Harry Potter Weight Loss Challenge - Slytherin

Since cris and pixie are the same time zone, it looks like we had a match!!

I updated on the spreadsheet. How cool and convenient that is!

Good Monday Morning (or afternoon/evening depending where you live)! I hope everyone is ready for the new week! I know I am!

good job everyone. As a whole we lost 0.97% of our weight. Thats about 50 pounds

now I am still missing weights from

0flynnstone0
Aimssc
Beffy191
ChrissyMay4
DeathismyGift
humglum
Jennyamy
lauriek70
lilabette
MDS2372
Paronomasha
Shorty32


If your name is here and you are still apart of this group please update the spread sheet ASAP
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtS2gL_AVKG8dEJLNWtWSWVrYWNUdEJGamZwcHgzOHc&hl=en&authkey=CKz0rLoE#gid=0

Again, great job everyone, keep working hard..

and for today a quote and a pic

"Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He's already used you as bait once, and that was just because you're my best friend's sister. Think how much danger you'll be in if we keep this up. He'll know, he'll find out. He'll try and get to me through you."

no problem . I gave our percent to uno, but i'm going to check back tonight and update our percent from late weigh ins

OOH!!! My boyfriend shot a turkey so I am gonna do something with the turkey breast, maybe marinate it and grill it????

I guess I'm in? Hey that's really cool but I have a question. When did we "start", what date is the "starting weight"? May 1st?

How about we have everyone post their new recipes here. It doesn't have to be anything really fancy, but at least try and mix things up a bit. We want to eat healthy, but it can definitely still taste good lol.

I actually tried two "new to me" recipes tonight.

I just recently found the Laughing Cow thread here and went out to buy some last week. Tonight I tried cauliflower & laughing cow.
1 cup of steamed cauliflower
1 wedge Laughing Cow ( I used herb & garlic)
Mashed together (pop in the microwave if the steamed cauliflower isn't melting the cheese). It was pretty good and low in calories!

The other recipe I had was, Homemade baked potato chips. I've tried them a few times since joining MFP and finding the recipe, but I still consider it a new "treat" for me
1 medium potato sliced thin
1 - 2 tsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
I use my fingers to rub oil on each chip, and arrange in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 until starting to lightly brown (about 10minutes +/-) then flip over and brown the back (about 3-5 minutes +/-) there really is no set time since ovens vary, so just keep an eye on them. Sprinkle with a little salt right away once cooked and then remove from cookie sheet. You can then top with any flavor you like. The powdered popcorn flavors work really well, tonight I had regular salt & vinegar on half, and the other half I sprinkled with Franks Red Hot.

I just recently found the Laughing Cow thread here and went out to buy some last week. Tonight I tried cauliflower & laughing cow.
1 cup of steamed cauliflower
1 wedge Laughing Cow ( I used herb & garlic)
Mashed together (pop in the microwave if the steamed cauliflower isn't melting the cheese). It was pretty good and low in calories!

I LOVE Laughing Cow cheese! Never thought to use it in cooking!

I have a basic recipe (not very technical, haha) but it's really tasty, easy to make, and easy to adjust to your liking

I buy Uncle Ben's Whole Grain Brown Ready Rice and mix it with pineapple chunks (I buy the Dole canned kind) and red bell peppers. Just dump in the whole can of pineapple (juice and all) into a pan on low heat, add the chopped up pepper, heat up the rice in the microwave for 90 seconds, and then mix it all together in the pan. Very tasty and filling
I also tried it with pineapple, orange, and red pepper flakes. Interesting mix of spice and citrus haha.

Not a recipe as such but today I am trying kohlrabi for the first time. I've grated it up with some carrot, cucumber, apple and lemon juice and added a sprinkle of fennel and caraway flavoured mixed seeds. Hopefully it will make a delicious lunch! Will let you know later

Raquel,

Elbee1 and I are now partners.

I LOVE Laughing Cow cheese! Never thought to use it in cooking!

Here's the link to the Laughing Cow recipe thread on here. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/206037-what-is-your-favorite-laughing-cow-cheese-recipe
This is the thread that inspired me to buy some, and try out some recipes.

I actually had a bagel with laughing cow (herb & garlic) for breakfast today

Here is one of my favorite recipes.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Moroccan Spices

4-5 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (about one 2-lb squash)
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Spice Mix (makes enough for 1 or 2 batches of roasted veggies):
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. chile powder
1/4 tsp. sweet paprika
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
1/16 tsp. cayenne pepper
pinch of ground cloves

1) Preheat oven to 450ºF. Line a roasting pan with tin foil and spray with cooking spray.

2) Peel butternut squash (or cut off skin if you don’t have a decent peeler) and chop off ends. Scrape out seeds, and cut squash into 3/4- or 1-inch cubes.

3) Toss squash well with olive oil, salt, pepper, and spice mix, making sure everything is pretty evenly distributed. You can double the spice mix if you like, too, especially if you’re using older spices. (I did this with half the batch and it came out well.)

4) Spread squash out on pan, and roast anywhere from 30 – 50 minutes, or until sides are brownish and squash is soft. (Mine only went for 30, but I cut the pieces a little smaller.)

5) Season with kosher salt and serve hot.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber
113 calories, 4.7 g fat, 3.3 g fiber

The spice mix that is used here is SO versatile. I used it last night to rub on chicken breasts before grilling. I have also used it for pork chops. I also used it to spice up my couscous - I used whole grain brown rice couscous, added a small handful of dried currants while boiling and some of the spice mix and then at the very end added a handful of chopped scallions. Yummers! If you want to use it for roasted veggies, as above, you can use pretty much any root vegetable with fabulous results! I have made the butternut squash (recipe exactly as it is posted here) for at least three potlucks and gotten rave reviews with NO leftovers!

I have found that the more flavorful I make my food with spices, the less I need to use fats, oils and salt.

This isn't a recipe really but we had tacos for dinner last night so I used about a tablespoon of the meat and made a mexician salad using salsa, creme fraiche (substitute for sour cream), some onion lettuce, cucumber, and a tomato. Would of used some jalapenos as well if we had any but we didn't.

Lets do better than Gryffindor now this week

Blunt Card:
Why is it that the very last members on each house to update their current weight, drastically decreased our overall goal percentages??
Because they dont find the time to stay active on MFP and I'm sure they didnt set as weekly specific goals to push themselves! Everyone has time to do what they want, its a matter of priority, i know some people are super busy and stressed. but, really it's what people find the time for, priorities, 10 minute workouts throughout the day is still awesome, thats 3 work outs for a half hour

Im proud to see that we came in second, but seriously, no goals no glory! We can do this!

Goals for the week:
20 miles running/HIIT/walking 4miles done
3x yoga 3x jillian's NTZ 1yoga done, 1 jillian done
3 recipes 1 done-- half whole wheat bagel, toasted, feta and tomato on top with sprinkled oregano
alternate days for hundredpushups challenge and as routine. week one pushups done, abs-staying on track
tennis tomorrow(logging it in as QUITTICH PRACTICE), hiking thursday (logging it is as Hiking in the Forbidden Forest )
3500 weekly burn, 1018 done, on track.

what's yours?

better yet, what are the goals of your partners and howre they doing? support and motivation

Slytherins are about ambition, LETS GO!l