Day 5

Good Morning! It is Friday the 13th and I have always had good luck on those days. One year I got a call, after an interview for a job that I really wanted, to say that I got the job! There have been other good things that have happened to me, but I can't think of them right now. Let's just say that nothing *bad* has happened to me on those dates.

Well my good luck has continued this time too! The diet is going pretty well. I have found that small amounts of food are filling me up (that has never happened to me before) in fact that's why I'm fat. I do still have cravings for sweets and I'm sure I always will, but moderation is the key. I'm saving my sweets for thanksgiving! Bring on the pie baby!!

11/13/09 Day 5 (-9lbs)

Breakfast: Apple; 60 cals

Lunch: 2 eggs, pinch of cheese, 2 sausage patties; 300 cals

Dinner:

Yerba tea: 2 glasses

Exercise: none so far, I hope to walk the dogs by the end of the day.

Day 4

Ok, so today was hard. I was really craving all kinds of junk food. I just kept telling myself that I have had enough junk to last me a lifetime and Thanksgiving is just 2 weeks away. Oh yeah, I totally plan on cheating on that day. I don't care what you say...I'm gonna eat me some turkey, stuffing, mashed taters, pie, butternut squash, broccoli and onion casserole, butter, more pie and probably some ice cream.





11/12/09 Day 4 (-5lbs)



Breakfast: Apple, 55 cals



Lunch: Gyro meat, salad, 2 french fries (alright alright quit pressuring me....it was 5 fries)



Dinner: Hamburger patty, onions, asparagus



Yerba tea: 3 glasses



Exercise: none

Total calories for the day: unsure

HCG Diet

Alright, well after seeing so many women at the clinic lose weight with this diet I decided to try it out. I am not usually a fan of crash or fad diets, but I have gained so much weight that I need to do something. I'm hoping that this diet will jump start my weight loss and then it will give me motivation to stick to a healthier lifestyle.

So part of it is to record everything that you eat and count your calories. I decided what better place to do that than right here with all of you!

For the first two days you eat whatever you want and lots of it. I'm not going to record those days. I am starting with day three, which esentially is the first day of the "diet" portion of this program. And here we go...

11/12/09- Day Three (-3 lbs)

Breakfast: Apple

Lunch: 3 oz chicken breast, 2 cups of spinach, half of one tomato, one celery stalk, half of a cucumber

Dinner: 5 oz chicken breast, large handful of asparagus, tried to do cooked spinach but it was yucky

Yerba Mate Tea Count: 1- 8oz glass

ok, well I survived the first day ...stay tuned for more.

Hello fellow eaters!

This was a night i like to call "whatever's in the fridge is what we will eat." There was no planning involved here it was nothing more than shear genius. So since eggplant doesn't have a lot of flavor by itself I decided to bread it and deep-fry it. I mean, come on, you can't go wrong with fried anything.

I used to be afraid of the eggplant, it was all big and purply and funny shaped. (That's what she said! sorry, I had to do it) However I have learned to get over my fear of veggies and if need be...say it with me now......"bread it and fry it!" Awww, good you are learning.

Rice. It is such a good thing to keep on hand. It cooks up easily and you don't need much else other than water to make it. Even us po' folks can afford that. I try to keep a few boxes of flavored rice on hand for the nights where I'm feeling "meh" about cooking.

"Rice a roni, the San Francisco treat." Well guess what...we like it in OK too. Oh and Zatarain's from New Orleans...hmmm, why are rice people so territorial? Don't people of all over like them some rice??

Another staple in my kitchen is frozen veggies. They are cheap and easy to heat up. Most of them nowadays do a steaming thing in the micro, easy squeezy. Of course we know that fresh is best but that doesn't always happen. Also haven't you noticed how fast the fresh stuff goes bad these days? It seems like I don't have enough time to eat it up.

So I used the left over chicken from last night's dinner (see the last post, duh!) and added some new sides to it.

Captain's Log- September 6th, 2009

Shake and Bake Chicken Tenderloins with Fried Eggplant and Rice

~ ok, look in the fridge and find whatever meat is left over and looks like it will rot if you don't eat it today! Grab that and inspect for mold spores, bad smell, funny colors and suspicious juices. If you don't see any then you are good to go!

~ for the fried eggplant I have pics for you. does that make you happy?

ummm, get an eggplant and cut it just like this or you will regret it.

~ then you need flour. I know this is confusing so I'll add a pic.

~ if you guessed that eggs were going to come next you are really good! in fact, you don't even need me.

~ also add bread crumbs to make it fun. ok, I hate when people say stuff like that, as if it wouldn't be "fun" if you didn't use bread crumbs.

~ then you HAVE to do it this way. no other way will work! LOL

take the eggplant and then dip it in the flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Did you catch that? Flour, eggs, bread crumbs. I will be quizzing you at the end to see if you got the correct order down.

~ and for the rice....tonite the special is pilaf!

~ next you should grab the worst kind of oil that you can. make sure it has a lot of trans fatty acids, I find those taste the best, and pour a bunch in a big frying pan. Just in case of confusion

~ my hubs wanted his sides with the left over shake and bake chicken so this was his end result



~ I wanted to eat up the left over lasagne from our family party, so this is what I ended up with.

Don't you just love the artery clogging, fried veggies, all yellowish-brownish food that we eat! It might not be healthy, but it sure does taste good.

"It's Shake and Bake and I heeeeelped."

Please tell me I'm not the only one who remembers this commercial...please? So I am fully convinced that it was a woman who created this box full of yummy. I don't remember how it was packaged years ago, but when I used it there was a plastic bag and another bag of seasonings.

It would appear that as long as the meat that you are cooking will fit in the bag you can shake it and then bake it. I suppose that if it doesn't fit you can just use a larger bag, but then you probably wouldn't have enough seasonings. Wow, cooking is difficult! There are so many things to think about and consider.

Since we were eating high off the hog for the past two nights I decided to switch to another white meat and we went with chicken. BAGOK! Cluck, Cluck! I don't know why I just did that, but it was what came out of my mouth as I was typing so I put it in. I have vowed to keep it real with ya'll, cuz that's how I roll.

Alllllllllllllrighty then (15 points if you know where I got that from) so since we decided to go with chicken I thought it best to pair it with some noodles and broccoli. We do like broccoli here and we don't hide it. It's so easy to make and good for you and also very alkaline (see Gram, I do listen). Oh and did I mention how cheap it is?

Ok, enough fooling around, let me cut to the chase and get to the part that you have been eagerly anticipating. The recipe:


Captain's Log- September 4, 2009, Friday

~ for this particular recipe I used chicken breast cutlets. Honestly, that's not the cut I intended on buying but it's what jumped in the cart.

~ Robert insists that I wash all of the meat off before cooking, so do that or else he will get upset. Have ya'll ever heard of doing that before? It was new to me, but then again everything about cooking is new to me.

~ get out your box of Shake and Bake and drop the chicken into the bag, add the seasoning and shake it, shake it, shake it! "Shake it...don't break it...it took your momma nine months to make it!" It is required to sing this part of the song while you are shaking the chicken, if you don't it won't come out right.

~ do the standard: line a baking dish with aluminum foil and cook the chicken until it's done.

~ get you a package of Lipton noodles, we went with the buttery flavor. I figured that you can't go wrong with anything that says "buttery" on the label.

~ make the noodles according to the instructions on the package. For the broccoli add it to boiling water and cook for a few mins...not too long or it will be mushy. Robert does not like mushy broccoli.


~ when it is all done put it on the plate and eat!

What did you say?
Yes, it does smell good in here.
Why thank you, I worked very hard on it.

If there is one thing you should know about the Johnson's is that we love us some pig meat. It's cheap, not red meat and yummy! What else do you need in a meal? Pork really is the all around win-win situation.

So I know we just had pork tenderloin last night, but we are having.........wait for it.........Baby Back Ribs!
"I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back ribs" and what mama wants, mama gets. You are going to be so jealous when you see the finished product.

I went online to find a delicious recipe for ribs baked in the oven and I can across this website. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/index.html Ummm, if you need ANY recipe at all, please go to this website first and then and only then if you can't find what you are looking for then go elsewhere. It's done by the food network people...need I say more?

Anywhoozles, so I went to said website and got a wonderful oven BBQ rib recipe from the God of food himself, Emeril. (Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah) This was so easy to do and it tastes like you have been cooking it all day. Oh and if Robert ever asks that is what you will tell him.

Captains Log- September 3, 2009, Thursday

Pork Baby Back Ribs, Baked Potato and Boiled Okra
(pretty good choice of sides, huh? I know)

~ ok, get you some ribs and put them in a foil-lined 13x9 baking dish.

~ I cut the ribs in half to make it easier to manage and they fit in the dish better.

~ use whatever spices that you like. I really like the flavor of these new Grillin Rubs. so that's what I used.

~ smack it up, flip it, rub it down.....oh no! (gotta love the BBD reference)

~place in the oven at 325 until they are done. yes, you will be able to see when they are done.

~ about 10-15 mins before they are finished, this is the trick to cooking, start the side items.

~ the potatoes went in the micro-I'm too lazy to bake them-oven and the okra was frozen and was as easy as this: put okra in pan, boil, drain, season, eat.

~ the most wonderful ribs in the world were done in about an hour to an hour and a half.

~ pull out of oven, I find using pot holders are helpful here, cut up and plate it.

~ the potatoes may only be served with all of the fixins...Bacos, chives, lots of butter and sour cream.

~ the okra will be slimey no matter what you do to it. I mixed it with hot sauce, salt and pepper.

~ once you put it all together for a nice display this is what it better look like.

Hello people in the computer screen that I can't see or hear but I know are there. Today was culinarily speaking a success. I had a craving for the other white meat so tonight's dinner was pork tenderloin, cheesy rice and steamed garlic butter broccoli. Yummy! I'm so full right now as I type this that it almost hurts.

The tenderloin is a nice cut of meat because it is so tender and it holds in most of it's juices. The one thing I hate about meat is that it gets dry; this is why I tend to order my steaks medium rare. I found a teriyaki flavored tenderloin at the commissary that asked me if it could come home with me and get in my oven. What was I supposed to say? A good southern woman never says no to such a polite dinner request. My hands were tied...really.

Another nice thing is how easy it is to cook. Here is the ghetto version of the receipe.

Captain's Log: Sept.2, 2009- Wednesday

~ get you a pork tenderloin. they look like this:

~ put it in a foil lined pan

~ turn the oven on to 375 or whatever your favorite number is on the dial. Some times I just give it a spin and it lands on what it lands on.

~ then get your side items...we did cheesy rice and steamed broccoli

~cook the sides according to the directions on the packages.

~ check the pork, it should cook 20 mins per pound.

~ when it is done throw it on a plate and if you listened and followed directions carefully it should look like this:

ENJOY!