Week 1 down!

This week we have eaten a LOT of chicken, pork loin chops... and a couple of days ago I made pasta using Barilla Pasts Plus, as well as ground turkey. Lunches have been a wrap or a huge salad, with romaine, spinach, peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, green onions, tomatoes, chicken, and a little feta. Fat free Balsamic vinaigrette, or sometimes just a bit of lemon or lime juice with balsamic, and dijon mustard, shaken up in a clean baby food jar with a lid. Some days I put about a teaspoon of julienned olive-oil packed sundried tomatoes in there as well.

Last night, we had 4 chicken breasts to use up. We had some Whole Wheat tortillas, and pinto beans. Jeff had gone to Trader Joe's and bought some frozen brown rice. HUGE time saver... 3 minutes in the micro, and poof! Brown rice!! So, since I had both cilantro and parsley, I whipped up a Chimichurri sauce. I just went to Epicurious and typed in "Chimichurri Sauce" and made the recipe from Bon Appetite, October 2002. Using my food processor made short work of this... it literally took me more time to locate the blade for my mini work bowl then the actual recipe did to prepare.

Chimichurri Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup (packed) fresh cilantro
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Puree all ingredients in processor. Transfer to bowl. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.)

I preheated the oven to 425, put the 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts on a foil-lined baking sheet, and spooned about a Tablespoon of sauce over each chicken breast, turning to coat completely. I baked them for around 35 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking. Then, they were sliced thinly on the diagonal, and we had them wrapped up in the Whole Wheat Tortillas with beans, brown rice, chimichurri sauce, and salsa.

I also grated some cheddar (not for me!) but for hubby to put on his burritos, and also so our pre-schooler could have quesadillas.

So, although I am not 100% sure of my starting weight at the beginning of the week... I need to find my bathroom scale, it is still packed away. I did weigh myself, fully clothed, holding the baby at her well visit yesterday. I subtracted her weight plus 2 pounds for clothes and shoes (a conservative estimate... I was wearing jeans)

Anyway, I weigh about 10 pounds less than I did at Thanksgiving, also fully clothed weighing myself at Jeff's Grandma's (after eating Thanksgiving dinner) - highly unaccurate? Yes... but still, it's LESS even AFTER the holidays eating, the cookies, eggnog, "holiday cheer", the take-out... and after only a week of this new way of eating.