Erin Akin Carroll

Hello to all of my accountability partners. This has been such an interesting week.

I’m sorry that Weight Watchers Wednesday had to come on Thursday this week. Todd’s new firm hosted an open house last night and I was busy all day yesterday preparing for that and then was there most of the night last night. So I apologize! Here’s the update from last week.

It was the beginning of football season, Labor Day weekend, and the beginning of my journey to lose 20 pounds. I bet you know how this all shook out. Football season and Labor Day weekend obviously trumped the journey to lose 20 pounds.

I did well at the beginning of the week. I was eating Lean Cuisines for lunch and depending on what our evening plans were, I was either cooking, eating Special K, or carefully selecting something off of a menu for supper. I think the hardest part about this process is keeping your husband satisfied. If we don’t have plans for dinner– a cooked meal or a trip to a restaurant planned– he’s going to eat cereal. That’s fine once or twice a week and I could probably do it every night of the week. But I just feel bad for him.

I cheated and had a Moo Moo Mr. Cow (kids meal) from Moe’s on Saturday night. I ate sushi on Friday night. But then I discovered my new favorite cookbook.

It’s Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast: 5 ingredient, 15 minute recipes.

Seriously, it took me 12 minutes to cook the meals I made last week. So convenient and it still goes along with my plan to drop 20 pounds.

I’m going to share one of the meals I prepared last week and we both loved it:

Balsamic Chicken with Roasted Tomatoes

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 tablespoon honey

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cooking spray

Balsamic vinaigrette salad spritzer (such as Wish-Bone)

1.Preheat oven to 450.

2. Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl; place tomato mixture on foil-lined jelly-roll pan. Bake at 450 for 12 minutes or until tomato skins burst and begin to wrinkle, stirring once. Transfer tomatoes to a bowl, scraping juices into the bowl. Stir 1/4 teaspoon salt into tomato mixture.

3. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper.

4. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken; cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side. P lace chicken on individual plates; coat each breast half with 2 to 3 sprays of balsamic spritzer. Spoon tomatoes evenly over chicken.

Yield: 4 servings

Points: 5

Mushroom and Zucchini Orzo

1 cup uncooked orzo

Cooking spray

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 cup diced zucchini

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black peper

1. Cook orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and keep warm.

2. While orzo cooks, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add mushrooms and zucchini; saute 6 minutes or until tender and browned.

3. Combine orzo, mushroom mixture, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl, tossing gently.

Yield: 4 servings

Points: 4

So 9 total points is a little on the high side for a meal, but this meal covers all of the food group bases and it’s really filling. I highly recommend it!

And I’m sure everyone wants a report for this week on weight lost. I lost 2 pounds this week despite the cheating, football season kick off, and Labor Day weekend! Yay for 2 pounds.

How did you do?

Alright, so here goes another rant. I’m going to complain about something completely meaningless.

I love music. I don’t discriminate against any one genre of music. As long as the song is decent, I can listen to it. I even like Country music. Not all of it, but a lot of it.

I am, however, so frustrated when I listen to Country songs and they almost cuss. Why don’t you just go ahead and cuss? I’m pretty sure the little kids that are listening can figure out what you were going to say or what that almost cuss word really means. I know that Country music is supposed to be the most wholesome out of all of the music genres, but when you just rearrange the words to be bass ackwards, isn’t that pretty much the same as cussing?

Here are some examples of this:

“the fits gonna hit the shan.” (American Ride by Toby Keith)

“some beach…” (Some Beach by Blake Shelton)

“Shhhhh….. It happens!” (It Happens by Sugarland)

Now, I don’t particularly like to hear cussing in any kind of music, but these songs just sound like a 5 year old pushing the envelope with his mother just as far as he can. “I didn’t really cuss so you can’t get mad at me!”

And I know why they don’t actually cuss in Country songs. They want their song to be played and not bleeped out. It’s the wholesome genre. This just annoys me.

So it’s silly,  it’s a little bit fun, but it also drives me bonkers. If you’re going to make a statement by almost cussing, why don’t you just go ahead and say it? Because, seriously, it just sounds like a child trying to get away with something.