Weight Loss, November 7 2012 to current

Here I am so far on my Weight Loss Journey with Ideal Protein…. begining which was Summer 2012 (still 10 lb lighter than when I was at my heaviest) and a current March photo!

Still have 30 lb I WANT to lose, after that… we will see how far I go. I could lose another 20-30 after that, but not sure if I WANT to…

Oriental Chicken Strips

I found this recipe on one of the many Ideal Protein websites (Doctor’s office one) and changed it up a little because it called for teriyaki but didn’t think we were suppose to use it because of the sugar.

So if you want the original reciepe which also used sesame seeds and skewers go here http://www.hchc.org/idealprotein/recipes/

I didn’t use skewers because I didn’t have them and cooked it on the stove instead of on a grill.  Plus I am not into fancy presentation! lol  As you can tell the picture above it’s just of the chicken as my cauliflower in the oven took WAY longer than I expected!

I will say, you may want to make additional marinade to dip your chicken in if you want a lot of taste or actually marinade it for an hour as I didn’t.  I will say, this chicken was MELT IN YOUR MOUTH tender!  I couldn’t believe how tender and juicy it was!

Cabbage Soup!

Not the prettiest soup, but pretty darn good…. at least I have heard!  Mike, my husband, loves soup and he loves cabbage.  Me, I am okay with cabbage and soup… well I like it, but mostly chicken noodle.

So we were trying to find new ways to get our veggies in and I came across a suggestion of cabbage soup, like from the cabbage soup diet.  So I looked it up and made a huge batch and Mike LOVED it.  So I decided to make it again this week.  He will take a little for lunch every other day or so (yes IP people he has tomatoes more than 2x a week but no where near 2 cups a day so he figures it’s okay and is still losing weight)

This soup is really simple, cut up some veggies put it in a stock pot and let it cook for 2-3 hours.  This last time Mike was in charge of watching it as I went to bed and it cooked for 4 hours and a lot of the liquid went away… would not recommend that.  It is still good, just quite soup like.

Cold Seasoned Cucumbers

Cucumbers, cucumbers, cucumbers!  Who doesn’t like them?  I mean you can make them into PICKLES!  I LOVE pickles and I have a great pickle recipe but it uses sugar… maybe by summer I can have some!?

Anyway, I am always looking at ways to do something different with cucumbers.  Well I found one and let me tell you they lasted 2 days in the fridge… I wanted some tonight and was told my husband and oldest son ate them all!  I got like 5 slices out of 2 whole cucumbers!

Anyway, try these, they are good!  I peel the skin off mine, you don’t have to.  recipe is REALLY easy even my friend Jordan can do it!  Yes Jordan I am talking to YOU!

I doubled this recipe and I would recommend you do it to!

Taco Meatloaf

So, these can be eaten like meatloaf, maybe with a little salsa on top.  OR they can be wrapped up in lettuce, which is what I did, and eat it like a taco.  OR you can crumble them a bit on a salad for a taco salad!  I personally liked them wrapped up in lettuce, Mike ate them that way (after he saw what a great idea it was) with some tomato.  I got this recipe from someone else on Facebook (Ideal Protein – Lohja, Finland) if you want to look them up, lots of great recipes!

I will be making these again for sure, they were really good and better than when I just made taco meat to put on a salad.  I think it’s something about baking them.

So here are the ingredients for the loaves and another ingredient list for homemade taco seasoning because all taco seasonings I have found have sugar in them!