Sausage, Peppers, Onions, and Cheese, glorious CHEESE!

 So, this is by request of my 15 year old girl child that is hungry for some real food. I guess mom living 800 miles away and dad working a lot means too many heat and eat dinners from her big brother. Shout out to the 18 year old man child for doing his best to keep them fed. 

Sausage, pepper, onions, cheese--what more do we need?

Ingredients:

Italian sausage (pre-cooked if you want, no judgement here) I used 5

2 Bell peppers, any color, I like to mix it up

ricotta cheese, a few scoops

mozzarella cheese (get pre-shredded, it's easier)

1 small onion (I used half a medium one)

garlic powder

salt/pepper

Italian seasoning

Olive oil, about 2 tablespoon I didn't measure, just pour on a little

Instructions:

If using uncooked sausage, brown in pain- set aside to cool a bit (I browned them the night before and then put them in the fridge) Skip this step if you're smart and bought premade (you could also use meatballs--just saying, options)

Cut onion into slices, and then cut in half (or use frozen ones, again easier)

Cut peppers into slices (or buy frozen peppers and onions together)

*If you use frozen, defrost them a bit in the microwave and then drain the water out)

Throw peppers and onions in a casserole dish. Drizzle with olive oil, add salt, pepper, garlic powder and 2-3 dollops of ricotta. Bake at 350-375 for about 10 minutes

While the veggies are in the oven, cut sausage into bite size pieces, about 1 inch. 

When the timer goes off, place sausage in with veggies and stir. 

Bake 10-15 more minutes.

Take it out and add more ricotta, and a nice layer of mozzarella, a little more pepper, and Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. 

Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Guess Who Forgot?

Yup, this girl. I totally forgot I was planning to blog again. Life has been pretty intense since the last post. One of the kids was having some health issues. Work was super stressful. And on Tuesday our dog, Rori, died. So, blogging was definitely the last thing on my mind.

I have been staying pretty steady on the scale, but I am pretty sure I'm down some inches. I will update on Sunday. I did a quick measure today and my waist is about half an inches smaller. I was going to treat myself to lunch out today, but now that I have decided to measure again on Sunday, the lunch will have to wait 😜Sunday will be two weeks since I last measured, so hoping for some good results.

I really believe that we need to find things besides the scale to motivate us, and to help us stay on track. If I was just using the scale, I weigh the same as last week, so it might be easy to think "fuck it, I'll just eat whatever since it's not working anyway."  Well, that wouldn't be the best option, would it? Especially since i have a fitness test coming up! So, I looked smaller in the mirror and measured. Wow! Already down about an inch? It would be stupid to sabotage myself with a cheat meal at this point! I can wait two more weeks to eat something off plan. But, there is a part of me that is really screaming, "Don't do it!" Why? Because I could see some real change if I don't let the fitness test derail me like it so often does.

Usually, I give up for about 2 months, and then I get serious again as the next test approaches. What if this time, I eat my celebratory meal, and then the next day I get right back to it? By the next test in June, I won't even have to worry. I'll already be well under my max. Wow, that a novel idea 🙄

I tend to lose about a pound a week when I stick to pretty decent eating. It would be about 17 weeks between my tests, I could be below my goal weight and in a healthy BMI if I stick to it. Yeah, deep thoughts for a Friday day off. Let's do it!

P.S. Now that I said it, I expect you to hold me accountable.

This is an older picture of our girl, but she was always such a mom to the other animals. She loved the bunnies. Here she was watching over them as they had some free time to roam.

Small Successes

Rightnow our life is pretty stressful, of course just living 800 miles from my husband and kids is pretty rough to start with but my husband also has some medical stuff and one of our children is going through a rough patch. So, life is stressful.

Yesterday, I wanted to fall face first into a plate of noodles. I didn't. I had some parmesan chicken thighs, veggies, and some couscous. If course, couscous isn't quite on plan but it was way better than a steaming plate of pad thai. I had stopped on the way home from work and decided to get sushi. Which I did, but I didn't eat it last night because my roommate had made the chicken.

I saved it for lunch and had it to break my fast along with some chick fajita, sour cream, and jalapenos.

My weight held steady from yesterday, so I was pleased with that. We'll see how the next few days go.

Measurements--Finally!

I should have done this when I got my butt in gear on the 6th, but I didn't so here we are. I am thinking about being a little stricter, so maybe I'll count this as my day one of a new challenge. I have my next fitness test on February 20th, so I can do the challenge until then.

It will be hard to stay on track for the Super Bowl, but I know I can do it if I put my mind to it.


I downloaded a tracking app, but it was $5.99 to add more than 5 measurement spots and I don't have that in the budget right now. Maybe there's another one that's free? I would like to be able to easily see progress like i do on my weight app.

So, here they are, it's not pretty but everyone starts somewhere.

Neck: 14
Bust: 45
Chest: 37
Natural Waist: 36
Air Force waist: 37.5 (fitness test mode- 35.5)
Hips: 45.5
Bicep: 11.25
Forearm: 10.25
Wrist: 6
Thigh: upper 22, lower 15.25
calf: 14.5
Ankle: 7.75

I'll have to look through old posts to see how it compares to ages ago when I was close to my goal.