Wednesday is here again, and I'm a little sad about it. For one thing, I haven't kept up with things the way I should have this week. Between having a birthday party, major toilet issues, a sick baby and a kid designed week of recipes (more about that in a bit), I just haven't had time or been motivated to keep up with points. Plus, I haven't had time to go running the way that I would like. Thankfully, I haven't gained any weight. However, I have felt bloated and icky and just...fatter. Grrr.
Matt has lost a bit of weight this week, but he has also felt poorly. We think it is because his body is getting used to not having so much sugar from the Cokes he so lovingly inhaled pre-WW. He has had stomach issues and has just felt icky. I think he is starting to rally though. Go Matt!
Anyway, back to me, because this blog is after all, ALL ABOUT ME. One of the big issues that I'm having lately is that one of my most favoritest hobbies is decidedly not WW-friendly. That hobby is baking. I like to cook, but I adore baking--the feeling of a good dough in my hands, the slight luster of a silken batter as it is nestled in a cake pan. I like to make things from scratch and just see it come together into a finished product. However, when I bake, that means that the products of my baking are around. Waiting to be consumed. Even if I bake something from Cooking Light (which is what I have been trying to do), it is still here, and portion control gets a bit dicey. And sometimes I don't want to bake something from Cooking Light. I want to bake brownies from Cooks Illustrated, redolent with 1.5 sticks of butter, glossy and gooey with 6 oz. of unsweetened chocolate. I want to see just how good that recipe can be, how it can make someone's eyes roll back in their head, especially if that someone is not me. I have tried replacing my favorites with WW friendly items, but it doesn't always work out. For instance, I once tried making WW cinnamon buns, but without the added fat, the dough remained a bit crumbly, so there was none of the fun that comes with kneading. Long story short, I feel like WW is taking my hobby away from me. And it makes me sad, and maybe a bit resentful. This is something that I will have to work through if I am going to be successful with these last 15 pounds.
Onto another issue: this week my husband got the great idea to let Gabby and Sam design our week of recipes. How dinnertime works in our household is that someone (97% of the time, it is me) picks out 5-6 dinner recipes on Saturday or Sunday and then makes a store list and goes shopping for those items, along with lunch items and whatever else we need. I complain about it sometimes, but I also enjoy it immensely. I pick things that are seasonal (quesadillas with peaches right now or yummy southwestern burgers that we can grill) and I also take cost into consideration (balancing an extravagent meal with an economical one). However, I guess Matt heard me complain about this a little too much, so this week, he asked the kids to pick the meals "to help Mommy out." They could each pick two. Sam picked crepes and chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes and carrots, and Gabby picked fondue and chicken tortilla soup. These are all things that I would make in a typical week, but perhaps not in the same week. I have been able to find figure friendly alternatives to the chicken nuggets and tortilla soup, but crepes and fondue? Is there a good alternative to dipping something in melted cheese? And plus, fondue is so luxurious--the nutty and perfect Gruyere with the crisp apples, the bittersweet chocolate waiting for the juicy strawberry--if there was an alternative, would I want one? The answer is no. So today I am eating very conservatively all day so that I can indulge in fondue fantasies. There is a good sized chunk of Gruyere just waiting in my fridge's cheese drawer, and enough chocolate to make Ghiradelli himself blush. I will surely over do (just like I did with the crepes that Matt made, although he did say he cut the amount of butter he used in half) and this will put me in a bad mood for the rest of the week. Harumph. Or it could be a good excuse for me to call my mother in law this evening and let her watch the monsters so that I can go out and run a couple of miles....
So since this has been an all together disappointing post, I will add this week's recipe, which man might find helpful. It is for the chicken nuggets that I made for Sam last night. Now, chicken nuggets to me sound like anything but appetizing, but Sam likes them, and Alice has never met a chicken dish she didn't like (although her favorite is enchiladas). So I worked to find a recipe that would replace the Joy of Cooking chicken fingers that I usually make for him. This is a great alternative. It is from Cooking Light, and the dipping sauce is especially good. I even think that they would be great to have at a party--they are super easy, have a nice flavor, and you could make a few dipping sauces to mix stuff up a bit (maybe a light ranch, an Asian style sweet and sour, and a tasty honied BBQ?). I think they would be great for a tailgate party or for watching a big game, so I will definitely be back come World Series time. Here is the recipe. I would type it all out, but well, it's right there, and your fingers were made for clicking.
Hopefully next week I'll be back with joy and light and perkiness. I actually thought about manufacturing some for this week, but weight loss is nothing but a journey and sometimes the journey is not an altogether peaceful one. Sometimes your car breaks down and you get stranded in Elk City, Oklahoma and the only hotel looks like it came straight out of the movie Vacancy and you decide to sit up all night to ward away the beasties, armed only with a mascara wand and a leopard print stilletto heel. And yes, that has happened to me. Both literally and figuratively. I'll leave you with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment