Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Sauce

Tonight for dinner, we had spaghetti squash with tomato sauce. In this dish the spaghetti squash is a substitute for pasta, giving you more vitamins than what you would get from pasta (especially since I don't eat wheat pasta). For the pasta sauce, I used Mario Batali's recipe for a basic tomato sauce, its full of favor considering the little ingredients that you use. However any homemade pasta sauce can be replaced for Mario's. On top of my spaghetti sauces, I like to put a little splash of balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese.

Bacon-Wrapped Cod with Frisee

Day 2/Tuesday: I don't think there is a man out there that wouldn't think that bacon wrapped in cod is a good idea. Actually I think that most men, would say the more the better. In our house we love our pepper bacon, thick sliced and delicious! It's safe to say that the bacon is the star in this meal, cod has little taste and the bacon is overwhelming. So if you like bacon, this meal is the right one for you. Before you attempt the cod wrapped in bacon, my only tip is that you use a thinner slice bacon to wrap the cod, it seems like it would hold it better.

The side salad of the grapefruit and frisee was my personal favorite (meg). Little and yummy, perfect side dish to a heavier meal.

Grilled Lemon Chicken with Tabbouleh

Day 1/Monday: First day back on the diet, I swear our stomachs are never ending pits ;). Tonight for dinner we made grilled lemon chicken with tabbouleh. If you never had tabbouleh, the closest food that is similar is couscous (just not as light and fluffy and delicious). The tabbouleh salad is made pretty simple with tomatoes, parsley (lots of it), lemon and cucumber. There is about 1 1/2 cups of parsley, if you don't know parsley is extremely healthy, click here to read more about the health benefits.

The chicken is simply grilled with a lemon garlic sauce that you baste over in the end. Overall this meal is simple and filling for the moment.

Getting Back to Routine!

So we got back from Vegas, we loved eating so much it continued well after. Now we are a month away from our wedding, it seems like this week is the time to go back to the meal plan and back to the gym.

One of the toughest things in dieting is being hungry. I find when I'm hungry, I look for anything to grab, particularly anything chocolate. Not only do I look for junk food, I also don't want to workout after work because I am hungry. So my plan of attack is to plan healthy meals and have some healthy snacks to go along with it. This week's snacks are fruits and Healthy Morning Muffins.

I baked the muffins this afternoon in prep for next week, the muffins are 186 calories each, they are sweet and yummy and will be good with a banana...for once I am looking forward to 3pm (Snack Time).

Chicken with Mango and Ginger with a Side of Corn Tomato Hash

Day 3/Wednesday: Chicken with Mango and Ginger. Tonight it was dinner for 1 and I was left to fend for myself. Luckily, all our meals are planned out and tonight's dinner was super easy. The chicken with mango and ginger was wrapped in parchment paper and baked for 20 minutes. The dinner turned out okay, if you don't like spice you won't like this dish. However, the mangoes with chicken and jalapenos made a perfect bite, topped with a little cilantro and lime helped mellow the spice a little. Even though it mellows the spice, I have to warn you this dish is SUPER spicy. The only flaw was the ginger should be cut into smaller sticks; they weren't as tender was I would have liked.

We recently had some friends over and my sister brought over some corn (we have about 12 ears), I was trying to figure out what to do with them. I decided keep it simple! I pan fried corn that I stripped from the cob, with red onions until they got some brown spots. I removed from the heat and added fresh tomato and basil ... I almost liked this better than the chicken!

The whole meal was a little less than 400 calories and delicious!

Soy-Glazed Salmon with Watercress Salad

Day 2/Tuesday: For dinner tonight we made salmon. The fish guy at Freddy's recommends the steelhead salmon; it doesn't sound that great considering that the fish is farmed, but for the love of Pete, it is good. The steelhead salmon is a fattier fish and when baked it is perfect. The way salmon was meant to be. The salmon is broiled and than basted with a soy/honey sauce. The key is to not be shy with the salt and pepper (I like my pepper super course). The salad is pretty simple has watercress, red onions, oranges and the dressing which is a little of the glaze with olive oil and rice wine vinegar. Slicing the red onion thin is key but don't be shy, it goes well with the spiciness of the watercress.

Great dinner and in the end you feel good eating it. It sits at about 380 calories. That's leaves enough calories for dessert (AKA Skinny Cow Cone :).

Tomato Panzanella with Ricotta

It's our first day back from Las Vegas. It's hard to get back in the swing of things and it much easier to go pick up dinner and bring it home. Especially when you don't have any groceries. But we did the right thing, went to good old Freddy G's and picked up food.

Day 1/Monday: We made Tomato Panzanella with Ricotta, the recipe is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine, calories roughly about 550. Personally I love tomatoes and basil, so you really can't go wrong with this recipe. Both Nick and I aren't fans of ricotta, but after eating this meal we have changed our minds. Great dinner, for the summer, when it is hot and you want to sit outside. You can make the toasted bread in advance, so you can just throw everything together when you are ready. We made a slight change from the recipe, we upgraded our red wine vinegar to a Cabernet wine vinegar, it was super yummy. It's worth the extra money to get a good red wine vinegar.