Saturday, January 16, 2021: Hold on a second. Before reading this, I want you to know that I took all of the existing Christmas decorations down this morning.  All. Of. Them.  Bannisters are now bare of the greenery, lights and ribbon. The sofas are back to neutrality.  It’s all gone.

It is all back to my neutrals! Perhaps I’ll get some black pillows…

But…and this is a hoot.  That fake tree we bought for about $50 or $60?  The one we purchased because we were supposed to travel and I didn’t want a real tree sitting in our chateau while we were away?

This tree!  Which looked far better all decorated.  Next year it goes in the sunroom!

We still got into an argument taking it down.  Mind you, every year we argue on how to get rid of the real tree because it causes a mess. And in 2019, I had a brainstorm to throw the real tree out the window so as not to mess the house up. It worked.

But this year, we couldn’t properly dismantle the three-section cheap-as-all-get-out fake tree. It took a half hour to disembowel one section. And, it wouldn’t fit into the box in which it came.  The end result?

We stuffed it into the box, in two sections and placed it in our “storage” room downstairs. Next year this damn fake tree is going into the sunroom and if we are home, a real tree will, once again, reign in splendor in our living room!

After a ridiculous amount of time, we just decided to literally throw it back in the box it came from, pondering how the hell the factory got it into the box in the first place. It’s staying like this until next November!

I’m so disgustingly filthy now from sweating and lugging everything up and down stairs—but it was great exercise.  So now, I’m on a “cleaning-as-exercise” kick.   And after this post is published, I’m taking my swampy ass up to the bathroom to relax in a hot bath and then head out to buy flowers for the house.

And now…we head to the blog post!

Okay. So, last Saturday Bonaparte and I went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant—Spring Mill Café.

Date night outfit. Pants with stretch, a comfy sweater, darker hair that my husband loves and leopard shoes–minus socks!

I certainly wasn’t going to deprive myself and on the other hand, wasn’t going to over-indulge.

We split a pate tasting and for my main course I went with the Chicken Tagine. I couldn’t finish it.  I did happen to finish off the side of Brussels Sprouts that I ordered.

Our Pate tasting. I had gluten-free bread. And between the both of us, this was perfect!

From top left–Pate tasking; Brussels Sprouts which were incredible; Bonaparte’s Filet and my Tagine. 

And dessert was a small chocolate mousse that we split and one macaron.

Sunday, I made chicken soup.  I deemed it “Lazy Girl Chicken Soup” and here’s how I made it.

My “Lazy Girl” Chicken Soup. I made quite a bit so I ladled servings into Ziploc bags and placed in the freezer.

I took one 32-ounce box of low sodium chicken broth and one 32 oz box of vegetable broth and poured it into a large pot.  Then I took two onions, peeled and cut them up in chunks, peeled about 10 cloves of garlic and threw it all into the pot.  Then I took three large carrots, sliced them and into the pot they went.  In addition, I ground quite of bit of Rosemary—and threw that in!

Then I took organic chicken breasts, sliced them into small pieces and threw them into the pot.

Brought it all to a boil, added a bit of salt (not much) and pepper (much), and let it simmer about an hour.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Monday was interesting.  We had an “appreciation lunch” at work. Which meant we ordered from the restaurant “Founding Farmers” I ordered a large salad, cauliflower hummus, and mushroom risotto, a side of green beans and dark chocolate for dessert.

I kind of ordered a lot of food because I was ticked off at the company I work for. Food as a reward? I work my fat ass off. I was in the office every day since the lockdown. No Christmas bonus. No thank you from corporate. Just lunch.   Food as a reward is what got me heavier. I refuse to reward myself with food…….

Since it was super-busy, I did sit down to lunch and enjoyed about ¾ of the Cauliflower hummus which came with raw cherry tomatoes, raw cauliflower and raw carrots.  Trust me, I was thrilled to be eating those veggies.

The leftover cauliflower hummus. I’ll tell you this was really good. And with the raw veg provided was not half bad!

The rest of the food came home with me.

Salad, what was supposed to be Mushroom Risotto but was a pasta dish instead, and green beans all came home with me. 

As did this chocolate–which I still haven’t even sneaked a taste! It’s in the freezer!

Here’s where I strategized and I have no idea if this will work, because I’m writing this on Monday evening.  (CAVEAT: IT DID WORK!  And worked beautifully. Also note how it took nearly a week to write this blog post!)

The salad came with dressing on the side. This is good because as much as I love soggy, day-old salad, I wanted to keep this baby crispy for later on in the week.

I actually at the salad last night, Friday, as a side with my sushi for dinner! It stayed pretty-much fresh with some sogginess but I love soggy so it was all good!

The chocolate went straight into the freezer. I figure at some point; I’ll be able to bake with it—perhaps brownies or cut the chocolate into chunks for cookies.

Now its down to the Mushroom Risotto, which, was actually Mushrooms—not many, and some sort of pasta. I think they either ran out of rice or made a mistake and the green beans.  I took a little bit of the pasta, put it on a small plate and took some of the green beans and put them on the small plate as well.  Portion control.  And after eating, realized that I was full.

This pasta.  The portion was huge.  I ended up with four servings out of this.

I’m gonna try to stretch that pasta and beans as far as they’ll go!

It’s now Wednesday evening.  I had a meal from remaining pasta and green beans, which I also had on Tuesday evening.  I know I know. ‘Tis somewhat monotonous to have the same thing for a few nights in a row. But..I would rather that than let food go to waste.

I cut the pasta into strips, threw a few green beans on the plate and added some of the leftover cauliflower hummus. Four. Meals. And I was not hungry after eating!

On. And because I’m an impatient sonuvabitch, I got on the scale weighing in at 164!  Trust me, so far, I’m very happy—especially since we went out to dinner on Saturday!

Wednesday. A solid 164. Not bad considering…

To keep it in check, I’m making myself busy so as not to be tempted to wander to the pantry or fridge.  Writing a bit each night helps. Taking down the decorations keeps me busy.  I ordered a new wig that was on sale and it ended up to be a bit………………blonde.  Like, very blonde and one-dimensional. So, I took black eye shadow and rooted it.  I must say that it looks a lot better and rooting the wig stopped me from thinking about chips!

Here’s the wig I rooted. Trust me it was Barbie yellow before I added brown eye shadow to it.  Hey. Keeps me from eating!

In addition, I’ve been flossing and brushing my teeth earlier! It’s a simple strategy that works.  I’ve also been spending more time plucking lady whiskers from my chin!

Today, Friday I got on the scale teetering on the edge 0f 163 pounds.  I cannot complain given the fact we had gone out to dinner and that meal I broke down wasn’t exactly low-calorie.  In addition, last Friday, and Saturday (at the restaurant) and Sunday aperitifs were had before dinner.

Actually, it’s more in like 163 1/2.  I’m taking it one pound at a time!

This is gonna be a slow ride but as long as the scale numbers decrease, I’m in a positive place!

Will ya look at that?  I’m wearing a too-tight dress anyway!

And my last strategy?  Wearing dresses that got too tight. I WANT to see that gut shrink!