Food Diary - Day Three

Breakfast
Special K vanilla almond
Lactaid 2% Milk
Lunch
Healthy Choice Cafe Steamer- Sweet & Spicy orange zest chicken
Green Beans
Dinner
Mashed Potatoes
Chicken Drumstick
Green peas
Snack
Tortilla chips,
Fiber Now Bar
Salsa

Tracked 11k steps

Food Diary - Day Two

Breakfast
Hard Boiled Egg, 1 large
Cinnamon Swirl Bread, 2 serving
Lunch
Zaxby's grilled chicken salad, no cheese w/ toast, 1 serving
Kroger Fat free ranch dressing, 1 serving
Rice Kirispies Treat
Dinner
Turkey burger, 1 serving
Baked sweet potato fries, 0.5 serving
Snack
Tortilla chips, 1 serving
Salsa, 1 serving

Food Diary - Day One

I'll be tracking my food intake on sparkpeople.com and posting here at the end of the day.

Breakfast
Honey nut clusters cereal, 1.5 serving
Lactaid 2% Milk, 0.5 cup
Lunch
Healthy Choice- Classic Meatloaf frozen meal, 1 serving
Iceberg Lettuce (salad), 1 cup, shredded or chopped
Cucumber (peeled), 0.25 cup, pared, chopped
Diet Coke, 8 oz
Dinner
Zatarain's Yellow Rice, 1 serving
Peas, green, cooked, boiled, drained, with salt, 0.5 cup
Baked Chicken Thigh, 4 oz
Snack
Orville Redenacher's Smart Pop Kettle Corn, Mini Bag, 1 serving

Time to fess up

As you can probably tell from my previous posts, I like to eat. The love of eating coupled with laziness and a slow metabolism caused me to reach an all time high weight. A few months ago, when I started this blog one of my goals was to lose 30 pounds. In fact I lost 11 pounds in the first month. Sadly, I've gained 9 back and I am almost back at square one.

Not to be discouraged, for the next 30 days I've decided to use this medium to help me be accountable to my weight loss journey. Starting tomorrow I will post daily my food intake diary as well as exercise diary. I need to do better and will do better. I refuse to destroy myself with food.

You told Harpo to beat me?!?!

"The Color Purple" is one of my all time favorite movies. On last night, my sister and I had the wonderful opportunity to see the musical production here in Atlanta.

Fantasia reprised her role as 'Miss Celie' and did not disappoint. I loved her on American Idol. However, I did not care too much for her solo efforts as they would result in screaming. During the production, I really enjoyed her pure singing ability. She had to throw in a few screams here and there but it worked for the musical number she was performing.

Of course, "The Color Purple" would not be the "The Color Purple" without 'Sophia'. I loved when the die hard fans of the movie began to recite lines in unison with 'Sophia'. The entire cast did an excellent job and I hope to see it again.

I highly recommend you check out if it comes to your area.

The Flying Biscuit

Today's team lunch was at The Flying Biscuit Cafe located in the midtown area of Atlanta. I've heard mixed reviews about the place but wanted to try it out for myself.

The midtown is super tiny and they make use of every available inch of space literally. It was really noisy since everyone had to attempt to speak over the conversations from surrounding tables. Besides that I really like the in town location and feel of the place. It reminds me of some of my favorite hangout spots in Chicago.

Of course we came to try the food. It is not your traditional southern breakfast spot. I noticed they did not serve any beef or pork products only chicken and turkey. I decided to try the 'high flyer'-two large farm fresh eggs served with our signature chicken breakfast sausage plus an organic oatmeal pancake topped with warm peach compote. It was also served with their signature potatoes and biscuit. I sampled some of everything but did not care too much for the oatmeal pancake.

I really enjoyed everything and think I will pick up some of their biscuits for our next large family meal. Heck, I may even try to pass them off as mine though my family will know better. :-)

Check them out if you get the opportunity.

Shoes Shoes Shoes!

It is no secret among my family and friends that I love shoes. I mean I L-O-V-E shoes. So much so, that for my birthday this year my supervisor gave me a history of shoes book.

While catching up on one of my favorite blogs, Deals for the Short and Curvy I found about an online shoe liquidation sale. To my horror I read the post two days later but still before the last day of the sale. ( I knew I should have taken my laptop on vacation with me). Luckily, I was able to do a size search and came up with two pair that I absolutely adore.


I wore these today and received so many compliments.


I hate that I did not buy these in black as well. Oh well another shoe buying lesson learned.

Thanks again Bianca!

Dominick's Little Italy

Today my team mates and I had the opportunity to do a site visit to one of our vendors in Buford, GA. The vendor decided to take us to lunch at Dominick's, a local Italian restaurant.

I love Italian food and am happy I do not live near this place because I will always be there. The portions are insanely large and reasonably priced. L and I may have to make a trip up Interstate 85 and check them out again.

Welcome to Miami!

Recently L and I went to Miami for a weekend getaway. It was my first time visiting the city and I am highly upset with myself that I waited this long.

We had the opportunity to stay at the all suite Hilton Bentley on South Beach and I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone who is travelling to the area. The hotel is located on Ocean Drive and is associated with the Bentley Beach Club. The hotel staff was extremely friendly and went out of their way to make sure our stay was perfect.

Some friends of ours decided to join us on the trip and we all had a great time hanging out together. On our first night there, we all dined at Gaia Ristorante, an Italian restaurant located inside the hotel. We were actually waited on by the restaurant manager who provided us with excellent service. L is a huge shrimp scampi fan and did not see it on the menu. When the manager overheard our conversation about the scampi, he offered to have it specially prepared for us. Amazing service!

To end our first night in town, L and I decided to check out some local clubs. Earlier, he asked the bartender for club recommendations and she provided us with a list of local spots. During dinner, she brought a couple of passes to Sobe Live to us granting free admission. Besides waiting in line for and hour and having too much to drink I had a great time dancing and hanging out with my hubby.

Saturday was devoted to relaxing on the beach and recovering from the night before. We also and the opportunity to have dinner with another friend who has relocated to the area.

Sadly, all good vacations must come to and end. This was one of the best trips I've had and can not wait to return to the city. Next time I hope to experience other aspects and areas of the city. Below are a few pictures from the weekend.

hustle man is everywhere :-)

view from the beach
my favorite spot near the hotel pool

Panko Fried Shrimp

It dawned on me today that I haven't cooked a meal since last Thursday. So today I tried a new recipe for fried shrimp. While searching online, I came across a panko fried shrimp recipe on cdkitchen.com. It was perfect as I had all the ingredients on hand.

I modified it slightly and think next time I will coat the shrimp in buffalo sauce before adding the flour, egg and breading. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from cdkitchen

16 large or jumbo shrimp

Canola oil, for frying

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon salt

Pepper, as desired (I added 1 teaspoon of red pepper to bread crumbs and flour)

2 eggs

2 cups Panko or other Japanese-style dried bread crumbs

Lemon wedges, for garnish

Parsley, for garnish

Rinse and peel fresh shrimp, leaving tails on. Devein. Shake off excess water.

Heat oil in heavy pot or fryer on stove. Oil should be 3-4 inches below the top of the pot, but still deep enough to immerse shrimp. You'll want oil at about 360 degrees to fry shrimp. (Oil should have a slight haze over it but not be smoking.)

Mix together flour, salt and pepper in one shallow bowl. Scramble the eggs in another bowl. Put the bread crumbs in a third bowl.

Dredge shrimp in flour, dip in egg, then in bread crumbs to coat thoroughly. When you have 4-5 breaded, put them in the hot oil.

Let them fry, turning if necessary, until golden brown. Remove with a skimmer or slotted spoon. Put on a wire rack with paper towel underneath it to drain. (You also can blot on paper towel, but a wire rack keeps them crisper.) Fry in batches.

Serve on a platter with wedges of lemon and parsley sprigs.

Two for the Price of One

Today, I completed my eighth Toastmasters' speech towards my Competent Communicator goal. Yes, only two more speeches to go! For this meeting I had the wonderful idea to create a PowerPoint presentation regarding my progress in my cake decorating skills. As an added bonus, I decided to bake a red velvet cake and document through photos the steps needed to decorate the cake. During the meeting each member received a number and we held a drawing to determine who would receive the cake. Not to leave anyone out, the rest of the members received a cupcake.

Later this afternoon, I received an email from the winning member and learned he decided to raffle off the cake to assist in his fundraising efforts for the Atlanta AIDS Walk. I feel extremely honored that he chose to use the cake for this purpose. After giving people the opportunity to win the cake at $1 per ticket, he was able to raise $70 in two hours towards his goal. I've been asked to bake another cake for his team.

This was the first time I made my mother's red velvet cake recipe so I will count it towards my new recipe goal. However, I am feeling really selfish and will not disclose her recipe. You have to keep something in the familyJ. I will, however share Martha Stewart's red velvet recipe as it is similar to my mom's recipe.

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

Figo Pasta

Our most recent team lunch was held at Figo Pasta located in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood. It is immediately across the street from another restaurant favorite of mine, Murphy's.

Figo is a small, quaint restaurant with an open kitchen and friendly staff. Upon arriving, you immediately place order at the counter and it is then delivered to your table. The menu is relatively inexpensive. You have the option of creating your own dish using one of their freshly made pastas and sauce combination. On this visit, I tried the whole wheat penne with Italian sausage and peppers... yummy!

I am so happy, I decided to try out different local restaurants. Our next scheduled team lunch will be held at the Flying Biscuit Cafe.