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Sometimes I think that people don't give the Nutrisystem shelf stable items enough credit. I do agree that the frozen foods are generally pretty good, but I find that when I choose them, I am mostly just heating and eating. I might add some vegetables or some seasoning, but that's about it.

The shelf stable items are so much easier to jazz up! It's easy to turn one meal into several different meals, depending on what you're in the mood for and how much work you want to put into it. So on the days where I am tired and don't feel like much, I tend to gravitate towards my frozen items. On the days where I am feeling creative, I go rummaging through my shelf stable pantry.

The Nutrisystem White Cheddar Mac & Cheese is probably my favourite entrée. I've always thought that NS does the shelf stable macaroni dishes particularly well, and I still very much miss the dinner shelf stable orange macaroni & cheese and macaroni & cheese with beef. They tasted just like KD, and were far superior to the current Mac & Cheese with Turkey Sausage, which I think sadly has gotten ruined in the last reformulation. Nutrisystem, bring back the dry cup dinner mac n cheese, please!

But I digress. The lunch cup is not only super tasty all on its own, but because the flavour is mild, it's so easy to treat it as a blank canvas for whatever you feel in the mood for that day. I need to remember to snap pics for the blog, because I must have made a dozen recipes with it this year and I haven't shared any yet!

If you're a seafood lover, you'll enjoy this version. You can swap out the crab for tuna, lobster, or whatever lean protein is appealing to you that day. Then bulk it up with some veggies, add your favourite spices, and this simple macaroni & cheese can be so many different things!

Crabby Mac & Cheese (Lunch/Dinner):

1 pkg Nutrisystem White Cheddar Mac & Cheese
3oz crab meat
mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, diced
Old Bay seasoning, garlic, black pepper to taste

Add a little water to a small deep saucepan and sautee your vegetables until they start to soften. Boil a kettle of water. Remove the cheddar sauce packet from the cup, and fill the mac n cheese to the fill line. Stir the cup to mix, then pour the water and uncooked noodles in with the veggies and turn heat to medium high. As the noodles start to absorb the water, stir in the cheese powder and spices. When your noodles are done, the dish is ready to serve.

I prepared the dish like this so that the sauce would spread evenly over the veggies too. If you use a lot of veggies, you may want to use one triangle of Laughing Cow white cheddar to make some extra cheese sauce.

The best part of this dish is its versatility. Since lunch is 1 Powerfuel + 1 SmartCarb, and dinner is 2 Powerfuels + 1 SmartCarb, you can eat this dish at dinnertime and just count it as your dinner entrée plus veggies (and an extra if you use the Laughing Cow). If you want it at lunch, count it as lunch entrée plus a Powerfuel plus veggies (and the optional extra).

What is your favourite way to eat the White Cheddar Mac & Cheese?

It's Over!!

Hooray for Turbo Takeoff being finished! Like I said, while I enjoy bars, I really don't like eating them two or three times a day. I really would like at least some real food, even if it's in a much smaller portion than I'm accustomed to.

But to no one's surprise, the program works. I am down 5.6lbs today, which is a great first week. I see my seamstress on May 21, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I get to by then. I think the 10lbs I was hoping for is achievable, but we'll have to see. I don't really actually care about the number on the scale, as long as the dress zips!

I don't think I will be ordering the shakes or the Nutricurb bars again, though. I really prefer eating my calories to drinking them, and I can get cheaper (and not peanut) protein bars.

So now I've got to start reading the literature they sent me about how to do the new "regular" Nutrisystem program. I know I need to add additional servings because of needing to lose more than 100lbs, but I also need to figure out how they have moved the foods you add around and whether or not I can recombine them and it's okay. I assume I can eat them in any way and order I want, but perhaps there has been changes. I am planning to do a Live Chat with one of the Nutrisystem counselors today.

I also tried a new entrée today, the white cheddar mac and cheese. I have to say, this was actually really good! Although I have an association with eating mac & cheese with chicken fingers, I found that I really enjoyed the flavour of this entrée and while the portion wasn't huge, I did surprisingly find it pretty filling. I can't see myself doing much modification to this one because I prefer my mac & cheese plain even though I don't mind adding stuff to other pasta dishes. I would definitely order this one again.

I guess I am going to have to learn all over again what I like and what I don't. This should be interesting!

I'm feeling a lot more positive today. The number on the scale and the reinforcement that this is something I can do if I want to is a mood booster, and of course the idea of more food today doesn't hurt either!