Variety is the Spice of Life

I've really been enjoying the frozen entrees! It's been a long time since I had them and it's been nice to switch it up a bit. I also find that the shelf stable items definitely require more "doctoring", whereas I can pretty much just heat and eat the frozen food with maybe just a little bit of spices and some vegetables.

I wouldn't give up the shelf stable food, though. I love that I can be so creative with them and make a boring dish into something awesome. It's fun. Kinda like cooking but you know that you're already dealing with a healthy calorie count and macros, plus it saves time!

Here's what I've been eating lately:

Cherry Cheese Roll (Frozen Breakfast):

OMG... well, this one definitely lives up to the hype! It does NOT taste like diet food. While I wish there were maybe some actual cherries in there instead of just the cherry taste (I'm considering adding a little sugarfree cherry pie filling to the plate next time, which would count as an extra), it was absolutely amazing. I could see myself ordering these even after I finish with the Nutrisystem program. When the a la carte sale is 50% off, these entrees are quite reasonably priced, especially if you get free shipping and also get the deal by purchasing Costco gift cards for Nutrisystem. Right now they are on sale, $55 gets you a $100 gift card. So that's another 45% savings on top of it!

Macaroni & Cheese (Frozen Dinner):

I used to love the dinner shelf stable orange macaroni and cheese. It tasted just like the Kraft dinner cups. It's a shame it's been discontinued but I guess I see the point that now there is a lunch macaroni, even if it's white cheese, and the frozen dinner ones, that there's saturation in the macaroni market!

I do like that there's lots of sauce, so when I poured it over my broccoli there was enough to go around. I did find the sauce a bit bland, and I think next time I'll add black pepper and garlic and maybe a little hot sauce to give it a bit of a kick.

One of my favourite meals used to be ham with a side of cheese scalloped potatoes, and this was definitely a reasonable substitute for that. I saved a PF from my afternoon snack to add a slice of ham to my dinner. Fortunately, hams are nice lean proteins that are low in fat, so you can have a reasonably sized serving for your 80-120 calories! I had 4oz with my dinner and it was delicious with a little honey mustard squirted on top (extra).

I love Men's Health Magazine!

I know this isn't a new entree but I made it for dinner tonight and it was SO good I wanted to share it immediately

My husband subscribes to Men's Health and I think I read it more than he does. Not only does it actually have interesting articles but there's almost always a few great recipes in it- and frequently they can be made NS friendly with only a little tweaking!

I definitely recommend you give this recipe a try- I think it's going to become a new favourite!


Macaroni and Cheese (Dinner):



Grown Up Mac & Cheese:

1 pkg Nutrisystem Macaroni & Cheese
2 oz cooked ham, cubed
3 tbsp ricotta cheese
1/4 cup winter squash, cubed (I used butternut)
1 tbsp breadcrumbs seasoned with Italian spices
1 tsp olive oil
pepper

Prepare the Macaroni & Cheese according to package directions. Cover and set aside. Spray a pan with PAM and cook the squash until it softens, add the ham cubes. When the ham is heated through, add the ricotta cheese. When the macaroni noodles are soft (all the liquid doesn't have to be gone yet) pour it into the pan and stir well. Add pepper to taste. Pour the pasta into a baking dish. In a small bowl mix the breadcrumbs and oil and sprinkle them over top of the pasta. Bake in the oven for about ten minutes at 400 degrees.

The squash went perfectly with the flavours. Next time I may add onions as well but this was great the way it was.

Having fun again!

And isn't that what it's all about? If you're not enjoying what you're doing, you're less likely to stick to it. Food should be fun! That's another reason I love my Redi Set Go.

I have a new review and a couple of recipes- enjoy!


Chocolate Macadamia Nut Biscotti (Dessert):



This has a rich chocolate flavour and was nutty and delicious. Too bad it's discontinued! I have seen them fairly frequently on eBay though so you might be able to get hold of them if you want them. I'm usually not a biscotti fan because I like my cookies soft instead of rock hard, but dipping it in tea made it quite palatable.


Chicken Salad (Lunch):



This is another entree that I view as a base for making whatever you want. Is it kinda gross to squeeze it out of the little foil packet? Yeah, but don't have it by itself and it's great! What do you like in your chicken salad? You can add chopped apples or nuts (count them as a fat if you use them), celery, more chicken... whatever you'd normally put in chicken salad. Just treat the entree as the mayonnaise-y base and you're all set. I usually add more chopped chicken and green onions to mine. Lately I've been making it a melt which is SO yummy... split your dairy serving between chicken and cheese, and put the salad mixture over a slice of bread, top with cheese, and toast in the oven until it's hot and gooey. Delicious and filling!


Macaroni and Cheese (Dinner):



I saw a recipe to make chili mac, and took a crack at making it NS friendly. I know that some people mix together the Chili with Beans and the Macaroni and Cheese and then just eat half, but I'm not a big fan of having to stop halfway! I'd rather have just one serving of something if I can do it. So I tried it on my own and it was yummy!

Chili Mac:

1 pkg Nutrisystem Macaroni and Cheese
2oz ground turkey
1/3 cup kidney beans (borrow a carb serving from elsewhere if you don't get one)
chopped onions and tomatoes
garlic, black pepper, chili powder

Spray a pan with PAM spray and sautee the onions and tomatoes with the garlic until they soften. Add the turkey and cook until it's no longer pink. In the meantime, boil water for the macaroni but don't add it to the cup until just before you're going to use it. You want to soften the noodles and mix it up but you don't want all the liquid absorbed so that the cheesy flavour goes through the whole dish. Stir in the kidney beans and spices and simmer for a few minutes. Add the softened macaroni and stir well, then cover the pan until the liquid is all gone. Top with a little more cheese if you have a free food left and maybe some chili peppers and enjoy!


Pancake Mix (Breakfast):


I love using the pancake mix but I wasn't wild about this recipe, despite it being a big hit on the Nutrisystem boards. It wasn't bad- just not to my taste.

Apple Bundt Cake:

1 pkg Nutrisystem Pancake Mix
1/4 cup Egg Beaters
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp butter extract
1 tbsp Splenda

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl then pour into a sprayed dish and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Enjoy with a drizzle of maple syrup if desired.

Because of the higher percentage of liquidy ingredients, this cake is very soft and spongey, and I just prefer a denser cake so this isn't one of my favourites. It's also a little lower in protein- make sure you still have a full dairy/protein serving with it since the Egg Beaters replace the milk. I actually used Blueberry Pancake Mix and apple/blueberry puree and I liked the flavour, just not the texture. It's not as filling as some of the other breakfasts either.

You can customize it with differents fruits and spices to make it to your liking. Many Nutrisystem members use baby food to get a variety of pureed fruits, which is much easier than making your own. My son didn't seem to mind that I borrowed a jar of his. It was a little weird using baby food until I remembered that the reason I buy organic food for him is so that he just eats plain fruit, so why shouldn't I eat it too? I may try this again with different ingredients- he has an apple/mango blend that might be fun to make! I might also try adding some nuts (fat serving) or some fruit chunks just to give it a little more texture.

Why are you overweight?

I'm an avid Biggest Loser fan. Like I said in my first post on this blog, I got a big reality check when I realized I weighed more than some of this season's competitors. One thing that's been sticking with me lately is the question that the trainers ask the competitors; "Why are you overweight?"

We all have our reasons. The weight didn't magically appear. If we can't figure out what has triggered us to get to where we are, we're doomed to repeat the cycle again.

I'm still trying to figure out my reasons. I've always been overweight for as long as I can remember. I like good food, and in a lot of cases, that means lots of fat and calories. I'm lazy, and that spans from exercising to taking the time to eat healthy. And I'm used to travelling and eating out all the time, and in addition to restaurants serving enormous portions of unhealthy food, I wasn't interested in making good choices. Are those the reasons that I'm looking for? I don't know. It seems like most of the competitors have an overriding emotional reason. I've had my share of issues when I was younger, but I never even considered that they could be related to my weight. I guess I will keep searching, because I never want to be here again.


I dealt with a personal challenge today. My son has been having a hard time sleeping lately because his eczema flared up, and he's been waking up pretty much hourly at night, which doesn't leave a whole lot of time for Mom to sleep either since my husband was out of town. I've been exhausted for three days now. When I'm exhausted, one of the ways I keep myself going is to eat. I was hungry all day long, even eating the most filling NS meals I had. I finally broke and had 5 slices of whole wheat melba toast with fat free cheese, 85 calories worth. I'm not proud that I cheated on my program, but I am proud of what I chose to eat. In the past, that might have been a whole sleeve of crackers with regular cheese. Now hopefully my son will be feeling better tonight so that Mommy can sleep, too!

I have some more food reviews and recipes to share!

Flatbread Pizza (Dinner):


In my quest to try as many items as possible, even discontinued ones, I may have made some unwise decisions! I bought this pizza from a seller on Kijijji, because I love the NS pizza so I figured I would give this a try. Well, this was a little past its use-by date but I thought that since the Nutrisystem food was shelf stable with those little fresh packs, it would be OK. Well, it was gross. I suspect that even without it being expired, I wouldn't have liked it. The crust was thick and crisp and bready- much like a thick cracker. It had no flavour at all. The cheese that came with it was orange instead of the usual white cheese. I'm not a fan of orange cheese on pizzas, so I threw it out and put my own mozzarella on top. I did eat the pizza, but I really didn't enjoy it and I threw the other package in the garbage. I can see why this was discontinued! I'll stick with the Italian Herb Flatbread Pizza, which not only has those delicious spices on it but a totally different texture.

Split Pea Soup (Lunch):


This is pretty good! Pea soup has never been one of my favourite meals so I don't have too much to compare it too, but it's a nice lunch. I suggest adding slightly less water than NS recommends for a richer, creamier soup.

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Noodles (Dinner):


On the Nutrisystem boards, this meal tends to get pretty bad reviews so I was worried about it. Since most of the dinner entrees tend to have a lot of sauce, I got the idea to dump it over a bowl of Asian vegetables to soak up the extra liquid. I bought a bag of frozen Asian stirfry veggies (just be careful not to include baby corn as that counts as a carb on NS) and steamed them, and then poured the entree over top. Surprisingly, I thought it was pretty good. It won't make my favourites list but it's better than a lot of the Asian inspired dishes that NS offers and I would eat it again. The chicken chunks were plentiful, the sauce wasn't too sweet, and it was a change of pace from the things I usually choose (fajitas, buffalo wrap and pork wrap, pizza, and burgers).

Coconut Almond Bar (Dessert):


People insisted this was like an Almond Joy bar. Since that was one of my favourites pre-Nutrisystem, I figured I was going to love it. I took a bite and the texture just seemed a little off from what I was expecting. I think it was a case of getting overly excited about what I hoped it would be, because the bar isn't bad. It's just not an Almond Joy and I really shouldn't have expected it to be. The coconut flavour is there, although it's not overwhelming, and the chocolate was good. I'm still wondering where the almonds were because I didn't taste any. Like I said, there was nothing wrong with this except it didn't live up to the hype so I probably won't be ordering it again.

Macaroni and Cheese (Dinner):


I've had this before and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd try to jazz it up a little bit. I miss macaroni and cheese the way I used to make it- completely from scratch. It was rich, cheesy, delicious... and about 900 calories, if not more. So I wondered, what could I do to make this more like my macaroni and less like Kraft dinner (although I still say this is a darn good substitute for KD!). I decided to add a little milk to the cup before I poured in the boiling water to the fill line, and I threw in a wedge of Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb cheese to melt into the sauce. I covered it and let it sit for ten minutes, and poured it into a small dish and topped it with Italian breadcrumbs and an ounce of cheddar cheese. I baked it for ten minutes and it was delicious and I was stuffed when I was finished my dinner.

I try to avoid posting recipes that involve the use of additional carb servings because I know that not all my readers get the extra carbs with their meals. In this case, the amount of breadcrumbs is very small. 1/4 cup is a carb serving and I planned to use that much until I saw how much it really is. I used maybe 1/3 of it and I could have used less. I think it you just put a sprinkle on, you'd be OK even if you aren't allowed an extra carb. It's definitely worth saving a protein to top it with cheddar cheese, and a free food to use the Laughing Cow cheese. I prefer the macaroni with beef, but this recipe will definitely make it easy to want to use up my remaining plain macaroni cups!

Woohoo!

I lost 4 pounds this week! Way to get some positive reinforcement that I am doing the right thing! It's been so nice to eat things I'm enjoying and still lose weight.

Today was a pretty yummy day. It's hard to beat pasta and sweet stuff! I wish the free week they sent me didn't include so many salty snacks because I don't really want them. Oh well... I can at least try them.

For breakfast, I had the Apple Strudel Scone. This was the first thing I tried out of my Nutrisystem box the day it came and I still think it's really good. It's dense and apple-y.



I felt like comfort food for lunch, so I chose the Cheese Tortellini. The serving size was adequate and I enjoyed the pasta. It was nothing special but nothing shabby either. Pretty basic pasta dish.



I had some green beans in the fridge that I wanted to make, and since I like cheesy things with green beans, I decided to make the Macaroni & Cheese. I was impressed at how cheesy it was! It reminded me of Kraft dinner but with a thicker sauce.



For dessert, I chose the Double Chocolate Almond Cookie. I almost forgot to take a picture again since I was ready to dig in! It's rich and chocolatey and has a generous serving of nuts.



It's nice to be off to a fast start- not quite a week and four pounds. I know the weight loss will slow down after the first few weeks but it helps to keep me motivated!