Tuesdays by the Numbers

1. This was lunch on Monday. Not for nothing, but the quiche is so good. Why did I avoid kale all this time? It's so hearty!



Quiche, leftover salad with honey mustard dressing, blackberry yogurt with blackberries, clementine and more blackberries. I also had granola but I forgot to eat it.

2. This was my outfit on Monday.



I don't know why I keep trying with this cream Gap long cardigan, but I am not giving up! I love it on the hanger but it doesn't love me back the same way. This time I paired it with a purple and dove grey knit top from Loft, my black skinnies, and my beloved cuffed booties (2 wears so far, the only repeats of the week).

3. This was my outfit on Tuesday. It was still so dark out at almost 8am, my flash went off!



I love this lilac cardigan, but it's a little short and doesn't work well with my weight right now. I worked it out by adding a longer tee. The scarf and the necklace also balance it out.

4. Kelly asked about my new purple cardigan. It's from Nordstrom, and it's still on sale!

5. Is anybody else watching The Voice? Boy, that Blake Shelton is a tall cool drink of water. Yee-haw.

6. In four days, I will be in Florida, reading my Kindle by the pool. I rarely go to warm places during the winter (I like winter!) but I'm looking forward to the trip. Maybe I will even have some guest stars on the blog again! :)

7. SuperTracker update: I ended up bailing on the SuperTracker site. Like with WW, it's just too much work having to look up all the different foods I eat (even using the Favorites option). I would rather just write it down and track it on my own. So I am back to my trusty Excel spreadsheet, the one right next to my clothing one!

8. I need to find a filling snack. I get plenty of veggies and fruit in, but I think I am low on complex carbs and protein. Nuts are okay, but you only get a small amount in a portion. I guess popcorn? Maybe some bread/crackers and Laughing Cow cheese? Anyone else have any suggestions?

That's all I got for Tuesday!

SuperTracker Review

LOL at all my long-lost relatives. You guys are too funny! Glad you liked the paintings; I'm really glad I did the calendar this year, that's for sure.

I was awful at getting any decent outfit shots this week, but I did cook, eat and read about cooking and eating! So I'll share that with you instead.

One of my new favorite blogs is NPR's The Salt. Great, smart articles about all kinds of food-related topics. Last week they posted one about the US Dept of Agriculture's new website called SuperTracker. Since I love tracking my foodstyle, especially if I can do it for free, I hopped on over to check it out.

My preliminary review: thumbs up!!




SuperTracker is perfect for the Foodstyle, since I try to eat as much whole, fresh food as I can. The portions for each are the same as what I had built on my Excel spreadsheet, plus it has tons more cool graphs and colors and whatnot than my boring spreadsheet does. It includes calories (which I don't care about), exercise (which is soon to be on my list of things I care about), and best of all, shows me how much of each food group I am eating and what I am missing.

I like it better than the WW interface, too, because it doesn't open a different pop-up window for the tracker, and it's much easier to search for foods. But that could be because it doesn't have a lot of processed or branded foods on the list, which I prefer. Keep it simple!

I'm going to commit to using this daily instead of my spreadsheet through the end of the month. I'll let you know how it goes!

++++++

Sunday cooking this week is being done in batches, as there is quite a bit to do. I have noticed that by Thursday morning we have run out of food and motivation every week, and all the momentum and success from the first few days quickly disintegrates into frozen pizza, restaurant lunches, and sheer laziness. So this week I am determined to have food available all week long, which means more food has to be cooked or prepared earlier in the week. 

Round 1, done early in the morning:
- get a pot of my grandmother's tomato sauce simmering on the stove, for the day
-roast carrots, spaghetti squash and butternut squash. Let cool.

Round 2, done around lunch time:
-make Shelley's homemade "hippie granola" (EDIT: Well, almost made. I burnt it because I didn't stir it every ten minutes. But even so it's still pretty darned tasty! I will try that again next week.)
-make carrot-ginger soup (with butternut squash too)
-shred and refrigerate the spaghetti squash

Round 3, for dinner:
-prep and freeze hamburger patties and meatballs (bought 3 pounds of ground sirloin this week)
-roast a whole chicken and baking potatoes
-roast acorn squash for Hubby (I have leftover butternut squash from the soup)

By the end of the day, I will have food for:
-roast chicken dinner
-carrot-ginger soup for lunches
-spaghetti squash with meatballs for dinner (me)
-hamburgers for dinner (Hubby)
-pasta with butternut squash and cranberries for lunch/dinner (me)
-midweek chicken soup with carrots and leeks, and maybe some pasta (us)
-homemade granola (us; I like it on my yogurt and fruit, Hubby eats it like cereal with milk)

This better get us to the end of the week this time!

Some food photos, since I know you guys like those... :)

Pomegranate arils and blackberries, which go under my yogurt and granola


Butternut squash, roasted and ready to use!



Spaghetti squash, carrots, and butternut squash. I love winter.




The granola before I burned the daylights out of it.




In case you think I am exaggerating (color not enhanced):



Grr, I hate when I ruin a recipe I have been looking forward to trying! Do you guys ever do that?