Saturday, July 31, 2010

07/31/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, cherries.

Snack - piece of angel food cake

Lunch - salad with tomato, cucumber, egg, and chicken. It was way too big and I didn't finish it, but I did have a few crackers with chutney.

Supper - PF Changs frozen chicken fried rice and a Skinny Cow ice cream.

Regarding the angel food cake.................I don't normally purchase a cake unless I am having company, but I saw this cake at the bakery in our new grocery store in town. Angel food cake is one cake that is allowed on a diabetic diet, so I do allow myself to have a slice now and then. Because I did not have company coming, nor do I have the discipline to resist indulging in more than one slice, I cut up the whole cake and put the individual pieces in baggies for the freezer. It is much safer that way. Oh, and one thing I neglected to disclose - the angel food cake is chocolate! Soooooooo good. Since it is a fresh bakery product, there are no calories listed on the packaging so I am going to decide that there are no more calories than are in a normal white angel food cake. Please do not dispute this claim as I have made up my mind.

Friday, July 30, 2010

07/30/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, cherries.

Lunch - very late for me - Subway tuna salad sandwich and a bag of Sun Chips. I was so hungry that I ate every last bite.

Supper - because I had such a late lunch, I was not hungry for supper, nor did I feel like preparing anything. Therefore I had a snack instead - cherries and a piece of angel food cake along with a glass of skim milk.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

07/29/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, melon

Lunch - BLT, Pringles, True North Almond clusters

Supper - onion, carrots, veggie burger, WW fudge bar.

Purse Organizer Insert

At the last quilt shop I visited, I purchased a "Portapockets" pattern from Studio Kat Designs. I carry a rather large tote bag and am always digging in my bag for tissues or a pen or mints. I thought this organizer was a great idea for my tote bag.The pattern has LOTS of pieces and six pages of instructions. Since I have the attention span of a teenage gnat, I was soon out of patience for "lining A and Part #3 interfacing........."
After spending a good deal of yesterday wrestling with the instructions and the many, many pieces, I put the project aside. This morning I looked on the internet for purse organizers and found many, many choices, but my favorite was $24.95 plus shipping and handling. Now $24.95 may not seem like a great deal of money, but to a retired person on a fixed income a few of those $24.95 purchases add up quickly. Soon I find myself digging into the line of credit - no, no, no - not wise.

So I went back to my project and finished it without the help of the instructions. I just did my own thing. It is poorly constructed and the finishing is non-existent. However, it will reside in the depths of my purse and keep me a little more organized. That was the goal and the goal has been reached.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

07/28/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast, egg, melon

Lunch - salad, crackers with cream cheese and apricot fig chutney, cherries, sugar-free cookie

Supper - mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, vanilla ice cream.

Late night snack - skim milk, peanut butter.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

07/27/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast, a few cherries (I wasn't hungry - too hot)

Lunch - chicken salad

Snack - almonds

Supper - BLT on Ezekiel toast, Pringles, one scoop of "light" vanilla ice cream.


Monday, July 26, 2010

07/26/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and an egg

Lunch - I had friends over for lunch and served two salads - a chicken salad and a pasta salad, plus deviled eggs and cheese stuffed celery, plus crackers, and a high calorie dessert with ice cream.

Supper - a salad potluck with friends - lots of good stuff all put into a salad, two kinds of bakery bread, plus a high calorie dessert.

I'm sure I gained at least 25 pounds today................. sigh........

Sunday, July 25, 2010

07/25/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter and a small amount of orange marmalade

Lunch - Cesar salad with chicken, biscuit

Supper - leftover carrots and mashed potatoes and a few spoonfuls of a cake I made for a luncheon tomorrow. Why did I sneak a spoonful? I have not made this cake before and I wanted to make sure it was cooked thoroughly. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

07/24/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with an egg, coffee, cherries

Lunch - shrimp/macroni salad, crackers & cheese, melon, sugar-free cookie

Supper - salad, carrots, mashed potatoes, WW fudge bar

Snack - almonds

Again, it was hot here today and even though I was in the cool basement, I was working hard and felt the effects of the hot weather. My "I'm full" level came quicker than usual.

Friday, July 23, 2010

07/23/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with an egg, coffee.

Lunch - vegetable lo mein (at a restaurant) and one fortune cookie

Supper - BLT on whole wheat toast, Pringles chips, melon, Teddy grahams.

Snack - almonds.

It is hot, hot, hot here and I have not had much of an appetite today. I forced myself to eat breakfast, only ate part of my lunch (brought the rest home), but really enjoyed the BLT for supper as it felt like a summer-time meal. The melon was refreshing. It was ripe and juicy, but it did not have the sweet taste of a really good melon. I don't seem to have much luck picking out good melons.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

07/22/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, a few sour grapes............waste of money because I threw out the rest.

Lunch - shrimp/macaroni salad, crackers & cheese, WW fudge bar

Snack - almonds

Supper - another Morning Star veggie burger, onion, broccoli, carrots. Finished the last of the pie - three lovely bites.

Snack - almonds again

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

07/21/10 - Food

Breakfast - two pieces of toast, coffee.

Later on in the morning I was feeling lethargic and realized that it was probably because I did not have a good breakfast. I therefore made myself another piece of toast and added peanut butter, and soon I felt my energy return. It was a lesson learned - have a good breakfast!

Lunch - a nice salad with more of the garden fresh cucumbers and some grape tomatoes. Also had crackers and cheese. For dessert I had three more bites of the leftover pie.

Supper - a Morning Star Grillers Prime veggie burger cooked with a delicious Vadalia onion, broccoli and sweet potato fries. For dessert a frozen fruit bar and a sugar-free cookie.

This veggie burger was excellent! I was surprised at how good it tasted. It will definitely be a new favorite. I could easily give up regular hamburgers for these.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

07/20/10 - Food

My vacation is over and it is time to get back to my food diary blog. I had a great time with friends, eating out every night and enjoying some wonderful food. My favorite meal was broiled fresh Walleye - oh and the sweet potato fries - and those wonderful jumbo shrimp - and of course the two layer pumpkin/cheese cake pie! It all showed up on the scale...........so easy to gain, so so so hard to lose.

Breakfast - one slice of bacon, one egg, toast, V8 juice, coffee.

Lunch - sandwich

Supper - salad with cucumbers from a friend's garden, a Vadalia onion cooked with a green pepper from the same garden. Then I baked up a frozen stuffed pretzel. I saw these pretzels in the frozen food section at the grocery store and thought they looked yummy. I was sorely disappointed and they ended up in the garbage. The pretzel itself was OK, but the cheese had a weird taste, almost chemical tasting. Not worth the calories, so out it went. Instead I munched on some Pringles. The Pringles were a lot less calories and satisfied that carb/crunch taste for me. I ended up the meal with three small bites from my leftover piece of pie. That piece of pie should last me all week long. It was a huge piece and although it is light, it still is very sweet and just a little satisfies my sweet tooth.

Quilt Retreat 2010

For the 7th year some of the women in our Bee group have gone on a quilt retreat. Carol invites us to her summer home in upper Wisconsin where she kept the lower level empty so that she could invite us each year.

As we sew, we look out onto this beautiful lake.

Carol rents tables so that each one of us has a nice large sewing space. The room is clean and inviting.

The right door leads to the convenient half-bath, and the dark doorway leads to the outside.
(The rifle is handy in case anyone tries to steal our fabric!)

Lindsay worked very hard on this wonderful quilt for an auction/fundraiser.

She also made borders for this UFO scrappy project.

Carol completed this precisely pieced quilt with the smashing border.

Aline sweated over the calculations to get these stars to fit around her adorable redwork.
She also assembled these flower pinwheels and put the first border on making it ready for some applique.

Here I am with a vegetable tablerunner, a pile of black and white blocks, a sample "plaid" block, and the beginning of a quilt for Quilts of Valor.

The four of us - Aline, me, Lindsay and Carol.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

07/13/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - sandwich

Supper - chicken, stir fry veggies, frozen fruit bar.


I will not be posting to this blog for the next week as I will be spending time with friends. I plan on having so much fun that I won't even think about food!

Monday, July 12, 2010

07/12/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter

Lunch - Spring Onion soup (TJs), crackers & cheese, WW fudge bar.

Supper - leftover spaghetti pasta with veggies (still didn't finish it, but this time I threw out the final leftovers), chicken strips, frozen fruit bar, sugar-free cookie.

Snack - spoonful of peanut butter.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

07/11/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast, egg, grapes

Lunch - at Red Lobster - Sailor's platter, salad, roll

Supper - popcorn, crackers, cheese, sugar-free cookie

Once again at supper time I was in the mood to stuff my face so I made a 100 calorie microwave popcorn, a reasonable amount of crackers and cheese, and just one cookie. Had I not been posting my food on this blog, I probably would have eaten twice as many crackers with cheese and undoubtedly two bags of popcorn, not because I was hungry, but because it was comfort, procrastination from doing anything else, and just for the taste and crunch.

Posting on this blog really does help me stop my unreasonable overeating. I can't say that I am dieting, but I am not gaining weight. I have lost a little weight, but not enough to brag about and definitely not enough to get into my old clothes. This is a very slow process, but I'm satisfied and feel like I am changing bad habits.

The blog is not interesting and there are very few people I know of who even bother to look at it, but I know it is public and for me that is enough.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

07/10/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast, egg, grapes

Lunch - lettuce salad with tuna fish, guiltless corn chips, WW fudge bar.

Snack - crackers

Supper - some of the leftover spaghetti & veggies from last night and a few more crackers with fruit spread.

Friday, July 9, 2010

07/09/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter, grapes

Lunch - leftover salad from yesterday. The lettuce was kind of wilted so I picked out the bad pieces and added my own fresh lettuce. 1/2 leftover roll. WW fudge bar.

Snack - some almonds.

Supper - plain spaghetti with a little butter & Parmesan cheese, spring vegetable mix. I had such a taste for pasta but was surprised when I ate less than a third of it and was so full I was feeling uncomfortable. I covered everything up and put it in the refrigerator for tomorrow. However, full as I was, I had room for dessert - a small vanilla yogurt and two sugar-free cookies. Hmmm. I guess there is always room for dessert.

Baby love.......

What is more beautiful and fun than a baby! My grand niece and her daughter, my great grand niece, came for a visit this morning. What a delight! Isn't it amazing how a precious little baby can put a great big smile on your face and heart.

It seemed like only yesterday that this baby's mother was a baby, and her mother (who is now the grandmother) was a baby not all that long ago either.
Baby's first year is so short and so wonderfully sweet. (I couldn't stop touching her chubby little legs with that incredibly soft skin.....) Come back again for a visit real soon!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

07/08/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast, egg, grapes

Lunch - 1/2 of a Panera salad (saving the other half for tomorrow), half a whole wheat roll, one sugar-free cookie

Supper - leftover meatloaf, leftover corn, leftover cole slaw, leftover sweet potato fries, blueberries with two tablespoons of fat-free half & half and a sprinkle of granola.

Snack - skim milk, snack size chunk of lite cheese.

I made the mistake of watching some cooking shows this afternoon and then looking at recipes on the internet. Everything looked so good that my appetite at supper was enormous. I was truly worried that I would not be able to stop when I got full, or even be able to recognize that full feeling. Fortunately the leftovers that I had for supper were small portions and when I finished them I knew I was full and the desire for more went away.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

07/07/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with an egg, grapes.

Lunch was cold leftovers from last night's supper - corn, meat loaf, cole slaw, WW fudge bar.

Supper - same meat loaf heated up this time, lettuce salad, sweet potato fries, and a bowl of blueberries.

Snack - almonds and Baby Bel cheese.


Tuesday, July 6, 2010

07/06/10 - Food

The author, Geneen Roth, who successfully lost weight and kept it off, talks in her books about eating until you are full and then stopping. I have been working very hard at recognizing when I am full - not satisfied, but full. I think I'm doing well at being aware of the "full" feeling. The hard part is stopping when I reach that full feeling. I'm getting better at it, but on the days that I tend to feel sorry for myself - like it is too hot outside, or I don't have a million dollars, or an insurance bill came in the mail - I just plain do not want to stop eating even though I know I am full. I have to consciously tell myself to stop, get up from the table, and go do something to take my mind off of food for a while. After I get away from the table I can usually end the eating frenzy, but it is that deliberate getting up from the table that takes a great deal of mental effort.

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter.

Lunch - sandwich, TJs veggie sticks, applesauce.

Supper - meat loaf, corn, a few crackers, grapes, one sugar-free cookie.

Snack - almonds.

Monday, July 5, 2010

07/05/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter and this bowl of blueberries and peach chunks.
Lunch - the leftover lobster pizza from yesterday's lunch, some baked potato chips, and a WW fudge bar.

Supper - a spinach salad, some crackers with cream cheese, and for dessert I had a small vanilla yogurt mixed with the leftover blueberries & peach chunks from this morning.

Snack - one Baby Bel cheese.


Sunday, July 4, 2010

07/04/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast with peanut butter and a small bowl of blueberries

Lunch - out with the family - Red Lobster. A biscuit of course, a side salad, and 1/2 of a lobster pizza appetizer.

Supper was awful. Sometimes I can be the worst cook in America. I fried up some Trader Joe's vegetable rice (it is a frozen product) to which I was going to add some broccoli. However, I discovered that the package I purchased from TJs was not the usual vegetable rice I have enjoyed before, but instead it was curried vegetable rice. It had a slight spicy curry flavor balanced with raisins. I didn't think the broccoli went with this, so I cooked the broccoli separately in the microwave. I should have steamed the broccoli. I must have overcooked it because it was awful - almost chewy and stale tasting. The broccoli got thrown out. I ate the rice. Then, even though I was no longer hungry, I felt like a small bowl of rice was not enough for a meal and I grabbed a sample package of cinnamon cereal that came with the newspaper and snacked on that while watching TV. Later I topped off this gourmet meal with a Baby Bel Light cheese.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

07/03/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and one egg.

Lunch - I recently received this little bag of popcorn as a gift and decided to pop it the old-fashioned way - on the stove top.

It pops up best in a nice heavy pan.

Of course I added popcorn salt and a little butter,

then grabbed my library book and
enjoyed the best lunch I have had in ages! ! !
I finished off my excellent lunch with a nice juicy nectarine.

Supper - the leftover Penne pasta from yesterday, a small green side salad, some mini rye toasts with cream cheese, and a sugar-free cookie for dessert.



Finished (Smile)

Quilted and bound.
I started this quilt last year in July at the annual quilt retreat I go on with Bee friends. I recently got it back from the long-arm quilter and finished the binding tonight. The pattern is Come-on-a-my-house by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

Friday, July 2, 2010

07/02/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and cherries

Lunch - egg salad sandwich, baked potato chips, WW fudge bar.

Supper - Birdseye frozen pasta entree (1/2) a Penne pasta with a light Alfredo sauce and veggies, a few crackers and a nectarine for dessert.

I'm still a little hungry so I think I will have a glass of skim milk and some blueberries before I go to bed.


Thursday, July 1, 2010

07/01/10 - Food

Breakfast - toast and cherries

Lunch - two turkey dogs (no buns), slaw (vinegar & oil kind) from the grocery deli, mini rye toasts with cream cheese, some baked potato chips, and a WW fudge bar.

Supper - green salad to which I added the tuna from the leftover half sandwich from Jimmy Johns and crackers. Frozen fruit bar and a sugar-free cookie.

Snack - a nectarine.