Progress Report: Month 2

Considering it's the shortest month of the year, and that I spent the first weekend snowed in, February was jam packed with birthdays, luncheons and special occasions. During the weekend of the 15th I attended three birthday parties and ate in three different restaurants over the course of two days. It was a fun month, but it was plain exhausting!

The minute my social calendar filled up, I knew that one intoxicating little word would contribute to the defeat of my willpower: c-o-c-k-t-a-i-l-s. After all, you can't go to United Skates of America to celebrate a friend's 32nd birthday without meeting for a couple of glasses of wine first, can you? And is a girl really supposed to turn down mimosas at a BBQ birthday brunch? In my meager defense, I showed up at each of last month's events with the best intentions- whether that meant arriving at a restaurant with a well researched menu plan, or showing up at a friend's house armed with diet soda and my favorite Skinnygirl vodka. Whatever the situation, I was prepared... Until I ordered that second beverage, and then all bets were off! After a couple of drinks, I'd find myself powerless in the face of draught beer and party snacks.

Vodka-laced hard milkshake, the most decadent cocktail on the menu at Harry's Bar & Burger!

Social obligations are only going to kick into overdrive from now through Labor Day, and it's clear that I'm going to need a better game plan. It's Monday evening, and I only have nine of my weekly 49 points remaining. Alcohol is most definitely to blame. What started out as a points plus-friendly evening of sushi and a single martini with friends turned into a night of bar hopping and beer-swilling. By the time I got home, I was drunkenly ravenous and opted to eat again before bed. I wish I had prioritized drinking lots of water instead, because my Sunday morning hangover was no fun! Resolutions don't stand a chance in the face of a hangover, so I ordered a recovery pizza and parked myself on the couch for a day of Netflix and napping.

Cucumber sake martini

Between Saturday nights on the town, and Sundays spent on the couch, it's no wonder the scale didn't move much this month. I already know that March is going to be even more challenging than February because I'll be putting in a lot of late nights at work. I'm going to be busy. I'm going to feel stressed. In all likelihood, I'm going to be fairly miserable by mid month and will want to turn to lazy, fatty, comfort food and wine for solace. If I add in some evenings of drinking with friends and post-bar taco binges, I'll be setting myself up to fail again.

Saturday's Weight Watchers meeting was all about setting measurable goals. I've never thought about giving up my cocktail habit but, for the first time, I'm considering it. Each week that I get closer to turning the big 3-0, my hangovers get just a little more miserable. With only one day off a week this month, I can't afford to waste that day on the couch paying for the night before. If I'm going to stay on track, I've got to be prepared to spend that day grocery shopping and cooking/planning for the week. So, I'm going to give operation "1 Sober Month" a shot, starting today. Wish me luck!

I guess I'll have to wait until April to try out the Bacon Maple Ale.

And now, the numbers...

I only lost 1.7 pounds this month, bringing me to a total of 9.4 pounds lost so far this year. I've misplaced my measuring tape, but doubt that I've lost much in terms of inches from my waist, hips, arms, bust or thighs.

A Word About Wednesdays

I'm committed to this blog, and I don't take that commitment lightly because "this ain't my first time at the (blog-)rodeo!" Not only do I plan on sharing my journey with Weight Watchers and stories of personal growth, but I also envision this space as a means through which I can explore my passion for food, crafting and photography. This is likely to be another food blog in the already highly populated world wide web of food blogs, without, I hope, becoming just another forgotten food blog.

I'm pretty new at this, but if I've learned anything so far it's that creating content is hard work. Creating new posts is a time consuming labor of love. Brainstorming, cooking, photographing, writing, editing... Each of these steps takes a considerable amount of time. Maintaining a regular schedule is the only way to make blogging both a habit and a priority. I'm still struggling with what that schedule might look like for me, it will be different for all of us. It is important to post regularly, though, or else you risk losing momentum and your blog will go the way of some of my past blogs.

One way to inspire the creation of regular posts, is to "theme" a day of the week. Knowing that you'll post a meatless recipe on Mondays, or that every Thursday you'll post a roundup of your favorite Tumblr finds, gives you a little direction when approaching the ever daunting question: "What will I write about tonight?" The theme that I'm going to run with for now is "Wordless Wednesday" because it gives me the perfect excuse to explore my interest in photography while generating regular blog posts. Instagram has already gone a long way towards making me a daily phone photographer, but this theme will inspire me to dust off my real camera more frequently as well.

I hope that "Wordless Wednesday" posts won't just be a collection of dog photos, but even that's an okay place to start; so, expect to grow to love my little Yorkie! What do you enjoy photographing? Do you have any Wordless Wednesday themes and ideas that I should explore? I'd love some input, so please leave your comments below.

Pup vs Dust Bunny

The Pizza Crust Experiment

I spend a lot of time thinking about the answer to the question, "What's for dinner?" Truth be told, a lot of thought goes into future breakfasts and lunches too. Can you relate? Between scouring Pinterest for new recipes I want to try, and contemplating ways in which I might tweak those new recipes with Weight Watchers friendly substitutions, I commit a fair amount of preparation time before I even step foot into the kitchen. In cooking, as in weight loss, trying something new can be a thrilling challenge; you'll win some, and you'll lose some. The spaghetti squash pizza crust recipe that I'm sharing with you today is right on the cusp of being a big winner. With a few tweaks in the future, I know that we'll have a fabulous new pizza recipe on our hands.

Pinterest has been crawling with cauliflower crust recipes lately, and I've pinned a number of them myself. They look delicious, so each time I'm at the grocery store I buy a head of cauliflower with the intention of trying out one of the pizza recipes. I've got an addiction to roasting this vegetable, though, and can't bring myself to make anything else with beautiful fresh cauliflower. Someday I'll get around to trying it in any number of the other cauliflower recipes I'm collecting, and a pizza crust will be at the top of that list. When I came across a spinach pizza crust recipe, though, I started thinking about what other vegetables I had on hand that might make for a decent pizza base.

It didn't take me long to decide to experiment with spaghetti squash. If you've been following my blog posts at all, you'll know that I'm a super fan of spaghetti squash. I roast at least one a week, and always have cooked squash in the fridge. The addition of a little spaghetti squash really helps to bulk up a quick breakfast scramble, adds great texture to sandwiches, and packs some hidden vegetable power in macaroni and cheese. So, why wouldn't it make for a great pizza crust too?

While it was a yummy base for cheese, tomato sauce and veggies, spaghetti squash is a fairly watery vegetable. I think that the addition of a little flour could have gone a long way towards helping the crust stand up to the weight of the toppings, so that's what I'm suggesting in the recipe below. Play with this a little, and let me know what works for you.

Spaghetti Squash Pizza Crust

Servings: 2 Serving Size: 1/2 a pizza Points Plus*: 10 pts

Ingredients

2 cups Cooked spaghetti squash
1/4 cup Shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp Garlic paste
1 tbsp Basil paste 
Black pepper to taste
1/3 cup Egg Beaters Original liquid egg substitute 
2 tbsp White whole wheat flour (add slowly, play with amount)
Baking spray
2/3 cup Low fat tomato sauce
1 cup Shredded, part skim, mozzarella cheese
1/8 cup Diced onion
1/8 cup Diced green peppers
1/4 cup Sliced mushrooms
17 slices Turkey Pepperoni

Directions

Preheat your oven to 425°.

In a large bowl, mix the spaghetti squash, shredded Parmesan cheese, garlic paste, basil paste and Egg Beaters. Once combined, add flour slowly and stir well. Flatten the mixture into a large, thin round "crust" on tinfoil prepared with baking spray. Make sure that your tinfoil is well coated with baking spray. My crust got super stuck to the tinfoil in some places, making it difficult to cut and serve. Parchment paper might be a better route to take, but I didn't have any on hand. Bake crust for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. The edges will get a little crispy, but the rest of the surface should cook well.

Remove pizza from the oven, and let it cool for a few minutes while you gather and prepare your toppings. Add the tomato sauce, half the Mozzarella cheese, vegetable and meat toppings of your choice, and the remaining cheese. Return pizza to the oven.

Remove from oven when cheese is bubbly and melted, 12-15 minutes is a good estimate. Sticking crust aside, this pizza was pretty darned tasty. This isn't a slice that you're going to want to pick up and eat with your hands, unless you're in the mood to make a bit of a mess. Even after reheating the second day, using a fork was necessary. I prefer a slice that I can consume without cutlery, so this isn't going to become my favorite pie, but it was super satisfying and surprisingly filling.Yum!

*PointsPlus values calculated using the Recipe Builder on the Weight Watchers website