No substitution for Gingerale

I have a sick tummy. After a full month of low-fat small portion meals, tonight's two and a half slices of cheesy pizza did NOT agree with me one bit. And we have no gingerale in the house. What's that about!? The closest thing to gingerale I could find was a dented can of Fresca and it's seriously NOT doing the trick.

On a positive note - I weighed again today and am down almost ten pounds so far. 9.4 to be exact. My goal was 10 pounds in a month... so I didn't quite reach it, but I'm still pretty happy. I mean, my clothes aren't falling off me or anything, but it feels good to get on a scale and see (at least in the numbers) the result of my last month of misery. I miss food.

Choo Choo!

Last Saturday we went to A Day Out with Thomas at the Strasburg Railroad. I do believe that it was seriously the best day of Jack's life. He got to meet Sir Topum Hat (however it's spelled) and ride on a train pulled by Thomas! Plus ALL the other fun stuff at the Strasburg Railroad!

Words cannot express the emotions that I felt watching Jack seeing Thomas for the first time. OK, it's nauseatingly sappy, but I actually CRIED when Thomas pulled up for the first time because Jack was so happy and excited. OY - I can't believe I just admitted that. I'm one sick puppy.

Anyway, it's been a week and Jack STILL talks about Thomas every day. I've had a difficult time getting that hat away from him. And he's been sleeping with the whistle. He's a Thomas fanatic, for sure :)

New Basic Grey LilyKate kit!

I was finally able to get some decent pictures of the LilyKate kit (no thanks to the cruddy weather we've had here lately!) and get the site updated. This is a great kit - it includes ALL of the paper, letter stickers, tags, 8 spools of ribbon, and a big bag of coordinating buttons - all for only $25.99! The retail value is around $32 so it really is a great deal!

I've been tagged!

Got tagged by Flenner. OK - here goes. Luckily, it's a short one ;)

Word Association:

Travel - Airplane
Weather - Rain
Suitcase - Rolling
Car - Drive
Sweater - Itchy

And I'm tagging... Elisabeth and my MOM! That's right, Mom, I KNOW you have a blog and now you have a reason to post on it! :P

Word association - here are my words!

1. Letter
2. Paper
3. Time
4. Grass
5. Gold

Have fun!

September kit is FINALLY up!

September's Basic Grey Romani Kit is FINALLY up! I got the last of my Basic Grey shipment this afternoon and have been FEVERISHLY working on getting the site updated!

Cool Blue Scrapbook Store

Weekend Activities

We had a lot going on this past weekend. Saturday was not too busy. Jack and John did a lot together. I just did some grocery shopping, laundry, and other house stuff.

Then yesterday, after church, was the annual Battle of the Brandywine re-enactment in the Brandywine Battlefield Park, which is adjacent to our church. Our church choir was asked to sing during the ceremony before the battle, which was to commemorate both 9/11/1777 and 9/11/2001. John had work to do in the afternoon, so I had Jack with me. It was kind of a hike from the church, through the park (which had been turned into a Revolutionary tent camp) to the location where the ceremony was to be held. And, of course, Jack pooped his pants just as the ceremony was beginning. So for the whole half hour ceremony, he was telling me to change his diaper. Not so easy when the nearest clean diaper is about half a mile away and you're on foot! We've been having some trouble with toilet training - I think it's time to kick it up a notch!

Anyway, the diaper situation was taken care of as soon as we got back to the church. And I did manage to snap just a few decent pictures.

And here's the tent camp. These guys slept in these tents all weekend. They don't look too comfortable to me!

Barbeque tonight

We're having some friends over for a little barbeque tonight - so no new recipe for today. I'm on my way downstairs to fix the shish-kabobs. Just doing beef cubes, onions, peppers, and cherry tomatoes. I have some shrimp in the freezer, but I forgot to take it out this morning and John bought LOTS of the beef cubes, so we'll have the shrimp another time.

Here are my points so far today:

Breakfast:
8 oz. of orange juice = 2 pts.
a banana = 1 pt.
1 slice of toasted light wheat bread = 1 pt.
a tiny bit of peach jam = 1 pt.

Someone brought in a birthday cake for my grandmother today at bible study (even though her birthday was last month). I had two bites of cake. I'm counting them as 1 pt.

Lunch:
2 fat-free hot dogs = 2 pts.
1 light hamburger bun = 1 pt.
about 1/2 cup of watermelon = ??? 2 pts.?
1/2 cup of fat-free cottage cheese = 1 pt.
14 fat-free pringles = 1 pt.
diet coke = 0 pts.

Snack:
100 calorie pack of graham crackers = 2 pts.

Total so far today = 15 pts.

FOOD 9/5/06 - Low-fat Stuffed Shells

I got my teeth cleaned this morning, so I didn't eat anything until lunch. I hate to eat before I go in because I don't want there to be food in my teeth - EW! And I don't like to eat right afterwards because I like to really enjoy the clean feeling for a while :)

So I'll start at lunch:
Half of a Celeste cheese pizza for one (Jack ate the other half) = 4 pts.
8 oz. skim milk = 2 pts.
100 calorie pack of nutter butter cookies = 2 pts.

And the snack I just had:
a banana = 1 pt.

Total so far today = 9 pts.

For dinner tonight, I'm fixing stuffed pasta shells. I got the recipe from a Betty Crocker book I got at the check out counter of the grocery store a few months ago called "Simple Healthy Recipes". I've made a few recipes from this book and they've all turned out great. This is my first time making the stuffed shells. Here's the recipe:

• 16 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
• 1/2 lb. lean ground turkey
• 1 teaspoon italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 cup fat-free cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup fat-free egg product
• 2 cups tomato pasta sauce
• 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Prep:
Heat oven to 350. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package, omitting salt.

Meanwhile, brown turkey, italian seasoning, fennel, salt, and pepper over medium heat. When the turkey is no longer pink, remove it from skillet and set aside.

In same skillet, cook mushrooms, onion, and garlic over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until veggies are tender. Stir turkey mixture, cottage cheese, and egg product into mushroom mixture.

Spray a 13x9-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. Spoon about a tablespoon of the turkey mixture into each shell. Place into baking dish. Spoon pasta sauce over shells.

Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes until it's hot. Sprinkle it with parmesan cheese and serve. Makes 4 servings.

The digits per serving:
calories = 340
fat = 3.5g
fiber = 6g

Edited to add: Just a small update. The stuffed shells were absolutely DELICIOUS! Instead of the parmesan cheese that the recipe calls for, I shredded one of my not-so-much-tasting-like-cheese low-fat cheese sticks and guess what! It tastes more like cheese when it's shredded and melted on top! I may save these cheese sticks for this purpose.

Also - I gagged when I put the cottage cheese and egg white in with the cooked turkey and stuff. But once cooked, it was VERY appetizing and delicious! One thing, though... now I remember why I stopped making stuffed shells... because actually STUFFING them is a PAIN IN THE BUTT! :P

OH - and just one more thing! I don't know what "Italian seasoning" is, but the recipe calls for it. I just used the same amount of oregano and all was well.

Scrapping my crap

A few years ago, my mom, my aunt, and I all spent WAY too much money on this book subscription thing called "Cropy Cats". At the time, it seemed so wonderful - a group of cards come in the mail each month with cute layouts and exact instructions on how to make them. Well... when the cards actually came in the mail, the layouts just didn't seem as cute as they did on the display wall at the Memories expo. And gathering all of the materials they called for on their instructions seemed like a little too much trouble. And... it just didn't work out. But I STILL have this thick (and expensive!) binder with all these layouts and instructions.

And all of sudden, I decided I either needed to USE IT or LOSE IT! I hated to throw the thing out - I spent so much money on it and never used it even once! So I decided to USE IT. Not for the purpose which was intended for it, but as a SKETCH BOOK. And darn it, I'm gonna use the whole thing - until my DYING DAY, I will be using CROPY CATS sketches!

So here's number one. Just picked a page from the binder at random and dug out my photos to see what would work. Here's the result! I'm really happy with it! Not only did I use my Cropy Cats book, but I also used up some of my stash and scrapped some photos I've been meaning to get to! It's a good thing.

And here's the page from the Cropy Cats book that I used!

FOOD 9/4/06 - Light Italian Crockpot Chicken

Breakfast:
4 oz. Orange juice = 1 pt.
2 slices 7 grain bread = 4 pts.
homemade peach preserves = 1 pt.

Lunch:
2 light tortillas = 2 pts.
2 slices light turkey breast = 1 pt.
1 light string cheese (that, unfortunately, doesn't really taste like cheese) = 1 pt.
16 small pretzel sticks = 1 pt.
honey mustard for dipping = 0 pts.

Snack:
1 M&M Kudos bar = 2 pts.

Total so far = 13 pts.

This is where I stop counting for the day. I keep my food points under 15 before dinner, and then I have a reasonable portion of whatever I fix for dinner and a weight watchers fudge bar (1 pt.) for dessert.

Dinner tonight is Light Creamy Italian Crockpot Chicken. Similar to the famous Italian Crockpot Chicken recipe I got on 2peas, but a light version. It's cooking now and it smells SO GOOD! Only problem - my house will smell like Italian seasoning for a week!

Light Italian Crockpot Chicken

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 package (8 oz.) fat-free cream cheese, softened
• 1 can 98% fat-free cream of chicken soup
• Hot cooked brown rice

Prep:
Place chicken breasts in crockpot. Combine Italian dressing mix and water. Pour over chicken and cook on high 4-5 hours or on low 7-8 hours (if the chicken was frozen, which mine always is).

Once the chicken is cooked, mix soup and cream cheese in blender until smooth. Add to crock pot and cook an additional 45 minutes to an hour until it's heated through. Serve over brown rice.

Brown rice is 3 points per a quarter cup (dry) serving. So I fix 1/2 a cup of rice with 1 cup of water and eat half of it. Voila! Three points!

4 pounds down

Instead of doing formal weight watchers meetings, my mom and I are just dieting on our own and weighing in every week together. Weighed in today and lost four pounds since last week! I REALLY needed that motivation since I've pretty much been a crabby brat all week. The idea that my misery was helping me to lose weight makes it not so bad! :)

The truth is in the fortune cookie.

Grammy and Bubba (aka: my mom and dad) took Jack and me to the Chinese Buffet for lunch today. Jack ate for free because he's under three years old. If I had known he was going to be free, I wouldn't have let him eat his weight in "chinese pizza".

That's him saying, "Cheesy Pizza!"

We broke open his fortune cookie before we left - the message inside was so appropriate. "You are a bundle of energy and always on the go." That is sure the truth!

The NEW Tailored Tins are IN!

I got a huge, heavy box from Paper Salon yesterday afternoon! I'll be featuring their Tribeca paper line and Fancy Flourishes stamps for the November kit. But I also ordered almost ALL of the new Tailored Tins stamps and some of the older ones, too! They are SO CUTE - it's almost too tempting to keep them all for myself!!

Click here to see and purchase the new Tailored Tins!

And Click here for a sneak peek of September's Cool Blue kit! I'm still waiting on something to make the kit absolutely perfect! It's definitely worth the wait! The new kit will be on the site as SOON as it's available!