Sweet Italian Sausage Skillet with Kale and Sweet Potatoes

I'm surprised I remembered how to get to this page to do a blog update, it's been that long! But I've said I would write up this recipe for forever, and have finally gotten around to doing it! Wednesday I started a 10 Day Holiday Reset to help focus on better eating, moving, stretching, and mindfulness. While I can't say I've done very well with the exercise part, the rest has been a nice break from the usual stress of the holiday season!

This is a recipe that I've made several times before when I've done the 21 Day Sugar Detox with Alisha as my coach. We make it outside of the detox as well it's just that good. I think I told her before I'd write it up, and always forget to. Sorry Alisha! But finally, it is here! We usually use the Sweet Italian Sausage spice blend from the 21DSD cookbook for this recipe, but this past time we tried Rachael Ray's spice blend from her new cookbook "Everyone's Italian on Sundays." Both are tasty! Play around with your own spice combos if you want, too! :)

Sweet Italian Sausage Skillet
with Kale and Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

·         1 lb ground pork

·         2 Tbsp Sweet Italian Sausage Spice Mix from the 21DSD cookbook (or one serving of Rachael Ray’s Sweet Italian Sausage Spice Blend from her “Everyone’s Italian on Sunday” Cookbook)

·         2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

·         1 vidalia onion, diced

·         2 medium cloves of garlic, minced or grated

·         ¼ tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

·         Approximately 2 cups of peeled, bite sized sweet potato

·         2-3 Tbsp water

·         2-3 cups kale (depending on your preference), chopped

·         Salt and pepper to taste

·         Parmesan cheese for serving

Directions:

1.       Combine ground pork and spice blends the night before, or morning of, to let all the flavors blend. It won’t hurt to do this right before making it if you forget.

2.      Heat a large pan (that has a lid) over medium heat. Add the spiced ground pork to the pan, crumble and cook through. Remove pork from the pan and set aside.

3.      If the same pan, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and sauté until translucent. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and sauté an additional 30 seconds.

4.      Add the diced sweet potato to the skillet, stirring to combine. Let it sit for a few minutes to let the potatoes get a little color on them. Stir it up, add a little bit of water, then put the lid on the pan. The water will help steam the potatoes to cook faster without burning. Add more water if necessary, stirring occasionally.

5.      Once the potatoes are cooked, add the kale and return the sausage to the pan. Stir to combine and cook just a couple of minutes until the kale turns a bright green.

6.      Serve topped with parmesan cheese. 

And here are a couple of pictures, although not the best because I just snapped them with my phone. There is usually just enough leftovers for one person for lunch the following day, but this is one of those dishes we have difficulty with self control on, so you may have more leftovers. ;)

 

21DSD: Day 14 Pass the Pasta Please!!

Wait, what? It's not day 21?? Damnit.

All I wanted for dinner tonight was spaghetti. I wanted something soft and chewy and pasta-y with a delicious sauce topped with parmesan. It was already dinner time and I didn't want anything in the fridge, didn't have time to really make anything involved, and spaghetti would have been really easy and fast. But instead I had a couple of burger patties from the other night (no buns, hun), and fixings. Not what I wanted, but it's what I ate.

At this stage I'm ready to add stuff back into my diet, even though I know there's another week. I feel like I've learned a lot and could easily add some whole grains back in, along with other fruits, without over doing it and going right back to all my old habits. I mainly would like my toast and berries with breakfast, and a pasta dinner like once a week. The recipes we've tried so far have been great and I know I can keep that up most of the time, but sometimes a girl just needs some pasta! And wine. Like a bottle of wine.

I woke up today pretty tired, despite the 9 straight hours of sleep. I could have easily gone back to bed if it wasn't so sunny....and if the kiddo hadn't woken up lol. We had breakfast, and then watched cartoons. I even got a few snuggles during them. :) She was put down for an early nap because we had another volunteer meeting at 3:30 on post, and that's about when she usually gets up from her nap, so I had to get her down a little earlier. We went to the PX and commissary before our meeting. She didn't have any lighter weight jammies as the weather gets warmer, and she's starting to sweat in the fleece ones. So she got a couple of those, as well as a light weight jacket that was on clearance (super cute). The PX actually has a lot of really cute clothes right now, and it took a lot of will power to not pick up like a dozen outfits for her!! I'm trying to space clothes purchases out, so it isn't like $200 all at once (or more). We went to the commissary for blueberries and white vinegar. Then headed over to the company area to pick up the items that were locked up yesterday. Finished up our outing with our meeting, then headed home and had the dinner dilemma as discussed earlier lol.

After dinner I started some prep for our fundraiser on Tuesday. I washed about 150 apples. Fun times. I should trim and prep the pork tonight, but I'm pretty tired, it's going to have to wait until the morning. And tornado Rachael came through today....the house looks like it literally exploded, but that's going to wait too. lol It's just one of those nights, ready for bed. ;)

Well that about sums up the day. Here is the food:

Breakfast: I made a Southwestern Fritata with pork, peppers, jalapeno, mushrooms, green onion, and then topped with cheddar cheese. I had a cup of a new kind of tea as well...Caribbean Breeze green tea. DEEEEEElicious!! It is awesome hot, and will be amazingly refreshing iced this summer. I'm going to have to get some more of that stuff!

Lunch: a couple of chicken tenders (coconut coating stuff scraped off) dipped in mustard with some sweet potato chips, which are kind of soggy now.

Snack: string cheese

Dinner: two burger patties with toppings and cheese

That's it for me tonight. Peace, love, and sleep!!!! ;)

21DSD: Day 13 Running Crazy

Holy smokes!! Has it almost been two weeks already?? This last week is going to be tough though. Lots of situations I may not be able to control as well. I have a fundraiser coming up on Tuesday selling all kinds of goodies....pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, chips, apples (not even the kind I can actually eat!), and CANDY!!! Oh and a variety of sports drinks, vitamin waters, and propel waters. I think we are going to rock our fundraiser, but boy on boy am I going to want to eat some of it! Especially the candy. I rarely have any full size candy bars any more (they made me feel gross before this), but after not having ANY this long, a full size candy bar will be a lot of temptation! Wednesday I may or may not be helping another company with their fundraiser, that's still up in the air. Thursday is our FRG volunteer appreciation party at night, and then Friday my hubby's family comes into town. So I'm sure there will be a few meals out with them. And then Saturday is a farewell breakfast at my favorite restaurant in the area, that I may not be able to say no to a delicious breakfast & mimosa!! This place is a seasonal restaurant, so it's been months since the last time I've gone there. I think we're supposed to pre-order (it's a small place) so we'll see what menu items might be a better choice. I haven't gotten the menu yet, I'm hoping it's because they haven't told them the specials yet. They have amazing food, in a cute little town with several shops.

Today was really busy! We started with a volunteer meeting at 9 that lasted about 2 hours, then I had to run over to the company area to see if I could pick up some FRG supplies for our fundraiser next week. They aren't ones we use often, so they were in a locked area they didn't have a key to. Since I have another meeting tomorrow, I just asked them to have the guy with the key get them out and leave them in a non-locked area so I can pick them up tomorrow. Afterwards, we did all the errands I didn't get to do on Thursday when the kiddo was sick. We didn't get home until almost 3!! She was a trooper though, and got through all of our errands with minimal whining. And totally took a nap on the car ride home....and Rachael too. :D Haha! j/k ;)

So here is today's list of meals:

Breakfast: two yolk eggs with two slices of bacon

Snacks/Lunch: these get grouped together today because I basically ate a few snacks during our errands, which created my lunch. I had a string cheese, a P3 snack pack I got while shopping at Target, and some sunflower seeds. I also got a beverage from Starbucks while at Target. But I was good and got an iced passion tea, no sweetener. Before this detox, I would have found the tea too strong and need a little bit of sweetener, but it was perfectly fine for me today. I think the barista was a little confused - I said no sweetener and she she asked "and no lemonade?" I guess not many people order it straight up. lol

Dinner: It was another nice day so I definitely wanted to put something on the grill! So I made some burgers, and made some homemade sweet potato chips. I put the burger on a large portobello mushroom cap, then topped with the regular toppings. I will admit, I used regular store bought ketchup and mayonnaise because they are not things I eat frequently, maybe a few times a month, and did not want to make the recipes in book for 1 tsp ish on one dish. So a little cheat there, but nothing real major. I think I had too many sweet potato chips though...I was still hungry from running around when I was making dinner, so I kept snacking on them. :p Here is the picture:

After all my sweet potato chip snacking, I need to find a better oven temperature/time for them. Some came out perfectly crunchy, others were chewy. Some were burnt haha! I know part of that is the uniform thickness, but for some reason my mandoline just does not want to slice sweet potatoes evenly for me for a uniform thickness. And my knife skills aren't that good lol.

Oh and I got some yarn I was expecting for Monday today!! I always love it when I get crafty stuff earlier than I think I will. Now to wind them into balls, and get started on a project! Maybe tomorrow....I'm beat! Time to call it a night. Until tomorrow! :)

21DSD: Day 12 Why do I do this to myself?

As I write this, the lovely aroma of banana muffins baking in the oven fills the air. Why do I make stuff I can't have for another 9 days?!? Oh yeah, cause the bananas were ready, and I didn't want them to go to waste. So I guess I'll freeze them until I can have some. They smell amazing though...fresh, warm with a little butter. Drooooooool.....

Today wasn't super exciting. I guess the fact that Rachael was back to her usual goofy, squealy self today is exciting! No messes to clean up makes it even better! :D So cheers for a back to normal kiddo! We also went to Sam's Club with a friend and did some MAJOR shopping for our fundraiser next week. I think it's going to be a big hit (I hope anyway)! Thank goodness my friend has a truck...no way in h-e-double hockey sticks would it have all fit in my car!! Lots of prep to do this weekend for it!

Food today was pretty boring. I don't get real adventurous when hubby is out training. I hate making big meals for myself. The toddler certainly doesn't appreciate (or like) it, so I just do easy and quick stuff when it's just me. I had a lot of leftover to clear space in my fridge for fundraiser food. Here it is, sorry no pictures today. :p

Breakfast: per the usual, a scrambled omelet with the usual ingredients

Lunch: leftover chicken fajitas with salsa & sour cream

Snack: a green apple

Dinner: leftover carrot-ginger soup

Well, that's about it! Told ya, a pretty boring day! Volunteer meeting in the morning, and errands I didn't get to do on Thursday tomorrow, so early bedtime for me tonight too! G'night everyone! :)

21DSD: Day 11 A Day of Remembrance

Eight years ago today, the shootings at Virginia Tech occurred. Both my husband and I were there. It was a pretty scary situation. Thankfully neither one of us were in direct danger, but we didn't know that until afterwards. Unfortunately, one of the guys in the band was in one of those classrooms that the shooter entered. His name is Matthew La Porte. I did not know him very well, but I know he was a good guy, eager to learn, and often referred to as a "space cadet." That day, he did not flee, he ran straight into the face of evil trying to take him out. All forensic evidence shows this to be true, and there is no doubt in my mind he helped stopped additional injuries and death of his fellow classmates. Last week, he was awarded posthumously the Airmen's Medal at his final resting place in Blacksburg, VA. We wish we could have attended, but unfortunately that was not feasible. Here is an article about the award he received, and a little about his actions that day. He is not forgotten. No one is forgotten from that day.

I also want to remember a good friend of mine from school as well. Five years ago on the 12th of this month, our friend Zach Eckhart was killed when the Navy jet he was flying in crashed. He was such a genuine, real, caring individual, and always acting silly. He was really smart, and everyone liked him. I still think about him often, and know he's flying with the angels now.

The month of April is a rough month it seems. Every year, I say if I can make it through April I'll be good the rest of the year. But with all the horrible things that have happened, it's always a good reminder to just take a moment to tell those in your life that you love them, that you care about them. You never know when the last time you see them or talk to them will be. 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Okay, on to 21DSD stuff now. I slept horribly last night, so I am tired today for sure! That cup of coffee with the creamer and sugar sounds so good right now! Instead I brewed some jasmine green tea and iced it down so I can take it with me today on our errands.....if the kiddo ever wakes up! (It's almost 1100 and she's still asleep!) **Update** Poor baby girl is still sick and quite pitiful today too. No errands for us today. Hoping she feels better soon!! <3

After her extremely long nap this afternoon, I decided to try out the DiGize blend essential oil from Young Living. It is good for all kinds of stomach issues, but I hadn't had a real reason to use it yet on her. Today seemed liked a good day as she sat on the couch crying at me, not wanting to eat even crackers, didn't want to drink water or milk. So I diluted (it's powerful stuff) and applied to her belly. Within 20 minutes, she was practically demanding bites of my dinner (I purposely made it bland with a bit of salt in hopes she would like it and eat it), pulling out her toys, climbing on the couch, asking for "Meee" (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) on the TV, and drinking fluids. If I wasn't sold before (which, btw I totally am sold on these), this would seal the deal. Good thing I'm already a believer and had it hand to use! ;)

As for what I've been eating, I think watching my fat intake is really helping, because my scale is being awesome again for me! It's amazing what a diet change will do for your weight. lol

Here is today's food deets:

Breakfast: I had a scrambled omelet with deli turkey, mushrooms, green onion, and baby greens, topped with parmesan, along with one plantain pancake with cinnamon apple butter.

Lunch & Snack: I kind of skipped these today, as my stomach has been a little off as well, and all I really wanted was egg noodles, which of course I cannot. So I took a nap instead. :)

Dinner: I scraped the "breading" off the coconut chicken from last night and cut it into bite sized pieces. I made a little bit of quinoa, cooked in unsalted chicken stock (sorry, I just don't make my own), and added a little more sea salt than I would normally. I just mixed the two together. Rachael loved the quinoa, probably for the salt, but either way she ate it, she got some whole grain and protein, and she actually was eager for each bite. Thank you Young Living for your wonderful oils and making my baby feel well enough to eat something and drink something. :)

That about covers it for today. Lots of rest for both of us, bland foods, and liquids. Hoping tomorrow she is back to normal! Until tomorrow, I leave you with this YouTube video of Nikki Giovanni's speech from the day after the Virginia Tech shootings. We Are Virginia Tech. Go Hokies!

21DSD: Day 10 Toddler Ickies

Yesterday started out fabulous. And by fabulous, I mean just flat out awful. When I went to get Rachael when she woke up, it smelled really weird in her room. Walked over to find out there was throw up all over the crib. I have no idea when it happened, but it wasn't super fresh so she slept in it for at least a little while. Blegh! She never cried in the night though, so I never knew. Miraculously, she managed to keep all three of her stuffed animals out of it. I have no idea how that happened, but boy was I grateful I didn't have to clean them too! So she also had a bath yesterday morning. At least she likes baths. She only really ate her breakfast yesterday, and didn't have much of an appetite the rest of the day. She didn't even want her noodles at dinner (this kid loves her noodles). She did keep drinking her milk though, so that's good. But then twice during the day I had to deal with the other end of smelliness. And go through three pairs of pants. I guess it's time for another load of laundry for her! On sanitize cycle.

Oh and the squealing crazy toddler continues. Joy. At least she was still having fun, and smiling and playing. She wasn't pitiful yesterday. Although with the squealing, I might just prefer pitiful.

So needless to say by the end of the day I could have drank an entire bottle of wine by myself, as well as eat an entire box of Thin Mint cookies. By myself. No Joke. BUT I didn't have either. A friend called shortly after I got Rachael to bed, so that helped me focus on other things and not the dessert I really, really, really, REALLY wanted! 

So here was yesterday's menu round up:

Breakfast: a scrambled omelet with the homemade sausage, mushroom, green onions, baby greens, topped with parmesan with a cup of jasmine green tea.

Lunch: leftover chicken fajitas with salsa and a little sour cream.

Snack: some sunflower seeds

Dinner: I made the carrot-ginger soup from the cookbook. Only changes I made were I used a whole onion and added a little bit of heavy cream to make it a little creamier. I also have an immersion blender which is just awesome because you can blend it all up right in the pot. I also made some coconut chicken strips. I did an egg wash first, then dredged them in an almond flour/unsweetened shredded coconut blend that was about 50/50 with a little salt and pepper. Then baked them in the oven at 375* for about 25 minutes. I used the soup as a dipping sauce for the chicken, and it was actually pretty good! Here's a picture:

Here's hoping Rachael is feeling better today. She's still asleep, which is always good. But we have errands to run today, so she needs as much rest as she can get! I will try harder to get today's post up today! ;)

21DSD: Day 9 A Day Late

Man was yesterday a long day! I went to bed early and didn't even think about updating this blog until this morning! First, I had a meeting at 9 on post, so that meant waking the kiddo up early (she isn't a fan) to make it on time. We had our meeting, she cried for no reason I could figure out. Then we did our weekly grocery shopping at the commissary - we're so exciting, I know. I'm not sure who switched my usually quiet, clam, observant toddler with the super loud squealy one before we went to the store, but I did not appreciate the switch! For whatever reason she just kept squealing throughout the store....very loudly. It was *lots* of fun. Not.

We got home and unloaded groceries, had some lunch and she went down for a nap. I was on the phone a lot during her nap, so got nothing else accomplished during that time, but it was good conversation so it's okay. She took a killer nap, which I always love! So long that snack time was missed and I just made dinner a little earlier. After dinner we took a walk around our little town for a total of 2.8 miles. I was tired before I started that walk, but pretty exhausted afterwards! But it kept her quiet for an hour and not squealing, so whatever works! I could tell she was pretty tired too, so she went to bed about 20 minutes early, which was just enough time for me to sit down for just a few minutes before our weekly conference call for this detox.

It was a gorgeous evening for a walk! Just a little cool, and clear out. We have a river near us, so we finished up our walk by going past it. The water is really high right now from melted snow and rain. Here's a picture I took along the way. It's raging! lol

And here is the daily menu for yesterday:

Breakfast: a scrambled omelet with some of the homemade breakfast sausage, mushrooms, green onions, and cheddar cheese, with a cup of jasmine green tea.

Lunch: leftover tilapia from the night before

Snack: Just a little bit of roasted sunflower seeds, about a Tbsp. I got them in the healthy section of the store, and made sure ingredients were just sunflower seeds and salt. I just don't like raw sunflower seeds....they're weird.

Dinner: I made some chicken fajitas with a homemade seasoning blend, some homemade guac, sour cream, and salsa. I had to double check, but Pace Chunky Salsa is Detox friendly and contains no sugar, so that's pretty awesome! After I finished it, I realized I forgot cheese haha! Oh well, I apparently didn't miss it! Oh yeah, I added something else into the mix besides chicken, bell peppers, and onion. I sliced up one of those big portobella mushrooms and it was really good with it! I think I will be adding those in every time I make fajitas from now on. Here's a picture:

Well that's about it for yesterday. I will try to remember to update this again tonight for today's selections. :)

21DSD: Day 8 and Doing Great!

Haha, sorry I couldn't resist the rhyme for the day today in the title. But I really am feeling great! Although I think my cravings are more intense lately because I miss the taste and textures of the foods I'm usually feeding Rachael. I always see if she'll try what I make, but it's about 99.9% of the time a turned up nose to my offerings. So I always have a back up for her. Like tonight....she definitely had a chicken tender with fries and ketchup. This kid loves fries and ketchup (seriously who doesn't?!?). I wanted to scarf. it. all. down. All of it. But I refrained.

I have been tired today, but that's probably because I didn't go to bed until close to midnight last night. Not the best way to start off the week, but we got caught up in shows, and then hubby had to finish his packing for training. So needless to say I did not get up early to workout. Instead, after breakfast, Rachael and I took a 2 mile walk to and from the park, with a play stop in between. There are fewer kids during the school day, so it's a little less overwhelming for her. She kind of has "only child syndrome" where she just stares at a group of kids being noisy and running around, probably thinking "what on earth is wrong with those kids?!" Ha!

My scale also hasn't been as nice to me the last couple of days. I think I might be a little too over-compensating with fats to make up the calories, because at the end of the day, calories in vs. calories out is still the bottom line and I still need to expend more than I intake. So the walk today will definitely help, and I'm going to pay more attention to not eat as much fat as well. Those darn yummy dishes over the weekend using a bunch of bacon probably didn't help matters. :p

I'm going to go backwards with dishes again tonight, because dinner was pretty tasty!

Dinner: tonight I made the Coconut-Basil Halibut with Spinach from the cookbook, except I used tilapia instead because it's much cheaper. I also added about 1/2 cup of navy beans with the spinach for a little more substance. This dish was pretty good, definitely not a flavor I'm used to, but tasty none the less. I guess the smell of chicken tenders, fries, and ketchup didn't help my palate expect this instead of Rachael's dinner. :p

Snack: deli turkey with swiss cheese and mustard.

Lunch: leftover squash carbonara from last night.

Breakfast: as promised, leftover steak with eggs, and a plantain pancake with cinnamon apple butter.

Well, time to come up with two more dinner ideas for the next week. Tomorrow is grocery shopping day! And probably an early bedtime as I have an early morning too with a meeting at 9. Good night everyone! :)

21DSD: Day 7 Cheater Cheater Cookie Eater!

Officially one week through this detox! Woohoo!! And yes, as the title suggests, I cheated today. But I don't feel guilty. It was a thoroughly pre-planed, strategic cheat, if there is such a thing. My hubby starts some training tomorrow, and it's become somewhat of a tradition to make him chocolate chip cookies to take with him. So today I made chocolate chip cookies. I allowed myself three bites: one miniscule bite of the butter & sugar combo, one small bite of the finished batter, and one bite of a cookie. The bites of batter maybe equaled 1/2 tsp together, and the bite of cookie was about 1/4 of the cookie. But seriously....what is better than homemade chocolate chip cookie dough, and fresh cookies hot out of the oven?!? I just can't resist my own treats because I know how good they are haha! And Mom if you're reading this, they turned out perfect and not flat like the issues you've been having lately. ;)

Today was absolutely gorgeous!! It was finally warm enough outside to take Rachael out and play, and the neighbor's kids were out too, so she was having lots of fun. We broke out sidewalk chalk for the first time, but I colored more with the neighbor's kids than Rachael. She was more interested in her little toddler slide from last fall, and eating dirt. We played until lunch, then she took a nap and I made cookies and did some crafty stuff with glitter. More info on that later...for now it's hush hush for an upcoming event. ;) I also worked a little on some crochet. After her nap we were able to go to the park for the first time this year too...it's going to be a fun, dirty summer for that kid! Even though she doesn't like stuff on her hands lol. We headed to the store after the park to pick up some steaks for dinner to throw on the grill for the first time this season too! Lots of "firsts" for the warmer months of the year today....just wish I could have had a nice chilled glass of Pinot Grigio to go with it! ;)

Besides the small cookie cheat, I did well with my meals today. I'm going to go backwards because dinner was awesome and when I share the link the first picture in the blog is automatically selected, and dinner needs to be the one on the link tonight. Here they are:

Dinner: Delicious grilled steak with a seasoned rub made by Weber. I think it was the Chicago blend (shout out to Alisha and Tim in Chi-Town!). I checked the ingredients, no sugar. It's pretty tasty! My awesome hubby is my grill master, and 100% responsible for this deliciousness. It was served with a dish I found on Pinterest....Deconstructed Spaghetti Squash Carbonara. It was my first time poaching eggs today....and dang I'm good! They turned out great! (Okay the blog had good instructions, I lucked out they were accurate!) The only thing I changed with her recipe was I added some mushrooms and didn't have chia seeds. Here is the blog link: http://popularpaleo.com/2013/05/15/deconstructed-spaghetti-squash-carbonara-paleo-style/ Oh yeah, I would also like to point out I did NOT eat that entire steak. I ate about 2/3 of it and saving the rest for breakfast tomorrow for steak and eggs. :)

Snack: a green apple with almond butter

Lunch: leftover italian sausage and peppers, and a string cheese

Breakfast: a scrambled omelet with deli meat turkey, spinach, green onion, and mushrooms, topped with pea shoots, parmesan cheese and cherry tomatoes. I also had a cup of jasmine green tea.

I am so glad that warmer weather is finally here...I just hope it stays!! I see many walks and much park time in my future this summer. Oh and I will be getting back to exercising tomorrow! I'm finally feeling all back to normal so it's time to step it up with the exercise again. ;)

That's it for today....time to clean up toddler toys and head upstairs for bedtime stories. G'night!

21DSD: Day 6 A Happy Ending

After I published my blog yesterday, I got some AMAZING news! The sweet old dog I picked up on Thursday was reunited with her owners! That just made my entire day yesterday, and I'm so glad she is home safe and sound. :)

Today was pretty much the same as yesterday as far as how I feel. I've had a bit of a headache and scratchy throat, but I'm sure that's from this crazy wind that has been kicking up all kinds of dirt and dust and who knows what else lately.

For being a Saturday, it's been pretty busy! I had an Army volunteer meeting to go to, and ran to Wal-Mart as well. I woke up early because of the sun, which always sucks on a weekend! Oh well, maybe tomorrow will be better.

We tried out a couple of new things from the Cookbook today....here's how today's menu went:

Breakfast: We tried out the breakfast sausage spice blend from the cookbook. If you make this, do yourself a favor and cut the salt amount in half!! You can always add more if you like it saltier, but it was WAY too salty for us. I could barely taste the other spices over the salt. But from what I could taste, the rest of the mix was good. Next time will just be less salt. :) So with the sausage, I had a couple of yolk eggs, and one plantain pancake with the cinnamon apple butter.

Lunch: this was over the volunteer meeting today, and a couple of other ladies and I provided Subway sandwiches for afterwards. Let me tell you, throwing that soft, white, delicious bread into the trash and only eating the meat, cheese, veggies, and mustard was TUFF!! But I did. I also had to pass on some really yummy-looking homemade salsa because I couldn't have the chips. (Who just eats salsa??) After our meeting, I ran to Wal-Mart, which wasn't really part of my plan today. So needless to say, I was still hungry after only eating meat and cheese. Thankfully Wal-Mart is the super store of super stores, and I picked up a green apple to eat on my way home (about a 25 minute drive).

Snack: I snacked on the rest of the green beans I didn't need for dinner's recipe while I was preparing it. :p

Dinner: For dinner, we tried the Beef & Bacon Cottage Pie recipe from the cookbook. I subbed in sweet potato instead of butternut squash for the topping, added in some mushrooms to the meat mixture, and added garlic powder to the spice blend. They turned out really well! The sweetness of the sweet potato goes so well with the cinnamon in the spice blend, and the rest of the spices were a great combination too. I also decreased the salt in this blend just a little bit. The recipe says to put everything into one big baking dish, but I find these individual size foil tins are perfect! They are then pre-portioned, and I will freeze the rest of them to have later, which I love, especially when hubby is off at training. They did take me a long while to make, about an hour and a half, but now I have 4 meals that will be in the freezer that only require reheating, so that is well worth it in my book! :)

I find that my cravings are a little stronger today, but not that my body needs or wants the sugar, but my taste buds want the flavor!! It's so weird that at 6 days in, all of a sudden I feel like I have the hang of this and know when I can maybe have a little cheat and not be so thrown off. But unfortunately, I still have a little over two weeks to go. Le sigh. lol

My hubby and I both have been pretty impressed with the recipes in both the guidebook and cookbook. Despite the fact we haven't had any type of wheat product in our dinner for almost a week, he hasn't felt deprived or not felt full, and neither have I, which is pretty awesome. After a long day at work, I know he likes to come home to a good, filling meal, and I'm glad these recipes have fulfilled that requirement.

I think that about covers it for me today. Tomorrow is another new dinner recipe, so stay tuned for our review! ;)

21DSD: Day 5 Back to Normal! .....if you could ever refer to me as "normal"

Is it really day 5 already? I still feel like this just started, and while I guess that is true, it's almost 1/3 over! I feel pretty much the same today as I did yesterday. Just a minimal headache, but that may be more due to not drinking as much water yesterday with all my running around. I am a little more tired, but I know that's from not sleeping as well last night. Last night was ridiculously windy - like reminds me of KS might need to take shelter at any moment windy. So needless to say it was a noisy night outside and I didn't sleep very well. I think today is supposed to remain windy and even a possible thunderstorm. But that's okay because it's not SNOW!! I think we are finally, truly into spring now. Hip hip hooray! :)

It was a pretty uneventful day today, and the scale continues to make me smile in the morning. I did an "unofficial weigh-in" for my DietBet today and it said I'm already 66% complete for my goal....in 5 days. Win!! While I do believe that they won't pay out if I lose 12% or more of my body weight, I think paying $25 to lose over 20 lbs would be an okay payoff. IF that happens. ;) I feel back to normal now, not deprived in anyway and really only cravings when I see or think about something specific. Like Thin Mints. Would LOVE some Thin Mints right now. But otherwise I am feeling good and doing well with the program! And pretty proud of myself too.

The weekend will probably be a little challenging. I have a get together tomorrow at lunch time that I am picking up a Subway sandwich tray for, and will only eat the meat and veggies. But the weekend is always when we relax, enjoy some wine or spirits, good food, etc. I'm also going to be making some chocolate chip cookies for my hubby for some training next week. I may have to have one....and I know I can keep it to just one. What's better than a fresh warm cookie right out of the oven?!? :D

Here is today's menu, nothing too fancy today. I didn't get around to making my cinnamon cookies yet either. I had a closet to put back together!

Breakfast: Pretty much the same as yesterday - two yolk eggs, two slices of bacon, two plantain pancakes with the cinnamon apple butter, and a glass of superfruit medley tea.

Lunch: leftover Balsamic Braised Beef with the cauliflower mash. Still very tasty reheated!

Snack: a banana

Dinner: Tonight I made the Italian Sausage & Peppers recipe from the cookbook, along with the butternut squash mash that was suggested with the recipe. It was very good! Lots of good flavor with all the spices. It reminded us of a dish that is much worse for you that we love called dirty peppers and rice. I could switch this out for it from now on....less greasy, and I know a LOT less sodium!

Well I think I'm going to go make myself a cup of minty tea as my dessert tonight, since I don't have cookies made yet. Have a great weekend everyone! :)

21DSD: Day 4 Sweet Old Dog

Hooray it's day 4!! That means today is halfway through week one! I figure if I break it down in my mind into three separate weeks, then it won't seem as daunting to make it a whole 21 days....I hope.

Today has started off pretty decently. I slept like a rock last night. I barely remember getting up in the middle of the night to pee, and barely remember my hubby leaving for PT. I do remember my alarm way too much though. ;) My headache is minimal, and there's still some fatigue lingering, but overall I think I'm on the downhill slope of the initial symptoms of this detox. Finally.

As per my usual routine, I weigh myself every morning sans clothing. That may be TMI, but I can guarantee the results I see are real since there are no clothes to weigh me down (pun intended - ha!). And this morning was fantastic! And to top it off, I'm having a great hair day too. What more could I ask for?!? :D

Oh....I could ask for no potlucks today to tempt me with cupcakes. But that's out of my control. My plan for those potlucks is to eat before I go, and if there happens to be something I can eat there (not likely) then I can have a little bit. The results on my scale this morning are just too great to give into that temptation so early on in this program.

I've already made one dish for the first potluck. It's one that I can actually eat. It's a Tuscan Bean Salad which includes shallots, chopped baby greens, diced cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, navy beans, and crumbled goat cheese (seriously one of my favorite cheeses ever). This is the recipe I used my homemade balsamic Italian vinaigrette on. It looks a little dark because of the balsamic in it, but it is seriously tasty stuff you guys! Normally I mix everything up except for the goat cheese with a regular italian vinaigrette, and then top with the goat cheese and a balsamic glaze. But I had to adapt for a potluck so I made the dressing balsamic instead of using a glaze on top and just mixed in the goat cheese throughout. Hopefully other people like it too. Here it is all ready to chill before the meeting! :)

Unfortunately I couldn't come up with another recipe that was 21DSD friendly, so the second dish today will require some self control to not indulge. Although it really isn't that bad...they are raspberry-jalapeno meatballs. Basically a big bag of frozen regular meatballs defrosted, then coated with a jar of raspberry-jalapeno jelly. It's a fairly small jar, so there isn't much per meatball...and they are amazing.

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After the first potluck update: I managed to stay away from the cupcakes - hooray!! And I didn't eat anything else there either, even though the mac n cheese looked reaaaaaally good. It seems like people liked my salad too, as there wasn't a whole lot to bring home. ;)

I was late to the meeting though, and thankfully they hadn't quite started yet when I got there. But on my way there, I saw this older dog just wandering the street and it's a chilly windy day today and supposed to rain later. I had to stop to see if she would come to me. And she did....very friendly, sweet dog. As soon as I opened my car door to get my phone, she tried to climb in. Luckily I had a towel in the back seat so I got that and put it on the passenger side seat in the front. She willingly climbed in and just seemed to be at ease immediately. If I hadn't of been going somewhere, I would have just taken her home and fed her and gave her water and a soft place to lay down. But I was on my way to this meeting & potluck...I couldn't just leave her in my car for it. So I called the local police department's non-emergency number and they sent out an officer to pick her up. I guess they'll keep her in their shelter for about 24 hours to see if anyone calls, and then after that send her to the county animal shelter where they'll be able to take photos, descriptions, etc. I took a picture in my car and put it out on a couple of local sale pages. Hopefully her owners see her and can get her back today! My heart breaks for this older dog...she's so sweet, and is definitely having some joint stiffness and decreased range of motion. I have a low car and she was struggling to get in, and needed help to get in the police SUV. I sure hope her owners find her. You could tell she just wanted some loving, and it makes me just want to go back and get her even though I know I can't. So I really hope her story has a happy ending and reunion. Here is the sweetie pie: 

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Second potluck is over, and happy to say I didn't eat any mac n cheese, meatballs, cookies, or anything else. Woo! There weren't even cupcakes at this one! But it was kind of put together last minute so we didn't have much of a food selection.

Here is today's menu recap:

Breakfast: two yolk eggs, two slices of bacon, and two plantain pancakes with the cinnamon apple butter. They were MUCH better with the butter on them...both in flavor and moisture. I also had a cup of jasmine green tea.

Lunch: I had some of the leftover sausage/kale/sweet potato skillet with parmesan before the first potluck. When I got home I had the little bit that was left as well as a few bites of the tuscan bean salad I took but didn't get to eat at the meeting.

Snack: I had about 3/4 of a green apple - per the usual, Rachael had the rest.

Dinner: More leftovers for dinner - I had some more of the pollo asado from the other night.

I'm really glad my energy levels are starting to normalize. I know they are because there's no way I would have made it through this kind of day on Tuesday. Maybe that means I'll actually be able to get a workout done tomorrow! I've been slacking for like a week now. Adding exercise back in will certainly increase the weight loss aspect too.

Oh and the unsweetened shredded coconut I ordered arrived today! That means I'm making some cinnamon cookies tomorrow....yay for dessert again!! :D I just hope they are good haha!

Good night everyone....stay tuned for tomorrow's journey. ;)