Thanksgiving Recipe Exchange

I would say we had a pretty darn successful week! Each of us had the goal to lose 2 lbs a week, which is pretty lofty (especially for Clarissa who doesn't have a whole lot to lose), but here are the results for this week:

• Rebecca -3.4 lb
• Jerusha -2.8 lb
• Clarissa -1.8 lb

Yay for us!!! 2/3 of the way to our group goal for the month of -12 lb. Rebecca and I set goals to receive our 1st 5 lb sticker next week. We want this! (We have little cards that we get to add stickers/decorations to for each 5 lbs we lose. This month's sticker is a turkey... hehe. Wow I get excited easily!)

Clarissa was unable to stay for the meeting, but Rebecca and I talked about how our goals were panning out. Rebecca did really well this week and almost fully hit her goal of eating 5 servings of veggies per day. Last week she told me she wasn't going to eat candy in November, and I made the mistake of writing down "no sugar". That was my bad. She did do really well, except on Friday night she had a "fun size" Snickers bar, but by golly, it wasn't a full bag ;)

I'll be honest. I struggled hard-core this week, but I did come out on top. My poor little baby screamed non-stop from Sunday night to Friday and I pretty much cried about 5 times a day. I couldn't handle it! I was very proud of myself, though, and very grateful that I had set goals for myself. Had I not, I can guarantee that I would have bought Walgreen's out of their Halloween clearance and eaten it all. As far as my no sugar goal, I slipped once and had a Fiber One bar, which I am pretty proud of, given my week. As far as my goal to leave 2 bites on my plate? Haha! I have a serious problem... I'm not even joking. I COULDN'T do it!!! I seriously have such a habit of eating EVERYTHING on my plate, that I would remind myself 3 times during each meal to leave 2 bites, and the next thing I knew my plate was empty... What is wrong with me?! I'm going to continue to work on this goal because it's something I really need to overcome, but I'm going to taper it down to leaving 2 bites on my dinner plate, rather than at all meals.

One thing Rebecca and I talked about was how a change of perspective is so powerful. For instance, last month I was struggling to eat healthy and basically had some form of candy everyday. If I only ate one candy bar a day, I was proud of myself. In fact, I bought the Fiber One bars to give me some form of nutrition if I wanted a bit of chocolate. But the very fact that we made the goal to not eat sugar (or candy) made me feel like I was totally indulgent when I ate my Fiber One bar. (And Rebecca was totally satisfied with her one little Snickers bar). The other reason I'm proud of us is because neither of us freaked out and said, "Well, I've blown it, so I might as well eat anything I want." Sound ridiculous? We've all probably done it. My overall goal in my journey is to quit being an all-or-nothing person. Being a perfectionist, this is very hard, because if I don't feel successful I just quit. Well, no more! I'm proud of myself for not throwing in the towel when I indulged! Same for Rebecca!

Now on to the subject of the day -- Thanksgiving Recipe Exchange!!!

Sadly there were just two of us, so we only have 2 recipes, but please share your healthier versions of Thanksgiving dishes on here... We'd love to have as many as possible!

Rebecca brought some roasted sweet potatoes. I'll be honest, I am NOT a fan of sweet potatoes, but I did try them. I must say I really liked the seasoning on them and if I liked sweet potatoes, I would have really liked this recipe.

• 3 cubed sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp olive oil
• sea salt
• fresh rosemary

Soak the potatoes for 1/2 hour, then drain - add to bag with all ingredients and shake to coat. Bake at 375 for 30 min or until tender.

I brought some regular ol' mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes and I LOVE them with lots of butter! This is the only recipe I've come up with that I feel satisfies my love for buttery mashed potatoes, but is pretty healthy (minus sodium content). I'm sorry, but I rarely measure when I cook, so I'll do my best to give measurements :)

• 2 medium potatoes, diced (I like red potatoes because they're moister) I always leave the peel on.
• 1 1/2 c. chopped cauliflower
• enough water to cover
• 1 chicken boullion cube
• fresh garlic (about 2 cloves)
• green onions (enough) ;-)
• rosemary (Rebecca and I must think alike...mmm!)

Combine all ingredients in a pot. If you put potatoes in cold water to start and turn them down as soon as they come to a boil, you'll prevent them from boiling over. Cook until potatoes and cauliflower are really tender, drain liquid, then mash. Nothing extra will be needed. I sometimes leave a bit of the water in to maintain moisture, but if you use red potatoes you won't need any extra liquid. If you want some extra creaminess or "zing" add one or two laughing cow cheese wedges (each adds 25 calories) and stir in until melted. This gives 3 good size servings.

Have a great week! Tune in next week for our meeting on motivation :)