Noticing Nosy Neighbors

Our neighbors are the reason God created fences.  They don't work and are home all the time and love being in your business and complaining about everything.  We just smile and say, "Oh, okay, no problem. Thanks for letting us know!"  And do our best to keep the peace.  A fast way to make your life miserable is to be in an all out war with the people that live next door to you.  For the most part, we just try to avoid them all together.

So when I got home yesterday and my neighbor ran up to me I cringed silently and slapped on a fake grin.  Now what?  Before I could even get to my door he had caught up with me and said, "WOW! You have lost a LOT of weight.  I mean a LOT of weight!"

Awww.  He's my new best friend. I want to love him and hold him and squeeze him.  He is the FIRST person who has said ANYthing to me about me having lost weight.   

And no, he most definitely was NOT coming on to me.  He is in a long term relationship with his boyfriend  80)

I still feel really good about things. I am determined to *keep-on-keepin'-on* this week.  I started the morning with 40 minutes on the elliptical.  Wow! I am so proud of myself.  The elliptical really kicks my but and only a few short weeks ago I could only do 10 minutes at a time.

See how many calories I burned??  434!

I also packed healthy snacks.

Like raw asparagus spears.


And a 100 calorie pack of raw almonds.


And some rockin' strawberries....ooooh....pretty.


I noticed that my snacks were very *Sesame Street* in their Color Orange Theme.


My shirt is also an orange-ish yellow-ish.  I must be craving Vitamin C or Sunshine or something!  The weather is supposed to be wonderful so I will most definitely be getting some sun.  Tomorrow I am headed to the beach for a long walk.  Will have pictures!

Brussels Sprouts

Some veggies really get a bad rep. Even the most faithful veggie lover may still furrow their brow when they find a pile of certain intimidating greens on their plate. For me, the list of scary veggies has included Brussels Sprouts.

I wanted to like them. I really really did. I wanted things to work out between us. I thought maybe I just needed to spice things up. So I tried adding garlic and onion. But there was still no connection. I even stooped so low as to buy them precooked, frozen, and covered in a delicious cream-butter-cheese sauce. That did the trick...but it ended up being just a one night stand. I still couldn't commit. I thought maybe we needed to get to know each other better. So I did the Vegetable World equivalent of Facebook Stalking and searched for them on Wikipedia.

After finding out this cute little cabbage was named for the capital city of Belgium, I also discovered I was spelling it wrong. It's Brussels Sprouts. Not Brussel Sprouts. Maybe there was more to these little guys than meets the eye. I decided to give us one more chance.

I found a recipe that looked pretty amazing. And it was super simple and healthy.

I used 4 cups of Brussels Sprouts and 2 tbsp basting oil

(My grocery store sells this yummy oil that has garlic and herbs in it. But you can make your own with oil and herbs.)










I washed, trimmed, and quartered them...then put them on a baking sheet.














After coating them with 2 tbsp basting oil, I put them in a 350° oven. After 30 minutes, I pulled out this.














I may have cooked them too long, but the charred leaves were my favorite part! I added them to my plate of grilled chicken and red potato.














They were good! So good in fact, we are going steady. They will definitely be on my shopping list again Friday night!

Makes 4 servings. PointsPlus: 2 pt