Busy Day Check In

 I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted here.  They were a good two weeks!  My brother, his best friend and my 88 yr old aunt came for a long weekend inbetween.  We had a great time together, mostly talking, playing games (NYT crosswords!), watching Maggie Smith outtakes on YouTube, and cooking and eating delicious healthy food.  You'd never believe my aunt is 88--she's loads of fun and it's always a party when she's there (and, no, there was no alcohol involved :-)).

I completed Cycle I on the 17DD and lost a total of 10.5 pounds.  Then I transitioned to a WW approach for two weeks and gained 3 pounds.  Partly overindulging in foods I'd missed (hello brown rice) and partly having houseguests for 5 days (two batches of Lori's Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies--Warning!:  don't go there if you don't plan on having them; the picture alone is enough to make you want to preheat the oven). DH and I decided to do Cycle I together for 5 days to get back on the straight and skinny.  Today's the last day, and I'm happy to report that those 3 pounds and a bit more have left the building.  Hoping for another good WI tomorrow.  I have a streak going with my WIs.  I've lost at my last 5 WIs.  There were a couple weeks when I didn't go, but still, not bad, right?

On the food front, right now I have my Slow Roasted Plum Tomatoes in the oven.  I'm planning to use them to make a Roasted Tomato and Basil soup.  I've got a big bunch of basil waiting and the tomatoes smell wonderful, they're got about 20 more minutes until they're done.  Here's a quick picture from the oven.  Wish I could send you the aroma, too!

I also made some Stuffed Cabbage.  I was thinking about my mom's cooking and remembered that she used to make Stuffed Cabbage.  I didn't have her recipe but perused the Joy of Cooking and Google to come up with some ideas.  I wanted mine to conform to my 17DD requirements (using ground turkey rather than beef), but it seemed doable.  I used lean ground turkey, chopped onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, basic marinara sauce (Amy's), low-sodium soy sauce, Lee & Perrins,  and salt & pepper for the filling.  I browned the meat and then added the veggies until they were tender, then the other ingredients.  I steamed the cabbage leaves until they were pliable and wrapped a spoonfull of filling in each leaf.  I tucked them seam-side-down in a pyrex dish, added a bit of low-sodium chicken broth and cooked them for about 30 minutes.  I didn't write down amounts, but I wish I had.  They were dee-lish!   Here's a picture. Looks like we had roasted tomatoes at that meal, too.  I told you they were good.

Today I have an unexpected day off from babysitting the grandkids.  I'm on my 4th load of laundry, cooking my soup, catching up on blogs, and planning to get out and do a "rawk" (run/walk, borrowed stolen from Shelley). I need to load up a new audio book on my ipod as I just finished Believing the Lie (Elizabeth George, a Detective Lynley mystery).  A great book that has me gnashing my teeth that it'll likely be two years before I find out what happened to one of my favorite characters!

Oh, I'm also going to drive over to see my friend, Mrs. Elliott.  She is my choir director's mom, who moved up from Alabama to an assisted living place near to her daughter. Mrs. Elliott turned 90 last week.  She's fun and bright and always glad to have company.  She didn't know anyone here except her daughter and was missing her friends so I've sort of adopted her as my "mom" and try to see her at least once a week.  

Here's a picture of little Jack.  He was quite taken with the "real" carrots (as opposed to the baby carrots one usually encounters these days) we found at Whole Foods.  He wanted to eat one right away.  I washed and peeled it, but he wanted the green top left on it.  He ate every bite (except the green, which he tried, but declared "Yucky!)"  Don't you feel rather virtuous when you load up your grocery cart with great looking veggies and scorn the offerings from whole aisles of processed foods?  I do.

We had some snow flakes yesterday, but biking weather is coming closer and closer.  I, for one, can't wait!

Oh, not great report on the mileage project.  I finally recovered from the heel blisters and enforced croc wearing and reclaimed my Nikes a few days ago. Total mileage for the past two weeks is 26 miles.  YTD total 176.  I'm hoping to up the ante now that I can wear real shoes again!


What's your new favorite healthy recipe?