A recipe for a quick and light mac & cheese to the rescue!

I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Weeknight light mac & cheese

Largely based on Cook’s Illustratt ed The Best Light Recipe

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 8 oz dry macaroni
• 12 oz can of reduced fat evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup 2% milk
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
• 8 oz 50% light cheddar cheese, such as Cabot – shredded
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 4 slices bacon (I used fresh bacon from Stillman’s which tasted more like pork tenderloin than smoky bacon… I think real cured bacon would be really nice here)

Instructions:

• Cook macaroni according to package instructions.
• Fry bacon, then pat dry between paper towels and dice. Discard bacon fat.
• Bring a mixture of evaporated milk, 1/2 cup milk, dry mustard, garlic powder and cayenne to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
• Add in frozen peas.
• Whisk cornstarch with the remainder of milk. Add to the evaporated milk + peas mixture.
• Continue whisking until the sauce is thickened. Take off heat.
• Whisk in shredded cheddar cheese, then macaroni.
• Let the mac & cheese rest for about 5 minutes so the sauce is absorbed into the macaroni.
• Stir in bacon. Adjust for seasoning, if needed.
• Enjoy!

I was impatient so my first serving was a bit runny but still creamy and definitely plenty cheesy. The sauce really thickened up overnight so the leftovers were spot on.

What are you latest favorite recipes for busy nights?

The very first night we watched Eat, Pray, Love on demand (which btw, I was not a fan of… probably because I read the book and movies never live up to books) and the Italian bel far niente (aka “the beauty of doing nothing”) really stuck with me. Why should I feel guilty for taking days off to accomplish a whole lot of nothing and just relax? We all need to recharge our batteries. The rest of the weekend was definitely dedicated to bel far niente. You better believe that cooking and eating was no trouble at all! [My mother in law, Jane, and I shared the responsibility.]

There was seafood…

Shrimp with penne in a creamy herb sauce (+ garlic bread)

I made lobster mac & cheese

[The men cooked and shelled the lobster, I did the rest. It was cheesy and creamy – the perfect Maine treat!]

And couldn’t pass up the seafood lover’s omelet (crab + lobster) at the Boathouse in Rockland.

SO good!

I <3 lobster!

And then there were blueberries… we dug deep into Jane’s recipe archives and found some gems from 1994!!! I was 12 at the time. Good thing I’m older because I could make these babies. Oh my! <—that’s me blushing, yes that good!

Lemon blueberry muffins. Heaven!

The very last morning, Jane treated us all to freshly made yogurt blueberry pancakes. They were moist and full of giant blueberries bursting with flavor.

[Email me if you want the recipes for either of these, I took pictures of the printouts!]

These were my favorite food things but the best part was definitely doing only things I felt like doing. I spent some “quality” time with magazines (scissors in hand – what can I say, I found it relaxing!) and watched more House Hunters than I’d care to admit… but that ended up being for the greater good too! The second we got home to Boston, I hooked up my laptop to the internet (together at last! ) and started researching bathroom vanities, tiles, window curtains, table runners, area rugs and more. Apparently the beauty of doing nothing has its advantages. My creative juices were flowing and I was dying to put them to use. Better yet? I was happy to come back to work today. They were happy to have me back too!

Are you able to take time off and just enjoy it or do you need to be forced into relaxation (like being “locked” in a cabin with no internet access and cell reception)? I think the Italians got this right. I’m going to try to bring some of that bel far niente spirit more into my life. It really is fun!

Last chance to enter the UNO’s giveaway!

These recipes were all made from pantry items and meat/bread from the freezer and they all tasted like cheat meals. My taste buds had no idea this was diet friendly food. Just the way I like it! : )

Chicken parm meatball “subs”

Almost every single savory recipe on Healthy Food for Living looks like something that Adam (and I) would love. They’re comforting; they’re “man meals” which makes for one happy husband (and hey, I like me some man-food too. What’s not to love?). These chicken meatballs were full of Italian herbs and parmesan cheese – a little sauce and cheese put them over the top.

[1 Point Plus per meatball. This dinner was 10 points. The bun is a large hot dog bun.]

Jumbo bran muffins

On Saturday morning I woke up craving a big healthy muffin. When Adam asked where I wanted it to be from, I said “from my kitchen.” So I got to work…

While making coffee, the Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook jumped out at me. I love that the Points Plus values are right there and I don’t have to take that extra step of calculating nutritional info (btw, I linked to the book through Amazon… if you buy it or anything else on Amazon, I’d really appreciate if you would start your shopping from Healthy and Sane (link on the right column)… I get a few percent commission from your purchase but it doesn’t cost you any extra. This money would be reinvested back into the blog. Thanks in advance!!). Anyways, sorry for the detour… back to the muffins…

The word “jumbo” was the draw here… who doesn’t want a JUMBO muffin for just 5 Points Plus. Sign me up!

The perfect way to start a morning. The strudel topping was unbelievable and I loved the sweetness of the raisins. Yum!

Chocolate gooey butter cookies

Paula Deen is who you think of when you think of healthy food, right? A few years back I had the Food Network on and she was making these cookies. They looked so incredible that even though I normally can’t stand Paula, I went straight online and printed out the recipe.

Finally this weekend I decided to make them. I stumbled upon the old recipe printout and figured it was now or never (I plan on cleaning out my recipe binder in a few weeks and plan on only keeping things I’ve made and loved. Everything else will go. It’s time for a clean beginning!)

These were incredibly easy to make and came out pretty well. The recipe made 36 cookies, only 3 Points Plus each! [I used reduced fat cream cheese… couldn’t help myself.]

I brought them to the Superbowl party and people seemed to enjoy them. I thought they weren’t chocolaty enough but maybe it was just the cake mix I used.

The slightly cakey texture (not muffin-like!) was pretty awesome.

Yes, I ate as many cookies as the amount of pictures I took. That’s what happens when you park yourself right next to the party food table. Oh well. The rest of my week has been going really well (diet wise). More on that in the next post!

What have you been cooking lately? I’ve definitely been a bit of a slacker lately so I was really happy to finally spend some quality time in the kitchen this weekend!

cookbook

I love the concept of this book but was still skeptical about Rocco’s ability to truly recreate such classic dishes. Can a chef really cook something delicious without oodles of butter/oil? But I carried on…

Pros:

• Nice quality paperback
• Lots of pictures
• Good variety of recipes – all of my favorite comfort foods were included!
• Everything I made from the book was delicious

Cons:

• Pictures used were often stock photos (there is NO WAY in hell the picture of brownies on p.234 was of the brownies from this book. I will bet a lot of money on that!!)
• Some recipes needed slight modifications (did they really try all of them or just conceptualize them on paper?)
• Use of artificial sweeteners. I really doubt that Rocco actually consumes splenda. I understand it keeps the calories down but I think this book would be stronger if it recreated favorite comfort foods in a natural way. I subbed artificial sweeteners with sugar (1:1) in every recipe I tried. It’s worth the extra calories to me (but that’s a personal choice, of course)!

There you have it. Taste wins at the end and like I said above, with a few small modifications, I was happy with every recipe. Wanna see what I made?

Crispy mozarella sticks

I had a bit of trouble with the panko crumbs actually sticking to the string cheese so I subbed a real egg for egg whites (called for in the book), dipped the sticks in egg first, then flour, then egg again… and then panko crumbs. I also refreshed the panko bowl often (once they got wet, they just clumped up and wouldn’t stick to the cheese sticks). At the end, I was happy with how they were covered.

10 minutes in… look what I saw in my toaster oven!

The cheese broke through the crust and started oozing out through the wire rack (the idea for using a wire rack is so that heat can evenly access the food instead of the bottom sogging, but clearly this doesn’t work with cheese!).

I took them out, placed them directly on the pan and continued baking.

They looked like little monsters at the end but still delicious. I mean, we’re talking about battered warm cheese here!!

These were a hit at the party I brought them to. I will definitely be baking mozzarella sticks in the future, but I will place them directly on the pan and turn them occasionally.

Next up… dessert!

Chocolate frozen yogurt

This was a really easy recipe! While I hesitated for a minute when the directions said to pour the mixture straight from the (warm) pot into the ice cream machine, I went ahead and did it anyway. I was expecting this to fail but nope, 25 minutes later I had a gorgeous, rich, chocolaty treat. Adam and I both LOVED this!

The next day the froyo hardened into a rock but 20 seconds in the microwave remedied that. There were no icy crystals, just pure creamy goodness. I will definitely be making this again!!

Brownies

These brownies look nothing like the ones in the picture in the book but I still enjoyed them. I loved that everything was combined (within seconds!) in a blender and then was ready for baking. Can you see how fudgy these are?

I used real sugar in these with a 1:1 ratio. Since artificial sweeteners typically are twice as sweet as regular sugar, these brownies were not too sweet… but I liked them that way! I also added some raw cacao nibs to amp up the chocolate flavor.

[3 Points Plus per brownie]

I did not bring these brownies to the football party we attended. They are definitely an acquired taste, but I truly looked forward to them as my after-dinner treat every night. If you like fudgy, sweet brownies, just double the amount of sugar and I think you’ll love them. They are even better the next day!

(Almost) general tso’s chicken

I thought this recipe was a true test. Adam LOVES Chinese food (I think these caps don’t even do it justice) and I actually hesitated to tell him what I was making. I mean, can you really make a healthier version of this fried sticky saucy dish?

The answer it turns out is YES.

I really was shocked how spot on the flavors were. This tasted sinful but it wasn’t. Adam said this dish would really satisfy his future cravings for Chinese food (we’re both trying to lose weight so it’s a rare indulgence) and that I should put it on my go-to recipes list!

This was the last recipe I tested and I am really looking forward to trying many others. Would you like to win your own copy of Now Eat This! cookbook?

Here are the rules: there are 7 ways to enter.

1) Leave a comment on this post – Tell me whatever you want, like what your favorite “American classic” food is.

2+3) Follow me on Twitter (please tell me in the comments what your twitter name is so I can confirm). For an additional entry, you can also tweet about this giveaway (my twitter name @elinacooks must be included to qualify)

4) Subscribe to Healthy and Sane by email

5) Like Healthy and Sane on Facebook.

6) Add Healthy and Sane to your blogroll.

7) Link to this post on your blog, if you have one. If you don’t, let someone else know about this giveaway and tell me so in the comments section after they’ve entered the giveaway.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry. The giveaway will end on January 29. I will randomly choose 2 winners (U.S. Residents only, sorry) using random.org and announce them on the following Monday. Good luck!

PS – Rocco also shares healthy tips and recipes from both his Twitter account (@RoccoDiSpirito) and his Facebook page

So I forgot to take my camera and iphone today when I went to work. I guess I’m still in vacation mode. Doh I know – a big blogger no-no. Have you ever done that? I felt so naked all day. Not only did I not have my camera and was unable to take my food pictures, I can’t check my personal email from work so I felt disconnected from the world (I had over 50 new emails when i finally picked up my phone!!). As far as food pics – luckily I took a picture of dinner last night (and ate the leftovers for lunch). I’ll have to describe my snacks to you, okay? Let’s start with dinner since today is CEiMB Thursday.

This week’s recipe for grilled zucchini roll-ups with herbs and cheese (recipe here) was hosted by My Table, Their Table. Some CEiMB members make their weekly recipe on the weekend and just post them on Thursdays but since my blog is journal-like, I typically am “forced” to make the chosen recipe actually on Thursday. The grilled zucchini roll-ups sounded great but I knew I needed to make something else for dinner to bulk them up. Enter – big salads!

I’m not going to lie – these babies were even smaller than I anticipated and were kind of a pain in the ass to make. I think it I had all day to make them and was lucky enough to use a real grill instead of a tiny grill pan (thus necessitating 4 batches, with a “break” to stop the fire alarm from beeping) and then leisurely rolling them, it could be fairly easy. I mean all you have to do is slice the zucchini (I used a mandoline), grill them, then stuff them, right? Time was not my friend today, so I kind of got flustered and gave up on the mid-way. We didn’t need that many for dinner anyway and the rest of the zucchini ribbons could just be used in a de-constructed salad.

I used fresh thyme instead of parsley, and cut the fresh basil into ribbons. I also apparently used more filling than 1/2teaspoon/roll since I ran out of the goat cheese after making only 9 rolls (see above). The biggest test is of course the taste test. What did we think? I LOVED them! Well I love all the ingredients individually so it was a no-brainer, really. Adam liked them too but thought they had too much cheese (I guess Ellie’s proportions would have been right up his alley since he basically scraped a bunch of the goat cheese out. The horror. ). Overall I’d recommend this recipe if you are able to take your time.

With the roll-ups I served us some fun salads – arugula, cherry tomatoes, ham, grilled zucchini, cannellini beans, pine nuts and goat cheese. Drizzled with some lemon juice and a teaspoon of EVOO.

I liked this dinner but I’ll admit it was more “me” than “Adam.” I think the chef gets to be selfish once in a while, no?

Rewind to…

BREAKFAST

Ww toast with nutella + coffee

Yes, I’m on a nutella kick now after vacation.

+ a green monster – skim milk, frozen spinach, frozen banana, frozen strawberries, almond butter, ice, xantham and guar gums. Yum!

LUNCH

Leftover cuban inspired mac & cheese (recipe based on the Pink Apron original). I had to healthify it, though, so for 4 servings I used 8oz pasta, 4 oz lite mexican blend cheese, 1T butter and 2/3 of the rest of the ingredients. Oh and I didn’t realize that we ran out of eggs so I omitted them and I used skim evaporated milk instead of whole. It turned out pretty yummy (leftovers were actually better than fresh). The pickles were awesome in this version of mac&cheese. Trust me!

WORKOUT

I worked out for the first time in 6 days today! The last time was my favorite yoga class last Thursday and I went back to it today. I brought all of my workout gear to Aruba but it just didn’t happen. I felt surprisingly tight at first (like I’m sore from working out too much, haha maybe lifting those drinks was a workout after all) but eventually relaxed and got into it. I hope to get a real sweaty workout tomorrow. I am way overdue!!

SNACKS

1 orange, 1 small packet of sommersaults, 1 nut box from Tatte (it’s my treat every few months – today was the day) and lastly another ww toast with nutella. I kind of felt guilty for overdoing it in the sweets dept today but they all did taste amazing so I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll just naturally crave cleaner eats. Let’s cross our fingers for that.

All right, sorry for the lack-luster post. I have lots of topics I’d like to post about but it’s not in the cards today. You’ll just have to check back here soon. My bed is calling my name. Gnight!

BREAKFAST

Power bran muffin with a sliced persimmon and nonfat yogurt

Lots of textures and tastes!

LUNCH

Thai food leftovers. The papaya salad was still crazy spicy but so yummy

SNACKS

3 things I’m obsessed with – TJ’s ww Tuscan bread, avocado + baba ganoush

I actually had some more bread with baba ganoush after dinner as a snack. The stuff is my new crack – my Barney Butter de jour if you will.

A little piece of fudge with walnuts at the office…

DINNER

Dinner was one creamy concoction – risotto with cauliflower and walnuts (based on this recipe, which I found through Tri to Cook). I used only 1 cup of dry arborio rice but added some cooked wheat berries, inspired by this recipe. I also only used 1t of EVOO (for toasting the rice), 3 oz of brie and walnuts instead of almonds (we ran out of sliced almonds). This was SO indulgent tasting!

It was actually overwhelmingly creamy (Adam thinks that’s crazy talk ), so mid-eating I decided to add some fresh cherry tomatoes to the bowl. What a great addition! The tomatoes added such freshness to the dish. I still managed to eat only 1/2 of this bowl.

Soon after dinner, I found room for dessert!

I ate 3 out of the 4 cookies in the package. These guys are so much yummier (and junk ingredient free!) than oreos. The cookie is actually chocolaty.

After the kitchen designer left, Adam and I watched 5 episodes of season 3 of Entourage. We just couldn’t stop. Have you seen the show? We’re addicts here!

All right kids, I’m off to work! Happy Tuesday

I haven’t gotten to making any muffins or stews yet, but last night the mac and cheese daydream was made a reality. I based it on Alton Brown’s baked macaroni and cheese recipe (found here) but of course lightened it up a bit. Here is my version:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni (I used Barilla brand)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon powdered mustard
• 1.5 cups of skim milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 large egg
• 3 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
• 2 ounces gruere, shredded
• 1 ounce grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Black pepper to taste
• 15 butter-style round crackers (I used these from Wild Harvest Organic brand)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, whisk in the flour, mustard, stir in the milk, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish (a heart shaped one is optional ). Top with remaining cheese.

Put the crackers in a ziplock baggie and crush them with your fist (like me, possibly a little ghetto) or a rolling pin (classier). Top the macaroni with the cracker crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

[Makes 4-6 portions]

This was cheesy and indulgent tasting, even without the butter, cream or insane amounts of cheese. The leftovers harden in the fridge, and you can enjoy a mac and cheese pie the next day. Mmm…

In related news (not mac and cheese-related, but cold weather/snow-related ) I’ve learned something new about my husband today. Apparently on a cold weekend day he cannot sit at home, sip hot chocolate and watch the snow fall while I bake cookies. He insisted that we go outside and take some pictures. So here are some pics… we didn’t make it too far. It was windy!!

Notice how we are the only ones on the street (except for the snow plow guy – he clearly was not out by choice). Yeah, we’re crazy.

My parents in law are driving down to see us today, so we’ll be taking them out for dinner. I think more comfort foods will be enjoyed! What’s your favorite comfort food?

P.S. – Only a few days left to enter the somersaults giveaway (enter here).

It looked ugly, but man was it good. Warm apple crisp over cool nonfat yogurt, fresh apple slices and pecans. Definitely comfort food at its best! This breakfast kept me full for over 4 hours. In fact when lunch time came, I didn’t even want a full blown lunch so I had a snack – TJ’s organic double fiber blueberry muffin. So hearty and delicious. Love these!

So far, so good. Not sure if it was the anxiety at work that kept my mind wondering, or the fact that my co-worker stopped by to see how my race went (she ran it too!) and my dad called to tell me it’s ok (he read my blog post – I kind of avoided most phone calls this weekend). Oh yeah, I also had a recovery clinical massage for my sore legs and had to tell the girl about how the race ended.  Somehow I couldn’t get the race off my mind and I just wanted to have that moment back so I could do things differently this time. I don’t remember exactly what happened. I’m still in awe that I walked off the course and just quit. It doesn’t make sense to me. I know my body needed the rest, but couldn’t I have walked for 0.6 miles?! I wanted the satisfaction of crossing that finish line SO BAD and now my first half marathon will forever be my worst nightmare. I can never have another first half marathon. I know this is irrational. My husband keeps reminding me that I blacked out (!!!!) and that I can’t keep blaming myself. I know I pushed too hard and that’s another reason I keep wanting to relive that moment – so I can pull back and finish. My sister and I emailed back and forth a bit and she tried to screw my head on straight about this whole thing. I know everyone else is right. It just really was traumatizing and I think the only way to change it IS to run another half, but race season is basically over (and it’s freaking cold outside!!!) so I’ll have to wait a whole year to do it again. Can I do it next weekend, lol? I’m all about instant gratification (you know, instant as in 2+ hours of constantly challenging my body beyond its limits)

Back to food – the next self-pep talk involved snacking. This gorgeous German chocolate cupcake won this time

Wowza. Amazing rich dark chocolate, pecans + coconut. I was in heaven! The problem with delicious treats like that is that I want more right after. Instead I decided to wait a little, and about an hour later enjoyed a healthier sweet treat: 1/2 FFL english muffin, Barney Butter + 1/2 banana – my favorite go-to dessert “alternative.”

Wait, did I forget to tell you all about lunch? Mixed greens, green and yellow beans, borlotti beans, hard-boiled egg and a scallop from last night’s dinner.

Dinner was also delicious and nutritious (hehe, this sounds like it should be in some kind of infomercial ). I had some nappa cabbage left from chop suey last week, so I searched around for another good recipe to put the rest to use. This recipe from Cooking Light for tangy stir-fried vegetables caught my eye, and I was even able to buy all veggies at the local farmers market. Sweet

You know the drill – I omitted the onions and otherwise followed the recipe (except that I used over 3 times the tofu, doubled the sauce and added a whole bunch of veggies without really measuring). The marinaded tofu was out of this world flavorful! Great spicy kick too! Adam and I were eating the tofu raw while the veggies were cooking. So delicious – the vegetables were so fresh and the recipe made them shine. My husband was excited about tofu. What have I done to him?!

And I wish this was it. I was full and satisfied. Did I stop eating? Nope. Somehow the chocolate covered almonds and roasted salted pistachios were consumed – in large quantities, while watching the Biggest Loser. I tried to talk myself out of the madness but gave in. Seriously, what happened? Literally a month ago I was on top of the world, eating intuitively, losing weight and feeling spectacular, and now I’m back to old stupid habits that I can’t seem to reverse. This needs to end asap, so I can once again be healthy and sane!

All right, this post became whinier than I planned on it. My apologies. Let’s see if I snap out of it soon and become the inspiration that many of you tell me I am. <3

Just for kicks, here is a link to my very first post. Wow, I was in denial about summer being over then too. I guess I haven’t changed that much.

DINNER

I’m starting with dinner today because it was so fabulous. We had friends over, our first mini dinner party at our new condo. I was nervous! Our new oven sucks (it takes nearly double the time to cook most things) and I was so afraid the food would not come out right. To minimize the damage, I went with old favorites:

• Goat cheese/date/pecan stuffed pork tenderloin
• Cider-glazed roots with cinnamon walnuts
• Apple crisp (actually this was the first time I tried it, but with Tina’s review I knew it would be a winner)

I asked our guest Katie to bring a salad, and she brought an incredible fall themed one: mixed greens, roasted butternut squash, grilled pears, raisins and gorgonzola, dressed in Newman’s Own light cranberry walnut dressing.

Doesn’t it look like it was served in a fancy restaurant? Gorgeous!!

The veggies for the main course took the longest to make. I peeped and chopped the beauties the night before. It’s very important to prep ahead time intensive dishes! Before (I still can’t believe colors like this naturally exist in nature!)…

After nearly 2 hours of baking…

+ pork

All together:

My plate (I had another slice of the pork… it came out incredible!)

Dessert – before:

After – with Sweet Scoops vanilla frozen yogurt

Mmm, warm apple crisp with creamy frozen yogurt = perfect ending to a fall meal (I had a tiny bit of seconds )

We had such a great time with Mike and Katie – I want to start entertaining more at our place! The conversation was flowing, and so was the wine. Oh did I mention we drank 3 bottles of wine between the 4 of us? No? Well we did. I told you we had a great time

OTHER EATS

Do you like entertaining? Any tips or go-to recipes for all of us newbies?

What I found interesting is that despite feeling uncomfortable in my big pants, I am hesitant to put them in the donation bin. They are only 1 size larger than I am today! What if I gain a few pounds? If you’ve lost weight before, did you hold on to your old clothes or got rid of them as soon as they got too big? I got rid of pants that were several sizes too big, but these ones I’m struggling with… even though I feel like I’ve reached my comfortable weight (i.e. I stopped dieting and am maintaining this weight with little effort)!

BREAKFAST

Banana oats with white chocolate chips, almonds, pecans, raisins and cranberries + coffee

Warm and creamy. I gave a taste to Adam because this bowl was just extra good and he said he wanted me to make oats for him next time

LUNCH

Turkey/laughing cow/grape sammie on Nature’s Pride whole wheat + carrot sticks

The combo of creamy cheese, slightly salty turkey and super sweet grapes was divine. All of you non-vegetarians must try this sandwich!!!!

SNACKS

Oikos + 1/2 banana + Nature’s Path Heritage cereal (unpictured – added the cereal last minute at my desk)

Chocolate chip z-bar

100 calorie almonds pack

DINNER

I haven’t had time to hit the gym again (work ) so making a healthy dinner was the only way I could “treat” myself. I followed this recipe for parmesan polenta with eggs and roasted mushrooms.  This dinner took a lot longer than the promised 20 minutes (could be my sloooow oven and only 2 burners), but it was really worth it!!! This is comfort food for me.

I am really obsessed with mushrooms and their woodsy flavor paired so nicely with the creamy cheesy polenta. We only had 1 egg left, so I decided to add shrimp to Adam’s dinner. While I was cooking the shrimp, I forgot about my egg and it cooked a little too long. No runny egg. I bet it would have really tied everything together. In any case, I LOVED my dinner (Adam just liked it)

After dinner I watched the Biggest Loser (ok, I totally understand now who Jillian referred to as the devil… she clearly hates this girl!!!) and ate some pecans and 2 Kashi cookies. I didn’t need those; I just really wanted this food for the taste of it. I went to bed feeling quite guilty, although I know it wasn’t really about the nuts or cookies but rather a combination of feeling bluh all day (boo baggy pants), being hungry all day (I fed myself healthy snacks to remedy that), skipping the gym (need to make it a priority no matter what!) and then eating when not hungry. Every time I feel like I lose a good amount of weight and start feeling good about my body, I begin to gain. I think I felt guilty because I was scared.

How do you dress? Do baggy clothes comfort you or do you like to show off your curves?

Only a few days left to enter the Lazy Baker cookie mix giveaway. Get those extra bonus points. The cookies are worth it!!!