It’s Just a Number

Remember when I said that I’ve been sick? I finally broke down and went to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon when I suddenly felt worse than I had pretty much the whole time.

The nurse took my vitals before I saw the doctor and started with having me step on the scale. I jokingly told her I didn’t want to, but I was being serious. It said 180 and I had to control my inward downward spiral.

I actually work in a building that holds an amazing group of doctors. So outwardly freaking out wasn’t really in the cards for me.

It’s just a number.

And usually I weigh in on Saturday mornings before I eat.

And I haven’t been exercising because I haven’t felt good and because of the new tattoo.

But wow did that number hurt…

I know that my worth isn’t measured by a set of numbers or the places that my flesh collects. But I don’t like what I see in the mirror.

My goal isn’t to be skinny, and that isn’t saying anything bad about skinny people, I simply don’t think I have the body for it. I just want to be healthy so I can stick around for a while. I want to be able to fit in some of my old clothes and get to my desk on the third floor without gasping for air at the top of the stairs.

I want this for me and it’s not about the number.

I do have a goal number–140 pounds. But that’s just a way to measure healthiness based on the body mass index scale.

So let’s do this. I had my granola bar with coffee for breakfast, I’m bringing leftover butter chicken for lunch, I’m going to make blackened tilapia for dinner, and I already have my foods tracked for the day. And I’m going to try not to snack. Snacks are my weakness.

 

Reasoning…

It gets pretty easy to tell yourself “I’m going to eat this chocolate cake because I had a bad day” or “I’m going to skip the gym because it’s cold outside” or “if they get a cheeseburger, why shouldn’t I?”

My reasoning for the past week has been that I’m sick and therefore deserve delicious foods. Makes sense to me…it also means that I’m lucky I had to work on Saturday and couldn’t make it to WW to weigh in this week.

I have the sinus/sore throat crud that’s being rather persistent. On top of that, I’ve been in pain this weekend from my first tattoo Friday.

By the way, Topper’s is amazing!

I’m still sick, but I need to suck it up and reenter adulting mode. Anyone want to do the dishes for me? Just kidding! I love dishes. (Not really…)

This morning, the hubby and I both had smoothies for breakfast. His consists solely of banana, strawberry, and milk. Exciting? Not really, but he likes it. My smoothie, on the other hand, has a banana, some strawberries, some chunks of mango, Greek yogurt, powdered peanut butter, and almond milk. Healthy and delicious! It’s protein packed too so it should last me until lunch.

I started making smoothies like this after seeing the recipe for Peanut Butter & Jelly Protein Smoothie on Sally’s Baking Addiction. If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you need to! She has a ton of healthy and not so healthy delicious recipes on her blog.

Also, I just pulled some Gorton’s Smart and Crunchy Fish Sticks out of the oven to have for lunch. Haven’t decided what I’m going to have on the side yet though. Maybe some pretzel sticks?

I’m trying to start the week off right. Besides these healthy choices, I’ve also gone ahead and tracked all of my food for today. I’m thinking about making butter chicken for dinner.

Here’s to a great Monday leading to a great week!

PS if you want to see pictures of what I’m eating, of what my cat is doing, and of random things I’m doing in my life, follow me on Instagram.

I’m Back

Good morning, fellow early risers,

I’ve been on a hiatus for a while, but I suddenly had the urge to start blogging again yesterday morning. Why wasn’t this posted yesterday? Because it had been so long since I had logged on that I had to reach out to WordPress’ Happiness Engineers to help me out.

But now we’re back online as nopennyrequired.wordpress.com!

This blog is still going to be about food, but I’m going to get a lot more personal. It’s going to be a sort of food diary for me.

Here’s my relationship with food in a nutshell–I love it. Food makes me happy. I love cooking and eating it. I’m a smell and texture sort of person who loves spices and loud flavors.

Food doesn’t always like me though.

I have acid reflux and gastroparesis. The former is more than likely something you’ve at least heard of. When I eat certain foods, eat too much in general, or don’t take my medicine, my stomach acid decides to travel up my throat and it’s very uncomfortable and pretty gross. The later is something that I actually had to go to a gastro doctor and do a fancy test for. It means that my food doesn’t digest at the same rate as the average bear’s stomach, so food just kinda chills in my gut for longer than neccesary. This is also uncomfortable as I can feel full and bloated for days and potentially get compacted. This can also be set off by certain foods, eating too much in general, or not taking my mirilax. Both of these also flair up at times simply because they feel like it.

So there are certain foods that I can’t or shouldn’t eat that actually make it hard for me to be healthy. I’m not supposed to have fresh fruits or veggetables. No salads for me.

Because of my love for food and my restrictions on some foods, I’ve gained more weight than I would like. Because of this, I joined Weight Watchers last year with my mom. I lost 10 pounds and then I gained about 18. Now I have more weight than what I had when I started WW. This is entirely my fault, not that of the program’s.

Proof of this is my mom who has lost enough weight to make her feel healthier and to allow her fabulousness to shine even brighter because she’s always been beautiful.

I keep saying over and over again that I’m actually going to try this week, but then I wind up doing another half assed attempt. My hope is that doing this so publicly will help me to hold myself accountable and keep you entertained along the way.

Expect recipes and restaurant reviews, which were here before, but also confessions of late night tortilla chip binges and sometimes the results of these descrepencies in self control.

Confession number 1: I had leftover tres leches from Chuy’s for breakfast this morning. This was over an hour ago and a still have a slight belly ache. Though the belly ache could be due in part to the fact that I ate way too much delicious food at Chuy’s when I went out with a friend last night…

If you’ve stuck around this long, thank you and you just might want to have that tested…

Now you’ve have to excuse me while I finish my mandatory daily cup of coffee.

Some Familiar Places in Charleston

While on vacation, we enjoyed each other’s company, time with my hubby’s family, the beach, the history, and the food.

I love trying new places, especially when it pertains to food, but there were a few places that we can technically get in BG that we had while in South Carolina. For some reason, I didn’t get any pictures at these three places. I guess I figured you wouldn’t want pictures of what you could see here?

Krispy Kreme

The night before we were going to attempt to venture downtown by ourselves, I was playing on my phone, looking for somewhere that we could stop for breakfast on our way there. For some reason, I thought of Krispy Kreme.

It was out of the way, but we decided to go there for breakfast anyways.

I had a chocolate cake donut and a frozen mocha while Kevin had several original glazed donuts and a bottle of orange juice. The donuts were excellent–they were cooked well, exactly what you’d hope for out of a fried sugar bomb of deliciousness.

My coffee was good too. It was strong, but sweet and creamy.

What’s ironic about our visit to this donut place is that we have yet to eat at the one in BG. It’s been open since late last year and we haven’t eaten at it. But we’ll drive a little ways out of the way to eat at one in SC…

We had several plans in mind for our jaunt downtown, but the a sudden rain storm meant that we were only able to get the first, and main, adventure done–The Aquarium.

As you can see on the left, Kevin did not prevent me from getting eaten by a shark…

Panda Express

When we left the fishes, we were torn about where to have lunch. Should we try to find somewhere downtown or wait and see what there was in North Charleston, which is where our hotel was. We decided on the later.

As Kevin was driving in the pouring rain and the two fo us were pointing out different restaurants in the area near our hotel, I suddenly made it very clear that I wanted to eat at Panda Express by freaking out a little about it. Just a little bit.

We both had their famous orange chicken and fried rice. There was enough chicken left on the line that one of us could’ve eaten before the fresh chicken was done, but we both opted to wait for new chicken. And it was well worth the wait.

The chicken is cooked perfectly with a crispy fried breading drenched in a luscious spicy sauce. Yes, friends, I am rather in love with this chicken.

A little irony here: I was the only one who was hungry. Kevin was going to wait until we had dinner to eat, but once we stepped inside Panda Express, he had to get some orange chicken for himself as well!

Sadly, the only one in BG is on Western Kentucky University’s campus.

While I love this place and it would be a joy to see many of the staff in Garrett along with my professors from Cherry Hall, parking is a nightmare. Which leads us into another restaurant on WKU’s campus that we never frequent.

Popeyes

I can’t remember the first time that we experienced Popeyes; maybe in Nashville or Gatlinburg?

Anyways, we both felt that this was a necessary stop during our vacation and made sure to go there one day after having seen a movie.

We both had spicy chicken tenders, cajun fries, and a biscuit. And it was fabulous.

The chicken had a fiery spice to it that built the more you ate it with crunchy breading and the perfect amount of chicken in each bite. I tore of buttery, flaky chunks of biscuit while eating in an attempt to calm down some of that delicious spice. The cajun fries were cooked wonderfully with their own kick to add to the chicken’s game of fire.

Despite very much enjoying this meal, I was quickly reminded of the fact that I can’t handle spice quite the way that I used to. I love it, but my body doesn’t.

South Carolina

I know I’ve been a scattered blogger, but I had a good reason for the last couple weeks–I was on vacation!

Kevin and I went to Charleston, South Carolina the week before last to celebrate our first anniversary (has it really been that long??) and to visit his family. And we had an awesome time! 🙂

And why didn’t I blog last week? Because I was tired…I actually had a 2-3 hour nap on Saturday.

In the hopefully near future, I’m going to share some of the places that we got to eat at while we were there.

Planning Your Grocery Trip

One of the ways that I’ve learned to save money is by studying the grocery sale ads every week to see who has what on sale before/while I’m making my grocery list.

The two stores that we hit (Mom and I go shopping together every Saturday morning) are Meijers and Kroger. Meijer’s ads run from Sunday to Saturday, so I know to check for whatever new sales they have on Sunday; Kroger’s ads run from Wednesday to Tuesday, so I know to check for new sales on Wednesday. The first time I pull them up online, I just glance at them to see what, if any, major sales are going on, just to get a feel for where I’m going.

On Thursday and/or Friday, I get serious and actually start plotting out my grocery list.

Now, during the week, I try to write down things that we run out of or that I know we’ll be out of by the end of the week so that I hopefully won’t forget something. But I don’t plan my meals for the next week until I see what’s in the ads.

The main thing that I’m looking for is protein. Last week at Meijers, for example, they had bulk boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.88 a pound. I bought some chicken. It’s always neat when they have things that are on your grocery list for sale–like when I needed saltine crackers last week.

Meijers also tends to have bonus ads that only run for the weekend. I think that some of these deals might only be displayed on their website because I couldn’t find it on the app and Mom couldn’t find it in the paper.

Last weekend, they had an ad online that was full of BOGO deals. I took advantage of some of this. We were out of paper towel so I bought one pack of Sparkle Paper Towel and got a second pack for free. I also picked something that I didn’t exactly need at the moment–BOGO Meijers pasta.

We have pasta night a couple of times a month so I usually have spaghetti, fettuccini, and maybe something that I consider “fun” pasta stored at my apartment. The week before last, Meijer actually had their pasta on sale for $1, so I bought a box of cavatappi, which I used to make crab alfredo that week. Last weekend, I bought farfalle (or bowtie) pasta and gemelli. So I bought two boxes of pasta for $1.09.

There were a lot of great, tempting BOGO deals going on, but pasta was one that I felt comfortable getting because it will last a long time. I don’t have to worry that I have too many dry noodles because they’ll just hang out until I’m ready to use them. I didn’t want to buy a bunch of perishable items.

When looking at sales ads and creating my grocery list, I should probably broaden my horizons and look at what other stores around town have to offer. But, for now at least, I’m content with my two grocery stops.

Starbucks S’More’s Frappuccino

When I heard that Starbucks had a new s’more’s frappuccino, I knew I had to try one. Add to that the rumor that they were giving away free cookie straws for a limited time, I had to go there soon.

My mom was kind enough to indulge me so we went last Saturday. I had the bacon and gouda breakfast sandwich and a s’more’s frappuccino while Mom had a slow-roasted ham and swiss breakfast sandwich and a caramel ribbon crunch frappuccino.

I’m not sure if I’ve tried any of the other breakfast sandwiches that Starbucks has to offer because I enjoy the bacon and gouda one so much. I talked about it before last year. There’s just something about how fluffy their eggs always, the crispy bacon, and the plentiful flavorful cheese…

Mom said that she really enjoyed the ham and swiss sandwich she had. She offered me a bite, but I’ve never been a fan of swiss cheese. I did, however, try a drink of her frap (from an extra straw because I don’t want her getting my cold). It was really good–sweet and rich with the right amount of caramel. I enjoyed the caramel sauce and crunchies on top. I think it would be even better if they made some sort of salted caramel frap. Hint hint, Starbucks…

The s’more’s frap that I had might just be my favorite that I’ve tried and I’m really hoping that it’s one that they keep around all year. They layer marshmallow whipped cream and chocolate sauce on the bottom, top that with graham cracker flavored frap, and then top that off with more marshmallow whipped cream and graham crackers crumbs.

It was marvelous! It might be something that some would consider too sweet, but those layers worked so well together and separately. I think it’s the perfect summertime coffee drink that needs to be enjoyed all the time to bring on those memories.

As for the cookie straw, I saw a canister of them at the register for less than a dollar. But, in the hopes that the free promotion was still going on, I didn’t purchase one. Alas, it was still not going on…

I will for sure be getting as many s’more’s fraps as I can get my hands on and I will try to remember to buy a cookie straw next time.

Bob Evan’s Frozen Original Biscuits and Gravy

For the past week or so, I’ve been wanting some biscuits and gravy. But I haven’t wanted to open an entire cane of gravy and cook up an entire tray of biscuits just for me. And I haven’t been to a breakfast place that has biscuits and gravy for a few weeks.

So when I spotted this product in the freezer section at Meijers, I was both excited and a little concerned.

Excited because this answered my dilemma, concerned because I didn’t know how well Bob Evan’s biscuits and gravy translated into frozen form.

I was so excited that I had it for breakfast the next day. And…they did a fabulous job!

In the box, there is a microwave bowl of gravy and two biscuits wrapped separately in plastic. After four minutes, I had a bubbling bowl of rich, creamy, flavorful gravy. After an additional minute, I had to fluffy, tender, and flaky biscuits to go with it.

I was really impressed with this. Instead of putting everything on a plate, I tore up the biscuits and plunked them into the gravy to scoop out with a fork. It was soooo good. There were plenty of chunks of sausage throughout the gravy and the biscuits held up, not getting soggy despite their gravy soaking.

There was enough food that someone with my limited appetite wouldn’t be able to finish it. I did make a good dent in it though!

Wheatless

Have you heard about Bowling Green’s gluten-free restaurant? Not only is it a great way for people with allergies, food preferences, or particular diets to actually go out to a restaurant and eat, it also has wonderful tasting food for people who would normally eat gluten.

This restaurant is appropriately titled Wheatless. They’re open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week. I’ve been for breakfast once and for their lunch/dinner menu several times. My grandma adores their potato soup–I think Mom picks some up for her about once a week.

They also have a selection of breads, pastries, and gluten-free flour for sale. I love their little pumpkin muffins topped with crunchy sugar!

Since I hadn’t been in a while, Mom and I decided to go there for dinner last week. We also knew that they were supposed to have some new menu items: fried pickles and mushrooms and mozzarella sticks. You can find out about their new items and specials (like their Friday night fish fries) on their Facebook page.

She got the Monterey Chicken, no bun and an order of the mozzarella sticks. I picked the build your own chicken sandwich grilled with pickles, cheddar cheese, and fried onions with an order of the fried pickles.

We asked for these new items in place of a side, which was doable, but they don’t substitute in the monetary sense. They also didn’t have fried mushrooms yet.

On the right, you can see the fried pickles, served with a side of ranch. These came out first and we kind of enjoyed them. I say kind of because even my salt crazy self thought there was far too much salt in this dish. It was disappointing as we’d been really excited to try their new items. This became a theme to our meal. The ranch also didn’t have that much oomph.

Next came our order of mozzarella sticks. Sadly, these were also far too salty. As you can see below, with Mom’s finger photobomb, you get six mozzarella sticks and some marinara sauce.

And, when our entrees came, we discovered that both our grilled chicken breasts were a little more done than we had experienced there in the past. I’ve had a chicken sandwich there before and it’s been cooked just right, juicy and tender. The toppings made it so that my sandwich was still great. The bread is flakey and tender and a great switch up the average hamburger bun you’d find a similar sandwich on.

We were asked by the cashier and one of the cooks (who we also think was a manager) how our food was. When we told both of them about the huge salt content and our inability to finish what we had been hoping to be a tasty appetizer, we were offered apologies, replacement food, and then a refund. The cook/manager gave us a gift card as reimbursement for the two dishes we barely touched.

They also said that we weren’t the first to complain about the salt and explained that they had just started serving the dishes this week. It’s a work in progress.

This makes complete sense and we both appreciated their honesty and their quick willingness to fix our disappointment.

We will be making return trips to this restaurant because we love the food and the staff. I think I’ll try the chicken alfredo next time. This is a unique restaurant choice in Bowling Green providing exceptional food and service. You should stop in and check it out!

Kroger Free Friday

If you’re on a budget or simply like saving money, you’re going to want to start paying attention to what Kroger has to offer every Friday.

I’m on a budget, but, for some odd reason, I didn’t really get into couponing and trying to find ways to save money until probably this year. Mom has tried to teach me about couponing, but I think I’ve just been lazy. We’re both so excited that I’ve finally started trying to save with her!

Every Friday, Kroger cardholders have the opportunity to download a coupon online or on the Kroger app for a free item. You have to download this coupon by the end of the day Friday or you won’t be able to have it. The coupon doesn’t always expire over that weekend, sometimes you have a week or two to use it. Then, all you do is scan your Kroger card as usual at checkout and you get your free item!

You might be thinking that it would make sense for Kroger to only offer piddly little things that nobody wants; this is not the case.

Last Friday, I got a free Lindt candy bar! I have a feeling that there aren’t many people who can say no to free candy…

In the past, they have offered free yogurt, Tostitos Dip, bottles and cans of tea, and a box of South Beach diet bars. Those are just some examples of the FREE items that I’ve been able to get from Kroger.

This is something so simple that even I make an effort to look into every week. Don’t miss out on this opportunity!