12 pounds lost so far this year, 35 pounds more to go! :)

Sticking to a healthy diet of up to 1600 calories a day has been easier than I thought. Drinking lots of water, watching food portions, limiting additives (sugar, sodium, fat), & being compliant on medications have helped me get this far. I am working on a workout regimen but so far, I'm doing good switching to a healthier diet and I'm loving it!

After a failed first attempt at making quinoa from scratch (I didn't use enough water and I didn't stir so it burned), I made perfect quinoa the second time--thanks to a few friends who gave me tips & pointers! Now, I get to experiment w/ different ways to have my quinoa!

Here is what I had for lunch today:

Some people asked how I made this dish so here is what I did to create it:

Chicken strips in mushroom sauce: Cut one chicken breast into strips about 1cm wide for easier cooking & eating. Season w/ white pepper & salt. Chop up mushrooms (about 6 total) into little pieces. Chop up 1/2 of a medium onion into little pieces. Mince/dice one garlic clove. In a sauce pan, put in about one tablespoon chicken stock and heat pan. Add in onions and garlic, season w/ salt & pepper. Saute till onions start losing their "crunch" and looks transparent. Add in mushrooms, add another tablespoon of chicken stock (I used chicken stock instead of butter or oil to keep this recipe lower calorie) and stir occasionally until stock starts to thicken from juices collaborating together. Once mushrooms look like they are soft & cooked, add in about 2-3 tablespoons of tomato sauce (for red sauce color) and bring to simmer. Add a dash of milk (for the creamy look) & stir in about 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese to help thicken sauce & make it a little creamy/cheesy. Add in chicken strips to mixture and cook about 4-5 minutes until cooked. Flip chicken strips to cook the other side within the mixture (another 2-3 minutes) until fully cooked. Stir it one more time to coat all chicken and let stand off heat till ready to serve.

Quinoa: Combine 3/4 cup quinoa and 1 1/2 cups water (or chicken broth), bring to boil. Reduce heat & simmer, continuously stirring every couple of minutes so it doesn't stick to the pot. Chop up and add in whatever veggies or herbs/spices you want to use (optional) and add it to pot. If you want, use a mandolin to slice up veggies very thin so it cooks nicely. Once water is soaked up and water level is even w/ the quinoa (I believe it took about 25-30mins to get to this point), turn off heat & cover pot for about 10 minutes. If the fluid is not completely absorbed into quinoa after 10mins, give the quinoa a quick heat up for about 30-60secs and turn off heat, cover pot again for 5-10 minutes. When ready to serve, fluff up & give it a good little stir and plate it as you wish. Season with salt and/or pepper to taste.

Tortellini pasta: This was a "cheat" for me that I spruced up. I bought the Cheese Tortellini from Archer Farms (Target Brand) and followed the directions on cooking. However, I sliced up some mushrooms real thin w/ a mandolin and added it to the pot about halfway through the cooking time. I chopped up fresh basil into really fine slices (I LOVE basil) and added it to the sauce once the heat was turned off. Let pasta sit for about 5 minutes and serve. Top with parmesan cheese if desired.

This total dish was estimated to be about 550 calories. This entire recipe makes enough for two servings. Eat one now & heat up the second later (or have a nice dinner for two w/ a loved one). Was pretty tasty considering I just made it on-the-fly! :)

P.S. I weighed in at 169lbs today! My last weigh-in a week ago had me at 172. Happy, happy!

Breakfast - Instant Cream of Wheat Maple Brown Sugar, 2 packages (200 calories)

Made two packages w/o milk to save on calories. Maybe I should have added the milk so I could get the diary? It's a lot sweeter than I anticipated it to be because I usually like using plain or original flavors and sprucing it up myself. My brother made this for me once and it tasted better--it was probably full of extra fluff to make it taste so creamy & delicious. I think I'll just stick to oatmeal once I'm done w/ these. 

Lunch - Vegetarian Chili w/ Blue Tortilla Chips, 1 bowl (approx. 200 calories)

First of all, I've got to say that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the Crock Pot!! I had a chili seasoning package and added a ton of tomato (fresh & canned puree) and onion (diced & sliced) in place of the meat. I'm trying to figure out ways to use the least amount of meat as possible & include other sources of protein if possible. I added a ton of sriracha sauce since I like to make things spicy whenever I can. Thought it would be a good way to warm up the stomach on a cold Atlanta day. Added blue tortilla corn chips to make it "thicker" and heartier. Tasted pretty good!

Mid-afternoon Snack - Chili from lunch, 1/2 bowl (approx. 100 calories)

Tried it again because I let it cook some more. It's tasting better & the onions aren't as crunchy as they were at lunchtime. The spicy flavor is starting to show up more! Yum.

Dinner - Linguine pasta w/ steamed carrots & beans (approx. 300 calories)

I had the other half of what I made last night for dinner. Pretty tasty, even the next day. :)

Evening Snack - Unknown (approx. 300 calories)

Estimated Total Caloric Intake for 1/13/2012: 1,100 calories

I did really good! I haven't had my evening snack yet but I have plenty of calories left to figure something out. I also downloaded a free ab crunch app on my phone. I did about 200 crunches today and my abs are kind of freaking out right now. They are probably wondering where that came from since it's been a couple of years since I had an ab crunch regimen. I think this app is pretty good and I may just stick to it. With the amount of ab crunches I did, the app estimated that I burned about 30 calories. 30 is better than none, right? And it only took me 3 mins to do.