I can eat THAT?

I restarted a diet this past week, only this time - because I'm trying to get my husband to follow it as well - I'm using the various cookbooks that you can buy for this diet to try and find tasty interesting meals and snacks to keep us motivated.

Diets have such a negative connotation. People always ask, "what can you eat?" or "what have you cut out?" as if a diet is somehow a punishment for prior indulgences. But as someone much wiser than I once pointed out, a diet is what you eat, some are just healthier than others.

So in the process of looking for interesting things to make, I stumbled on three great things this week. The first was lemon blueberry muffins. Oh my, with lemon zest and lemon extract and fresh blueberries, these turned out to be very tasty. And, on this "reduced calorie" diet, you may have two with a small serving of fruit and it's only 400 calories (which is a meal). The second was just a simple chicken recipe - coated in whole grain breadcrumbs and chopped walnuts and baked - sliced and served over field greens with....the most amazing tasty pomegranate dressing - dont' recall all the ingredients, but you use 100% pomegranate juice and you cook it till it reduced by half and then you drizzle it over the chicken/salad. Sweet and tart and totally yummy. I saved the best for last....who ever heard of a reduced calorie diet with Stuffed French Toast? This was amazing - finely chopped semi sweet chocolate combined with that fake cream cheese stuff that starts with an 'N' that I can never spell, spread on a 1/2 inch thick slice of italian bread, topped with a matching slice, dipped into an egg/vanilla extract mixture and then cooked in a skillet with a little margarine. Topped with sliced strawberries mixed with orange zest and a little sugar. WOW - Sunday Brunch at it's best.

With food like this, this "diet" could be fun.

Back to School and other musings

My son returned to college this week and I'm not missing him. Does that make me a bad mom? For some reason I've never had a hard time leaving him, even when he was three months old. I think there is a part of me that is very practical. In each case I knew either I was leaving him or he was going to be away from me and I thoroughly researched where he was going to be so that I developed a sense of comfort that he would be okay. Once I felt that comfort, I didn't look back, I dropped him off at Daycare, nursery school, school, summer camp, college, got in the car and left. Don't get me wrong...I love to hang with my son... but he is where he needs to be and I am where I need to be and it will all be fine.

The silver lining is that I now have control of my house back! No more nasty bad for me snack foods in the fridge and pantry, no more loads of wash going just when I want to do laundry (yup - he does his own wash and has since middle school when he asked how to use the washer). Now I can reprogram the DVR and delete Family Guy, That 70s Show, Mythbusters etc. He is back with all his friends and I'm happy!