Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms with Quinoa and Feta

This was my first attempt at stuffed portabellas and they came out great.  Even my non-veggie husband liked them - a lot!  They're good as a main course served with a tossed green salad. 4  portabella mushroom(s), washed and stems removed    1/2 cup uncooked quinoa 1/2 onion, chopped 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese 1 Tbsp lemon zest 1 small zucchini, chopped 1/2 cup shredded carrots 1 Tbsp garlic paste (or minced garlic) 1/2 Tbsp olive oil 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, julienned Heat oven to 350 degrees. I use my pizza stone, but you can use a cookie tray. Spray washed and stemmed portabellas with cooking spray,  and add salt pepper and garlic powder to the gill side. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until you prepare the filling. In a non-stick wok or pan with a lid,  add the oil, garlic and onion, chopped zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes and carrots and stir fry until veggies are tender. Add 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover with a lid and simmer. If you need more water, add a bit. til quinoa is tender about 30 minutes.   Remove portabellas from oven and cool on counter while quinoa cools a bit. Stir feta cheese into the quinoa mixture, add salt and pepper to taste. Add lemon zest. Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, scoop filling and mound on portabellas equally between the four mushrooms. Pop back in the oven and heat until hot about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. 5 Weight Watchers points plus each ****************************************************** I'm throwing this pizza stone on here for your consideration.  I love mine and use it for way more than pizza, including cookies, boregs, portabella mushrooms, baked kale.  You can see mine in the photo of the portabellas.  It gets a nice dark patina to it as it gets used (mine is unglazed) and I've had it for a few years now.  Things done stick to it, and it's easy to clean.  Do you have a pizza stone?

Checking In: Week 9: I Did It!!

I did it!  I met my first mini goal!  10 pounds lost!!

Well, it finally happened!  You know how it is when you get up first thing in the morning, go about doing your morning "stuff" and right before you get dressed for work, you hop on the scale for your weigh in.  Well, for the past week, I have more than hit my 10 pound mark, but weigh in is not until 12:30 p.m.  And in that time between 5:30 in the morning and 12:30, there a lot of life that goes on:  There's the morning coffee, a little something for breakfast...some water...you get the idea.

So if you read my post last week, I had 1.4 pounds to lose to make it to my 10 pound mini-goal.  And come Wednesday morning, I didn't think it was going to happen because my home scale had not moved significantly enough from the week prior.  So it was totally unexpected when I went to my meeting and the leader said, 'Oh, good, you lost again...."  The loss was EXACTLY 1.4 pounds making my grand total loss in 9 weeks to be 10 pounds!  Woot!!

So what did I do differently this week than last?  Want to know?  The answer is NOTHING.  I did nothing different.  I stayed consistent.  I tracked, I stayed within my points and I walked (and walked and walked...and still did my bathroom counter pushups).  (I'm averaging about 70 pushups a day now!!)

My friend Karen and I (the one that's lost 18 pounds in 9 weeks, thank you) have been doing what I call the "Green Light Walk" on our lunch break.  We walk until we hit a red light.  And so we have to turn and follow where the green light takes us. Anytime you stop at a red, you must change direction and go to the green.  I work at 7th and Fig.  This week we ended up taking Hope all the way down to Pico, and then walking all the way around the Convention Center and back to work.  It was a 3.6 mile walk. 

So I'm happy. One mini goal down, and the next mini goal is set.  Losing another 10 is already under way! 

What's working for you?  Let me know how you're doing.  I'd love to hear from you.

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Do you use a pedometer? It's fun to see how far you're going.  Pedometers have come a long way and you don't need anything fancy.  Here's a basic one from Timex, but nowadays, if you carry your phone with you, there are pedometer apps that keep track of your miles and calories burned.  Still, if you don't want to carry your phone with you, the classic pedometer will clip onto your waistband.