Take Three Pounds And Shove It...

Hello All! I trust everyone had a wonderful week/weekend! Other than the gross number on the scale, I had a fine weekend. I knew that after Vegas, I would have a bit of work to do. However, even after a week of being perfect (not to mention the fact that I exercised like a mad woman while in Vegas), I was still up almost THREE pounds. It’s like I can’t do ANYTHING wrong without jumping up on the scale. I realize that I ate too much while on Vacation but JEEZ. Three pounds isn’t exactly easy to work off. Oh well, I didn’t have a great weekend but I’m starting the week off right, as usual. I have really got to get in gear. I have a couple of indiscretions planned over the next couple of weeks but nothing major so I’m hoping to chip away at those three pounds and then after Easter Sunday, I’m going to be even more serious. It would be nice to be down a couple before May…because May is never a good month for me.







Anyway, the recipe this week is a pizza salad from the Hungry Girl called Pizzalicious Chop Chop. I made this salad (the picture isn’t mine, I lost mine in the process of transferring it to my parents ailing computer) and it was quite tasty. I made the dressing also and it was OK, it wasn’t my favorite. I eat a lot of salads so adding turkey pepperoni and olives to the mix was a nice change on the typical salad. I would make it again, I would just probably stick to Dijonnaise which is what I usually use for dressing.





This weekend, a bunch of friends and I went to a charity concert in Tuscaloosa that featured the Alabama Shakes. The lead singer has an amazing voice and the band is great. They are starting to gain national attention and just seem like all around fun people and great musicians. We all had a great time. I wish I had gotten a bit of a better picture of the band, but oh well. It was a good time.





This recipe isn’t healthy but since there is a pizza theme and also, I’m obsessed with Pinterest, I thought I’d share. If you’ve ever had yummy, gooey monkey bread that tastes like a cinnamon roll, this is the non-sweet version of that. This is pizza monkey bread. Basically, you take canned pizza dough, break it off into pieces about the size of a ping pong ball, flatten it a bit, add a piece of pepperoni, a small cube of mozzarella cheese and tuck it in the ball and pinching it closed. After you do that, you put the balls into a Bundt pan that is greased with garlic butter. You also paint the garlic butter on the balls and dump the remaining butter in the pan when you’re done. All you do after that is bake it, let it cool and turn it over onto a plate. You can pull the bread off and dip into marinara sauce. It’s DELICIOUS!

Obviously, I am in what I call a “slow” patch. I am still not in a place where I want to give up or anything. Mentally, I’m fine during the week. I am having problems with motivation, though. I’ve done so well but anytime you lose weight, the biggest fear is of gaining it back. I haven’t reached my goal yet but that’s not my problem. I know it takes longer now and I’m fine with that. However, it is discouraging that a) if I slip up at all, I’m punished more severely than I used to be and b) it seems that I need to find that first love/motivation that I had. That is proving to be extremely difficult. I will continue to plug away but I’m exhausted all of the time and so these disappointments seem to take more of a toll than they used to. I have a lot on my plate so I know I need to rest and I know I need to act right on the weekends so hopefully I will come up with a genius plan to get reinvigorated. A girl at work told me that her sister lost 160 pounds naturally, got a tummy tuck and has now gained every pound back. This made my heart skip a beat and I wanted to vomit. I felt horrible for her. I can’t think of a more horrifying thing to happen diet-wise and I refuse to let it happen to me. 3 pounds is one thing but I can’t go back…and I won’t. I will be brainstorming new ways to get motivated.

That is really all I had today. I want to give a shout out to my Dad! He had back surgery last week. It went well so hopefully he will start to see a change and he will feel more normal as the weeks go by. Feel better Dad! I wish you all the best this week! Talk with you soon! Bye!

“I know the truth when I look in your eyes
I saw the light in your window tonight…” I Saw The Light-Wynonna Judd (I don’t know why but this song has been in my head lately.)

Back In The Saddle Again...

Well, it's been a long time, y'all! I have had a lot of fun since I last posted. I have probably also put on a couple pounds. Before I left for Vegas, I was up a few ounces for some reason and I didn’t hold back on the calories while I was gone so I imagine it didn’t get any better. The good news is that I got more than my share of exercise while I was gone and I’m back on completely today. I will weigh this weekend to see what the Vegas damage is done. There was no way I was getting on that scale this weekend.







I wanted to share a recipe with you that is from the Hungry Girl cookbook…of course…since that’s been my obsession lately. This is just a simple French toast that you can make. I actually had 3 pieces because that’s what the serving size was and you can add syrup as well. It was tasty and because it’s bread, it was filling. This would also be good served with egg whites and turkey bacon for a well-rounded and yummy breakfast.



I went to Publix the other day in search of more fun snacks and I found these. They are pastry twists. It’s just layers of crisp pastry that has the flavor of Wild Raspberry in each bite. They are so yummy and they are only 30 calories per twist so you can have 2 or 3 of them, guilt-free!











We all had a blast in Vegas. We rode rides at the Stratosphere, ate way too much food and got to see the fun casinos. I am going back again in December with Jordan and I can’t wait! Thanks again to my Oma for the fun trip!



While I was away, my BFF Jordan Pittman, was running for delegate in the state of Alabama. He didn’t quite get the votes to go but he got well over 1,000 votes and I am SO, SO proud of him! He’s an awesome and extremely informed person and I can’t wait to see him show up many more times on a ballot!





For St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to chop off my hair. I had just enough to donate. It has taken some getting used to and a couple of minor nervous breakdowns but it’s finally starting to grow on me. I hope it REALLY grows on me…fast…because it’s a little shorter than I wanted. I took my short hair out though with my new purple dress that makes me feel naked on top and had some green beer. It’s been a fun several days! I hope everyone has a great week/weekend. Wish me luck that I didn’t gain too much while eating like a wild woman in Las Vegas! Bye!

“I’m more than just a piece in their games.” Suzanne Collins-The Hunger Games

Las Vegas Bound (Round 1 For 2012)

Hello Everyone!!! I am happy to report that despite my Oscar binge, my lowest weight this weekend (I weighed several times from Friday to Sunday) had me down 1 pound! My hard work is paying off! That brings my total loss to 112.4. I wasn’t completely perfect this weekend but I didn’t do half bad. I ate way too much at dinner last night for my cheat meal. I really wish I could have someone punch me in the face once I’ve eaten enough. I don’t know why I insist on making myself sick. I’d like to see at least a little loss at the end of this week because I’m going to Las Vegas on Saturday and I know that I will gain while I’m there. I’m just happy that I’m on the right track. Hopefully, it won’t take long to work off Vegas and then I really have the whole month of April to take off some pounds before May (the birthday month). My most immediate goal is to be down 115 pounds so I can take a new picture! I was really happy because I borrowed my roommate’s shirt on Saturday to go out in. I’ve never been able to borrow her clothes before…and it was a shirt from express…I have definitely never been able to wear anything from there so…it was a good weekend. I also started my new workout schedule which spreads everything out a bit more because I was starting to get burned out at the end of the week. It added a 1 mile walk on Sundays. I am now doing 20 miles a week between running on the treadmill, walking, biking and the elliptical.







The recipe from this week is another Hungry Girl recipe. I absolutely LOVED this one! It is cute and tasty. All you do is put egg beaters in a pan, let them cook until it’s one solid circle that you can turn (be VERY careful…it’s extremely easy to break) and then add your toppings. It’s cute, and tastes good and it’s low in calories. It’s an all around awesome recipe.



I thought I would share my most recent obsession. I LOVE ice cream. I can eat an entire pint by myself and it is one of things I miss the most. Luckily, there are many great alternatives out there. TCBY is my current favorite way to enjoy ice cream without the calories. They have a lot of selections that are 1 point in a kid cup and 2 in a regular cup. In fact, there nonfat, no sugar added flavors like chocolate, vanilla, and mountain blackberry are only 1 point for the regular cup. This is PLENTY of frozen yogurt for a snack. If you like fruit, you can add fresh blueberries. I personally like texture but since it isn’t a great idea to add a chocolate candy topping, I go with rainbow sprinkles. They are low in calories and they add crunch. Yum! I want some right now, actually.



I wanted to show you all that I got another poem published. This one is especially important to me because I wrote it in honor of Jordan’s Aunt Angel. I was so pleased that it got published. Please keep this family in your prayers as they still feel the pain of this loss (Angel passed away from breast cancer in 2009) every day and even more so because they aren’t able to be in contact with Angel’s three children.



I just wanted to give a quick shout out to the dessert I made last night. The picture doesn’t do it justice unfortunately but I tried to make a cute cupcake. I had all of the ingredients to make more cake batter dip but I didn’t want that alone so I made cupcakes and used the dip as frosting. The dip wasn’t nearly as good this time around because I added too much yogurt but it was still tasty. I piped it on top of the cupcake using a baggie and then put a vanilla wafer on top of it…it was my attempt at having a cute dessert. It turned out OK.

Well, I won’t be blogging next week because I will be walking the streets of Vegas. I didn’t mean for that to sound as mischievous as it did but it is the truth. My mom’s side of the family is having a girls trip. It should be fun. Thanks to my Oma for leading us there! I will bring back the blogging on March 19th though and I will more than likely have pictures to share from Vegas and St. Patrick’s Day! Please pray for our safe travels!

I hope you all have a lovely couple of weeks! Talk with you soon! Bye!

“Anne was getting a little chummy. When people get a little too chummy with me I like to call them by the wrong name to let them know I don't really care about them.” Ron Swanson-Parks & Recreation

Get It Together, Girl!

Happy Monday, Everyone! I will get right to it because I’m a very busy bee today. I weighed on Friday and I was roughly the same as the week before. I was OK with that. I didn’t lose but I understood because I didn’t have a flawless weekend. Speaking of not having a flawless weekend, I was out of control on Saturday AND Sunday. I don’t know what happened. It seemed I had some sort of caloric meltdown. I fully expect to get what I deserve when I weigh at the end of the week. I have already sulked and beat myself up about it and there isn’t any point in dwelling. I will suck it up and accept my weight and realize that I can’t be going crazy on the weekends if I want to lose weight. This, of course, slows the process of reaching goals but I am right back on the wagon today.







My recipe this week comes from the Hungry Girl cookbook. I know I did a breakfast recipe last week, too but I opened her book and pretty much started from the beginning. There may be another breakfast recipe next week but I will try and vary it up a bit. I LOVE this cookbook and I’ll probably be using A LOT of recipes from it. The Hungry Girl started as a blog and now she has a show on the Food Network. She makes healthy recipes with REAL portions and always lists the nutritional information. Also, she puts a lot of her recipes in single portions which is great for me since I’m usually just cooking for myself. She gives great tips and advice and I pretty much love everything she makes. This is a veggie burger breakfast scramble. Some people turn their noses up the instant they hear the term veggie burger. In recent years, however, they’ve made them taste pretty good. They are low in calories and fat and high in fiber (just make sure to check the nutritional facts to get the best ones) and they are a filling substitute for meat that is high in fat. I got to eat this whole plate that was high in protein and fiber so it was super filling. My advice is to give the veggie burger a shot if you’ve never tried. You might like it.



I have yet another Publix find to show you. These are cinnamon snack toasts and they are a little thicker than melba toast and they are topped with cinnamon and sugar. They are only 35 calories a piece so you can have two and they are crunchy, sweet little snacks. I have been dipping them in natural apple sauce for dessert. I love them!







The Oscars was last night and Jordan and I worked hard to see all the movies so we were excited! I was happy for all the winners. The biggest non-shocking shock of the night was the Meryl Streep win. I knew it was a possibility but I was still surprised. I think she deserved it. I would’ve loved to see Viola Davis win but Meryl did a fantastic job in The Iron Lady. She’s also funny and humble and just seems genuinely cool. It was a good show. It was also part of the reason I’m feeling like the world’s biggest fatty today. I have been on Pinterest a lot lately and I couldn’t decide which dessert to make to bring to the party I attended so I made everything! I made a Cake Batter Dip, Peanut Butter Cheeseball, Brownies and a Caramel Apple Turtle Cheesecake Dessert Dip. They were all so yummy. Other people brought appetizers and cookies and it was just a big ‘ole snack fest. Blech. I am feeling it today. I definitely have a dessert hangover!

Like I said, I don’t have much time today so that’s all I had. I guess it’s not that short …it just seems that way because of all the movies I’ve been talking about for weeks.

Have a wonderful week! Hopefully the scale won’t punish me too bad! Talk to you soon, BYE!

“Some point the finger, let ignorance linger
If they'd look in the mirror they'd find
Ever since the beginning,
To keep the world spinning
It takes all kinds of kinds…” All Kinds Of Kinds-Miranda Lambert

Oscar Week!

Happy President’s Day! I am working BOTH of my jobs but I’m not bitter or anything. Despite my Valentine’s Day binge after I had not lost any weight, I actually showed a loss this weekend. I weighed three times; twice on Saturday and once on Sunday. All three times I showed a loss from the prior week. Because I spent all day Saturday not eating much and watching Oscar movies, I weighed Sunday to see what the scale looked like and showed a weight lower than my lowest weight ever. Obviously, this low number is the one I recorded which means I’m down a total of 111.4. Either way, I’m super excited the scale showed a lower number this week. I went a little overboard with the cheat meal yesterday and ate WAY too many snacks and far too much dinner. I made myself sick, actually. I really wish I could work on just eating normal portions when I’m cheating but (and not to sound too dramatic) I have an addiction and I usually don’t stop until I am going to be really, really sick. It’s unfortunate and I’m still feeling ill today. Hopefully, the success will continue as I will be strict this week. I am so appreciative of the loss!



The recipe this week is another one that I just threw together. I’m a huge proponent of liquid egg whites. If you like steak and eggs, you’ll like this. All I did was take one serving of Steak-umms, threw them in a skillet and let them cook for a minute until they were brown. I dabbed off the grease and then added the eggs, salt, pepper and garlic. At the ended, I added some of my new fat free tomato-basil feta cheese. I added some toast for a whole breakfast. It was yummy and filling and just having the little bit of fat from the steak made it taste even better.



I wanted to share another Publix find. This is FlatOut’s Foldit Flatbread. It’s only 90 calories, has tons of fiber and it’s a cute way to make a sandwich or burger or anything really. It’s a great find and I’ve already used it several times.



I went crazy on Oscar movies so if you have no interest in my opinions on them, feel free to skip the next several paragraphs. I got done with all of the movies this weekend and I’m going to share my opinions, my favorites and my predictions since I won’t have another blog before Sunday. I really liked the Ides of March. George Clooney was good in it and Ryan Gosling is BEYOND hot. I don’t care for Evan Rachel Wood. I don’t think she’s a great actress and it kind of made the movie not as successful for me. I enjoyed it but I wasn’t blown away. The movie pointed out something many Americans already know: most politicians are corrupt. The movie didn’t come full circle with its story, in my opinion but I still think it’s good. It’s nominated for Adapted Screenplay. I guess I understand why but I don’t think it should win.



I did not like Margin Call at all. Despite the all star cast (Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci and many others), it was confusing and boring. It was about stocks and trading and a company going under. I didn’t understand the lingo and it wasn’t good enough to mask that. I think the general idea is that rich people suck and take advantage of poor people. Again, this is something most people are aware of. It takes place in a 24 hour period and aside from a nice British accent from Paul Bettany, I wasn’t that impressed. Also, Aasif Mandvi was a writer and actor in the movie and he is a regular on the Daily Show…it was really weird seeing him try to be serious. I don’t know. It just wasn’t my favorite movie. It was nominated for Original Screenplay. I don’t agree with this and don’t think it should win.



I hated this movie. As I’ve mentioned before, I get choked up at the sight of dogs and horses in movies and TV even if they aren’t being harmed. This movie was a relentlessly torturous movie that made me sob uncontrollably for almost 3 hours. I was shocked to find out that this was initially a children’s novel and then Broadway play. I may be able to handle it better if it were on Broadway because I wouldn’t have to see real images of horses being killed or harmed. SPOILER ALERT: The main horse lives. This little fact might give a pretense that the movie is inspirational. However, I completely disagree. Someone told me the horse lived so I kept trying to remind myself as I watched but it didn’t help. Every person and/or animal the horse meets along the way either dies, gets hurt, tries to kill him, hurts him or leads a tragic life. SPOILER ALERT OVER. There are approximately 2-3 “lighter” moments in the movie but I was unable to enjoy them because I wasn’t over the previous, horrific scene. I was disturbed long after the movie, swearing off all Spielberg movies, whether I like them or not. I guess some people loved it and I for one, am concerned about those people and think they should seek help immediately. I have no idea if the movie was made well because I was too busy wiping snot off my pillow and trying not to have an anxiety attack. I am not exaggerating either, you can ask Jordan, I was a complete wreck. It’s nominated for best picture for some sick reason. It shouldn’t win and it won’t.



I didn’t care for this movie, either. I thought it was painfully boring, interrupted only a few times by some graphic murder scene. Perhaps I’m dumb but I don’t know much about what was going on in this movie. It’s nominated for Adapted Screenplay (I can’t IMAGINE trying to read this movie as a book) and Gary Oldman is nominated for Best Actor (I have no idea why). I was able to deduce some key components of the movie after discussing it with Jordan (who suggested looking up the plot line on Wikipedia to try and understand what the heck was going on) so that made me proud but overall, it was slow, unclear and all together pointless, in my opinion. It’s a British film about some sort of mafia and they are trying to find a mole. I was barely able to figure out who that was by the end of the movie and that’s only because he cried and admitted stuff and then later took a bullet to the face. Of course, you should feel free to make your own judgments. It was also very long. I love Colin Firth and Tom Hardy so at least I got to see them on screen. I honestly can’t think of anything else good to say about it. For the record, I just looked it up on Wikipedia and got bored half way through reading the plot synopsis. I don’t know if that tells you anything.



The movie A Separation is the film that was made in Iran. The best part of the movie is that it highlights the lives of normal people in Iran living their everyday lives. It shows that women are second class citizens, as we knew, but it gives different perspectives. The movie is about a couple going through a separation. The father is taking care of his father with Alzheimer’s (that part was sad) and he is also taking care of his daughter who has chosen to live with him. He takes on help from a woman and she ends up neglecting the man’s father and then they get in a heated argument, he pushes her and then she accuses him of causing her to miscarry her baby. The rest of the movie centers around this accusation. The movie was pretty good. Obviously, there are subtitles and there are many cases where they were speaking really fast so it was hard to keep up. I liked it overall but I wasn’t blown away. The movie felt sort of unresolved and not in a good way. I don’t have much negative to say about the movie and I’m glad that it’s getting attention because I think the perspective is important but as a movie, I am not sure it deserves the win for Original Screenplay.



I think two of the marks for a GOOD movie is when A) the movie can make you feel sympathy for a bad person (or a formerly bad person) and B) it can make you care about something that you couldn’t care less about in everyday life. For me, the movie Warrior did both of these things. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that the the four movies I watched prior to this one didn’t do much for me. This movie resembled last year’s The Fighter in many ways as it chronicled the fighting life of two brothers. It was also very different and shined in its own way. I was actually disappointed that Nick Nolte was the only nomination this movie got. I’m not really a huge fan of his but thought he did a great job in this movie and the nomination was well-deserved. Like Moneyball, this movie made me get into a sport (MMA fighting) that I am normally not a fan of so…I think that’s pretty good. Also, it doesn’t hurt that there were two highly attractive boys that spent most of the movie shirtless. The movie had layers, a plot that went all the way around, wasn’t pretentious…call me crazy…but it was a much needed break from trying to figure out why I’m supposed to be moved by all of these other movies.



The last movie I watched was A Better Life. Demian Bichir is nominated for Best Actor in the movie and that’s the only nod this movie got. He is in the show Weeds but he plays such a different role in the movie, I didn’t recognize him. This movie was…solid. It didn’t blow me out of the water but I thought it was good. It’s also another movie that gives an important, different perspective that I think Americans should see. It follows the life of an illegal immigrant and his teenage son who is contemplating the gang life. The father faces many trials and works very hard all the while trying to connect to his son. It shows the trials that Mexican immigrants face without shoving it in your face. There are two sides to every story and this shows the immigration process in another light. I thought the nomination was deserved and I think perhaps it deserved a bit more recognition than it got.

I also saw some of the movies in the minor categories and I will more than likely see more of them in the coming weeks but not in time for the Oscars this Sunday. I will make favorites and predictions only for categories that I’ve seen movies in…no sense in telling you my best guess in the short films and other smaller categories. Some of the categories were VERY hard to choose favorites so some of them are extremely close for me.

Costume Design- I’ve only seen 2 of the five nominated which were The Artist and Hugo (the other nominees I haven’t seen: Anonymous, Jane Eyre and W.E.). I think Hugo should take this, personally. Who I think will win: The Artist.

Sound Editing- I’ve only seen 3 of these: Hugo, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and War Horse (the other nominees I haven’t seen: Drive & Transformers: Dark of the Moon). I think Hugo should win this and I think it will.

Sound Mixing-I’ve seen four of these: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, Moneyball and War Horse (the other nominee I haven’t seen: Transformers: Dark of the Moon). Who I think will win: Hugo.

Film Editing: My favorites in order: 1)Hugo 2)The Artist 3)The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 4)Moneyball 5)The Descendants. Who I think will win: The Artist.

The only foreign language film I’ve seen is A Separation and I think it will win. The other nominees are Bullhead, Footnote, In Darkness and Monsieur Lazhar.

Original Score-I’ve seen 4 of these: The Artist, Hugo, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and War Horse. The other nominee I haven’t seen is The Adventures of Tintin. I don’t have a favorite in this category. Who I think will win: The Artist.

Visual Effects: I’ve seen 2 of these: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Hugo. The other nominees I haven’t seen are: Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Clearly, I pick Harry Potter as my favorite and I think it might even win.

Art Direction- My favorites in order: 1)Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 2)Hugo 3)The Artist 4)Midnight in Paris 5) War Horse. Who I think will win: Hugo.

Makeup-My favorites in order: 1)Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 2)The Iron Lady 3)Albert Nobbs. Who I think will win: The Iron Lady.

Documentary Feature-I’ve only seen two of these: Hell and Back Again and If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (the other nominees I haven’t seen: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Pina, Undefeated). They were both good but I liked If a Tree Falls, better. Who I think will win: Undefeated. This was based off research and different opinions of bloggers.

Cinematography-My favorites in order: 1)Hugo 2)The Tree of Life 3)The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 4)The Artist 5) War Horse. This was a tough call for this category. Who I think will win: The Tree of Life (the only one it deserves)

Adapted Screenplay-My favorites in order: 1)Hugo 2)The Ides of March 3)The Descendants 4)Moneyball 5)Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Who I think will win: The Descendants

Original Screenplay-My favorites in order: 1)The Artist 2)Bridesmaids 3)A Separation 4)Midnight in Paris 5)Margin Call. Who I think will win: Midnight in Paris.

Directing- My favorites in order: 1)The Artist 2)Hugo 3)The Descendants 4)Midnight in Paris 5)The Tree of Life. Who I think will win: The Artist.

Supporting Actor- My favorites in order: 1)Christopher Plummer, Beginners 2)Nick Nolte, Warrior 3)Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close 4)Jonah Hill, Moneyball, 5)Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn. These were all very close for me. Who I think will win: Christopher Plummer, Beginners.

Supporting Actress-My favorites in order: 1)Octavia Spencer, The Help 2)Jessica Chastain, The Help 3)Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids 4)Berenice Bejo, The Artist, 5)Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs. Again, all of them were great. Who I think will win: Octavia Spencer, The Help.

Leading Actor-My favorites in order: 1) Jean Dujardin, The Artist 2) Demian Bichir, A Better Life 3) Brad Pitt, Moneyball 4) George Clooney, The Descendants 5) Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. These were also hard to pick…1 and 2 were close and so were 3 and 4. Who I think will win: Jean Dujardin, The Artist.

Leading Actress- My favorites in order: 1)Viola Davis, The Help 2) Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady 3)Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn, 4)Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 5)Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs. They were all fantastic. Who I think will win: Viola Davis, The Help.

Best Picture- My favorites in order(I choose favorites based on the movies that I would want to watch multiple times): 1) The Help 2) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close 3)Moneyball 4) Hugo 5) The Artist 6) The Descendants (3-6 were all so close…it was a tough decision) 7) Midnight in Paris 8) The Tree of Life 9) War Horse. Who I think will win: The Artist.

Phew, that was a lot. Thanks for sticking with me. Don't worry...you won't have to endure anymore ridiculously long blogs about movies until next year. I know that I am supposed to be proper and use quotation marks for these movies (especially since I’m an English teacher) but mostly I was just lazy…so forgive me if you ever see punctuation errors. I know the rules, I just choose to skip them sometimes.

I am excited to see what all happens. It should be a fun night.

Obviously, these are all just opinions. That’s the beauty of it all…everyone reacts differently.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Bye!

“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” Aibileen, The Help

Happy Valentine's Week Or Whatever

Top of the week to ya! I’m not pumped about Valentine’s Day but shout out to Jordan and my parents for the Valentine’s treats…it’s nice to know that even if you don’t have a relationship, you aren’t alone. I already knew that, but it’s always good to have a reminder. I weighed on Saturday morning after having a flawless week and I had not lost any weight. I am still up about 3.2 from my lowest weight. I am in a slump or plateau, whatever you want to call it and I won’t lie…it sucks. I had a mini-meltdown about it because I’m frustrated. I have been working really hard. I reacted poorly to the news on the scale and had a candy, cheese and ranch filled weekend. I am ashamed of my food binge tantrum but it happened and today I’m over it and back on track. Get back on the horse right? Every, single, freaking week. Due to my misgivings and other feminine, water retaining monsters I’ll be experiencing this week, the chances of me losing weight are not great. I will keep on trucking. I don’t have words of inspiration. Working hard and not losing weight is a miserable place to be but I won’t give up…I hope you don’t either.





This week is less of a recipe and more of an awesome suggestion for tasty potatoes. My mom made these for me awhile back and I’ve been making them a lot lately. Potatoes are the food I probably consume the most because they are filling and full of fiber. The problem is that potatoes aren’t good on their own. They need flavor and a lot of it to taste good. All I do is chop a potato in bite size pieces and microwave them with a little water covering them for five minutes. While you are microwaving, you can preheat the oven to 425-450ish. When the five minutes is up, get them out, flip them around a bit, add some Worcestershire (“W”) Sauce to them and pop them back in the microwave for 3 more minutes. While that’s going, get out a cookie sheet, line it with aluminum and parchment paper (or the fancy stuff from Reynolds that’s a combination of the two: it’s an awesome invention). When the potatoes finish in the microwave, spread them on the pan, spray them with non-stick spray, load them up with pepper and garlic powder and then salt them. Bake them for 5 minutes or so, pull them out turn them over and around (mix it up a bit), spray them with non-stick spray again, add more pepper, salt and garlic powder and put them back in for another 5 minutes. After that, I like to broil them for 2-3 minutes so they crisp up. You can see that you get a huge portion and there are no calories in the spices, spray or W Sauce so it’s only the potato you have to count and they aren’t bad! It’s a great side dish and something a bit different than the plain old potato.



If I had money, I would do all my grocery shopping at Publix. Over the next few weeks, I will show you some stuff I found there that is awesome. This is President Herbed Feta Cheese, Tomato & Basil flavor and the best part is…it’s FAT FREE. Y’all, this is my new obsession. There is 35 calories in one serving. It’s great in salads and eggs and everything. I am really enjoying it. The downside is that it’s 6 bucks for one small container. Oh well.



This weekend, Jordan and I took Operation Oscar all the way to Atlanta to see My Week With Marilyn because it wasn’t playing anywhere else. I’m so glad we did! I get pretty grumpy when we have to travel (especially to Atlanta, it’s not my favorite place) but it ended up great. We had an awesome Italian dinner at Provino’s in Douglasville. They have one in Chattanooga that has always been a family favorite. It’s not healthy, in any way but…man, was it good! The movie was worth the drive as well. I haven’t always understood the acclaim that Michelle Williams has gotten in the past but she did a fantastic job in the movie. She looked gorgeous and I think she did a great portrayal!



I also watched the movie Beginners on DVD Saturday night. This movie who has a nominated Christopher Plummer was a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting much but I really enjoyed it. I also found out that Christopher Plummer is the father from the Sound of Music (one of my all time favorite movies). I had no idea. He was brilliant in the movie. The movie is a story of a man (Ewan McGregor) and his dying father (Christopher Plummer)who after 40 something years of marriage comes out gay and it follows his new relationship. It highlights the relationships McGregor has with not only his father but his deceased mother and new love interest. It’s mostly sad but has some funny moments as well as moments that are heartwarming. I really enjoyed it.



I am a freak about dogs. I can see a dog on the screen and no matter what’s happening, good or bad, I start to tear up. So, I’m glad that dogs are a big part of this Oscar season. “Uggie,” the dog from The Artist was a precious counterpart to Jean Dujardin. He was extraordinarily talented with tricks and his personality lit up the screen. I personally don’t think the movie would’ve thrived without the cute little thing. “Cosmo” is the dog that played “Arthur” in the movie Beginners that I saw this weekend. He also was a scruffy, cute and pertinent addition to the film. He connected each of the characters and I thought he was great. I have read some comments that they need an animal category at the Oscars…I don’t see that ever happening but I would support it if it did!



Over the course of this Oscar season, Jordan and I began noticing (and I’ve mentioned it here, too) that there were many actors appearing in more than one Oscar related film. Since there were so many, I decided to create a little graph (you'll probably have to click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see the names) that shows which actors are in more than one movie. It’s interesting to see all of the connections. It may be that this happens a lot but I’ve never noticed it so much until this Oscar season. I only have a couple more weeks to finish up before the big night. I have 7 left to watch in the major categories and I hope to watch a couple more in the minor categories. It’s a lot but hopefully I’ll be able to finish…I just have to make time.

As an aside, I was published in a literary magazine called, Falling Star Magazine, and they paid me! I received a $10 check! It’s not much but it’s definitely the first time I’ve ever been paid for a poem. It was a cool feeling. My mom is making me keep the check to remember, she gave me $10 to make up for it, lol.

I hope you all have a fantastic week.

Happy Valentine’s Day, tomorrow!

Bye!

“Take me, take me, somewhere trouble don’t go…” Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go-Miranda Lambert

Change-Up

I know I just blogged on Friday but I am going to try switching to Monday. I will post each Monday for awhile and see how that goes. When I weighed Friday, I was bloated from dinner the previous night and in the past I’ve also noticed that if I’m good on Friday, I often weigh less on Saturday. Well, I experimented with this and I was flawless on Friday and I weighed Saturday morning. I weighed 2 less pounds on Saturday than I did on Friday. I think the extra day of being strict makes a difference. Even though it was only one day, the lower number made me feel better. So, I am going to start weighing on Saturdays which is what I used to do when I started but I stopped because I wanted to have more lenient Friday nights. Weighing on Saturday will also help me stay on track on Fridays. I was good all weekend and stuck to my one cheat meal and one dessert. I ate way too much Super Bowl food last night though, I feel sick today.



The recipe for this week is Zucchini Casserole. This casserole had zucchini, grated onion, a little bit of Heart Smart Bisquick, egg whites, one whole egg, olive oil, grated parmesan, salt, pepper, parsley and garlic powder. It’s a lot like a quiche and the Bisquick gives it a more filling “feel.” It has awesome flavor and would make a great side dish.



My tip this week is one that I am having a hard time living by. I am trying to re-orient myself to measuring things. It is very easy to try and “guesstimate” a tablespoon of dressing or 3 ounces of meat or half a cup of cheese. The problem is, our “guesstimations” are usually in our favor. You can really add a lot of calories by over doing it in the measuring department. Being precise is a key factor in losing weight. So, when you are cooking, try and make sure to be exact. Even though it’s annoying, bring out the spoons and cups to measure. If you don’t have a food scale, I would invest in one. There are many things that give serving sizes in ounces and trust me when I tell you, you are more than likely wrong when you guess how many ounces something weighs. Also, you don’t want to cheat yourself either. You want to get as much as you should. Nothing more, nothing less.



Jordan and I set out again this weekend and between theatres and watching movies at home, I was able to check four more movies off of the list. We were a bit early to one movie and they had this photo booth sketch thing. Naturally, I insisted we go do it. I thought it was cute, so I shared.



Hugo, as a whole, was a good movie. It had amazing moments but wasn’t amazing overall because it ran slow a couple times. This year is an incredible year for children. I think both of the kids in this movie should’ve been nominated. I honestly think that the nominations for actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress could’ve been filled with names of children. They were the stars of the movie and did a fantastic job. This movie reminded me a lot of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close because both are movies about boys whose fathers have died and they are in pursuit of messages left to them by their dads and a key is an integral part to finding those messages in both movies. Having said that, they are worlds apart in design, time placement and subject. It also reminded me a lot of Little Orphan Annie except there were no playful songs to blend in with the sadness of the situation. Apparently, it is a requirement these days to kill the father of a small boy in order to have a successful movie. The little boy is precious and he has this enormous blue eyes that giant tears would fall out of…I cried every time he did. It would be the kind of movie I’d watch again, but I’d fast forward the first 20 minutes and then skip to my favorite parts.



I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo very recently (awesome read) and then I watched the Swedish version of the movie. Part of the problem with reading an intricate book and then watching the movie is that you find yourself scrutinizing every minute of the movie. The Swedish version makes a lot of changes and leaves several details out. It’s a good movie but I much preferred the American version. It could be that Americans just have different tastes in movies. I found the American version much more intense. It’s an extremely graphic book and I thought this movie handled that well. It’s quite disturbing in places, actually. There were some major changes in this movie, especially at the end but I thought it paralleled better with the book for the bulk of the story. Rooney Mara earned her nomination and even though I enjoyed the movie immensely and found it 100 times more watchable than Tree of Life, I can see why it wasn’t nominated. Perhaps if it had dug deeper into the back story of the characters like the book did, it could’ve been nominated but mostly, it was just a thriller.



Albert Nobbs was weird. It wasn’t weird because women were dressed as men in order to work, it was weird because it seemed a little unorganized. The storyline was trying to pull the audience in multiple directions but I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel at the end. It wasn’t bad and I wasn’t really bored but I just didn’t have any strong feelings about it. Glenn Close did a good job. She shouldn’t win, but overall a great performance.



Moneyball. Now, that’s the Brad Pitt I like. Messy hair, a bit crazy and playing alongside other actors that I enjoy: Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman. As a side note, since I’ve noted other actors that appeared in multiple movies with nominations, Robin Wright (Jenny from Forrest Gump) was in this movie as well as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I thought it was excellent. I don’t think the movie, Brad Pitt or Jonah Hill reinvented the wheel in any way and I don’t think it should win any major categories but it was a solid movie. I wouldn’t be mad if it took home any statues, either. It was interesting, funny and a movie that lots of people would enjoy. This was also another movie where a child shined, Kerris Dorsey from one of my favorite shows, Brothers & Sisters did a great job. It also had Chris Pratt from Parks & Recreation (another fave show of mine) and he did well. It’s loaded with some of my favorite people and even though baseball isn’t my go to sport, I do love a good baseball movie, and this qualified. It had intelligent humor, insight into the corrupt baseball world and glances at Brad Pitt’s famous side smile. I may even buy this one.

I am loaded up with movies to watch at home so I’m sure I’ll be working on that this week.

I hope you all have a wonderful, low stress week!

Bye.

“I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason too.” Hugo Cabret-From the movie Hugo