Shrinkvivor Check In (Oct 26)

Okay, so it's time to check in again at the Sisterhood. And I'm gonna make this short and sweet. I got sent to Exile Island last week. Darn. But I'm still in this thing, so here's to making it count! Last week's mini-challenge was 64 ounces of water per day. No problem. This week? Only 2 mini candy bars and NO OTHER CANDY. Um, I can tell you right now that this is not going to happen. But I'll try. I logged in a measly 95 minutes of exercise last week, mostly walking the dogs. But I am trying, I promise. I am down 1/2 pound this week, so that's good. 1.8 pounds of baby weight left. Yay!

A Recipe for You: Lion's Head Meatballs

So, last week I posted my menu here. It included one of my very favorite recipes from the Rachel Ray cookbook 365: No Repeats. I've made this a million times. As I was cooking it again on Thursday, I decided that I should share my slightly-modified version with you. Because it is SO good. You're welcome.

Lion's Head Meatballs

(They are called this because you have large meatballs surrounded by a "mane" of cabbage.)

3/4 cup brown rice

1-4oz. can sliced shitake mushrooms

5-6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 egg, beaten

Black pepper

Corn starch

Canola oil

2 cups chicken broth

1 small head green cabbage, thickly shredded or chopped

Place rice in a pan along with 2 1/4 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 40-ish minutes or until done.

Meanwhile, chop the canned mushrooms and place in large bowl. Add garlic, ground beef, ground pork, soy sauce, egg, black pepper to taste, and 2-3 Tbsp. of corn starch. Mix together. The mixture will be very sticky and wet.

Dump about 1/2 cup additional corn starch on a plate. Form meat mixture into large-ish meatballs for a total of 12-16 meatballs. Roll in the cornstarch to lightly coat.

Heat canola oil in a large stockpot. Add the meatballs and fry on all sides until deep golden brown. (Don't worry if the meatballs aren't cooked through - they will finish cooking later.) Remove meatballs and set aside.

Drain remaining oil from stock pot. Add broth to stock pot and scrape up any browned bits fromt he bottom of the pan. Bring broth to a boil. Add half the cabbage then place meatballs on top. Cover with the remaining cabbage. Place lid on pot, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15-20 minutes or until cabbage is cooked down.

Serve meatballs, cabbage and broth on top of rice. Serves 4.

Menu Plan Your Butt Off (Oct 23)

So, it's time to menu plan over at the Sisterhood again. I know, how has another week gone by already? It's crazy. And my husband is going elk hunting this week, so my menu might not look as fabulous as normal, because cooking for 1 (okay 1 1/2- the baby doesn't eat as much as me!) isn't all that exciting.

• Sunday - Balsamic Glazed Pork with Lentils that I posted last week, but it didn't get made Saturday night as we went out to dinner with my in-laws instead
• Monday - Leftover Lion's Head Meatballs from last week (recipe to follow tomorrow)
• Tuesday - Pasta with Spinach, Bacon, and Lemony Ricotta from Rachel Ray's 365: No Repeats (You'll probably be seeing more recipes from this book. When I bought it, I tried a lot of the recipes. Then I got burnt out. Because I love Rachel Ray, but her stuff all starts sounding the same after awhile. And I love the recipes from Real Simple magazine which is the best magazine ever. And I make those a lot. But after awhile those all seem the same too. So, I'm switching back to the Rachel Ray cookbook a little, because there is no way I could have possibly tried all 365 recipes yet.)
• Wednesday - Leftover Balsamic Pork
• Thursday - Pasta (My husband made and froze extra fresh pasta when he was making homemade raviolis last week - I know you're jealous - so that I wouldn't starve this week. Yum!)
• Friday - Fall Minestrone from the above-mentioned cookbook. My mother-in-law is coming over to watch Sammy that day, so I can get my hair cut and then is staying the night, so we can take him to Boo at the Zoo the next day.
• Saturday - I have a Halloween party to go to, so I'll take an appetizer or salad with me.
  

Shrinkvivor Check-In (Oct 19)

Okay, so I missed blogging last week about Shrinkvivor over at the Sisterhood. I did check in, though. Last week I was up 0.2 pounds. This week I am exactly the same as last week. Boo. But I understand that if I don't up the exercise, I'm gonna continue to have problems. I had 80 minutes of exercise last week. I can't even remember how many minutes I had the week before that. As far as mini-challenges, the previous week's challenge was 7 hours of sleep per night. I think I did that. Of course, as far as sleep goes this week? Don't ask. Last week we were supposed to eat something green every day. Um, I think I failed miserable at that. Oh well. This next week we are supposed to get 64 oz. of water every day. I can do that. And we continue to log exercise minutes. And at least I am maintaining my weight. Now if I can just kick it in high gear, maybe I can lose the last of the baby weight before my baby turns 1 in a few weeks. Seriously, people, how has a year flown by already?

Menu Plan Your Butt Off (Oct 17)

It's time to menu plan over at the Sisterhood again. And just so you know, even if I don't post it here, I ALWAYS have a menu plan. I'm crazy like that. So, here goes for this week:

• Sunday - broiled salmon with peas and parmesan orzo
• Monday - date night/eating out
• Tuesday - chicken paprikash and veggies
• Wednesday - homemade ravioli and salad
• Thursday - leftovers
• Friday - lion's head meatballs from Rachel Ray's 365:No Repeats cookbook
• Saturday - balsamic glazed pork with lentils

Shrinkvivor Check-In (Oct 5)

So it's time to check-in yet again for the latest challenge over at the Sisterhood - go Team Gold! This last week's challenge was to log our exercise minutes. My grand total was 154 minutes - which totally seemed like a lot to me until I saw that my teammates logged in 300 or 400-something minutes each - they rock! They also threw in a mini-challenge of no fast food, which was easy for me. Unless you count Starbucks. But I'm totally not counting Starbucks. Coffee is the essence of life, yo. And I only went to Starbucks once last week.

Next week we are supposed to log in our exercise minutes again. And the mini-challenge is to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Which is something I need to work on. Having a baby challenges my sleeping.

And the final verdict is... I lost 1.4 pounds last week. I was expecting a loss, but am quite surprised it was this much. Of course, with all those exercise minutes, my teammates lost like 3 pounds each, so I might get voted off the island this week, but that's okay. I can only lose it so quickly. I am still breastfeeding after all and have to feed 2. Overall, however, I am very happy with these results. Only 2.1 pounds of baby weight left!

Menu Plan Your Butt Off - October 3

So, I missed the menu planning with the Sisterhood last week and this week I'm not getting it posted until the end of the day Monday, but at least I'm trying. :) Acutally, I have it all planned out, it's the blogging that I'm slacking with, so that's good. Without further blah-blahing, here goes:

• Sunday - Fend-for-Yourself night (Because I didn't get any meat out of the freezer in time)
• Monday - Broiled salmon over salad with homemade mustard vinaigrette
• Tuesday - Crockpot curried chicken with quinoa/veggies
• Wednesday - leftovers
• Thursday - Burgers with baked beans and veggies
• Friday - Loaded flank steak with lemon and dill potatoes and veggies
• Saturday - unplanned, because something usually comes up