This past week

We've been keeping busy around our house.  Clay is wrapping up his semester with finals and grading papers.  Emily has 3 more days of school left! Yikes! and Izzy has three more weeks.  This past week I went with Izzy on her field trip to the zoo.  The good thing about getting to know the kids in the class is picking the right kids to be in your group at the zoo.  I took all the "calm" girls so it was nice and easy! Ha ha!

I had not ridden on a bus in years!  I still can't believe there are no seatbelts on school buses and the air conditioner (which this one surprisingly had one) basically is non existent.  We live in Texas, need that air!

 Here are my bus riding partners.  That's one of Izzy's best friends in class, Jazz.  Isn't she a cutie?

Here are a few shots at the zoo.  Carousel rides and petting goats.  Brings back so many childhood memories!

 Other exciting new is that we found a new school for Izzy!!  We attended a magnet school program and after talking with one particular school we decided to enroll her in a Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School.  This coming school year is the first year they are offering this program in HISD and it sounds so exciting and challenging at the same time.  If you would like to read more about the program you can go to www.mclims.org.  There's even a neat little video to watch.  My girls have watched it about 20 times.  I think Emily wants to go there even more than Izzy!

We were impressed with the amount of work they seem to be putting into the school and they are even remodeling the existing school building for the new program.  This will be a commute for Izzy and I every day but her education is well worth it and I look forward to seeing how she develops next year both learning Mandarin Chinese (which she now knows maybe 5 phrases?) and reading in English.

Weekly Weigh-in

I'm going down, down, down, down...Hee hee!  I had a great week this week.  I ate fried chicken wings, hotdogs and chips, pizza, you read about the pig roast, hamburger...yet I lost 1.8 pounds!  Yay me!!!  It seems the weeks that I eat "normal" I do better than the weeks I eat like a rabbit.  I think it's the fact that I think more about portion control, and eat a little healthier around those not as good for you meals.  Moderation and balance is everything right?  Here's a picture of me now 24 pounds down, 10 more to go!!

And I can't resist sharing a picture of Emily from yesterday.  How cute is this child???

Luau Time!

Clay and I were asked recently to join a Gourmet Dinner Club with a few of our friends.  The way it works is there are 6 couples and each couple takes a turn hosting for that month's dinner.  The host gets to choose a theme and everyone else is assigned a course for the dinner.  Our good friends kicked off the event at their host with a Hawaiian theme luau.  Here are Clay and in our Hawaiian attire.

We had a great time with good company.

Check out the details this month's hosts put into the decor.

LOTS of delicious food was served.  Ready to feast your eyes on this mind blowing menu?

For appetizers we had herbed goat cheese balls with crostini.

I made some Spam masubi.  Not sure it went over well with everyone but I tell you it is truly authentic island fare!  Can't turn some Texans onto nori or spam so the combination might put some over the edge. ;)

There was a delicious crab poke. A refreshing blend of cucumbers, mangoes, imitation crab, and a light  drizzle of sesame oil.

The hostess made a giant roast pork and some delicious shrimp.  Sorry, I didn't grab photos of these dishes until after everyone had devoured them.

And check out this gorgeous spinach salad with mangoes and bananas along with coconut rice.  YUM!  One of my favorite for the night.

We rounded out the meal with this bread pudding I made from a giant loaf of Hawaiian bread.

In case you are interested in the recipe here it is.  Definitely not low-cal!  Don't worry I was good and had two bites, that's it. ;)  Just for tastes.

King's Hawaiian White Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Servings: 8

INGREDIENTS:

1 (16 ounce) loaf King’s Hawaiian®

Original Hawaiian Sweet Round Bread,

cut into 1 inch cubes

2 cups heavy cream

1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 cups milk

2 eggs, beaten

3 egg yolks, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups toasted pecans, chopped

1 (12 ounce) jar caramel sauce

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut the bread into cubes the night before and leave out to become slightly stale. 2. In a medium saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat. Meanwhile, place the white chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl. When the cream comes to a simmer, remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour over the chips, whisking until the chips melt. Whisk the sugar into the mixture, add the milk, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla. 3. Add the bread to the bowl, gently stirring to coat the cubes. Set the mixture aside to allow the bread to soak, tossing periodically (about 30-40 minutes or so). 4. Toss the pecans into the soaked bread mixture, then pour into a baking dish. (Individual dishes can be used for single servings). 5. Place in 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Test the bread pudding to make sure the top is golden brown and the inside is cooked (not too dry though). 6. Remove from oven and serve with caramel sauce. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2012 Allrecipes.com

I'm really looking forward to more dinner club get togethers in the months to come and sharing them all with you!

Going, going, gone...

It's been awhile since my last post *hanging my head in shame* SORRY!  I've been super busy with OU, with the girls, and working a little on myself.  I was going to wait and do a post on this a little later but so many people have asked and so many people have said that I've inspired them to take action and make a change.  ME?!?!  Inspire someone?  Wow!  Well, if that's the case I would love to share and inspire more.

Every year around New Year's you start seeing all those commercials for weight loss.  Jenny Craig, Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc, etc...They are always on and every where you turn they promise you results.  WW really caught my eye this year with Jennifer Hudson as their spokesperson.  I've always imagined dieting places were for really, really obese people.  She was big but not HUGE, kind of like me.

Doesn't she look absolutely amazing??  I've always thought she was beautiful but she's is just drop dead gorgeous now.  I thought to myself, if she can do it so can I!  She has SUCH a busy schedule and like me she loooooves food.  We have so much in common...Oh, wait I can't sing like her ;)  I WISH!

So two weeks after our trip to Seattle I headed to my first WW meeting.  It's been 14 weeks and I've lost a total of 22.4 pounds!  2 on my own the first week and the 20.4 while on the Weight Watchers Points Plus plan.  I've been wanting to keep a journal each week on this blog but honestly I never ever in a million years thought I could do this. Best of all, it WAS easy!  I eat so much healthier, better portions, and I am now within my BMI!!

Here's a little before and after...

The first picture was taken October 2010.  It's a little old but a year and half after having Emily and I had not lost the baby weight.  In fact I had gained.  A year later it was still there and then some.  I had to do something, stat!

The middle picture and the last picture was from about 2 weeks ago.  I went shopping for the first time for pants since the weight loss and it was a total shock.  I had not kept track of inches, just pounds and I knew my pants were loose so I had just been wearing sundresses (you can do that here in Texas).  Walked into the dressing room feeling very anxious because I seriously thought the clothes I brought in with me were going to be very tight.  Guess what?  This girl walked out with size 4's!!!  I've gone from a 10 (Oh my gosh, did I really just admit that?) To a size 4!  and in just a little over 4 months!

I haven't been this size since freshmen year of college.  Granted, my weight was distributed a little differently at that time but I am not complaining.

I've had a lot of friends ask about the program and how I did it.  Thought I'd just post a few here.

Q: So did you lose a lot at first and is it getting harder to lose now?

A: I do feel like it was a little easier at first but it really hasn't gotten more difficult, in fact it's easier in that I don't have to think as hard about making the right food choices.  I can walk into any restaurant and know pretty easily what is the healthier choice on a menu.  The weight is coming off a little slower now but I'd say I've average about 1.5 pounds consistently every week.  The larger you are the quicker your weight will come off, but don't be discouraged when other WW members lose 7 pounds the first week and you only lose 1.5 or 2.  Slow and steady is GOOD!

Q: What do you normally eat now?

A: For breakfast I usually have a Hungry Girl Egg Mug.  If you don't know who HG is then check her out!!  She does lots of cool stuff with food, remakes fast food recipes, and has TONS (and I mean TONS) of great recipes.  She also has grocery lists of the good stuff that you should be buying.  HG egg muds are basically egg beaters (which are egg whites) and a laughing cow light cheese.  Sometimes   I will add a few links of turkey sausage, turkey bacon, fruit, a piece of lo calorie toast.  Gone are the days of biscuits and gravy.  

Lunch is usually a small sandwich, low cal wrap, soup, salad.  I started out buying those lean cuisine meals...no thanks.  They are okay in a pinch and I think they are good for those starting out really wanting to know exactly how many points/calories they are eating, but once you get good at figuring that stuff out branch out and eat something else.  They are usually high in sodium and quite frankly you really don't get much food for the amount of points.

Dinner is a little more varied.  I love to cook for my family.  Sometimes I do cook them something different because I want to try making a new recipe.  Yes, even if I can't eat it.  That's how much I like to cook and feed others.  But a lot of times we've been eating the same things and my husband has actually quite liked everything I've made.  I use a lot of recipes from Gina at Skinnytaste.com.  She has all the nutritional info calculated out for you and the WW points plus.  Everything I have made of hers has been fabulous!  And she has new recipes every week.  

Q: What about smoothies and shakes?

A:  I did try green smoothies.  A whole week of them in fact.  That was my lowest week of weight loss.  Why?  Well, I think I consumed way too much sugar for me.  Putting half a banana, an apple blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, kiwi, and then the spinach in a green smoothie was too much sugar!  For me.  Everyone is different so try what works for you.  Since this didn't work me, I quit doing that.  It's not that I won't have a smoothie every now and then.  I love green smoothies!  But you just have to figure out what your body can and can not take.

Q: What are some of your favorite food products you have found?

A:  Oh I LOVE talking about food!  Here's my list

Egg Beaters

Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges

Jimmy Dean Turkey Links

Almond Milk (I know, this was VERY scary change for me but it's okay in smoothies and with cereal. I buy unsweetened.  It save on SOOO many calories, even compared to skim milk)

Hebrew National 99% fat free hot dogs. (have you ever tried a turkey dog? Gross! These beef dogs are actually good!)

La Tortilla Factory Low Carb tortillas (HUGE tortillas that aren't flimsy and only 2 points for the WHOLE thing)

Apples

Miracle Rice and Shiritake Noodles (fantastic substitutes for when you crave those carbs but your body just can't handle them.  The texture is different but trust me when you cook it right you don't miss pasta!)

Any low cal breads. Did you know some breads are 150 calories and some are 35??  

Weight Watchers crisps (you buy these at the meeting locations.  I am a chip-a-holic and these satisfy that craving)

Green Giant Broccoli with cheese sauce and cauliflower with cheese sauce (2 1/2 minutes in the microwave and 1 point for the whole tray???)

Fiber One Brownie bars (I know processed sugar but 5 grams of fiber in a little bar for 2 points, just when you need a chocolate fix)

Popcorn.  Always my true love and always will be.  I sprinkle on a little Parmesan or this yeast that I read about from the health food store.  Or just a little salt.  (More about that later if anyone is interested.)

Q: Are you done losing?

A: No.  My goal is to lose 12 more.  Trust me when I say I need to.  I just crossed over into the healthy BMI range so 12 more will be good for me.  After that I plan on really working to maintain my new weight and continue with portion control and healthier eating.

So that's a lot of words for me but I know a lot of people have been curious.  I hope that if you have been thinking about a program you might consider WW.  I am not a spokesperson and no endorsements here but I can tell you that it has changed my life and this is a true lifestyle change, not a diet.  Find what works for you.  I will be sharing more often, update my weekly loss and any really good recipe I try.  Drop me a line if you have any questions! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm a day late posting this but I thought I'd go ahead and post a few ideas so that you can use them next year.  You can never be too prepared right??  These are the cards that my girls passed out this year in class.  I had them press printed at the place I get my photos developed and they are 5x7 front and back.  They were super easy to put together because they are templates sold by Madison Ave Photography.  I think she created these maybe two  years ago?  Not sure f she still sells them but if she does go find yourselves the set.  They are too cute and they even come with booksmarks that you could make for the class to coordinate with the cards.  Fun!

Izzy and Emily both had parties in their classes yesterday and both of them were keeping it pretty simple with small snacks.  I was scrambling last minute to find something fun to send with Izzy to school.  Luckily I check out Jessica's post over at Little Pumpkin Grace, one of my favorite blogs, and she had posted an idea she found on pinterest.  Target was selling these cute bubbles with heart tops in all sorts of fun Valentine colors. Of course I couldn't find them at 4 pm the day before Valentine's Day!  I remembered seeing some white ones at Hobby Lobby before in the wedding section so we headed there and found a pack of 36 and on SALE!  Ding ding!

I printed these on cardstock, forgot to add a pretty colored border but no redoing that last minute, and I sewed on embroidery floss to the them.  Tied tubes of bubbles to the cards and we had an instant little inexpensive gift to go with the cards.

For Emily's class we bought inexpensive coloring books and I tied on packs of crayons.  I figured parents have enough of candy and it seems like we ended up with more sweets than Halloween!  I know I always appreciate a good book or coloring book to take with us to restaurants and in the car.

38 presents all ready to go! and it didn't take too much time to put together.

Of course Izzy didn't decide to tell me that she was allowed free dress day until 8 pm that night as she was going to bed.  I had already planned on having Emily wear a little deco jean set made long ago by ribbons and ruffle boutique that Izzy modeled and has since been passed down to Emily.  Some may say why make a new outfit, just send her to school but the guilt of sewing all these Valentine dresses for my customers and not for my own children ate at me.  I ended up making a coordinating outfit for Izzy.

Oh, and those of your who have been interested in lunches I did do a small themed lunch knowing she was going to have a big snack during their party that day.  Here it is.

I hope all of your had a special Valentine's day surrounded by those you love most!

This weekend we took a little drive over to San Antonio.  As with all road trips I am a little obsessed with the thought of what are we going to eat??  I hate stopping at gas stations for junk (you know the candy bars, bags of cheetohs, candy, etc.) or having to pull over at a Mickey D's and your choice is fried chicken nuggets or a sad looking burger that costs you a days worth of calories.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a health nut who doesn't appreciate a little McNugget every now and then but eating like that on road trips can just "mess you up" for the day.  I decided to go ahead and pack some bento boxes for the girls the night before so they'd have a big choice of things to eat while we drove.  I thought I'd share to give others some ideas of what might be some good traveling foods.

This first box was Izzy's.  I went ahead and labeled everything.  I promise those are carrots and not cheese puffs.  The banana chocolate chip muffins recipe is from skinnytaste.com.  I took Gina's chocolate chocolate chip banana muffin recipe, and omitted the cocoa powder and glaze, and made them mini sized.  The chocolate marshmallows are between the size of a large one and mini ones and are new from Kraft.  I thought the girls would love them but apparently they aren't quite as tempting as they look.  Maybe if I made them into rice krispy treats?   The turkey pepperoni with cream cheese bites are made from taking turkey pepperoni and spreading about half a teaspoon of low fat cream cheese and folding it over like a taco.  I wasn't sure if Izzy would like those but they were a hit which means I can add them to her list of lunch items.

Emily had a similar box but a smaller version.  She threw a fit over the fact that I snuck a piece of cheese into it. The girl claims to hate cheese and will only eat string cheese, yet loves everything I make when I sneek cheese into it.  You just can't say it's cheese!  She also got a cereal bar which I thought would make for a good breakfast on the run.

One of our stops in San Antonio was having lunch with Clay's grandmother, whom I absolutely love and call grandmommy.  My girls call her great grandmommy or sometime just "Great" for short, very fitting of a spectacular woman.  

Great has the most beautiful soul and is smarter and sharper than anyone you will ever meet.

Clay will probably hate me forever for putting this photo out there, he always does whenever I share a photo of him on the internet, but here he is with his sweet grandmother.

And here I am.  Her mink is fabulous isn't it?  Looking good Great!

Don't know what keeps your kids busy at restaurants but our Leapster Explorer sure has helped us out a lot recently.  This restaurant even had Etch a Sketch's for their tiny guests.  How fun!

The last part of out trip was attending a service for a dear friend's mother.  Rather than having a funeral or a memorial service it was called a Celebration of Life.  It is something they believed their mother would have wanted and I have to say it was a perfect tribute to her. After the service the celebration continued with a good spread of food and a wonderfully loud mariachi band.  I could just picture my friends' mother watching from above rejoicing in this celebration and being so joyous that her friends and family were celebrating the wonderful life she had.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Saturday Morning Cartoon

We received Kung Fu Panda 2 from Netflix yesterday and Clay and I plotted a little surprise this morning.  He went and picked up donuts from Shipley's and we had a little Saturday morning fun.

Can you guess which on my girls was most excited?

Yep!  Emily has a super sweet tooth and if notice she had a sprinkles in the first picture and a nut covered here...she's begging for a third.  Don't worry, we don't usually let her do this otherwise she might become a donut.

Snuggling up with Daddy, especially during the scary parts.

I LOVE our new aqua colored console we got for Christmas!!!  Makes movie watching so much more fun.

This just might become a Saturday morning tradition!