Happy Thanksgiving!

Food blogger holiday of the year - I'm looking forward to some good stuff in blog world!

11/7 - Game night and $2 movies!

Tuesday was another hectic day at work. 7am-7pm is not my style. Personal promise to myself - Wed will be an early day.

I woke up early and headed to the polls to get my vote on. Look at these early risers doing their duty. Go 'Merica.

‎"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." -Thomas Jefferson

Best part of voting? Positive reinforcement sticker.

Looking a little tired

 I had some tangerines for breakfast for 0pts+.

Waaaay better than oranges

For lunch, I had more lasagna, 6pt+.

Dinner was pumpkin chili again. Will this get old? Don't think so. 5pt+.

After dinner, we had game night at Chris's place. We played settlers. It was definitely a learning night, but fun. 

And after game night, we went to the new IMAX theater. Its their opening week and they are doing $2 movies and donating all of the proceeds to charity! We saw The Dark Night. Loved it. But it got out after 1AM...way passed this kid's bedtime. I had popcorn and a piece of a reese's for 15pt+.

TOTAL: 25/26

ACTIVITY: 0/15

Weekly Points: 43 Remaining

11/6 - Catching Up

Monday was crazy, Tuesday was crazy, today I'm finally catching my breath and getting back to routine productivity.

Monday, I had scrambled egg whites with one whole egg and a tangerine for breakfast for 2pt+.

For lunch, I had a kale mushroom lasagna roll-up, tangerine, and side salad consisting of spring mix, broccoli slaw, and goddess dressing (an old favorite) for 7pt+. The lasagna roll-up idea is brilliant for portion control and only 6pt+.

Photos of the roll-up process from Sunday food prep.

For dinner, I had some more pumpkin and black bean chili with a piece of bread for 9pt+.

After dinner, I headed to our YoungLives monthly mentor meeting. I do love the group, but working in a really fast paced environment where meetings are efficient as possible and if you waste time you are essentially shunned, I get a stressed out going through an agenda at a snail's pace, getting off topic, and discussions that could easily be resolved by involving technology and fact checkers.

I'm thinking:
"Let's go go GO! Get this shit done. November 16th? 5pm, I'm good with that. Bring blankets, pillows, mentee, and baby. Got it." 

They're thinking: 
"November 16th? That's my cousin's cat's baby dady's birthday...speaking of that...his name is Fred" 
"Oh! Fred? I know him." 
"No, Fred's a cat." 
"Oh, well Fred Smith is nice."
"What was the date again?"

OMG, We met for over two hours and made something like....3 decisions. I wanted to jump out of my skin. Somehow I don't think I will ever be gifted to work in the non profit sector full-time. I had work to do when I got home (I was on a deadline for getting an editorial piece to a magazine that I hadn't finished.), and all I was thinking the whole time was how far behind I was! Not a good frame of mind to volunteer with unfortunately.

Our apt is taking a week off of having alcohol in an effort to work on productive life habits and get over our chronic colds - meaning our normal decompression with a glass of wine with an episode of 24 was out of the question. So when I got home pretty frazzled, Megan and I went to grab chips and salsa to decompress. I had 9pts+ of chips and salsa and 6pt+ of two reese's cups.

Decompression complete.

TOTAL: 33/26

ACTIVITY: 4 today / 14 weekly

Weekly Points: 42 remaining

Hope to see less of each other next time!

Casey

11/5 - Pumpkin, Black Bean, Sriracha Chili

I tracked yesterday! AND I'm going to my WW meeting this week. Last week was insanely busy. I had normal work ~47 hours, and lab work for an additional 30 hours! I felt like I was under a bus. I've been working in the lab to help the hubs out with his research.

No breakfast Sunday, I slept in. I did laundry and picked up in the morning before heading out to grab lunch for Lexus and I. Look at this handsome guy.

He's almost a Halloween baby. I got to spend some time with him and his momma Sunday. He is precious.

I had a southwest salad with avocado from Trinity for lunch for 7pt+.

After lunch, I scrambled to get to our double header kickball games +11 activity pts. Then it was errands and the grocery store for me. I have to get my food ready for the week before it starts in order to be at all successful. 

I had some ideas floating around in my mind for meals for the week. I saw this pumpkin, black bean, sriracha chili on Hungry Meets Healthy over the weekend and knew I had to try this. With the hubbs out of town at Oakridge, I could indulge in meatless meals. I made some adjustments which are listed below, but the flavor is amazing and unexpected. My roomie and I gobbled it up for dinner.

Pumpkin, Black Bean, Sriracha Chili:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1.5 cup canned white corn
• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 1/2 jalepeno
• 4.5-5 Tbsp sriracha
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2-3 cups water (or combination of water and vegetable broth)

Follow the instructions on Xtina's site! I had to add liquid to get the consistency I wanted and added some extras for heat. I love spicy food, and this took the chili to the perfect amount of heat to make your nose run a little. :)

I had one serving for 5pts+ and its a power food if you follow weight watchers. You're welcome! Go make it, and hit up Hungry Meets Healthy and tell her you made it.

TOTAL: 12/26

ACTIVITY: 11 today / 11 weekly

Weekly Points Remaining: 49/49 (although I didn't track over the weekend)

Hope to see less of each other next time!

Casey