Who loves egg salad?? I know I do! We will have a plethora of hard boiled eggs to eat next week, so here is my way of eating egg salad that you will definitely want to try!

I did a clean eating challenge probably a year ago, at least, and one of the meals on the menu was egg salad made with cottage cheese and I was like, "What??" gross. Sometimes I can get myself to eat it, but sometimes I just can't stand the texture. The hubby, doesn't like it at all. Gag, won't even try it. But for the sake of doing the challenge perfectly, I decided to give it a try and hope it didn't turn me off to egg salad forever! Was I ever wrong! Now I almost always make egg salad like this and Mike and I both love it!

With the texture of the eggs, you don't notice the texture of the cottage cheese so that isn't a problem at all. So you are getting double the protein sources in this power packed egg salad! Try it, you won't be disappointed!

Protein Packed Egg Salad

from the kitchen of Sandy Litcher

from a clean eating challenge given by an old Beachbody coach

Ingredients

2 Hard boiled eggs (I use only 1 yolk)

1/4 cup - low fat cottage cheese

1 tsp - Mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
*optional
Onion
Celery

Instructions

Remove shell from hard boiled eggs.

Use a fork to mash up the whites and yolk/s.

Add cottage cheese, mustard and any optional ingredients. I like onion in my egg salad, I know lots of people that use celery in it as well! Basically make it the way you normally make egg salad but with cottage cheese instead of mayo and add some mustard. It is so good!

Add the egg salad to two slices of bread, a wrap or to salad if you are watching your carb intake!

Egg Salad w/ 1 yolk = 4 points plus
**if you like 2 yolks = 5 points plus

I add my salad to either:
 Pepperidge Farm Lite Oatmeal bread. 2 slices = 2 points plus
Or Tumerro Garden Veggie Wrap. 1 wrap = 2 points plus

Add some veggies to the side and you will have a delicious 4-7 point lunch! Or like I did on this day, have a side of chips and it is still only a 9 point lunch! I will be talking about these fab chips on Friday!

I will be making this egg salad and some deviled eggs (another fave of mine), with our leftover Easter eggs, what about you?? 

Linking up with Sweet Little Ones for

Have a great day everyone! 

Weigh In Monday and Nail Polish

I know! Two totally unrelated things going on the blog today, but when I saw that Andrea and Erika were doing Favorite Nail Polish today, I couldn't pass it up. I mean, if you know me at all, you know I love a great nail polish! I love having pretty nails, it makes me feel more put together, I can't explain it, but it is definitely something I try to keep up with. I am not good at accessorizing so I think this is my way of having a little added "sparkle!"

But before we talk polish, I know you are all patiently waiting to hear about my Saturday weigh in, and I am excited to tell you about it! Here are the stats for this week....

I was very happy with this result! Can you believe over 12 pounds in only 3 weeks!

I only ate out for one meal this week and it was on Sunday night. We had a date night with friends and I went over my points, but it was far away from weigh in! Over the week, I went over by a few points occasionally, but nothing big and made to sure to stay within my points on Friday, the day before weigh in. I also had 22 extra points left at the end of the week. So, I stuck to all my goals for this week and it paid off! If you want to hear about last week, you can read that here.

What is my plan for the coming week? Just continue what I am doing! We went out to lunch with the kids on Saturday, but don't have dinner or lunch plans for the rest of the week. If anything, I think we will be eating pretty bland this week as a stomach bug seems to be making its way around our house.

Menu Plan

Now let's get to the Nail Polish! 

I will admit that I had a Jamberry party recently and since then, I have only painted my nails once. I am loving my Jamberry nails. Here is my current manicure with Jamberry nail wraps! Love it! 

I will still be using my favorite color polishes though, because I love the look of plain color as well! The last time I did my nails, I used the wraps as accent nails and painted the rest with my new Jamberry polish. Wow does the polish dry quick and the color is to die for! Perfect spring color! 

Can you tell I always do my manicures while watching TV! 

Jamberry - Sweet Sangria

My favorite fall and winter color this year was my Sally Hansen, slick slate. This color just looked great every time! Love that it is neutral and perfect for the cold season!

Excuse my pale dry hands in this photo!

My favorite all around color this year has been this Ruffian Red. I got this in my Birchbox and fell in love immediately. I right away ordered the full size and was a little disappointed to see that the small bottle I got in my box was actually a full size, but I don't regret the purchase because I love it that much! It dries fast and seems to last longer than some of my other polishes! I will be putting this color on my toes when I start wearing open toed shoes again which will hopefully be soon! 

Below is a picture of all of the polishes I talked about above and a few of my other summer favorites! As you can see, I am not partial to any specific brand, if I like the color, I grab it! 

OK, I think that about covers everything I wanted to get in today! Fingers crossed that our family is done with this stomach virus and that we stay healthy! 

Have a Great Monday! 

Linking up for Meal Planning Monday with the Laura,  Jill and Laura! 

Friday Favorites

It is Friday! Hallelujah! 

It has been a long week, I am not going to lie. Between last week and this week, I have had two sick kiddos who were up not feeling well in the night. I have been obsessed with Downton Abbey and doing quite a bit of binge watching on Amazon and of course the running list of stuff to do, I am tired! I actually sat down in the comfy chair on Monday afternoon and next thing I knew, I was asleep. I NEVER take a nap during the day, never mind just pass out in a chair!! Not that I have anything against naps, I just normally can't get myself to sleep during the day. I think my body, might be telling me something!! So while I am thinking about relaxation, my favorites will revolve around this theme! 

Right now I am patiently (or not) for the weather to get nicer! I can't wait to be able to sit outside and relax and watch the kids play and use their imaginations. They are sick of being inside and so am I! We had two days this week where it was warm and the snow was melting, but I really can't wait to be doing some of my favorite things like....

Flying kites

Playing at the playground

Roasting Marshmallows

 AND 

Cookin' up lobsters!

But for now we have to settle for a few nice days, melting snow and whole lotta mud! Owen doesn't mind, playing in the mud is his favorite thing right now! 

I got confirmation this week, that my girlfriend and I are good to go to a scrapbook weekend in April! Talk about relaxation!! We head up on Friday, check into the hotel, lay out our scrapbook stuff, walk to our meals, scrapbook, read, talk, drink, swim and have girly fun for an entire weekend! I can not wait! We will be missing some of our sidekicks this time, but I know we are going to have a blast! Here is a picture from one of our other trips! 

The lighting isn't great, but these are some of my very favorite ladies! 

My absolute favorite time of the year is summer and the biggest reason, is the beach! I can't wait to sink my feet into the sand a few days a week and watch the kiddos play and swim to their hearts content and look at the beautiful water views! Here are some of my favorite pictures from last summer!

                                   

This last picture cracks me up! When I was looking for beach pictures from last summer I found this one. We sent this to Mike "pretending" that we were in trouble and falling off the rocks in to the water! Yes, we are crazy! We were standing on some rocks below and no he didn't believe it at all! He is so smart ;)

That's it! I am dreaming of sleep, sun and relaxing, what about you?? 

Linking up with Andrea and Erika today! 

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

TGIF

Oreo Bites

Since starting Weight Watchers, I have been on the lookout for recipes that I think my family will enjoy. The first recipe I tried was a dessert recipe that was similar to these bars I was buying and loving put out by Weight Watchers.

I love anything Oreo, so when I found this recipe on Pinterest for the Cookies and Cream Tortoni for 1 point, I knew I had to try it! 

Sadly though, when I put the original recipe into the WW Recipe Builder it came  out to 3 points each, not 1 point as the recipe says. When I made the recipe, I used mini cupcake liners and if you eat just one, it is only 1 point! This is perfect for the days you want to end the night with something a little sweet, but don't have a whole 3 points to spare. 

I am calling them Oreo Bites, since they are now, bite size!

Oreo Bites

from the kitchen of Sandy Litcher

slightly adapted from KitchME

9 - Reduced Fat Oreo Cookies

1 1/2 tsp - Butter or Margarine - melted

3 1/2 ounces - Fat Free, Sugar Free Vanilla Pudding

1/2 cup - Lite Whipped topping

1/2 tsp - Vanilla Extract 

12 mini cupcake liners

 Directions

Make instant pudding, based on package directions, or you could use an individual already made pudding. I used instant and put in the fridge for 5 minutes to set before beginning recipe. 

Set out your 12 cupcake liners. I just put mine on a baking sheet. 

Put 4 Oreo cookies in a zip top bag and finely crush. 

Combine crushed cookies and melted butter, stir well and place even amounts of cookie mixture in each of the liners, press down to pack the crumbs in the bottom.

Crush the remaining 5 cookies. 

Combine 1/4 cup of the crushed cookies, pudding, whipped topping and vanilla extract, stir well. Evenly distribute this mixture among the 12 liners.

Top each cup with the remaining crushed cookies. I gave those top cookies a little pat down into the previous layer so that it would freeze right in and not fall off!

Cover and freeze until firm - I gave it a couple of hours. 

Let it stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before serving.

Delicious! 

** A few notes

The original recipe called for just a fat free pudding cup. I used instant fat free and sugar free. This made a lot more pudding than I needed. I used the rest to make a fun pudding, whipped topping layered dessert for the kids, but next time I would just double or even triple this batch to have this yummy dessert in the freezer at all times! The original recipe says , you can take them out of the cupcake liners and keep in a freezer bag after they have been thoroughly frozen. We didn't have any left to freeze this time as we ate them all for the sake of "taste testing!"

Just so you are aware when calculating points, By making 12 instead of 6, one Oreo bite came in at 1 points plus, but recipe builder shows that if you eat 2 bites, it is 3 points, eat 3 bites for 4 points, but 4 bites is 6 points, etc. However, my cupcake liners did not fit in my mini cupcake pan, they were made to go on a baking sheet, so they are larger than normal "mini" liners. Next time I will try them with a regular mini liner and it should make a few more "bites." This I think would make them a firm 1 point each! When I try it, I will update the recipe!

Now go and try these if you are an Oreo lover, you won't regret it!

Linking up today with Sweet Little Ones for

and Momfessionals for Recipe Club! 

Have a great day! 

WW Weigh In #2

So, not the dramatic weight loss from last week, but a loss none-the-less! Down 0.4 pounds from last week! This was a great week, but here are my thoughts about why I didn't see a more significant weight loss.

• I ate out twice last week, lunch one day and dinner one night (just 2 nights before weigh in) although I try to make good choices, I am only able to estimate the amount of points meals out are. 
• Because of my eating out and a few other extra things this week, I used all of my extra points. I know that it is OK to use them, but I used them all and was unsure of some of the eating out points, so I could have actually gone over them. The week before I had 16 points left and I think I will try to keep at least 10 points left on weeks that I eat out, just to be sure. 
• I ate a big dinner and had a drink the night before weigh in. Probably not the best choice, but we had my parents over for dinner and had fun, so I can't be upset about it! 

Luckily, this week is pretty mellow. I don't have a lot of extra stuff happening, so I am hoping for at least a pound weight loss at the next weigh in! I am still feeling great about the diet. For a little bit after the scale I was feeling disappointed about how little I lost. Because I had stayed within all my points, I thought I would have a little more of a loss than that, of course. But after going to the meeting, which I find so helpful and uplifting, on the drive home, I thought about the above things and realized that I probably wasn't as "perfect" this week as I had thought. But you know what? it is a loss and I am not beating myself up about it! I am staying positive and that is a big deal for me! And a total of 8.5 pounds down in two weeks is not too shabby! 

Stay tuned this week for a delicious recipe and some Friday Favorites! I will be quiet other than that this week as I am getting ready for a great April! I got my new blog planner and it is great! Remember I showed you these pictures of the planner pages? 

Plum Paper

Well it's better than I imagined! Yesterday I was working on my April and May plan and I loved the set up of the pages and I love having it out of my family calendar! I think this will be huge in getting ahead in my blogging if I know what I plan to blog for the whole month! I think April is going to be great! I am excited for what is to come in my journey and in my little corner of the internet! I hope you all have a fabulous Monday! 

Friday Favorites - WW Edition

I have done Weight Watchers in the past, but it has been a long time and this time I love it so much more than any other time I have done it, and today, I will tell you why!

My favorite things about Weight Watchers

1. I have not felt like I am on a diet. There is nothing you can't eat (as long as it fits in your points) and you can eat whenever you want! I don't feel as restricted as I did with other diets! Of course, I have to watch my portions and I have to stop myself from being, what I have been calling it lately, the "human vacuum cleaner!" But we will chat more about some of the challenges next week!
2. I can scan UPC codes, check restaurant points values and track my daily points all on my phone. No more writing things down, looking through a book or looking for points values on a slider!! I always have my phone with me, so I always have everything I need, whenever I need it! 
3. Fruit is 0 points! This is a huge difference as before fruit all counted as points, usually just one, but still a point. Being able to munch on some grapes, have a banana or some strawberries, when I feel the need to eat, even when I don't have the points to spare, is a huge bonus! 
4. Extra points. I don't remember having extra points last time I did the plan. I feel like I had a points range. This time I have an extra 49 points each week to be used anytime throughout the week. This has been huge for my lifestyle. I enjoy going to dinner/lunch with friends, I like having a beer or glass of wine occasionally and I have still been able to do these things! I still look at the restaurant menu and try to make a good choice, but even if I eat an extra 10 points, no big deal because they are there for me to use! On most days I find it no problem to stick to my regular daily points, and if I go over, it is by 1-3 points, so the bulk of those extra points are used for my "extra" activities! 
5. Accountability. Now, you may laugh since you would think that because I have been posting my weight here for the world to see (or the 200-300 people that view the post) that would be accountability enough for me, but for some reason going to the WW meeting and having someone else looking at the scale with me is huge! I want the "great job" and not the "what was hard this week, and what can you do for next week?" 

There you have it, the big reasons I am loving Weight Watchers! It also helps that I lost 8 pounds last week, that has me pretty pumped as well :)

For a little teaser, here is the dessert I made Wednesday! This deliciousness will be up on the blog next week! You will want to come back for sure, everyone who tried these babies, loved them, including me! This might be my new favorite dessert!

Linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites today! 

Have a fabulous Weekend!
TGIF

How did I do? What is my plan?

You probably won't hear from me much this week as I prepare for some fun posts for the next couple of weeks! But I couldn't leave you all in suspense for too long on how my first week of Weight Watchers went! I am still trying to decide what day I will post my progress since now I am weighing in on Saturdays, but for this week, I will let you all know that I lost 8.1 pounds in my first week...WOW!

Note, my weight was much higher with clothes on at WW
than it has been at home, so my starting weight is higher. 

I knew my loss would be inflated for a few reasons. I weighed in wearing jeans the first week because both of my yoga pants were dirty. Every other weigh in, you can be sure I will be wearing yoga pants, clean or not! Also, the Friday before that initial weigh in, I ate like I would never eat again (who is with me on this feeling before a diet??), so I am sure that contributed to my weight that first day. BUT, even if you take those things into consideration, I think it would be fair to say that I lost at least 4-5 pounds from following the plan!

What do I think of the plan so far??

I love it! It doesn't hurt that I lost 8.1 pounds in the first week, how is that for motivation?? I can honestly say though, that I didn't feel like I was on a diet at all last week. There were some things that I noticed, that I will talk about another day, that are important in my journey, but for the most part I ate what I wanted and still lost!!

I am so thankful to my friend for asking me again if I was interested in trying Weight Watchers. It is much different from the last time I did it, and so much easier! Mike is gloating a little because he had been telling me that I should do it again and I wasn't listening. Now that I am loving it, he has made it a point to remind me a few times, that he had been telling me for the last year to do it :) But, I wasn't ready. Now I am!

What does my new plan mean for the blog??

I have decided to incorporate a post where I try a new Weight Watchers recipe each week, I will share the recipe and how it worked for our family! I have started my list already and I am really excited about it. On my list is a low points dinner recipe and a kid friendly dinner recipe. A dessert recipe that includes one of my favorite ingredients. Lastly, I have a couple of recipes for me to try on Friday nights while the rest of the family eats pizza, that hopefully won't make me wish I was also eating pizza!! I think I will put these new recipe posts in with my WIAW posts?? That way you can get a glimpse into a day on WW as well!

I haven't decided if I am going to meal plan each week. I am going back and forth between putting up the traditional meal planning post that I have been doing with added points plus values, or occasionally putting up a "day," like breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks totaling 29 points (my current points allowance)?? Do you have any suggestions or preferences in this area??

I of course, will post my progress. I can't post a pic of the scale anymore because I don't see the scale at WW, and I will be going by that weight from now on. So, I am trying to decide how I will do it and when I will do it!

Then, of course, I want to continue with my fun posts, Friday Favorites, Monthly goals, Book reviews, Currently posts, party planning (we are starting to think birthdays in this house!) and I would like to throw in a bit of fashion. I am no fashionista, but I am going to try to make myself look more presentable and I want to share how I am doing that! I got my Old Navy order this weekend and was definitely able to put together some great outfits, that I feel confident in! This will also give you a chance to see me as I lose! Stay tuned for that next week!

I would love to get some suggestions as well! What would you like to see? Let me hear it :) 

Friday Favorites

Good Morning! It's Friday and right there is my favorite thing of all today! It has been a long exhausting week, this weekend is still going to be busy, but at least I have my other half around to help during the day!! Now for the rest of my favorites this week....

#1 Downton Abbey

Oh my goodness! I had heard tons of people talk about this show and I really didn't think it would be something I would have interest in. Well, was I ever wrong! This show is great! I have been watching it on Amazon and it is so hard to turn it off, once I have started watching it at night. I am currently on season 3. If you haven't watched it, you should give it a try, you may be surprised! 

#2 Kelly Ripa's hair

Yes, I took a picture of my TV! 

My hair is longer now than I have had it since my teen years. I have kept it long for way longer than I ever have in my adult years. Normally my hair is quite short. Well, I am in total debate as I am getting closer to needing a cut and color, whether to stay long or go back to short. I do love the way my hair looks short, but there are some down sides to short hair. 

1. I have to have it cut every 6 weeks on the dot or it is not fixable the way I like it. 
2. I can't throw it up when I don't have time to fix it (biggie)

It may only be two reasons, but they are big reasons! With my hair long, I have been going 12 weeks between hair appts. which is just really nice! And I love being able to throw it up, for ease on days I don't have time, and I just love getting my hair off my neck at the end of the day, who's with me on that??!! 

Anyway, even though I love the perks of having long hair, I am being drawn to short hair pics. The other day, Kelly and Michael was on for a sec and I fell in love with her hair. How cute does this look? It put me in such debate again. 

Although unless I have a hair stylist fixing my hair on a daily basis, it probably won't look like hers anyway, but I love it! 

#3 Where's the Love?

I wrote a post last week, Where's the Love, that is my favorite, not because of what I wrote, but because of the feedback I have received. I promised to Keep it Real on the blog and I have tried hard to be totally honest with my struggles. This post, was about as deep into my secrets as you are going to get, and the response that I have received is overwhelming. I have had Facebook messages, e-mails, text messages and comments from people I know well and people that I don't, saying how much they needed to hear the things in the post. How it struck a cord for them, whether it be to be kinder to themselves or that they needed to go shopping and show themselves some love, or just that they didn't feel alone in their feelings anymore. Those comments, make putting my "secrets" out for the world to see, worth it. Don't we all feel better when we know we aren't alone in our struggles?? If you haven't read the post you should! And if you have, you should share it, you never know who might need to hear those words today! 

Linking up with Andrea and Erika today! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I am excited to get on the scale at Weight Watchers tomorrow! It has been a great week! Come back next week to hear all about! 

TGIF