Dinner at Our House: Low Sodium Living

Hello friends! It has been a little bit, but that's just my style I suppose. I pop in and out of the blogosphere whenever the mood strikes. I definitely wanted to update you all on what's being going on here at our house.
Dinners are a-changin'. Tim went to the doctor last week and discovered he's got some blood pressure issues. So step one was to limit his caffeine, and step two was to get his sodium under control. Now let me tell you what I've learned: EVERYTHING I LOVE IS FULL OF SODIUM. I'm not a gal who ever adds salt to a meal, but OMG, it's in everything delicious. Or so I thought. I'm also learning that I can make things on my own. Behold! Two experiences from the past two days: low sodium taco meat and low sodium ranch dry mix for roasting potatoes.

Low Sodium Taco Meat

All this was found in the house (OK, so we had to buy a couple items, but no biggie)

The recipe I made based on a couple of internet searches ended up being:

1 tablespoon Chili Powder

2 teaspoons Onion Powder

1 teaspoon Ground Cumin

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon Paprika

1 teaspoon Ground Oregano

Ooohhh ahhh! The colors! Did I mention it smells wonderful?

All shook up! ;)

I always use lean ground beef from Publix and after browning it I added the mix and 2/3 cup water just like you would do on the taco mix. Turned out pretty similar as far as consistency went.

See!

Now check this: 270 mg per serving, times 6 = 1,620 mg total! And what on earth is all that stuff listed in the ingredients? OH! And did I mention this packet is the "Low Sodium" version? Laugh!

When I do the math using myfitnesspal my whole mix is 83.6mg of sodium! And you already saw all my ingredients. Insanity! But, the important question is this: does is pass the taste test? It's a bit different, but I think it's something I can definitely continue to research and play with.

Low Sodium Ranch Dry Mix (I used it to roast potatoes)

If you're a follower of mine on Instagram you saw I made roasted ranch red potatoes the other night. I used a ranch packet and cooking spray to cut calories. Too bad I still had TONS of sodium in the recipe. So tonight, we had the rest of the bag of red potatoes to use up before they spouted legs and walked away (ha, ha, get it?). I again did some internet searching and decided on the following:

2 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme

This one really smelled yum!

Annnd mixed!

I once again cut up red potatoes and sprayed them in a light coating of cooking oil and then mixed in the dry spices. Threw them in the oven for about 45 minutes on 450 and stirred every 15 minutes. They smelled AWESOME! Every time Tim did a taste test he'd eat more, that's how I knew they were going to be awesome. So sodium comparison? A ranch packet has 2,160 mg of sodium!! My mix? 16.1mg! Win!!

Nom nom nom - we had it with low sodium BBQ chicken.

Did I mention that the potatoes are only 3 points per cup? Oh yes! I feel like a rockstar! Here's to trying new things and learning how to live in this low sodium lifestyle!

Dinner at our House: Grilled Steak Salad

Yes! I'm alive, and eating delicious food. We haven't been cooking much, but this has been a new staple for the past two weeks: Grilled Steak Salads.

Mmmm...so good.

Tim will buy a pack of two small sirloin steaks and I will do the rub/seasoning. After it's grilled I add a few things:

• Blue Cheese Crumbles (reduced fat)
• Blue Cheese Dressing (lite; and I do a half serving)
• Balsamic Vinaigrette (also lite and half a serving)
• Additional ground pepper

All in all, when I've done the math the salad comes out to 7-8 WW points. Not too bad because I'm very full after eating steak. 

And just to update you on some of my 13x13 goals...

Notice two things: in 2 weeks I've lost 5.8 pounds doing WW and  C25K! 

Couldn't be happier and hopefully, healthier!

Happy New Year: Twelve Goals for 2012

Woohoo! Some of you may remember my blog posts regarding goals for the new year, or Eleven in 11. Well I'm at it again. Some are similar, some are a little more private, some are easy and some are not. We'll see how it goes!

1. Track our entire budget- Now, that sounds like I don't now, but I do, I just want to get down to the details more.
2. Use at least $500 in coupons- Pretty high goal, but not once you start using those Extra Care Bucks from CVS. We'll see how it goes. I've got a little Excel sheet and I'm excited to find out exactly how much cutting coupons saves me from just the coupons.
3. Lose X and keep it off- So last year I did well losing what I planned to lose, I just gained 10 of it back. So now I'm going to get that 10 back off and hopefully just a little bit more with it and hope that come December I haven't gained back.
4. Get a library card, use it once a month- This one is in honor of my favorite librarian couple. I want to start going to the library to get books because I want to...
5. Read 26 books- Last year I tried for 52- HA! That was one a week, but this one I might be able to pull off. One book every two weeks. I am LOVING the Hunger Games books right now.
6. Shop local once a month- Tim and I like to support small business when we can, so I thought I'd make it a goal to continue to do it at least once a month.
7. Knit a scarf- this one is easy...right? I've already got one started...I just need to finish it!
8. Consistent Gym Use- if we're going to keep it as an expense I've got to go more. I'm pledging to go at least four times a week to make it worth our while.
9. BLOG three times a week- I don't want to abandon you. I did so well at the beginning of the year, and then fell off. I want to keep it going all year long!
10. Finish our wedding scrapbook- We've been married almost 4 years, it's just time to do this already!
11. Put $X in savings- gotta build it back up since we're hoping to buy that house :)
12. Run a 5k- It's time to stop saying I'm going to do it and just do it!

So there it is. The List. What do you want to accomplish in 2012?

Intro to Gardening: First Harvest!

I haven't been following this as much as I should have, but we are still gardening! We have already had our first "harvest." The beans below came out a week ago. They were a very pretty green. We have bell peppers that are almost ready. I think the parsley and basil are also ready, I just haven't brought them in.

Beans!

Tim ate them right out of the garden!

Intro to Gardening: Baby Steps

So a while ago I got it in my head that I could just magically become a veggie gardener. We have been going back and forth on whether or not we want to build a new one in the backyard, or use the old garden area on the side of the house. Well, Good Friday is coming pretty quickly and a wise woman who was born on Hog Killin Day once told me to plant your garden on Good Friday. We finally decided to get to work on the old area and make some progress.

Sooo...we took this:

The poor thing is weathered and weeded.

Icky weeds.

And turned it into this:

But underneath it all...lots of earth worms and other critters

Looking much better already!

I read that earthworms and critters are a good sign that your soil is fertile. Let's hope so. If you have any tips or suggestions on what to plant, let us know!

Dinner at Our House meets The Art of Couponing

I thought I'd use this post to unite two of my current themes in the blog- eating well and saving some cash.

Today for lunch Tim and I enjoyed salads made with some of the super cheap products we got at Publix yesterday:

My salad: Romaine lettuce, blue cheese, croutons and light buttermilk ranch dressing.

Overall, 5 WW points and much cheaper than a salad you'd buy anywhere else (certainly fresher too). Edit: It could have been 3 WW pts, but I had to have a little extra cheese + croutons :)

I still use the food scale as my secret weapon. It lets me know exactly how much cheese, etc I sprinkle on.

Start taking some of that time where you veg out in front of the TV, and use it to glance over the super market sales. A little planning helps your debt AND waistline shrink.