May the Fourth be with you! What's on your menu plan today?

Bring a blanket in addition to your warm clothes.

Haha, that is my cats name! He's orange btw

Good morning Jen! Ahhhhh, back to real, steady internet. I'm so spoiled. First world problems. Edit to add: Sorry! I aimed to put this as a reply directly to your email, but now we sharing with everyone! Technology challenged over here.

Pistachio green salad

I made this vinaigrette first. On the chef's advice, I doubled the honey. I was a little too mustard forward for me (I'm not a big fan of mustard) so next time I will halve the mustard.

http://keyingredients.me/2018/02/pistachio-vinaigrette I made it like 5 days in advance and let it meld and it was pretty fabulous. Use Salted, roasted, unflavored pistachios. Hopefully you can find them pre-shelled. I had a rough time of it because flavoring is all the rage now. I ended up using roasted, unsalted ones, and added a bit more salt.

The salad is then 1 small zucchini, half an avocado and about 1/3-1/2 green bell pepper. You want to end up with approximately an equal quantity of each of the three. I cut the sides off the zucchini to remove the skin AND square it up, then I diced it in small squares. About 1/4" each. Part of the charm of the salad is to have all the bits the same size. Then I diced up about the green pepper. I kept those all in the fridge. Just before serving, I diced up the avocado. Mixed in gently with the zucchini and pepper. Added about 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Stirred gently again. It should moist but not wet. Salt to taste. The chef then put it in a ring on a plate and served it all pretty like that. I just patted it into a small bowl. Sprinkle some roughly chopped pistachios on top. You want crunch size pieces here, so don't pulverize. Served with rice crackers. This amount served 3 adults along with a side of Ahi and mango salsa for lunch. Very refreshing. Lot's of left over vinaigrette, which has been great on salads this week.

Hope you enjoy!

I buy the roasted, salted, shelled pistachios at TJs, they are a staple! (and the TJs that is 10 minutes away from me vs half an hour opens on friday!). thank you for sharing this!!

ohhhh TJ's 10 minutes away. Both wonderful and scary. LOL. Mine is really close, but I can't go in there without buying like 15 things I never knew I needed!

I'm back for the post of the day. LOL. I had a great time at the lake, but love to be back home. I did a whole post yesterday, but couldn't get enough service to send it. I was very busy all morning with the clean up, break down, unload and put away routine. No real exercise, but in and out of the house, up and down the stairs like 30 times. Carrying stuff most of the the time. I calling that exercise. I did ride my bike for 7 miles on Monday. Felt the need to share that since it got eaten by the internet yesterday. Today doesn't have a lot going on. I have a few returns to the mall, I may do that when Rog gets back from taking his car in. We got hit in a parking lot about 6 weeks ago, and it's taken this much time to get the parts. He's excited to get his car back in shape.

I put new batteries in my scale this morning and my weight jumped a legit 5 pounds. I'm trying not to freak out and hope things look better in the morning. I did try on my travel pants after that and was relieved they fit. Paris in 12 days!!!

QoTD: Not really. We call them the big Lincoln and the little Lincoln. But my best friends sister is named Barbie. And her husband has always been called RB, and their car license plate says Carbie. That's as close as I can get to a named car.

Menu:

B: left over maui rib and cottage cheese.

L: we might be out, and I have a PF Chang's gift card from my birthday, so maybe Mongolian beef?

D: 4 oz sea bass, with brown butter, a few bites of baked sweet potato and broccolini.

And hopefully another day of no adult beverages. I'll just think about that damn scale if I start considering a glass of wine while I cook dinner!

Peace Everybody!

If I biked 7 miles, I would find a way to mention it all week! (and stairs carrying things up and down definitely counts as exercise!)

May the 4th Be with You,

I had to look up elevated pikes-those do look hard. Yesterday was so nice out that I decided to walk for an hour instead of HIIT and Yoga inside. It is funny, DH passed my in his truck when I was walking and said "you are so skinny I didn't recognize you at first". Sometimes the people who see you daily don't really "see" you as you lose weight. Tonight I do have hot power yoga. I am looking forward to that.

QOTD: I do not have a nickname for my vehicles. However, DD likes to give nicknames to some vehicles

Accountability: Small slice of carrot cake with frosting for a work party. It was good but I wasnt really missing anything if I didn't have it.

B: triple zero greek yogurt with collagen, cold brew with half n half

L: lettuce salad with grilled chicken, ff french dressing

S: Protein "frozen root beer float"

D: Creamy chicken taco soup

S: 100 cal bag popcorn, 3 squares sf chocolate

E: 60 min hot power yoga

Most of us can't see weight loss on ourselves It is like when I look in the mirror and see my face, my brain fills in the parts of my body that are no longer there. One trick we learned in our weight loss surgery group was to take a brown paper bag, cut eyeholes in it, and then put over our head and look in the mirror. It sounded so silly, but it did work and I could actually see what my body looked like when my face was not showing.

Yes! I think it hits them when they see you in another place or when they are trying to find you and their mind is remembering the old you.