Pretty funny & Climbing the Rock

A comment left on my last post titled "Fewer candy bars, more vegetables":

"On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 7:10 AM, hrgottlieb <Inoreply-comment@blogger.com> wrote:
hrgottlieb has left a new comment on your post "Fewer candy bars, more vegetables":

I wonder if your readers would benefit from a good resource for candy fundraising ideas? There are tons of different candy fundraisers to consider. But not all candy fundraising programs are the same."

Can you imagine me with a couple cases of candy in my house, for "fundraising" purposes? Pretty freaking hysterical.

Climbing the Rock
Remember my post from a couple years ago about my 25th anniversary with my company. Probably not. I can't even find the post, I think it was February 2009, so that's in my "old" blog (long story). I weighed 166. I always remember my weight. I chose rock climbing as my activity of choice for my team. So off we went to Vertical World in Seattle.

So, here I am, 20 pounds heavier and my coworker celebrating his 20 years with the company today has chosen rock climbing for the team. Everyone had so much fun at mine that he wanted to do it again. Today I will be pulling my 185 body up a wall. I hope my arms can sustain this extra weight. I have my doubts but I'm going to give it my best try.

Wish me luck!

Chicken Oregano with Sweet Peppers

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lbs.(about 0.68 kg.) chicken pieces, skin removed
  
  


• ¼ tsp salt
  
  


• ¼ tsp ground pepper
  
  


• ¼ cup onion, chopped
  
  


• ¼ cup dry white wine
  
  


• ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
  
  


• ¾ cup reduced sodium chicken broth
  
  


• 1 clove garlic, chopped
  
  


• 1 lemon, sliced
  
  


• 1 tomato, chopped
  
  


• 1 tbsp fresh oregano (or 1 tsp dried)
  
  


• 1 sweet green pepper, cut into strips
  
  


• 1 sweet red pepper, cut into strips
  
  


• Non-fat cooking spray
  
  


• Cooked white rice
  
  

Preparation:

• Sprinkle chicken with ground pepper and salt.
  
  


• Lightly coat non-fat cooking spray in a nonstick skillet.
  
  


• Cook chicken over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until light brown, turning once. Reduce heat.
  
  


• Sprinkle garlic, half of tomato, lemon, onion, oregano and parsley over chicken pieces in skillet.
  
  


• Add white wine and chicken broth.
  
  


• Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.
  
  


• Add remaining tomato and sweet green peppers, cover and continue to simmer until chicken is tender (about 7 to 10 minutes) and cooked through.
  
  


• Serve with cooked rice.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (346 g)): 236 Calories, 41 g Protein, 8 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 3 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 99 mg cholesterol, 275 mg sodium

Chicken Nicoise

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless and skinless chicken thighs or breasts
  
  


• 1¼ cups non-fat chicken broth
  
  


• 3 cloves garlic, finely
  
  


• ½ cup small white onions
  
  


• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
  
  


• 2 green bell peppers, sliced
  
  


• 6 Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
  
  


• Cooked rice or noodles (Nutrition Facts calculated without rice or noodles)
  
  

Preparation:

• Remove fat from chicken.
  
  


• Heat ¼ cup of the broth in a large skillet to a boil then add chicken and cook until browned on each side. Remove chicken and set aside.
  
  


• Add onion, garlic, bell peppers, seasoning, olives and remaining broth to skillet, bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes.
  
  


• Add chicken then reduce heat to medium. Cook until chicken is no longer pink in the center of the thickest cut of the meat (about 15 minutes).
  
  


• Serve with rice or noodles
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (278 g)): 179 Calories, 30 g Protein, 7 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 3 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 68 mg cholesterol, 196 mg sodium

I'm a happy girl again!

My coworkers are hysterical. This was my cubicle today (and it's a mess). The red flag means stay out. No one has been allowed to talk to me for the last twelve days. Today someone put up the police tape. I didn't even notice it when they put it up, and I was in my cube. I had my headphones on and was totally focused. It's like I've been in solitary confinement.

After twelve days of feeling like I was in the depths of despair in my job, a miracle happened today. Seriously. I'm not a kidding. A real miracle.

First of all, I've never been this frustrated over a work project. I've had difficult tasks, but I've always had enough time to complete them. This time I was under the gun. After taking over something from a coworker, I had twelve days to complete something that after I got into it, I realized would take at the bare minimum a month, and to do a good job, probably a couple months or more. Of course, by the time I realized this I was knee deep with the a solid deadline in front of me.

Today my manager came back from vacation. She had left right before I started working on this project from hell. Have I mentioned I really like my manager? She's fair, understanding, and really wants the best for her employees. I'm very lucky.

We just happened to arrive at work this morning at the exact same time. Although I hadn't planned to catch her first thing, I asked if we could talk. After I explained the problem to her, she immediately came up with a much quicker and easier solution. Something that would take me about four hours to code instead of two months. She ran it by the director and it was quickly approved. Like I said, it was a true miracle.

I can breathe again.

INO
Yesterday Helen wrote a post about INO. It's a great post and really hit home with me. It's really simple, INO stand for "It's Not an Option".

I've been using INO for over three years when it comes to exercise. There are mornings when going to the gym is really not something I want to do. It would be much easier to sleep or find any excuse to not go. There are many mornings when I'm getting dressed in my workout clothes that I think about not going, but I always tell myself, "hey, not exercising is NOT an option. You have do this, regardless of how tired you feel or if you feel like crap from eating candy yesterday, you're going to the gym!". That was my Sunday conversation with myself after my big Saturday Milky Way bar binge.

I don't know why it's never occurred to me to use INO for eating. Helen talked about INO for her exercise and her food. Eat smaller portions of healthy food. It's worked these three plus years for exercise. I am trainable.

It's almost 2:30 a.m. (yes, I was testing the quick and easy fix before it goes to our QA group tomorrow morning). I ate healthy and smaller portions than normal all day yesterday and today. I thought about getting a snack tonight several times while I was working (I'm working from home). I used INO, and oddly, it worked.

At the moment I'm more tired than hungry so I made it through two whole days now without eating at night. Lately, that's some sort of record for me.

Here are a couple pictures I took after work tonight. I love these trees. I'm not sure, but maybe they're cherry trees? This is right outside my office. That's the moon in top picture, between the branches. It was about 7:30pm last night (I still haven't been to bed yet, but I'm going as soon as I hit publish). The other picture shows my lonely car in the parking lot. :)

 

NEW - Some Like It Hot Chili Pepper Flakes

Some Like It Hot!
You can see the freshness in the color! Our unique blend of hot and mild chili flakes, commonly used for sprinkling on pizza. Extremely fresh and vibrant hot chili pepper flavor - a pinch will do you! About 35,000 heat (Scoville Heat Units). Best stored in refrigerator if keeping long-term to prevent browning and loss of flavor. Do not shake on food:

Easy Chicken Florentine Soup

Here is a hearty chicken soup that is full of nutrients from complex carbs -- Vegetables! Making use of a rotisserie chicken and veggies from the frozen foods department helps put this meal in a pot together in a split second. Great for busy weeknights but don't hang your head in shame if you want to serve this to guests. They will love it too! Enjoy.

Easy Chicken Florentine Soup

Ingredients:
1

Chicken Marsala

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sliced mushrooms, sliced (Crimini, button, Portobello, Crimini, Porcini)
  
  


• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
  
  


• 4 tsp vegetable oil
  
  


• ¼ tsp salt
  
  


• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  
  


• ½ cup green onions, sliced
  
  


• ½ tsp dried sage, crushed
  
  


• ¾ cup Marsala wine
  
  


• 1 tbsp water
  
  


• 1 tsp cornstarch
  
  

Preparation:

• Tenderize breast halves by placing each between two sheets of plastic wrap then pound lightly using the flat side of a meat mallet until about ⅛” in thickness.
  
  


• In a large-sized skillet, heat 2 tsp of the oil over medium-high heat and cook mushrooms until tender (about 4 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
  
  


• Sprinkle the pepper and salt over the chicken. In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 tsp of oil over medium-high heat then add chicken and cook for 3 minutes, turning once and no longer pink inside (cook longer if necessary to ensure doneness.) Remove cooked chicken and set aside.
  
  


• In the same skillet, stir in the Marsala wine to the leftover pan drippings, scraping up any browned bits then bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium. Stir in cooked mushrooms, green onions and sage.
  
  


• Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl and mix thoroughly then add to the Marsala sauce.
  
  


• Cook and stir for about 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Serve chicken topped with Marsala sauce and mushrooms.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (228 g)): 215 Calories, 28 g Protein, 4 g carbohydrates, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 66 mg cholesterol, 227 mg sodium