The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of getting ready for family to visit and not feeling well at the same time, and so I got a little behind on my documenting. I'm catching up with two weeks worth of meals for you to possibly be inspired by. :)

I did spend a great deal of time planning these menus, with a pile of cookbooks and magazines at hand, as as my pinterest as inspiration. Some weeks, things come to me easier than others. One of the things that most overwhelms me is trying to be sure I have ALL the ingredients planned out for all my dinners, and then plenty of options for my other meals I eat throughout the day. I'm still doing about 6 small meals a day - I've train my body to expect something nourishing and healthy on these regular 2 1/2-3 hour intervals, and it seems to work best for me.

note: each day is annotated with the main meal for the day and any noteworthy combinations of things throughout the day. note: this does not always consistitute the entire days meals, you can look at my MyFitnessPal if you want more details!

What did YOU eat that you really loved last week?

In September, I participated in the Back to Basics challenge (#wwbtb). I started by making goals, and followed up after that with improving spaces, then talked about the importance of tracking. This post will serve as a look at weeks 3 and 4, and a look at the success of the challenge goals I set.

The Week 3 challenge (wwbtb: GHG post) was to improve your health by integrating at least one of the GHG elements into your life:

Good Health Guidelines (from WW): 5 or more servings of vegetables and fruits. Give preference to whole grains. 2 servings of dairy. 2t of healthy oils. 1-2 servings of lean protein. limit sugar/alcohol. drink at least 48oz, preferably water. take vitamins.

I'm proud to say that I am doing good in all 8 of these areas. The hardest is probably sugar - sugar substitutes at least. When I cook, I'm using honey or maple syrup most of the time. I'm also working on targeted vitamins instead of a general multi. Anyhow, the GHGs fit in really well with my learnings from Take Shape For Life - my recent post on the BESLIM acronym has some expanded themes for general health.

fit Kristine (instagram)

For Week 4, Brooke took a look at exercise (wwbtb: exercise post). My favorite takeaway from this was to make an exercise plan! why am I not doing this when I do my meal planning?! (ok, one reasons is that with fibromyalgia, I need to concentrate on doing what I can, when I can: the #WYCWYC challenge that Roni has been posting about). So I can still slate out my basic plans, and I plan to do just that. I'm also starting to think about my long term exercise goals. And I determined that wearing fit clothes makes me FEEL FIT and I'm going to buy another set of yoga clothes!

Now what you've been waiting for ;) How did I do in the goals I set for this challenge?

This last week was a little less creative, as I battled an upset tummy, but I was craving fruits and veggies for comfort, so that was a bonus.

What did YOU eat that you really loved last week?

as last week, my main meal is listed, with other noteworthy meals or snacks in italics below. :)

Monday, 9/16: OUT at Subway - I got my normal double chicken salad with cucumbers, spinach, peppers, onions, peppechini, light cheese, light oil, vinegar, pepper, and oregano. Paired it with a bag of fresh apples. protein shake: tried my first green smoothie (on instagram). lunch: turkey celery salad with apple and instead of mayo, used yogurt and cherry almond balsamic vinegar. documented the regular Trader Joe's haul (on instagram)

Tuesday, 9/17: cauliflower pizza - a crust made out of riced cauliflower, cottage cheese, light mozzerella, and then topped with a lower carb spaghetti sauce, turkey pepperoni, red pepper, onions, and served with a salad. E had a more traditional pizza using a ball of pizza dough from Safeway and his favorite toppings. protein shake: another green smoothie. treat: becoming a coffee lover with a weak espresso, soy, and sugar feed caramel syrup. breakfast: overnight oats (or rather, just over-several-hour oats!) with pumpkin. lunch: corn on the cob and chicken with my tomatilla sauce over it.

Wednesday, 9/18: spaghetti squash with maple vege-sausage patties and an assortment of veggies. last meal: yogurt with pumpkin and homemade granola.

Thursday, 9/19: Curry Celery soup (on theredkitchen) served with a salad with hard boiled egg whites and plum pieces. lunch: buffalo chicken salad. treat: baked healthy banana cookies (recipe on Brooke Not on a Diet: Banana Bread Cookies, my mods on instagram).

Friday, 9/20: Roasted veggies with meatballs - roasted cauliflower and then added some zucchini and leftover corn off the cob and Trader Joe's Meatless meatballs, served with cottage cheese (on instagram). breakfast: I started out the morning with healthy snacks in line to get a new iPhone with my brother! lunch: spaghetti squash with chicken and paprika. afternoon snack: egg white omelet

Saturday, 9/21: impromptu outing, where we found a restaurant not far from the Portland max train line to visit called Tasting East (found on yelp). OMG, the flavors were divine. We got a bunch of small things and shared (on instagram), and used chopsticks. I had a Garlic Ginger chicken, and E tried a tofu coconut curry. We had Green beans cooked dry in a wok with garlic, and an amazing Salt and Pepper fried tofu. E had some fancy rice and soup and I tasted his Mango Asparagus salad rolls. And we finished it off with some mango and sesame ice cream.

Sunday, 9/22: OUT at Burger King with a salad (not pictured). treat: coffee blended banana smoothie and popcorn (on instagram). dinner: chicken patty with peppers, onion, and cauliflower, served with cottage cheese.

Coming up this next week, I have an outing on Wednesday and Saturday to look forward to, and a few simple meals in between. We bought some great produce over the weekend at both Costco and Safeway, and that is a sure plan to get me headed towards a healthy week!

 

Another happy healthy week on the record books :) Did you eat anything you truly loved this week?

 

Monday, 9/9: Roasted Parsnip soup, take 2. A nice thick lightly garlicky soup with a touch of souvenir cheese and souvenir vinegar from our trip! This needs to be written up for theredkitchen soon. Served with a salad with pear and baked lemon chicken for me, tofu for E. lunch: stovetop apple bread pudding.

Tuesday, 9/10: Mexican inspired egg scramble. Included another try at homemade tomatilla salsa for a topping. used eggs from one of E's co-worker's chickens, zucchini, peppers, fennel, green onions, and turkey for me, morningstar links for E. breakfast: layered pancakes with cottage cheese, sausage links with peppers. snack: edamame.

Wednesday, 9/11: Spaghetti Squash Carbonara. Used the idea of Cheesecake Factory's dish and whipped up a healthier version with grilled chicken, peas, onions, garlic, bacos, and mozzarella. Turned out pretty good! shake: pumpkin pie shake. breakfast: 10 grain cereal with pear sauce (instagram). lunch: leftover soup with chicken burger over salad. snack: popcorn, yogurt with granola and peanut butter.

Thursday, 9/12: appointments OUT, Old Spaghetti Factory. Baked Chicken always sounds better than the nutritional stats show, even with things on the side and adding broccoli. It was a yummy meal, though, with a little bit of the things I wanted to really enjoy. breakfast: bananacake with sausage/peppers.

Friday, 9/13: Coconut chicken with salad. This was inspired by an instagram post from rachelskeie and i added crumbled bread to my mixture. My salad was all jazzed up with cashews and apricots and cucumbers, as well as Tahini Miso dressing (the dressing part of this recipe). E had soy glazed tofu with carrots. Also, I food-prepped and cooked like mad today! lunch: roasted yam, onion, and turkey. snack: yogurt and homemade pumpkin granola (instagram).

Saturday, 9/14: shopping lunch OUT, Chipotle. Salad with chicken, fajita veggies, corn salsa, green salsa, and a little cheese. Now that I know how to order here successfully, I'm a pro! and I love that their nutritional data is so easily available on their site. dinner: leftover spaghetti squash, meatballs, and salad.

Sunday, 9/15: breakfast OUT, Sweet Tomatoes. Big salads, bit of potatoes and eggs, fruit, and oatmeal. All I can eat goodness! dinner: TBD.

This coming week, I've got a little less inventing on the brain and giving E some of his favorite flavors from before I made over my life. And healthified versions of them for me. :) ...and that's the story!

 

Getting back in the habit of writing my review of the previous week's meals :) I tried some new delicious flavors this week, made over an old favorite recipe, and ate healthy when we went out. I'm proud of myself!

• Monday, 9/2: Labor Day, stayed in with a cold and cooked: created a Hatch Chile salad, inspired by finding roasted hatch chiles at Whole Foods. Combined grilled chicken, quinoa, chiles, peaches, sweet potatoes and a bunch of other veggies to make something cohesive and delicious. dinner: spaghetti squash with meatballs.
• Tuesday, 9/3: special Maciflowercheese with sausage and salad. This was an attempt at a vegetable-filled, but still flavorful, version of one of the meals I miss cooking the most on this new healthy meal plan. Featured Vlaskaas, a creamy sweet Gouda-like cheese that we got on our Leavenworth trip, roasted cauliflower, and a light white sauce with celery. breakfast: omelet with hatch chiles. lunch: leftover barbecue tempeh.
• Wednesday, 9/4: early dinner for one - turkey Goulash with spaghetti squash. I attempted to find something similar to the flavor of what my mom made for us as kids (ground beef, macaroni, and tomato paste) in a healthier format with added peppers and onions. I need some good paprika, and I tried cinnamon and some nutmeg, but there's still some flavor missing that I'm not remembering! breakfast: bananacake with sausage and veggies. lunch: spinach salad with peaches, homemade tomatilla sauce, and chicken.
• Thursday, 9/5: Chicken Ginger noodle soup with salad. This is an invention I started doing while loosing weight to use shiritaki noodles and celery, both filling items for low carbs and calories! I jazzed the salad up with hard boiled egg whites, dried apricots, and cashews. breakfast: omelet with tomatilla sauce. lunch: leftover goulash.
• Friday, 9/6: early dinner for one - Turkey slowcooker meatloaf, based loosely on this Paleo recipe with Braised red cabbage, based loosely on this allrecipes recipe with mods from the comments. breakfast: banana bread oatmeal (instagram). lunch: egg scramble with tomatilla sauce.
• Saturday, 9/7: girls day OUT - egg-white Greek frittata with chicken sausage from Mother's in Portland with fabulous French press coffee. Had a few of the rosemary potatoes the kitchen incorrectly sent. Perfect flavors of spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta combine so well here! dinner: chicken burger sautéed with cauliflower and fennel, served with cottage cheese and leftover red cabbage. snack: apple crisp with peanut butter granola topping.
• Sunday, 9/8: groceries day OUT - Grilled chicken apple salad from Red Robin. We got some exercise by walking there and through the mall! dinner: corn on the cob, tofurky sausage, cucumber salad, egg. snack: frozen yogurt from the mall, sweetened with stevia.

Did you cook anything you absolutely loved this week?

 

It's the start of a new week, and so I'll start by reflecting on last week. It was a week of some exciting food experiments, and several meals out to balance with the healthy small meals I cooked in. My husband E had a particularly busy week at work, and so his company bought them lunch, so the leftovers earmarked for him turned into leftovers for me!

Here's how the week looked:

• Sunday, 8/11: cooking together day! brunch IN. Copied an idea from Slappycakes for a Sweet Potato sausage casserole with vegeburger, chia coconut milk, dave's killer bread ground into crumbs, and kale. served with scrambled egg whites and a salad. dinner IN: chicken patty, cauliflower, and cheddar cheese.
• Monday, 8/12: Asian meal - miso baked tofu with ginger and garlic, egg foo young casserole with brown gravy, steamed broccoli, jicama, and edamame.
• Tuesday, 8/13: 13th Anniversary! met for dinner at a local pizza parlor (Vancouver Pizza). I had honey wheat pizza with peppers and pineapple and a giant salad with walnuts, chicken, broccoli, and raisins.
• Wednesday, 8/14: Mexican buffalo salad. Inspired by Sandy's Cream Buffalo Chicken Bake and Buffalo Chicken in the Slow Cooker, I did a version that I started in the slow cooker and then finished in the oven. Serves over cabbage and onions with some corn tortillas to eat the messiness with!
• Thursday, 8/15: Italian: stuffed peppers and spaghetti. Intended to do zucchini boats, but peppers were on sale! vegeburger and cauliflower and cottage cheese with seasonings inside, some smoked mozzarella and puréed spaghetti sauce on top and baked. (this recipe may get posted in the near future!)
• Friday, 8/16: leftover Italian, leftover Asian.
• Saturday, 8/17: breakfast OUT: greasy egg white italian sausage omelet. lunch OUT: Chipotle chicken salad with pico de gallo and corn salsa. dinner IN: cauliflower with chicken sausage, baked apple with granola and ice cream.

In addition, I took a few bonus pics of my breakfast/lunch foods this week. I posted my recipe for Blueberry Fluffcakes to theredkitchen after more experimenting. I want to participate in parfait Tuesday on instagram, so I took a picture of that even though it wasn't pretty!

Slightly sassy quote from my Facebook this week:

"is that ALL you are eating?" vs. "are you eating ALL of that?" both interesting (read: crazy-making) comments to receive. eyes on your own plate, people everybody is different! :)

Coming up this next week is an interesting combo of easy things and ways to use what was is my fridge. Not rocket science or anything! I'm getting ready for my anniversary trip, so that planning (or striving to plan less and experience more while still having food and clothes ready for any situation...) will take up a little of my creative energy I bet.

Did you cook anything that you absolutely loved this last week? :)

 

• Breakfast - eat a meal everyday within 30 minutes of waking, usually a smoothie/shake with lots of ice to sip while reading morning feeds.
• Exercise - regularly moving more, and turning those movements into a routine.
• Support - reaching upward to mentors and cheering on peers. I'm inspired by other people taking steps to turn their health around, including my #watchmedothis friends on instagram, several private Facebook groups, and and everyone around me who is living healthy and takes the time to cheer me on!
• Low fat meals, 6 times a day - I am eating high protein and making careful choices on types of carbs. And keeping my blood sugar more constant by eating every 3 hours.
• Individual plan - every weight loss story is a little different, what works for me won't work for everyone! My ratio of protein:carbs:fat is still a trial and error thing! learning where to skimp and where to stay the course is taking extra tracking until I understand my body well enough to do it intuitively.
• Monitoring - watch how clothes fit regularly, take weight/measurments periodically, and documenting my feelings. This also means keeping a well-stocked pantry and fridge to know that I have sufficient healthy foods on hand.

A great thing about this acronym is that I can see how I am setting dreams and/or goals to go with each letter! Exercise is probably the one has come less easy for me. With fibromyalgia and CFIDS, I've always gotten more easily tired. I find that when I can do a little bit at a time, I am more easily able to work my way up. It will continue to be something to strive towards more, working more reps or time and challenging myself to different activities besides just walking!

So what do you think? Do you like acronyms or just find them cheesy? Does this BESLIM idea resonate with you?

 

It's Sunday, and even though it isn't the normal grocery day, E is working late tomorrow so we set out to shop today instead.

I've had a harder time tracking my meal plans the last few weeks, so I'm keeping it simple tonight. :)

• Sunday: out and groceries - went to a thai place (@yelp), Trader Joe's, and Fred Meyer.
• Monday: Vegetable Broth soup with Tortellini, cornbread  (note to self: write up this recipe while making it for theredkitchen!)
  
• Tuesday: Mexican meal with grilled peppers, quesadillas, low-fat corn chips, and whatever E thinks up that he wants.
• Wednesday: easy dinner for knit night - probably microwave dinners or sandwiches.
• Thursday: Asian meal with vegetable stirfry, chicken/tofu, potstickers.
• Friday: Waffles (leftover idea from last week) with striples or breakfast links.
• Saturday: probably out
• Sunday: soup and sandwiches?

Starting out the week typing out last week's plan and this week's at the same time.  Last week was a hard week for me, I was extra sore and needed more rest, and that slows down everything, including healthy eating.  There were several days when I failed to track my points and didn't make it through normal amounts of exercising.

But, we are starting off a new week, with goals intact, and some healthy meals planned based around fruits and veges.  We had hoped to see Megan today (Sunday) and that didn't work out, so now she's coming over for dinner tomorrow, and that has us doing some fast thinking to plan on what to grab at the grocery store.

• Monday: plus Megan and Liam - Red pepper soup (trying again after disaster at beginning of month, from @allrecipes), polenta with ricotta, and challah bread.  We got a delicious apple spice cake at whole foods and tried some already Sunday to make sure it was good!!!
• Tuesday: Ricotta Gnocchi (from @allrecipes) - to use the leftover ricotta from Monday.  We made this recipe several times last year and enjoyed them.
• Wednesday: quick food for knitting night: Baked potatoes and butternut squash.  I bake the squash with a little brown sugar and apple sauce in the center.  Apple Pear crisp for desert.
• Thursday: Asian meal - peanut sauce (from @tasteofhome), rice (or fried rice), stir-fried broccoli and snow peas.  Bought some vegetarian potstickers at whole foods to try out with this.
• Friday: leftovers
  
• Saturday: out to library meeting and girls day out.

The nice thing about this is we planned all this on the fly in Whole Foods and won't need another shopping trip on Monday night like normal!

Looking back at last week meal plans, and it seems so long ago (I'm writing this a week out) that I don't have much to supplement how it went.

• Monday: out for groceries
• Tuesday: Broccoli Cheese soup (adapted from recipe @allrecipes) with asiago cheese bread.
• Wednesday: Lasagna - E has Milton's Vegetable lasagna in the freezer from Costco and I have SmartOnes lasagna in the freezer.  A quick meal for knit night, but I didn't end up going.
• Thursday: Sandwiches - cheddar paninis?
• Friday: Crepes (low fat crepes from @about.com) with lemon curd and jam, potato cubes, and striples
• Saturday: out?
• Sunday: Mexican - quesadillas, soy chorizo burritos.

 Ideas came from what was leftover from last week.  We didn't get to do crepes, so it was moved.  Lasagna had been in the freezer and we were looking forward to eating that.  The soup meal was inspired by wanting bread bowls, but Safeway was out of them, so we went with some soft squishy other bread.  Paninis was meant as a use for leftover bread from the soup meal.  So it was pretty much a kristine-is-being-lazy-with-barely-any-ideas week :)