May Day Challenge!

Great idea ladies!! My struggles are sweets and exercise. (When I was pregnant with my son, I frequently craved sugar. Not chocolate or anything like that, just straight sugar:noway: )

I know there are several in your boat with the cooking thing. However, I can also tell you that there are people in this group (Mary msh0530:bigsmile: love you Aunt Mary!) who can give you lots of ideas and suggestions about cooking. She is the QUEEN of cooking ahead. Almost every trick I know, I learned from her.

Also, if you live in a large enough town, you may have businesses that help you create meals. They provide you with a recipe, all the ingredients, and containers to put them in. You come in, put the meals together, take them home and freeze them. Then you take them out, cook as instructed, and enjoy! A friend and I did this when we lived in the same city. We had a great time, chatting, cooking, and having a girls day. It's more expensive than doing it all at home, but it gave us different ideas for meals that I then added to our regular lineup. Something to think about!

Thank for the suggestions Lisa, is your aunt Mary apart of this thread b/c I'm interested what she can offer a novice cooker like myself

As it stands the struggles are: cooking regularly, eating healthy on the weekends, eating sweets/chocolate and exercising.

ANY OTHER STRUGGLES OUT THERE?

Yes, Aunt Mary is here. When I was young, I struggled every night with "What do I fix? How do I get the meat thawed?" and other challenges. (Yes, that was pre-microwave days.) I finally forced myself into a habit of making a menu for a month at a time, buying all groceries that would keep, making a small weekly or so list of perishables to go back to the store for. Then I could get up in the morning, look at the menu, set out meat or do whatever needed done ahead, and go on with my day. I also hate to go to the grocery store, so this works well for me. The checkers at the local store know me, and probably hate to see my loaded cart coming, but also know that they aren't likely to see me again for several weeks. I am also addicted to cookbooks and trying new recipes - ask my poor husband who hardly ever gets the same meal twice! Tell me your specific problems/questions, and I will try to help. Got to go mix a batch of my own oatmeal mix (I don't use those nasty packets.)

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Since the weekend begins tomorrow perhaps we can have a mini challenge specific for the weekend (Friday and Saturday) and another one that begins on Sunday. I was thinking that for the mini challenge we could have everyone think of their meals in advance for that day and not only log them in their food log but also post them in this thread so we can see what everyone plans to eat and if people need healthier options the group can offer suggestions. Then check in at the end of that day to let the group know if you stuck to your meal plan. Since everyone is looking to be held accountable posting your food in the actual thread may help. This would just be for Friday and Saturday (I know planning far in advance can be difficult)

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I was also thinking that the challenge for the week could be no sweets for a week. I was on a previous thread where it was a challenge of no sweets til christmas and at the end of the day everyone would post their count (for example: chocolickkyss: 1 sweets: 0, which meant I went one day w/o indulging in sweets. If on day two I did have some type of sweet I would report chocolickkys: 1 sweets: 1 etc....)

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I wish I could see results immediatley. I am going to the gym again tonight for the third day in a row, and all I can think about is how my rolls are pushing up over my jeans when I sit down. I wish they would go away, like, yesterday :laugh:

I was planning to go swimming in an hour, but having a hard time talking myself into going back out into the bitter cold. We'll see which side of me wins, the want to get healthy side or the freezing to death side. Or maybe they can reach a compromise!

Aunty Mary to the rescue, thank you for your willingness to throw some ideas out there. My biggest issue is that I need very easy recipes. Easy to me is very few steps and ingredients. If I have to go to the grocery store to purchase ingredients I've never heard of or wont use consistently b/c its specific to this one recipe I become overwhelmed and am less likely to follow through. Also, I'm a single lady w/no children so I cook for one. The few times I do follow recipes the serving sizes are for larger families and I don't know how to convert to a single or a couple of servings.

I seem to do alright w/making breakfast (oatmeal, omlets, muffins etc) but become a bit nervous when tackling a dinner.

Thank in advance.

Here are a couple of suggestions on cooking for one or two I found that I liked for a start. I'll try for more as I have time.
■Cook a batch and freeze single portions. For example, make a casserole or stew and freeze individual-size servings. Then take out only the amount of food you need. Be sure to write the date and contents on packages and move older packages forward as you add food to your freezer.
■Prepare one-dish meals. For quick and simple cooking, choose a dish that serves as the whole meal. Look for dishes that include foods from several food groups, such as meats, whole grains, legumes and vegetables. Healthy examples include beef, barley and vegetable stew; chicken, vegetable and rice casserole; turkey and bean casserole (made with turkey breast, white beans and tomatoes); and vegetarian chili with diced vegetables and beans.
■Use extras wisely. Plan meals so that you can use the extra food in new dishes. For example, cook rice as a side dish for one meal, then use the remainder in a casserole or rice pudding. Bake chicken for a meal and use the leftovers in sandwiches, soup or toss with greens, dried fruit, and nuts for a tasty salad. Or make a meatloaf mixture and bake some as a meatloaf and freeze the uncooked portion for later use in meatballs or stuffed peppers.

Well, because I may be too busy to post tomorrow morning, I'll go ahead and put in tomorrow's plan. Here it is:

Breakfast:
2 pieces of Sarah Lee 45 cal. wheat bread
2 tbsp of Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut butter
1 serving of canned peaches in peach juice
Lunch:
Grilled Chicken salad (1 cup lettuce, 1 cup spinach, 1/4 cup tomato, 4oz grilled chicken)
2 tbsp Dorothy Lynch salad dressing
1/4 cup shredded cheese
1 Hunt's Fat Free Vanilla pudding snack pack
Dinner:
Subway 6" Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich- lettuce, tomato, Red Wine Vinaigrette
Bag of Baked Lays (flavor depends on what they have)
Snacks:
1 serving Quaker Chocolate Mini Rice Cakes
1 tbsp Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter
1 serving Great Value Baked Vegetable Crisp Snacks
1 wedge Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb cheese

That leaves me with 154 calories before exercise. Since I have to do pep band at a basketball game tomorrow night, that usually means lots of extra carrying, and walking, playing trumpet. I may have the second half of my sub (if I'm hungry:happy: ).

Saturday's plan (subject to change depending on where my SIL wants to go out to eat)

Breakfast:
Special K Berries cereal (1 cup)
1/2 cup 1% milk
Lunch:
Subway 6" Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich- lettuce, tomato, Red Wine Vinaigrette
Baby carrots
Madarin Oranges
Dinner:
at SIL restaraunt of choice. That leaves me around 1000 calories (unless I exercise more:laugh: ).
Snacks:
carrots
celery (greatest thing I ever did was learn to eat these two plain! I can eat them all day if I let myself )

Since all of my in-laws are also working on getting healthier, the restaraunt choice will probably be one that we can easily find nutrition info for (Applebee's, Chili's, etc.). Hopefully I will find out tomorrow afternoon where we are going so that I can check out the menu and make my choices before hand!

Sunday's plan:

Breakfast:
Breakfast burrito (2 eggs, a little Rotel, fajita sized tortilla)
2 tbsp Peach Pineapple Chipotle Salsa
8oz OJ
Lunch:
1/2 of Fazoli's Ultimate Sampler
1 breadstick
Dinner:
Creamy Crockpot Chicken (cream of chicken soup, 4oz chicken breast, chicken broth, carrots, celery)
1/2 cup brown rice
2/3 cup baby sugar snap peas
Snacks:
1 serving Great Value Baked Vegetable Crisp Snacks
1 wedge Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb cheese
carrots
pears

I know the challenge was only for Friday and Saturday, but my weekends really tend to get shot on Sunday. Mostly because we drive 30 min to another town to go to church. While we're there, we usually go grocery shopping. This means that we need to eat out, or pack our lunch. We've been known to do both. Lunch may change depending on whether we decide to pack a lunch or eat at Fazoli's. It is our usually scheduled week to eat out, but if our grocery list is extensive, we may just take pb&j sandwiches, or ham and cheese sandwiches. (Good news, this week we probably won't need a cooler:bigsmile: )