As I live and breathe

I had to giggle to myself tonight. Actually I think I laughed out-loud. I have been determined to start eating healthier. To shop and cook fresh food, low sodium, low fat, heart and lung healthy. You know, the way we should have been eating our entire life.

Well... Bill had always cooked for us. He was great at comfort food, gravy's, casseroles, chili, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy... Yup! I said comfort food. It is amazing I didn't tip the 200 pound scale long before I did!

Well about 3 weeks ago I started cooking. I joined Weight Watchers and Bill's food just wasn't going to work. Slowly I have gotten rid of most of the canned veggies. They are just loaded with sodium! I have filled our freezer full of chicken and veal and turkey and shrimp. I am not a fan of fish so the shrimp and chicken is the closest I can get! LOL We have some red meat but very little. I even bought turkey Italian Sausage and turkey bacon.

I started buying non fat sour cream and making ranch dip/dressing with it. I made our own Catalina dressing (low sodium and sugar), and even made my own version of blue cheese dressing with feta instead of blue cheese (lower in fat).

I got rid of whole milk and started buying 2%, and low fat buttermilk and low fat condensed milk to make sauces. I tried Healthy Choice Cream of Mushroom soups and the Cream of Celery.. they are wonderful to make nonfat or lowfat sauces.



I have re-stocked our pantry with every vinegar imaginable, every oil, spice, bread crumb, cooking sherry and wine, fresh herbs, bran cereal... you name it I have tried to find ways to be healthy and still add flavor.

I made oatmeal, raisin and bran muffins today. They smelled so good, Bill went into the kitchen and grabbed one of them and took a big bite. The look on his face just CRACKED ME UP!! LoL He said... Oh No! Even the muffins???

The poor guy will go down kicking and dragging his feet. He went to bed the other night with a cup full of semi sweet choc chips to snack on! LOL

When I was at the store today I saw some Rotisserie chicken that looked so good. I removed all the skin and bones and shredded it, I put 1/2 in a container and froze it and the rest I saved for dinner. While I was skinning it, Bill came in and looked like he wanted to cry! , he snuck some of the chicken skin before I could throw it away.
I used a taco packet and heated it on the stove, then cut up onions, tomato's, 2% cheddar cheese shredded, fat free sour cream, red leaf lettuce, salsa and limes and then served them in these wonderful flat bread things I found, they are kinda like really high fiber tortilla.
It was really good! Very low in fat, low in sodium and heart healthy. I think I liked the chicken with the taco seasoning as much as ground beef.

Anyway... It's fun trying new things. I am always looking for recipes that I can figure out how to make healthier. I even made a Faux Fried Chicken dinner the other night that wasn't too bad. It was made with Panko bread crumbs and bran flakes then baked in the oven. Bill will survive and hopefully along the way we can lose some weight and feel better.

On a side note.... My lung is still bothering me. It just feels very tight and when I breathe in it's a sharp pain. I didn't call the doctor today. I decided I will try and take it easy this weekend and call if I need to on Monday. I sometimes feel like a whiner or cry baby. Like I just need to realize I am going to have these issues and they will get worse, so I had better not do too much complaining now. I am a little concerned if I call they will extend my steriods and I am so close to finishing this round! LOL