Bitch

I just finished Jillian's 30 Day Shred. I haven't done it for quite some time, and I forgot how much I hate her. Right now I'm sitting in a pool of sweat and am shaky and kinda want to throw up, so it must have accomplished its purpose. If you're not familiar with the program, it's a warm-up, followed by three sets, each of which consists of three minutes of strength training, two minutes of cardio, and one minute of abs. And then a cool down. Sounds easy, right? Well it's not. And I thought it would be a piece of cake since I'm in such better shape than when I last did it. And I only did LEVEL ONE!!!

But I started off with my favorite breakfast, which tasted great since I was hungry when I went to bed. You can imagine how hungry I was this morning. In case you've forgotten:

I made a new soup last night, but it was so un-memorable that I didn't even photograph it. If you want a visual, imagine baby diarrhea. And that was Dwight's description, not mine. He liked it quite a bit better than I did. I got the recipe from my friend Jane, who got it from our mutual friend, Caryl (who thinks she got it from a magazine in a waiting room.) It's Fennel and Zucchini Soup with Warm Tomato Relish:

Extra virgin olive oil

Large fennel bulb, sliced

1 cup diced zucchini

1 cup diced onion

1 1/4 tsp fennel seeds

2 cups or more chicken broth

2/4 cup grape tomatoes, quartered

Sauté fennel, onion, zucchini and fennel seeds until fennel is translucent. Add broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until veggies are tender. Puree in blender and reheat. Add seasonings to taste. (I had to add about half a teaspoon of salt.) Top with tomatoes.

I really had my hopes up for this soup since Jane said it's the BEST SHE'S EVER EATEN. It was just okay; filling, full of veggies, and with a low calorie count (81 calories, 3.9 g fat, 10.6 g carbs, and 2.3 g protein per 1 1/2 cup serving.) My kitchen smelled really good, but I've decided I'd rather have my fennel in Italian sausage!

I told you we were going out for dinner on Saturday, and as expected, Nancy did NOT make her reuben casserole. Sad face for Dwight. But also as expected, dinner was FABULOUS.

I was a glass of wine and a vodka tonic in when we sat down to dinner, but I'll try to describe what we had. First of all, I didn't get a shot of the beautiful salad - mixed greens with fresh fruit tossed in a lovely vinaigrette. Our main course consisted of recipes from church cookbooks, so you know they're delicious! The entree was half a chicken breast on chipped beef, cooked in a sour cream sauce and topped with cheese. The veggies in the front of the photo were tomatoes and ???, and the skinless baked potato had some yummy buttery crumbs on top. And dessert was a berry crisp (with REAL BUTTER) topped with ice cream. I can't do that very often, but it was absolutely delicious, especially when eaten with good friends. I'm sure I wore off some of the calories just laughing!

Now that I'm done sweating, I can go take a shower and get started on my day. TTFN!