What are your favorite E meals?

My new copy of the book arrives  Monday! I am so excited!
First thing I do will be to take it down to Kinkos and have them spiral bound it.

E breakfast

Gooooood morning!! I seriously felt like I was eating at IHOP. I heated up some of my Slim Belly Jelly to drizzle on my Trim Healthy Pancakes and added a little FF Reddi-Whip. It was oh so good! A treat, for sure, but not off-plan!

my must-haves

I am terrible at staying on plan when I travel. Ask Anna, I can't stop at a Braum's without either getting a milkshake or almost having a mental breakdown. I give a hearty amen to keeping a baggy of peanuts with you, the laughing cow cheese and keeping a batch of skinny chocolate in the freezer.

For me, it seems that every time I go to the grocery store I buy more Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and frozen berries. Reed and I both love the Frozen Yogurt on pg 376 and the Cottage Berry Whip on pg 379. It is so quick to make, satisfies my ice cream cravings and since it is S or E or FP, I can have it any time!

I made a batch of Slim Belly Jelly today pg 411. I mixed some with my Greek yogurt after lunch and it was so delicious. I can't wait to try it on some toasted Ezekiel bread. It wasn't difficult to make and made a full quart so I think it is going to last me a while.

Party Punch

This is a punch recipe that we could use for all those baby showers/wedding showers that pop up in the summer.

Top 3

1. Put a Baggie of almonds in my purse every time I leave the house. (I only allow myself nuts when I'm away from home because I tend to overdo them, and they are super portable.)

2. A hot drink in the afternoon. When I drink something that's hot (oolong, green tea, FP hot chocolate occasionally), it feels like a treat.

3. Laughing cow light. It might be a Frankenfood, but it is handy for those times when I wouldn't stay on plan otherwise, especially in an E setting.

Top 3

What are the top three tricks/tips you use to stay on track?

Mine would be

1.  Keeping a box of the Truvia individual packets in the van. That way if we need to stop somewhere for a drink, I can buy an unsweet ice tea and sweeten it myself. I have found it an excellent way to not be tempted to buy a drink off plan.

2.  Keeping a batch of Skinny Chocolate or Fudge in the freezer for when that chocolate craving hits. I have been able to resist munching because I know I can immediately have a sweet when I get home.

3. Making a mason jar of GGMS and bringing it with me every time we get in the car.


As you can probably tell, I have the most trouble when we leave the house. When we stay home, I am 100% on plan.

On-the-go ideas

This is a list of things to grab when you are out and about in town or just didn't have time to plan ahead. I am going to print this off and stash it in the van so I will always have an idea.

16 Out & About On Plan Snacks

Plan to Eat

I am on Day 19 of a 30-day free trial of Plan to Eat, and I totally plan to pay for a year's worth when it runs out. I have been extremely distracted lately, and menu planning has suffered. Plan to Eat is only $5 or $6 per month or $39/year. You can import recipes from almost any website or input them yourself. When you are ready to make your menu, you just drag and drop the recipe onto the calendar. There is a little time investment on the front end to get all your recipes into the system. But after they are there, it is super quick and easy. When you go shopping, you just select the dates you want to shop for, and it generates your shopping list. It has helped so much to keep our menus interesting and varied without me having to think about it and write it all out every week. (I dread menu planning so much that I usually skip it, and we end up having the same dinner over and over.)

Here's the link: www.plantoeat.com

On top of the fact that it is a useful program and reasonably priced, I like the business itself. It is run by a family, and they state on the website that they are not a startup company. You can import your recipes off the site anytime you want to quit, and you don't lose anything. I think that's pretty unselfish of them.

It's helped me so much, I thought I'd share.

I found a blogger who creates and posts THM recipes and they are delicious!

Here is the link.

Her name is Briana Thomas. And I can not wait to try her Fudge Chunk Ice Cream.

S-Biscuits

I, like Leah, have been able to mostly resist all off-plan food items because I know there is always something comparable and delicious that is on-plan.

Case in point: Biscuits.

This recipe was surprisingly good when you use a good pat of butter and maybe a little smear of sugar free fruit spread. It was especially delicious with a mouthful of fried eggs and sausage.

Mine turned out more like flat bread than biscuits because I did not beat my egg whites and refrigerate the dough for a full 20 minutes. Next time I won't take shortcuts.

The husband and kids liked them as well...and the boys aren't big on almond flour.

S Breakfast Menu:

Almond flour biscuits (link above)
fried egg
sausage patty

I will take a moment to explain the fudge and egg combo for brunch. We had a very late breakfast of cinnamon rolls. I have never before in my life turned down a cinnamon roll. So the fact that I stared them down, walked away and had an egg was a MAJOR achievement. But let's be honest. The reason I was able to not eat them was because I knew I had fudge in the freezer.

But that is the beauty of this diet. I can eat such yummy treats like fudge. If this was a diet that required me to give up all sweets, I would have failed the first week. The only reason I am still going strong is that I can eat a sweet every day. Hopefully I don't, but just knowing that I can helps tremendously.

There is ice cream in the freezer for while we are snowed in today and tomorrow. I already have a plan.

Cookie Dough Shake (FP)


And yes, it tastes as yummy as it sounds. And it is the only thing I have found to compete with ice cream cravings.

"S"  Brunch -  2 fried eggs w/ 2oz cream cheese, salt, pepper
                        Rich Chocolate Fudge pg. 387

"FP"  Snack  -   Ricotta Creme with added cocoa powder pg. 378
                          Black Coffee


"S" Supper  -    Baked Chicken Thighs pg. 322 w/ homemade creole seasoning
                         Salad with Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar Dressing
                         Cream Corn for the kids
                         Simple Steamed Broccoli pg. 354
                       

Shrinker

I made the Shrinker for the first time today. The flavor was all right but I ended up adding more vanilla and cinnamon. If you don't have a 2 quart jar (like myself), you can divide the concentrate between 4 old spaghetti sauce glass jars. I use the Priano sauce jars from Aldi because they have measurement markings in the glass under the paper wrapper. Add 1/2 cup of concentrate to each jar, add ice to the 2 cup mark and fill with water. This way I have 4 individual cups of Shrinker. Much more portable and I can take them to CC with me.

Here is the link to the Shrinker recipe on the THM website.

http://www.trimhealthymama.com/main-home/free-recipes/shrinker-recipe2/

Gwen's Nest

http://gwens-nest.com/trim-healthy-mama-quick-start-guide/

This is a link to a great blog about THM. She has a quick start guide and book tabs you can download for free.

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