It's the start of a new week!

Good Afternoon everyone!  Happy Tuesday!

Last night at my WW meeting I was up almost everything that I lost last week...whomp whomp.  I mustn't dwell on that though.  It's a new week...time to focus on that.  I also won the weekly raffle again (2nd week in a row.)  I am using that as a sign that I need to get my butt in gear.  I have been having conflicted thoughts on how I want to continue with my WLJ.  I feel like I need the structure of a program like WW but I also don't want to be counting points the rest of my life.  I am halfway through reading Intuitive Eating and feel that it may be a better approach but I also have some big life changes coming up and I am just not sure if I can follow it right now.

So for now I can just focus on doing the best that I can.  I barely exercised last week and that definitely needs to change this week.  Also, at the meeting last night we talked about Good Health Guidelines.  For those reading that haven't been on WW the GHGs are:

Get in daily - 2 tsp of healthy (pourable) oil (olive, canola, safflower, flaxseed or sunflower)
                   - at least 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies
                   - choose whole grains when possible
                   - at least 2 servings of dairy
                   - 1 or 2 servings of lean protein
                   - drink at least 6 (8oz) glasses of water
                   - take a multi-vitamin
                   - limit sugar and alcohol

I feel that these are good general ideas to follow regardless of trying to lose weight or not.  Focusing on hitting these most days will help you achieve a good over-all well-balanced diet.

The challenge this week, is to take the one we find most difficult and aim to get it in 5 of the 7 days this week.  For me, that would be dairy.  I drink chocolate milk most days after spin or the gym and put cheese on whatever I can but I doubt that I hit 2 servings daily.  A serving of cheese is 1.5 oz and quite frankly that adds up point wise and I would rather use those points on something else.  I also am not a huge yogurt fan so that makes it slightly more difficult.  That being said, I did have yogurt with fruit and granola for breakfast today and it wasn't horrible.  Eating it that way may be growing on me but I still don't think it thrills me as a snack.

Question of the Day- In general, do you feel that you hit most of these guidelines?

Formaggio Friday!!!

Hello there!  Welcome to today's edition of Formaggio Friday!

Queso Seco is a type of mexican cheese similar to pot cheese.  It is made when Queso Blanco is pressed and more of the water is removed.

According to the Wisconsin Cheese board it is similar to parmesan.  I felt that it was more similar to feta.  It is a dry, hard, white cheese.  Also, it is very very salty.

The price of this cheese I would say is in the middle range.  I believe this package was $6.99 for slightly less than a pound.

Queso Seco

The first recipe I used it on was a greek-style spaghetti squash (I either couldn't find or didn't buy feta).  It was ok.

We had originally bought it for this Chili-Glazed Shrimp with Tomatillo Cilantro Sauce recipe.  Now, I usually don't put cheese on seafood but we were looking for a recipe for tomatillos and found this on epicurious.  We figured we would give it a try and were very glad that we did.  The saltiness of the Queso Seco balanced out with the tomatillos nicely.

Nate was very proud of this dish...and it was the first time he has ever finished shrimp before I did.

I think that I will probably make a mexican style salad with black beans, corn and salsa to use up the rest of the cheese.  Yum!

-Questions of the day- 

Have you ever tried Queso Seco?

How do you feel about cheese on seafood?

Have a great weekend everyone!