Sunday, February 20, 2011

Is this thing on?

I feel like I should tap into a microphone or something, since this place is way dusty after being neglected for the past -- oh holy crap -- nearly three weeks.

Mea culpa, y'all. And thank you for hanging in there while I contemplated my navel for a bit.

I go through cycles with my food, and at the moment I'm sick and tired of what's been working for nearly six months. URRRGH. Boredom with my tried-and-true menu items leads to baking (mmmmm.... butter), which finally leads to me figuring out something new to cook and then settling down. So between February 1st and now, I've been baking.

I got to play with the stand mixer Choreboy gave me for Christmas -- yay! I made monkey bread from scratch, and let's just say that yeast and I are not yet on totally friendly terms. I made one batch and the yeast activated just fine, everything rose, life was beautiful. Then I started up another batch (I believe we had a teensy "binge", aided and abetted by my offspring), but the stupid yeast didn't work.

Yes, we ate it anyway. I wasn't wasting all that dough, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter!

Ahem.

The next weekend was Valentine's weekend, and Choreboy had requested a vanilla bean cheesecake. After much use of power tools (i.e., the Kitchen Aid and the food processor) we got that sucker mixed up, baked, and in the fridge. And let me tell you, it was awesome. I adore vanilla beans, and although cheesecake isn't my favorite dessert, I'd eat this every night if I could.

If you click on the recipe, by the way, check out the hilarious nutrition information. It's 538 calories per slice assuming 16 slices per 10-inch cake. GACK!!!

Fortunately, this past week marked the end of the baking fest and the return to sense. I made a move to animal-based proteins away from the legumes I'd been concentrating on for dinner with a lean pork tenderloin and a lovely cut of salmon. Happily for my budget, Publix* had a sale on the Eat Smart pre-cut veggies ($1.00/ bag -- for those of you who are Publix shoppers I believe the price goes through this Thursday if you want to grab some) so I stocked up on a bit of fresh broccoli.

Also, today I made a HUGE batch of lentil soup at lunch. It might seem counter-intuitive considering I was trying to move away from legumes, but lentils are different from chickpeas, plus I had carrots to get rid of and what better way than to toss them into soup? It turned out pretty well, I believe, and that's a good thing because I have a ton of it left over. I think my parents are going to have a little soup coming their way.

So, next weigh in? I'm guessing around my birthday, which will make it the beginning of April. I'm going to concentrate on eating well over the next several weeks, because I have this dress I want to wear come summer and although it fits kind of at the moment, it will definitely be more flattering with a few less pounds attached to my ass.

For those who don't want to do the math, I'll be forty-one. I've barely resigned myself to forty. Bleah.

Next up is getting back on my treadmill. JAFG kindly sent me a kick-in-the-butt text (heheh... thanks chica!) and although my words were good, my follow-up sucked. In my defense, my husband has left a table propped against the treadmill so that is impeding my progress somewhat.

Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it (ignore the fact that I could have moved the table my own damn self and burned a few calories in the process). Tune in next time for more True Confessions of a Diet Tortoise!


*Note to the FTC: once again, I'm only mentioning brand names and stores because I feel like it. I receive no compensation from anyone for the products or vendors listed.

5 comments:

Jenn @ watchmybuttshrinking.com said...

*pushing aside the cobwebs*
Hello! I love how you gravitate toward baking when you're bored with your menu - nothing shakes things up like cheesecake, lol!
You have such strength to stay away from the scale until April - I don't think I could do that!

Amanda said...

Oh Jenn, it's not strength it's fear! Who knows what the scale would say if I hopped on it any time soon?

Actually, I know it would be somewhat unpleasant to me because I've now hit the bloat-fest part of my cycle, so I'm retaining water like a camel's hump in the Sahara. There are some things that simply aren't meant to be endured or even experienced, and my weight at the moment would be one of them ;)

Anonymous said...

I love baking....

tz said...

baking...I miss it! I was doing great for awhile then up 6 pounds i lost, lost that then one more and whoosh went crazy again....losing weight sucks! But you've been doing great and I'm sure once this is out of your system you'll be back on track! Do you eat salmon? I have a great, doesn't feel like dieting at all recipe, should you want it!

Amanda said...

TaDa, clearly so do I, LOL.

Tz, I love salmon! please send the recipe my way :)