Delicious Food.

I packed up the boys (all of them, including the Husband) and went to my in-laws yesterday for a barbecue. My sister-in-law is like a master griller (like how I make up my own words?) and she made the best grilled chicken and peppers ever. I meant to ask her what she marinated the chicken in (note to self: e-mail sister-in-law) but totally forgot to.

She's been doing a lot of work remodeling her kitchen so I asked her what dessert she wanted me to bring. She picked the lemon angel food mini-cakes and berry sorbet. She didn't care what kind of berry just so long as it was berry. I made a blueberry-strawberry sorbet that totally kicked butt and complimented the lemon angel food cake so well! She said it was the best dessert she's had in a long time. And the best part is a serving of the sorbet was only 60 calories and the cake was around 87. So delicious and not completely awful for you.

Well, before I left my sis-in-law asked for the sorbet recipe and a bunch of others have too. I live to serve (well when its convenient for me anyway), so here it is:

Standard Sorbet Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups fruit (I used 1 cup strawberry halves and 1 cup blueberries for the berry sorbet and I used a cup each of chopped mango and chopped peaches for the mango-peach)
2 TBS water
2 TBS lemon juice (I like my sorbet tart -- use less lemon juice if you want it more sweet)
2 TBS granulated sugar *
2 TBS splenda *
1 TSP cornstarch

* if you don't have splenda or want to use splenda use 1/4 cup granulated sugar instead.

Directions
1.) place fruit in a blender with lemon juice and water and pulverize it
2.) pour into a sauce pan and while STILL COLD mix in sugars and cornstarch
3.) slowly bring to a bowl -- stirring constantly
4.) boil for 5 minutes -- stirring constantly
5.) pour into a bowl and put it in the fridge to cool (approximately an hour)
6.) pour into a heavy duty ziplock bag and place it in the freezer -- mashing the bag every 1/2 hour to hour until frozen. **
7.) Enjoy. (I put mine in tupperware after it's set to make it easier to scoop and store)

** if you have an ice cream maker just pour the mixture into that after it cools in the fridge and it takes care of this step. I unfortunately don't have one so I have to do it the ghetto old fashioned way.


(pictured: mango-peach sorbet w/ lemon angel food mini-cakes)

--Previous Day Tracking --

Exercise - Day off.

Water - Day 43 of no soda.

Meals:
Breakfast - Cream of Wheat
Lunch - McDonalds Grilled Chicken Sandwich w/out mayo and a Fruit and Yogurt Parfait w/out granola
Mid-Afternoon Snack - pita chips and hummus
Dinner - Grilled Chicken Breast and grilled peppers, mushrooms, and onions

total calories = approx. 1458
total days = 48
total pounds lost = 18.4

Competitive Spirit

Break out the ranch dip and celery, I’m celebrating!

I’ve worked out everyday for the past seven days without fail. My chart is beautifully covered with fabulous checkmarks and I plan on indulging my hardworking self with a much deserved treat -- a pedicure. My toes curl in ecstasy just thinking about it.

Want to know the real key to my success?

Competition.

Nothing beats good old fashioned competition as the ultimate power in motivation. I can suffer anything for the thrill of a victory.

My best friend and I are highly competitive -- she’s more so, but I digress -- and she has been hugely instrumental to my success. You see, along with my charts and checkmarks for exercising everyday, my friend and I are keeping a running total of the days we do it in a row. If we miss a day then we have to start back over at one -- the only exceptions to this rule are injuries and illnesses and in that case you can’t count the days you didn’t actually do something but you don’t have start over either.

On the evenings when I was too tired or just didn’t want to do anything, I’d think about how far she’d get ahead of me if I had to start all over. Without fail, I’d lace up my sneakers and force myself to do the assigned workout for that day. Thinking about her passing me up gave me the oomph to get started that a future reward didn’t -- and I’ve found, once I’ve started, it’s not so bad. So now, when we whine about having to workout, we rub each other’s noses in the fact of how far ahead we’ll be if the other misses the day. Hey, what are friends for?

So raise the water glass and let’s make a toast to competition. May the best girl win -- she’d say it’s her but hey, I was the one with the epiphany. However, in this I’d gladly take a tie so we can both win.