Progress Update

Last week was a roller-coaster for us here in the Z. household.  Hit by a monstrous stomach bug at the beginning of the week, entrenched in Catholic Schools Week hysteria for the rest of the week, worrying about a serious surgery for a beloved family member, and experiencing some other things that I don't care to describe (it's always the little things), we struggled to keep our heads above water.

So, at the end of the week, when I met with my nutritionist and TSFL health coach, I wasn't expecting great results.  I also knew that there would be some discussion of what I've been doing in terms of the 12 Week Health Transformation.  Much of this is "mind-work" and I'd been doing a lot of thinking.

I took a typical day and looked at what I'd done:

1. Meal Replacement
2.  Mini-bagel with butter
3.  Meal Replacement
4. Sandwich with ham and cheese and 1 serving of BBQ chips
5. Meal Replacement
6. Casserole made with rice and ground turkey.

As I said in our meeting, it dawned as I looked at this that I was only half following TSFL.  As a result, I was just swirling around and around and around in stasis.

So, I recommitted myself.  I worked hard this past week.  I thought about what I was doing and I was feeling good about my choices.

This despite the fact that, for some crazy reason, I did my grocery shopping at Trader Joe's on Sunday -- not normal for me.  My meal plan -- usually consisting of home-cooked meals from the Skinnytaste website these days -- contains the following:

Sunday:  Grandparents Day Casserole (from St. John the Evangelist cookbook -- bread, eggs, sausage, and cheese)
Monday:  Chicken Pot Pie Soup (from Skinnytaste and very good)
Tuesday:  Trader Joe's meal (frozen gnocchi and broccoli -- I didn't eat this.)
Wednesday:  Leftover barbecue from Skinnytaste
Thursday:  Trader Joe's meal (will be marinated chipotle chicken skewers and rice)
Friday:  mini pizzas for kids (from Trader Joe's).

So mostly it consists of leftovers or frozen meal starters from Trader Joe's.  I've avoided the awful things -- even the Grandparent's Day casserole had only 4 pieces of bread in the entire 9x13 pan and I am able to have eggs,so no problem.

The rest of the time, I've been very faithful to the 5&1 concept of TSFL.

Until today, when I adapted a cookie recipe and... ran with it.

Have you tried the Speculoos cookie butter from Trader Joe's?  It.Is.Yummy.  I made an impulse purchase on Sunday and have regretted it ever since.  I NEED TO GET RID OF THIS STUFF.  It is too tempting. So today, I took a standard Peanut Butter Cookie recipe and substitute Speculoos cookie butter for the peanut butter and added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter.

Oh my gosh.  Very, very good.  And I had about 2 or 3 of those lovely things, tasting them throughout the cookie baking life cycle:  Batter, fresh out of the oven, and after setting up.  Now they are in a glass cookie jar, where they will be sent out with the children to school.  I may even put them into snack bags and freeze them for lunches next week.  Thank God the recipe makes only 2 dozen.