Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Preparation is Most of My Battle

I did my Dietbet weigh in and lost about a pound and a half this past week. Anyway, I need to pick up the pace I'm on if I want my money back (It's only $15, but I'm thrifty). Not shabby, but not quite to goal either. There was also a cherry pie turnover thing in there somewhere that I'm fairly certain I did not need. So after some thought this past weekend I realized that if I'm going to stay on track and keep my food intake in check, I need to be much better prepared. I have an extensive reading list piling up, but one of the things that I got some ideas from was the latest issue of Clean Eating. Really nice magazine with lots of good tips and recipes. I need foodspiration regularly or I get bored and start grabbing whatever is handy instead of what's good for me. 

I won the gardening book at a garden swap this weekend. Yay!
I decided to make basil pesto since I've got tons in the garden and can toss it with chicken and a small dollop of mayo for a delish chicken salad. I used Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything and it's fabulous. 
Basil waiting to be transformed!
The finished product - basil, olive oil, salt, parmesan cheese, and toasted pine nuts.
Next I started doing prep for lunches. After a quick trip to the store, I bagged up some delicious (albeit a little sour grapes) 
They make my face twist up funny, but they are way good.

Next I chopped and diced chicken I grilled on my handy-dandy George Foreman as well as a bunch of stuff from the garden -- yellow pear tomatoes, green and orange peppers, Swiss chard, and kale.
I seasoned the chicken with Chicago style seasoning and another with Greek seasoning. Yum!
When I was at  my community garden plot picking the Swiss chard and the kale a lady bug stopped in for a visit.


Oh hai lady bug! I bring the interior part of my salad spinner with me for harvesting. 

I packed up salad for the next day in a big ole mason jar. Everything stays nice and crisp and fresh in mason jars, plus they are more compact for fridge storage. 
I'm on a hot food kick. The yellow rings are banana peppers from the garden that
I pickled with vinegar, spices, and red pepper. Wahoo! 
For a nice protein snack I made ants on a log. Well, the logs anyway. Isn't peanut butter the best?


I also tried some fancy Pinterest tutorial hair. If my hair is dirty enough and there are enough bobby pins lying around, sticky hairspray, and a teasing comb, I can force my hair into submission. If it's clean it's too darned slippery and I have to put tons of crud in it to make anything stay and frankly, I'm hair lazy. I did learn a trick recently that helps give my hair some body for styling when it's clean. I spray and brush through dry shampoo (Suave brand rocks and it smells good. Most importantly, it's uber cheap). That seems to give my hair some stick without being all nasty from hairspray. Anyway, here's the result. I'm wearing basically the same thing today minus the braids. It only took a few minutes and I'm happy with the results. I've been in such a hair rut. It gets hot and I just want to get it off my damned neck and the default is a boring ponytail. I'm glad to have another option that looks a little more grown up.  


What's shakin' in your world?

5 comments:

  1. I love Homemade pesto! You can also use spinach instead of basil.

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  2. Congrats on the loss!! Prepping is SO important..without it, I'd be making bad choices daily.

    Love the hair!

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    1. Thanks Kim! You're very inspirational. :) Prep is just huge isn't it? I hate making the time for it, but I'm always glad I did when I have something good to eat and I don't have to think too hard.

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  3. Congrats on the loss. I love the CE magazine as it has so many great and easy recipes. Their site is also pretty great.

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