A Sensible Dinner - Pearlieq's Journal

[pearlieq]

8/17/06

9:15am

--1 sm chicken w/peapods
--1 cup milk

I just realized I'm having this for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and turkey sausage w/the stir fried vegetables for dinner. Holy salt storm! I better drink plenty of water and plan for Friday as a detox day!

12:30pm

--2 light hot dogs w/cheese
--15 cherries
--large handful grape tomatoes
--1 nsa pudding cup
--3 fortune cookies

I just wasn't in the mood for pizza.

I need to use up 14 eggs over the next few days, so I've got to start looking around for egg-intensive recipes. I'm not really in the mood for quiche, but if it comes to that, I will!

5:00pm

--2 pieces deep dish pizza
--1 nsa ice cream bar

I was slightly hungry, but ate more than I meant to, mostly because I was bored and kind of depressed about it. Today was sooooooo dull! There just wasn't anything to do!

8:00pm

--2 chicken enchiladas w/sour cream
--1/2 cup rice
--few forkfuls beans

We went out to dinner, because I didn't feel like cooking. Unfortunatley the red sauce on my enchiladas was pretty bad. I was able to cover it up with sour cream, but I just didn't feel like finishing it.

 

[Lesli54]

Good morning, Pearlieq!

Just catching up. Congrats on the new clippie! I knew you could do it and that silver will be yours soon.

Looks like you are doing will with trying to portion control and stay busy. Keep up the good work!

 

[toystoryduo]

Weigh to go pearlieq!!!! Congratulations on your new clippie! Keep up the good work!

 

[Lesli54]

Sorry to hear yesterday was so boring for you. Hopefully today will be better as you do your detox.

As for the eggs, how about trying a homemade angel food cake or a souffle?

I haven't made either from scratch, but if you do let me know how it goes. Have a wonderful weekend.

 

[pearlieq]

8/18/06

10:15am

--1 bacon egg & cheese bagel
--1 hashbrown
--3 pancakes w/butter & sf syrup

DH brought home McD's for breakfast. Oof! I'm so stuffed! Next time I should just stick to one thing. I was very hungry when I put in my order.

Oh well. No biggie. I don't think I'll be eating for a while though!

DH took the day off today, so we'll get to hang out together. We have tickets to go to Ravinia tonight to see the Boston Pops, which should be lots of fun!

Thanks for the ideas, Lesli! I hadn't thought of either but they both sound good.

4:00pm

--1/2 chicken sandwich on whole wheat
--1 grande iced tea

I was so ticked to find out that Starbucks adds sugar to their iced tea. I though I had been ordering something calorie free and was shocked to find out I'd been hit with 120 calories of pure sugar! Ugh!

5:30pm

--Mirabelle buffet

Wow! I ate a ton and it was incredible! It also cost a freakin' fortune! They did have an amazing risotto, turkey, chicken, and other great goodies. It really was tasty!

Unfortunately, it was raining pretty good when we got to Ravinia. We were covered at the restaurant, but once we finished, we were stuck in the rain until the pavillion opened for seating. We bought two $18 umbrellas (!) and tried to tough it out. Eventually we found a little doorway where we could hang out until the show started. It was really coming down!

Once we got in the pavillion, the seats were so tiny! DH and I were incredibly uncomfortable, and even the "normal" people looked uncomfortable. We got stuck next to this jerk of a man who kept giving me dirty looks, while simultaneously keeping his arm down on the armrest, effectively crowing me out of part of my seat. There was no way I could do that for two hours, so I slogged through ankle deep puddles back to the box office to see if there was anything they could do. Mercifully they were able to move us to "extra seating" which was very comfortable folding chairs in an open section of the pavillion. It was a million times more comfortable than being squished in next to the jerk!

The show was lots of fun--the Pops are doing a program of 70's music with Rockapella as their featured guest. Gotta love any show that opens with John Williams' Star Wars suite!

The drive home was pretty miserable. I'm finding the older I get the more likely I am to get queasy when I'm not driving. Plus highway driving makes me pretty nervous anyway--people are aggressive and downright nuts! DH tends to follow too close and wait too long before braking for my liking. Add that with the dark and medium to heavy rainfall on the way home, and it was not a pleasant trip! I was never so glad to get off the expressway!

 

[Lesli54]

Good morning, Pearlieq!

Sorry to hear about the circumstances surrounding the show, but I hope you still had a good time regardless.

Chicken on whole wheat sounds like a great choice for lunch. But I have to agree with the sugar in the tea bit. I love tea, but I hate sweetened tea.

I hope the rest of the weekend is a good one for you.

 

[pearlieq]

8/19/06

9:45am

--1 cup raisin bran w/milk
--1 peach

Yummy peach! There is nothing better than a cold, perfectly ripe peach!

1:30pm

--2 McD's cheeseburgers
--med fries
--orange drink
--10 pc chicken nuggets w/honey

Ugh! I had a craving for McD's. I asked DH for a 2 cheeseburger meal, and said I'd split some chicken nuggets w/him thinking he'd bring home a 6 or 10 piece to share. Nope, he bought up both 10 pieces and of course they were in front of me so I ate them.

The thing is I was full and wanted to stop, but just kept going. It's weird--I might not have the physiological cravings anymore, but I still have some bad food habits to work on.

6:30pm

--1 cherry coke

DH has a problem at work and I went with him while he fixed it. This was all they had to drink at his office (aside from water of course, but who's counting that? ). It was really good, but I totally didn't need it.

9:20pm

--3 chicken tacos
--1 cup rice
--3/4 molten chocolate cake

The tacos were great, and I was actually hungry. I just wish I'd stopped there. If we're being honest, I ordered dessert because I didn't want to go home and clean for my brother, who is arrving tomorrow. Not the best reason I've ever had to ingest 500+ calories of sugar and fat, eh?

This was not a stellar day.

 

[pearlieq]

8/20/06

8:30am

--1 peach

I'm meeting my brother at Panera in a little bit. He's on his way into town--he graciously called yesterday afternoon to let us know. He'll be here through Thursday morning.

I'm already coming off of 2 days of DH interrupting my eating routine (constantly wanting to go out, to have snacks, etc.) only to have my bro home and all sorts of celebrations for my mom's birthday. AAAAAHHHHH! I can't catch a break here and I'm so sick of all this overeating! Luckily my bro seems concerned with the same things, so maybe it won't be so bad.

Mom wants to go out to PF Changs one night, which has decent options. Hopefully the other nights I can cook dinner in. At least that way I can keep an eye on what we're eating. She wants an angel food cake for her birthday and luckily I can send the leftovers home with her.

Hopefully I can get through this intact...

9:30am

--1 plain bagel
--1 2oz tub whipped rf veggie cream cheese
--5 slices chocolate chip bagel w/1 T more cream cheese

The chocolate chip bagel samples were very tasty! It was nice to see my brother and catch up. I also ran into my old sophomore english teacher--it was really nice to see her! The years have been very kind to her--she must be in her late thirties but could easily pass for 25!

We're picking up mom later to go see Little Miss Sunshine, then coming back here for enchiladas. I don't plan on any movie snacks, so I should be good for today. I might eat my leftover stir fried veggies before I go, just to I'm hungry at the theater.

1:00pm

--1 cup stir-fried veggies
--1 cup milk

2:45pm

--1 Zone bar

Hungry!!!

6:00pm

--6 sm slices demi baguette
--dipping oil
--1/4 cup bruschetta tomatoes

Munchies before dinner

6:45pm

--3 chicken enchiladas
--3/4 cup watermelon cubes
--2 glasses light juice

8:45pm

--1 nsa ice cream bar

So far my brother's visit is going well. DH had a poker tournament yesterday, so my bro and I took my mom to the movies. We saw Little Miss Sunshine, which I liked way more than I expected. One of the last scenes had me in tears from laughing!

After the movie we came back to my house and I fixed dinner. We catted over dinner a while before taking mom back home. My bro and I shopped at a video store to pick up all of the SNL DVDs we could find, which wasn't that many. DH made it home shortly after we did, and after feeding him we went upstairs and watched the Best of Chris Farley and the Best of Adam Sandler.

 

[Lesli54]

Good afternoon, Pearlieq!

I sure can understand the "I'm not hungry, but I ate it anyway". You hit the nail on the head, though. It's the habit that has to change, not just the craving. It takes one step at a time and constant reminders to do something different so that you don't continue to eat what is in front of you just because it's there, but I know you can do it. Being aware is half the battle, right?

I hope that you enjoy your show and can manage to stay away from the snacks. Good luck with having your brother over for the week.

 

[pearlieq]

8/21/06

7:45am

--2 chicken enchiladas w/light sour cream
--1 cup light juice

This was a tasty breakfast. Bro is still asleep, and hopefully will be for a while. I don't know what we're going to do today. I need to pick up a token gift for mom and we need to get party supplies, but other than that we're free for the day.

We're meeting up at PF Chang's for dinner tonight. That shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully I can finally come out of all this overeating--too much food around me, too many opportunites to overeat.

I couldn't believe how much time with DH threw me out of whack. It seemed like the CONSTANTLY wanted to go out to eat, or get takeout, or have snacks and as soon as we'd finish eating, he'd want to eat again in 2 hours. It took a lot of energy to keep saying no, no, no all the time. That's going to be an interesting thing to try to work out.

11:45am

--2c leftover chicken enchilada filling
--1 nsa ice cream bar.

I'm sad to say, I think the itch is back. Hopefully upping my dose of glucophage and starting back on some exercise will help. I really didn't miss this!

3:00pm

--1 whopper w/cheese combo w/onion rings & a Dr Pepper
--9 chicken fries

I was actually hungry, but I should have stuck with the Jr Whopper. I ordered a 6 piece of chicken fries but got 9, and of course I ate them.

6:00pm

--1 toffee almond bar

I didn't need this. I was just bored and a bit tired of trying to entertain my brother. We had over an hour to kill and we stopped at Starbucks. I was weak.

7:00pm

--1 sm spring roll
--1 sm sweet & sour chicken entree
--2/3 cup brown rice
--not quite 1/2 piece chocolate cake

One of mom's birthday dinners. PF Changs was so crowded and loud it wasn't too much fun. My entree was ridiculous! I counted--there were exactly 11 small pieces of chicken on my plate. That worked out to $1 per piece of chicken!

At least mom seemed to have a good time, and my bro and I had fun on the way home from the restaurant. DH's meal was also tiny and not good, so I've got a pizza in the oven for him.

To be honest, I don't know if I'm strong enough to say no, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I think I've just resigned myself to the next few days being a food fest. I'll do the best I can and get back to things when everything settles down.

9:30pm

--2 sm squares of pizza

I'm happy with this.

 

[Lesli54]

Good morning, Pearlieq!

Glad to hear the evening went well. As far as the DH.........they do have a tendency to eat all the time, or so it seems. Somewhere along the line you might have to explain to him that you want to build healthy habits between you two and do less takeout so that you can raise children to be as healthy as possible, not to mention that the money spent on takeout may not be as readily available with a larger family. Hopefully, you will get through. If not, you may have to just stand your ground and tell him that he can eat out on his spending money and not the family's or keep preparing meals (maybe ones to put in the freezer) and make sure that dinner is ready when he gets home, so he doesn't have an excuse to go out. It's tough, but hopefully, you can find a happy medium.

I hope to day goes well with your brother and that you can have a chance to relax.

 

[Lesli54]

Good morning, Pearlieq!

Having company and entertaining sure can through the food plans out the window. I think you are right though, try to keep things reasonable, but be aware that things won't be perfect with everyone around. At least it will only be a few days and you can get back on track.

I hope today is a good day for you!

 

[pearlieq]

8/22/06 - Happy Birthday Mom!

10:50am

--2 light hot dogs w/cheese
--few bites watermelon
--large handful grape tomatoes

I'm not too hungry today, thankfully!

I've got mom's cake done, so now I just have to wrap her present and learn how to make raspberry sauce.

The internet has been down all morning. You never realize how dependent you become on it until it's gone! I felt positively naked all morning!

4:30pm

--1 bowl raisin bran
--1 mini bag popcorn
--1 cup chocolate milk

6:30pm

--3 slices meatloaf
--1/2 cup mashed potatoes
--1 cup peas
--2 glasses orange juice
--2 med slices angel food cake w/whipped cream & raspberry sauce

Mom's birthday dinner. For some reason the bread in the meatloaf decided not to meld with the meat, so it became kind of a stained glass meatloaf. It still tasted good, though.

Mom's cake turned out and the party was nice. We have this fun family tradition that we always go out and get the birthday tablecloth, plates, napkins, etc. plus the requisite stupid cone hats and noisemakers. No matter how old you are, you get the full birthday experience. I find it endearing.

 

[toystoryduo]

Happy Birthday to your mom!

I completely understand about not wanting to eat, but eating anyhow. I have been doing that so much in the past week! It's hard to eat right while entertaining family and having a birthday to celebrate. I bet once your routine is back, things will even out for you foodwise.

Have a great Wednesday!

 

[Lesli54]

Good morning, Pearlieq!

Looks like yesterday was a really awesome day for you. Way to go.

You know, you can never be to old to celebrate your birthday with the add extra touches. After all, my DD19 was thrilled to have a themed cake at her age.

I hope today is off to a good start for you. Take care.

 

[pearlieq]

8/23/06

9:30am

--2 slices meatloaf
--3/4 cup peas
--1 cup orange juice

Yummy breakfast! Today is bro's last day in town. I don't know what we're going to do yet--maybe a movie marathon? We're supposed to have dinner with my mom again tonight, but I haven't found any inspiration yet. Maybe spaghetti & meatballs? I'm just not sure. Or maybe I'll just give up and we'll all go out.

I've got to go up to the local community college today. I've decided to get off my duff and finally register for that Spanish class I've been wanting to take. I need to do something with myself!

3:00pm

--Chinese buffet

Oh dear. Too much food!

I finally got myself to the community college to enroll in my Spanish class and a class in Personal Investing. The whole thing, including thing Spanish book was $400!!! The book itself was $140, which totally boggles my mind. It's not even returnable at the end of the semester. What a racket!

6:00pm

--1 Oreo shake
--1 cheeseburger
--1 piece watermelon
--4 gummi worms

More food. I just can't seem to get away from it. At least this is the last day! Ugh! I tried to stay reasonable here. My Oreo shake was a disappointment--I don't know why I bothered to finish it.

 

[Lesli54]

Good morning, Pearlieq!

Glad to hear that you are off doing your own thing and taking some classes. I think that is great. I would love to take some more classes in the next couple of years, but I think I need things to settle down a bit first.

As for the food, at least you can get back to normal today. You'll do it, I know you will. Having family around always makes the food situation tough.

Take care and have a great day!

 

[pearlieq]

8/24/06

11:00am

--3 slices meatloaf
--1/2 cup peas
--1 sm nsa ice cream bar

My bro took off this morning. It was really nice to see him, and I hope we'll be able to get together again over Christmas.

At least the food parade is finally over! I've got class tonight, but other than that a quiet day today.

1:45pm

--2 hot dogs on light bread w/cheese
--1 cup light yogurt

4:00pm

--1 mini bag popcorn
--1 cup apple juice

8:00pm

--1 bag peanut M&M's

I got hungry during class and this was the best option in the vending machine. The Spanish class was pretty good. I'd forgotten what it was like to be in school. Today was pretty slow since we just did the basics (Hola! Me llamo Pedro. Que tal?) which I pretty much already new, but hopefully it will pick up soon. The people in class were all pretty funny and friendly.

Those tiny seats are a joke! I fit in just barely, but there isn't even room on that silly little table for a notebook, let alone the text and the workbook. Who designs those things???

9:30pm

--1 nugget happy meal w/an orange soda
--2 cheeseburgers

I had a craving for McD's. I think next time I could get away with either the happy meal & 1 cheeseburger, or just the cheeseburgers. Still, I've done much worse at McD's, so I'm not getting too picky about it!

 

[Lesli54]

Good morning, Pearlieq!

Well on the plus side, it looks like your classes will keep you busy enough so you don't have to worry about staying away from the pantry as much. I think you did really awesome! Don't worry too much about the M&M's or the McD's. It is really hard to get used to a new change in schedules and still keep the food plans going well until you find a new routine.

Keep up that great work and I hope this weekend is a good one for you.

 

[pearlieq]

8/25/06

9:30am

--2 fortune cookies

I need to find a real breakfast here. I just wasn't quite motivated to get a real meal.

I have to bake for the pet shelter today, but other than that it should be quiet again. I haven't decided what to make yet. I might make the cinnamon raisin scones, and/or some pumpkin bread. Other than that, I don't know, so I might have to make a store run.

2:20pm

--1 LC peanut chicken
--1/2 cup peas
--1 cup yogurt
--1 nsa strawberry bar

I think I've settled on what I'm going to bake. I'm going to do a sour cream coffee cake, pumpkin chip muffins, rice krispie treats, lemon poppyseed bread and maybe some cinnamon raisin scones if I have the energy.

I've got to run out to the store and get some supplies, among other errands.

5:30pm

--1/2 cup raisins
--3 or 4 marshmallows

A bit of tasting while I was doing the baking.

6:30pm

--2 T chocolate chips

I must say, the pumpkin chip muffins are turning out quite nicely. I'm up to my ears in batter, though! The recipe said it made 24 muffins. I got 24 muffins, 24 mini muffins, and 4 mini loaves. Yikes!

7:15pm

--1 pumpkin chip muffin
--1 1/2 cups milk

8:00pm

--3 sm pieces focaccia
--1/2 entree of lasagna w/meat sauce

Very tasty dinner! I really liked my lasagna, and I also have some left over for lunch.

The baking is all done. Since the pumpkin chip batter went so far, I just did them, the lemon poppyseed bread, and rice krispie treats.

I'm meeting a friend for breakfast and shopping tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. We're going to give Dungeons & Dragons one more try tomorrow night as well. We really didn't get into it much, but we like the gang that plays, so maybe it will be worth the trade off.