Whole30: week 4 and wrap-up

The end is nigh! If you missed them:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

Day 22: Shepherd's pie. This was one of my father in law's favorite dinners on Whole30. It was really tasty! I was amazed at how delicious the mashed potatoes were with no butter or milk! My only critique was that I wanted more potatoes on top. My favorite part about it was that it made a TON so we had lots of leftovers!

Nathan made apple crisp. I don't care for fruity desserts, so I didn't eat it myself, but it disappeared in no time flat, so it must have been good!

Day 23: Oven baked chicken fingers and sweet potato fries. Neither the chicken nor the fries got crispy, but they both tasted great. We just had raw veggies with them.

Day 24: Spaghetti squash boats. Definitely a new favorite! We'll keep eating this after the Whole30 is done. We decided we prefer the sauce with ground turkey. This was my birthday, so I had a "fudge baby" in lieu of cake. Haha! It was good, but let's be honest... no substitute for BIRTHDAY cake ;) Are you proud of me for not cheating on my (30th!) birthday??

Day 25: Stir-fry. I just chopped up potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, broccoli, green beans, and chicken and seasoned them and cooked them together in a big pan. When everything was about done I added pea pods. Very simple meal that everyone enjoyed.

Day 26: Slow cooker fish chowder. This wouldn't actually fit in our (6 qt?) crock pot, so we had to cook in in our huge stock pot on the stove on low all day. It smelled very fishy as it was cooking, but it turned out pretty well. It all got eaten over the course of the week, so it must have been ok! Obviously you'd have to like fish to enjoy it.

Paleo dinner rolls ... sooo... I totally forgot you aren't supposed to have "paleo-ified bread" on the Whole30... and I made these rolls to go with the fish chowder. They were pretty great, and it was a nice pairing. But if you're being strict (as I was trying to be!), you shouldn't eat these on Whole30 ;)

Day 27: Chicken drumsticks, crash hot potatoes, and green beans. Another rerun and a new favorite meal of mine. They are just so good.

Day 28: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The meatloaf was ok. Not terrible, not great, just ok. My mashed potatoes turned out well! I made them in the same way as in the shepherd's pie recipe (above), with almond milk and coconut oil and lots of seasonings. I was happy with them.

Day 29: Tuna casserole. This was Nathan's favorite Whole30 meal, so I wanted to have it again. It was just as good the second time.

Day 30: "The Bomb" Chili. So good!! I keep adding too much Cayenne... like, one shake for the whole pot... that stuff is spicy!



Wrap-up:

We really tried to follow the plan as strictly as possible. We had zero added sugar/sweeteners, grains, dairy, or legumes for the full 30 days. The only ways we (acccidentally) "cheated" were on the spirit of the program only... eating Paleo dinner rolls, and our Paleo fudge babies. Neither had any off-limits ingredients, but they were replacements for things we were supposed to be weaning from. I just totally forgot we shouldn't have them.

That being said, we don't regret it. We're really pleased to have discovered a dessert that we both enjoy that we can feel good about eating (it's just raisins, walnuts, vanilla, and cocoa). Is having a sweet tooth a bad thing? Maybe. But we HAVE one, so if we can satisfy it with something that's healthy-ish, I think we're doing A-OK. Again, if you're being strict with the Whole30 plan, any sweet treat/baked good is pretty much out... so no fudge babies.

Oh, and I did eat those three french fries that one day... and I don't feel bad about that either. ;)

I'm glad we did this plan for a few reasons:

1. I learned a lot about food. EVERYTHING has added sugar. Lots of things have preservatives. Eating paleo-style means near constant cooking, prep, planning, and shopping... it's a LOT of work. Paleo is expensive, especially for a whole family.

2. I love to cook, and I had a lot of fun trying new recipes and finding creative ways to create meals with all the dietary restrictions we were under.

3. I figured out how to meal plan. I knew having a plan was key to our success, because if we were scrambling to figure out dinner every night we would have ended up cheating with ingredients we had on-hand (because so many things have added sugar).

4. I found out I don't have any obvious food sensitivities! Yay! I didn't feel the magical energy boost or anything that many people who do the Whole30 experience either, though... except being more bloated and gassy than normal pretty much the whole time, which was not super fun.

5. I discovered that I do have enough willpower to control what I eat if I put my mind to it. I love food (especially convenience, restaurant, and junk food... of course!), so I have a hard time saying no and putting limits on myself. But if I can go a whole month on a VERY strict eating plan, I'm sure I can put reasonable limits on what I eat on a daily basis!

6. Nathan and I both lost at least 10 lbs! This really surprised me. I thought I might lose a few pounds, but there's no way I thought I'd lose ten! That's a LOT for me. I'm just amazed, because I ate as much as I want and I never went hungry, and I really enjoyed all my food. I know that the zero sugar/desserts was the biggest factor.

This is my before and after Whole30, just for fun! I can see a pretty big difference! Same outfit (but with the green shirt on top). I actually reached my goal weight, which is my pre-Desy weight (which was lower than my pre-Orion weight :P). I have decided that I'd like to lose 5-10 lbs more, and I love that I know how now (say that five times fast) and that I CAN do it if I choose to!

We were afraid of going wild and eating EVERYTHING after finishing Whole30, so I did some research and decided to do a meal plan for a whole month! We've already have to switch days around a couple times, but it is super helpful to have a plan in mind so we can have the correct ingredients on hand to make a good meal each day. I have a white board up in the kitchen with our daily meals and a shopping list written on it. Hey, being organized is fun!


Well, we're 3 days post-30 now, and I admit that we have indulged a lot (hey, we had to celebrate my birthday properly!!). BUT, we have a solid plan and a lot of healthy meals ahead of us, so I'm feeling good. Do I want to do paleo long-term? Probably not. Am I glad I did the Whole30? Yes. It was good for us. Am I glad it's over? Absolutely. :)

Whole30: Week 3

We're on the home stretch! We are going strong, still enjoying awesome food, still really wishing for a DLM killer brownie. We feel good, though not in a remarkable way. Nathan and Larry have continued to lose weight while eating full meals and snacking a bit.

If you missed it, here are our meals from weeks one and two.

We tried some new recipes this week, but also enjoyed some reruns. Getting in the groove. :)

Here's our meal recap for the week:

Day 15: Spaghetti squash boats! These were so good and super easy. Because it eliminates the step of removing the "noodles," this is my preferred way to serve spaghetti squash. It's also fun! I cooked the squash using the method in the webpage linked above, but just filled them with a simple meat sauce.

Day 16: One pot chicken and potatoes. Easy peasy. And good. I added a bit of cinnamon to the chicken because it was so good on the drumsticks we had last week.

Day 17: Taco salad. We used turkey meat with homemade seasoning, romaine lettuce, pico de gallo, and guacamole.

Day 18: Tuna casserole. Without noodles? How can this be?! This was actually Nathan's favorite meal so far. We omitted the peas (not Whole30) and the shredded coconut. I'll be making this again.

Day 19: SmashBurger! I was having a rough day and the chili I had in the crock pot wasn't ready in time for dinner, so my wonderful husband called SmashBurger and checked on ingredients, then took me out. We obviously ordered our burgers without buns, and also had to ask that they not be cooked in butter. We got fried eggs and lots of veggies on our meat, and it was great! I confess to eating three of Desy's french fries... but I don't feel bad about it. ;)

Day 20: Chili. This was a rerun from last week because we loved it. I added parsnips this time, but we didn't like them. I tried to skip the step where you boil the vegetables, but it needed more cook time in the crock pot because of that.

Day 21: Chicken soup. I didn't use a recipe... just canned chicken broth, chicken breast (I just threw them in frozen and shredded them when they were done), carrots, celery, onion, and potatoes. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, parsley, and thyme. Yum.

We discovered that prosciutto makes a great bacon replacement! We got ours at Aldi. It's just salt cured pork. Fry it up and it's delightfully bacony!

We're getting close to the end! I'm very curious to see if we feel a difference when we reintroduce dairy and grains. Honestly, I hope not, because who wants food sensitivities?

I found out the apricots I've been eating have sulfites. The ingredient list says "sulfur dioxide," so I didn't make the connection until I looked it up today. Oops. Again, sulfites are on the "no" list because many people have sensitivities to them, and I'm pretty sure I'm not one of those people. Thank goodness.

As I'm writing this we only have one week left to go! We need to come up with a solid plan for when we're done so we don't go crazy with our eating. I feel good about what we've learned so far.

On to the final installment...

Whole30: week 2

Lunch prep is getting extreme. The more I cook at once, the less often I have to cook it...

We are about half way through the Whole30! If you missed the week one recap, read it here. Check out the awesome meals we made this week:

Day 8: Nathan made the delicious rosemary chicken and green beans we had last week. We also had Crash Hot Potatoes again.

Day 9: I made this chilli in the crock pot... it has vegetables in place of beans (I don't like beans anyway, so that's a major plus for me!). It was so good... I added it to our normal recipe book.

Day 10: We had super great chicken drumsticks, broccoli, and mashed cauliflower (which was NOT good... maybe I did it wrong... but yuck.).

Day 11: Leftovers!

Day 12: We were at Dorothy Lane Market (fancy pants grocery store / cafe) for our monthly-ish board game party, so we got burgers without buns. They were very tasty, but I was really hoping for a fried egg on mine...

Day 13: My parents took us out to Piada for lunch where we enjoyed some great salads with lots of veggies and meat.

For dinner we made salmon cakes, green beans and broccoli, and crispy oven fries. I ended up turning on the broiler at 500 degrees to brown the fries, and that worked great. I forgot to take a picture :/

Day 14: Chipotle salads for lunch! Lettuce, meat, fajita veggies, salsa (no corn), and guacamole. Mmmmmm.

Dinner was crockpot beef stew. This time I coated the beef with potato starch and used three cans of beef broth (instead of broth, water, gravy combo). I wish it were thicker, but it tasted great!


I make breakfast casserole at the beginning of each week so it's convenient to eat each morning. I'm very excited to say that Aldi brand ground sausage has no added sugar or other forbidden ingredients!! And it's very good. We also found that Aldi carries prosciutto that's just pork and salt, so it makes a nice bacon substitute!

We have discovered that guacamole is of utmost importance! We eat it every day on our lunch, and also on taco salad or Chipotle salad. It provides a lovely creaminess. I stocked up at Aldi.

We've branched out a bit in our snack choices. Some people don't snack at all on Whole30, but my body gets mad if I get too hungry (I think I have a fast metabolism so I get blood sugar drops sometimes), so I'm a-ok with a few snacks. Along with our nut mix, we have dried apricots (I'm an addict), sunflower seeds, raisins, and paleo brownie bites that Nathan made. He used raisins instead of dates because that's what we had on hand. They're good... and very rich, so just one is usually plenty. I got creative one evening when I was super hungry... I microwaved a red potato (it look about five minutes) and ate it topped with a fried egg. Nom nom.


So... it's going well. We're still enjoying good food, and I think getting into the groove of things is making it easier and it seems to be going more quickly. I'm having fun cooking new things too!

We have not cheated at all on our food choices (yay willpower!!), but we have all cheated by stepping on the scale. I didn't feel like I'd lost weight so I was prepared to be disappointed. Amazingly, I was down seven pounds Sunday morning! What?! I don't know how much is water weight and how much is actual weight loss, but I'll take it regardless! I know that Whole30 is not weight loss focused and that's fine with me, but I'm also aware that cutting out sugar is bound to have an effect on my weight... which is also fine with me ;)

Nathan has lost about the same, bringing him to a total of fifty pounds lost in the last year!!! I'm very proud of him :) He's my self control role model when it comes to food.  Tune in next week for our week three recap; same bat time, same bat channel.

View week three here!

Whole30: week 1

We've just about finished our first week on the Whole30 program. It's going well so far... I'm definitely very tempted to cheat or quit sometimes, but I haven't caved yet! My expectation that it would be difficult but not miserable has proven accurate. I've had full, delicious meals, and if I get really hungry in between meals I eat fresh or dried fruit, raw veggies, or nuts. As "diets" go I like this one because I can eat until I'm full and I can eat GOOD food... nothing weird.

I have had to get creative to cook without grains and dairy. I'm thankful there's such an abundance of Paleo recipes available online... it's a bit different than Whole30, but close enough that many of the recipes work.

It is SO. HARD. to find foods without added sugar. Or MSG or Nitrites. All I'm asking for is some bacon.

Probably the biggest challenge has been that I have had to cook nonstop! When I'm able to prep for more than one day at a time I feel a lot better. But today I was seriously in the kitchen pretty much all day. Thankfully, I like to cook... but it's a lot of work! It was my idea for our family to do this crazy eating plan, so I feel the need to take charge.

I wanted to record our menu here to help others who are looking for ideas for Whole30 or Paleo meals. I have a schedule laid out for the next week and a half, though I've already had to switch a couple things around. Anyway, here's what we've eaten so far!

 Nathan and I have been eating a pretty awesome lunch every day. I made fajita vegetables (peppers, red and yellow onions, mushrooms, and garlic), chicken, and topped it all with guacamole. So good! Nathan's a big fan. I made a ton of this today and am really hoping it lasts at least four days...

I ate scrambled eggs the first morning, but Nathan is used to eating breakfast on his break at work. I decided to make a breakfast casserole that could be warmed up a piece a day so Nathan could take his to work and I could eat mine at home, easy peasy! I have found ZERO bacon without either sugar, MSG, or Nitrites, and I have only found one very expensive kind of sausage with none of those things. We decided it would be worth trying to make our own sausage, so we bought some ground pork and I used this recipe to make our sausage. I thought it was just ok (I would add more seasonings next time, and I think I'm missing the cayenne pepper- we didn't have any), but Nathan really likes it.

To make this casserole, I used a dozen eggs and maybe 1/2 to 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 lb cooked sausage, sauteed mushrooms, and seasonings (salt, pepper, and onion powder, I believe). I baked it in a 9"x13" pan at 350 degrees for one hour. I cut it into 8 portions and I think that's just about right, though I might try 10 this week to see if that'll do us so I can just cook one breakfast for the whole work week!

Day 1: Dinner was baked Tilapia, "Crash Hot Potatoes," and asparagus. I didn't love the fish, but the rest was good. Those potatoes are my new favorite side dish.

Day 2: It was Larry's birthday (he chose to start this eating plan the day before, not me!!), and I wanted to make him pot pie because it's his favorite, but how can you make pot pie without flour, butter, or milk?? I made this almond crust (though I just mixed it with a fork and used almond meal, not blanched almond flour), and concocted the rest on my own. I didn't have any chicken broth on hand (and all bouillon I've found has sugar - often the second ingredient - or MSG), so I made a roux of coconut oil and almond meal, then once it browned I poured in almond milk and a pureed can of chicken. It looked a whole lot like cream of chicken soup. I combined chicken, cooked potatoes, and frozen mixed veggies for the filling. I was so focused on picking out the corn from the mixed veggies that I completely forgot that peas are on the "no" list... they're a legume. Arg. All that work to make it fit into the plan and I messed it up. However, we decided that peas are undoubtedly good for you, and we think the no legumes thing is a little weird anyway, so it's all good. ;) Anyway, it tasted really good! I didn't like the texture because of the pureed canned chicken, but everyone thought it was a success.

Day 3 lunch: I was out running around getting groceries, so I knew I wouldn't be back in time to make lunch... what's a girl to do? Order Chipotle! I was so excited when I realized I could eat Chipotle on Whole30! I ordered us salads with chicken, tomato salsa, and fajita vegetables, and then we added guacamole at home (because I'm cheap). It was so good.

Day 3 dinner: Beef stew! I love this recipe. I got it started in the morning and it was ready by dinner time. The changes I made were to use almond meal instead of flour, nixed the gravy mix, added mushrooms (which I do even when not on Whole30), and added potato starch at the end (I usually use corn starch). I used three small cans of beef broth instead of the combination of broth, water, and gravy mix. The almond meal didn't do anything for it and the potato starch got all globby... I think next time I'll coat the meat in potato starch instead and see what happens. I admit that it wasn't quite as delicious as the original recipe, but still delicious nonetheless.

Day 4: Nathan made me a delicious dinner. He made chicken with rosemary and other spices, and he asked me to make green beans. Very delicious team effort. I'm going to ask him to make the chicken again this week.

Day 5: Taco salad! I made our favorite pico de gallo recipe, guacamole (avocados, minced garlic, onion powder, salt, and pepper), and Nathan made taco meat with homemade seasoning mix. We served it over chopped Romaine lettuce. It was delicious.

Day 6 breakfast: I made everyone fried potatoes and eggs! Yum!

Day 6 dinner: Spaghetti squash and meatballs. I'd never made spaghetti squash before, but I used this method and it came out perfectly! I served it with tomato sauce (Read labels! Most have sugar.) and steamed broccoli. I was really happy with this meal, especially because I was unsure about whether I'd like the spaghetti squash. It was a really delicious dinner!

Day 7 breakfast: Larry made fried sweet potatoes and onions with eggs. I'm not a big sweet potato person, but it was a pretty good combo. And I didn't have to cook it :)

Day 7: Leftovers! I DON'T HAVE TO COOK ANYTHING!!!

...oh wait. I have to cook breakfast casserole for the week.

 

If we get hungry in between meals we munch on a mix of nuts and dried fruits Nathan put together. It was hard to find the dried cherries he wanted without added sugar, but Trader Joe's carries them. The mix has almonds, cashews, walnuts, raisins, and dried cherries. I think mix 2.0 also has pecans. Yeah... the first bag went really fast with all of us eating it... We also eat other dried fruit like apricots, or fresh fruit or veggies. I was snacking on raspberries earlier and they tasted heavenly.

All in all, I'm really enjoying the food we've been eating all week! It's GOOD food, and we're not going hungry. Nathan cheated and weighed himself and found that he has already lost five pounds. He's weirdly skilled at losing weight. I know that weight loss isn't really the grand goal of the Whole30... but it would be a nice benefit ;) I don't see this as any kind of long-term eating plan for us, but we are learning a lot about food and the way we eat, and it is certainly good for our health (and self control!), so I think it's good that we're doing it. I'm not gonna lie, I'm really conflicted on what to do on my birthday in a couple weeks... to cheat or not to cheat...

Tune in next time for week two of the Whole30! (See it here)

*I designed the poster at the top of this post. Please feel free to print it out and stick it on your fridge! That's where it lives at my house :)*

Is that a challenge?!

I've never given up anything for Lent before, but I'm giving it a try this year. I've given up facebook in an attempt to focus more on God and my family. 

I find that I tend to click into Facebook every time I feel a lull in my day and fill up every moment with staring at my phone. And that's just not good. I feel distracted in general, but especially from my children. I want to be more present for them. I also want to be more present for God and give Him more than a few moments of my day... that's just unacceptable. 

I've done fine with staying away from Facebook (I deleted the app), but I still find myself on my phone too much, so if I can't get that under control I may delete some more apps for a while.

I have started a Bible study from She Reads Truth (via their app) called Open Your Bible. I really like it so far and am enjoying adding a guided Bible study to my day. They have both paid and free studies... if I burn through the free ones I think the rest would be worth paying for.

I've been thinking about making a change to my eating habits for a while now. I've felt kind of out of control and I know I'm addicted to sugar. Robin was telling me she felt the same way earlier, so I showed her this method I've been researching: Whole 30. It's very similar to the Caveman Diet or Paleo. She thought it was a great idea and wants to start tomorrow! I've never done something like this, but it's only for thirty days... I can do it! Wish us luck!!

Cooking with Rachel

Robin and Larry are out of town this week, so instead of Robin cooking most of our dinners it's been up to me all week. I wanted to take the opportunity to try some of the yummy-looking recipes I've been pinning, so I picked out a few recipes and got all the ingredients at the beginning of the week.

I also bought a whole chicken and stuck in in the crock pot one night with some onions, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper. In the morning it was falling off the bones so completely that I couldn't even lift the whole thing out of the pot! I just deboned it and shredded all up, and I had chicken to add to my dinners all week! Woohoo!

I made a lot of new meals this week (Crockpot Turkey Soup [for which I used chicken and didn't cook in the crock pot. It was much better left over], Vegetable Strudel [wasn't bad, but it would be much better with feta cheese and more Parmesan. MORE CHEESE! And it looked more like a lump than a strudel.], some really really ridiculously salty lo mein, French Onion Soup [needed more salt and sugar. I used Provolone cheese instead of Gruyere]...), but these are the REALLY GOOD recipes.  I thought it'd be fun to share!

This recipe was SO yummy! It's definitely a crowd-pleaser, so I'll be pulling this one out when I bring meals to people and such.  It does make a lot of dishes to wash, but I thought it was worth it.  Note: mix in the cheese sauce. 

Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 stalks celery, finely diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 Tablespoons fresh minced garlic
2 Cups shredded, cooked chicken breast
2 Cups steamed white rice
16 oz prepared wild rice (I get mine at Trader Joes, LOVE it)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
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Cheese Sauce
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 Cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 Cups chicken broth
2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
Top with 1 1/2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Heat oil into a medium dutch oven or pot over medium heat.  Saute onion, celery and carrots until softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in chicken, both rices, salt, pepper and garlic salt.  Reduce heat to low.
2.  To prepare cheese sauce melt butter into a medium saucepan over medium high heat.  Whisk in flour, salt and pepper then slowly pour in chicken broth whisking continuously.  Whisk until thick and nearly boiling then stir in cheese until melted.  Pour cheese sauce into rice mixture then transfer to a 9×13 inch baking dish. Top with additional cheddar cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted through.  Serve.
8-10 servings

I was excited to try this and I wasn't disappointed! This pita bread was very easy to make, fun to watch puff up in the oven, and delicious!!  I'm excited to make it again!

Pita Bread

1 tablespoon yeast
1 ¼ cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
3- 3 ½ cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water for about 5 minutes in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add salt and 1 ½ cups flour and with the dough hook, beat to make a batter. Add additional flour until a rough, shaggy mass is formed. 

Knead 8 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Add more flour if it is too sticky.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into six pieces for large pitas or ten for smaller. I make all sorts of sizes to suit different snacks and meals. Form dough into balls, then flatten with a rolling pin into ¼ inch thick discs. Try and keep an even thickness as this is what helps them ‘puff’.

Let rest on the floured surface 30-40 minutes until slightly puffed.

Preheat oven to 425F.

With a large spatula, flip the rounds of dough upside down on to a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes until light golden. Stick around for the first five minutes of baking when the pitas perform their magic and puff up from flat pancakes to proud, four inch high pitas.

These store for up to two days well wrapped or frozen for three weeks.

To go IN the pitas, I made this. I don't always like Mediterranean  food because of the strong flavors, but this was so good!  It was easy to make (gotta love a slow cooker recipe) and was well seasoned. The only things I did differently were to put the red peppers in half way through the cooking time because I don't like them raw, and we also drizzled some of the sauce that was left in the pot over top of our assembled pitas to make them even more moist and flavorful.

Slow Cooker Greek Chicken Pita

1	medium onion, sliced
1	clove garlic, minced
1	lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
1½	teaspoons lemon pepper
½	teaspoon dried oregano
¼	teaspoon ground allspice
4	pita pocket breads
½	cup plain yogurt
1	tomato, sliced
½	cup chopped cucumber
1	medium red bell pepper, sliced in thin strips

1. In slow-cooker, combine onion, garlic, chicken, lemon pepper, oregano, and allspice; mix to coat chicken with seasoning.
2. Cover and cook onLOWfor 4–6 hours.
3. Heat pita bread as directed on package. Meanwhile, remove chicken from slow-cooker; place on cutting board. Using two forks, shred chicken.
4. To serve, stir yogurt into onion mixture in slow-cooker. Spoon chicken onto warm pita bread. With slotted spoon, transfer onion mixture onto chicken; top with tomato, cucumber, and red pepper strips.

LOST Party!

Tuesday night Nathan and I had a few friends over to watch the season premier of the final season of LOST. We decided it would be a real party, so we went all-out. We made an epic cake, above, which was so much fun.

Settle down, Baptists. We just printed out "Dharma Initiative" beer labels for our pop. It was a nice little touch. :)

John Locke made an appearance at the party!

Yeah, we're uber-nerds, but we have a good time :)

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I've been trying to eat better, but I'm kind of picky so it can be hard. The vegetables I like are pretty limited. However, I came up with this amaaaaazing pasta dish last night that features zucchini. I'm proud to say that it was absolutely delicious and I can't wait to make it again. Here's a recipe if you want to try it. All measurements are approximations.

2 TBL olive oil
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 large onion, shoe-stringed
1 medium zucchini, sliced and quartered
28 oz can of Italian style diced tomatoes
1 lb box of whole grain ziti pasta, cooked al dente
3/4 C. Spaghetti Sauce (optional)
Cooked chicken breast, seasoned and cut into small strips (optional, to taste)
Pepper (to taste)

Saute garlic and onions in olive oil until onions become tender. Add zucchini and pepper and cook until tender but not mushy. Add diced tomatoes and heat through. Add pasta and sauce to desired consistency. Serve and top with grated Parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

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In Couch-to-5K news, I successfully completed day 2 of week 4! Of course it was hard, but I'm proud to say I made it :)

Here are the stats:
Current weight: 133.8
Goal weight: 115
Weight lost this week: 1.2
Total weight lost: 6.2
Pounds left 'til goal: 18.8

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In an amazing turn of events, Orion made it through a bath without crying. Whoa.