What's on your Monday Menu?

hi all - it was a good and busy weekend. Sat we ran errands, sunday I went out in the afternoon to get yogurt and the L&F dannon was marked down at my kroger to .59 a tub plus I had a $1 off 5. so that was pretty fantastic. also got some ground turkey, I think i will try an IP version of meatloaf? then crisp it up in broiler?

QOTD: I took 4 years of honors german and 1 year of fren*****ollege. I can get by in german if needed but am in no way fluent. I read it better than I understand it. In college I had to sing in latin, spanish, french, german, italian and russian. I can read and sing those. Had to take international phonetic alphabet classes in college so I could pronounce words in other languages correctly.

Yesterday I made a crap ton of wings, my newest obsession (didn't have gizzards lol)

So food for today:

leftover wings

homemade coleslaw made with greek yogurt

jello/yogurt concoction

decaf/ regular peppermint mocha mixed in

How do you prepare the wings?

I did two ways:

1) oven at 425, cook for 20 min, flip then spray with pam. After done, I put dry rub in bag, then throw them in, coat them, then put them on boiler to crisp them

2) put in IP for 7 min on poultry, then pull them, throw in seasoing bag, then finish on broiler.

Version 2 fell off the bone and was juicer but not as crisp. But to be fair, I didn't keep them on broiler as long as the first batch.

For spices, I first did salt/pepper

Then I found this spice packet at walmart (one is buffalo wing/ other called loaded potato dip) put in two different bags. the buffalo was a bit too spicy. the loaded potato one was REALLY good. i would only use less next time, a little bit salty.

Spent the whole day at the research lab yesterday for my final testing for the research study I've been in for the last 10 months (I was in the yoga/meditation group - so they're measuring the effect that 10 months' worth of meditation & yoga has on my physical brain, my reaction time, my ability to focus/concentrate, etc). I have definitely improved in focus/concentration - I knew for certain I did better on those particular tests than I did the last two times we tested (back in January before the study began, and then in May? June? (the midway point)). Tonight I have my final sleep study, where in addition to the normal things they check, they'll wake me up several times throughout the night to ask what I'm dreaming about (and they'll ask lots of detailed questions about the dreams - feelings I was experiencing, whether I knew I was dreaming, etc). I've enjoyed being in this study, but I'm so glad it's almost over. I'll keep up with the yoga and meditation as I do think it's been very helpful in managing my stress (and this has been a very stressful year with my dad being so sick and dying), but I may cut back slightly (I currently do one or the other six days a week as per the study's instructions), and I won't have to log it anymore. YAY!! I hated doing those logs every night!!

Accountability: this was good and I'm down another pound. Another pound to go before I'm back at the Oh Crap level, and four pounds to go until I'm back in my acceptable range. Leaving for vacation on Wednesday - I hope this goes OK food-wise...

QOTD: I used to love languages but haven't studied them in a long time. I've never been fluent, although when I visit French- or Spanish-speaking countries, I remember enough to order off menus, read signs, ask directions and mostly understand the response (I did take another semester of Spanish at the community college here about five years ago as a refresher, and a surprising amount came back quickly - although I've forgotten most of it again....). Anyway, between high school and college, I studied: Spanish (4 years, plus the semester at the community college a few years ago), French (3 years), German (2 years), Japanese (4 semesters). I also took a semester of Swedish several years ago.

2 years 5 months out:

B: homemade plain Greek yogurt, homemade blackberry/blueberry sauce

S: coffee with half & half, pumpkin vanilla protein/Miralax shake

L: 1 C chili with 2 T shredded cheddar

D: ?? I have to be at the sleep lab by 6:00, so I may just have some yogurt and then take a protein bar with me to eat later

this study would have been right up my alley.

yep - I was actually thinking of you when I was typing that up!

Morning all. Happy Monday! It's a 4 day week for me, (Friday is Veteran's Day) PLUS schools are closed on Tuesday for the elections, so I feel like I can do this!

QOTD: I took Latin and a year of French. I like languages and I think I have a good ear for them. My Dad is able to read and write in 17 languages!

17? Wow - that is fabulous!!!

Wow, your dad is fluent in 17 languages! That's AMAZING!

Not that it is any less amazing, but he isn't actually fluent. He can read and write them but not speak or understand. Still suuuuuuper impressive, though!