Weekly Weigh In: Week 11

Hey guys!!  I’m taking a break from the computer this weekend, but I did want to check in real quick and do my weekly weigh in.  Mostly because I had a really good weigh in and I’m super pumped about it!

Last week’s weight: 174.6
This week’s weight: 173.4

Change this week: –1.2
Total weight lost:  36.6 lbs

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Yipee!!!  I didn’t really have a stellar week or anything but I guess my body was just being nice to me.  Whatever- I’ll take it!!

This week’s weight watchers meeting was about being successful at the grocery store, which of course, I’m pretty great at!  I was able to throw lots of tips in for other members.  I couldn’t believe how many people went to the grocery store without a plan and then complained about how expensive groceries were! 

I thought I’d share a couple of the tips I shared in the meeting for a successful grocery shopping trip with you!

  • ALWAYS go in with a plan.  Do not go in without a list.  This is when you come out with a gazillion items and nothing to actually make for dinner. 
  • Stick to the basics.  Grocery shopping doesn’t have to be expensive!  We’re on a pretty tight budget- sometimes I’m able to leave the store for $40-$50 with a weeks worth of groceries.  Sometimes it’s a little more. (I don’t use coupons- they’re a pain in the butt to me, but if you can find some good ones utilize them.  Otherwise scour your circulars that you get in the mail and build your meals around what’s on sale that week!) The basics are fruits, veggies, beans, grains, nuts.  Most processed foods do NOT fall into the basics category and you don’t NEED them! 
  • Set a routine. This makes a grocery shopping trip easier.  Here’s my routine… on Saturday mornings I go to my weight watchers meeting, then I go to Barnes and Noble (I usually have an hour and a half to kill between my meeting and kickboxing and B&N is right by my gym) and sit in the café and have some coffee and do a meal plan and my grocery list for the week.  Then I go to kickboxing.  I hit up the grocery store on my way home.  This makes my life so much easier because it’s become part of my Saturday morning routine!

These are just a few tips. I’m sure you guys have plenty you can share with me too- let’s hear them!  I’m always looking for good tips for grocery shopping!!

Hope you guys have a great weekend- I’ll be back on Monday with another great Meatless Monday recipe!

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16 Weird Facts

Hello!!!  So I’ve talked before about how weird I am, but honestly I can never get enough of talking about myself. Winking smile  So when Mandy tagged me in a post for a survey for weird facts about yourself I was like heck yes!

So here’s the survey!!!

1.) What’s a nickname only your family calls you?
My mom always calls me sister and my brothers used to call me sis-a-choo or see-roar.  (I know- we’re all a bunch of weirdos!)

2.) What’s a weird habit of yours?
Oh geez- I have SO many weird habits!  Maybe the weirdest one is that I absentmindedly play with my nose ring sometimes and it kind of looks like I’m picking my nose.  Hehe.

3.) Do you have any weird phobias?
Yep.  Fish, birds, and gigantic poodles!

4) What’s a song you secretly love to blast and belt out when you’re alone?
Defying Gravity from Wicked.  I love that song and I love to pretend that I can sing.

5.) What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?
I have two that are pretty equally at the top of my pet peeve list.  People that are rude for no reason and people that boss me around.  First of all it’s nice to be nice!  Second of all, you’re not my mom- so quit bossing me around!

6.) What’s one of your nervous habits?
I move constantly when I’m nervous or uncomfortable.  I’m also very pacey, especially when I’m nervous about a test- I pace back and forth and back and forth.  The movement seems to help me when it comes to remembering stuff for a test so I’m ok with it. (ADD much?)

7.) What side of the bed do you sleep on?
The right side.

8.) What was your first stuffed animal and it’s name?
uhhhh… I have no idea!

9.) What’s the drink you always order at Starbucks?
In the summer I order LOTS of iced coffee!  In the winter my favorite is the peppermint mocha.  I also like the toffee nut latte quite a bit in any season!

10.) What’s a beauty rule you preach, but never actually practice?
I honestly don’t preach any beauty rules because I’m just not all that interested in that kind of stuff. But I’m horrible about remembering to wash my makeup off before I go to bed.  I actually just started keeping those face wipe things on my bedside table so I can just wipe it off as I’m crawling into bed.

11.) Which way do you face in the shower?
Back to the water unless I’m washing my face.

12.) Do you have any ‘weird’ body ‘skills’?
Not really but I do have a crazy hitchhiker’s thumb!  Like it sometimes freaks people out how far my thumb bends back!

13.) What’s your favorite comfort food that’s ‘bad’ but you love to eat it anyways?
hmmmm… I don’t really like to make food “good” or “bad”, but one indulgence that I like to occasionally have is french fries!  Not often because the grease kills my stomach- maybe like once or twice a year.

14.) What’s a phrase or exclamation you always say?
I’ve been saying “time out”, “that’s the bee’s knees”, and “DUDE!” a lot lately.

15.) Time to sleep, what are you actually wearing?
Pajama pants and a t-shirt.  I’m convinced that God Himself put pajama pants on this Earth JUST for me!!!

16.) What did you used to wear that you thought was cool but now you realize it wasn’t that hot?
Really baggy t-shirts.  Ugh.

 

So who should I tag now?  I’m trying to think of a couple of bloggie friends that haven’t done this yet…

I choose…
Michelle at The Running Jewess
Nicci at Nifty Eats
Kayla at Sprouty Buns
Liz at Chubosaurus and This Chihuahua Wears Pearls

And of course anyone that WANTS to do it, SHOULD!  I could use more weird in my life!!

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WIAW + WHAW(What Harley Ate Wednesday)

Hey friends!!!  School is officially back in session and I have a few random thoughts on my classes/teachers…

1. One of my teachers might be insane.  Literally.

2. I HATE classes that are all interactive/group workey.  I like to go in, sit down, listen to an amazing lecture and take notes.  That’s the kind of class that I enjoy and I learn better that way because I’m not thinking about how much I hate doing stupid activities and group work the whole time.

3. One of my teachers is making us sit in assigned seats.  In alphabetical order.  I’m not even kidding.  I’m 31 years old people and I’m in COLLEGE- not elementary!

4. My GTA for food science lab is maybe the funniest and craziest people I’ve ever met and I want to be her BFF!

5. I’m already in love with my Sports Nutrition class.  I’m totally obsessed with it and I’ve already read several of the chapters in the textbook even though I don’t need to read them yet.  This is a career path that I am definitely interested in learning more about.  The subject is fascinating.  I just wish the class was a lecture class instead of online.

 

I took my WIAW pics yesterday so I could show some examples of some typical school-day meals.

 

For breakfast I usually stick to toast/cereal/fruit type things because it’s easy and quick.  But since it was the first day of school I decided to actually make something.  I made the pumpkin cream pie oats from the Peas and Thank You cookbook. (p.s. this cookbook is amazing- you should get it ASAP!)

I topped it with some Barney Butter from my HLS swag bag and a drizzle of agave nectar- it was SO good, but I think I’ll appreciate it more when the weather cools off a bit(it was 106 yesterday!!!)

(oh and p.s. I took all these pics from my new cell phone (the Samsung Infuse).  It has an amazing camera for a phone!!)

 

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I packed up a nice assortment of goodies for lunch/snacks for school.

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Lunch was a PB&J on whole wheat, carrots + cukes + pretzels with hummus for dipping.  The apple slices and blueberries and dark chocolate almond milk were for between class and driving home snacks.

 

Dinner was easy thanks to all the preparation I did for this week by pre-chopping all my veggies!

Portobello Peppersteak stew served over Caulipots(mashed cauliflower+potato) from the Appetite for Reduction cookbook.  I used all portabellas instead of the using seitan and portabellas because I’m not a huge fan of seitan.  Oh. My. Goodness. This was sooooo good!  Definitely will be making this again!

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I also thought I would include a What Harley Ate Wednesday in this post.  She decided one of my textbooks looked tasty. 

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The cute face is deceiving people.

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Be Prepared

Anyone in the girl scouts when they were little?  I had a short stint myself, but I honestly always wanted to be in the boy scouts with my brothers- they did much more fun stuff like camping, tying knots, and general roughhousing. The only problem with that was that I was a girl so they wouldn’t let me in.  With exception to the whole I don’t like to get dirty thing I’m totally a tom boy in my heart. 

Ah well, if I couldn’t be in boy scouts at least I still retain some of those lessons over all these years that my brothers learned- how to pitch a tent, how to properly handle a knife, tying a pretty mean knot, and of course the biggest one… be prepared!

This is a great motto to use in different aspects of your life.  In finances, school, etc…

But for now let’s stick with being prepared in an area that I’m a self-proclaimed expert: FOOD!  We’ve already discussed meal planning and why it’s important- check out that post if you haven’t already read it.

Do you prep your food for the week?  You should!  Especially weeks when you have a lot going on- this makes it super easy to get a quick, healthy meal on the table without a lot of effort.  On our trip last week Laura, Michelle, and I were talking about prepping your food for the week, and we were also giving Michelle some time-saving tips for eating healthy without a lot of time for cooking since she’s starting back to grad school in the next few weeks.  Check out Laura and Michelle’s blogs as well because I’m sure they will also be posting some tips!

There are a few different ways that you can prep your meals for the week, depending on how busy you are or how much you want to do ahead of time.

Have a slam packed week ahead where you will barely have time to grab something for dinner?  Why not make your meals ahead of time? 

Don’t want(or need) to make your meals ahead of time?  No problem- why don’t you simply pre-chop your veggies for your meals for the week?  It will save you time when you’re preparing your meals throughout the week because you can just grab your pre-chopped veggies out of the fridge and use them immediately in your recipes!  A little more pressed for time?  Why not pre-sauté your veggies?  This is a great time-saver and make it so easy to quickly throw a meal or recipe together.

Here are some of my pre-chopped veggies for the week!  I’ll usually throw them in a zip lock or some Tupperware and just grab them whenever I need them!  I also always do extra veggies for quick healthy snacking!

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P.S. my biggest tip for pre-chopping your veggies is to have a designated garbage bowl! (thanks Rachael Ray- I totally owe you for this one!!).  This is much easier than going back and forth to the trash can with all your scraps.  Or if you compost, you can just throw it right into your compost bin from your garbage bowl!

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Let’s talk about convenience/pre-packaged veggies.

There’s nothing wrong with it if you can afford it and don’t have enough time or patience to chop your veggies I say go for it!  I am a student and on a tight budget so I usually chop my own myself.  However, there are a few things I make an exception for! 

These pre-packaged blueberries and apple slices make my life SO much easier!  So easy to grab and go for a snack or for our lunch boxes.  And I get them at Costco, which really does make them quite affordable.  They are both somewhere around $6 I think. Totally worth it for me!

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Another great Costco find for me is this pre-washed and trimmed Romaine lettuce.  It was around $3 and I think there are 3-4 heads of Romaine in there.  I usually take out a couple of heads and chop them for salads for the week, and seal the rest up for use on sandwiches and burgers.  The bag usually lasts me 2 weeks.  This is less expensive than the pre-bagged salad mix and oh so convenient for me!

 

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Whew!  What a monster of a post!  I had so much fun writing this though- I’ll definitely be writing more of them in the future!  Hope you have an amazing day!

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Meatless Monday: Tempeh Sloppy Joes

 

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Sometimes it’s fun to get sloppy and a little messy when you eat- and these sandwiches definitely fit the bill!  If you aren’t sure what tempeh (pronounced tem-pay) is, check out this post. I’ve seen people crumble up tempeh and use it in tacos and sloppy joes so I thought I would give it a try. Don’t forget you’ll need to steam the tempeh a bit before you crumble it up(see the same post if you want to know why)!

These tempeh sloppy joes are amazing- tempeh is the perfect texture for crumbling up and using in this type of recipe.  If you don’t like tempeh you could just use portabella mushrooms instead.  I really think the meaty-ness of the tempeh fits perfectly with the sauce.  This recipe is perfect for a casual Meatless Monday dinner!

Oh and by the by, any time I make (or think of) sloppy joes I can’t help but sing that Adam Sandler song. (Sloppy joe, slop sloppy joe)

Let’s get sloppy, shall we?

Tempeh Sloppy Joes
makes 6-8 sandwiches
(print this recipe)

Ingredients:
1 package tempeh
1 small onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I like cremini mushrooms)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetarian worcestershire sauce
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
Salt and pepper
Whole wheat burger buns

 

Directions:
Steam tempeh for about 10 mins- I do it on the stove in a steamer basket.  Let tempeh cool before crumbling.

Over medium-high heat, sauté onion and bell pepper together in a little cooking spray until tender (veggie broth works nicely for sautéing veggies too).

Crumble in the tempeh (it should crumble easily) and add the mushrooms and garlic.  Cook until the mushrooms are tender, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the tomato paste, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, and tomato sauce.  Simmer until sauce is thick.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Spoon the mixture onto your burger buns and top with your favorite garnish- I love pickles on sloppy joes!  I also like to serve these with sweet potato fries.

 

mmmmmm…….

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Hope you had a great Meatless Monday!!

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