Brownies and wine and dip - OH MY!

My Hall Pass Weekend. Get out of (Diet) Jail Free Card. Whatever you want to call it. I did it. And I did it really well.

I think I gained all the weight I lost. But I'm ready to get back on track. I'm still Miss Stuffy Sniff-A-Lot and feeling crappy, but I can't just give up.

It started on Friday. I was feeling exhausted but needed to man-up since I was participating with BigBoy in our home school puppet show. I needed to be a gregarious turtle. I felt anything BUT gregarious. Gross, maybe. But he was soooo excited about his part and BigDaddy was going to be there, along with a real audience. The kids had been working on it all month. I couldn't let him down. But then the million dollar question... "What's for dinner?" I had been in such a rush all day, becoming one with my turtleness and all, that I hadn't started anything and had "soup" on my plan. THAT wasn't happening. Maybe make your own pizzas? That meant being even more creative. Negative. Well, we do have 35 extra points a week..... okay, how about we just get our most favorite pizza in the whole world- just not the XL like we usually do. Done.

After a stellar performance we headed home and crashed. Saturday we did a ton of cleaning and then BigDaddy brought home some Tostitos Lime Chips and Pinot Grigio- why don't you just set me up in a corner with an IV so I have a more direct route? I'm such a cheap date now that a glass or two will get me all liquored up. So one thing junky choice lead to another snack... and so on and so for. Suddenly I have an entire pan full of fresh baked brownies. (In my drunken logic, I wanted to get them out of the way of my diet.) Then Super Bowl, you get the idea. I actually made some chicken soup since we are all sick now and the Babe will almost always eat veggie soup. So I did have some healthiness going on this weekend. Oh and does the spinach in the dip count?? Anyway, I'll include some recipes in case anyone is interested....

My mom's chicken soup (Sopa de Pollo)
Whole young chicken
one onion
a few potatoes
a head to 1/2 head of cabbage
carrots
zucchini
any other veggies you want really

The bird prep: rinse, take out any innards (or whatever they are called) stick in a big pot with an onion (quartered) and cover with seasoning salt and garlic salt. Cover with water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for a few hours- until the chicken starts to fall apart.

Take out the chicken and de-bone. My mom just chops it up and leaves it all in, I prefer boneless, especially with the kiddos eating it.

Plop it back in the pot. Add your veggies and cook until the potatoes are soft about an hour or so. really, that's it.

Sunday consisted of snacks, dips and more junk...
Paula Dean's Spinach and Artichoke Dip- I did a low-fat version and it still tasted great.
Pico de Gallo and Guac

Meal Plan
Monday- Italian Beef Boardwalk Sandwiches
Tuesday- Turkey Meatloaf mashed cauliflower
Wednesday- Fish Tacos & Bean Burritos, pico de gallo and slaw (combine roni's fish batter recipe with mock lowfat rubios sauce recipe)
Thursday- Mac & Cheese w/ sliced apples (BigBoy's Pick) Steak for the grownups?
Friday- Crock pot Ham & Split Pea Soup salad, crusty bread
Saturday- Left overs

Sunday- Batch cooked baked chicken
Monday- White Bean Chicken Chili (scroll down to friday)
Tuesday- Salmon
Wednesday- Eggs (frittata?)

** I am only doing a week and 1/2 since I am fading already. Need to find some fun sides and maybe a dessert or two.

I actually stuck to my last meal pretty well. It was great having everything all in-house and ready to go. I lost 5 lbs- and then probably found them again. But moving forward...