I cooked all day

I guess since I spent such a nice Mother's Day with my Mom, and getting our camper camp worthy, I had to do some penance the next day. 

Not really, I do enjoy cooking.  But, I tend to overdo it.  I guess that is like all things I do with food. (Insight gained)

Sunday I cooked, and cooked, and baked and dehydrated and cleaned and boiled and mashed (I think that is all).

I tried out a new recipe from http://marmaladeandmileposts.com/  for Cranberry Almond Protein Bars. 

I thought I had Almond butter in the pantry when I went shopping but it turned out all I had was organic Peanut Butter.  Close enough in my book.

Here is the link to the original recipe

http://marmaladeandmileposts.com/archives/24202

Cranberry Almond Protein Bars

Author: Carrie Brown | www.carriebrown.com

Prep time:  30 mins

Cook time:  12 hours

Total time:  12 hours 30 mins

Serves: 10

Ingredients

• ½ cup / 4 fl oz. almond butter, creamy unsalted (I used organic Peanut Butter)
• ¼ tsp almond extract
• ⅓ cup / 3 fl oz. COLD water
• 11 oz. / 310g vanilla whey protein powder (I used rice protein, more on this later)
• 1 TBSP chia seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp guar gum
• 1½ oz. / 40g flaked almonds
• 2 oz. / 55g dried cranberries, finely chopped

Instructions

1. In a bowl, using a hand mixer or blender, mix the almond butter, almond extract and cold water together until completely mixed. This takes several minutes.
2. In another bowl, add the whey powder, salt, guar gum, and chia seeds and mix well.
3. Crush the flaked almonds in your hands and add them to the dry ingredients.
4. Add the finely chopped dried cranberries and rub them through the dry ingredients with your fingers to separate them.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the almond butter mixture and stir until it has formed a dry dough.
6. Turn the dough on to a surface and knead the last of the dry ingredients in until you have a smooth, shiny dough. It will be slightly sticky.
7. Wrap the dough in plastic and leave to rest for an hour.
8. Roll the dough out to ¼ inch thick and cut into bars.
9. You will need to use a sharp knife to slide under each bar to get them off the surface you rolled them out on.
10. Carefully move each bar to a flat plate or board.
11. Leave the bars to dry for 12 hours. Every 30 minutes or so, using a sharp knife to pick them up, turn each bar over. This helps the bars to dry evenly.
12. After 12 hours the bars will have firmed up considerably and formed a 'crust', making them easy to pick up with your fingers.
13. Wrap each bar in parchment paper or store in an air-tight container with parchment paper between the layers.

I followed the instructions, using peanut butter for almond butter pretty much to the letter until I got to the protein powder (I know, WOW, all the way to step two!).  I have been working with a nutritionist and she has taken me off dairy and as I was about to scoop 310g of my tasty delicious Pea protein powder into the bowl on the scale I realized something.  That was a lot of powder and I paid a lot of money for this Pea Protein, and most importantly I like the taste of it.  I had a three pound jar of Rice Protein sitting on the counter mocking me with it's grittiness and lack of flavor and I decided right then and there that I was going to alter the recipe further.  I grabbed that silly Rice Protein and put it in the pot.  I added some vanilla extract and four packets of stevia (note to self and others attempting to replicate this, try 6-8 packets next time).

Gritty, but useful.

At $20 per pound, I just
couldn't see cooking with
this when there were
alternatives available.

Then I made it all the way to step five.  The dry ingredients just were too much for my meager wet ingredients, so I slowly started adding more water, and more water, and more water.  A whole extra cup of water actually when it came down to it.  Then it rested (but I didn't, I made two meatloaves while this rested).

Shhh! It is resting

I rolled the dough out on parchment paper with plastic wrap over it to avoid sullying my grandmothers wonderful rolling pin and cut them and laid them out as instructed.

I tried to turn them every half hour, I really did, but alas, it was not to be.  So I looked to my handy dandy food dehydrator for help, and by the end of the night I had dried, wonderfully crispy bars.  I let them sit out overnight because I was too lazy to do anything else with them.  

Then next morning though I wrapped them in parchment paper and then put them in a zip-top bag.

In their dehydrated deliciousness.

I tried my first one at work the next day when I was too busy for a sit down lunch, and they were a little dull tasting.  They could have used a little more salt too. But, very filling.  I thankfully though have no desire to binge on them the way they are now.  Maybe when I perfect the recipe but they are so filling, I thing three would cause me physical pain.

The rest of the day was a blur of salad prepping, Swiss Chard sauteing, potato and green bean boiling, cookie baking and veggie roasting.  I loved it all!

Back to work, week 1

I did it!  I made it through my first week back at work.  I am so glad I listened to my charge nurse when she suggested I start back with three eights instead of one eight and two twelves like I usually work.  The leg held up remarkable well, considering.   I felt twinges of pain when pushing heavy beds or walking backwards but with a little rest and elevation I recovered fairly quickly.
The funny thing was whenever someone would see me with my leg elevated they would ask if I was comfortable.  I got so annoyed I finally started snapping at people, "No,  I'm not comfortable,  I have a blood clot."  That really shut some of them up.   I live the look on a doctors face when they just realized they upset a sick person.
I didn't realize how much I missed my coworkers while I was gone.   I got a lot of hugs,  and welcome back Heather's.  It was really nice.
This Saturday we headed I to New Braunfels to spend some time with my mom for Mother's day.   It was really nice and wound up talking them into desert at the gluten free bakery.   I actually asked of they would let me work there on a volunteer basis.   I would love to work in a bakery because I know I would lose my appetite and lose weight like crazy.  Maybe I should look for a local bakery to start working for on my days off.   I think if I could combine baking,  cooking and writing I would have the perfect career.   To that effect look out for more recipe blogs posts in my near future.

Going back to work

Oh my God!  I am going back to work tomorrow! 
It has been six weeks since my blood clot and it is time to get back to normal,  or at least as close to normal as I can get. I  both excited and nervous. 

I hope I will have the energy I need to get through the day.  I hope my coworkers will really be happy to have me back.  I am so far off my routine I don't even know what I will pack for lunches now that I am gluten and dairy free.

Plus things have really changed there since I left.  I mean physically when I went to turn in my paperwork last week I needed a tour to find things.

I have really enjoyed the last three weeks of this sick leave and part off me wishes I could stay home and be a housewife forever, but alas that is not to be for me.

So Hi Ho Hi Ho,  it is off to work I go.

This is going to hurt a little

That is what I realized as I started my walk Monday morning.  I am still recovering from this latest blood clot and I am impatient to be well.  I went for a walk Friday and it wore me smooth out and I still feel the soreness in my arms and legs.   Not really sure why I feel it in my arms,  but anyway.  

So I decided that since I am going back to work next week I really need to kick it into gear and get moving. That launched me into a whirlwind of activity this week.  As I sit at the computer this Friday morning I have weeded and planted 50 strawberry plants and spread 12 cubic feet of garden soil in the side garden.  I weeded, mowed, tilled, raked and planted my big garden (something I haven't taken the time to do in two years so imagine. I also weeded the side planter by the house, fertilized the figlets, baked a million cookies for my husband's co-workers, baked 24 breakfast sandwiches for my husband and did the laundry.  That is more than I have done in a single month prior to this injury.

As I was walking Monday I started thinking about the pain I was sure to have in my leg by taking this walk.  In my career as a nurse I have said "This is going to hurt a little" so many times.  But, I always have the intention of helping the patient heal when I am causing that pain.  Why am I unwilling to go through the little bit of pain I expect my patients to endure so that I can heal?  I need to be willing to feel the pain, and do it anyway.  I think I have this week and it makes me feel great.  I am starting to feel like the person I was before the first blood clot. The person that got down to 135 pounds and could run like a real runner.  I want to be her again, but I can't remember her for some reason.   What did she feel that helped her do those things?  I need to find her, and it is going to hurt a little to bring her back.  But you know what? I know I can do it, and... I am actually looking forward to it a little.

About halfway through my walk, still a long road ahead of me.

But there is beauty among the pain.

Are you following me? Would you?

I am stepping outside my comfort zone and asking people to follow this blog.  WITHOUT EDITING PAST POSTS!!  Oh my God, what am I thinking?!?!

I am thinking that if I know people are reading, I will write.  If I write I will learn.  I like it when I learn.

See the process there?

I hope this works!  Hi new readers!

Don't slash your own tires

I was reminded of a lesson I learned this morning and I wanted to get it down here so I cloud maybe look back and not have to learn that lesson again.
People have a tendency to call making poor food choices, or having a binge episode as falling off the wagon.   Once you have fallen off that wagon it may be very difficult to get on it again. 
I don't know about you but I have never actually fallen off a wagon but I can imagine the difficulty getting back up.  First you are hurt by the fall,  you thought you were riding this thing so well. Then, the wagon keeps on moving workout you and it is up to you and your wounded little butt to catch up and get back where you belong.  Wouldn't it be easier to stay off that wagon and maybe catch the next one when it comes along.  If you do choose to wait for that wagon,  how do you explain why you aren't on the one you started off on any more.  If course there is no guarantee that there will be another wagon for you to get on, or how long you have to sit with your wounded pride until it comes along.
I don't like to think of it like that.  Jillian Michaels had a quote I love.  (Like her or hate her she had some real lessons you can learn of you listen close enough)  When you get a flat tire do you give up and slash the other three tires?  That is what you are doing if you have a moment of weakness, or whatever you want to call it, and decide that the day is ruined already so you might as well eat whatever you want.  I can't tell you the number of times I have thought,  "I have blown it already so the day is wasted and I might as well eat the cake,  or chocolate,  or candy."
Of course if you get a flat tire on your car,  you get out, assess the damage,  put the spare on and go about your day as close to your original plan as possible.  If there is damage you deal with it.  If there is a nail in the tire you get it fixed.  What was the nail in the tire that threw you off your eating wagon?  Was it stress,  sadness,  loneliness,  an intense emotion?  Deal with that problem.  Don't just put the tire back on without finding the cause or you will get another flat.   If you drove across a pile of nails that punctured the tire,  how can you avoid that area the next time?  You don't get a flat tire because you did something wrong or because you are a bad person.  You don't choose to destroy you eating plan because you are flawed.  Fond out what went wrong and learn what to do about it for the next time.

Starting a new adventure - in Healing

Life throws adventures at us that we do not choose for ourselves.  I wish I could choose my own adventure, and while that is possible I do not get to choose them all.  Now I am starting the adventure of recovering from my second blood clot before the age of 40.  

I now have to change from the woman who was planning to walk a half marathon, to the woman that is planning to walk around the block again some day.  I can't do that yet, I can walk to the mailbox though.  I can go a little farther even.  I am learning my limits, and I hate it.  Tell me what not to do and I ask why, if I don't like your reasons I push back.  I don't like the reason I can't walk like I used to and I really want to push back.  I know that would be bad though so I am trying not to.
I am working with my doctors and my nutritionist and I will get better.  I want to try to log my progress here with this forum.  I have heard many stories of people starting a blog and changing their lives.  I want to change my life.  I have gained and lost so much weight and if you ask me how I did it, or what I ate, I couldn't tell you.  I hope that by logging it here I will be able to look through my past and remember the lessons I learned so that I will not have to keep re-learning them.
My lessons I remember for now.
1. Nobody is going to steal your food, so you can take your time eating it. - I tend to buy myself healthy snacks and then polish off the whole box like I am afraid if I don't get them all down they will be gone.  I think this is due to the fact that I have "purged" the kitchen of snacks out of my kitchen before.  I am not going to do that to myself again, so I can chill.
2.  Only eat when you are hungry.  - Ever since I was a small child I thought there would be severe consequences when you skipped a meal.  I don't know what I thought those consequences were but they would be bad.  I have learned that I can, and at times should, skip a meal and that nothing bad will happen to me.
3. Take it a step at a time.  - Just move!  You don't have to walk around the world for it to be worth taking a walk.  Sometimes just walking to the mailbox is enough.

New Toys

I just got a new keyboard for my tablet computer.  Maybe now I will post more often since it no longer such a pain in the butt to type anything on my tablet!  Yeah!

Oh, and Merry Christmas.

New Phone

I got a new Samsung Galaxy S 3 yesterday.  I love it.  I have spent most of the day yesterday and today.  It has a ton of features I have yet to figure out, and right about now I am really missing my keyboard.
Fun fun.  Something to play with while waiting on doctors with Dad.

I'm better now. Thanks.

I just wanted to drop a quick post saying,  I'm doing a lot better now emotionally than I was in my last few entries.  Yay!

Nutella is evil.

Nutella is truly evil.

It is basically chocolate frosting.  There is no great redeeming nutritional value to it.   It only has 3 gm of protein in 2 tbsp.  You can eat many foods that are much better for you than that.

I am proud that through all of my obesity I never ate frosting with a spoon.  I ate peanut butter to no end, tortilla chips way too often and way too many of them.  But, there was that one typical fat girl thing I never did. 

I have not allowed myself to buy the Costco/Sam's Club size jar of peanut butter anymore.  I have not had the overwhelming desire to dig into a jar with a spoon.  There have been times at work that I ate too many individual serving containers.  All in all I feel like I have conquered the peanut butter demon in my life.  But, I have let in the Nutella monster. 

Now there is one more damn demon in my life I am going to have to exorcise.  Crap!

Let the exorcism begin.  Pray for me ya'll.  The spinning head and pea soup spitting will begin in three, two, one...

Becoming someone else

I am becoming someone else. 

I am changing myself from a couch potato into a runner.  Not as deep and  philosophical of a change as it might be, but still it seems like a pretty darn big change to me.

For my whole life I have been:
The chubby one.
The younger sister.
The silly/goofy one.
The blonde one.

I now want to be:
The fit one.
The one who runs races.
The nice one.
The friendly one.

I know life is not a competition,  and it about more than just the way you are perceived by other people.  But, that is how we judge ourselves most of the time.  I am this person because that is who people think I am.  If that is flattering than that is all the better, if it is not it can guide us to where we need to change.   I have never been very athletic.  My parents did a good job of involving me in sports and trying to keep me active while I was growing up.  They did well and my whole adolescence I don't think I ever surpassed pleasantly plump.  When I went out on my own however, I found myself without the external encouragement to keep myself active that I had grown up with and soon found myself with a BMI of obese.

While I have been able to successfully lose weight, and have been able to maintain most of the weight loss I achieved, I am in a position that is all to familiar to far too man women who have lost significant weight before.  I have gained some of it back.  It was a shock and a horror to realize that as of August of this year I was 50 pounds heavier than I was two years ago.  There are some excuses I could use to explain where that weight came from, life has not been a bed of roses these last two years.  But that is an excuse.  I don't want to keep making excuses for why I am not as good as I could be.  I just want to be good.

I am grateful that I have not had to walk the path that so many women have, and say I gained it all back plus some more.  But really, that is a small comfort to me right now.  Any significant gain after losing 90 pounds.  Well hell, it more than half the weight back on my body.  I did not go through the torture of losing that weight once just to keep putting myself right back there every few years.

So to that end I have lost 17 pounds so far, but I have hit a wall.  I haven't lost any significant amount of weight in the last month or greater (I can't bring myself to look at the numbers and see just how long it has been, but it has been long enough) and I am at a crossroads.

I could give up.  Be happy with myself just the way I am and try to maintain my weight right where it is (knowing that it will just creep slowly back up).  Or, I can press on.  I have not been very good at this in the past, went life gets tough, I get ice cream. 

But this is how change happens.  It is not pretty, or comfortable, or even enjoyable in the moment.  But,  if I can make it through this change and push through to the other side I get to see what happens next. 
Do I loose more weight?
Do I get in shape? 
Do I run for enjoyment and finally see what this runners high people talk about is really all about? 

Or do I go back to my good old reliable size 12 jeans, sit on the couch and bask in the familiar, the comfortable and the safe?

Change doesn't happen without discomfort, so here I am, basking in the sheer discomfort of it all.  I am trying to be someone else.

Second attempt at blogging

I made a post once where I asked myself if I should do this again.  In that wonderful post I decided that I would only post when I felt like it.  No longer would it be something I had to do, but if I felt like sharing a bit of myself again, this is where I would do it.  I say that was a wonderful post because thanks to the wonders of technology it is lost in cyber space where you will never see it to know if it was a wonderful post or not.
Now I finally feel like posting again.  I don't have anything particularly wonderful to say.  I just kind of feel like typing.
That is a weird feeling I know, but there it is.
I just finished cleaning up the house and am now waiting for the kids to come over for our bi-weekly visit.  Let me just say this once again, as I am sure all of you who know me well can attest - I hate housework!  I mean really sincerely and with no reservations despise it.  I have never felt this much hatred for anything as I do for housework.  I should like it, being a person that thrives on instant gratification.  I love mowing the lawn because what was long and messy is instantly short and nice looking.  It should be the same with say cleaning the bathroom.  What was once grimy and disgusting is now clean and sparkling, but what are you going to do with that nice clean bathroom.  That is right, piss and poop all over it.  So what is the point right?  The same is true of the living room, it is going to get lived in, so why erase all signs that is has been lived in up until that point.
I must admit though I do feel differently about cleaning the kitchen, that is a necessity.  If you are going to even warm up a plate of food you have to have some surface space to prepare the food for the microwave.  It is infinitely better if that space is not covered with last night's dinner.  Also, as I have aged I have discovered that it truly is more pleasurable to climb into a nicely made bed than a sloppy one.  Does that mean I have started making my bed every morning? Hell no.  Most of the time there is still a large snoring man in it when I get up.  Once I am up I have no desire to revisit the bed just in case I become overwhelmed by the desire to crawl under the covers again.  Sometimes I will straighten up the bed right before I crawl into it, but seems like cheating.
I guess the main reason I really do not like working on the inside of my house as the outside is that no one else will see it besides me and the before mentioned snoring man.  So I guess I am kind of an exhibitionist in that regard.  Why work on something that will get you no recognition or praise?  I have finally started asking my man how the house looks when I am done cleaning it to get the small amount of praise that comes with that, and it does help, but it feels kind of shallow.
OK enough already, time for lunch.  Catch ya later

Testing

Does this work?

Recipe # 7, Steak Kebabs

The cooking experiment continues.  I think I am almost caught up with the recipe per week thing.  And, I am now known as the cooking expert by my stepdauhter!  Just add another jewel to my crown of coolness! (slightly inside joke, sorry about that).  I am starting to really like these recipes from a card, because you can take it with you to the store for shopping and you don't have to have a book out on the counter while you are cooking.  The only thing is that I tend to lose the recipe about 4-5 times while cooking, or it gets wet and then is all wrinkly.  At least the recipes I am trying are getting recorded on here so in case I really do lose or ruin them I will have this wonderful blog for all eternity right?

So, down to business. 

Steak Kebabs
Perparation time:20 minutes plus marinating (1-2 hours) Funny how they think marinating time doesn't count, it is not like you can find this recipe, think great, we can eat in 20 minutes and then all of a sudden try to put your family off for 1-2 hours while the meat just sits there.
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Clean up time 4.5 hours! One hour to wash the dishes (ok that is a little generous) and then 3.5 hours to put your oven through a self clean cycle as you try to rectify the damage done from the drippings!  My tip, use the grill, even though it is ungodly hot outside.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Reduced- sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp honey (I really did have honey this time!)
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger or 1 tsp ground ginger
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp crushed hot red pepper flakes
12 oz boneless sirloin steak, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes (we just went with some of the stew meat we had in the freezer, it was a little tougher but good)
8 cherry tomatoes
4 large mushrooms, cut in half
1 green bell pepper, core, seeded, and cut into 8 squares

If your family eats like my family, double this recipe.  We tripled it and were still only left with 3 skewers, just enough for my lunch the next day.

1. In a shallow glass dish, combine say sauce, honey, ginger, garlic, lemon peel, and red pepper flakes.  Mix well.  Add beef; stir to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

2. Preheat broiler.  Remove beef from the marinade. Discard marinade.  Using four 10-inch metal skewers, alternately thread beef, tomatoes, mushrooms, and bell pepper.  Place on Broiler pan.

3. Broil 2 inches from heat, turning 2 or 3 times, until meat is medium-rare and vegetables are lightly browned, about 10  minutes.  Place on serving plates and serve immediately.

The Verdict

I think this recipe is mostly about the marinade, and that got great reviews.  I may add some meat tenderizer to the marinade if I make it with stew meat again so the meat will not be so tough.  Also, I added some onions since there are some people in my family who don't like tomatoes or mushrooms (imagine! sheesh, I am working on that) and they did not cook well with the other ingredients so they wound up under-done. 

I do like the marinade and may find some other uses for it.  I might make this again with just the meat, I think that call that tandori?

Recipe # 6 Chicken Teriyaki

This is another recipe from a group of cards.  I did actually complete this collection, back in the late 90's but this may be one of the first recipes I have actually made.  Are you sensing a trend? Yes, I have a lot of barely used recipe books, thus the desire to learn a new recipe a week, to make the books useful.

Chicken Teriyaki
Preparation Time: 15 minutes plus marinating (at least 30 minutes)
Cooking time: 10-12 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce (can you tell this is a healthy recipe?)
2 tablespoons honey (again, substituted corn syrup and one packet of stevia, since I know that oriental food sometimes needs that little bit of sweetness)
1 teaspoon oriental sesame oil (optional)  (I opted out since I did not want to buy something just for one recipe)
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each), cut into 1-inch chunks.  (I used 3, 6 oz breasts, I know, what a rebel)
Green onion for garnish (yeah right)

1. In a medium bowl, combine sesame seeds, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and pepper.  Mix well.  Set aside 2 Tablespoons of marinade.  Add the chicken to remaining marinade in bowl and stir to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Preheat the broiler.  Remove the chicken from marinade; place on a broiler pan.  Discard the marinade in bowl.  Broil 5 inches from heat, basting with reserved marinade and turning once, until no longer pink in center, about 10-12 minutes.

3. Garnish chicken with green onion.  Serve immediately.

Again it was getting pretty late at night when I was wrapping all this up so I went ahead and divided it up for lunches.  As you can see I have my trusty little Ricey in the background making some rice to go with this.  I did overcook the chicken a little because I forgot to set a timer and, like I said, it was late, so it was a little on the dry side.

The Verdict

Even though I overcooked it and it would up dry, it is still pretty tasty.  I will definitely make this recipe again in the future since it works out great to put in the freezer and take for lunches at work during the week.  I love making my own microwave meals!

Recipe #5 Meat Loaf Supreme

Again in a desperate attempt to play catch-up on recipes I found this one among a set of recipe cards I have gathered from somewhere in my life.  I don't remember where this set came from but I am pretty sure it came in the mail on a weekly or monthly basis and I was supposed to collect a whole ton of them, but fortunately good sense prevailed eventually and I cancelled the subscription because it was just way too expensive of a way to collect recipes.  But since I have them I better use them right.

So here we go.

The Recipe is called Meat Loaf Supreme and usually I can locate it on the Web to do a quick cut a paste so you can have the ingredients, but not this time.  

Preparation time: 10 minute (according to the recipe, it took me a little longer)

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 small onion (in my grocery store it seems like onions only come in one size)

1/2 green bell pepper

1/2 cup milk (we don't keep milk around because nobody drinks it, so I used some powdered soy milk)

1 egg

3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

Topping:

3 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon honey (I really thought we had honey, turns out we didn't so I substituted light corn syrup)

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with foil.  Spray with cooking spray.  Chop onion and bell pepper together in a food processor.

2. Combine milk and egg in a large bowl; add bread crumbs, basil, parsley and pepper.  Stir until blended.  Add onion and pepper, mix well.  Add beef; mix just to combine ingredients.

3. Shape the beef mixture in prepared loaf pan.  Do not pack.  For topping, combine ketchup, honey and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl.  Mix well.  Spread evenly over the top of the meat loaf.

4.  Bake meat loaf until cooked through, about 1 hour.  Place pan on wire rack; let stand for 5 minutes.  Lift meat loaf out of pan and place on a serving platter.  Remove foil.  Serve immediately.

So it was getting close to 10:00 pm and I was not interested in eating this immediately so I divided it up into containers to take for lunch.  Let me just say, ignore the direction not to pack the meat.  It absolutely fell apart and looked more like meat mush that meat loaf.  I don't know if that is usual or not for meat loaf since this is only about the second I think I have ever made in my whole life.

The topping did turn out very good with the weird substitution I made.  I think it might have actually have been for the best since I do not like my meat to taste sweet.

The Verdict:

I will try meat loaf again, maybe not this exact recipe but I had fun making it.  It was very quick and easy.  Even though it looks a little unappealing it was very tasty.

Please leave me a comment if you know how to keep your meatloaf from falling apart.

Print from Mary

I finally found a groupon to Deck the Walls and got the print Aunt Mary got for me in Denver framed.  I loved this etching because it really reminded me of my husband.  She traded for it for me because she is just awesome that way.  I think it turned out perfect and now I just have to figure out the best place to hang it.  I even sprung for the gallery glass that has some uv protection so hopefully it will look great for a very long time.

Recipe #4 North African Style Burgers

I am falling so far behind in this endeavor I went for a quick and easy recipe to make for my husband as I was heading out to a restaurant for girls night out.  I did not make the full burgers with the bun and stuff the way the recipe says, because this is a Weight Watchers recipe it does get very specific about how to prepare it so you can have your points value all figured out for you.  Since I am not concerned about that any more I really just wanted to try a recipe that sounded different and I was pretty sure my husband would eat.  I was only pretty sure because of the cinnamon.  So here we go.

The ingredients

I used a pound and a half of ground beef because that is what I had in the freezer left over from the Lasagna recipe.  So I increased all the ingredients again by half.  

I then forgot to take any pictures until I had all the patties formed.  It wasn't really interesting so I don't think you missed anything.

Into the frying pan.  My little ring of burgers, aren't they cute?

All done

The Verdict

David said they were okay, because he couldn't really taste the cinnamon.  I tried one and I thought they were interesting.  I don't think I will include cinnamon in any burger recipes again but the cumin and tomato paste were very good.  I will include those ingredients again for sure.

Weigh in

Today I weighed 164.7!  What a great thing getting off your period can be!

I have a girls night tonight with done girls from work and I am really looking forward to it.  I have tried not to eat too much during the day today so I can really enjoy tonight with my friends without worrying about overeating.