Taste Test (Erin)

Every now and then, you've got to shake things up. So I did. In a very my-Grandmother-would-approve sort of way.

My grandmother LOVES cottage cheese. The first time I saw her eating it, when I was a child, all that caught my attention were those nauseating lumps. I swore it off on the spot. That stance didn't change over time.

BUT I keep hearing how great it is for you. So I decided to check out the nutrition label. In half a cup, there is something like 14g protein! That's outstanding. (For only 90 calories, by the way.)

-sigh- Ok, I'll try it. How bad could it be?

That's what I was thinking.

So I started researching ways to pair cottage cheese with appetizing food that might overwhelm the senses long enough for a person to forget they're actually eating cottage cheese. The most appealing way I saw involved pairing it with crackers and jelly.

I just finished a taste test. Check out the options:

My taste test included Wasa crackers, Flatout crackers, apricot-peach jelly, strawberry jelly, and pepper jelly.

I have to say, the Wasa cracker loaded with cottage cheese and apricot-peach jelly was my favorite. The sour taste of the cheese combined well with the sweet jelly. The crisp cracker took the focus off the texture of the cottage cheese. It was a great mix.


  1/2 c. cottage cheese=    90 calories, 14g protein, 4g carbs, 10% calcium
  3 Wasa crackers=           70 calories,  2g protein, 13g carbs
+ 2T apricot-peach jelly=100 calories, 26g carbs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                        260 calories, 16g protein, 43g carbs


That is my planned breakfast for the next couple of days. Paired with a serving of fruit and coffee, I think I will be happy until lunch.

Speaking of food, I did make the Cooking Light chicken broccoli casserole mentioned in the last blog. It was WONDERFUL!

Tony came over for dinner, and you can see it was a hit. About 1/3 of the casserole was gone by the end of the evening.

If you missed the recipe, click here.

More later! Until then, I leave you with things I hope you don't do when you work out:

The Success In Failing? (Erin)

Oh. My. Goodness.

I have really been struggling lately. Can you tell? No blogs.

My response to the struggling was to beat myself up. A lot. Then something really great happened. I went to the doctor. Ok, I admit that doesn't sound 'really great' so let me explain.

Today I went in for a routine exam. You know, make sure things are in order. Check in. Nothing big.

When the nurse weighed me, she immediately lit up. "Well, you've lost a lot of weight! How did you do it?!"

Let me just say, for someone who has actually put some of her weight back on (shameful as it may be), I was really taken off guard by that. And inspired!

Here I was beating myself up that I haven't been doing so well; I forgot the big picture. I am doing well overall! I'm just going through some transitions right now. (With work and with a new relationship.)

The thing about coming a long way is you have to accept there will be setbacks. You can't stop that from happening. So this setback has had me really sad and dejected. Unnecessarily.

I always said that I was making changes that would stick for the next 50 years or I wouldn't change at all. It turns out, sometimes you're human and you suck at meeting your own goals. True story. But that doesn't mean you sit down, give up, sulk, and accept it. Right?

I've seen this graph a lot. We all think we're going to lose weight every week and by bikini season we'll be rocking that itsy-bitsy, whatever. But success is so much more complicated than that. It's learning to go in the right direction overall, even after you've lost ground or hit a wall or otherwise hit a bump. You just have to keep trying until you have learned the disciplines and habits you need. In fact, you have to learn to overcome deeply embedded habits and values that don't just go away when you pick up a celery stick.

In my family, we love food. It's medicine. It's our best friend. It's a comforter. It's a way to have fun. We have an unhealthy love of food -- it's like that Lifetime Television for Women kind of love that makes you ask, "What the hell?" You know what I'm talking about? It's not right.

I've realized that it's really hard for me, still, to separate my emotions from certain foods. If I have a bad day I sometimes still seek out my favorite comforter (cupcakes) to make it all better. But it doesn't. I'm going to have to keep growing stronger and learning not to have the knee-jerk reactions I grew up embracing. And it's hard. But it's necessary.

And I still love going out with friends. But I suck at ordering healthy food at a restaurant. I mean, it's intense watching me try to order healthy. I go in the restaurant and you can practically hear Eye of the Tiger start swelling in the background. I refuse to take the menu. No photos of beautiful yet unhealthy food, please, I'm a woman on a mission. I order what I decided was healthy based on my online search of the restaurant's nutrition page hours earlier. I am focused because I know myself. I can't have a chance to screw up before my order is in. I'm just not that strong most of the time.

And sometimes you're just not ready to go into that ring. You didn't have a chance to look up nutritional information. You vow to order what looks healthiest, only to see Alfredo staring you in the face as soon as you open the menu. Sometimes we are not on our game.

For me, I'm not right now. No lies. No covering it up. I'm confessing to you that things are really taking me for a ride lately. But I refuse to believe this is how it is going to be for me. I know God will give me the strength to move on. I just have to take some time to remember how important what I'm doing is and find some ways to enjoy it again.

So tonight I'm cooking a new recipe (Chicken and Broccoli Casserole from Cooking Light).  And I'm going to be ok. Because life introduces struggles. And we all know that's just a chance to decide how we're going to respond. And I choose not to be defeated. So I may be down for the count, but I feel myself gaining the strength to stand and fight again. Fight for a better life.

I hope you do the same!