The Difference a Year Makes

Both of these photos were taken at the Lacombe Wild Things events. One was October 18, 2008 and the other October 17, 2009. What a difference a year makes! 75lbs lighter and a whole lot healthier! Can't wait to see the 2010 picture!

A gain this week and Aunt Purple's Cooking

I hate to admit it, but I gained .5 this week. I think I'm about to get a gift from Mother Nature, but since I have PCOS, I never know when I'm going to have a period. Hopefully, this gain is just water. Time will tell, but I'm going to stick to the plan and know that it works.

Another recipe site for losers! Check it out and let me know what you think. I'm thinking about making the pumpkin dump cake for our Bible study group next time. http://www.auntpurple.blogspot.com/
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Something Fun!

Go try out Wordle!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Hmmm...let's see what have I not been up to this week. I was awaken early Sunday morning by a phone call from my mother saying that Dad was unable to urinate and they were taking him to the ER. I did not listen to my mother and decide to take my 3 year old with me to the hospital instead of sending her with her daddy to church. I mean what kind of crazy woman takes a healthy 3 year old to a hospital waiting room. I did not pull one of her Christmas gifts out of the closet and stash it in my purse for when she got bored. As expected, she loved the Hello Kitty art set. Furthermore,  I did not explain to my 3 year old on the way over that Poppa "was having trouble tinkling" and needed to go to the doctor to get help. She, of course, did not announce loudly and repeatedly in the waiting room, much to the amusement of the other folks, that her Poppa was having "tinkle troubles."

I think that is enough confessions for this week! How was your week?

WW's Grandma's Pumpkin Muffins

While shopping the other day, my little Butterbean found a little pumpkin in the produce department at our local grocery store. We have a rule that when we go to the grocery store she can pick out anything from the produce department to buy as long as she will eat it when we come home. She picked out a pumpkin!

So, I searched the Weight Watcher's website and found Grandma's Pumpkin Muffins recipe. We baked the pumpkin and then put it in the Magic Bullet to puree. We didn't have any eggs, so we mixed all the wet ingredients together in one bowl and all the dry ingredients in another bowl and waited for the chickens to lay. I used 2 whole eggs instead of the egg substitute. Normally, I would just measure out egg whites to equal the amount of required egg substitute, but I sold 4 dozen eggs yesterday and was short. I also didn't have any nutmeg, so I skipped it. Next time, I will make sure that I have the nutmeg and egg whites. I like things a little sweeter too, so I might add some Stevia to the batter. I might go a little wild and add some orange zest in too. Mom uses orange juice in her pumpkin pies and they are delicious! Over all, they were very moist and good. Daddy refused to even taste them, but Butterbean loved them! We are taking a couple to church tomorrow to share with some friends. Here's the recipe:

Grandma’s Pumpkin Muffins

POINTS® Value: 3 Servings:  12 Preparation Time:  18 min Cooking Time:  25 min Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Nothing says fall like the spice trinity of pumpkin, nutmeg and cloves.

Ingredients

	1 spray(s) cooking spray
	2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
	1 Tbsp baking powder
	1 tsp table salt
	1 tsp baking soda
	1/2 tsp ground cloves
	1 tsp ground cinnamon
	1 tsp ground nutmeg
	2/3 cup(s) unsweetened applesauce
	1 cup(s) canned pumpkin
	2/3 cup(s) sugar
	1/2 cup(s) fat-free egg substitute
	2/3 cup(s) fat-free skim milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a 12-hole muffin tin with cooking spray. Line with cupcake wrappers if desired.
  
  
• Combine flour, baking powder, salt , baking soda, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.
  
  
• Combine applesauce, pumpkin, sugar, egg substitute and milk in a medium bowl; mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
  
  
• Add applesauce mixture to flour mixture and mix until completely incorporated.
  
  
• Pour batter into muffin tins so each hole is about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Yields 1 muffin per serving.

Notes

• We use both cooking spray and muffin wrappers to prevent any batter from sticking to the top of the pan but you can use a nonstick pan instead, if you prefer.

Got a Gas Grill! Grilled Chicken Leftovers?

Ok, I'm totally frugal and this post may really bother some folks, but I'm going to make a confession and it isn't even "Not Me, Monday!" I have been wanting to get a gas grill for some time and have been looking on Craigslist and in the stores for one to go on sale. It seems like every time I find one for a decent price, we don't have the money at the time. So, a few weeks ago while out on a bike ride with my little Butterbean, I noticed that the neighbor up the street had put a stainless steel gas grill out for the trash. I went home and told my husband, who knows that I am not ashamed to pick up other folks discarded treasures. He was unmoved. I think his exact words were, "You don't even know if it works." Well, my dear friend and fellow treasure hunter, Pam, happened to stop by the house that night. I told her about the grill, and she agreed that we just had to run up the street and bring it home. Yes, we did some late night curb shopping. Yes, we rolled it down the street right past the Sheriff's patrol car that was parked in front of the house next door. Yes, I cleaned it up really well, and it sat there for a couple more weeks waiting for me to get some propane to test it out. I know some of you would never stoop so low as to take a gas grill off of the street, but I figure that I'm just doing my part to keep it out of a landfill...Yeah! That sounds good! I'm environmentally conservative, green and all those other buzz words that are being used today. I'm not cheap. Okay, yes, I am, but still...

Tuesday night, Pam loaned me one of her tanks which  I took and filled up on Wednesday. My hubby helped me set up the tank and I tested her out by grilling up some hamburgers for my stepson and chicken breasts for my lunch today. It works!!! Tonight we at grilled chicken! I made three breasts, one for supper and two for leftovers for me and thighs for everyone else. I cooked the thighs with the skins on them and then pulled them off at the last minute to put BBQ sauce directly on the meat. I dropped the skins on the ground for our dog, but I think the chickens may have gotten more than the dog did.

On Sunday, I'm going to get my husband out there cooking hamburgers and hot dogs. I wonder how my turkey burger will taste grilled?
I'm so excited, because I love grilled food. I love having grilled chicken, because it is so useful! I'm planning on making chicken quesadillas tomorrow for lunch. I ate grilled chicken salad today.  We could do grilled chicken on our Weight Watcher's Alfredo or chicken fried rice. I love chicken salad, but am not too keen on using mayo, even the light kind. My husband isn't big on casseroles, but I could do a pot pie for him. How do you use your leftover grilled chicken? Any great recipe?

New Laws Requiring Calorie Info on Menus

There has been a lot of discussion about the new laws on the east and west coasts of the USA  that require chain restaurants to list calorie information on the menu. The hope is that people will use this information to make healthier choices. This is specifically true for lower income families that tend to frequent fast food joints, because the food is cheap and plentiful. Now the research has been done and it doesn't look good! When given the caloric information on the menu, the average meal contained more calories than before the information was put on the menu. This doesn't bode well for those of us who would love to see the calorie counts on menus in the future! For me, it would really simplify eating out. Sometimes, I don't plan ahead and don't have time to do the online research only to find the place I'm eating doesn't have any nutritional information brochures.

I have a new plan for reducing the waistlines of Americans...instead of putting the calorie info on the menu, let's charge by the calorie! One cent per calorie would work fine! When faced with the choice of a McDonald's Double Cheeseburger with 440 calories ($4.40) or a Premium Bacon Ranch Grilled Chicken Salad with 260 calories ($2.60) which would you choose on a budget? How about the Burger King Double Whopper with cheese for $11.50 or the Veggie Whopper for $3.30? I think if charged by the calorie Americans would make healthier choices!

Another loss!

Lost .8 lbs. this week! I'm thrilled, because this past weekend could have gotten me off plan! How did every one else do this week?

We also talked about spending 2 points on snacks and how to earn 2 activity points. 2 points is about 100 calories, so what are your favorite ways to spend and earn 2 points or 100 calories?
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Real Food!

I love that with Weight Watcher's I can eat real food as opposed to boxed meals that some other plans require. Sure prepackaged meals are great for portion control and convenience, but I like real food. For example, this weekend I went on a ladies beach retreat. We ate out on Thursday night and Saturday lunch, but the rest of the time the meals were prepared by different ladies in the condo. If I had to eat boxed food while everyone else ate the meals prepared for us, I would have been a very unhappy woman. I blew through my weekly points over the weekend, I'm sure, but I also know that I got a good walk in on the beach both days we were down there. I did watch my portions though and tried to eat the healthy options, but Saturday we ate at Lambert's Cafe and I ate until I was miserable! I mostly ate the vegetables and took the chicken home as you can see from the picture. They give you a whole breast, but do cook it without the skin which is great! I had chicken salad made of the side that I had eaten off. I'm not sure what to do with the other half, maybe quesadillas today for lunch? Next time I go to Lamberts, I'm ordering the Veggie plate. It is a choice of 4 veggies/side items plus all the rolls and "pass arounds" you can eat. Honestly, the chicken wasn't that good; the green beans, cucumber and onions, fried potatoes, cabbage and fried okra were much better than the meat.  If you like country/southern cooking, Lambert's is the place to go! We will see Wednesday how it all went.

How was your weekend?

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not make my husband go bra shopping on our Wednesday night date night, no matter what he says! I would never do that even if he is great at finding the right size in a sea of wrong sized bras. I surely don't think it might be, because he is a computer geek. I definitely would not then talk about our not going bra shopping at Bible study the next week with three other ladies and a man.

I certainly would not feed my precious child PB&J on waffles because we ran out of bread, repeatedly until I was able to get to the store, several days later.

I am not now known as "The Chicken Woman" by the newcomers to our church, because I do not offer free eggs to anyone and everyone that will take them. No, my ten hens do not produce way more eggs that our family, extended family, friends and neighbors can eat. I also have not harassed my husband repeatedly about making sure that he lets out the hens and collects the eggs while I was away this past weekend.