O, Where Have You Been All My Life?

Happy Saturday!!!! Let me tell you I really do love Saturdays, but who doesn`t? Actually, let me correct that statement, I love every other Saturday. Today is my day off which meant Mike and I accomplished a lot and talked more about our future goals! We slept in today, which is after all great for our body and goes well with our lifestyle change (That's our story and we are sticking to it ). We skipped breakfast (I know, tssk tssk), but we made up with a delicious lunch, crab salad. Can we say yumm? We did use imitation crab, ( this would be the moment where seafood lovers would groan in disgust ) but it was only 80 calories per serving and a whopping 8 g of protein! We changed our weekly salad dish up a little and added some spinach to it, which I might add is mighty great! Mike and I are constantly on the go so we like to have food that we don`t have to spend a lot of time making. To meet this need we have an already made salad all the time in our refrigerator which we chopped up on our grocery day (now on Tuesday). Each day we choose to have a salad as our dinner we add items such as tuna, hard boiled eggs, chicken, avocado, or in today's case crab. I am sure there are other things that we have not experience with yet. We like to use oil and vinegar as our dressing instead of the high calorie dressing such as ranch. I really love to use Franks Red Hot Sauce or Tabasco sauce. So, in case you are on the go constantly and don`t have much time to cook or maybe you can`t cook this might be a tip you may want to try. It works really well for us and our lifestyle. Also, to save time in the week we chop up all our fruits and veggies we buy on our grocery shopping day and I prepackage my lunches for the week as well.

Today I made a great discovery. Ok I must admit I was so excited I shouted at the television "Where have you been all my life?" In case you don`t know I really love Paula Dean, I truly admire her. I find all of her recipes delicious, yet they are not that great for you to eat especially all the time. I am also inspired by her because she lost a lot of weight when she found out she was diabetic. I know from experience that can take a lot of will power especially when you can cook that good. Anyways, today I discovered a show called "Not My Mama`s Meals" and the chef featured is Bobby, Paula Deans son. His goal on the show is to take all of his mama`s recipes and make them a healthier version in order to meet his lifestyle so he is able to eat them all the time. Today`s show featured a healthier version of Paula Deans fried chicken and also fried green tomatoes. I must confess I was drooling and had a few tears of joy that it will be possible to make Paula Dean recipes and not have all the fat. Plus, I may add Paula loves butter, I mean she adores it. This is where I gained a love (a bit of obsession with butter). I always tell everyone when they praise my recipes to NEVER ask what is in it (I fear they may sue me for putting their health in danger). However, I am now going to become a faithful watcher of "Not My Mama`s Meals" from here on out. If you want to check out this website for some yummy recipes here is where you can go: Not my Mama`s Meals

We definitely took advantage of the nice weather today and took a stroll around the block. It was just too gorgeous to waste and I love the talks Mike and I have together (especially our talk about getting a kitty). We enjoyed an amazing new recipe tonight for dinner, caramelized garlic chicken and garlic sauteed spinach. Let me tell you, I have Michael in love with spinach. I think one thing I failed to realize in life that many people don`t really know is that if you experiment with spices and different ways to cook things especially vegetables it is much more enticing to eat. Take for example spinach, Michael isn't a big fan of it but when I sauteed it in olive oil, added garlic, cayenne pepper, black pepper, lemon pepper and glazed it with sea salt and squirts of lemon he really enjoyed it. One thing Mike and I really are starting to do especially since we eliminated butter out of our diet is experiment with spices. I have so many in my cupboard that I haven`t even used. Spices really do make a difference in the dishes you choose to make. So if you don`t already, try SPICING YOUR LIFE UP A BIT!

Now I would like to share what I know you are all waiting for...pictures of our meals today and also last night (since I am a slacker and fell asleep at 9:30 instead of post)

Mike's Better Than B-Dubs Baked Buffalo Drumsticks

With a side of salad

Caramelized Garlic Chicken

With sauteed garlic spinach

Tomorrow on the menu board will be poached eggs and waffles (a healthier version), tuna veggie melts for lunch and for dinner stuffed portabella mushrooms with a side of steamed carrots (spiced up of course). I will be definitely posting these tomorrow, so stay tuned our loyal followers. Well, its time to finish enjoying this lovely Saturday by watching a movie and drinking a glass of Moscato.

Until next time...

Farewell Followers,

Jocelyn