Harry Potter Weight Loss Challenge - Slytherin

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

Hey everyone! I am SOOOOOOOO sorry! I mistyped one weight...we lost .73%...ahhh....so sorry!!! I need to watch what I type..

It's official Gryffindor tried to cheat and got a guilty conscience We might have won the weigh-in this week they need our % out to the thousandths place to be sure of the winner. The fact that it is this close is making me feel even worse that I didn't loose anything last week. More motivation for this week!

Hey guys!

Just wanted to update--I did 45 mins in the gym monday lifting weights and doing some walking, and yesterday was my interval day. I was on the treadmill for about 30 mins.

I probably won't be able to do the exercise challenge outside this week because we are slotted for poor weather! And I am thinking hard of a recipe to share, but we don't do much cooking and the cooking we DO is pretty ordinary most of the time--i.e. tacos, spaghetti, etc.. Hope everyone has a great day!

What kind of workouts do you all do when you have a cold?

I don't want to stir up a fight here, but we are supposed to be supporting each other, not being critical. I don't suppose anyone meant to sound that way but things can be interpreted differently by others, especially when it's written down and you can't hear the tone or see the facial expression. We're all going to have weeks where other stuff has to take priority.

We might be Slytherins but I hope we can still play nice *g*

I was just trying to make a point that we should all stay active daily and make goals if we want to improve. Wasnt trying to smash on anyone and it def. wasnt suppose to be at anyone individually. I think we did an awesome job this week! Hufflepuff won this weeks, but I know we can win this week:)

Did you read people commenting on the main thread that they hope anyone but Slytherin won?? Lets show them what we're all about! Go Teammm !!