What do you do when you just gotta have it??

Well I have had quite an interesting week so far.  This weekend I had to work at the hospital, which is a major stressor for me and I was not sure how I would do with the food but honestly it wasn't too bad, my typical food at the hospital is a big giant salad which I adore and it was easy to measure all the things that had points and of course load up on the free things without points and I splurged for my favorite dressing.  I also have been eating out a little bit.  I am not sure if I will live to regret this on weigh in day and I have been counting everything but with busyness, stress, etc., this was kind of a much needed break.  We'll see if I pay for it on the scale but my theory was that if you do have an event "out" pare down your other meals that day to make it more doable so that's what I did.  So tonight I am bringing you a light lunch option if you have a night out and a light dinner option if you have a lunch out!

Friday was the start of Spring Break! Yea! Especially if you are luckier than me and you are somewhere beautiful! (Unlike me, did I mention Sunday we had rain, snow, sleet, hail, gale force winds, and a crazy thunderstorm! All in one day! To my sister in Florida right now I am sticking my tongue out at you.) Anyways having a teacher husband we were excited on Friday about the start of Spring Break despite not going anywhere so we wanted to have a celebration. We decided to have a pizza party picnic (inside of course).  OK pizza, 7pts a piece, that's costly I needed to make some room for this, hmmm.... So for lunch I found this tasty idea, Guess where? Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Cookbook, I know I hardly ever eat her food right? Try it, I am not a big fanof tuna usually but this was yummy, like Tuna Hummus as my husband nicknamed it...

White Bean Spread with Tuna

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup Vidalia onion

3 cloves minced garlic

1 can white beans of your choice (I went garbanzo!)

2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tsp fresh dill
8 oz albacore tuna
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in frying pan and saute onions until translucent.  Do not over-brown.  Transfer to food processor. Add remaining ingredients to food processor and pulse until just blended for chunky version or longer for smooth version.  Serve with flat bread, pita bread, pita chips, wraps, lettuce wraps! 

I went smooth with mine.  I used Parmesan pita chips that one serving was 3 pts and one serving of the dip (about 3/4 cup) was 2 pts.  I literally had lunch for 5 pts and I was satisfied for several hours and let me tell you when I bit into that cheesy melty pizza hours later I couldn't believe how good it was. 

And then today I had a hot lunch date, 3 actually, my hubby and two darling girls came to take me out for lunch. It's a Spring Break tradition! So we went out to an Italian restaurant I had recommended to me and believe me there were some ridiculously good looking items that I passed over, I ordered something that was super yummy but I knew I would be able to calculate later without nutritional info.  Best estimate my lunch was 16 pts, that's a lot for lunch! So dinner can't cost me too much.  Let's turn to another one you have heard a lot from, my Cooking Light cookbook, Dinner Essentials.  You know the best thing about this one, my hubby made it, it tasted SO yummy, AND he ran the vacuum today! Sorry ladies, he's mine! 

Flank Steak with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

• 1  (1-pound) flank steak, trimmed
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• Cooking spray
• 1/2  cup  chopped shallots
• 1  (4-ounce) package gourmet mushroom mix
• 1/3  cup  water
• 2  teaspoons  Dijon mustard
• 1  tablespoon  Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2  teaspoon  chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4  cup  fat-free sour cream

Preparation

Preheat broiler.
Sprinkle steak evenly with salt and pepper. Place steak on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil 6 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness; let stand 10 minutes.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shallots to pan; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms to pan. Cover and cook 4 minutes or until mushrooms are tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in 1/3 cup water, mustard, Worcestershire, and thyme. Cover and cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream.
Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices. Serve with mushroom sauce.

They recommended you served it with Egg noodles and Asparagus.  You realize what this means! 3/4 cup egg noodles = 4 pts, as much asparagus as I wanted = 0 pts, and 1 serving of Flank (3 oz) and 1/3 cup mushroom sauce 5 pts! Dinner 9 pts and I am full and satisfied. 

So like I said I don't know what the scale will show this week, I am still not even using barely half my weekly allowance of bonus points but I have managed to eat out a few times and that at least makes you feel like you can function as a normal person in society and still live a healthy lifestyle.  And man, I haven't been hungry or eaten anything bland or without great flavors since I started this journey.  That's a good thing! So when you just gotta have it....whatever it is, if it's pizza, your favorite dressing, a lunch date or taking your kids to their favorite fast food restaurant you can still do those things but you need to pair them with more carefully regulated meals. Today I shared a delicious lunch and dinner option for you.  I will keep you posted about the results on the scale! I hope where ever you are this week even if you are basking in Florida's sun like my snotty sister (you know I love you anyways) or stuck in freezing Michigan, make healthy flavorful choices everyone!