<p>Great new salad idea (for me anyway) tonight!</p>
<p>I grilled a bunch of vegetables - zucchini, summer squash, onions, tomatoes, red pepper and a spicy pepper. Let them cool to room temperature and then plopped them on a bed of greens with a few strips of leftover barbeque chicken, some olives and a some small chunks of parmesean cheese. It is DELICIOUS!</p>
<p>^Sounds yummy. </p>
<p>I never got myself to the gym on Friday which I feel badly about, and today I ended up spending most of the morning measuring a house and the afternoon playing with dh. Will have to work up an extra sweat tomorrow!</p>
<p>Sounds yummy,abasket. We had chili tonight. DH always wants tortilla chips. Instead, I cut a whole wheat wrap into triangles, sprinkled them with olive oil and salt and baked them in the oven for a few minutes til they were crispy. DH thought they were good and I had a few “chips” with my chili without feeling guilty.</p>
<p>Thank you, BB:) I will check it out.</p>
<p>I like the abasket salad. Put that on a bed of arugula…</p>
<p>I have been eating a sandwich for lunch and have figured out something that works for me.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine using lettuce as “bread”…but I found that using 1 slice of wheat bread (not 2), covering it with mustard and horseradish (NOT mayo), laying the sandwich meat on top (60 grams of meat is a lot) gives me sandwich satisfaction without loads of calories.</p>
<p>I do the one bread slice sandwich too except I cut the one slice of bread in half so I still have a top and a bottom. That way it helps hold the sandwich together better. I add so many veggies that my sandwich is almost a salad. I put thin slices of cucumber,green pepper and onions on my half sandwich for great crunch with few calories.</p>
<p>ell…ever since I had that “unwich” (the lettuce wrap) at Jimmy-Johns, I’ve been making myself one every day for lunch at the sandwich bar at work. I take a BIG piece of lettuce, layer on some ham or turkey, a slice of swiss, some tomato, and a little mayo. Roll it up, and viola!! It’s actually pretty delicious, and I really don’t miss the bread! The only drawback, it’s messy to make and eat!</p>
<p>I had cabbage wrap instead of lettuce wrap today. It’s my way of eating pulled pork from the crockpot without the tortilla. I added in a bit of pico de gallo, and a bit of popcorn brown rice. The popcorn brown rice was a mistake but it came out tasty. I still don’t know how to cook brown rice without making it too mushy or starchy. I cooked the brown rice in water for 5 minutes and then microwave for 1 minute. My family seemed to enjoy it.</p>
<p>Even though I had my little setback, I’m happy today…went shopping for some new shorts and am a size smaller than the last time I bought shorts/pants! Tried on the same size and they were comfy, but didn’t look right. So I went down a size and they were more “fitted” but not tight; they looked much better. I didn’t really realize that my clothes weren’t really fitting as well as they should. :)</p>
<p>DrGoogle, see that’s what’s keeping me going on this low carb thing (and I AM seeing results) - sometimes I don’t mind if I can’t have the chip - but if I can still have the DIP, I’m okay, not feeling so deprived, and I can stick to that! I tell people…if I have to give up the Cheez-it, but can still have some cheese, that’s okay. No Cheese AND no Cheez-its makes for a grumpy Justamom.</p>
<p>We had a great dinner tonight. I made roasted zucchini, yellow squash, green peppers, and mushrooms, and the basil/tomato/mozzarella ball salad (I forgot now who posted it) on romaine, and put out a platter of apricots, green figs, and strawberries. And I heated up Trader Joe’s frozen crabcakes, not the fried ones, but the ones that are mostly crabmeat. With some white wine, it was the perfect summer dinner, everyone loved it, and it looked so beautiful on white platters that I was tempted to take a photo.</p>
<p>^^^^
Ooh! I’m hungry.</p>
<p>^isn’t it funny how the foods that are good for us are much prettier on the plate than the junk? </p>
<p>Congrats on the smaller shorts my2sunz. I bought two pr. of shorts (actually skimmers) at the mall today in a smaller size. I’m hoping those combined with some “convertible” pants I bought off the clearance rack will get me through the next couple of months til time for jeans.</p>
<p>I didn’t do my daily walk today (unless the mall counts). Gotta get back on the trail tomorrow to make up for the Thai Basil Chicken I ate for lunch today.</p>
<p>Maybe I’ll have to give lettuce wraps a try…</p>
<p>I was thinking of the “I like the dip but the chips are a ton of calories” problem. Would celery work?</p>
<p>^^Absolutely! Or a carrot, or cucumber, or tomato… (at least, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.)</p>
<p>I dip a lot of carrots and celery in hummus. I’ve even got DH,a non-dieter who thinks I’m crazy, doing it.</p>
<p>at every gathering I throw, or go to, I serve/bring, crudite with hummus and salsa as dips. That way if there are appetizers or a main dish, that I know I shouldn’t have at all, as long as I can keep munching on veggies, I am good. it’s when I have no alternative that I can end up feeling deprived and giving in, after all I have to eat something. so that works for me.</p>
<p>So, I am known in our family as the “dip” queen - LOVE dips! Maybe we should post some of our favorites low cal or low carb or low sugar dips to share. Summer is a great tiime for dips as we do more get-togethering with family/friends, plus dips and crudites are a good, filling snack!</p>
<p>Some we have mentioned so far:
Hummus, store bought or homemade
Salsa - store bought or homemade</p>
<p>I like to make fruit salsa - several fruits/berries chopped in small pieces w/a little brown sugar (less than the recipe calls for) and a small amount of fruit preserves.</p>
<p>Also like to make this for dipping…I use low fat cottage cheese in place of the cream cheese - not as thick , but still good:
[Amy’s</a> Cilantro Cream Sauce Recipe - Allrecipes.com](<a href=“http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amys-cilantro-cream-sauce/detail.aspx]Amy’s”>http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amys-cilantro-cream-sauce/detail.aspx)</p>
<p>Share your best dip!!!</p>
<p>I Posted this a few pages ago but here it is again. I’ve made it twice and it is a huge hit. You could even use it as a dressing on those lettuce wrap sandwiches.</p>
<p>1 small container crumbled feta cheese
1 small container FRESH salsa (like at Trader Joes)
1 avocado chopped
1-2 tbsp lime juice</p>
<p>Yummy!</p>
<p>And i finally learned how to cut up an avocado without making a big mess of it! Forgive me, those of you who know this already but i used to peel the damn thing and then cut it off the pit. My H and i went to a Mexican restaurant where they make the Guacamole at your table and lo and behold, there is a better way. Cut it in half around the pit, twist it apart. Slam the knife blade into the pit and twist it out of the avocado. Then either scoop it out with a spoon or remove the peel by hand. Where have I been?</p>
<p>Haha - another avocado tip for when you want to use it for guac or other dips. After you have cut and twisted it apart like above…hold the half (with skin still on) in one hand with avocado “meat” facing you. With a knife (in other hand!) score the half several times both horizontally and vertically (picture a tic tac toe board with more sections). Now scoop out with a spoon - you will have nice chunks quickly and ready for mashing or whatever!</p>
<p>Thank you for posting that recipe again EPTR! I have been wanting to try it and I have a ripe and ready avocado waiting at home!</p>