DOR

Wednesdays have unofficially become my day of rest workout-wise. It feels good to have a break mid-week and leaves me re-energized to focus and stay motivated for the rest of the week rather than burning out and being lazy on the weekends. I realized yesterday that I didn't watch any TV last weekend. Another small miracle. As Parker pointed out I used to spend the majority of Saturday and Sunday with my booty firmly planted to the couch. No doubt, the fabulous weather helps my motivation immensely. I feel guilty wasting such gorgeous days by laying around and eating ramen. Ramen is so gross.... bleh.

Not gross, however, was the mushroom chicken pasta last night. So delicious! I modified the recipe a little: no white wine, added shallots, and used fresh basil rather than whatever the recipe suggested (dried tarragon, maybe?). I also cooked it all in one pan rather in shifts like CL suggested. I love one pot meals and separating it out just seemed like way too much work and way too many dirty dishes. Plus letting all the flavors mix together worked perfectly. Coating the chicken in a little flour made it really tasty and tender. We also used whole wheat noodles instead of regular egg noodles. I think next time I will ditch the noodles entirely and just cook whole chicken breasts and dump the mushroom mixture over the top.

The green beans were super tasty, too, although at the last minute I decided to ditch the pine nuts and just stick with gbs, lemon, a little olive oil, salt and pepper. So fresh and easy. The pine nuts would have been great flavor, but it just seemed like lots of unnecessary fat and cals. I thought I made enough for leftovers but we woofed them all down which is always a good sign.
Here's how everything turned out:







For some reason I was super motivated last night (morning workout?) and made the lemon bars (yummy, gooey, lemony, sticky, delicious, and only 70 cals a bar!) and a morning oat glop. Maybe I should work on a new name for that... glop doesn't make it sound to appetizing... Anyway, it sort of looked like something the kitten hacked up but tasted awesome and has kept me full all morning. Last night I mixed together:

• 1 cup oats
  
• 1 cup light vanilla soy milk


• 2 tsp sugar


• 2 mashed overripe bananas


• 2 tbsp banana

I covered it up and let it sit in the fridge all night. This morning I scooped about a third of the mix into a bowl, sprinkled a little pumpkin pie mix on top and stuck it in the microwave for about a minute. Yum! Way better than the pumpkin oat mix I tried last week, although I think that still has potential. Berries also would have been good- I'll have to give that a try next time.

For lunch we had some delicious pizzas:

• whole wheat pita brushed with a little evoo
• 1/2- 3/4 pear (whatever fits)
• gorgonzola cheese crumbles
• chopped walnut
• fresh sage
• sprinkle of salt and pepper

They were tasty and I burned the heck out of my hand pulling one out of the oven. Not so smart. My hand still hurts like crazy but my tummy is very happy :)

Thank you all so much for the nice comments and encouragement. Further affirmation that I am so incredibly lucky to have such amazing family and friends.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!