Meal Plan Week 15

Today I want to share my fitbit workout calendar with you.

Look at that! I have been rocking my workouts the last 2 weeks. And I want you to know that I almost ruined it today. I slept in, like til 10:30 (I went to bed at 11...). I didn't want to get out of my warm bed with the snuggly puppy. I told myself, "Go get breakfast, then get dressed, and you'll have the energy for your T25." I drank my Shakeology while watching Sunday's Kardashians. Then I proceeded to waste the next 45 minutes procrastinating. Facebook, Daily Mail, updates on Baltimore, Instagram, Pinterest... I had zero motivation to get up and get moving. The struggle was real folks. But I did it. And I rocked it. I felt strong the whole workout and even did an exercise without using Tanya (the low impact modifier). When I finished I honestly felt so much better than when I started.

Penny weeds the pool deck while I do my workouts!

Part of the journey is teaching my body to do and enjoy exercise. Learning that eating well and exercise truly does make my body feel good. Everyday is a new chance to build new habits and learn to listen to my body. Trust me, I want to be sitting on the couch binge watching TV right now. But the sun is shining, I'm dressed and ready for the day, and I've got things to do! Here's what we're eating to give this body the energy it needs to get through the next 3 workouts.

Monday:

Cajun Chicken Pasta

*Made this last night. I wish I hadn't bothered with making the sauce. It was a disaster.*

Tuesday:

Zesty Garlic Lemon Tilapia with Roasted Asparagus and Rice

Wednesday:

Cheddar Ranch Chicken Burgers with Baked Fries and a Salad

Thursday:

Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas

Friday:

Mock Lasagna with Salad

*Words cannot describe how good this dish is. I crave it! Most made recipe off Pinterest*

Meal Plan Week 14

Let this be motivation for you. The scale does not define you. It does not define your hard work. It does not measure the worth of your effort. It is just a number in a box. Don't let the scale put you in a box.

I KILLED IT last week with my workouts. I got a workout in every single day, except for Saturday. I made it to the gym M-W-F-Su, and rocked a T25 workout on T-Th. I even got a little yard work done on Saturday, so I wasn't a complete couch potato. I'm noticing my endurance increasing with my elliptical and bike routines. I'm lifting heavier and for more reps, and adding in new free weight strength exercises.

I knew I was going to have 2 meals out this week, so I tried to pinch my calories where I could. I made a couple dietary mistakes, but I recognized them and talked about them with E so I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

I lost no weight.

It's craft beer week here in Pittsburgh. The coolest part of that is all the collaboration brews. How cool is it that brewers around the city get together to brew unique, small brewed collaboration beers? These beers are only available during craft beer week, and when they're gone, they're gone. Finding these beers often involves a scavenger hunt around the city. This year there were 8 different collabs, and they were all on tap at my neighborhood craft beer and pizza place! Now now, don't worry your pretty little head. I did not drink 8 beers (whew! maybe that's why the scale isn't moving!). I thought I was going to have to drink 8 beers to taste all of the collabs, but thank goodness for flights! Caliente, the craft beer pizza place, offered 4 4oz pours of the beers. So in trying all 8, I only consumed 16oz of beer (I split the flights with my husband).

It's all about choices people. Last year I fo sho would have been drinking 8 beers. Because I needed them after working in the ICU, lol! But really, every little choice that you make helps you get one step closer to being a healthier you. Eat an apple instead of that cookie, swap popcorn for potato chips, take the stairs instead of the elevator.

The scale hasn't moved in a week. It's not the end of the world. I am smarter. I am stronger. I am healthier. Focus on the positive improvements that you're making to your life, and I promise that you will see progress. Good luck with focusing on your goals this week!

Here's what we have on the dinner menu this week. I'm recycling some stuff that didn't get eaten last week.

Monday:

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Tuesday:

Southwest Stuffed Peppers and Mexican Rice

Wednesday:
Ranch Pork Chop Shake 'n Bake

Thursday:

Teryaki Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce and Jasmin Rice

Friday:

Cajun Chicken Pasta

Meal Plan Week 13

Happy Monday lovelies! Life has been busy here in the McCarty household. E has been working 60 hours per week. I have been refocusing my energies back to getting healthy. I said one of my goals for 2015 was to use this blog as accountability, and I'm sorry readers that I fell off the wagon the last couple weeks. I've been struggling with motivation and progress. The past 3 weeks have been a standstill. No weightloss, poor exercise commitment, and poor housewife commitment (haha). It's hard to not see progress and keep committed. One of my problems has been staying on track during the week, but when the weekend comes I feel like it's ok to splurge. Or if I've been to the gym, it's ok to eat those extra 200 calories. I've also been drinking more and more diet soda.

I took some time to refocus myself and realize that even though I haven't lost weight in the past 3 weeks, I also haven't gained any. While the scale hasn't moved, I've noticed progress at the gym and with my workouts. I started this journey barely able to complete the low impact version of T25 cardio. I've been doing the workout now for about a month, probably at least once a week. I can now get through the entire workout without feeling like I'm going to puke and without taking a rest. That's huge progress! Another struggle was maintaining my endurance on the elliptical. This past Sunday I totally rocked my workout. 45 minutes non-stop on the elliptical while maintaining an average speed of 3.6 (w/e that unit of measurement actually is). That's huge progress from only being able to maintain that speed for about 10 minutes or so. Let's remind ourselves that the mirror and scale are not the only indicators of progress.

Are you struggling like me? Just remember to take things one day at a time. Progress and change do not happen overnight, but all of your hard work will pay off!

I've got a couple of events this week, so I really need to kill it with my workouts and really try and focus on my nutrition. My goal this week is to eat an apple if I'm craving a sweet snack, and a 100 calorie pack of popcorn if I'm craving salty. Here's what else we're eating this week.

Monday:

Brother's Birthday Dinner

*this little cutie is celebrating his 23rd birthday today*

Tuesday:

Tacos! with Fresh Guac, Salsa, Chips, and Chipotle Chicken Soup

Wednesday:

Ranch Chicken and a Garden Salad

Thursday:

Cartel 10th Chroma Anniversary Concert day!

Friday:

Southwest Stuffed Peppers and Mexican Rice

Saturday:

Teryaki Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce and Jasmin Rice

Meal Plan Week 12

Monday:

Tuna Casserole

*recipe to be posted on Wednesday!*

Tuesday:

Chicken Enchilada Rice Bake with sauteed red, yellow, and green peppers

Wednesday:

Omelettes

Thursday:

Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes and Sauteed Spinach

Friday:

Last Fish Fry of the season 

Meal Plan Week 11

Spring has sprung! Although March seems to have gotten confused on the whole "in like a lion, out like a lamb" thing. We had snow yesterday! But today it's 65 degrees. More snow in the forecast for Friday. Whatever, I know warm weather is right around the corner because little green things are starting to poke up around the yard, yay!

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:
Gemelli Pasta and Meatballs

Tuesday:
Homemade Cheeseburger Helper and broccoli

Wednesday:
Salisbury Steak and mashed potatoes and green beans (my mom made it for us)

Thursday:
Chicken Enchilada Rice Bake with sauteed peppers

Friday:
FISH FRY!

Penny says, "Be a better blogger Mommy!"

Meal Plan Week 10

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone (knowingly belated)! We've certainly been celebrating here in our house. My husband is part Irish, and we use that as an excuse to indulge in stereotypical Irish-American traditions. Did you know that Pittsburgh is the best city in the country to celebrate? According to this blog post at least. We won because of our great access to bars, St. Patrick's Day Facebook hype, percent of Irish (13.5%), and the year a parade was established (1869). However, we learned long ago that going downtown to celebrate with the masses is pure insanity. There's typically at least a 40 minute wait for drinks, which is only if you can get into a bar. By noon there are lines out the door to almost every bar in the city. We started our own tradition of staying home and getting drunk off car bombs from the comfort of our couch. It's much easier to stumble into bed that way!

Pittsburgh had their big celebration on 3/14, so that's when we had our little shindig too. We had an Irish Brunch drink with breakfast, busted out the fondue set for Irish Whiskey and Cheddar fondue, and rounded out the afternoon and evening with lots of Guinness and car bombs. Here's how we stretched the holiday into the rest of the week. Sorry, no recipe links this week! Everything was made from scratch by moi, no recipes needed.

Monday:

Bangers and Mash

Tuesday:

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Wednesday:

Reuben Sandwiches and Sauerkraut

Thursday:

Homemade Corn Beef Hash and Fried Eggs

Friday:

DOUBLE FISH FRY!

*lunch and dinner, yay!*

Have a great week everyone!

Meal Plan Week 9

Spring is coming! Spring is coming! Here in Pittsburgh, the snow is beginning to melt and we're having the first week in ages where the daily temp gets above 40 degrees. My family was able to get out and go for a walk around the neighborhood last night and I think little Penny had forgotten what it looked like! She had so much fun exploring everyone's yards with the grass starting to peek out. Here's what we're eating for dinners this week.

Monday:

Ham BBQ with Baked Beans and Green Beans

Tuesday:

Spinach and Feta Crescents with Italian Wedding Soup

Wednesday:

Tomato Tortellini Soup with Asiago Cheese Bread

Thursday:

Oven Baked Parmesan Pork Chops and Mixed Veggies

Friday:

Fish Fry!

Ranch Chicken Burgers

Here's something you may or may not know about me, I love chicken sandwiches. 9 times out of 10 I would rather eat a crispy chicken sandwich than a burger. But when I came across this recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything, I was a little skeptical. I'd never had a chicken sandwich made with ground chicken before. Wouldn't it be dry and more like a hockey puck than a burger? Isn't ground chicken really expensive? I was wrong, I can admit that. This ranch chicken burger is fantastic!

Well, kinda wrong. Ground chicken is expensive. It was $6.19/lb at my store. I usually pay less than $4/lb for 90/10 ground beef. But this week chicken breasts were on sale BOGO. I got 5lbs of chicken breasts for about $2/lb. I had read somewhere on the internet about grinding your own meat with a food processor, so I thought now would be the perfect time to try it! Now if you're trying this recipe at home, know that you can use any kind of boneless skinless chicken to grind. I found that grinding breasts made for a perfectly moist burger, but adding chicken thighs to the mix may add some more flavor.         

First step is to cut up the chicken into bite size pieces. Place these pieces in the freezer for about 15 minutes. You want the outsides to be pretty frozen, but the insides will still be thawed. This frozen crust helps the food processor grind the meat uniformly.

Put the semi-frozen chicken into the bowl of the food processor. Process the meat on high for about 20 seconds. The chicken should look, well, like ground chicken. Remove the meat and put in a large mixing bowl. Check it over for any large pieces. Return these pieces to the food processor and repeat the grinding process.

Add all your spices to the meat. Mix well, then form into patties. I made 4 1/4lb burger patties. You could make them smaller if you wanted to. The ground chicken doesn't really shrink like ground beef. The ground beef has a higher fat content, and that fat melts out during cooking causing your burgers to shrink. While you're making the patties toast up some sandwich buns. I used King's Hawaiian Sandwich Buns. They're a little sweeter than the average bun, and I find them absolutely delicious when toasted with a little butter. Speaking of butter, definitely toast your buns with butter in the pan that you're planning on using to cook the burgers. The little bit of residual butter in the pan helps cook the chicken.

Once your buns are toasted and your patties are made, add them to the hot pan. Remember, these are chicken burgers, not beef, so they need to be completely cooked through! I cooked mine for 3-4 minutes on each side, then checked the internal temperature before I took them off the stove. You want the very middle of the burger to be at least 160 degrees. If you don't have a meat thermometer, go out and buy one now! I got mine from Kohls for about $20. This little guy is great, and the one I own, because it already has proper meat temps programmed in. Stop risking illness and check your meat temperatures!

When you have about 2 minutes of cooking time left put the cheddar cheese on top of the burgers. I steamed my burgers to make sure that my cheese was totally melted. This is how restaurants make the cheese on your burgers so ooey and gooey. It's a really simple process. Just put about a tablespoon or 2 of water in the bottom of your pan, then quickly cover with a lid. The water will not effect your food, but the steam will make sure that the cheese completely melts.

Put your burgers on your delicious butter toasted buns, and top with things that are only going to make this burger more yummy. I topped mine with lettuce, red onion slices, and about a teaspoon of ranch dressing. I would have added some tomato, but they were pretty skanky looking at the store. Side note: I can't wait for warm weather and big delicious tomatoes!

I served my burgers with some cajun seasoned tater tots and green beans. This meal wasn't exactly low-cal, because of the buttered bun, but definitely better for you than a burger! According to MyFitnessPal.com, my sandwich clocked in at about 700 cal. The bun alone is 250 cal. The burger is 415 cals. In the future I'd lighten this recipe up by using a generic hamburger bun (120cal) and ditch the cheese (220 cal). I wouldn't try and lessen the amount of breadcrumbs because they give the burger much needed texture and help to hold the chicken patties together.

I hope that your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine did. Have a great weekend everyone!

Ranch Chicken Burgers

Serves 4

Burger Ingredients:

1 lb of boneless skinless chicken, or 1 lb of pre-ground chicken

½ cup Panko bread crumbs

¼ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 Tablespoon dried onion flakes

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 Tablespoon dry ranch dressing mix

Burger Toppings:

4 slices cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons butter

4 sandwich rolls

Lettuce

Prepared ranch dressing

Red onion

·        Cut your chicken into bite size pieces. Place in the freezer for about 15 minutes. The chicken should be very cold, but not frozen through.

·        Place the partially frozen chicken pieces in your food processor. Use the highest setting to grind the chicken. This takes about 20 seconds. Remove the chicken to a large mixing bowl. If there are any remaining large pieces, repeat the grinding process with only these pieces.

·        In the large mixing bowl, stir together the ground chicken, both types of breadcrumbs, onion flakes, garlic powder, seasoned salt, and dry ranch mix.

·        Form the chicken mixture into patties. One pound of ground chicken should make four quarter pound patties.

·        Butter both insides of the sandwich buns. Place buns in the pan that will be used to cook the chicken burgers, this will provide a little bit of oil to cook the burgers. Toast the buns until golden brown. Set aside.

·        Place burgers in the hot non-stick pan. Cook patties for approximately 3-4 minutes on each side. Use a meat thermometer to measure the internal temperature, which should be at least 160 degrees. During the last 2 minutes of cooking, place the cheddar cheese on top of burgers. Add about a Tablespoon of water to the pan, then cover with a lid. This steam will help melt the cheddar. 

·        Put the chicken burger on the toasted buns. Top with lettuce, red onion, and a squirt of ranch dressing. Enjoy!

Meal Plan Week 8

Do you take the time to plan out your meals for the week? I find that it cuts down my grocery bill and on the stress of "what the heck am I going to cook for dinner?" I very rarely go in to the store without a plan of what I'm going to buy. I'll check the weekly circulars for foods that are on sale, then build my menu around those ingredients. When I walk in to the store I know exactly what's on sale and what I'm buying. I try to stock up on pantry staples when they go on sale, and I buy and freeze all my meat when it's on sale. The only thing I ever buy full price is my produce.

This week my store was running a special on pre-breaded cod. If you bought a pound of the cod, (normally priced $12.99/lb, on sale for $7.99/lb) you could get a 20oz. container of Bob Evans Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese for free (normally $5.29). What a great deal! That's what we had for dinner last night. The food was yummy, but it was even more satisfying knowing that I spent $8.26 for a fish dinner for two!

Here's what's going on for the rest of the week for E and I. Have a great week everyone!

Monday:

Panko Breaded Cod with Mac & Cheese and roasted carrots

Tuesday:

Ham BBQ with Baked Beans and Roasted Broccoli

Wednesday:

Baked Spaghetti and Meatball Casserole with a Side Salad

Thursday:

Cheddar Ranch Chicken Burgers with Roasted Broccoli and Cajun Tator Tots

Fish Fry Friday!

Menu Plan Week 6

Happy Presidents Day! I hope everyone had a great weekend. If you were lucky enough to celebrate with someone you love on Valentine's Day, I hope you were spoiled! If you weren't with someone special, I hope you spoiled yourself!

I certainly was spoiled! I had a great weekend out and about with my hubby. We had some great quality time together, and of course we ate a bunch of great food! I had steak 3 days in a row. I haven't had that much red meat probably ever! We ate at Texas de Brazil, which is a churrascaria. If you're not familiar with what that is, it's like a mobile meat buffet! Gauchos prepare a myriad of traditional meats cooked over an open flame on giant kebab skewers then they bring the meats to your table. It's awesome! Then on Friday we ate at Melting Pot. We enjoyed our dinner of filet and lobster tail in a really cozy secluded booth. We got to cuddle and take our time really enjoying our meal. Dessert was the best part. We had a dark chocolate praline bourbon fondue with fresh fruits, brownies, and cake. Soooo yummy. Saturday we got loud and dirty at the Monster Jam, then got dressed up and had a great steak dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. See? I told you I was spoiled!

This week has a couple of big events going on too. Tuesday is Mardi Gras, the last big Hurrah! before the Lenten season begins. We have a couple of traditions that we honor with our family. My side of the family always gets a King Cake from a local bakery that makes the best cake ever! E's family traditionally celebrated with eating Paczki. Paczki (pronounced Punch-key) are traditional Polish pastries eaten to mark the beginning of Lent. We'll be doing both. This only happens once a year, so no excuse not to celebrate. Then Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the official start to the Lenten season, aka Fish Fry Season. We take our fish fries very seriously here in Pittsburgh. Every Friday you'll find lines out the doors of Catholic churches around the city. The best fish fries batter and fry their own fish, and the really good ones have homemade pierogies! This week is a bonus week, we get a fish fry on Wednesday AND Friday. E and I travel all around the city every Friday in search of the best fish. We will seriously drive close to an hour to get fish. So I'll be changing my posting schedule up a little bit to accommodate our fish adventures. Instead of posting recipes on Friday, I'll be posting on Thursday.

Well I definitely need to get back to the daily grind after that epic chowdown. Here's our meal plan for the week.

Monday:

Buffalo Grilled Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Cajun Tater Tots and Maque Choux

Tuesday:

Slow Cooker Jambalaya with Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Wednesday:

FISH FRY

Thursday:

Bean and Cheese Baked Burritos

Friday:

FISH FRY

Menu Plan Week 5

Happy Monday Internet lovelies! How was your weekend? Mine was nice and relaxing. We got a little shopping done on Saturday and Sunday we went to a puppy playtime and tried out a new pizza place. Penny loves running around and wrestling with all the other doggies!

We've been on this cleaner whole food eating plan for a little over a month and we are loving it! I've lost a total of 7lbs since we started. I haven't been too strict either. We eat out on the weekend if we want, or have a cheat day. I walk a couple days a week, or shovel snow, and try to do a T25. I feel like I have more energy and am more clear mentally. I'm more regular, if you know what I mean and I've even noticed my skin hasn't been so dry. It hasn't been too hard either. The most difficult part has been staying committed to cooking at home. It's easy after a busy day to say "Eh, let's just go out." But having a gameplan, and having the ingredients on hand helps me stay on track. Here's what we've got going on this week:

Monday:

Spinach, Mushroom, and Onion Quiche and Sauteed Garlic Spinach

Tuesday:

Tuna Cakes with Chipotle Mayo and Green Beans

Wednesday:

Fish Tacos and Chipotle Corn Chowder

Thursday:

Dinner out at Texas De Brazil

Friday:

Valentine Dinner out at Melting Pot

Have a great week everyone, and I'll check back in on Weigh In Wednesday!

Menu Plan Week 4

After the Super Bowl this past Sunday do you feel let down at all? I'm not talking about the game (but seriously though who throws the ball on the 1 yard line at the end of the freaking Super Bowl?), I'm talking about how I actually feel. I ate a bunch of processed foods on Sunday. Doughnuts for breakfast, Little Caesars for lunch, leftover pizza, homemade stromboli, and beer for dinner. I spent all day Monday in a funk. I was tired, my stomach hurt, and I felt like I couldn't focus. I didn't work out, or do anything at all really. According to my FitBit I took a measly 1,645 steps. I'm really marveling in the fact that changing your diet can really affect how your body feels. A month of eating good, whole, homemade foods has really changed me, which is crazy to me. I've had little to no cravings for processed foods. This is coming from a girl that craved, and indulged that craving, chips and McDonald's at least once a week. After 1 day of completely breaking my diet, I feel like I need to run out right now and grab a McChicken and stop for a bag of Cheetos on the way home. Time to get back on track. Don't let one bad day throw away all your hard work.

Here's my gameplan for this week. I already made some ranch pork chops for dinner yesterday. Today I'm going to use some leftover dough from the stromboli to make homemade pizzas. We're going to do a classic pepperoni and then a white pizza. Here's what's on deck for the rest of the week.

Monday:

Ranch Pork Chops with Green Beans and Rice

Tuesday:

Homemade Pepperoni and White Pizza

Wednesday:

Balsamic Glazed Tuna Steaks with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots

Thursday:

Mock Lasagna

Friday:

Chipotle Corn Chowder

Good luck getting back on track everyone. Looking forward to Weigh In Wednesday! Penny says "It's time to get off the couch, take me for a walk!"