  Time becomes a factor since I have to wake up so early, and my evenings seem so full as well....but maybe baby steps.  A few crunches here, a few arm curls there.... We'll see what this week brings.

Challenges for the Coming Week:
1.  Staying on track with the program, i.e. being HONEST with myself and taking responsibility

2.  Preparing for Lent.  Lent begins this coming Monday, February 11.  The dietary restrictions of our Armenian Orthodox faith warrant a full vegan diet.  Although I am a vegetarian, I do rely on cheese and nonfat greek yogurt for protein.  Coming up with alternative vegan sources of protein is not difficult; but finding the low calorie/low fat versions...a little tricky.    In order to stay on my diet it's going to take some preparation.  I will cut up my fruits and veggies and pre-bag them for quick grab and go lunches.  And I will experiment with a new point-friendly hummus recipe.  : )

3.  Also preparing for the spiritual journey of lent: I am focusing on not gossiping...and not being on the receiving/listening end of gossip as well.  I wrote a piece on Looking Inward for Lent for my blog - www.pomegranateandeye.com.  I was thinking about this today, and I'm also going to try to cut out the negative in my life.  Simply not allow negativity, negative thoughts about others (OR MYSELF!) .  This is really going to be a challenge as I am my worst enemy.  I think it's going to be a really rewarding lenten journey.  Join me??   If you're interested in a day-by-day lenten journey, please check out ePostle.net's Lenten Journey with Fr. Vazken podcast.  Click here!

4. Try to complete at least 1-2 jewelry pieces per day for the upcoming show.

How did your week go?  And what are some of your challenges for the upcoming week?  Check in and let me know how you're doing.   Have a great week!



  ....don't forget to pack your lunch!!!

Balance - My February Progress

Last month, on my Inside the Pomegranate blog, I had a post on my One Little Word. (Click to see my original post on my other blog)  I chose the word "Balance" as what I was going to work on this year.  Balancing work and play, sleep and awake time is one of my biggest challenges.  I tend to overextend myself, committing to to much, and then getting burnt out.  So you can see how that word, Balance, is a good one for me.  It also has to do with my food choices.  Balance = moderation.  Balancing my choices is a challenge too.  So the whole idea was that by choosing this word, I would kind of make it my mantra for the year.

So we're one month into the new year and I wanted to check in and report on my progress.  How is my balancing going.  Um....well.....It's not really the best it could be. But I am a work in progress, right?  And it's all about small changes.  And I have another 11 months to work on this.  So let me report how things are going as of today.

Exercise:  I am still walking the 6 blocks to the bus stop and 6 blocks back.  This is going really well, and I'm liking that I am leaving a smaller footprint on the earth by doing this. BUT the downside is that I do have errands to run and do need my car for that, so I am averaging walking to the stop 4 x a week, and thenat 5th day I'm driving there, leaving my car and running errands immediately after I get off the bus.  I'm saving a lot of money on gas too.  Oh, and I signed up to walk the 39 mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in September, so I'm going to start my walker training next month!

Diet:  Last week I joined WeightWatchers.  And I'm on day 5 of the program and tracking EVERYTHING. Weigh in day is Thursday.  Because the plan has a 0 points values for fruits and vegetables, this works great for me.  I am learning that I have to measure out my portions for now. Because they were out of control.  Did you know that a serving of rice is 1/2 cup?  Tracking my intake is keeping me honest.  So that's going well.

Sleep:  This is where it all goes downhill.  I just have too much to do in the course of a day. But over the past month I've tried my best to get to bed by 11:00 p.m.   okay...11:30.  I even started making myself switch to decaf at night so that it would be easier to get to sleep.  I wake up at 5:00 a.m.   So I need work in this area.

Overextending myself:  This part is getting better.  I have an upcoming show for Pomegranate & Eye on March 2 so I'm getting ready for that.  And I'm coordinating a youth event at our church for Darfur awareness.  And blogging.  And my friend Suzie and I are still coordinating our homeless outreach.  But this part is okay.  :  )

I'm going to continue with this.  For February, I'd like to make more of a conscious effort to REMEMBER to BALANCE.  Because all too often my one little word becomes is an afterthought.  What's your One Little Word...and how's it going for you?