Braided Italian Bread with Black Eye Pea Soup and Taco's

Sunday September 25, 2016 Menu

I have a lot to talk about in this diary.  From last Saturday I haven't been making good choices.  I ate out a little too much.  I had too much junk food for snacks .  Since Thursday I ate some healthier option snacks the last couple of days.  I have been busy a lot this week and I haven't lost any weight.  I actually gained 2 pounds according to Wednesday's weigh in.  I think it's because I have not been eating a snack when I was hungry.  Since Thursday I ate snacks when I felt hungry.    I use a scale at home that is 2 pounds heavier than the hospital scale.  According to my home scale I lost the 2 pounds I had gained and it appears I lost 2 more for a total of 4 pounds since Thursday.  I will do an official weigh in on Monday to let you know if this appears to be true. 

I had way to many morning chores like feeding the animals, cleaning the fish tank, watering the plants and garden.  I picked a super quick meal of cool whip cake.  Yea I just hate for it to go to waste.   Also, I figured I would be getting real hot and hot food may not be what I needed this morning.  For lunch I had homemade black eye pea soup.  Remember in the past I made bacon in the oven and saved the grease for later cooking's.  Yep my black eye pea soup is made with some of that leftover bacon grease.  We use the grease to sauté the onions in.  We ate that with some homemade braided Italian bread.  Yep bread, I love bread, bread with butter and warm.  Ugh....... I love bread.  After lunch I spent a couple of hours spring cleaning one of my rooms in the house.  When we were done my daughter made us some coffee for an evening snack.   I had just one cup.  Then later I went to church and someone at church said they specifically made US some coffee.  So not to be rude I had another cup of coffee.  For supper we had taco night.  As you see I did not skimp on the meat nor the toppings.  Before the sun went down I went and cut a little grass.

I want to talk about those taco's.  My mom made it with ground turkey.  I put all those ingredients in my diary.  Through conversation my mom wanted to know how much fat and calories the turkey saved me.  I said let's see.  So I entered the usual ground meat I buy from Sam's which is the 90/10 grade.  Well look at what I see.  The turkey is 173 calories and 13g of fat.  The 90/10 ground meat has 150 calories and 8g of fat.  Then later I also compared the 80/20 ground meat and it had 210 calories and 18g of fat.  We were surprised to see that the low fat ground meat we usually get was actually a little more heathier than the turkey.  We also saw that the turkey and the low fat ground meat was healthier than the higher fat ground meat.  So depending on what you have money for either get the turkey or the 90/10 grade of ground meat. 

I finished the day with a total of 1438 calories for the day.  I was over by 108 calories.  I am hoping all that work I did today off set those extra calories.   If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity. 

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Pork With Garlic Mashed Potatoes & White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Wednesday September 14, 2016 Menu

I had a meeting at work today and I just know we are going to eat out.  For breakfast I had a little lonely egg.  Of course the meeting lasted extra long and I had to have something to eat.  All I could find was this little brownie.  Ugh that little brownie was 146 calories and I only ate half, a 2x2 inch piece.  Dang if I ate the whole thing it would have been almost 300 calories.  Watch out for those little snacks.  For lunch we went to the Word of Mouth Café.  I got the plate lunch of pulled pork.  I split my plate with a little friend.  I gave her half my pork, potatoes and green beans you see in the photo.  I gave her all of my corn.  Of course it comes with white chocolate bread pudding and I ate all of it.  I really didn't have time to enter my food diary, but late that evening I figured out that half was still 678 calories! OMG.  The bread pudding was almost 400 calories! I went and did weight lifting and 3 hours of cleaning.  For supper I ate the other half of my leftover Sunday dinner.  I did not eat the sweet potato nor the cole slaw.  I just knew that the lunch meal was over.  I had a quarter cup of ice cream just because it was sitting on the counter.  My darn mom.   I finished the day with a total of 1411 calories for the day.  I was 201 calories over my goal.   Like I keep saying it is hard to eat out and stay on track.  This week will be exceptionally hard, because I will be eating out again Thursday, Friday and possibly Saturday.   If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Southern Cornbread Supper

Saturday August 27, 2016 Menu

This was a very busy day.  I was out all day helping a friend and they helped me a little while.  It all started with a phone call at 8:00 am.  I had just had my coffee and they needed help.  I didn't really think of calorie counting at the time. But, I did make the decision to eat sort of light.  I had a piece of toast with one sausage link, wrapped it up together like a sandwich and ate it on the way.  For lunch we ate some leftover hamburgers they had made.  I kept it light and choose spinach over iceberg lettuce, and I did not get any of the French fries even though they were baked in the oven.  I knew my calories would be high with just the burger.  I could have made my burger less fattening by not adding the mayonnaise and the cheese.  But that is the grandness of this calorie dieting.  I like my burger with mayo and cheese, that is how I want to eat my burger and I did!  At a cost that is.  I only had 165 calories left for supper.   Here in the south when we want a hot quick meal we often choose to cook cornbread.  It may be a skilled fried version we call couche couche that you put in a bowl, add milk and eat it like cereal or you bake it.  We choose to bake ours in our little black skillet, as us southern Louisiana people like to do.  My mother wanted it like couche couche so she just crumbled hers with milk.  I wanted mine all slathered in butter.  So that is what we did.  The cost of not calorie counting earlier in the day and having that mayo and cheese for lunch, I only had calories for the cornbread and butter.  Nothing else.  I was fine with that.  I was tired from my long day and was not that hungry anyway.  I didn't eat much and still went over on the calories by only 5 for a daily total of 1335 calories for the day.  I didn't starve as the meat I ate for breakfast and lunch was very filling.   I do recommend that if you don't eat much at a meal that you should do protein over salads and stuff.  The meat holds you for longer.  If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Chocolate Cake

Thursday August 18, 2016 Menu

This day I knew I was going to be eating heavy so for breakfast I had 1 scrambled egg.  I had a regional staff meeting in Monroe and had no idea what the menu was for lunch.  I had made a homemade chocolate cake from scratch to bring for the meeting.  It was something I have been wanting and figured if I shared I wouldn't be tempted to have to eat it all.  Because as you all know so far I hate for food to go to waste.   I entered in all my ingredients and determined if large slices were served that it would be cut into 12 pieces.  One slice of this 12 piece cake was 480 calories!  When lunch time came we had BBQ West delivered.  It was BBQ chicken, brisket, coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad and Texas garlic toast.  I didn't take a picture of my meal because my bosses were there and I didn't want them to see. lol  Also,  I was not able to determine ahead of time what I was going to eat and how much of it.  So this is an instance of how you can either under estimate or over estimate  your meal.  I choose one chicken thigh.  One small serving of brisket.  I had a Styrofoam plate that had the 3 divider in it.  I put like 1 level tablespoon of baked beans and potato salad into one section of the divider.  Then I finished it off with 1 garlic toast bread in the other divider and one serving of my chocolate cake.  I had estimated my lunch menu to be about 800-900 calories with the desert.  Well when it was all said and done I had 1,100 calories for lunch.  I probably would have been OK if I wouldn't have had the bread and chocolate cake.  I knew I shouldn't have it but I under estimated my calories for the main meal.  For supper I had half of a baked potato and had some southern white sausage gravy on top.   My friends and I had an emergency and didn't get to exercise.   But we did get 3 hours of working exercise later in the evening.  I really enjoyed being able to share my homemade chocolate cake and not have any leftovers to be tempted with later.  With under estimating my lunch menu I went over my calories by 280 calories for a total of 1615 calories for the day.  On a positive note I put only one hour my working exercise in my food diary and the results said I should have been OK with my overage.  For my weight loss I would still like to keep my calories at the 1330 total with or without exercise.   If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity. 

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Lyla's 13th Birthday BBQ Chicken & Sausage Cheat Day

Sunday August 21, 2016 Menu

Today is my daughters 13th birthday.  So I went all out on my cheat day.  For breakfast I had some banana bread with my coffee.  Then for lunch I made a grand meal of BBQ chicken and sausage, with garlic bread.  I also made a caprese salad.   The caprese salad was a combination of eggplant, tomato, fresh motzerella cheese, basil with a non dairy homemade pesto.  The oil mixture I used was a marinated homemade concoction of olive oil, garlic, and rosemary.  I use this quite often in my recipes to lightly oil my pan.  You ought to try it.

For the main dish I had BBQ leg quarters, some Savois sausage and garlic bread.  The chicken got a light coating of Pig Stand BBQ sauce.  I am sure on the My Fitness Pal I over estimated that.  Here in the south we love our BBQ.  My BBQ is to die for.  I would recommend that BBQ be placed on that cheat day if you will be doing the garlic bread, sausage, rice dressing and potato salad, which are the usual staples at this sort of meal.  But as  you see in the picture down below of my lunch plate I did not over do my portions.  For my desert we had a chocolate chip cookie, Klondie bar and washed it all down with one glass of coffee. I was a little hungry for supper and I ate 1 leftover chicken leg.

 

As you see for my cheat day I ate what I wanted but did not go over board on my servings.  I saved a few calories by eating very light for supper.  I had a great cheat day meals for a total of 1768 calories for the day.  That is 438 calories over my budget.   Remember this cheat meal could have been a lot worse if I would have went back for seconds or even eaten heavier for breakfast and supper.   So enjoy your cheat day and don't over do it too bad.  If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Banana Nut Bread and Homemade Pizza

Tuesday August 16, 2016 Menu

Tuesday I was hungry for some good ole southern banana nut bread.  Perfect time to have it is at breakfast.  I cut 2 slices and weighed on the scale.  Went to My Fitness Pal to enter in breakfast.  I have leftovers for lunch and I also knew that I wanted homemade pizza for supper.  I had extra calories to play with depending on how much pizza I ate for supper.  So I cut me another slice of bread.  I did not change the way I ate my bread. Remember I am not per say dieting.  I am mostly watching my calorie intake.  So I took my skillet out, buttered my bread, grilled it and ate with my wonderful cup of coffee.  I went to work at the LDEQ office.  We just had that record flooding here and I have been busy checking on businesses.  I left the office without my snack.  I wasn't hungry so I didn't stop to get anything.  But by 11:00 I was hungry and ate my leftover pasta and spaghetti sauce from the other night.  For my snack I had planned on grazing on 1 cup of grapes.  But Isaac my coworker gave me 1/2 cup of butternut squash to eat that he had made.  So no grapes for me.   I got home and did my 45 minutes of cardio.  For supper I measured everything for a whole 12" pizza.  What crust you choose to put  your pizza toppings on makes a difference.  If I were to use the premade personal pizza crust I would only be able to eat half because of all the bread.  I used the 12" ultra thin pizza crust found at the Dollar Tree.  Then take a look below at my numbers.  If you were to order a 12" deep dish supreme pizza from Pizza Hut it would be 3280 calories,184g of fat and 7280 mg of salt for a whole pizza.    Last week I went to a meeting and they served us pizza.  I took at snap shot of that meal.  I had only 1 1/2 slices of pepperoni pizza and I had 555 calories, 29g of fat and 1275mg of salt.  The same pizza with the same type toppings that I have made at  home had a lot less calories, fat and salt.  Last night I had the calories and I was pretty hungry for my homemade pizza so I ate half of the 12" pizza as seen in the photo, which had more toppings than crust.     I had 507 calories, 24g of fat and 1190 mg of salt.  I say I did pretty good.   Later in the evening I checked to make sure I had entered all of my food in my diary and that the portions were correct.  I still had an extra calories left for the day.  So I treated myself to 2 mini Reece's Peanut Butter cups.  I ate pretty good again for the day for a total of 1110 calories for the day.  If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell