Tastes Like Fall

One of my family's favorite fall meals is corn chowder with cornbread made from scratch. After hearing from my mom that corn chowder was on her menu last week, I just knew it needed to me on mine this week. When I got home this evening I set to work chopping and measuring. The chowder was finished and the cornbread out of the oven just in time for me to head out to the very last Extreme Faith nightly meeting. I left the cornbread on the counter with some foil on top, covered the soup and left it on the stove so it would be ready to eat when I got back. When I got home two hours later I realized that I had left the burner on medium! Thankfully it only thickened up the chowder (the recipe--listed below--does say to simmer before serving) and didn't burn down the house. Here is the super simple delicious recipe I use.

Corn Chowder (from Nanny, Mom, Nana Johnson)

Serves 4-6 people

1 large onion, chopped

4-5 potatoes, diced

salt to taste

2 cans cream style corn

1 1/2 cans evaporated milk (soy milk and/or coconut milk also work if you want to go vegan)

Saute onions in oil. Add potatoes and cover with water just to the tops. Add salt. Cook until potatoes are tender. Add corn and evaporated milk. Add a pat of butter if desired (it's always desired by me). Simmer and serve!

Sickly

I had a great time last weekend at the Women's Retreat. (I'll do a post about it this weekend. The speaker went to AUC with my Aunt Winnie. Yet another example of how incestuously small the Adventist community is.) Then on Tuesday I started feeling a little sickly but still made it out to Avenue Q with LadyBoyd and her hubband. I don't remember the last time I laughed that much--the car ride home was just as amusing as the show. By Wednesday the sickness had hit. Massive sore throat, sinus pressure and inflamed vocal cords which make me sound like a grown up. I had to leave work early on Thursday and am taking a half day today. I don't even want to think about all of the house work that needs to be done this week before I open my house up for another Teen Movie Night on the 11th. Hopefully with enough water and cat hair this cold won't stick around. On a good note, I weighed in today and I'm down a total of 9.2 pounds since I started doing Nutrisystem. Now if I could just find the energy to get off my rump and walk. I can't let the MOANers down!

The Week that Was and Is

This has turned out to be a good week after all. I was worried on Monday when my budget got blown out because Commerce hasn’t quite figured out that I shouldn’t still be paying for a cancelled policy. True, the cost was minimal and I was able to cover the budget variance with savings, but I did have to put off registering my car for another two weeks. It appears that I will have to take things into my own hands and not rely on my insurance guy’s confirmation. In addition, I was asked to add a third hat--running sound and burning CDs--to my already scheduled announcement and children's story duties at church tomorrow. This can only go well, right? As the week wore on, I saw my lawn being mowed by a local pathfinder (I pay her for this, but it was still a nice surprise to see her come out one evening after school without being asked.), received my brand new silver digital scale and my new food shipment from Nutrisystem—mashed potatoes how I have missed you. This time UPS left my 30 pound box at the back door so I wouldn’t have to wake up any earlier to pick it up. Wednesday night prayer meeting was an uplifting study of “Prayer” in the Bible and last night’s school board meeting was drama free and only an hour and a half long. We got out so early that another member and I were able to hit Starbucks—which is usually closed by the time we get there (they close at 10p)—for a tall non-fat no whip pumpkin spice latte and some good conversation. Other than the small Starbucks indulgence, I’ve stayed true to my meal plan and even managed to not cheat when I took the staff out Tuesday morning for breakfast at Brother Juniper's. If only ordering one fried egg over easy and a bowl of grapes is not a testament to my new found will power I don’t know what is. I’ve only worked out once this week, but am planning on at least walking some today. The fact that my shiny new scale told me this morning that I’ve lost 7 pounds (6.6 to be exact, but hey, that rounds up to 7) in four weeks is a real motivator. Look out size 10 jeans, here I come!

Just Another Day in the South

Thankfully the heat of August is fading away and I no longer need to fear the 100* weather. Even though we are still hitting 90* most days, I'm ready for the fall. I can't wait until I can wear a light sweater to work and smell the neighborhood fireplaces when I come home. I will also be happy when the Palmetto bugs stop thinking that my back room is a fine and dandy place to hang out. Daly helps out some, but she would rather play than kill. Why, oh why, couldn't I get a killer kitty? At least she does something and lets me know when I need to come by with a sneaker to flatten and flush the buggers. O'Malley won't give them the time of day. Little do the critters know that I have a plan. The lovely guys at Terminix are coming over tomorrow for the annual indoor spraying. Take that! As for my diet, things are going well. I've eaten more lettuce in the 18 days since starting Nutrisystem then I had in all of 2008 previously. I promise that it's not all lettuce and rabbit food. I get good entrees that take little to no effort and it's just the sides (salads, fruit, veggies & dairy/protein) that I need to worry about. I've not once gone hungry and some of their desserts are quite good. As cliche as it sounds, I feel better, too. Since starting I've lost 4 pounds (according to the lines I squint at to read on my non-digital scale) and have worked out (and yes, walking the Botanic Gardens with my mom for an hour and a half in 90*+ weather IS working out) three times. Now if I can convince myself to exercise tonight I'll be on a roll.

Testing My Follow Through

Let me just start off my saying that I am not good with routines. I may be able to stick to a routine for a few weeks, but then I stop. I’m not sure why this is. Sometimes, like when I was walking at Shelby Farms after work or anything requiring me to set my alarm early and actually get out of bed, my body refuses to continue. Other times I just get distracted or lose interest. For some reason I have a real problem with consistency. Apparently, good intentions don’t count. Why does this little tidbit matter? It matters because on Friday morning I started the NutriSystem Vegetarian meal plan. The amount of pre-packaged food for 35 days (28 days plus one free week) is a bit alarming. On top of all the food that is shipped I am supposed to supplement it with fresh fruit, veggies, dairy/protein and of course lots of water. So far, so good—only one small 24 hour period of eating off plan (but that’s another post). I’m enjoying putting together my fresh options and planning out my food for the day. I’m also making a list of the items to order next month (almond biscotti and pasta primavera with tofu are on the list) and which ones I hopefully will never see after this month is up (BBQ Soy chips, fettuccini alfredo, the chocolate raspberry lunch bar). I am even mastering the difficult task of drinking at least 64 oz of water day. While this may not seem like a big deal, keep in mind that I usually only drink a cup or two of coffee a day and maybe a small glass of water/juice if I remember. (If this is the same problem you have, keep in mind that the amount of trips you make to empty your bladder will greatly increase. By the end of the day I feel like I'm going every 30 minutes! Thank goodness for DVRs.) The next thing to add is that silly thing called exercise. Tonight I am going to try out the Walking DVD that came with my kit. It’s one of the Leslie Sansone DVDs and I’ve only seen good reviews of her things. I’ll let you know how it goes. And because I’m a girl, I’m going to track it like this and not mention the depressing starting weight: Workout Days: 0 Pounds lost: 0