Perfect evenings

This is my idea of a perfect evening at home:

First, the hubs and I go on a long walk with the doggies, at sunset.

When we get home, we make dinner together.
Twice baked broccoli potatoes:(I got the recipe from the food network, HERE. I lightened it up by using low-fat sour cream and cheese, and used less butter.)

After dinner, we watch my favorite sitcom together, The Nanny.
Reason #1,900,043 why I love my husband so much- because he walks with me, cooks with me, and watches my favorite show with me every night. I'm one lucky girl.

What's your idea of a perfect evening?

Let the fun begin

Tomorrow I start taking Clomid; a fertility drug to help stimulate my ovaries. Sounds exciting ;)I have faith in Heavenly Father's plan for us. Whatever will be, will be.
But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will bring a little bundle of joy into our lives soon :)

Daydreaming....

Not much going on here.
Just daydreaming about cupcakes. With sprinkles.

What are you daydreaming about?

Today's wake up call- lab results

A couple weeks ago, I got labs done for my fertility doctor. We've been playing phone tag for almost a week, and today I finally got a hold of the nurse to get my results.

2 things:
I have high cholesterol. Sweet.
I'm 2 candy bars away from being diabetic. Double sweet.

The nurse said that I wasn't diabetic, but my test results were pretty elevated, and I'm "At risk".

She then told me that I needed to get on a diet, and lose weight. I laughed (because if I didn't laugh, I was going to cry), and told her that I was on a diet, and I have already lost 45 pounds. She literally took a sigh of relief, and told me how encouraging it was to hear that I was already doing something to better my health. She was very happy to hear that I was doing the low glycemic index diet. I explained that at the time of the labs, I had only been on the diet for a week, and she explained that that probably wasn't enough time for the benefits of the diet to show up in my lab work. She strongly encouraged me to continue with the low glycemic diet, and that counting calories just wasn't enough for me, and my health issues.

The past few days I've been considering just going back to counting calories, and I've been trying to figure out what was best. I guess I got my answer. This low glycemic index diet truly is a part of my
new lifestyle. It's pretty easy for me to feel down in the dumps about this. I feel like I've been doing all this work to be ":Deliciously Healthy", and I'm still "At Risk" for diabetes. But on the other hand, I'm very grateful. Thank goodness I put my chunky butt on a diet over a year ago, and lost 45 pounds! I'm certain that phone call would have been very different if I was still 206 pounds. Because I took action, I'm at risk for diabetes, but I'm NOT diabetic!
I dodged a bullet. And that's sweet.

Today I had a wake up call, and found new motivation. I have to do this. And I have to like it. I absolutely refuse to add another diagnoses, to my already long list.

Sounds good to me.

XOXO

This weekend, we threw a Valentine's Day party!
It was high in calorie, but lots of fun. No matter what diet you're on, you have to allow yourself to indulge in a fountain of chocolate, every now and then. Life's just sweeter that way.Tonight I have a hot date with my sweet hubby.

Happy Valentine's Day!
XOXO

Dessert for breakfast

Oats+Coconut+Pomegranate= Pure deliciousness.4 cups Old Fashioned Oats
2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup canola oil
1 can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
6 ounce pkg dried pomegranate

Mix all of the ingredients except Pomegranate and spread on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees, for about 30 to 40 minutes, checking and stirring every 10 minutes or so. Cool completely. Add Pomegranate. Store in an airtight container.It goes perfectly with vanilla yogurt.It's like candy. For breakfast. Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot.

Brittany's Kitchen Adventures- Clean Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks ago, I made THESE delicious chocolate chip cookies. They had half the calories as regular chocolate chip cookies. They were heaven. I can almost taste them now...

To make them cleaner, I substituted half the flour with
whole wheat pastry flour, and the other half with
oat flour. Everything else stayed the same....My husband said they tasted like a dog biscuit with chocolate chips in it. And I agree. I can't believe how much changing the flour can change an entire cookie. What the heck dude?!

So the quest continues, to find a Deliciously Clean dessert.
(Thank you for your clean eating tips in my last post. I will definitely be checking them out.)

***
I didn't have the healthiest weekend ever. We were at a car dealership ALL day with nothing to eat. When we finally left (with my new car:), we were starving, and an Olive Garden was right across the street. So we went. And I enjoyed. Then Sunday I had leftovers. But today- today was good. And so will be tomorrow, and the next day. I'm doing this- I just got to find some clean desserts, to keep me motivated. A girl needs her chocolate.

Dessert failure, and the come back of "Brittany's Kitchen Adventures"!

I feel like I'm on a roll with this new clean eating/low glycemic plan of mine.

Except for one little thing: I need some sweets!
Since all of the Deliciously Healthy desserts I used to make have white flour in them, I have to find new, clean(er) desserts to make. Tonight I thought I'd try a little experiment- I made chewy coconut macaroons using oat flour, instead of all purpose flour.They tasted great, but didn't hold together at all.

I'm excited to try making my chocolate chip cookies without using white flour. I have a few ideas on what to substitute the white flour with. I really hope it works, because those would so hit the spot.

I WILL find deliciously clean desserts to bake. You watch :)
Seriously. Stop by every Monday to see me cook/bake new things, because
I'm bringing back "Brittany's Kitchen Adventures"! I took a couple months off, while I figured out my new game plan. Now I'm ready to get back to cooking/baking challenging new things that I've never attempted; and I will blog about all of it! The first few weeks will be on my attempts to bake deliciously clean desserts. There's bound to be some disasters (like tonight's cookies), but hopefully a lot of Deliciously Healthy successes!

Do you know of any Deliciously Clean desserts?

Remember to wear red this Friday, for Go Red For Women Day!