Crumpled to the floor like an old napkin....

Days to the Wedding: 73
Pounds Lost:11 (Back on track!)

Happy HUMP DAY friends...It feels like it should be later than Wednesday! Who agrees?

Weighed myself this morning and finally got rid of that pesky pound! Tuesday was a pretty good day.  Tried a new recipe (you will see below) and we received another RSVP, but nothing else out of the ordinary.    Unless you count what happened during my work out? But more about that later. 

Breakfast: 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie 

Lunch: 

Asian Inspired Salad Jar

Dinner:

Sausage and Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash

Tuesday's dinner was adapted from a recipe I found here on the Messy Baker Blog

According to MyFitnessPal the original recipe is 776 calories per serving (1/2 a stuffed squash). 

Here is my recipe rehab:

4 Servings | Total time: 1 hour

2 Acorn Squash, halved and seeded
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery

1 clove minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 T dried thyme

1/2 cup diced apple
1/4 cup raisins

2 cups cooked quinoa

2 T Olive oil

1/2 lb Jeannie-O Mild Turkey Breakfast Sausage Lean

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt

Pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F
2. Place your acorn squash halves on a baking sheet and drizzle each half with 1/4 tsp of olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.  Roast them for about 45 min until the squash is fork tender
3. Meanwhile, as your squash roasts, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan.  Add your turkey sausage to the pan and brown.  
4. Add the onion, celery, garlic, red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt & pepper.  Cook this for about 5 min until the onion is tender and translucent
5. Remove your pan from the heat and add your chopped thyme and rosemary.  Stir in the quinoa, apples and raisins.  Season your mixture again with salt and pepper to taste.  
6. Scoop the mixture into the roasted acorn squash halves.  Top with Parmesan cheese and bake for 10 min.
7. Serve immediately

And the final reveal.  1 serving of my rehabbed recipe: 404 Calories!

The bold ingredients above are what I substituted or reduced: 

• 1/4 Raisins vs 1/4 cup Cranberries - 123 cal vs. 92 cal...

...In this case, this was purely a "what I had in the house" substitute.  

• 1/3 c Parmesan vs 1/4 c Parmesan - 144 cal vs 108 cal

...That's 36 calories saved!

• 2 T vs 3 T Olive oil = 358 cal vs 239 cal

 ...That's 119 calories saved!

• 1/2 lb Pork Sausage vs 1/2 lb Turkey Sausage Lean - 800 cal vs 275 cal

 ...  That's an incredible 525 calories saved!

For a grand total of...372 calories rehabbed per serving!

This was my first time having acorn squash.  I love all other squashes I've tried, so it's not a surprise that I loved acorn squash as well.  Tony also enjoyed the dish.  I know this because he put it in the "Definitely making this again" category.  Funny side story though... Tony's was eating it and kept saying it tasted "buttery".  I didn't understand why he was saying it when finally I asked if he knew it was acorn squash...the whole time he said he thought it was butternut squash.  Hence "buttery" -__-

Anyway, butternut squash has some great benefits besides being delicious.  According to livestrong.com one serving of acorn squash boasts 37% of you daily value for vitamin C.  Not only that, it is also a great source of potassium.. 26% of your daily value!

I will definitely have to find more recipes for this scrumptious squash!

Exercise:

Zumba: 20 min  - 278 Calories burned

I did a 6 min warm up on my own to loosen the muscles and get my heart rate going.  Then I did a previously shared Zumba video again.  About 2 min before the end of the video I jumped and landed wrong on my ankle.  I crumpled to the ground like an old napkin.  Fortunately, Tony was home.  Unfortunately, he fell asleep in the basement.  So here I am hoisting myself up onto the couch nearly in tears yelling for him.  Finally he wakes up and retrieves a bag of frozen peas to relieve my clumsiness.  After resting for the rest of the night, nothing looked swollen and it was a little tender to walk on, so I think I'm ok! This morning this is still a dull pain, but I'm not limping or anything.  I Might have to take it easy for the rest of the week and stick to arm and ab workouts or things that don't require too much standing and definitely no jumping! 

Due to resting, I did not get around to measuring myself.  I want to get this done by the end of the week!

I found an article on All Womens Talk that shared 7 metabolism boosting breakfast foods.  Here is their list:

1. Eggs
2. Oats
3. Green Smoothies
4. Berries
5. Protein Shakes
6. Ezekiel Bread 
7. Avocado

Much to my surprise, this is mostly what I have been eating for breakfast since I've started my diet! I love berries so I think maybe we will pick some of those up this weekend if I see them on sale and I think Tony said avocados on sale for 49 cents at Valli Produce this weekend! 

Question of the day: What are some blogs, sites, resources you use to help you stay on track? I'd love to check them out!

Tuesday Roundup:
1190 calories eaten / 350 calories burned / 5020 steps taken

I've forgotten to leave u with inspiration and motivation! 
xo mandie