Roasted Vegetables over Polenta

Roasted veggies over homemade polenta "log"

I had a great weekend. I slept in enjoyed some time outside, cooked a few good meals, and generally got a lot accomplished. Felt great!

But today I'm totally pooped! I couldn't fall asleep last night for the life of me and I paid for it today, that's for sure. I skipped my workout because I was so tired and hungry. It probably would have helped energized me, but I brought my running shoes and a run sounded like TORTURE today. I'll go tomorrow.

Plus, I had a super hungry day today, which I think was because I was tired. It was like my body was looking for energy. I tried to feed it good foods and even a little extra coffee, but I was like an endless pit. I have my unofficial weekly WI, so if I don't lose as much as I expect I know today is probably to blame.

Saturday's eats weren't much to look at considering I was out of food in the a.m., well actually into the p.m. considering I didn't wake up until noon. So I ate two meals, both of which were odds and ends.

Yesterday started off with some scrambled eggs and toast with fresh chives from my "garden." I also had a late lunch that was a riff on this pizza. I made homemade pesto from the basil I pruned back a bit on Saturday and put it on a whole wheat mini pita I had in my freezer. It was delicious!


Sierra Nevada Summerfest

After enjoying a happy hour with Sierra Nevada Summerfest and a book, dinner was potato skewers with grilled chicken sausage and a salad — nothing too fancy, but it was a gorgeous evening to fire up the grill.


Potato skewers, grilled chicken sausage and a salad

For dessert I had some of this fro-yo I found at local natural foods store a few days ago. It sounded unique. It's good, but I could totally make this and even with full fat yogurt, the nutritional info looks like it will be about the same as this packaged stuff, with a slightly bigger serving. But if you don't have a ice cream maker, this is tasty! It's hard not to dig in every time I pass the freezer.


Low-fat cinnamon apple fro-yo

Today, I was a bottomless pit with a bowl of cereal with skim for breakfast, the dinner I had last night, crackers and edamame hummus, a cup of coffee with skim milk, a Nature Valley Sweet and Salty granola bar (I was limited by the vending machine), a handful each of peanuts and more crackers and finally dinner — roasted veggies with polenta.

Now this was good. REALLY good. The goat cheese totally made it. Plus, I have a special place in my heart for roasted veggies. It was garnished with my fresh basil. Deliciousness. I can' t even describe. The polenta was cornmeal made with 1 cup cornmeal and 4 cups water plus salt and pepper for four servings. I put the hot polenta in a loaf pan and let it cool overnight and then sliced and reheated. It's the poor man's polenta log. The pre-made logs are close to $3 if not more, and plain cornmeal is super cheap. All it takes is a little pre-planning. The meal was even pretty low-calorie, which was good considering the carbfest I had today.

Oh well. Onward and downwards, I suppose. :) Night!

Beware of Dragon Breath

Today's Menu

Finally, I had the long-awaited sandwich. It was so good that, well, my cat Bella wanted a bite. That's her in the background. And yes, she's on the kitchen table. While I was taking the picture I was actually yelling at her to get down, but it wasn't working very well. I actually think that's her turning around after I sternly told her I wasn't going to share the sandwich. Oh well.

The sandwich was excellent. I used Hormel's new natural ham and light mayo, dijon mustard, and baby spinach. On 100% whole wheat bread that although two slices is 3 pts, it makes a more satisfying sandwich than light bread. I could use only one slice, which is 1 pt, but it makes for a tiny sandwich that makes me automatically think--this is all I get? Besides.. tomorrow's dinner turns out to be only 4 pts for two servings (I suspect a "serving" is only half a cup or less.. but we'll see how much it really makes). So I'll have 19 pts leftover after a blow out dinner planned for Sunday (19 pts possibly?). More on that one later...


The king of all ham sandwiches....at least when you don't have long to make it!

The afternoon snack this week has been Creamy Hummus. It's VERY garlicky and I even cut some of it out. Its so bad.. er I mean TASTY.. it almost burns your mouth with garlic. I think I'm going to experiment with roasting my own garlic and then using the roasted garlic instead. Roasted garlic should have a sweeter, mellower flavor that should make my favorite homemade hummus even better. Store-bought seriously pales in comparison. Plus homemade is cheaper. Much cheaper. I think the beans cost a whopping $1.12, tops. The tahini is in a huge jar for $5. I've made maybe 4 or 5 batches from that jar and each batch makes a ton. So, it totally kicks the store bought's butt. BTW: I cut that recipe in half every time. If you make the entire recipe.. you'll eat nothing but hummus for a month. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Dragon-breath inducing hummus with baby carrots and mug of Twinings Darjeeling tea.

And it's a new mug.. for Kim's benefit. Courtesy of the cupboard at work. Also take note of the pile o' work that it's sitting on. And I wonder how all of my papers end up with coffee and tea rings on them. Honestly.. I have NO idea how they get there.