Sunday, June 22, 2008

My Challenge this week

It's been a while hasn't it? I've been pretty busy lately, and didn't have much time to think about myself and what I'm doing. It shows too! So, I've decided to get myself going again. On of the things I've decided to do to get me going is to give myself a challenge. I'm very competitive, so usually it's a good booster for me!

This week my challenge is to use a different cookbook every day. My main meal, and if possible my side dishes are all coming from the same cookbook.

For my first day I decided to use Weight Watcher's New Complete Cookbook. I bought it at Costco actually and have been looking at it without ever using it so there!

Wisely or not, I decided to start by having a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern meal. Here's what it looked like:


The grain dish is a Tabbouleh. It was very tasty! The only think is that the recipe calls for it to sit and chill for 3 hours, but I didn't have time to do that. I'm sure that the texture would have been better if it had sat longer.

It's not an innovative Tabbouleh recipe by any stretch of the imagination, but something to do again!

With that I made Middle Eastern Beef Kebabs. Those turned out very good! I did forget the bay leaf (DUH!) but it still turned out very tasty and filling. The recipe makes 4 generous servings! I used my curly metal skewers, and switched the pepper for yellow squash, made it look pretty!

We cooked it on broil, but I think it'd be even better on the grill! One thing I'll do differently is to process the marinade more, it was a little too chunky.

Finally I made a Baba Ghanouj to eat with cucumbers while the meat cooked, and also we used it with the main meal to dip the meat and veggies into. It was good, a little too liquidy to my taste though. I would drain the eggplant well before I mash it to "dry it out" a little.

I have those little measuring spoon that are "a pinch" and "a dash" etc. I use the "a dash" one for the dash of cayenne called for in the recipe... Ooooofaaaahhhh! That's a big dash! Still good though, just surprising at first!

There you have it, the first day of my challenge! You can find the recipes by clicking on their title in the text above.

Activity-wise, well... see you at the gym in the morning!

Tomorrow it's the Shortcut Cookbook, another one form Weight Watchers!

Be good n stuff!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

My Plan for the Week!

Food Stuff:

I've got my week all planned out! Meal by meal! I'm getting bored with always eating the same stuff, so I decided to plan for variety. I've also made an effort to have a lot of vegetables in there. I've been pushing the grains, the legumes, and have been eating less and less veggies... I miss them!

Here's my week in food:

Sunday:


Breakfast: Fruits, Ezekiel cereals, milk
Lunch: Leek zucchini soup, roasted chicken salad
Dinner: leftover soup, Beef Stir Fry, couscous

Monday:

Breakfast: Oats, yogurt, fruits
Lunch: Couscous, lentil curry, ground turkey n veggies, steamed veggies
Dinner: Hawaiian chicken, Shredded green beans, roasted asparagus

Tuesday:

Breakfast:Fruits, Ezekiel cereal, milk
Lunch: Leftovers bento
Dinner: Sushi (take out)

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Eggs/Canadian bacon sandwich
Lunch: Vegetable curry, Onigiri, Steamed veggies, fruit pieces
Dinner:Wheat Berry salad, Grilled salmon, hummus/veggies

Thursday:

Breakfast: Oats, fruits, yogurt
Lunch: Wheat Berry salad, veggies/hummus, Canadian bacon rolls
Dinner: Fajita-style Skillet Pork, Bulgar

Friday:

Breakfast: Vegetables scramble
Lunch: Leftovers (whatever is still around)
Dinner: BBQ chicken, BBQ veggies, Bulgar

Saturday:

Breakfast: Aram's Cafe brunch
Lunch: Aram's Cafe brunch
Dinner: Steamed fish n vegetables, "Fried" Brown rice

Activity Stuff:

Activity might be tricky this week. For one thing, I finally caught the flu-cold-whatever that has been going around. If I move too fast, I get really dizzy.

Another challenge this week is that I'm having "Mirena" installed Tuesday. I have no clue how that will affect me, so I don't know how "up to it" I'll be when it comes to exercising.

So here's my plan for this week:

Sunday:

Yoga (45 min), Walk (45-60 min)

Monday:

Pilates (45 min), Swim or walk (45-60 min)

Tuesday:

Walk (60 min)

Wednesday:
(depend on how I feel after Tuesday)

Total body work out (20 min) Core Cardio work out (20 min) Walk (45-60 min)

Thursday:

Yoga (45 minutes) walk or swim (45-60min)

Friday:

Pilates (60 min) Walk or Swim (45-60 min)

Saturday:

Walk (90-120 min)

So there, my week is all planned out and ready to go! I've also put my pedometer back on! Hopefully I'll keep up the steps!

Be good n stuff!!!!