Are you sure, Father? There's cocaine in it!

You may have noticed that on the side bar, there is now a new page--I'm working on putting all my recipes up. Do any of you have recipe pages? Drop me a comment and I'll put a link to yours on mine!!! So far I've only got Dani and Olivia Lee...

*~*~*~**~*~*~*~**~*

I haven't done this in a really long time, so...........

Some low-cal snack ideas!

This first one is particularly genius. I've been bringing hummus and lettuce to work for a long time, but got sick of hummus a few weeks ago. 

(I get Cedar's gluten free in either tomato or garden vegetable, because I'm the only one at home who eats it and they come in pretty small containers.)

But I got sick of it, so had the brilliant idea of getting some salsa to bring to work instead. 

'Tis a pretty awesome snack at 5 cals per tablespoon. And I started out dipping iceberg lettuce in it instead of crisps/potato chips. 

But I'm seriously so sick of lettuce I could die. And I can hardly eat crisps.

Carbs?!? No thanks. As y'all probably know by now, I try to avoid carbs at all costs. Because if I give in to just one small carby food, I will face a militaristic attack from all sides, by every carbohydrate in the house, and I can't handle it. 

Then last night I came up with this genius idea:

Hard to tell what it is in a photo--It's that rice paper broken up into potato-chip-sized pieces. Since one big sheet of the paper is only ~30ish calories, it makes a pretty good replacement for crisps. Especially since it takes a while to chew it, thus making your snack last longer. 

Moving on....

I am a beef jerky addict. These are my favs:

Bridgeford original beef jerky - 50 cals per ounce

Bridgford Turkey jerky - 70 cals per ounce

and Jack Links beef tender whatsits - 60 cal per ounce

Delicious!

And look, SAFE bread! Low cal and low carb.

Weight watchers rye - 45 cals a slice. They do other kinds as well, whole grain and multi grain and bagels and junk. 

Pepperidge Farm also makes yummy low cal bread. I made today's lunch with the Multi-Grain. I think they call those low-cal breads "Light Style," or something like that. I had two slices, toasted, and I had cut up some pickles to go on top:

I think I've mentioned these before: Dry roasted edamame is the shizzle.

The salted and the wasabi ones are 130 cals per 1/4 cup. The goji blend is 120. 

And...

Where would we be without coffee? I shudder to think. I would like to kiss the person who came up with the idea of making coffee taste like snack food. This is my newest:

Entemann's crumb-cake flavoured coffee. Amazing.

Those Keurig machines are an environmental disaster (they don't make the K-cups recyclable, so unless you're a psychopath like I am and you rip out the insides of the K-cups when you're done so you can recycle the plastic bit, they're all headed straight for the nearest landfill). But they make some delicious coffees. My favs are Green Mountain's Island Coconut, and Wild Mountain Blueberry. 

You can actually get the blueberry one in regular ground coffee. 

New England Coffee Co. also makes a nice Blueberry, like the one I got for Cinnamon. And she had me stalking their website the other day, during which time I discovered that they make some truly magical flavours. I've ordered the chocolate raspberry and maple cinnamon French toast ones to try. (Don't worry Cinna, I'll be sending you samples <3). 

On the opposite end of the subject of snacks, you would do well to avoid the following:

I figured the Walden Farms stuff wouldn't taste that amazing. I mean how can you possibly make no-calories peanut butter? But I thought it might at least be edible, so I bought a jar of the peanut butter, and a jar of the fake Fluff (had to get 2 items so I could use a coupon and get free samples of all their salad dressings and their chocolate syrup). 

OH MY GOD. 

Disgusting. Like really. I wish I had a video from the night friend and I tried it. I spat my spoonful of peanut butter out. He started gagging and nearly vomited on my couch. The Fluff and salad dressings were all similarly horrific. But the chocolate syrup actually isn't that awful, if you can handle the chalky aftertaste. 

Personally, I'd rather just have my 20-cal hot cocoa, or use cocoa powder and Splenda. It tastes much better. 

Boss actually let me out early today for the holiday weekend. I'm off to the gym now (what's new?). And bringing some homework with me to do on the elliptical:

It's almost finished and ready for Amazon!! :D Just one final edit for grammar and whatnot, and then finished typesetting once Elk is finished illustrating, and it will be ready to go. I'm so excited I can barely sit still.

Hope you all have a good start to your weekend! <3

Wrap yourself around that rack of dvd's. Smoke while you are doing so...

I've been trying to get through a badly-written biography of Crazy Horse (whose name actually translated to "His-Horse-is-Spirited") and discovered that the Lakota went through life with several different names rather than just the one your parents gave you at birth. Why don't we do that? I would like to change my name to something more obnoxious. Like Stelmaria (which shall be the name of my first daughter if I am ever cursed with female children), or Clytemnestra. 


Yes, Clytemnestra has a nice ring to it. What would y'all choose if you could pick a new name?


So I'm actually getting moving with this psych project (the one on bullying, I mentioned in this post). To everyone who responded (Believe&Lose, Ariana, Eloise18, lovelybones, Jessk, Kazehana, & Oxymoron, & anyone I forgot...) I will be hunting you down to see if you're still interested. If anyone else is interested, please email me!-- bellatrixburrows@hotmail.com --and I'll send you the first questions.


I made some more progress on Peri's patch:

Now I can start the actual embroidering. Yay!!


Some treats for y'all:

I love this stuff. It tastes like a fruit roll up.

70 cals for the whole can--I put it in a salad with some crushed pecans and pico de gallo,

...which is only 5 cals per 2/3 tablespoon.

I forgot cream soda existed, but I like exploring the soda aisle for new fizzy drinks that I can have as a treat in the evenings, so I don't pig out. 0 cals. :D

Little Sis made me buy this for her. I never realized it's pretty low in calories--only 40 per 2 tablespoons. If you can stop yourself from eating the whole jar, it's a nice little treat. For me, it's just a little too sweet to have more than a spoonful. 


Sorry I've been slacking on commenting on all your blogs! I have the feeds sent to my phone, so I do read every single one, but I can't comment from my phone and I've been super busy. On the agenda for today:
- Exercise.
- Draft Mum's divorce complaint (I talked her out of paying for an attorney--she has me).
- Open a safety deposit box in my name to hide all Mum's good jewelry, because Stepbrother is a sketchy bastard who waits until there's no one home and then goes through our stuff. And this sad individual is like 38 years old. 
- Post my niece's birthday present (it's been sitting in my car for like a week).
- Start embroidering the patch.
- Read next chapter for psych.
- Hiking, if I have time?


Photo from yesterday's hike:

That's the lookout trail at Ramapo Mountain State Forest. I kicked that trail's A$$!!!

Well I'll tell you, boy--There ain't no secret door!!!!

97 pounds this morning!!!! :D I am officially underweight. I would like to hit 95 by Thanksgiving, and 90 by Christmas because I know Christmas will make me huge and I need some room for weight gain that won't make me flip out. 


I just added the photos from the 5-mile hike to my website. Check 'em out!!


My brother is all over Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheVaultable
What the f*ck.


I'm only keeping that link up for like a day or two, so WATCH THE VIDEOS because Little Bro #2 (who is 16) is fantastic. The Justin Beiber one made me laugh. And there's lots of playing Slayer on Guitar Hero, and driving lessons with my father. -_-


Went to dad's yesterday for Little Bro #1's 18th birthday. I love comparing and contrasting the conversations between my mothers.


Convo with actual mother (Mum) yesterday evening:
Mum: (on the phone with my anorexic Auntie) "Yes, she's gone very thin." ::glares at me:: "Your Aunt says you look gaunt in the photos from [Little Sis's] Sweet 16."


That particular Aunt has been starving herself since the 1960's, has been in hospital twice, and now weighs roughly 80 pounds. Plus she's taller than I am.


Me: ::tries to restrain self..... fails:: "TALK ABOUT THE POT AND THE BLOODY KETTLE."


I feel kind of bad, because this week Mum thinks I'm just on a healthy diet (she switches back and forth between that and thinking I have a Problem), and Mum herself is supposed to be eating healthier (mega fail). Like the other night, she made chicken pieces with Shake n' Bake, rice, and a Caesar salad. While she and Little Sis stuffed their faces with that, I cut all the skin off a piece of chicken, cut up some breast meat, and stuck it in a different salad with just a drop of fat free honey mustard dressing and some crushed pecans (total of about 250 cals). According to her doctor, Mum's supposed to be trying to lose 15 pounds. She also used to have eating issues (she spent most of the 1970's living on the odd cracker and piece of cheese: "I was just on a DIET."). I hope she follows my example in eating healthy rather than straight up starving...


Convo with Step-Mom later yesterday evening:
Step-Mom: (as I'm walking in the door) "I think you're even skinner than last time I saw you!"
Me: :/
Step-Mom: "I'm so jealous. You look great!!!"


Right on.


Some yummy snacks for y'all:

This has been around for a while, but it never occurred to me to actually purchase some. 60 cals per packet, and the soup is DELICIOUS. Creamy and yummy and comfort food-ish. 

This is what I sneak into the cinema when I go see movies (which is quite often, as we get free cinema tickets from the cable company). 100 cals per bag (popped). I like to add a little Season All and salt. 

We've had this in the cupboard for a while and I just forgot about it until the other day. It's 5 cals per teaspoon, and you really don't need that much to make hot cocoa. I used 2 teaspoons, some splenda, and 1 tbsp of fat free half & half (whole drink was 20 cals). It tastes like a friggin brownie. 

Little Sis got me onto these. 60 cals each, and if you're like me it takes an hour to eat just one. 

Cinnamon tea that's also like a gentle laxative? You can't really go wrong. 














Have a wonderful day, ladies!

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

I'm sorry I've been slacking on all your wonderful blogs. The number I'm following keeps going up, and once I miss reading for one day, all the blogs just pile up. :/


THE SCALE SAID 99 THIS MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I don't like counting my dragons before they hatch, because I'll probably weigh 100 again for the afternoon weigh-in, but still. I had to tell someone. :D It doesn't become official until the scale says 99 for all three weigh-ins (morning, afternoon, and before bed). 


In Edgewater, NJ, there's this totally awesome supermarket called Mitsua. It's a Japanese supermarket, and they have a giant food court, plus there's the Shiseido shop next door, and a Japanese book shop, and a huge shop filled with fabulous Asian kitchen things, toys, stationery, and lots of other gorgeous little things. 


I bought some green tea (the proper super bitter Japanese kind), ginger salad dressing (25 cals per tablespoon), oyster sauce, and these soup packets:

Not Miso - it's that clear broth they give you at hibachi restaurants. Like an onion broth, I think? Three little packets of the broth come in each bag, and each packet is only 5 calories. 

I posted this on PrettyThin, but I need more advice so I'm posting it here, too. I have to do a research project for my psych class. My original idea was to do a project on divorce, and how it affects people in the long-term. For this I will need some volunteers whose parents divorced when they were younger.

But then last night I found out that like 4 other people are doing divorce as well. >:( I'm thinking of changing the project to research bullying in school - like the really bad bullying that scars you for life. I'm not sure which one I want to do, so I figure I'll do the initial proposal for both, and see which one I like better after that.

So if you were bullied or have divorced parents, I need guinea pigs!!

Today is a good day for a birthday.

Thank you for the early birthday wishes, ladies! Y'all are such wonderful, beautiful people, and don't ever forget it!!!


So happy 26th birthday to me!! Please form an orderly line and leave your presents at my feet. Curtsy while you are doing so. And someone get me breakfast in bed (2 slices of turkey bacon and black coffee). Bring it to me on a nice tray - the kind with feet so I can sit propped up on my pillows and have the tray in front of me like a little table. A new tiara would be nice, too. Mine's looking a bit tarnished.


In honour of this most glorious day of my birth, I thought I'd share some of the guilt-free snacks I've stumbled across in the last few months.

I know I've shared this one before, but it's worth doing again. Calorie, carb, and caffeine free; and it tastes like an ice cream soda!

This is my breakfast every morning. Of all the turkey bacon in every grocery store I've been to, Butterball's has the fewest calories (30 per 2 slices). And it's yummy!

I just bought this yesterday and tried it for the first time this morning. I always got the hazelnut before, but they were out of it at A&P, so I thought I'd try vanilla. 


O M G.   My coffee tastes like it's been infused with cake icing. DELICIOUS.

 

A treat I sometimes have in the evenings. Only 20 calories per packet.

I love all things meat. These little scallops wrapped in bacon are only 190 cals per four pieces, and they actually taste awesome. I found them in the frozen foods section at Stop & Shop.

I love thick soups. This one is divine, and 90 calories per 1 cup. So that whole container is 180 cals, and it's a lot of mf soup. 

These are 130 cals each, and they're HUGE. 

These little babies are 110 cals per bar, full of fiber, and quite possibly the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. 

And now, let me introduce you to my dinner for Friday night:

He is about 150 cals per 4 oz. And he is really yummy. He shall be roasted with some black truffles and white wine.

You can have all the ice cream soda you want.

Through my constant browsing in super markets (at least 3 times a week), I have found yet another delicious and guilt-free snack! I've actually gotten mixed reviews from tasters--some loved it, some thought it was nasty--but I think it's DELISH.


I had never heard of this soda or brand before, but on the can it says it's manufactured by Dr. Pepper. I found it in King's. This soda (1) has ZERO calories and (2) actually tastes like an ice cream soda. I save them for when I'm craving a sweet snack (the craving hits me at like mid-day, since I've been home unemployed). Awesome.