Breakfast Dinner

Monday night is breakfast dinner at the Coe household. Pancakes from mix.. not that bad for you. You know what's bad for you? All the "stuff" you put on them. Bisquick pancake mix is 2 points per pancake. Now, this is not a pancake the size of your plate, it's made with 1/4 cup as your ladle.
I make them according to the box.

Topping ideas:

Sliced bananas (free) and 4 pecans halves (1 point)  I put a gathering of sliced bananas on the skillet then poor my pancake batter over it. Or you can just slice them on top.. I do both. =)

Fresh sliced peaches (free), frozen would probably be good too!

Blueberries (free). I just got some frozen blueberries and they are so good.

Strawberries, berries.. go crazy with those fruits. Not the fruit syrups though. haha Not the same!

Syrup is so bad for you and the worst part is how much you put on without even noticing. I dip my cakes in the syrup to make the syrup go farther. This stuff is great, it's 1 point for 1/4 cup. My original syrup was 6 points for 1/4 of a cup, I could have 3 more pancakes for that, but if you don't like the idea of sugar free syrup maybe just try the dipping your pancakes instead of drowning them in syrup. I don't do butter, because honestly I can't taste it and why waste points on something that isn't critical to your taste buds.

I used to eat my pancakes slathered in peanut butter and syrup! 2 tablespoons of peanut butter is 5 points and I know it wasn't just 2 tablespoons that I put on it. I really don't miss eating them like that when I have such a yummy alternative. 

My super boys

I love weight watchers, but as promised this blog will be a little bit of everything.

I happen to LOVE taking pictures of my kiddos. My boys often get the short end of the camera these days, so I found some really cute ideas on pinterest. This morning just the 3 of us went to the park to do a super hero photo shoot. We had so much fun. =) Here they are.

this one is my favorite! 

The fight scene! Their favorite.

Aidan really sells that punch! haha

 These boys are polar opposites, yet love being together! So cool, I hope they stay best buddies. 

What's for dinner?

Life can get pretty crazy around the Coe household. Dinner kept sneaking up on me so we sat down and planned out the days of the week. We sat down with our boys and let them pick their favorite dinners. Gavin picked breakfast dinner, which everyone loved the idea of. Monday's are hard so Monday's are breakfast because it's easy. Usually we have pancakes, Gavin and I either have banana or blueberry. We decided that Tuesday had to be Tacos (lego movie), which can be straight up tacos, taco soup or fish tacos (my fav). Aidan picked hamburger night, which I also love. Thursday has been named WHATEV night or grill night. Friday is little caesar's pizza night. Two slices of pepperoni is 15 points.

I love  having a set meal schedule, it makes grocery shopping so much easier. Have I told you that planning and being organized is so important when dieting?  Well it is. =) If I know it's pizza night then I don't eat any extra points, I stick to core foods. We're pretty flexible so if we don't feel like Taco Tuesday then we ditch it for the night. The only night that we can't ditch is breakfast dinner night, the kids love it too much.

I would highly recommend a meal plan, wish I would have implemented it earlier. Also if you can pick a broad type of meal like grill night I think it's easier to stick with and not get bored. We leave weekends open for going out to eat or whatever we feel like having. =)

I don't have a picture for this post so how about a cute one of my boys at the fair. Love these little stinkers.

Big chicken nuggets

Big Chicken Nuggets, marinara sauce and veggies.

This dinner is so versatile and fast. It's not a "pretty" dinner, but it's good. I also love it because my picky eater will eat it without the marinara sauce, score! It seems like I forget to de-thaw meat more often than I remember, so chicken patties are great. I am super picky about meat and this is not cheap spongy chicken patties, it's high quality spongy chicken patties. hahahaha

 I love Costco and I get all three ingredients for this meal there. The chicken patties come in a long sleeve and they're about $13 for 20 patties. Cook patties according to the package, I like mine a little crunchier so I leave them in longer. The kirkland marinara sauce is 2-3 points for 1/2 cup of sauce (warm on stove). I buy the Normandy blend of frozen veggies (which you can buy at walmart too).  For the veggies I put them in a casserole dish with a little water and microwave it on the frozen veggie button. Then I drizzle very lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper and pop it in the oven at 350 degrees. After about 15 minutes I take it out and stir to make sure all the veggies get a nice tan and back in for another 15 minutes. These are my back up veggies when I don't have any fresh veggies. Now that we really don't eat a starch for dinner, veggies have to step up their role and I have to have them on hand at all times.

If you have some non-dieters in the house you can make up spaghetti noddles to go with it.. or if you have enough points, 2 ounces is 5 points. Or mozzarella is really yummy on top of the sauce too 1/4 of a cup is 2 points, I think.

Point break down

Chicken patty, 7 points
1/2 cup of marinara sauce, 2-3 points
Olive oil, 1-2 points per serving

Another variation is ZUCCHINI, mushrooms, onion and garlic. Yum! My personal favorite!

I Love Burgers!

Oh, how I love summer time and burgers! No defrosting required, score! 13 point dinner.

Okay, lets break down the points/ingredients. 

Kroger (Freddy's brand) Wheat Bun 3 points

 hamburger patty 7 POINTS (Turkey patty is only 4 points)

Grilled onions  FREE

 1 Tablespoon of Barbecue Sauce 1 point 

Lettuce FREE

I get my hamburger patties from Dick Howard's meat market, my local butcher. If you don't buy your meat from your local butcher, I would highly suggest you start. Besides supporting local, they sell better meat for cheaper. Huh... sounds like a no brainer right, it is! The ground chicken at the grocery store is 4-6 dollars per pound, it's $2.60ish per pound. 

Corn on the Cobb 2 points (yep, corn isn't free. I started boiling the corn for less time and it is so sweet and crunchy. I put a little salt, but no butter. I know, I love butter too. )

Not enough food? What about watermelon? Cantaloupe? Strawberries?  FREE

Pickles are 0-1 point depending if you like those nasty things.. which I don't. =) 

This is one of my personal favorite meals, simple and good. Also a kid favorite, which is important. 

Vacation

Fact: You will cheat. The real question is: How will you bounce back? It doesn't mean that your diet is over or that you failed; just a hiccup. Recognize it was a bad choice and move on.

We went to Disneyland in April, while we were in full force with our diet and I had 10 more pounds to lose. I was petrified that I would gain weight while we were there - so many yummy treats. We decided we would do our best to eat well and indulge in some must-have treats. We bought our breakfast sandwiches to eat before we went to the park. We packed Uncrustables (frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches 5 points) or turkey sandwiches with pop chips and a fiber one bar. For most dinners we ate at the hotel, trying to stick with lean and green options - except the nights that were our turn to cook.  We had pizza and In-N-Out Burger. Yeah, don't judge me; we packed twin infants through Disneyland all day, fed them every 3 hours and tried to get some rides in too. =) After the first day I realized my ideas of making a yummy healthy dinner for a group of people was a joke and totally not going to happen. It was quite an accomplishment for us to take the girls to Disneyland; I feel like I can take them anywhere now. I stuck to my 2 slices of pizza rule and just had the burger and ate a few fries.  We ate Churros, Rice Krispy Treats and Ice Cream sandwiches. So the point that I'm trying to get across is: You can have those cheat items if you are good the rest of the day. Before I would have told myself "You're packing a 15 pound baby through Disneyland eat whatever you want". Exercise does burn calories and gives you extra points, but not as much as you would think. When I exercise I think of it more as toning and muscle building, not as a weight loss method. Yes, you can work out and lose weight, but I'm saying don't justify bad decisions because you're working out. I lost 1.5 pounds that week.

My birthday weekend we went to the coast. I made all kinds of bad choices while we were there. I did, however, try to eat my smaller portions. Lots of fried food, chowder, waffles and desserts. I'd tell you the details, but I don't remember what all I ate, but it was bad. We were so happy to get home and get back on the band wagon.  I notice that when I eat poorly I have less energy and feel gross. It feels so good to get your body fueled back up with the good stuff. I gained 2 pounds and was able to get rid of it within 2 weeks.

I also had weeks with no weight loss. This was really frustrating especially when I was really good all week - I hadn't cheated or anything. Your body isn't going to drop 1.5 pounds every week like clockwork. Well, maybe you're lucky and it does; not super likely. I went back and looked at my stats on the Weight Watchers app - about every 3 weeks I would have a poor weight loss, but then the next week I would have a great loss.

No one is PERFECT! To assume that anyone is perfect or even close to being perfect is just absurd. It may seem from the outside that it's perfect, but perhaps what you're noticing is that they are content and happy with what they have. Happiness is what you should shoot for, not perfection. I have let happiness be my guide in life and I'm really happy with where I am. With weight loss it's easy to compare yourself to others; just remember this is your journey and in the end it's all about you. Don't sell yourself short, set that goal and go get it.

Fish Tacos

Easy Fish Tacos is one of my favorite dinners, mainly because it's easy.  About 11 Points

You will need:

Fish Sticks  Costco 4 pieces is  6 points (trident is the brand) / Gordon's 4 pieces is 5 points
Bag of coleslaw without dressing
Hard or soft taco shells both are around 4 points for 3 shells
Olive Oil Mayo
Lemon Juice
pinch of sugar


Gordon's Fish Sticks are lower in points than my Costco fish sticks, but the Costco ones are bigger. For the points I like the Costco ones best. Cook up the fish sticks, I just about burn mine on purpose because they taste better that way to me.  Make up your slaw, by putting about half the bag in a bowl with 2 spoonfuls of Olive Oil Mayo a squirt of lemon juice and a pinch of sugar. I don't count the pinch of sugar against myself. Mix it all up, if it needs a little more mayo I would add it without going overboard. Now that I'm in maintenance mode I buy the kind with dressing, I have no idea how many points it is. Warm up your tortillas two fish sticks per tortilla and add coleslaw. Yummy!

 One night I didn't have coleslaw, but had to have fish tacos. At Fred Meyer's in the frozen food section they sell a corn, black bean, onion and pepper mix. I love the stuff, no idea how many points it is, probably 1-2 per serving. I love to put it on regular tacos so we tried it one night on the fish tacos with a 1/2 greek yogurt 1/2 salsa mix (also a great salad dressing that is cheap on points).. really good! I'm sure there are lots of other toppings you could do!

Picky Kid note: I often get asked if my kids eat our healthy food too. Yes they do! My youngest boy loves to eat what we're eating, but my oldest is pretty picky. I will say he's come a really long way from his yogurt, oatmeal and Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich days. I just make up some tater tots and serve him fish sticks and tots for dinner. If I remember I also hold out some of the coleslaw without sauce for him. Boom, everyone is happy! Including me because I usually have forgoten to de-thaw dinner.

On a side note this could be a really cheap point meal if you used non-breaded fish.