Good Morning!

Another short entry, another funeral...

Worked stressed me out yesterday to the point that I wanted to quit, but instead I ate dark chocolate covered espresso beans. oh well....but we did ride another 11 miles last night.

Have a fun day!

Breakfast: hard boiled egg

lunch: ????  office meeting - don't know what will be ordered

dinner:  jambalaya and grilled zucchini again (that was really good!)

Good Morning!  Thanks for the condolensces for my friend's mom.  The funeral was OK because she lived a good full life and just passed away in her sleep.  What was sad was the funeral going on next to hers.  It was a 51 year old baseball coach that had a heart attack and died.  So many young children were there to tell "Coach" goodbye.  Life is so unpredictable - you need to enjoy everyday as if it is your last.  Be happy, thankful and grateful.  Try to make others happy, thankful and grateful.  That's my words of wisdom for the day!

We rode a short ride of 11 miles last night before dinner with my SIL.  They BBQed a flank steak, served a salad, grilled tomatoes and green beans with roasted almonds.  It was a pretty evening and we sat out on the swing in the yard enjoying the breeze.

Tonight will be a longer ride.  We are grilling brats and hubby made a potato salad with the left over crawfish boil potatoes.  I don't eat much potato because of the carbs, but the little red creamers are actually lower in carbs.  I will be grilling the zucchini that I posted yesterday.  Planning to make a crawfish cheesecake for this weekend.  It is a savory cheesecake and absolutely awesome.  

Hope y'all have wonderful day!

Breakfast: hard boiled egg and banana

Lunch: chopped salad 

Dinner:  bratwurst and potato salad

Good Morning!  Short entry because I have to leave work for a funeral.  Good friend's mom...And another funeral on Thursday - good frieind's mom too.

Knocked out a 15 mile bike ride last night and ended the evening by grilling multi grain ciabate with fresh garlic oil on the BBQ pit.  Topped it with thin spread of ricotta cheese and beautiful red sliced roma tomatoes drizzled with garlic oil and fresh basil.  My basil plant is so happy from all the rain and the more I pinch off, the fuller and prettier it gets!

We will ride a short ride tonight - about 11 miles and have dinner at my SILs house.  I am bringing a crawfish dip for appetizer with multi grain crackers.  If you get a chance to try the multigrain crackers from SAMs, they are awesome!!

HOpe everyone has a lovely day!

Breakfast:  banana

lunch: left over grilled ciabata with tomato and basil

dinner:  crawfish dip and ???????? 

Adding this for skinnygirl

Low carb!...YES!! talk about yummy!
SIMPLE EASY SIDE DISH...

Slice the zucchini in half. Slice off the bottom to keep in stable. Brush with olive oil and top with garlic or garlic powder. Top with sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Use mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese or mixed blend.. Bake 375 for 20 to 30   minutes until soft.

Good Morning!!

I don't know where the time is going, but my baby is home from her 3rd year of college and by this time next year my oldest will be married and I will be a MIL!!!

I had a pleasant Mother's Day.  We boiled 2 sacks of crawfish but it was too cool to swim.  My girls were there, along with my MIL and SILs and their families.  My parent's were not well, so I went to visit them last night after everyone else left.

I made an awesome dessert.  It was "Chocolate Fallen Cake" from bon appetit March magazine. It is a flourless cake and  I sustitued splenda for the suger and coconut oil for the veggie oil.  Didn't have a sliver left!!  

I have been riding 5 days a week and the weather is still comfortable.  I feel like I have lost my spare time because now my SIL and hubby ride with us 2 nights a week and my BFF rides 2 nights also.  My daughter comes with us most of the time.  I have been taping Hell's Kitchen, but I haven't seen anything since episode 2...

I did a great Mac & Cheese that has no pasta - it's steamed cauliflower, but it tastes just like Mac & Cheese.  It has bacon and green onions and pepper jack and cheddar cheese.  Lots of cheese, but no pasta.  

I have a lot to share with recipes that I have been playing with, but work is just kicking my butt.  I hope to be back regularly.  

Hope everyone is doing well!

Breakfast: crunchy nugget cereal with fresh blueberries

Lunch: rotisserie chicken breast, 1/2 sweet potato and Faux Mac & Cheese

Dinner: Tomato, Fresh Basil, Ricotta Grilled Flatbreads

Good Morning!   I'm back for a while from a hectic Spring.  I had my birthday on Good Friday, entertained at my house for Easter, left 4 days later for Oklahoma, left the following weekend for Pensacola and then this weekend for Natchez.  In the midst of my travels, my coworker went to Germany for 10 days and I covered both of our jobs.

Nothing else new,  nothing lost, nothing gained.  Riding 14 miles every night except during really bad rain.

I have been using Fitness Pal and really like it.  My calories are hitting right about 1800 and it gives me a buffer of 600 additional calories for the bike riding. My biking program says I burn almost 900 but I only enter the 600 from Fitness Pal.  For the last month it says I am on track to lose 15 pounds in 5 weeks, but that doesn't seem to be happening.  Not that I want to lose 15 pounds, but 1 or 2 would be nice!

I love Spring with all the fresh veggies and fruit for salads. I also love crawfish season!  We bought 10 pounds of boiled crawfish 2 weeks ago to make crawfish etouffee and I have to admit, it was one of the best recipe recreations I have ever done!!  It was so good that there was none left after feeding my mom and dad, hubby's mom, hubby, oldest daughter and myself so last weekend we bought 15 pounds and we peeled all of it and excavated the fat as we sat under the patio deck cover in Natchez.  We have an outdoor stove and we cooked the etouffee all afternoon with 60 degree breeze blowing under the pavillion.  We lit a fire and really enjoyed the day.  Those are the relaxing weekends I live for!

I am leaving this weekend for primative camping in Percy Quiin State Park in McComb Mississippi with my SIL and some high school friends.  It is expected to be another unseasonally cool weekend so we will take advantage of it!

I really need to stay home and clean my house, but I am really enjoying my weekends right now.  Pensacola was a rain out as far as the beach goes, but we still boiled 300 pounds of crawfish to cater a party.

I'll will try and read diaries later to catch up with everyone. . Hope y'all are doing well!

Breakfast:  steel cut oats and fresh blueberries

LUnch: mixed spring lettuces, 1/2 avocado. tomato, cucumber, asparagus and balsamic vinegar

Dinner:  at SIL   hamburger on a salad

Good evening! I'm in Shreveport after a crazy 1/2 day of work. I started using My Fitness Pal on my iPad and I really like it. I checked it yesterday at dinner and i had only used 1/2 the amount of sodium allowed so I lightly salted my broccoli. I also rode another 12 miles in a stiff wind. My thighs were quivering as I tried to keep last night so I know I got my muscles attention! The fitness pal comes pretty close to the calorie burn of my biking program and it seems that I burn between 600 and 1000 calories depending on the length of time. So I have figured that now that I am back to almost every day riding, I should see more results soon. It also indicated that I am low on carbs and high in fat so I will be a little more particular about my fat intake, even if it is healthy fats. I'm going to be conscious of good decisions on this trip, Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend in case I don't get free wifi again!

Good Morning!  It's wet and soggy here today but hopefully that will dampen the crazy world at work today!  We rode 13 miles last night.  I had a bad eating day yesterday and not that it was overeatting, but not properly eating.  I missed breakfast and snack and then had a good late lunch salad.  We went to SIL for dinner and I don't know why I assumed it would be healthy (she had a gastric bypass 4 years ago and a knee replacement 3 months ago) but it really wasn't.  The salad was good, but she made crawfish quesidillas , burritos , enchiladas,  Ok, she called them something different everytime.  It was a big flour tortilla filled with a mixture of crawfish, peppers, onions, and cream cheese.  Lots of cream cheese.  They were rolled in the tortilla and then smothered in Velveeta and rotel.  The portion was way too big for that much cheese and it was just too rich, but I was starving from the total imbalance of my day so I ate it all.  I still don't feel hungry this morning...

I am leaving Thursday at lunch for Oklahoma driving my parents and my daughter.  I am excited to see my neice's senior recital.  I am praying for pretty weather for the drive.  I have a lot to do at work to leave with a good conscience, but I am sure I can get it done.

Hope y'all have a great day!

Breakfast:  Crunchy nugget cereal wtih fresh strawberries

lunch: 2 slices oat bran bread wtih dark chicken and lettuce, tomato sandwich

dinner:  potato salad and whatever protein I pick up at the store on my way home

Good Morning!  Afternoon!  Work has been really rough this morning and I really don't have time to make this entry, but I promised myself that I would.  We rode 13 miles last night and I really enjoyed it.  AFter dinner, I did the youngest's taxes and now I just have to fill out her FAFSA.  This is the last year!  I can't believe the baby graduates college next year.   Invited to SIL for dinner.  Should be interesting!

Had my glass of wine and a piece of chocolate cake last night.  I enjoyed and savoured every bite!  That can't be a nightly ritual though...

Have a great day!!

Breakfast:   worked right through it since 6am

snack:  nope...

lunch:  mixed spring lettuces, rotiserre chicken, 1/2 avacado, strawberries, tomato and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar

dinner:  crawafish quesadillas and salad

Good Morning!  We had a glorious weekend starting Friday with a 22 mile bike ride in the most beautiful weather!  My youngest did crash, but she was a real trooper and continued the journey.  After walking 2 hours at the zoo and enjoying all the animals we headed back and stopped at a local bar for a beer and fried mushrooms.  I stuck with my water and lemon though.   Saturday was a fantastic ceremonial Mass where my future son-in-law entered the Church as a Catholic.  There was a full orchestra with trumpets, french horns and 10 bell ringers! It was the Easter Vigil Mass and just so uplifting!  We got home at 1:30am Easter morning.

I had both sides of the family for Easter dinner including my oldest's fiance and his parents.  It was fun and the food was great!  We ended with a 2 hour power outage but the quiet and ambiance from the candles and hurricane lamps was soothing.

Work is quiet yet busy since everyone is out but me.  Sometimes I like it like that.  I have decided to ignore the drama and not get sucked into it.  I have decided to rejoice in my glorious life and be thankful for what I have - my beautiful family and my health.  I need to take time to smell the roses of life and appreciate everything that surrounds me.  I am ready to cook with the abuncance of fresh summer veggies.  We planted eggplant in the back yard along with my sweet basil.  My yard is overflowing in mint.  For the first time in many years, I planted my front gardens.  While I was on break from DD, I turned all the beds, planted and mulched.  It really is a wonderful feeling to witness all of the beautiful flowers and colors of nature.

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend too!

Breakfast:  a crawfish biscuit

lunch:  spring mix lettuces with grilled chicken, avocado, tomato and balsamic vinegar

Dinner:  baked sweet potato, ham  and broccoli

snack:  GLASS OF RED WINE AND A SQUARE OF CHILI AND LIME CHOCOLATE!!!

Good Morning!  Sorry for the abscence but it was very needed...  

Update:  weight has not changed, not even an ounce.  I am still at 150.6.  I don't understand  the total lack of movement because I have been totally clean eating and even gave up chocolate and alcohol for Lent.  I have been on my bike 10 - 15 miles a day everyday.  It's been uncomfortably cold but I have bundled up and gone anyway.  One evening I rode at 7 MPH because of the the straightline winds and came back at 22 MPH!!  It was quite the workout!  My friend bought a bike and 3 times a week I ride with her but at a much slower pace and the other 4 days I push very hard.  Anyway, I feel good, I just thought I could lose a little more each month.  I haven't even reset my goal weight because I can't drop below the 150 which was my mini goal weight.

My Dad has had confilicting reports saying that his cancer was back and need more treatments.  Then another test showed cancer cells but less than the first test.  They wanted to cancel going to Oklahoma to see my neice's final senior recital, but after 2 weeks of my Mom crying I finally got her to ask the doctor if Dad's series of treatment could start when we return and he said yes.  So I am driving the old people to Oklahoma Thursday after Easter.  

Easter will be at my house with ham and  potato salad.  We boiled the potatoes in the crawfish boil Sunday so they will be nicely seasoned for the potato salad.  My brother is making Shrimp and Butternut soup.  It will be my side of the family and hubby's side too so we are expecting about 25 for lunch.  Oldest's fiance will become a Catholic Saturday night at Holy Satuday Easter VIgil. We are all very excited for him.

My birthday is tomorrow, but we will not celebrate then because it is Good Friday which is a solomn day for us.  So, Saturday I will probably have chocolate cake and wine for breakfast, but not too much because I have to drive to Baton Rouge for the Mass.

Drama at work continues and that has been a big part of my problem.  I have my work load plus everyone else caught up, but there are still some people not pulling their weight and making it really hard on the rest of us.  I am praying that this resolves over the long religious holiday and everyone comes back refreshed with a better outlook.

I missed y'all and all of the postings but I will try and read back in the diaries and get caught up!
 

Have a great day!!!

Breakfast: homemade multi grain raisin toast and fresh strawberries

LUnch:  Uncle taking me out for my BD - some sort of salad or wrap   work is grilling out this afternoon too   

Dinner:  burger on bed of lettuce with sauteed onions, mushrooms and blue cheese crumbles after our bike ride