This weekend was the perfect balance of fun, relaxing and productivity. When my friend Alison and her husband invited me over this weekend for a BBQ, earlier in the week it looked like Friday night was going to be the best weather night. I ended up bringing the food and they provided the beer. I ended up making marinated steaks with this beef marinade, grilled zucchini with a pear and walnut balsamic reduction and feta cheese (the reduction was store bought – only $1.99 at my store!) and mac n cheese for their girls. Um, turns out both girls love beef so I was happy that they ate that too.
Well it was cold and rainy, but Cameron kept my grilling spot dry with an umbrella. I brought homemade tortilla chips and some of my baja fresh salsa to snack on. Usually Alison goes crazy for my salsa, but my chimichurri sauce has now taken over as her favorite thing – after eating it she said “I don’t even want to look at that salsa anymore!” If you love cilantro, you will love this sauce – it actually could work as a dip for chips but it is delicious on steak. I do mine a bit differently, I use parsley, cilantro AND basil and add crushed red pepper for a spicy kick.
- 1 cup parsley
- 1 cup cilantro
- 1/2 cup basil
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
Just throw everything into the food processor and you are done. Keeps in the fridge for a couple weeks if not more.
It was nice hanging out with them, although quite the adjustment to be around little kids again. Last time we got together their youngest daughter didn’t want anything to do with me, but she let me hold her and both girls wanted me to sit next to them, so I sat in the middle. So cute! Thanks for having me over guys!
Hannah was off on Saturday and Jacob didn’t have to work until the afternoon until close. We all slept in (I didn’t wake up until 10:30!) and Hannah had donuts on her mind. You guys, if you have never made refrigerator biscuit donuts, you are missing out. No having to get up super early to make the donut dough, let it rise, etc. These are literally take no time at all – and you get 8 donuts and 8 donut holes for $1.99.
My motto lately has been balance, and it seems to be working for me really well. I don’t feel like I am depriving myself of anything and am pretty much following the 90/10 rule – I ate two donut holes and then made myself an egg white spinach scramble, with some ham and strawberries.
Hannah and Jacob belong to the YMCA by our house – they have a discounted student rate, and it’s the first time that I have been there since it was remodeled. I went there probably 10+ years ago and I felt like I had walked into 1974 going there – rusty lockers, old floors, etc. It’s gorgeous! They have a fireplace, free wifi, a restaurant. We started out in the cardio room and did 30 minutes on the treadmill, then did abs on the ball and then went swimming for over an hour – all told we were there over two hours!
We didn’t finish until after 4:00 p.m. and we were hangry. There is a new Mexican restaurant near our house – the locations has probably been a half dozen restaurants since we’ve lived here. Hannah and Jacob have been there for the tamales, so I suggested we stop there for a quick bit to eat. Holy balls, is this good. Flavorful (not sure how someone who yelped this place thought there wasn’t any?!) We each got two tacos (mine were steak, Hannah’s were chorizo. Since we were dining in, we got complimentary chips and salsa. With two glasses of water, lunch was only $7.21.
This may look simple, but the steak has these little bits of charred bites, super flavorful and the green and red hot sauces they brought to the table really made these tacos. They were so filling too! Hannah and I came home, I made two loaves of bread and a pot of broccoli soup for the week, and um, let’s just say Hannah took a nap for three hours. Guess two hours at the gym was a bit much for her – and that girl has the gift of napping and sleeping like me! I never really ate dinner per se, I had a slice of my bread and had a small bowl of soup and that was perfect.
Sunday’s are my cooking day, and I started out making granola, then made banana muffins and a taco soup for later in the week. When I cook like that, I don’t really eat a meal, just kind of taste as I go. Around 12:30 we were all hungry, and I said “how about that Mexican place again?!” I literally can see myself going to this place at least once a week, it’s that good. I got the steak tacos again and then added a sign of beans for an extra $1.50 – so good!
Jacob got their King Burrito – steak, french fries, sour cream, cheese – it was so huge he could only eat half of it.
It was nice hanging out with the kids since they were both off. I still had grocery shopping to do, and hit up the gym, so late afternoon I took off. I watched the Sox game while I was walking – Sox win! They had an awesome fifth inning.
I was so happy to see that Chobani was on sale! I stocked up!
I ended up grilling bone in chicken breasts with zucchini on the side. Hannah and I are going to have a copycat Portillo’s chopped salad for dinner tonight, so I grilled once, cooked twice, and grilled off some chicken breasts for our salads tonight.
So I think I did a pretty good balance this weekend – I had some tacos, but I worked out and got my steps in both days. I have another physical therapy session at lunch today so I am going to squeeze in a quick 30 minute walk before work. I am actually going to try to intuitively eat this next week and see how I do without micromanaging every number. I know how much insulin to give myself, so I am fine with that. I have reset my Zero scale and will see how I do the next two weeks. I don’t plan on stepping on the scale for 14 days and see how I do. Wouldn’t it be great to just live and not have to worry about every little thing that goes in your mouth?!
What are your thoughts on intuitively eating?? Have you done it? How were your results?
Alright, time to get my walking shoes on – make it a great day!
Is that really a YMCA? It looks amazing. My daughter is good at eating only when she is hungry. She eats small amounts of food every thirty minutes or so it seems. People always pick on her for eating all the time. She maintains her weight and only changes 2-3 pounds plus/minus. I’ve got to get a handle on my munching soon!
Yep, I know people like that too Kym, and I also know people who can eat crap all day long and never gain weight – wtf?! Glad to see you catch up with me! 😀
Yum all your foods of this weekend looks so good.
Tracking doesn’t work for me, if I track I eat more because it feels like I can’t have things. Am I an intuitive eater? Don’t know, I just don’t think about what I eat. I plan dinner meals that I like without worrying about the calories. My biggest “danger” is the wine. If I drink less and workout more, I usually lose weight.
Good luck, you can do this.
It doesn’t work for me. “Intuitive” isn’t something I’ve ever been able to achieve, maybe because I was a binge eater in my past. I don’t know. I know a lot of people it works for, good for them! For me, I need to be accountable and track food and calories. It sucks, but it works.
Intuitive eating would be the ideal way for everyone to eat. BUT, when you have struggled with needing “plans” to loose weight pretty much your whole adult life, I think it would be a really hard thing to do! I can maintain for quite a while doing it that way but inevedibly the weight creeps back on….and to LOOSE, I must be on some sort of plan.;) Good luck!
Looks like a great weekend! I’m seriously drooling over those tacos, like I need them now! haha
I’ve never tried intuitive eating, but I feel like that’s mostly because I don’t trust myself enough to know when to stop still.
Those tacos looks amazing – so authentic!!
And, I’m going to try that chimichurri sauce – hopefully after getting fresh herbs from the Farmer’s Market.
Balance is agreeing with you Vat. You look great. (and so does your lookalike Hannah!)
Sending a giant hug your way!!!!!
After reading about all this deliciousness, I’m too hungry to comment!! I will say that I love cilantro–my husband doesn’t!! Bummer!
Best,
Bonnie
That is one nice YMCA! How fun to get to workout with Hannah – love your mother/daughter time. 🙂
It will be interesting to see how you do over the next two weeks. I can eat without tracking, but I still have to work at being aware of what I’m eating, and if I really need it. Surprisingly, sometimes I actually don’t need that cookie! LOL
I was totally channeling you this weekend with the amount of protein I prepped!
Intuitive eating is GREAT. It is nearly impossible for me to do it with my lifestyle, kids, and schedule. If I work hard to eating healthfully and losing weight, eventually it becomes intuitive BUT then stress will reverse it.
Case in point, I lost about 26 pounds last year but I’m up 5 for the year so far. Too much work stress, lack of sleep, PTA stuff. In a couple of weeks the big PTA event will be over, and hopefully I can get back in my groove.
I’m aiming to repeat my NO-vember in May (NO-sugar, alcohol, wheat, fried food). This allowed me to lose 7 lbs in a month. Need to do it again!
Totally love the idea of intuitive eating, and for a very short while imagined that I could do that. In the end, I concluded that if I were an intuitive eater, I would never have had all the problems with my weight that have plagued me since childhood. My daughter does it though. She eats ANYTHING she wants in tiny portions. It’s beyond me. Sigh.
IMHO, in order to successfully eat intuitively, (especially after years of point/calorie counting and dieting) you have to pay attention to other things: feeling physically hungry and emotions are the big ones. I live with what I call a natural eater. That man won’t eat unless he’s physically hungry so he naturally does not eat when stressed or under other emotions. So, you may not be counting calories, etc. but you still have to pay attention to something.
Dammit, I want that BREAD! All of the bread!
I don’t think I can trust myself to eat intuitively. Sometimes I think I’m hungry when I am just anxious or looking for something to do.
I thought chimichurri was just parsley! Your version looks fantastic!
Where is that Mexican place? I looked on the map but I can’t place it. Glad you had a great weekend!
It’s in the same shopping center as The Cary Restaurant – on the strip part of the property near the Sparrows Nest – next time you come up my way we’ll have to get tacos there together! 😀
We definitely need to plan on that!
Those tacos look awesome! And I love the remodeled look of the Y – so modern.