On The Lighter Side

While on Christmas vacation we got off track on our diet. Sooo back to reality starting this week. No food resolution just a continuation of our Weight Watcher Diet. It's not a diet, per say, its a healthy way of eating.

Hubby will be working early mornings starting in Jan 2015, leaving at 5:45 am getting home at 6 pm, so we will be eating breakfast on the road like My McMuffins or My Breakfast Burritos. Its all a matter of planning. Yep, four 10 hour shifts compared to my 8 hour shift. We commute together so I will bring a book or my knitting to kill 2 hours before I go to work. Fortunately, we work real close to each other.

To Do:

Get coffee pot ready for morning, just push the button in the AM.

Assemble on the road breakfasts and coffee thermos. 

Lunches already made and in frig and lunch boxes ready. (lots of good carbs/protein)

This means intense menu planning including snacks, breakfast, and dinner also everything done the night before.

The key is prep work on the weekend after buying groceries. There are a lot of pre-made healthy foods you just need to read the labels. Of course Trader Joe's is a big help with dinners.

So today was my cooking day. Here is what I did to prepare for the new long week.

1. Tuna salad ( will have this with a low-fat piece of bread or 5 saltines).
2. I hard boiled 6 eggs. Easy for the road and add to a muffin.
3. Batch of muffins (blueberry with home made applesauce instead of oil)
4. Cooked up the ground beef and a few Itallian sausages for chili Monday). Froze the other Itallian sausages.
5. Made salsa for tonight's tacos with black beans.
6. Cooked taco meat with onions for tacos tonight also.
7. Batch of salmon patties for lunches (3 cans of NO PINK COLOR added salmon from Costco).

We purchased three bean salad and pickled beets from Costco to add to our lunches. We also take fresh cut up apples and carrots for lunch and snack.

Yep, preparation and shopping off a MENU is important for these long weeks.

Revised "Famous Taco Salad"

Taco Salad    3 servings   9 Weight Watcher points

15 ounce can black beans    If you don't like black beans buy organic re-fried beans (almost 3 srvs of beans)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 lg onion chopped
1 cup red wine or broth (wine is 5 points)
1 Tablespoon taco seasoning
1/2 Pound ground beef
2 Tablespoons taco seasonings
3 C Romaine lettuce
2/3 Fat free Salsa
2 Tablespoons diced or shredded low fat cheddar cheese
2 Dollops lite sour cream
1/2 Avocado sliced

 Combine beans, brown sugar, onion, and wine (or broth) in small pot and cook till most of the liquid is gone. Salt and pepper to taste. Let them cool while you brown the meat mixed with taco seasonings.
Build your salad:
1/3 beans on each plate
In order top beans with:
Half lettuce, one serving of ground beef, half salsa, 1 tablespoons cheese, 1 dollop of sour cream, 1/4 avocado sliced.
You can substitute ground beef for any meat.
Hubby adds Salsa Verde to his salad.

I thought I had a pic of this. As soon as I find it I will post it. This recipe is pretty self explanatory. Start with the beans, lettuce, meat and toppings.
Make the meat before hand and just heat up if you want.