Hey there! It has been awhile!

I have lost 34 pounds total now! I’m so excited. The weightloss has been slow but it has been permanent and that is wonderful. I have never had that happen before.

Today is my mother’s b day so i have spend the afternoon/evening with the most amazing niece EVER! I just love her! And my sister looks adorable 7 months pregnant with my 2nd niece.

M and I are doing amazing. He was sick all last week so i have not seen him. It will be 5 weeks on Tuesday that we have been doing so well. I can’t wait to see him tomorrow I have missed him so much.

I didn’t menu plan last week. I needed too. I haven’t made mine yet for this coming week but i will.

I still haven’t fully recovered from the glutening four weeks ago. My body is still acting funny. It’s disheartening but hopefully I will feel 100% soon.

I met a lady in whole foods yesterday that is around my age with two children with Celiac. She says that she can make any recipe gluten free! So I will be calling her VERY soon She showed me some new things there that I had missed that are gluten free.

I tried the Whole Foods 365 gluten free brand brownie mix and cookie mix and they were both very good. The  brownies were amazing!

Okay, that’s all for now. I’ll be back sooner than later!

LADYBEAMS- thank you!!!! for being so faithful!

Okay, I am NO chef! But last night i decided to make the Spinach and Cheese quesadillas a day early. Well, in doing so i opted to make tostadas. I used a skillet and heated olive oil and gf/df butter then put in gf/wf Brown Rice Tortillas, one at a time. I flipped them back and forth until cooked then took them out, placed on a plate, and let them harden. THEY WERE AWESOME!

For the toppings I sauteed onions, green onions, minced garlic, fresh spinach, and then threw in some shrimp and squash. I sprinkled in some Cindy’s Kitchen Greek Feta dressing for some flavor. Then placed the concoction onto each tostada. SOOOO Yummy!

It has been so fun to experiment lately with recipes and then making up my own!

Menu Planning is hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie!

Monday: Tortilla Soup

Tuesday: Rotini with squash (adding chicken)

Wednesday:TBA (M’s choice;we are cooking together )

Thursday:Talapia with peas and white rice

Friday:Spinach and Cheese Quesadilla’s (using brown rice tortillas)

Sidenote: Okay, so i am a total and complete moron! I have the links all messed up! To click on the menu planning site, click on Monday; for the tortilla soup, click on Tuesday, and so forth! For Thursday there is not link and Friday’s I just cannot get to work! This is the first week i have done this so bear with me! But you get the gist of it! Plan for the week Also, any gluten free modifications needed for the tortilla soup will be made.

Tonight for supper i cooked Talapia. I cooked it in the skillet with water, balsamic vinegar, couple tsp lactose free milk, olive oil, red pepper flakes, dash of black pepper, and some Tony’s seasoning.

I also cooked white rice with frozen peas. When it was cooked i stirred the peas in w the rice and added some dairy free/gf butter and olive oil.

It was fabulous! Grayson loved it too! VERY simple meal!

Wow! Today is just a little crazy but i am trying to stay as peaceful as possible.

 First off, i am feeling SSOOOOOO much better today! FINALLY! The only thing left is the bloating. I cannot wait for that to subside and i can get back to feeling like i am still losing weight! Upside though is that these pants i have on today absolutely do NOT fit anymore! YAYYYY! I had to roll them b/c they kept sliding down. So that is way cool. But now I have to go get some more pants!

My grandpa had a heart cath done today. So far all i know is that he came thru fine and has a six hour recovery time. No results were given at the time my mom called me. So that has me just antsy today waiting to hear something. He and my grandma live almost 4 1/2 hrs away from me. But my mom, dad, sister, and aunt all went up there so that is good.

Next, I had lunch with M today. He always has a calming affect on me. Well, he does now lol. The last 2 1/2 weeks have been wonderful. Before that, it was rocky. It’s funny b/c we always eat at this small Greek/Lebanese restaurant for lunch and the place was PACKED today! Just packed! And i didnt even notice till we were leaving! lol! It’s funny how when i talk to him it’s like he is the only person in the room.

Gray has been acting up this week. The amount of disrespect coming out of his mouth is just incredible. So I am having to stay on top of that. It’s slowly getting better.

I tried to talk to my niece, 2 yrs, on the phone last night. She is the most adorable little human being on the entire planet! She only said hello and it was the cutest hello…EVER! My sister said she was waving to the phone! Awwwwwww!

So, I guess the day isnt so bad lol I’m just antsy about my grandpa i think. I’m also very worried about one of my best friends. She battles depression and I am just so worried about her right now. But I guess all i can do is give them both to God and pray.

Have a great day!

-Al

Tonight was dollar scoop night at Baskin Robbins. I LOVE dollar scoop night! I know, i know, not condusive to weight loss but yummy! So back to the yum yum ice cream….so we have been going there some weeks as a treat and i get the same thing everytime…peanut butter n chocolate. Well, after my mishap friday with Blue bell adding wheat flour into their milk chocolate i had this nagging feeling that i needed to re check the ingredients bc ingredients can change at anytime, hence my mishap. Well, the manager/owner was not there tonight so i got to deal with the teens/early 20’s and their lovely and helpful customer service skills After much convincing, i was able to get my hands on the list of ingredients and voila…still gluten free! Yay me! Then i look at the bucket nextdoor to mine and it contains wheat. So i tell the girl to please use a different scooper from that container bc it would contaminate it. She looked at me like i had two heads! But she did it and i feel fine. Yay! So i think i am definitely having my one week out of the month where i crave sweets bc i have certainly tackled them this week now that i am slowly starting to feel better.

Gray and I ate at my favorite Greek and Lebanese restaurant tonight. I had rice pilaf, chicken swarma, and eggplant parmesan yum!

So I’m feeling a little better today, and what do i do LOL! I ate potato skins for lunch and had a pumpkin spice frappucino for dessert! And I am happy to report that I am feeling fine after both! Yay! FINALLY! Of course I made sure they were all gluten free first. My face is still bloated from all my mistakes lately and so is my belly but it takes several days to heal.

 I made gluten free Pumpkin Pancakes last night from a recipe I found at Glutenfreemommy.com  That is an awesome site! Worth checking out if you need GF recipes. She is great! The pancakes turned out great. I used Arrowhead Mills Pancake mix which already had the flours and baking powder needed. I put in brown sugar as well. They were so yummy. I also topped them with cool whip. Yes, i know, not the most dietary meal BUT in my defense it has been quite a while since I have eaten dessert and i generally eat pretty healthy meals now so I splurged last night. My son ate them plain and loved them.

I’m still trying to decrease the coke. It is supposed to be gf but it is bothering me for some reason. Maybe the acid! Who knows. I had two cans yesterday and two cans today. That is a major decrease for me! Hopefully it will continue and i can kick the cokes and the rest of this weight!