This Week's Menu

Dahubby and I have tried a myriad of menus throughout our 7 years of marriage, and we usually fall off the "healthy" wagon because we lack the will power to eat cardboard or spend 3 hours in the kitchen. Eventually, I'd love to be an all-organic, whole foods family, but...baby steps. From my experience in the weight loss industry and working with various doctors, I have come to believe that you will be most successful going slow and steady in the right direction.

With that in mind, we have discovered Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World by Lisa Lillien. I started using recipes from her website www.hungry-girl.com last year and it's the only time DaHubby has not turned up his nose or left more than 1/2 on the plate. So, when you see page numbers, you'll know that we are using our cookbook, and I will let you know about the hits and the stinkers.

Here's our Menu for this week:

Breakfasts: Super-Duper Veggie Scramble, pg 15, calories 183

Fancy-Schmancy Oatmeal, pg 17, calories 183

Breakfast Pizza, pg 18, calories 127

Cinnamonlicious French Toast, pg 20, calories 195

Cheerios with fat free milk, calories 150

Oatmeal with fat free milk, calories 150

Lunches: I will be making 4 servings of all dinners, serving up 2 for dinner, and immediately packing the other 2 servings into tupperware for the next day's lunch.

Dinners: HG's Famous Bowl, pg 98, calories 288

Fiber-ific Fried Chicken Strips, pg 112, calories 277

& Butternut Squash Fries, pg 280, calories 58

Spicey Crispy Chicken Sandwich, pg 114, calories 313

& Sassy Salsa Pumpkin Soup, pg 52, calories 177

Kickin' Chicken Pot Pie, pg 128, calories 235

Loaded'n Oated Veggie Pizza, pg 92, calories 231

Big Bopper Burger Stopper, pg 106, calories 202

& Super Skinny Skins, pg 102, calories 157

(Most of these will be served with salad and fat free dressing)

Snacks: Veggies with fat free ranch dip (simple recipe coming soon)

Protein bars and shakes (primarily for me since I will be doing P90X)

Turkey sandwiches, no cheese or mayo (mostly for Dahubby to meet calorie reqs)

Skinny Cow candy (needed to help us wind down from the holiday sugar high)

As soon as I am well enough to go shopping (battling a pretty wicked sinus infection), I will show you how I am using sales and coupons to purchase the ingredients for this menu for less than half the retail value.