Not lazy,just busy

Sorry I have been away from the blog for couple of weeks now.Not lazy,but just a whole lot busy.One weekend was sleepover at a friends place and the next DH had  painful wisdom teeth extraction,so I waited on him hand and foot. As for my weigh in updates- Week#8 was +0.2lbs from the previous week, Week#9 was another +0.6 lbs. Going up two consecutive weeks was just not acceptable to me. I knew exactly how I gained them though. That visit to the thai place and that dinner at a japanese steak house,all of them were a known cause.

So I decided I needed to refocus my strategies. I realized I had worked my way up to about a 40 mins of treadmill running( with few stops) but somehow my body had got used to it. I may have hit a pleateau.So the next week I chose to mix 20 mins treadmill with 20 mins elliptical. I had also received my Week#9 booklet which had a awesome 20 min strength training workout. I made these two changes and voila!!!, at my week #10 weigh in I was down 2.2lbs.Can you imagine one minor change in your routine is all it takes.

Another 2.6 lbs and I will be at my 10% goal mark. The journey already seems so long, but I know this is not the end. My personal goal is to try to be a healthy BMI of 18.5-14.9 which for my height at 5′ 3″ is 130 lbs. That’s another 19 lbs.I am only half way there.Lord almighty!! Okie refocus, lets look at short term goals,to get these 2.6 lbs, then another 5 lbs,then another 5 lbs and so on.We all learned, slow and steady wins the race.

This week I am just posting a picture of an elegant dinner we had one Sunday evening – some good wine and Seafood Fra Diavolo – whole wheat angel hair cooked in a Fra Diavolo Pasta Sauce(store bought) with seafood assortment of pan seared scallops, shrimp and frozen mussels( precooked and packaged in tomato garlic sauce). Anyone thinking Italian tonight?

Update: One of my friends asked me for the exact recipe for Seafood Fra-Diavolo so here it is.

Ingredients
1 cup of store bought fra-diavlo sauce
1/2 box of store bought frozen mussels(these are precooked and packaged in tomato garlic sauce)
5 large scallops (i slice them in half to get 10 scallop discs)
8 large shrimp
1/3 box of whole wheat angel hair pasta
2-3 cloves of garlic slivered
Preparation

1. Cook the angel hair pasta as per the box and drain and keep aside.
2. Defrost the box of frozen cooked mussels for few mins
3. Salt and pepper the shrimp and scallops
4. In a pan, heat some olive oil and sear the scallops on each side,it gets a slight browning.Remove the scallops and keep aside.DO NOT cover and cook.
5. And next sear and cook the shrimp till pink.Remove and keep aside.DO NOT cover and cook.
6. Next in the same pan drop in the mussels and this time cover and cook, the juices will ooze out and also the mussels will steam and thaw out.Remove and keep aside.
7. In the pan, add some more olive oil and brown some garlic. Drop in the cooked pasta.Pour 1 cup of the store bought Fra Diavolo sauce and mix everything.Finally drop in all the seafood and mix.
8. Top with some fresh grated parmesan and serve with wine. Bon Appetit!!

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Oh, what a weekend…

What an amazing weekend it was. Good food, good friends and an awesome Superbowl game. Oh yes and how can i forget the surprising results of this weekends weigh in- another 2 lbs , people.Why was i surprised? Well if you read my post last week, all that eating we did on the weekend, I was sure it would show up on the scale. Looks like sticking to the gym however kept it away.

Since I started this journey (Dec. 1) I have been regular at the gym 5 days a week. M,W I run. T,Th I Zumba and  Fri I attend the gyms happy-hour. Sa,Sun I rest. Yes rest is very important. As far as possible you should avoid workout 7 days a week. You need to let your body recover.

Fast forward to this weekend ,and it was just about the same as last,except for a whole lot of more eating. However,on Saturday when we visited our friends, they had made a healthy spread – appetizer of a warm hearty tomato soup and cheese-chicken sandwiches followed by Falafel and topping it with Gulab Jamun (who said they are not healthy). How can you resist such spread you ask ?. I didnt, I ate everything, just that I watched my seconds.Anyways I have realised, I tend to eat less anyways. Maybe as you lose weight your stomach shrinks.Who knows?. Evening I had lip smackingly good Pav-Bhaji cooked up by DH. Again it wasnt that bad. Because the way DH cooked it up- measuring everything- it came to about a point per half cup. Who knew pav bhaji was a  1 point food? Superbowl Sunday however was a whole another story. The day started with Poha, lunch at IHOP and sharing Big Ben’s spotlight that evening was –Tandoori Chicken.

I was thinking of posting the Tandoori Chicken recipe-since many of my friends have asked for it. But I didnt have any picture to post.So here we go with another one of my creations. I had this as a light dinner one Sunday, however you it fits equally well as a finger food(appetizer). This is my entry to Rachana’s Healthy Bite event. The original recipe called for ground beef,but I used ground turkey instead. Also, one of the key ingredients I would not skip or replace is Bibb Lettuce which is a mild flavored, smooth leaf lettuce and is easily available at any grocery store in the US.

Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

16 oz ( 1lb) 93/7 lean ground turkey
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup green pepper
2 tbsp ginger (chopped/paste)
2 cloves garlic (chopped/paste)
1 cup cabbage finely chopped
2 cups mushrooms
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp any chilli sauce (Sriracha)
8 bibb lettuce leaves.

Preparation

1. Heat a wok and spray with cooking spray. Add ginger,garlic and onion and saute for few mins.
2. Add ground turkey,soy sauce, chili sauce and salt  and cook till turkey is brown and cooked.
3. Add chopped cabbage ,mushroom and green pepper and cook till mushroom is soft and green pepper is crisp but cooked.
4. Spoon 1/2 cup of the mixture into each lettuce leaf.

Servings: 4 (2 leaves per serving)
Points: 4 per serving

Note: This same mixture if stuffed inside wontons will make yummy dumplings. Maybe that recipe next time.

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