Thank You So Much!!!!!!!

I am so touched by each of you who responded to my request for help.  I am so amazed by all of your ideas and cannot thank you enough!  The email to Kathy was long and everything that you all shared with me was sent with my own thoughts and ideas.  I am anxious to see what she will say.  I hope and pray that she will be blown away with what I sent as I was in receiving it.

I do finally feel like I am capable of being able to start doing this.  It isn't that hard and I can realize that but I also realize it was the thoughts of "being bad" and "all the dieting mentality" that I had crammed in my head.  If it wasn't gourmet it wasn't worth anything.  Thinking back to my childhood and pondering deep through my mind as the meals we shared as a family brought back such awesome memories of the meals my mother prepared.  She is very talented to taking just meat and vegetables and turning it to a great meal and really we didn't eat the same things week after week like my husband Mark's family did.

I wanted to permanently place all this information on this blog but I can't quite figure it out so I am going to give this post a different label that maybe we all can come back to and get some ideas that may help all of us.

My sweet friend Doreen sent me her meal planning sheet and her grocery list and I can't tell you how the tears flowed when I opened up her email attachments and looked the two documents over.   I plan on asking her if I can share them with you and then I am planning my blog designers to incorporate them into my pages as I just don't know how to do it.  So if she gives me her go ahead they will be coming soon.  But until then, here is what the email contained to Kathy.

Hi Kathy,

I know that this is really pushing to the last minute deadline but I have been thinking and working on this since I left your office last Thursday.  The first was a call to my Mom and I asked her how did she throw our meals together when I was growing up.  I don't remember my mother cooking from recipes but the food she prepared was always good.  Her response to me was that she always had can vegetables on hand and salad stuff on hand.  She bought hamburger, chicken, pork chops, steaks and really anything on sale at a good price.  She told me that she only shopped once a week.  She reminded me that back then a lb. of hamburger fed us and usually we had some left overs for Dad's lunch.  So we talked about some of the things that I remember that she made and when she went to work taught me how to make.  Here is my beginning list:

Chalupas
Texas Hash with a vegetable and a salad
Smothered Steak with mashed potatoes and a veggie
Roast, potatoes and carrots
Fried chicken potatoes of some kind and veggies
baked chicken and rice with a veggie
fried fish french fries, veggies
fried shrimp french fries and a veggie
Spaghetti with garlic bread and a salad
Chicken Spaghetti with garlic bread and a salad
Chili dogs with fries
Wienies and sauerkraut
Steak on the grill with potatoes and veggies
BBQ chicken with potato salad and baked beans
Beans and Cornbread
Chili
Ham, baked sweet potato and veggie
Hash made with left over roast potatoes and carrots served over rice, potatoes or toast
SOS (ground beef with onions and garlic, lots of salt and pepper and a thin cream gravy) served over rice or toast with veggies and a salad
meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggie
salmon patties, potato, veggie

I remember almost always having a lettuce and tomato salad with green godess dressing LOL!  Sitting and thinking about all of this brought back some warm memories of growing up.  I can remember usually Friday nights was either a Whataburger night or pizza night.

Then, I went out to my blog and talked about our meeting and my assignment.  I made a plea to my readers to help me out.  I can' believe the suggestions that I got.  Some were very good ideas.  Doreen who has been following me for years back when I had my website and since we have met and become friends really came to my rescue and she sent me the 2 attachments that I have added to this email.  She also suggest this:

Favorite dinners that I don't use a recipe for:

Salmon (marinate with John Henry Orange Dill or sprinkle with Penzey's lemon pepper)
Asparagus roasted with Kosher salt and olive oil
Rice or a potato

Baked chicken
Cranberry sauce
Mashed or baked potato
Vegetable
Salad or celery/carrot sticks

Meatloaf
Mashed potatoes
Green beans

Meatloaf
Steamed potatoes and fresh carrots

Salad
Spaghetti or lasagna
Garlic bread

A rice cooker, toaster oven, regular steamer, microwave steamer and a contact grill make cooking easy.

So Doreen helped me so much, especially with her shopping list and her meal plan!!!!  I plan on using them both.  Here is a easy recipe that she shared with me and I’d like to share with you because it sounds so easy.

Chicken Spaghetti

2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
2 cups uncooked spaghetti noodles, broken into 2-inch pieces (about 7 ounces)
1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices celery
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 (10.75-ounce) cans condensed 30% reduced-sodium 98% fat-free cream of  mushroom soup, undiluted
Cooking spray
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine broth, salt, pepper, and soup in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add soup mixture to chicken mixture; toss.
Sprinkle cheese over casserole. Cover with foil coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.

So next I heard from another friend that I met 8 years ago through a WW support group, her name is Susan and this is what she sent me:  (Some ideas that I might try)


Hi Laura, it's Susan...

Quick meals:

breakfast for dinner: omelette with veggies... Make it colorful with different colors of peppers, wilted greens, mushrooms, onions, canadian bacon, and a controlled amount of cheese to bind it. (I've personally gone back to whole eggs, the substitutes or whites only just don't do it for me)

Pancakes... I use Bob's Red Mill (?) multi grain or buckwheat pancake mix -- yes, still a recipe, but might be limited enough to work?. Careful, though, two 4" pancakes are plenty for me when combined with a protein (favorites being turkey bacon or Canadian bacon), a fruit and a beverage (usually milk along with my coffee). The pancakes also absorb syrup readily, so I've taken to using unsweetened applesauce and cinnamon for a topping to manage portion control. One batch is usually enough for 4-5 servings based on the size of the pancakes created.

Cobb salad: one egg boiled and sliced, sensible portion of lean meat (cubed), greens, and colorful veggies to add interest both visually and texture-wise. Novel thought: salsa as dressing?

Chicken (or name-your-protein-of-choice), boiled and mashed (or baked) sweet potato w/ a teaspoon of butter (if desired) and cinnamon (sugar not necessary, combine cinnamon with just a hint of black pepper for an interesting taste that I've grown to like) and another appropriate side like perhaps lightly steamed asparagus? (Very few things I dislike more than mushy veggies)

My "home" Mexican-ish dinner -- might not be to your liking since you're used to "the real thing" ... In a large pan brown some lean ground turkey (seasoned liberally with pepper, garlic (I cheat: minced from a jar), and others to taste --cilantro, oregano, onions and green chilis all have been known to appear based on my whim), add some frozen corn kernels,  rinse a can of black beans and add to the mix, continue stirring until warmed. I put this mixture into a low carb La Bandarita brand tortilla, and add LF cheese, LF sour cream, tomatillo salsa, and shredded lettuce. (One batch of the mixture will last several days, interspersed with other meals).

Basically, I've found that a meal has to appeal to me on multiple levels... Mixes of color, texture, taste to keep my interest... However it has to also be easy or I'll default to peanut butter/honey (or Nutella) and banana wraps... my self-discovered comfort food... and the simplicity of cereal or grabbing a single-serve yogurt from the fridge... All of which are still valid options, just so long as that's not the only thing I eat :P

Hope it helps :) ... And gee, maybe I should get help for my parenthetical statement problem!
--Susan

Now for the last suggestions that I got directly from my blog from a girl who has read for many years, I have never met her but she has always encouraged me and supported me.  There are not many people who have found it and read it but those that have have been wonderful to me.  My blog is really just for me to put down my thoughts and feelings and record my journey to getting to freedom and health.  Here is what she posted to me:

Meatloaf, baked potato and veggies.

Omelets, bacon, toast. (I love breakfast for dinner)

Taco Salad

Roast, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips in a crock pot. (you can add and veggie you like)

Pork Chops, sautéed apples and some type of veggie

I also cook about 100 meatballs at a time with some Italian sausage. I put them in containers for 2 people. I then either make sandwiches or cook some pasta. (Freeze any extra pasta in some sauce). Easy peasy and no leftovers to tempt you.

So, I feel better and less lost.  I feel like I can start putting together things to cook at home and my next step is to make a meal plan which I will bring with me on Thursday.

Thank you so much for your love and patience.  I'm so glad that I found you.  My hope and prayer is that more people find you, realize that they have a eating disorder and diets are never going to save them.  You are such a blessing!

See you Thursday,
Laura

So I had a good weekend.  Some fun with some old friends.  I ate well during the weekend and was proud of what I did.  I have also tracked my meals like Kathy wants me to do.  Today was a weird day for me as I had a hard time waking up and I ate left overs for breakfast but that is what I wanted and then around 11:30 I fell asleep and I didn't wake up till 4:00.  I must have been tired.  I didn't eat my afternoon snack and obviously I missed lunch.  I had a good dinner and I've had my night time snack and I'm headed to bed to start all over again tomorrow!

Again thank you so much for your help!  You all are a blessing to me!  Much love...Always...