What to do with Zucchini!! Chips & Boats!

Happy Monday!!  

If you're reading this then you survived your weekend and hopefully are about to embark on an amazing week of WONDER.  Or at least another week of life.  It's about THRIVING and not just SURVIVING.  This week I'm gonna THRIVE.

To recap some of my last week, I made my long time favorite:  Zucchini Chips!!  I got this idea originally from Sandy here.  It's just so easy.  I take my zucchini (which is so prevalent right now, these green wonders are popping up in everyone's garden - except mine since I don't have one yet) and cut the ends off and then I hand sliced it using my cheese grater - using the side with the single slicer.  Or you can use our food processor for quick work.  Basically, you want them in thin little slices.

Then line your cookie sheet with parchment paper (I used tinfoil and then sprayed it with pam, the first time, but parchment paper doesn't need oil so I did that the second time).  Set out your zucchini slices on the tray, brush with a little olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt, then bake at 200 degrees for 4 hours or so.  SOOOO addicting!

WOW are these good.  Awesome to take to the movies or have as a quick snack.  These would count towards your "green" on your 5:1 plan, OR (for me, not official TSFL), they count for 1 snack.

Note - Do not turn up the temp over 200 to bake them quicker because they may burn!  Which is what happened to my first batch.  Also, do not over salt. I found that my first batch was way too salty (as well as burned).  They just need a light sprinkle before baking.

I burned my first batch :(

I also saw this cool recipe for Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Boats on FB (I don't know the name, I just made that up!) and made these last week too.  The original recipe can be found here.

I cut off the ends of the zucchini and sliced in half, brushed the top with a little olive oil and sprinkled with some garlic powder blend.  Then I put some sliced up mini red tomatoes on and sprinkled with reduced fat cheese blend.  Salt and pepper to taste and baked at 375 for 20 - 30 minutes - until soft.

WOW!!  

Hubs LOVED these!!  My son ate them without realizing they were tomatoes even!  lol

Very yummy Lean and Green - just added 1 chicken patty and with the chicken and cheese being my "Lean", the zucchini and tomatoes was my "Green".  Definitely a keeper!

Some other L&G pics from last week:

 Chicken salad for the hubs.  The Lean is the light cheese and chicken, the green is the romaine, peppers, & tomatoes.  We just tried this Bolthouse Salsa Ranch flavor which isn't bad.  Again, yogurt based dressings are so much creamier and LESS calories than regular dressings.  

For my lean, I found some Griller Morning Star patties in my freezer that I cooked up on my stove and added these mushrooms, mini tomatoes, and zucchini (sauteed on my stove with a little olive oil).  I like cutting the zucchini into long strips for a change.  Just added some salt and pepper and this was a quick tasty meal for me.

There you go!  If you have some zucchini sitting around, at least here some ideas of some stuff you can try!  Make it a great "ON PLAN" day!

~Margene

~ Feeling ALIVE after WEEK 5 ~

We have reached the end of our 5th week and here are the results:

Me - 4 pounds lighter; total loss now = 25 lbs

Hubby - 6 pounds lighter; total loss now = 28 lbs

This is so encouraging to us!!! When I pass the 30 pounds loss mark, it will physically manifest more weight than I've lost on all my other diet changes! So that will be another milestone for me. My hubby is feeling so much better. He said he would like to write his own feelings for me to post on here... so I will when he writes them down for me.

Because I am so big to begin with, I often still feel so huge and homely - BUT - at the same time I also talk to my husband and plan like I am already a thinner person - because that is where I am headed.

Here are a couple Lean and Greens from this last week:

First, I made SHRIMP for the first time on this plan!! This is the pre-cooked frozen shrimp from Costo. I just defrosted it and then steamed up some asparagus (my second time making this vegetable). I cooked the shrimp over the stove with some of my favorite sauce I use for salmon: Jakes's Orange Mango barbeque glaze. Then I also drizzled some over the asparagus as well. So delicious! I am anxious to try other ways in making shrimp too, because I loved being able to have 7 ounces of it!

Doesn't that look so good?

I also made this chicken salad. This is chicken is also from costco, "Sweet carmelized onion chicken burgers" that I posted below in a previous entry. I just warmed up the chicken burger on the stove and then cut it up into smaller chunks and put them on a bed of lettuce, cucumber and tomoto. I used this "Bolthouse" ranch dressing which has less fat/calories due to being made from yogurt. SO good! (my coach told me about the Bolthouse dressings).

This was the best salad I tasted yet

Here it is with about 2 T. of dressing added.

I still have other L&G ideas I want to try... I'm cautious because that is my favorite meal of the day and I want to make sure it's one I'm going to love!