Losing Fat Loving Food Friday August 23

It would take 120 smurfs, or a bushel of wheat, or 3 spare tires or a punching bag to equal how much healthier I have gotten.  In other words....

That's right folks 60 pounds are gone from my person... woo hoo.

I'll admit these last 5 pounds took a bit longer than I thought to get off so it must be time to shake something up a bit.  You don't think it is time to start using the E word do you?  I've come this far without committing to breaking out in a sweat on any regular basis so why start now???

All kidding aside I know that my infrequent attempts at hiking/long walking truly do not constitute any type of real physical movement.  I believe we have come to that part of the story where I have to start moving this body of mine on a more regular basis.

And kudos to hubby who is up to 35 pounds ~~ woo hoo.

Like many other households we joined the Meatless Monday Movement.  Did you know that this is not a recent creation? Back during World War 1 the following was suggested by President Herbert Hoover so that Americans could avoid the rationing that was going on in Europe.  As you can see in the poster below Americans were asked to not only going completely Meatless one day a week but to limit consumption of Wheat and Pork as well.  Victory Gardens popped up in every one's back yard.  

I've been struggling a bit with our Meatless Monday recipes.  So many of them include Pasta, which is our Thursday night main dish.  I'm also seeing lots of soups and salads.  While I am all for trying a different soup in the cooler months, enjoying a bowl while the temperatures are hovering right under 100 isn't tempting in the least.  After spending hours pouring over recipes on Pinterest (I know poor me) this week I decided to go in a completely new direction and try a Mediterranean Lentil Salad.  I'll admit it sounded very strange to me and I was quite concerned about the reception my dinner would receive.  To be completely honest hubby and I enjoyed it more than the kids and found it to be quite filling.  Grace who has texture issues couldn't get past a bite or two.  Sonny ate it but had a tuna sandwich instead of a second helping.  The recipe comes from Alida's Kitchen.  She updated a 1999 Bon Appetit recipe and I believe it is a success.  One of the reasons the lentil's are so flavorful is that you add red onion and parsley to their cooking water.  I also think her having you warm the vinaigrette before tossing with the other ingredients raises the taste yet again.  The dish is finished off with Feta Cheese ~ a favorite of mine. One thing that I miss, now that Pinterest is my number one go to for recipes, is spending time with my cook books.  You see I'm weird in that I love READING cook books straight through as you would any other cultural book.  Granted not all Epicurean tomes are written this way but I think the really good ones are.  I was so pleased to discover Jamie's America at the Salvation Army today.  British born Jamie Oliver shares not only recipes from his trek across America but stories about the people he met along the way as well.  While I was happy to only pay $1.99 for this book that originally retailed for $34.99 it surprised and for reasons I can't explain saddened me that they had 8 brand new, plastic wrapped copies for sale.  I grabbed a few minutes perusing my book while on the way to Weight Watchers (yes I know how wrong that sounds) and I'm excited to try a number of his recipes.  I was very glad to see that though he was brave enough to eat Rocky Mountain Oysters he adapted that recipe for beef meat balls. Until next week luvs, Always be Glorious