week 13 - and more kabobs!

Week 13 - I'm down 3 pounds for a total of 52 pounds gone.

I hit the 50 pound loss mark! WOO HOO! My man stayed the same this week so he is steady at 55 pounds gone. (He's had a very stressful week at work - and he says he's NOT discouraged about not losing any this week, he says it doesn't phase him and that he knew this would happen at times.)

In fact, My man had a "Father & Son" campout this last weekend, and as he was heading down to the beach, he actually heard from our younger son "Wait up, Dad." Those were sweet words since it has usually been the other way around.

Another fun thing with my youngest for me was the other day he was giving me a hug before school and he suddenly pulled away and said, "Mom, you are getting skinnier! I usually feel your tummy way more out to here!" I love those little affirmations when we don't always see it ourselves, ya know?

I made a TON of muffins this week and have tried different variation of the basic recipe (*See muffin recipe on side panel). I make them 1 meal per muffin now so they are bigger and fluffier.

Here is what I've tried:

1. Maple & Brown sugar Oatmeal + Chocolate pudding + Sugar free chocolate chip cookie doe Syrup. (yum)

2. Apple & Cinnamon Oatmeal + Vanilla pudding + Sugar free Caramel syrup.

3 Apple & Cinnamon Oatmeal + Chocolate pudding + Sugar free Peanut Butter syrup. (My hubby's FAVORITE - he loves peanut butter)

I'm not a huge fan of the regular Boca or Morningstar farms burgers, BUT I found one I really LOVED. This is the Morningstar Pizza style/flavor burger. It is a bit more calories and carbs than the regular, but not compared to the Boca speciality burgers which are WAY more.

My man had two of these burgers with his salad and I had two with these vegetables stir fried in the left over sauce from my pork kabobs (see recipe in previous post). This was SO delish! I couldn't find the Morningstar Pizza burgers (I also like their mushroom lovers) at Win-co or Fred Meyer but I did find them at Trader Joes.

And now for a NEW and FANTASTIC recipe I tried:

Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs (found on line & had great reviews)

1/2 cup olive oil [I actually use only 1/2 of this and used the other 1/2 rice vinegar]

1/2 cup ranch (I used Bolthouse which is way lower fat & cal)

3 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 T. Minced fresh Rosemary

2 t. Salt

1 t. lemon juice

1 t. white vinegar

1/4 t. ground black pepper (or to taste)

1 T. white sugar (optional) - [I used a couple spenda packets]

5 skinless, boneless Chicken breat halves - cut into 1" cubes

In a medium bowl, stir together the olive oil, ranch dressing, worcestershire sauce, rosemary, salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, pepper, and sugar/spenda. Let stand for 5 minutes. Place chicken in the bowl and stir to coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes [I marinated the chicken for a whole day]

Pre-heat grill for med-high heat. Thread chicken onto skewers and discard marinade. (If they are wooden skewers than soak them in water for 5-10 minutes beforehand) Lightly oil the grill grate and grill skewers for about 4-5 minutes per side (so about 10 minutes total).

Here they are all grilled and they were SO tender and juice and tasty. I like these even better than the pork kabobs I did (and I loved those). I didn't even baste them while cooking, but I did baste the veggie kabobs (I made extra marinade and kept it separate to baste and use as a dip)

I tried grilling these on a George Foreman grill, but I think I cooked them too long because although they were tasty, they weren't as tender. The next night, we did them on our outside grill and I did them 4-5 minutes then turned them, than another 4-5 minutes and they were SO YUMMY and TENDER. (okay, I get excited about food, especially my lean and greens)