Grilled Salad

I know.  Crazy.  But ohhhhhhhhhhh so good!! 

Let me link you to the original recipe so you can first peruse and I can give credit where it's due:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/salads/grilled-salad/

We love the Pioneer Woman and her recipes.  And I read this and thought someone had lost their minds.  Had a friend not specifically tried it and gave it a rave review, there's no way I'd have tried it.

Why?
Well, for one, I've never tried Feta cheese.  I know.  But good news, I can cross that off the ol' bucket list now.  I've tried it and *drum roll* I liked it.  The reason I've never tried it is that I always thought it was like blue cheese.  Which is not in my eating inventory at this point due to its stinkiness.  It looks too much like the stink cheese, so I've largely ignored it.  But it's not stinky at all.  It's sort of tart?  sour?  hmm...I don't know the best word.  But very very mild and worth trying.  The texture was sort of like fresh mozarella but not as wet.  Blah.  I know.  This description isn't going well.  In a nutshell, you should try it.  As well as be prepared for more recipes on here featuring feta now that it doesn't scare me.

Why else?  Well, have you ever even contemplated GRILLING LETTUCE??  It just doesn't make any sense, right?  But it works!

Here's the recipe:

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Grilled Salad

Ingredients
2 heads Romaine Lettuce, Washed And Dried
½ cups Feta Cheese, Crumbled
½ cups Balsamic Vinaigrette
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation Instructions
Split each head of lettuce lengthwise.
Drizzle the cut side of each half evenly with a tablespoon or two of oil.
Season the cut side of each half with salt and pepper.
Grill each half, cut-side-down, over a hot direct fire for about 90 seconds.
Remove to a sheet pan, sprinkle evenly with the cheese and let cool.
Drizzle each half with an equal amount of dressing.
Cut each half in half width-wise, serve and enjoy!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Julie's notes:

• When prepping the Romaine, I trimmed the tops off with a knife and left the root/base part intact.  I think you need to to keep the leaves from flying all over the place.  The when I served it, I trimmed the bottom off and cut it all up.
• We did this on our outdoor charcoal grill.  So it was delightfully smoky and charcoaly tasting.  Mark is in LOVE with this recipe, so we will be trying it again on our indoor grill pan.  Not sure if it will be the same but yum on the charcoal!
• The oil will drip off onto the grill and if you're like me, you're going to be waiting for those bundles of Romaine to just go up in flames.  But they don't.  Maybe because of the water content?  Not sure.  But if you leave it the 90 seconds, you'll be fine.  Just look for the grill marks and you'll know you're done.

And that's about it!  It's just really so so simple. 

Interesting "problem" to have I suppose!

I have 18 points to eat yet today.  And it's 4:39pm. 

Yikes.

In my defense, I really assumed that my lunch was waaay more points that it turned out to be when I actually inputted it on the WW website.  And that does include activity points which I try to eat the day I use them.  Just works better for me.

Hmm.  I mean, that's good because now I'm fairly unlimited for supper.  BUT.  I have no PLAN for supper.  And dont' grocery shop until tomorrow.  So I don't know how to use these bad boys up! 

Pretty standard for me though on the first day getting back on track.  Tomorrow I'll be RAVENOUS.  Just wait.  LOL!

Return of the Grapefruit Spoon!

Some of you may remember this moment:
http://juliesjourneytoawesomeness.blogspot.com/2010/05/crab-stuffed-tomatoes.html

The moment I realized my pure geniousness in using the lowly grapefruit spoon as a multi-tasker.

OK.  Hold onto your horses.  I've got another one for you.

Cucumber de-seeder.

Yup.  You read that right.  Today, as I was forcing my choice of veggie on my kiddo she said, "But I don't like the seeds in cucumbers Mommy!"  Which made me stop and think, "Huh.  Neither do I.  But being the mean Mommy I am, I always leave the seeds in her despite taking them off of mine."  What you should know is that I'm also a cheap Mommy and refuse to buy those delightfully individually wrapped English cucumbers for twice as much money. 

I had already cut her chunk off and had halved it.  And the the epiphany struck. 

GRAPEFRUIT SPOON!!!

Out it came from the depths of the silverware drawer and quick as a flash, seedless cucumber boat.

Awesomeness.

Carrot sticks and chicken broth

Isn't that what you used to be required to eat on a "diet" back in ye olde days?  Eat as little as possible and you'll lose weight? 

AGAIN, my body has proven to me that in order for it to lose weight, I just need to listen to it.  This week, I made great choices about 80% of the time, sort of questionable choices 15% of the time and totally splurged 5% of the time.  But really, who DOESN'T go for ice cream with their kid after their first soccer game??!  And what sort of a lame-o wilting flower would I be if I was all, "Oh no, none for me.  I couldn't POSSIBLY eat a scoop of ICE CREAM."  It's one scoop of ice cream.  And as long as I can make sure that doesn't parlay into 50 scoops, I'm good.

Yesterday though was a PERFECT example of having to listen to my body.  Trying to conserve points at the end of a mediocre week in which my cheat weighs had shown I was losing nothing, I ate a little "lighter" than usual.  Salad for lunch being the main culprit.  And that would have been fine had I been home at 3pm when the hungries hit.  But instead, I was at a finishing soccer practice and then on my way for a few errands.  One of which was the grocery. 

YIKES.  ALERT ALERT!!  Do NOT go to the grocery hungry!!

Well, I had to.  So, off I go and at this point am RAVENOUS.  But I'm also technically out of points (I'd preset my supper points earlier in the day and knew I'd be using them all).  So I have a choice.  I either get hungrier and hungrier until after supper is made in three hours OR I just eat something.  I grabbed a Luna bar and ate it on the way home. 

Now yes, back in "the day" BOY would that have been a no-no.  Strict was the way to go.  You don't allow yourself those indulgences as they make you week.  You remain loyal to your will power of steel and, by God, you will be thin.

Well, I not only ate that Luna bar but also shared a ball of fresh mozz cheese and sliced tomatoes with Mark and the kiddo BEFORE even starting supper. 

And lost a pound and a half "overnight".

So there carrot sticks.  While I do enjoy you as a side dish to my lunch, you no longer control what else I can eat on this journey.

And this is why we only weigh once a week...

I will totally admit to being a cheat weigher.  Not cheating in the NUMBER way.  But cheating in the "don't weigh more than once a week" way.  I *know* weights can fluctuate wildly even over the course of a day.  In know this. 

BUT....

I can't help myself when I'm doing Weight Watchers.  I feel like I'm working soooo hard controlling my food intake that I should be losing like a pound a day.  If not more.  Like 10 pounds a day. 

OK.  Not really THAT much, but still.  It's Friday morning.  I want to look at the scale just over halfway for the week and see that my previous days of hard work have started budging the scale.  And that hasn't happened this week.  In fact, I weighed in on Monday morning and promptly GAINED two pounds by Tuesday. 

HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN??!!

Blah.  I know how it happens.  It's just aggravating.  So now I'm barely back to that Monday number, feel like I lost two pounds and they won't even count because I'm busting my butt just to break even again.  I still weigh a LOT.  It isn't totally unrealistic for me to expect to lose at least 1.5-2 pounds a week at this weight.

Maybe it's all going to just shoot right off magically on Sunday while I sleep.  If that's going to be the case, it would be great if it would just take ALL the extra weight with it and we can just be done!

Day 2 Starvies

SOOOOO hungry today.  I'm willing to lay odds that a lot of it is phychological.  The first day back on plan is exciting and empowering.  The second day is sad and lonely and hungry.

I, being a girl of extreme intelligence, planned ahead and we are having the mouth wateringly amazing Murphy Hot Hambuger recipe and corn on the cob for supper.  It will be perfect.

If only I can make it to supper........

And there was even ice cream!

The past couple of weeks have seen an influx of time spent with friends from a long time ago.  I'm not sure what to make of that entirely so I'll just let the universe do what it's doing and go along for the fun!  From a weekend spent with Tom and Daniel last weekend to yesterday's surprise gathering in Canal Park with friends who now live in Colorado - I'm soaking it all up.

Moving to Duluth 6.5 years ago did something to my friendship bonds I never thought it would.  We became invisible somehow.  Life kept moving in the same way for our friends in Minneapolis and we fell out of that orbit.  No one ever comes up here.  I like to think that if we had a guest room, more would.  But I don't know how firmly I believe that.

I have tried to find additional "newer generation" friends in our time up here, but it's been a slow process.  Thank GOODNESS for my handful of good girlfriends up here (you know who you are!) because I'd be a mess. 

It's just tricky.  Before, I met my friends doing shows.  I'm barely on the brink of getting back into that so where the heck do I find them now??!  It's just me and the pastor at work.  And we're not going to be hanging out for cocktails and gossip anytime soon.  One of my goals on this journey is finding potential friend people and put myself out there to see what happens.

Yesterday was so great.  A couple of hours in the sun while the kids ran and played and the grown ups sat and talked.  And there was even ice cream.  :)  (Which was catalogued and counted on my Weight Watchers tracker!)  It just doesn't get much better than that!

Found

"Your playing small does NOT serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory that is within us. And as we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."

-Marianne Williamson (Nelson Mandela's 1994 Inaugural Speech)

 
Sometimes things find you when you're not looking for them.  Or when you are looking for them.  Or when you didn't know WHAT you should be looking for.
 
This quote found me this morning via a friend's status feed on Facebook.  And shook me up and slapped me around and called me Mama.  In short, I love it. 
 
And as I sit here on the eve of jumping back into my journey, it keeps rolling around in my mind. 
 
It's such a "female" concept.  To sell yourself short so as to not be perceived as being stuck up or conceited or haughty.  It's not really a rewarded female trait in mainstream life.  But why?  What's wrong with being assured and confident?  And one step further, what's wrong with letting people KNOW what it is you're good at?? 

I know.  I don't have the answer to that either.  I do know that sometimes fear of success can be as paralyzing as the fear of failure.  I know it because I live it.  And I think many people do.  And think what an amazing world this could be if everyone led according to their glory inspiring all they touched to do the same.  Could be a pretty powerful revolution.
 
As I said, it's the eve of my jumping back into my journey.  I took a scenic byway called "New Puppy Place" and along that road found "Lack of Inspiration Lane".  Good news?  I also travelled to "Happy Birthday Boulevard" and had such an wonderful couple of weeks that I'm refreshed and feeling capable of continuing the journey.
 
And be warned.....I won't be playing small.