Try, Try Again!

Even though I was able to "maintain" my weight over the holidays, I just haven't been able to LOSE weight in a few months.  Its quite frustrating to me and I decided I needed to examine why this was happening.   There has to be something I am not doing or have stopped doing.  One thing I stopped doing was tracking my food.  That always helped me so much.  I was able to see if I was eating too much or too little for the day.  So I have started tracking my food again using www.sparkpeople.com.  I joined that site a couple of years ago and was steadily losing weight when I used it.

When we are given tools like this to use, we need to utilize them or they go to waste and we get no where.  I am not going to think about the last 6 months, but starting over again.  When you start over, and over, and over, again, I do not see that as failure.  Failure would be giving up all together.  I see it as success in NEVER giving up.  Keep moving forward and try, try again.  There is a saying I like...."I got it on the first try", said no successful person EVER!  It takes multiples tries to succeed and I will eventually get there.

Slow Cooker Apple Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Oatmeal

This is a very simple recipe.  It took me about 5 minutes to put together.  It was so nice to wake up to the smells of apple, cinnamon, and brown sugar in the house, and great to warm the body on a cold winter day.  I found the recipe on sparkpeople.com.  Just click on that link and it will take you straight to the recipe.  I normally would post the whole recipe myself, but theres no need to with this one. 

*** Make sure you do NOT use quick oats with this recipe. If you do, you need to increase the water by a cup.

ENJOY!

Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Pork (or Chicken)

I found this recipe on www.kraftrecipes.com.  They have a lot of pretty simple recipes.  Most are quick as well.  The website has several features that include special dietary recipes, and will even make a grocery list for you.

I usually do not post a recipe until I have tried it, so this is a first for me.  I will be making it tomorrow night and will post on FB how it turned out.  IF, for some reason, it is a major flop I will post on my blog what went wrong and what to do instead, but I doubt that will happen.

This will be a great recipe for those chinese cravings.  I ALWAYS have chinese cravings, but most food from a chinese restraunt is so bad for you, even though it tastes oh soooo good! So try this on for size and see if it helps!

1-1/2  lb. boneless pork loin, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) chicken broth
3/4 cup KRAFT Original Barbecue Sauce
1 can (8 oz.) pineapple chunks in juice, drained
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cups instant white rice, uncooked

PLACE meat in slow cooker; top with onions.
ADD broth and barbecue sauce; cover with lid. Cook on LOW 6 to 7 hours (or on HIGH 4 hours).
STIR in remaining ingredients. Cook, covered, on LOW 30 min. or until rice is tender.

This recipe couldn't get any more simple. I cooked my own rice, used reduced sodium chicken broth, and used chicken instead of pork.

Weigh in After the Holidays

I had a doctors appointment yesterday and got weighed. I didn't lose anything, but I maintained my weight, which is ok with me.  It is EXTREMELY hard NOT to gain weight over the holidays. The average American gains 7-12 pounds during the holiday season.  I still ate the yummy foods, but I did it in moderation.  Very proud of myself!  I determined to move my weight loss ticker (in the left top corner of the blog).  It hasn't gone up, but it hasn't gone down in awhile either.
They also reduced my blood pressure medicine by 50%! This is the first medicine that they have ever reduced for me! It really makes me excited to see myself going in the right direction to get off of my meds and stuff.  I did not get measured yet this month and probably wont until February.

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff (NO MUSHROOMS!)

*I couldn't get a good picture of what I actually cooked so I pulled one from google images.

This is another great slow cooker recipe.  Its a 2 part recipe, but you can take 8 hours to do the first part if you need to, so its still a good one for doing while not home.  I had come to REALLY dislike beef stroganoff.  Anyone who was at the farm in Texas with me will know exactly why.  It was served to us a few times a week and was NOT very good.  Most like was the hamburger helper version....yuck!  I don't like mushrooms so I left those out, but it turns out nice and creamy!

2

lb.  beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes

10

oz.  fresh mushrooms, halved

1

 onion, chopped

1

clove  garlic, minced

1

cup  beef broth

2

tsp.  paprika

1

tsp.  salt

1

cup  sour cream

2

Tbsp.  flour

1

Tbsp.  dijon mustard

1

pkg.  (16 oz.) egg noodles, uncooked

2

Tbsp.  chopped fresh parsley

PLACE meat, mushrooms, onions and garlic in slow cooker. Add broth, paprika and salt. Cover with lid. Cook on LOW 7 to 8 hours (or on HIGH 4-5 hours).

MIX sour cream, flour and mustard. Stir into ingredients in slow cooker until well blended. Cook, covered, on LOW 15 min. Meanwhile, cook noodles as directed on package.

DRAIN noodles; place in large serving bowl. Add meat mixture; mix lightly. Sprinkle with parsley.

ENJOY!

Taco Ring (Pampered Chef Recipe)

This turned out so yummy! I was really worried that putting it together would be difficult, but the hardest part was filling it with the meat, and even that wasn't actually that hard.  This is perfect for parties and other functions.  You can prepare it, stick it in the fridge, and bake it once people start to arrive so its nice an hot once you start eating.  Only takes 20 minutes to bake! Here's a couple of step by step pictures as well to help you along. There is also a cheeseburger version that I will be trying soon.

Ingredients

1 lb. ground beef             1 pkg. taco seasoning                             1 cup shred. cheese

2 cans crescent rolls        2 Tbsp. water

Garnish:

green bell pepper             salsa                    lettuce                 tomato

chopped onion                olives                   sour cream

*I left out the olives and then forgot the tomatoes so you wont see those in the picture...lol

• Preheat oven to 375.  Brown ground beef and drain grease.  Stir in taco seasoning, water and cheese.
• Unroll crescent rolls and separate. Arrange triangles in a circle on a round baking pan (covered with parchment paper and sprayed with cooking spray) with wide ends overlapping in center and points toward the outside. There should be about a 5 inch diameter in the center.

• 
  
• Scoop meat mixture evenly onto widest ends of dough at center of ring. Bring points in and over and tuck underneath the wide end.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
• You can garnish with bell pepper, lettuce, salsa, tomatoes, onion, sour cream, olives, etc.

* Instead of using shredded cheese, I used sliced cheese.  I laid one layer of cheese down BEFORE the beef mixture, and then another one on on top of the mixture, then folded the dough over.

**The bell pepper salsa cup is very easy to make. Just cut off the top, the smallest amount you can.  Scoop out the middle.  Cut the sides into 1/2 in triangles to make the gagged pattern.  Fill with salsa, and put in the center.  Wait to put garnish and salsa cup in the middle until right before serving so it doesn't get warm.

What Are You Gonna Gain?

As I have said before, I do not like New Year's Resolutions.  People rarely actually keep resolutions, but I believe we should be making year round healthy goals and decisions for ourselves.  

Personally I have been struggling lately.  I am struggling with going to the gym, I think its been a week now.  I am constantly hungry right now, but spite that I did very well over the holidays!  I am also in the middle of making some new and healthy goals for myself.  When things don't seem to be going as they should, or working for you like they should, that's when its time to re-examine your goals.  See where the problem actually is, then tweak it! Its time for me to re-evaluate myself and my goals.

The number one resolution people make is to lose weight. It may be 10 pounds or it may be 100 pounds.  A lot of times we get so caught up on what we need to lose, that we don't look at what we will GAIN!  There is so much to gain from weight loss.  Better health of course, but you gain pride in yourself, self-worth, energy, optimism, self-confidence, and many more.  It will help us in every relationship, from our spouse to our co-workers.  There is also abilities we will gain.  Things we couldn't do before.  Jogging down the road, riding a horse, getting on that roller coaster, these are all personal abilities I want to gain.

If counting down the pounds and seeing how much you have to lose is not working for you, maybe you should try counting the things you want to gain and WILL gain!  Here's hoping there are wonderful things to come for us all in 2013! Happy New Year!