Here's what Thursday looked like...

My samples of the new Starbucks instant coffee arrived in the mail a couple of days ago! I decided to give it a try and I was pleasantly surprised! It is really quite good. It does have that instant coffee smell and it has a faint instant coffee taste. But overall it's really quite good. I wouldn't want to replace my beloved, freshly brewed, morning cups of "real" coffee...but this stuff would definitely do in a pinch!



My day was a bit different yesterday. I drove to work, rather than my morning walk. It was threatening to rain and I had a nasty headache...(which would have, of course, been helped by the walk)......so I decided to drive. I had some extra time and shopping is always theraputic so I stopped at my neighborhood Walmart on my way to work.

Here's what I got!!!

My copy of the Hungry Girl book!! I love Hungry Girl!


I also decided that I needed some snappy new dishes for my lunches at work, so I picked up these. Aren't they just so cute?



I had an extra cup of coffee with Sugar Free CoffeeMate creamer in it when I got to work. Yes, that would be a cup of the Starbucks instant. I still had the icky feeling from the headache and I wasn't hungry so I skipped breakfast.

Here's my lunch on my snappy new dishes. I had leftovers. Chicken strips-3oz from a couple of nights ago, breaded in Fiber One cereal. (This Fiber One breading is awesome!!! A secret I learned from "Hungry Girl"!!) And, some leftover roasted green beans. (1 1/2 cups) I actually fixed these the other night and then forgot to eat any. They are the frozen ones from Costco. I sealed them in a foil packet and threw them in the oven with something else I was baking. After they were tender and cooked I opened the packet and let them roast and get a little bit browned. Oh my goodness!!! This is the best way ever to eat green beans! I also had some palin yogurt (1/2cup) sweetened with a dash of stevia and topped with blueberries (1cup), also from the frozen section at Costco. I had my usual iced blueberry tea, sweetened with a bit of stevia, to drink. This yummy lunch was 5 points.



I was ready for a snack at around 4:00 so I fixed myself a half and apple, sliced and dipped in a sauce that I made by mixing 1tbs of chunky peanut butter with 1 tbs of Walden Farms Maple Syrup. This Walden Farms syrup is crazy good! I know that some of the Walden Farms stuff tastes completely awful...but the pancake syrup is wonderful and has zero calories. I don't know how they do it! I think it's magic! Honestly, I didn't check the points value of the peanut butter until after I ate it. I thought how bad could a tbs of peanut butter be? I was shocked at the 2.5 points that a single tbs of peanut butter costs! I am thinking that a lighter peanut butter might be in order! But it was a really, really yummy treat for an afternoon snack! And again, notice how positively gourmet it looks on my cute, new salad plate! Is that miniature ramekin not the cutest little thing? My aternoon snack was 3 points.




Here's my dinner...thanks again Hungry Girl!!! I had chili dogs. Who knew that chili dogs could be diet friendly? What you see on this plate (Doesn't it look delightfully junk foodie delectable!!??) is 2 Hebrew National 97% fat free hot dogs. These dogs are so good. They have every bit of the great flavor of the original dogs by Hebrew National but are only 45 calories each! I just wish they carried these at Costco too. They are pricey at 5-something for a packet of eight. But as an occasional treat they can fit in the budget. You can bet the rest of those bad boys are going in the freezer to be used at a a later date. Anyway, back to my dinner. The hot dogs are on 2 slices of SaraLee light, white bread. Another great find at 45 calories a slice and 2gms of fiber each. Fat free cheddar cheese slices from Albertsons. This is the store brand and it is so good. It melts the way it should and it tastes amazing! The chili is Hormel 98% fat free vegetarian chili, 1/2 cup. I topped the whole concoction with some diced onions. This was junk food at its finest with NO GUILT!!! Can you believe this junk food feast was only 5.5 points!?


My nighttime snack to satisfy my sweet tooth was a bowl of Fiber One cereal and a banana with 2/3 cup of milk. It was just the thing to satisfy my craving for something sweet and crunchy...and the banana adds just the right chewy sweetness to it for a 4 point total!




I am having so much fun with this whole Weight Watcher system of point counting and learning to eat better. Now I'm going to go an get my second cup of coffee and jump into Friday!