W.I.M.H.W. 07.04.12

What is in my head this Independence Day? Mostly things revolving around the 4th, my preparation for our little soiree and food related items.  I have a house full of family, so I will bust this out in an abbreviated post. That is if I am capable of brevity.  Most would likely say that I take after my Mom in that department. There is no such thing as making a long story short.  Let's try.


Preparation
I was surprised this morning two and a half hours into my marathon prep session to find that I was standing at the counter doing all the cooking.  I started at the kitchen table for all of thirty seconds until I needed something and got up.  I never sat back down again and didn't give it any thought for the next 150 minutes.  I always, always, always sit down when cooking.  My back could never take standing for too long and I would get sore and tired. Today I was the legendary Energizer Bunny, on my feet for hours and hours (about  four and half actually), before sitting down to enjoy the fruits of my labor with family and friends.


Menu
This was another attempt at keeping things healthier when having guests.  There are dishes that I prepared that I wouldn't put in my regular rotation, but when you compare them to the traditional or original versions of what we'd normally eat, we did very well by ourselves. We had veggies and hummus, hamburgers, chicken thighs with rosemary mustard glaze, wings two ways (both grilled), whole grain pasta and 4 bean salad, Asian style slaw, and tomato avocado salad w/chipotle lime dressing.  There were outside influences brought in by family, like chips, dips and sodas and I would be a liar if I didn't admit to having about three Frito's lightly dipped in sour cream and chives.  I actually ate very light today.  I had a taste of everything, but that encompassed two meals and I skipped breakfast due to running around shopping and cooking.  What I found amazing was that I looked around at most of what was there looking to habitually eat and found myself saying I just wasn't hungry.  Reprogramming at work!  New habits are being formed.  How cool is that?


I am thrilled to declare my independence from old bad habits.  In the aforementioned goal of brevity, I'll stop for now.  Everyone will be rejoining us from the lake down the street once the fireworks are over.  I will likely post a recipe or two tomorrow from today's menu.  It may come Friday morning due to our gig on Thursday evening.


Cya then,
M


What I ate today and how I exercised:


To make thing easier, I'll just make a list of all I ate today.  It was more than usual if you throw in two beers, but MUCH less than I would normally eat on a July 4th.


One 4oz. hamburger of lean beef w/sauteed onions and ketchup on a regular roll, approximately 3 chicken wing segments w/a new recipe of peanut sate glaze (recipe soon), about a 1/2 cup of Asian slaw (recipe soon), about a quarter cup of the four bean macaroni salad (recipe here), the three offending corn chips w/dip, 2 beers (I sooooo enjoyed them) and a piece of the rosemary mustard chicken (recipe to come.  I could have sworn I posted it before, but can't find it in my past posts).