Have I Mentioned How Much I'm Enjoying My Diet ... and Pinterest?

 It's been awhile since I mentioned my diet.  I just thought I'd share with you what I just had for lunch...  :)  Jealous, aren't you?  (I almost feel bad.  My poor husband takes two bologna and cheese sandwiches to work each day, and that's all he ever gets for lunch.)  This is what my meals typically look like.  I have a big salad every day for lunch and dinner. And I do mean big. We're talking half a head of lettuce big.  I always add red peppers to it, and usually mushrooms and fresh onion... and sometimes cauliflower or celery.  (I get two cups of veggies with lunch and dinner, not including the lettuce, and sometimes that's all on the salad ... sometimes not.)  I top all that with blue cheese crumbles (which are not diet approved, but I love them, and I've figured out I can get away with them without it being a problem.  I douse the whole salad with red wine vinegar, then shake on some garlic salt and lemon pepper, and a pizza seasoning blend that has dried onion and garlic bits in it for a little crunch.  Today I added my 8 ounces of lean meat on top of my salad.  Sometimes I have it on the side.  Today it was a beautifully seasoned and cooked sirloin steak, cooked to a perfect medium rare.  Mmm.

 Monday night I took inspiration from Pinterest again and made a Chicken Alfredo Biscuit Bake.  They guys have assured me this was really yummy.  Obviously I couldn't eat this so you'll have to take their word for it.  They rated it 9.5 out of 10 (nothing gets a 10 unless it's steak :) so this one did pretty well!  Click the link above if you want the recipe.  I followed it as it was written except that I forgot to put butter and Parmesan cheese on the biscuits before baking.  My husband said it was good enough as is.

 With all his allergies, there was no real way to make the casserole baby friendly, so he just had chicken, mandarin oranges, carrots and fritos.

He was happy with that.  Except for the chicken.  He used to love meat the best and eat it first, but now he's decided he doesn't really like it that much ... unless it's hot dogs, which I don't like to give him very often.  He was making blinky eyes at us and scrunching up his nose, but I never could get the camera to snap at just the right moment.

 Anyway, this is what I had on the chicken night.  I warmed my chicken up with some broccoli and threw that on the salad for a twist.  Usually I would not want my hot food and cold food to touch on my plate, but lately, I've been really into that.  It was delicious.

 Last night was another pinterest recipe.  This one's called Oven Baked Frito Pie, and again the guys assured me it was wonderful - another 9.5 on our 10 point scale.   Sounds healthy, don't you think?  I didn't take a picture of my dinner this time.  I just had some of the meat without any sauce or beans and some broccoli.  I stir fried it all together and had a salad on the side.

After dinner my silly boys made a train out of the chairs.  It's a barrel of laughs around here :)

 Tonight we tried Poppy Seed Chicken.  Someone on Pinterest called it Ritz Cracker Chicken.  That's pretty much what it is.  Cooked chicken cut into chunks, with a mixture of sour cream and cream of chicken soup, worcestershire sauce, lemon pepper, and garlic salt poured over the top of it.  Then crushed club crackers with butter and poppy seeds on top of that.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  I thought it looked divine.  It's just the kind of thing I would like.  They guys rated it 8.5 because I overdid it on the lemon pepper and it was too salty.  They also thought there ought to be some veggies in it - maybe carrots, cauliflower, green beans or broccoli.  So next time we'll add to it.  The four year old LOVED it.  He couldn't get enough - which is saying a lot these days since he usually won't eat much meat or anything with sauce.

After dinner we had AWANA club (which we lead) and when we got home the boys wanted to take a bath.  They were a hoot.  Splashing, kicking, blowing bubbles.  The four year old dumped buckets of water on his brother's head and the one year old loved it.

They were splashing like crazy here, but you can't tell it from the picture.

The baby (and even the four year old who is afraid of everything) started blowing bubbles in the water.  Hard to tell from the picture I know, but it was cute.  The baby sticks his whole face under water and blows bubbles, then comes up with water up his nose, laughing and being silly.  He'll be a swimmer for sure :)  Tonight was the first time they did that.  I've never had the baby to swim lessons or anything, so this was all on his own.  Maybe he'll teach himself to swim too :)

Oh, and for those of you keeping track of my diet, I lost 4.8 pounds this week, which brings my total up to 98 pounds lost.  I'm hoping to lose those extra two pounds this week, but it might not happen.  I'm having a good week so far, but Friday night is my husband's work Christmas party and I'm going to have a smothered ribeye and a piece of cheesecake.  ;)