Wednesday night pig out

I have been hungry lately. I mean HUNGRY. Hard to stop eating - pacing around like a tiger in a cage hungry. It sucks. I think it's holiday hangover - but regardless of the reason its my current reality. So in an effort to slap the hungry girl down a bit, I have been trying to branch out in my veggie eating. I have seen a lot on spaghetti squash lately - so I picked one up this weekend.

I had very little clue about how to eat this thing or cook it for that matter. Yay for Google! I found this wonderful tutorial on Food.com and decided to try the boil in a pot method. (Mostly because I didn't have a nice poking device for ... well.... poking it with. I know I have a metal skewer somewhere....)



So I filled a pot with water. The pot had to be big enough to cover the squash. Being inexperienced in this I had concerns. Is it supposed to float? How will it cook evenly? Turns out the squash sort of rolled in the boiling water - which was really neat! The downside to boiling a squash is you kind of have to hang out in the kitchen while it cooks. They said up to a half hour (I gave it 45 minutes) to get your squash cooked, so I grabbed a magazine and a glass of wine!

I have to say I didn't have high hopes for the February Knit 'n Style based on the cover sweater. (Didn't I wear this in 1993?) But I actually found quite a few things of interest in this magazine. If you click here you can see the Gallery of the items featured in the magazine. I really love the knit Bulky Cabled Vest by Melissa Leapman. I have been aching to knit myself a vest for about a year now - and this one is so interesting. A bit of peek-a-boo with the cables so your shirt under the vest shows. Really like this! (Wonder how it would look on my size rather than a model though?)

I also really liked the shaping of the Kaleidoscope sweater. Not thrilled with the pattern of the yarn - but the shaping of the sweater itself is nice. I think this would be nice in a solid or ombre yarn. Maybe even kettle dyed.

The Lattice Pullover with Peplum was neat too. Reminds me of the Jane Austin Knits magazine that was all the rage in the last few months.

I also really liked the Nordic Ice sweater. Pretty basic Nordic design - but I am really geeking out on Nordic Sweaters right now. I kind of want to knit a giant Lopi Sweater.

So I enjoyed my flip through the magazine and the wine was pretty nice too. :) Before I knew it my squash was done. (I stuck a fork in it and it went in easy - that's how you know it's cooked.) So I dumped it out in the sink and let it cool for a minute while I washed the pan. Then I cut it in half.

It was still quite hot at this point. You can see the seeds in there a little bit. I had to get those out - so I grabbed a spoon and started scooping away the seeds and attached squash. (This was kind of like scooping seeds out of a pumpkin - but a lot warmer. Boiling a squash for 45 minutes REALLY makes it warm. Just saying.)

Once the seeds were out I grabbed a fork and started pulling the squash out. Wow. You get a LOT Of squash! The outer skin sort of peels off and a half squash filled this plate up and then some. I ended up taking one cup of Wee Willy's Pasta Sauce and just a shake of reduced fat Parmesan cheese on top. It was really good and SO filling! I could have halved the amount I ate easily. As it was, I pigged out and got really full and did it guilt free. A very healthy dinner and I am quite pleased.

AND I have a nice bunch of leftovers for lunch tomorrow too! Yay!

Sunday Snippets 11/13/2011

Normally I don't include words with my Sunday snippets - but I struggled with pictures today. Dishes, laundry, shopping and paying bills are just not that photogenic!

Dark and gloomy day filled with running in the car, cooking and cleaning.....

Great recipe for Easy Cheesy Chicken Cups. Used up most of my left over chicken.

I created a light version of the egg sandwich from my childhood. YUM! (Reduced fat provolone and Ketchup are under the egg!)

The much talked about chicken with butter and spices under the skin and in the cavity, and olive oil, salt & pepper on the outside. It seems so small when I am more accustomed to 18 lb turkeys!

The chicken fully cooked! It was REALLY good. Very pleased with myself! :)

Saturday Morning Weight in - OH NO'S!

Well - I knew it was going to happen eventually. I weighed in this morning and I showed a gain of 1.5 lbs. OUCH! I am trying to not focus on it - to go steady on and to believe in myself. Fluctuations ARE normal. These things happen. Blah blah blah. It sucks. Weight gain sucks. There I said it! I am trying not to focus on this - but I want to think about why I gained this week and correct the behavior so I don't see a repeat next week. I think the culprits are:

1) Birthday Entitlement. "It's my Birthday so I get to eat....." Dangerous thinking that. Why does an event entitle you to abandon your goals? I think I need to find a better way to handle special occasions. Especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up in the next few weeks. The focus will be on food and celebrations for the next couple of weeks and I need to handle this well or I will be on a painful roller coaster.

2) Too much drinking! This goes with the celebrations - but I had a hungry week because I was drinking too many of my calories. I stayed in my points for my Weight Watchers goals - but I didn't spend them well and ended up eating more than I normally would because of the wine and Salty Dog splurging. Alcohol doesn't do much for a diet. I need to watch this.

3) I hardly drank any water this week! I was on a good stretch of water drinking for weeks and lately it's slacking off. I think the colder temperatures make cold water less enjoyable - so I need to think about sipping Hot water instead.

4) Stress. I am stressed about work and family situations, which leads to "Stinking Thinking" and makes my sleep issues worst. My sleep issues are getting worse lately and I really need to make sleep a more important part of my life.

So this next week I am going to try and get more sleep. Try and drink more water. Keep exercising. And try and focus on my food. I saw a clip on The Biggest Loser where they talked about how important it is to sit and eat at a table with no television and no distractions so you are very aware of the food you consume. I am SOOOOO bad at this. I rarely eat at a table and always have TV, a book or a computer in front of me when I eat. Something for me to think about going forward. Focus is important!

Today I am going to roast my first chicken. I think it's kind of funny that I am 40 years old and I have no clue how to roast a chicken! I spent some time watching uTube Videos on how to do it and I think I get it. The one by Fine Cooking looked very simple and was easy to follow. This chicken is some of the meat we got when we were on vacation and we went to Ferndale Market in Canon Falls, MN. I am excited to have found a source of meats that is local and from farmers who are trying to raise there animals as naturally as possible. my next step after that will be determining Weight Watchers values on Roasted chicken. Hmmmmm. I might need to use my scale for something other than yarn!

Have a great weekend everyone!