Where did the girls go?

Well, after several months of not blogging here I am. I am in a new town, new job, new GYM...but I am BACK.

However, Lacey and I are doing our own personally blogs, instead of on here. We can always use your encouragement, support, and hopefully you may even get some inspiration from us!

Check out Lacey at http://losingitlkb.blogspot.com/. Man, she is ROCKING!!!

I just launched my own blog tonight at http://binspired2.blogspot.com/.

The 25 Milestone--Gone!

Remember this picture? It's of me with my men a few months before I started WW.

Do you know who this is? It's me, yesterday!

I don't know if you see a big difference or not, but I sure did, and was pretty suprised! I planned to take an actual picture of me at my 25 milestones, but skipped 25, so had to do a 26 pic!

Anyone else think Brooke's overdue for a post?

24!

I love the show 24, so even though I was hoping to reach 25 lb. lost this week, I was excited to be able to update my facebook picture with a 24 theme. :) I'm at 24.8, so almost 25 lb! How exciting! Brooke is still on hiatus from WW, trying to deal with some major headache issues and get healthy that way before refocusing on WW. Send a few prayers up for her! To keep you occupied in the meantime, here's something to stare at:

Pizza Pizza!

So, quick update, I gained a pound. Not so great. But, I saw it coming. Today I still have 7 left, even with eating out for lunch (work provided, but I ate smart) but think I'll only eat 2 of them. I know that I "should" eat my points, but I'm going to a conference and therefore eating out for dinner Thursday, and all three meals on Friday. So, even though you don't stockpile points on WW, I'm going to try! That's the bonus of doing it "off the record." I can make my own rules, and still lose weight. Errr...something like that. *lol*

So, a recipe for you, inspired by the dinner I fixed for my family tonight. The bonus is it doesn't make a lot of dishes!

Pita Pizzas
-Find your favorite kind of Pita bread. My Walmart deli section has some amazing "flax" ones that are "0" points for 1 pita, so I count them as "1" each since I ate 3.
-Top with pizza sauce, bbq sauce, ketchup/mustard, whatever floats your boat for sauce.
-Top with whatever meat or veggies you would like.
-Top with low fat cheese, whichever flavor you like.
-Bake until done, or be cool like me and use your Presto Pizza Pizzazz (I really could NOT live without mine). It took 8 minutes on that.

Here's how I actually made mine:
Pizza #1--Cheeseburger
1 Pita bread, topped with a big squirt of ketchup and a little squirt of mustard, then swirled around like pizza sauce. I then put 1/4 of a leftover hamburger from grilling on Sunday on it (broken up), thinly sliced dill pickles, and onion. I topped it with 1/4 c. ff cheddar cheese. It was 4 points of amazingness for the whole thing.

Pizza #2--Faux Margherita
1 Pita bread, topped with pizza sauce from a jar, swirled over the bread. I then topped it with spinach leaves (instead of basil--thus the "faux"), chopped tomato, and garlic salt. I then cut up one round of Baybel cheese and scattered it on top. This was another 3 points of amazingness...true amazingness, for the whole thing.

Pizza #3--BBQ "Chicken" Pizza
1 Pita bread, topped with BBQ sauce, swirled over the bread. I then topped it with about 1/2 oz. turkey breast (what I had on hand--obviously not chicken), onion, tomato, and 1/4 c. ff cheddar. This was again, true amazingness, for 3 pt.

So, I had 3 personal sized pizzas for 10 points. Can you belive that? The average pizza slice is at least 4 points, so I think I made a WW deal! And, as I said, not too many dishes!

Try your own variation and let me know what it was!

In the meantime, Brooke's been busy busy being sick, finishing up lots of school work, and dealing with some sadness at work due to an untimely death of a coworker. I'm sure she would appreciate your prayers for sanity and for health and WW success in the midst of stress. I'm sure she'll be back soon! We love you Brooke!

How to not lose weight...

So, if you want to make sure you don't lose weight, I have a couple of tips for you.

1) Eat out. A lot.
2) Have holidays.

I don't know the effects, if any, of my last few days yet (weigh in is Tuesday), but I can say I'm not really looking forward to weigh in. I hope I have lost something, though I doubt it will be as good as the last couple of weeks (3 lb. and 1.9 lb.). The reason, I ate out for dinner on Wednesday (pizza), lunch (Grilled KFC) and dinner (Arby's) on Thursday, had a Krispy Kreme at breakfast at work (normally I resist), ate out for lunch (Chinese) and dinner (La Gondola) on Friday, and for dinner (Don Panchito) yesterday. I didn't exactly evaluate what I ate for WW points either. And then, today is a holiday (Mother's Day), so I had wonderful french toast cooked for me for breakfast, and we're cooking out meat, meat, and more meat for dinner. I hope to stick with a small steak and shrimp though, so as not to totally blow it! :)

Tune in Tuesday to see what this has cost me. Yikes! Thankfully my life isn't usually this luxurious (aka: busy), so I usually do more home cooking and control the points accordingly!

Online Adventure

I have now made the first week of my WW online adventure, and I LOVED it. I am such a tech geek and so keeping track of my points online works for me. I am very excited about the price of WW online, and the money I am saving. Plus, I am even now connected to my new iPhone so that I can have WW with me at ALL times!

I lost 1.9 lbs this week so I am officially down 13.1 and I am just .9lbs (not even a whole pound away from my loosing my 5%)!!!!

Thanks for being on this journey with Lacey and me!

3 Point Pasta Dish

I didn't post a recipe yesterday, but noted that I may do one soon. Well, today is the day! I made up a dish for dinner, and it was so fabulous that I wanted to share it! It doesn't have a name...leave a comment with what you think we could call it! Here it is:

Unnamed Pasta Dish

4 flavored Chicken Sausages, Cooked and Sliced (I used spinach/asiago from Sam's)
1 Jar Roasted Red Peppers, Drained and Sliced
1/2 bag fresh spinach leaves
1 tsp. dried minced garlic (or 2-3 fresh cloves minced)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp. dried basil
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. Fat Free Balsamic Vinegar salad dressing
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 box Penne Pasta (Ronzoni Smart Taste)

Cook pasta until al dente. In the meantime, saute sausage, red peppers, spinach leaves, garlic, tomato, salt, pepper, and basil together until spinach is wilted. When the pasta is done cooking, drain it, put back in pan, and then toss it with the balsamic dressing. Add the sauteed mixture and stir. Top with Parmesan cheese. This made 10 cups @ 3 points per cup.

My husband and I both ate 3 cups. If you like artichokes they would be really good in this, but my husband doesn't, so I didn't. Adjust points accordingly if you add them, of course. We grilled out on Sunday, so I had Bill grill the sausages then and just reheated them in the saute tonight. They don't have to be grilled. That's the reason that I said use 4, when they come in 5 packs--we split one the night we grilled. :)

Let me know if you try it out or find a great tweak for it!