Another MIA week!

Ugh, sorry guys!  Our new goals at work make it almost impossible to post on my blog!  How dare work get in the way of my hobby and passion!!!!  🙂

So, instead of just posting my last few days’ worth of meals, I will post an EASY peasy recipe, and a new item!  How about that??

Before I get to the fun stuff though, I want to mention an issue I’ve been having – I can’t comment on my own blog!!!  I’ve tried like 5 times responding to people and posting a comment, but it doesn’t stay!  For some reason once I submit it, it just disappears!!!  WEIRD!?!?!?  So……a lot of you asked about the coasters I made for our friends wedding.  I went and bought 4″ x 4″ tiles at Lowe’s, and then for the lettering, I custom made my own letters through Uppercase Living (that party I went to like a month ago at my sisters)…..it’s the coolest stuff!  And it was SO much fun to make!  And, get this: On Monday, the groom asked Chad where in the world we got those coasters from because the bride just totally loved them!  Chad told him I made them, and the groom said the bride wants to talk to me and learn how to do it!  That TOTALLY made my day!!!

And yes….I am actually WALKING a whole freaking marathon on Saturday!  I’m SO nervous….it doesn’t sound that bad because I mean, how hard is walking?  But that’s like 8 HOURS, yes HOURS, of walking!  And get this, right now they’re expecting it to be 87 and sunny that day!  That is the ONE day I want it to be colder!  Walking 8 hours in 87 degree heat and horrible humidity?  Not cool! 

Alright, back to the topic at hand….A recipe!  For…..Banana Cream Pie!!!!!  My husband’s favorite, favorite thing in the whole wide world is Banana Cream Pie!  Well, I love it too but my hips don’t, so I set out to make a light version of the old classic, and guess what?  I succeeded!  🙂  I don’t have too many pics of this, but visualize 🙂

Banana Cream Pie

• Mix 1 package of SF Banana pudding with 1 cup of Skim Milk
• Add in 1-2 bananas, sliced (more or less depending on how many bananas you want in it)
• Put the pudding with the bananas into a Reduced Fat pre-made Graham Cracker crust

• Add 3/4 tup of Fat Free Cool Whip
• Add an additional 1/2 sliced banana on top

• ENJOY!

Yes, that’s it!  I told you it was easy!  And honestly, Chad couldn’t even tell the difference!  He LOVED it just as much as regular Banana Cream Pie!  And it was a dessert I could actually enjoy and not sacrifice my waist line 🙂 

You could also do this with different types of pudding: chocolate (YUM!), pistachio, etc.

Next, on to the new item of the week.  I was shopping at our Super Wal-mart earlier this week looking for some new veggies to try, and saw these:

I know it’s not the healthiest option out there, due to the added cinnamon sauce, but it still had only 90 calories for 3/4 cup, and it was actually a vegetable I figured Chad would eat!  I was right….it was really, really good!  It almost tasted like apples with cinnamon butter on!  And all you had to do was steam it in the bag in the microwave for 4 minutes!  I would recommend them!

And not really a new item, but something new that I tried yesterday was adding fresh cherries to my oatmeal!  YUM – it was really, really good! 

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Still Itchin……

OMG, I itch SOOOOOO bad!  Honestly, my body is just covered with huge mosquito bites!  I don’t know what it is this year!  I always get bit by them because they must love my blood, but this year has been horrible!  Honestly, in the middle of the day yesterday I got 3 more!!!!  What is going on????

Anyway ….. 🙂

My breakfast yesterday was SOOOOO good.  I did my apple oatmeal with 1 cored/peeled/diced apple cooked in the microwave first and then add 1/2 cup oats and 3/4 cup water (and of course – CINNAMON!) 🙂

Breakfast = 3 points

I topped it with SF syrup! 😉  YUMMY!!!  I wish peeling, coring, and dicing up an apple wasn’t so much work!!

Snack was delish as well – FF Vanilla yogurt with fresh blueberries, blackberries, and some homemade Strawberry Jam!

Snack = 2 points

For lunch it was time for a leftover Spinach Chicken brat from what we grilled on Sunday.  I am in love with these!  I didn’t want to have it on a boring old bun, so I cut it up and put it on 3 small toasted WW pitas!  OMG, this was so incredibly good!  I loved the combo!!!!!

Lunch = 4 points

Snack was some leftover Oatmeal Creme Brulee I made this weekend…..I LOVE this stuff!  I can’t get enough of it 🙂  Sadly, this is my last piece.

 

Snack = 3 points

For supper I did something a little different.  I had my 1/2 piece of leftover grilled chicken and didn’t know what to do with it.  Solution: salad!  The only downside was that for lettuce, all we had in the house was a head of iceberg!  It’s funny because this is all I used to eat, and now I hate it on a salad….no taste what-so-ever!!  Oh well, it was still a good salad overall.  To it, I added dried cranberries, dried strawberries, and dried cherries, and a LF Raspberry dressing.  On the side, I had fresh pineapple and sugar snap peas.  It didn’t seem like enough so I had a slice of light buttered bread on the side 🙂

Supper = 9 points

I even got to the gym after work, but I was SO itchy that I couldn’t work out!  Seriously, it was THAT bad!  Instead I just sat on the stationary bike for 30 minutes and did a light cardio workout – better than nothing!  And after supper I took Baylee to the dog park for an hour and a half!  Not bad, not bad! 🙂

Total for today = 21 points

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And we’re off!!!

Well my “new start” is off to a great start!! 🙂  Wednesday went really well eating-wise and exercise-wise!  I can do this!!!

I am needing to use up the rest of the wheatberries I cooked this weekend so in my breakfast it went again!! 🙂  It’s not too much of a burden though – I love the chew and texture it gives to my oatmeal!  Today I decided to do 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup RF vanilla soy milk, 1/4 cup wheatberries, cinnamon, and one of those teeny cute little boxes of raisins!  I absolutely LOVE raisins in oatmeal!!!  Well, I love raisins in anything, but especially oatmeal!

Trust me, it tasted better than it looks!

Breakfast = 315 calories

Snack was simple and easy – a defrosted Vitamuffin.  I really love these things!  They’re so easy and healthy and filling!  This one was AppleBerry Bran – my favorite!!

Snack = 100 calories

This morning I had NO clue what to pack for lunch and didn’t have the time to sit and decide, so I made up my mind and decided to do a PB&J sandwich since I had some Homemade Strawberry Jam thawed out in the fridge at work.  I haven’t had a classic PB&J sandwich for a long time!  My picture looks kind of funny because I couldn’t decide if I wanted the sandwich on bread or toast, so I decided to do one piece of each! 🙂  Problem solved!

My day is going fairly fast – I love that!  It helps knowing that we have an extended weekend coming up with the holiday!!!  And, as of now they’re predicting great weather (70’s and sunny) so I am hoping it stays that way!

For a snack, I decided to finally make my “Apple Pie Enchilada”!!!  I will post the recipe sometime today!  But for now, here’s a sneak preview 🙂

Snack = 175 calories

After work it was time to hit the gym.  I was somewhat nervous because I haven’t been lifting weights as often lately – I’ve been doing more cardio with trips to the dog park because it’s been so nice outside and it gives Baylee the exercise she desperately needs 🙂  Since it was a gorgeous day outside, I decided to leave my car at work and WALK to the gym!!  It’s about a 15 minute walk so it was a great warm up to my workout!!  I got there and did about 30 minutes of weights, and then took a loooong way back to my car.  The total workout was about 75 minutes.

Workout = 310 calories burned

I was looking forward to supper ALL DAY LONG!  I knew what I was going to be making but have never done it before – Chicken Parmesan.  SO easy I don’t know why I haven’t!!

Basically, all I did was first bake some chicken breasts until they were cooked through.  I then placed them in a baking dish, and added a can (I used Hunt’s) of spaghetti sauce.  I baked that for another 10 minutes or so until the sauce was hot.  After it was hot, I added about 1/4 cup of LF Mozarella cheese on top of each chicken breast.  Meanwhile, I cooked some WW Angel Hair Pasta.  I took about 3/4 cup of pasta and placed a chicken breast on top.  Ta Da!  With it, I made some Joseph Champione (sp?) Light Garlic Bread and whipped up a salad with fresh blueberries and blackberries!  It was SO good!  Chad even commented like 4 times while we were eating how good it was!  That’s always a good sign 🙂

Supper = 425 calories

We then took Baylee for a walk together.

Walk = 110 calories burned

——————————————

TOTAL eaten = 1315 Calories

TOTAL burned = 420 Calories

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Change of Heart

So, I had a change of heart today.  I like softball again!! 🙂  I’ll explain later….

Breakfast was a new variation on something I’ve done for years.  I’ve made “apple enchiladas” (recipe coming soon) before but have never added the apple mixture to anything else.  Today I decided to add it to oatmeal!!  It was delicious!!!!!

All I did was took an apple and after coring and peeling, sliced it up in really small chunks.  Then just add cinnamon and a tad of splenda, and microwave for about 3 minutes – until they’re getting soft.  I then added 1/2 cup rolled oats and 3/4 cup water.  Then microwave again like normal oatmeal – 3 minutes or so.  That’s it!!!!!!  It was really, really good and filling!!!  I also stopped on the way to work and got a Medium FF SF Coffee Toffee Latte!  mmmmmm

Breakfast = 5 points

I knew I was doing an earlier lunch so I made it through my morning without a snack.  I was SOOOOO excited for lunch and it couldn’t come fast enough – my sister has Tuesday’s and Thursday’s off to be with their 2 kids, Jaicee (almost 5) and Jorey (2).  Today they decided to come to my town (40 minutes from their house) and play at a local kid’s place, and then meet Chad and I for lunch!  We have a really nice McDonald’s where we leave so the kids wanted to go their to go in their playland 🙂  We had so much fun – I wish I had more time for lunch because I didn’t get to spend much time with them!  Of course since we were at McDonald’s I had to get my good ‘ole Southwest Chicken Salad (w/ Grilled Chicken).  I used 1/2 of the dressing packet.

Lunch = 8 points

And of course I had to take a picture of the fam 🙂  Here is my sister and I:

And here are Jorey and Jaicee in playland 🙂

 They are SO much fun!  We just love them to pieces!  I also have a brother and they have two kids as well – also a boy and a girl!  It’s really neat because they’re almost the same ages.  They have Riley who is almost 5 and Addison who is about 19 months.  Right now being an aunt and uncle is just perfect for us 🙂

Later for an afternoon snack, I had an orange.  I couldn’t believe it, but this fueled me through the evening until I ate at about 8:30 (after the softball game).

Snack = 1 point

After work, I took Baylee for a quick 30 minute walk.  In reality it turned into about 50 minutes though because now that it’s nice outside and there are SO many people out, it’s getting harder and harder to walk her because she wants to greet everyone and play with all the dogs we see.  Then, she gets so pooped from the head that the collar choking her from pulling, that she lays down on lawns along the way!  And when she does this, I CANNOT get her up!  Seriously, it’s so embarrassing.  I used to think it was cute, but now it’s getting to be bothersome because it takes forever!!!

After we got back, I quick rushed to Chad’s softball game.  It was a lot of fun!  Unfortunately they lost again but since it’s their first year playing and most of them haven’t played for years, it’s not all that surprising.  But, it’s SO much fun to watch!  🙂

Here is a pic of the team’s groupies:

I’m second from the left with the softball shirt on 🙂  It’s so fun to watch it with the wives and girlfriends!  The only bad thing is our guys get crabby when they play bad 😦

And here’s the team:

Chad is the guy right under the “1” sign.

By then I was getting pretty hungry, so I went home to have Baylee out a while before bedtime, and have some supper.  I just reheated leftover Lo Mein.

Supper = 7 points

Total for today = 21 points

 

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Back on track and feelin’ good!

I think that from now on I’ll mostly be posting once a day – for the entire day before.  Unfortunately my system works better at work then at home, so this just seems to work out better.

I started yesterday out having the same breakfast as the day before, but with an entirely different result.  On Tuesday, my Oatmeal Creme Brulee only lasted in my tummy for 2 hours?!?!?  Crazy, I know!  Maybe it was boredom hunger, I have no clue, but I needed my first snack around 9:30.  Yesterday however, it lasted me until 1:00!!!!  WEIRD!  Hey, I’m not complaining though 🙂  It did help that I had a homemade Iced FF SF Vanilla latte I suppose, but still……

Breakfast (this with an unpictured latte)= 6 points

I think it also helped that I was busy – I had a couple of meetings and went home for lunch to take care of Baylee.  When I got back, I wasn’t overly starving and it was 1:00!  I love that 🙂  It was leftovers for lunch, which I could not wait for!  I even liked it better as leftovers than the night I made it!  I think it gave time for all the flavors to sit together and the noodles were more like what you’d get at a Chinese Restaurant!  MMM!  On the side was an orange.

Lunch = 7 points

Then it was time for snack.  I love my afternoon snack time 🙂  Not only do I get to fuel my body again, but it means my work day is 3/4 over!  A wonderful feeling!  For snack I tried something new and somewhat unintentional.  I bought a new LF pudding that sounded and looked SO good!  Cinnamon flavor!  (I’ll take a pic of the carton soon to show you guys)  I loooove cinnamon stuff!  When I opened it for my snack, I was somewhat surprised and disappointed.  Apparently it’s not just pudding, it’s a rice pudding!  So I was disappointed because it wasn’t what I was expecting, but luckily I love rice pudding (kind of like a tapioca).  And it was DELISH!!!!  SO good!  I paired it with an apple to get some more fruit and calories in.

I love to slice my apples really thin so it feels like you’re getting a lot more!

Snack = 3 points

After work, I went to the dog park with Baylee.  I didn’t count the laps, but we were there for about 2 hours so I’m assuming I got 6 laps in or so (4.8 miles).

Supper was something new for me…..it’s really not original AT ALL, but I have never done it before.  I took 2 slices of Light WW Bread, some LF cheese, and some deli turkey and did a grilled cheese sandwich with turkey in it.  I told you, not original, but I’ve never done it with turkey!  I’ve done it with ham a few times, and wasn’t crazy about it for some reason, even though I LOVE grilled ham and cheese restaurants.  Well let me tell you, this was SOOOO good and totally hit the spot!  I couldn’t stop going “mmmmmm” while I was eating.  I’m sure Chad was like okay, enough already!  I made Chad a casserole which I had originally planned on eating too, but once I figured out the points it was too high for me, so he gets the whole thing to himself!  It was delish though – really, really good.  You’ll see a bite of it on my plate because I wanted to make sure it was good.  I also had a side salad with dried cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, and cherries and a LF Raspberry Dressing.  (Sorry there are bites out of my food – I had to recharge my battery until it had enough juice, so I needed to start eating in the meantime!)

Supper = 5 points

Total for today = 21 points

**I am officially “back on track” and feeling great about it!!**

 

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A new discovery – in food AND myself!

I had some extra time last night while I was cleaning the house, so I decided to try a version of baked oatmeal.  I got the original idea from Kath’s Blog, for a sort of Oatmeal Creme Brulee. 

It does NOT photograph well, but it looked SO good last night when I was making it! 

I had to brush my teeth while it was in the oven to make sure I wouldn’t nibble on it!! 🙂 Here was my version:

Oatmeal Crème Brule

• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 sprinkles of salt
• Generous sprinkle of cinnamon
• 1/8 cup splenda
• 1 medium banana (sliced, on top)
• 1/4 cup egg whites

Mix altogether and put in 8×8 pan.  Slice bananas and set on top.  Cook at 375 for 45min – 1 hr (until firm).  Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp of brown sugar, and broil on low for a few minutes until carmelized.

For HALF, yes HALF!!! of this recipe, it’s only 5 WW points!  (yes, I listed the points – keep reading…)

I could not WAIT to try it this morning for breakfast!  I knew it would have been better last night, straight from the oven of course, but unfortunately Monday through Friday that’s not an option for me! 

So, I took 1/2 of the recipe to work and just reheated it in the microwave and topped it with a little SF syrup.

OH MY!!!!  This was SO freakin’ amazing!!!!  Seriously, I will make this again, and again, and again…well, you get the point 🙂  We’ll see how it holds me over this morning!!  But honestly, go out and make this, NOW!

***Okay, so anyway, on to the points thing…….I’ve learned a lot about myself in these last 3 or 4 weeks not counting points or calories!  At first it was REALLY, really hard!  Plus, I actually missed counting!  But after a few days, I realized that I need to earn not having to count – meaning if I just go out and eat everything, I’ll have to go back and lose more weight, count again, etc so I’d only be hurting myself!  And actually, it’s been going really well!  A lot better than I thought it would!!  I’ve really tried to concentrate on portion control, which is my downfall usually.  What I’ve been trying to do is find a happy balance between eating what I want but in moderation, and balancing that out by either working out a little more that day, having something less caloric on the side, etc……..and what I have realized, is that I think when I am finally to the point where I’d like to maintain, I actually think I can do it without counting!!!  I’ve maintained my weight for the last month or so and have been extremely happy with how I’ve done it.  BUT, I’m not losing.  I think it’s really hard for me to LOSE weight not counting!  Maintain yes, lose no.  Since I have a few pounds to go, and it’s the last few, it’s quite a struggle to lose them!  So I know I need to count and hold myself accountable that way to take in less calories!  I’ve learned that!  I am SO glad I did this “experiment” though for a little while because I did gain a LOT of trust in myself that I can do this for the long haul!  I can’t wait to get to that phase in my life (maintenance).  I’ve been there before and I know I can do it again!!! ***

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Oh no!

The day is off to a relatively rocky start, although I’m sure it’ll get better.  Even though we got to bed early last night (9:10 – a new record!!), Baylee woke us up 45 minutes before my alarm went off!  What the heck???  Chad graciously took her outside to do her business and put her back to bed, but I never fully fell back asleep 😦

I couldn’t wait to get to work because 1) I had an ice cold latte to drink up! and 2) I was having my same wonderful breakfast as yesterday.  #1 went just as planned…..yummy!  but, #2 was a disaster!?!?!?  My oatmeal was pretty nasty this morning!  What the heck????  The only thing I did different than yesterday, was I used 1 cup LF Vanilla Soy Milk instead of Skim Milk….normally I love soy milk in my oatmeal because it gives me creaminess and sweetness without having to add Splenda.  Could this be the reason my oatmeal was somewhat gross??  I’m glad my great experience though was yesterday and on the first try, because otherwise I probably never would have made it again.  Maybe I’ll just try again next week??

Oh well!  I am so excited for today because it’s Chad’s 1st softball game!!!!  And the weather isn’t supposed to be too bad (60 and sunny) so I can’t wait to go watch!  GOOD LUCK CHAD!

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BEST BREAKFAST EVER!!!!!!!!

Yes, you heard me: the best breakfast EVER!  I’ve been so jealous of all the people putting coconut and “icing” on their oatmeal lately, so I had to give in and try it.  OMG!  I will be doing this again, and again, and again!

Here was my magic combination-

Heated in the microwave:

• a little less than 1/2 cup regular oats (all I had left in the canister)
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 1/2 mashed up banana
• cinnamon

Once this was good and heated in the microwave, I sliced up the other 1/2 of banana, added it, and heated the oatmeal for another 30 seconds.  Once done, I topped it with “icing” which was made with:

• 1.5 oz of LF Plain yogurt
• vanilla extract
• 2 squirts of SF syrup

And all sprinkled with  1 1/2 Tbsp coconut.

YUUUUUUMMMM!!!!

Now I’m bummed that I’m out of oatmeal 😦  I’ll have to wait until I get to the store again.

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TGIF

I’m totally doing the happy dance today.  I have a fresh new outlook, I have some caffeine in me, and it’s Friday!!!!!  I’m so happy I made it through my first week of working 7-4.  Actually it’s going really, really well!  Almost every day, I’ve actually woken up 5 minutes before my alarm!?!?  Weird!  Nice, but weird!  And I love being done by 4….I don’t feel guilty spending an hour at the gym because I’m still home by 5:30ish! 

For breakfast today, I had my Old Faithful – oatmeal.  1/2 cup oats, 1 cup vanilla soy milk, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, and on top: almonds, flax, and a spoonful of PB. 

Also, I got a little treat this morning.  Since I haven’t been 100% happy with my homemade lattes, I talked to one of my friends because he has an espresso machine as well, and makes lattes every day.  He offered to make me one today so I could test it out, and he could help me with the proportions in mine.  It was delish!  I can’t wait to go home and try his methods!!!

This is about 1/2 of it.  Wasn’t that nice of him???

Oh, and in case anyone is having withdrawals of Baylee pictures, here is one of my ALLTIME favorites!!!  I laugh outloud everytime I see it:

Yes, it’s sad…..we actually do photo shoots in our house!!!  Baylee doesn’t like holding still for pictures when we want her too so we have to hold her 🙂  I cannot wait until we have kids!!!  Seriously – we LOVE taking pictures so I’m sure there will be no shortage of us with our kids when we have them.  We also try dancing around the house with Baylee and Cashmere….I don’t think they like it though so I’m hoping it works better with the kids.  I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL FRIDAY!!!!

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Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry for the delayed, combined post but hey, I’m a very busy lady!! 🙂

I can’t say enough good things about my breakfast yesterday.  It held me over wonderfull!  I think it was in part because of the latte but whatever.  Something else that helped was I went home to take care of Baylee right before lunch, so it kept me busy and my mind off of food!  I can’t tell you enough of what a goofball she is though.  I saw my life flash before my eyes at one point:  we were outside again practicing her commands outside and trying to stay in the yard, when all of a sudden a huge bird flew overhead.  Baylee of course thought it was her lunch, so she ran after it and jumped in the air to catch it.  Unsuccessful.  To my surprise, the bird swooped down and almost dive bombed ME!  Of course Baylee was still “on the prowl” so she came running and jumping at me to catch the bird!  She’s a big dog with a big mouth so I probably looked quite silly doing the duck and cover in my dress clothes!  Thankfully, I made it out of the situation unharmed, so could go back to work (yay….)!

When I got back, I made myself a lunch of leftover Hot Beef from our get together last Friday.  It didn’t disappoint.

I had it on a Light Whold Wheat bun with a little BBQ sauce (yum!), some pickles (again, YUM!), a few cheese curds, and some veggies.  It’s hard for me to sit and just eat veggies because it’s pretty boring, but I figured it needed to be done since I’ve been pretty lacking in the vegetable department lately.

After work, my sister was having an Uppercase Living  party.  This stuff is A.mazing!!  Seriously!  I cannot wait to order and get my stuff.  My mind was racing with crafty ideas that I could use to decorate my house with!  Plus it was fun because I got to see my sister, Mom, and sister-in-law.  I don’t get to see them as often as I like, so it was nice to be able to chat with them afterwards.  Since the party was at 6, I wasn’t hungry beforehand but knew I couldn’t make it until I got home at 10, so I just grabbed a little baggie of frozen leftover Veggie Lasagna, and heated it up once I got to my sister’s house.  Sorry, no pics 😦  I also had 2 small plates of chips and dip, with a handful of sweet and salty chex mix.

Although I don’t have pics of my food, I did take a pic of the item we made last night at the party!  It’s a little votive holder!  How cute?  Plus our decor in our home is primitive, so I think it’ll go really well.

(It says Simplify if you can’t tell by the picture)

The only bad part about last night was I didn’t get home until about 10.  I then still had to prep for today (pack my gym bag, pack my breakfast and lunch, get my clothes ready) and get ready for bed.  I ended up getting to bed around 11 – not ideal when I had to get up at 5:30, but that happens.  I was tired  this morning, but the weekend is right around the corner (!!!) so I think I’ll make it.

For breakfast this morning, we are out of bananas again 😦 so I had to improvise. 

I made my usual oatmeal with Vanilla Soy Milk, but this time added almonds and 2 oz. of Unsweetened applesauce while microwaving!  Then once done, I added 2 oz. more of Applesauce and a Tbsp of PB on top so I could get some of each with each bite!  It was SOOOO good! Really!  I’ll definitely be doing this again!

I have my WW meeting this morning…..I’m kind of nervous because it’s my first weigh in since I haven’t been tracking.  I am sure I’ll be up, but that’s also because of hormones 🙂 and I did have a full breakfast this morning.  Usually I just have a latte before weigh in and then breakfast afterwards, but I didn’t want to stop 2 days in a row!  We shall see….as long as I don’t have to pay, I’ll be happy!

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