Buffalo Chicken Eggrolls

I can feel the summer slowly slipping away from me. This time in two weeks I'll be back at school, so I'm soaking up every bit of time that's left.

The best part about summer is sleeping in, and that's exactly what I did today. I woke up around 9:30 and had my Vanilla Unjury iced coffee. It was quite a while before I was hungry, but eventually I had a scrambled egg and some cottage cheese. I'm starting to think ahead to the school year, and I think the fact that I don't get hungry until later in the morning is going to serve me well. My conference period is from 10:00 to 10:50am, and I think that's probably when I will try to eat breakfast every day. I'll just have to work all that stuff out. Nothing like living bell to bell. Grrrrrr. But that's a fact of life for a high school teacher.

After that, I went to the gym and did work out number one for the week, I'm planning on doing four workouts this week too, but trying to increase them in duration and intensity.

When I got home from the gym I was ravenous, and I went with a few of my favorite things. Some smoked ham, some fresh mozzarella, and a bit of olive tapenade.

Around this time last year, I discovered the most wonderful blog called Can You Stay For Dinner? The woman who writes it, Andie Mitchell, describes herself as a "28-year-old passionate cook, baker, and friend to chocolate." And oh yeah…several years ago she lost 135 pounds. Her essays about weight and the emotions surrounding being overweight, are  powerful, insightful, and inspirational. Andie is currently working on two books… a weight-loss memoir and a cookbook. Speaking of her cooking, I have yet to make a recipe from her website that wasn't just delicious. I'm particularly excited about the one I made for dinner tonight. Buffalo Chicken Eggrolls. Yum!

I had 16 ounces of rotisserie chicken on hand, so I made 20 of these and put some in the freezer for future meals. I just love doing that. This is another recipe where I will calculate the nutritional info each time I make it. It can really change depending on the amount of chicken you have, and the kind of chicken...white meat, dark meat, etc. These were pretty simple to put together. Just an eggroll wrapper with an ounce of rotisserie chicken,  a sprinkling of blue cheese, and a little bit of cabbage slaw. Andie says the cabbage slaw gives it a nice crunch and she is completely right. For this recipe I used Treasure Cave Reduced Fat Blue Cheese. Here is what they look like before you roll them up:

 

Before baking:

 

 

And fresh out of the oven:

This is another keeper, y'all. I'll make these again and again.

Saving room for a Yasso Coconut Bar and a cup of Diet Swiss Miss before bed.

My totals for today:

Have a great week and thanks for reading!

Tomato Eggs Benedict

I stayed up waaaaaaay too late last night. Just as I suspected, Orange Is the New Black completely sucked me in. What started out as "I'll check out the first episode" turned into SIX episodes. I could. not. stop. It is so good. Seriously...if you have Netflix, check it out.

I had my Vanilla Unjury Iced Coffee as soon as I woke up. I love it so much. It literally propels me out of bed in the morning sometimes. Like..."oh yeah! I get to have iced coffee!" I'm telling you...I am crazy about this stuff.

I wasn't hungry for a while. I've noticed that lately. I'll be going along just fine and then when the hunger hits, it hits HARD. So...when it hit, I knew just what I wanted.

I've been thinking about this recipe for a while. My favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Probably because I love eggs so much. And my all-time favorite egg dish is Eggs Benedict. Which, let's face it, is really just a vehicle for the Hollandaise Sauce. That delicious, lemony, rich sauce...that has about a ZILLION calories. Completely off-limits.

So for my version I started with a base of my dad's tomatoes. I removed the peels because I heard they can cause problems for some people. To that I added 2oz of shaved, smoked ham that I pan-seared in a dry skillet until it was slightly caramelized. On top... a perfectly poached egg, and my own Mock Hollandaise Sauce. The sauce is just a tablespoon of light mayo, not quite a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a teaspoon of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper. I sprinkled some Smoked Paprika on top.

 

I just love it when the yolk is perfectly runny. But not too runny.

 

 

This is definitely a weekend breakfast, because it took some time and created a LOT of dishes to wash, but it was dee-licious. :)

Nutrition Info: Calories - 206, Total Fat - 11.2g, Total Carbs - 5.7g, Protein - 16.6g

John and I are planning to go to dinner tonight. I love Sundays! I'm thinking right now it's going to be Outback. I really enjoyed the Sirloin/Crab Legs combo I had last time. I'm also planning to start doing 950 calories a day until my next Saturday Weigh-in. We will see how that goes.

I hope everyone has a great Sunday and thanks for reading!

Weigh In Saturday

Down another 2 pounds this week. I'm sticking with my weight as it is on my home scale even though my surgeon's clinic has my weight loss as 29lbs officially. I know 2 pounds a week is a good steady pace, but I'm still considering upping my calories a slight bit just to see what happens. Maybe in the neighborhood of 950. We'll see.

My food for today is going to be the exact same as yesterday with one little exception. No more Duke's Light Mayo for me. Yuck. I stopped by Kroger today on the way home from the gym and they finally had Hellman's Light. Score! So I made my tuna salad with that and it was so much better. Looking forward to the Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole for dinner again too.

Speaking of the gym, I had a very special workout partner today...my almost 73 year old father. He is interested in joining...if you are over 55 it's only $10 a month...so he came with me to check it out. I want to preface what I'm about to say with the following disclaimer: he is in incredible shape and regularly walks 3 miles a day in his neighborhood. That said, he lapped me TWICE on the walking track. :) I know that since he is a foot taller than me his stride is a lot longer, but damn. I hope I can burn rubber like that when I'm his age.

My exercise goals were the same as last week: to work out four times. Check. I'm finding that I really kind of dig making promises to myself and then keeping them. It's such a nice change. My goal for this week is to add in some additional lower body strength training exercises.

Check on the 64oz a day water goal too. I really have a harder time with that one than the exercise, though. I feel like I'm drowning sometimes. Do any of you have some good trick or tips for getting it all in? I'd love to hear them.

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday! Thanks for reading. :)

Revenge Fantasies, Fashion, and Dangerously Located Gyms

Before I left for the gym this morning, I did a little bit of shopping in my own closet. One of my very worst habits used to be buying clothes that were too small for me. I was a big believer in "someday I will get into this" and "this outfit is so fabulous it will give me some incentive to lose weight." AKA lies, lies, LIES that I used to tell myself. Well…the upside of that bat shit crazy is that now I have a closet full of great clothes with tags still on them. I tried on several shirts that I could not even squeeze into this time last year and they all fit really well. I'm going to have lots of new duds to wear when I start back to school. There is one shirt in particular that I am really excited to wear. It's still just a bit too small in the hips, but in another ten pounds it will be just right. It provided some great incentive to get myself to the gym today, let me tell you. Workout #3 of 4 this week. Yea!

Speaking of the gym and motivation...do you guys know who Mindy Kaling is? She played Kelly Kapoor on The Office and was also one of the writers of the show. She now has her own show on Fox called The Mindy Project. In her hilarious book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? she writes about how when she is running and trying to not think about running, she concocts elaborate revenge fantasies in her head. They usually involve serial killers or Al Qaeda terrorists murdering her new, young, stunningly handsome husband, and it is entirely up to her to avenge his death. By the time she has gotten through all this...her workout time is up! The power of distraction. What I find myself thinking of is not nearly as sinister, but it does help pass the time. I realized today that one of my favorite things to do is to plan outfits in my head. Sometimes I think about different combinations of things I already have, sometimes I future trip and think about what I want to wear when I get thinner...you name it. One kind of dangerous thing (for my wallet) is that my gym is right by a big shopping center that includes both Target and Lane Bryant. I saw this blazer at Lane Bryant yesterday and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. I had a 30% off coupon so I went and got it. I did buy it slightly smaller than I need at the moment...old habits die hard...but now it's okay, right? Please tell me I'm not still crazy. Ha!

In other news...what a difference a fill can make. Apparently even a small one. I'm not feeling as tight as I was on Wednesday, but I can definitely tell that I have more restriction. Yesterday's eating was kind of boring. I had forgotten how hard it is to just do liquids. I'm one of those people who really needs to chew something. But I will say that I was sort of happy that I got to have my all-time favorite soup again...Progresso Chicken Cheese Enchilada. I discovered this when I was on the full liquid phase, and remarkably I didn't get sick of it. Make sure to blend it up though, because it has some good-sized chunks of chicken. So this is what I ate yesterday...my very favorite full liquids:

This morning I got up and had my iced coffee with vanilla Unjury. It was quite a while before I was hungry. Around 11:00 I ate a scrambled egg and a 1/4 cup of cottage cheese. I concentrated on eating very slowly and taking tiny bites. Everything went down just fine.

When I came home from the gym and shopping, I made some tuna salad. Last time I went to Kroger, they had no Hellman's Light Mayo, so I bought Duke's Light because I heard it was good. I'm really not a fan. It has a very strong canola oil taste that I am just not feeling.

 

John is actually off tonight and I'm so excited. I'm going to make my favorite Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole...the lightened up version. This is what I ate the first day that I could have real food. There is a link to the recipe on my very first blog post. I'm going to serve it with some green beans.

 

And later on...there will definitely be a Yasso Coconut Bar. :)

 

My totals for the day:

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

 

First Fill

Hi everyone! I'm back from my first fill and I'm happy to report that everything went really well. I'm hungry like the wolf though, because I'm on clear liquids for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I will advance to full liquids, and then on Friday I can begin soft foods again.

When I woke up this morning, I had my iced coffee with Vanilla Unjury. About 30 minutes later I scrambled two eggs with a Kraft jalapeño cheese stick and ate that along with a couple of slices of tomato from my dad's garden.

I wanted to get in at as much protein as I could before I had to stop eating. My surgeon's rule is that you cannot eat any solid food two hours before a fill. You can drink right up until the fill, but no food. My appointment was not until 1:30, but I finished breakfast before 10:00am.

When I arrived at the clinic I waited just a few minutes before they took me back and weighed  me. According to their scales, I've lost 29 pounds. I could have done a little dance of joy. My scales at home are still showing 27. They made me feel really great about my progress. Everyone at my clinic is just so nice and upbeat. If you are still in the planning stages of surgery, I really encourage you to search around until you find a clinic that makes you feel comfortable and welcome. Aftercare is so important, and if you can find a place you feel great about going to, all the better. You'll be going there a LOT.

After a few minutes, Greg (a nurse I have never met before) came in to give me my fill. He was really awesome. He also has a lap band, and has lost 150 pounds. Wow. Talk about real life inspiration. Everything was very relaxed, not rushed, and I felt like I had time to ask him any questions I wanted to. I asked him about the burping…the constant burping. Do any of you experience that? I guess I swallow a lot of air and don't realize it. He said it was pretty much par for the course with the band, but I hope it subsides a bit. I feel like a 15-year-old boy.

The fill itself was really no big deal. After I laid down on the table, he administered a little bit of a numbing agent. After that, he felt for my port and found it right away. He injected the solution and told me to tell him when I felt pressure. I felt it right away. Just pressure though, no pain. At that point he asked me to sit up on the table and he handed me a cup of cold water. He told me to take sips and to tell him when I could feel it passing through my band. As I was doing this, he was taking out fluid. I had read about this method before, but it was really interesting to feel the moment when the water passed through the band. I already had 1cc of fluid in the band from surgery and another 2cc's was added today for a total of 3cc's in my 10cc band. I go back on August 7th for fill #2.

I can definitely feel more restriction even though I'm not eating anything. I'll put it this way. I'm very aware of my band right now. Is this how I'm supposed to be feeling?

So for the rest of the day today, I'll be having chicken bouillon and hot tea. I have a feeling that I'm really going to enjoy those full liquids tomorrow!

Have a good evening and thanks for reading! :)

Ten Things Tuesday

Taking a cue from one of my VERY favorite bloggers, Hollee at Hollee's Weight Loss Adventure and doing my first list. Here we go with Ten Things Tuesday!

1. I've just gotten back from my sister's house and had a really great time. I was able to spend time with my sister and her husband, my niece who will be a sophomore in college, and my nephew who will be a sophomore in high school. The only one missing was my 17 year old nephew, but he has a VERY good reason! He is part of the Arkansas delegation to the annual Special Olympics conference being held in North Carolina this week. We are so proud of him.

2. I had my first pizza in 2 months last night. It was sooooo delicious. My nurse at my clinic is not anti-pizza, she just always tells us to make sure there is protein involved and to have one slice. So...that's exactly what I did, and counted the calories.

3. Earlier today my sister and I went to a few stores and there is one store in her town that sells overstock items, discontinued stock, etc. You literally NEVER know what you will find there. I certainly wasn't expecting to see this "Mama Love" toilet paper:

That name cracks me UP.

4. There really needs to be a setting between 25lbs and 40lbs on the Cybex arm machines at my gym. For the exercises I do, 25 is way too easy and 40 is way too hard. I've been doing the first 2 sets of 15 at 25lbs, and on the last set, I put it on 40 and do as many as I can. I guess the whole point is going until your muscles are exhausted. I can do about 10 reps at the 40 lb setting.

5. I am a huge sucker for a good informercial and I have been intrigued with the Cindy Crawford Meaningful Beauty skincare system for a while. Well...I broke down and ordered it. It had arrived when I got home today, so I will keep you posted.

6. The iced coffee obsession continues. No one at my sister's house drinks coffee. I mean....they don't even have a coffeemaker!! I know, right?! This time I brought my own...iced in a thermos with a Ziploc baggy of Vanilla Unjury.

7. I read a lot. Mostly non-fiction. One of the VERY best books I read last summer was Piper Kerman's Orange is the New Black. I am THRILLED that it has been turned into a Netflix TV series. I'm planning on binge-watching it before school starts on August 12th.

8. John and I are going to Memphis on September 6th to see Steely Dan at Mud Island. So excited!!

9. I was proud of the food choices I made while I was away over the last 24 hrs. I already mentioned the pizza. This morning I had an Egg White Delight from Mickey D's and for lunch I had a small Wendy's chili. I could not get OVER how filling the chili was. I couldn't even finish it. I'm still trying to decide what to have for dinner. I don't want to make anything that will generate leftovers, because.....

10. Tomorrow at 1:30 I will be getting my first fill! Kind of nervous, kind of anxious. I will be on clear liquids the remainder of the day tomorrow, and on full liquids all day Thursday. I know the fill means that I will be adjusting what I eat, how much I eat etc. I've heard so many of you say that there is a huge learning curve with the band, and I'm about to find out for myself, I think.

I hope everyone is having a great week! Thanks for reading!

Sunday Rundown

I slept in super late this morning and by the time I finished my iced coffee and started to get hungry it was around noon. So for brunch/lunch I scrambled an egg with a Kraft jalapeno cheese stick and toasted a half pita to go along with it. It was delicious and pretty filling.

John has been traveling all weekend and I have been doing quite a bit of driving lately too, so we decided just to stay close to home for Sunday date night. We have a really great barbecue restaurant here in town called Whole Hog Café. I have not been there in forever, and it was calling my name. Since it's not really a chain, I borrowed Austin Bander's suggestion and calculated it in My Fitness Pal using info from similar restaurants. I got the pulled pork plate. It comes with a side of baked beans and a dinner roll. Here's what it looked like:

I ate all of the pork, half of the baked beans, and half of the roll. And yes...I definitely need a fill. Thank God it's coming up on Wednesday.

After dinner we decided to go buy groceries for the week. I know that doesn't sound like the most fun, but John has an uncanny knack for making just about anything fun. One of the reasons I married him! But even John's charm was no match for the nightmare that was Wal-Mart this evening. I dislike Wal-Mart on a good day, but this experience was just ridiculous. We spent 35 minutes in line just waiting to check out. They had 4 checkers for a giant store full of people.

Now we are home and getting John ready for the work week. After that we are going to watch Dexter and Ray Donovan. I've never been a Liev Schreiber fan, but I'm really I'm loving his role on Ray D.

I'm super excited because leaving tomorrow morning to go visit my sister and her family for a couple of days. She lives about 2 hours north of me. So I'll be back Wednesday with tales of my first fill!

My totals for today:

Thanks for reading!

Weigh-In Saturday

I weighed first thing when I woke up this morning. I'm down 2 lbs since last Saturday. I'm trying to be happy about this. Trying. I know weight loss stalls after the honeymoon period of WLS is over, and before the first fill. But really? This is my weight loss on 850 calories a day? I'm starting to think maybe 850 calories is too low? What do you guys think? What have your experiences been with this? I would LOVE to hear from you all. My friend Melissa...who had lap band surgery on July 10th...and I were discussing this earlier today and I told her that I think my body is in "WTF Mode". I mean...there have been some monumental changes in the past six weeks. Surgery, introduction of a cardio/weights program. etc. Maybe I'm being hard on myself. I have no clue.

I had my iced coffee with Vanilla Unjury and then I headed for the gym. I'm happy to say that I achieved both of the goals I set for myself this past week: working out 4 times, and getting in at least 64 oz. of water a day.

After I came home I was ravenous, so I had a scrambled egg/cottage cheese pita for brunch/lunch.

This time with Smoked Tabasco. I was all set to make the cottage cheese pancakes again, but didn't have quite enough cottage cheese. That will be remedied quickly! I've been thinking about those since I had them yesterday morning.

I met my friend Carmen and two of her friends for dinner at Outback. I have been there once or twice....the one in Little Rock always has at least an hour wait, but I found out that it has some really decent protein choices. I went with the 6oz sirloin  that came with crab legs. I got one side, so I chose the green beans. Here is what it looked like when it came to the table.

It was really, really delicious. I did discover that my crab leg cracking skills need some work though.

 

After I got home I had a serious chocolate craving and I remembered that I had these...

 

And thank god, because they really did the trick. They are small, but dense. Kind of like a more substantial Three Musketeers.

 

My totals for the day. Check out that protein! Woo hoo!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Delicious Breakfast Alert!

I don't know what took me so long to make these, but I assure you it will not be long before I make them again. Like maybe even tomorrow morning. They were that good. I first saw these cottage cheese pancakes on Lap Band Gal's blog. She has several different variations of them, but I decided to go for the sweet version. They were super easy to whip up… a little cottage cheese, an egg, a tablespoon of flour, a few shakes of cinnamon...and for my own version...a teaspoon of brown sugar Splenda.

I did not have any low-calorie maple syrup in the house, so I decided to make a super simple strawberry compote to go along with these.  I defrosted four frozen strawberries in the micro, mashed them up with a fork, and added about a half packet of Equal.

 

 

I'm already thinking about ways I can switch these up...adding blueberries, PB2, etc.  Lap Band Gal talks about adding pumpkin which I think would also be fabulous. And here's another tip...you can even mix up the batter ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator until the next morning if you're pressed for time. All types of batters...pancake, crêpe, etc...love to sit overnight. It lets the gluten develop and gives everything a chance to blend together.

For lunch I wanted something that I had on hand, was easy to fix, and high in protein. This Starkist Tuna kit fit the bill:

 

And for dinner… well,  let's just say it… I was feeling very lazy. John was working, and didn't want to cook for just myself. So I made a run for the border. I got a Fresco style pintos and a Fresco style steak soft taco. And it was just the thing.

 

 

And my totals for the day:

 

Happy Weekend, everyone! Thanks for reading!

 

 

NSV's and Protein Highs

I got up this morning and had my iced coffee with my best buddy. Furry Lewis loves the love, and if I'm not paying proper attention to him he puts his paw on my arm like this. I just can't stand how cute he is.

I switched breakfast up a little bit today. I still made scrambled eggs with cottage cheese, but I added the cottage cheese to the egg before I scrambled it. If you do this, keep in mind that it will take longer to cook this way. Cottage cheese has a high water content, but once the water cooks out, you're left with delicious creamy scrambled eggs that taste pretty cheesy. I put it all in a pita pocket with some Cholula. You know I never miss an opportunity to use some hot sauce.

This breakfast was super filling. Even with my lack of a fill, it held me for a long time. I actually had to let it digest a bit before I went to the gym. I tackled workout #3 of 4 planned for the week. And I had a great one today. For me, working out consistently is a non-scale victory in and of itself. Three months ago I could not have walked for 20 minutes, much less fast for 35 minutes like I did today. And I know I've said it before, but never underestimate the power of a good playlist. I was getting pretty tired today when this song came on. It's an oldie but a goodie and it never fails to make me move my legs just a bit faster.

For lunch today, I had some Chick-fil-A nuggets with buffalo sauce and a small diet lemonade.

Tonight for dinner I baked some tilapia with a little bit of sazón and green beans seasoned with Cavender's. I don't know if they sell Cavender's Greek seasoning nationwide, but if you can find it, pick it up. I've never found anything that makes green beans taste better. It almost makes them taste like they are cooked with bacon. We love to cook all kinds of greens with bacon or pork in this part of the country, but it's a bunch of trouble and not so healthy.

For my after dinner snack, I had my last Yasso Greek Yogurt bar. I need to go to the store and get some more of these. I enjoyed them so much.

 

I noticed that I hit an all time protein high today. I'm liking these stats. Here they are:

Thanks for reading!

Hump Day! And I'm Stumped...

Hey everyone! Today was a really fun day. I started off the morning with my iced coffee and a Chobani Bites yogurt. This is another of my new finds from Kroger this week and they are really good. They are smaller than a regular Chobani and have 100 calories and 8 grams of protein. This one was Raspberry and Dark Chocolate. Definitely more raspberry flavor than chocolate.

(Hello, my Iced Coffee Love.)

I was trying to save my calories a bit because I was meeting two of my friends for lunch. I know it seems like I've been meeting a lot of friends for a lot of meals out lately. And I have. But...I don't socialize much during the school year. I'm usually so tired when I get home that I just want to stay there! So during the summer months it's really nice to be a "lady who lunches". My friends that I met today are also teachers and during our 20 minute lunches when we are scarfing down our food and trying to hear each other over the din of 400 9th graders, we literally dream of grown-up lunches like these. Summer is sooooo nice. Can I get an amen, Rockband Barbie?

We tried a new place that has just opened in the last few months called The Fold Botanas Bar. It was a really cool space. It's an old, converted gas station and I took a few shots of the interior because I liked it so much.

 

 

 

The lunch menu features gourmet tacos and that is about it. But what tacos they were. I scanned the menu ahead of time and decided that I would go for the chicken, steak, and the veggie. The tacos were definitely on the smaller side. And they were on corn tortillas...like all authentic tacos should be! In my opinion. My husband disagrees with that wholeheartedly. Here is what they looked like when they came to the table. I didn't eat the chips.

 

 

Now here is my problem...I have NO clue how many calories these were. I love going to non-chain restaurants, but counting calories can be difficult. I counted these tacos as 500 calories. And I have no idea how much protein. What do you guys think? High? Low? I would love to know your thoughts.

I knew I didn't have very many calories left over for dinner, so I kept it very simple. I had a hard-boiled egg, 2 tablespoons of hummus, and a jalapeño string cheese.

 And my daily totals. Maybe. Who knows?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Hola, Tuesday!

Today there was....

My reason for bounding out of bed this morning:

A protein packed breakfast:

A delicious ham, hummus, and tomato pita for lunch:

For dinner my Genghis Grill bowl (part deux). Is it possible it was even better tonight?

 

And there was water. Lots and lots of water. About 74 ounces total. There was also a good, hard workout. Number 2 for the week.  45 minutes of speedwalking. The longest I've ever gone. Amazing what some good music can do.

And my totals for the day.

Thanks for reading!

Goal Setting and a Quick Sunday/Monday Rundown

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone is doing well and feeling good.

Thanks so much for the positive comments and emails about posting my weight. It feels good to own my number and be accountable. And speaking of that...I started thinking yesterday morning about what goals I want to set for the week. I'm setting two: working out at least four times, and getting in at least 64 ounces of water a day. So far, so good on the water. And I got workout #1 in this morning. I speed walk for at least thirty minutes and then I do light weights. Mainly upper body.

I'm happy to report that the Pioneer Woman iced coffee experiment went really well. I mixed in a half scoop of Unjury Vanilla, along with a little half-and-half. It tastes sooo good. This is definitely something that I will keep doing until it gets cold and I'm craving hot coffee again.

Yesterday's breakfast and today's breakfast where the exact same. I had a scrambled egg with Cholula and a fourth cup of cottage cheese.

Sunday's lunch was yummy. My dad had given me some home grown tomatoes from his garden so I made a sandwich of ham, roasted red bell pepper hummus, and tomato in a pita.

The only thing that could have made this sandwich any better was a little bit of sliced avocado, but I wanted to save the calories because John and I were going out to dinner. And where did we go? Yep...you guessed it...Genghis Grill. I absolutely love this place. I love the fact that I can turn the leftovers into a second meal later too. This time, I replaced the chicken with tofu. The last time I made this bowl, the chicken got super dry. It tasted good, but I can see it being problematic for me after I have my first fill. By the way, that is next Wednesday and I cannot wait for it to get here. Here is what my bowl looked like last night. I ate half of it, and a half of a flour tortilla.

 

Today's lunch was a sloppy joe pita from Saturday night's leftovers.

Tonight, I met my friend Rory for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called El Portón. I scanned their menu ahead of time (I love being able to do that) and decided that the best choice for me was the Mahi Mahi Veracruzana. So imagine my surprise when I got there and there was no mahi mahi to be found. No worries...I went with the shrimp instead. I had a choice of two sides so I chose the Charro beans, and the vegetables. When the plate came to the table, the fajita vegetables had been mixed in with the shrimp and they also added a side of rice. The rice looked delicious, but I didn't try it. I ate all of the shrimp, about half of the vegetables, and almost all of the beans.

Here are my totals for yesterday:

And today:

I hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for reading.