Goddess Diet on a Dime – Results!

Christine’s Post: Long time no update, but with Mom training for a new job and with me starting school again, things are hectic! We have been successful so far on our diet – we hope you have, too! I cooked dinner with my friend Brady about a week ago and am very proud of myself. We made Spinach and Artichoke dip and Cheese ravioli. I got the recipes from Anybody Can Cook, a cookbook by Better Homes & Gardens. The dip was only 58 calories for every 2 tbs. – pair with Baked Scoops and you’re set!

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:

3/4 cup finely chopped onion (I did not use this)

2 cloves garlic, minced (I also did not use this – I hate garlic)

1 tablespoon butter

2  8-oz. packaged reduced-fat cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesean cheese (I used shredded)

1/4 cup milk (I used skim)

1/4 cup light mayonnaise

1/4 cup light dairy sour cream

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

3 cups chopped fresh spinach leaves (I used Popeye canned spinach – not dry)

1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

Sea salt bagel chips, Baked! Scoops, No fat sour cream & onion pringles, just whatever you want to use to dip!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a 10-inch skillet cook onion and garlic in hot butter over medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until tender, stirring occassionally. Set aside to cool. I skipped this step because I didn’t use any of these ingredients.

2. In a large bowl, stir together cream cheese, Parmesean cheese, milk, mayo, sour cream and pepper. Stir in spinach, artichoke hearts and the onion mixture. Spread cheese mixture in the bottom of a 10-inch deep-dish plate.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until heated and top begins to brown. Serve with bagel chips, etc. Makes about 40 (2-tbs) servings!

It was absolutely delicious! I brought this over to my friend’s house once and her mom loved it so much I became known as “that girl who makes the really good spinach dip”. 🙂

Signing off,

~The Future Goddesses

Goddess Diet on a Dime-Yummy Soup Recipe

Lisa’s Post: Dang butt fairy! She is constantly lurking in the corner, waiting for me to put my guard down. I only lost half a pound this week. So, I vow to write down everything I eat, down to the last chip! Also, I must do more than just THINK about exercising.  I did walk Sheba in the snowy woods Sunday.  That was a work out!  Chrisitne uses her I-Phone to chart everything as she eats it on dailyplate.com.

We did make a homemade, inexpensive, vegetable soup recipe that was yummy and only 120 calories per bowl.  Once can add lean ground beef if they so choose and just add in the calories.  So, for the whole family:

Ingredients:

Two large cans of Campbells Tomato Soup

small bag of frozen mixed vegetables

2 potatoes diced

marjoram to taste

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients and cook over medium heat until boiling.  Reduce heat to simmer and cover, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Remove bay leaf.  A half a sandwich goes great with it!

Great, FREE recipes!

Also, one of our loyal dieting companions, Cindy Collins, turned us on to a wonderful site to get great recipes.  We will try some and blog on them soon.  If you try some, please, let us know!  The link is:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating/index.html?nl=FN_011110_10

Let’s stick to our New Year Resolution together.  We win again butt fairy!

Post your recipes or great weight loss websites here and we will check them out!

Signing off,

The Future Goddesses

Future Goddess’ on a Diet…on a dime!

Lisa’s Post: Hello!  My darling daughter pointed out to me that I have been quite the slacker when it comes to posting.  I did lose 5 lbs this week and Christine lost 3 lbs.  Yipee!  How have you been doing?  So far, sticking to 1500 calories per week, trying to eat foods high in dietary fiber, drinking lots of H2O, and thinking about exercise 🙂 has done wonders to chase the butt fairy away.  She kept blessing me weekly with more butt.

Actually, I do take the steps at work, chase 22 cats, 3 dogs, and stay pretty much in motion all day.  So, if I actually used my treadmill to work out instead of just to hang delicates, I may end up ahead of schedule on the road to Goddessdom.

Tonight, it was broiled boneless, skinless chicken breast for dinner which goes great with steamed frozen vegetables.  My favorite snack that actually makes me feel full (unlike carbs) are hard boiled eggs (80 calories each). 

Yesterday, I made Salmon patties (my own recipe) which I just must give a 10/10 score.  I am not bias!  I also have the most beautiful children and the cutest papillion in the universe. hehe. 

Natasha is 10 years and 20 lbs heavier herself!

Anyway, they are about 120 calories each.  For my top secret recipe (insert drum roll) just look below…

Ingredients:

One can of salmon

2 slices bread

salt and pepper to desired taste

Sprinkle Old Bay Seasoning to taste (about 3 shakes)

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon and save the other half to squeeze over cooked patties

One egg

The ingredients are pretty meager, but it tastes oh so delicious!

Directions:

Mix all ingredients, make into patties about half the size of a hamburger,  and fry in corn oil. Test the oil with a small pinch of  bread to make sure that the bread sizzles before putting patties in oil.

Turn the patties when the edges are brown and crusty and cook both sides until golden brown.

Flip the salmon when it is brown on the undersides...

Enjoy with a salad.  I like to crumble the Salmon patties over my salad and use Miracle Whip as my dressing but to each his own.

Thanks! Now Christine can’t say, “Mom, it is our blog and I am the only one blogging” She forgets that I was cooking and cleaning. I pretty much think that was above and beyond the call of duty but, alas, a woman’s work is never done.

See you next week when we are all 5 lbs thinner . We win again butt fairy!

The Future Goddesses,

-Lisa and Christine

Goddess Diet on Dime- Day 9!

Attention, Attention! Read all about it!
The results from week 1 of our Goddess Diet are in!
Mom lost five pounds!
I lost three pounds!
Hoorah!
Unfortunately, our computers are down, so I won’t be able to blog for a short time- I am writing this post from my phone!
Please continue to post your low-fat recipes for us to try! Today’s recipe was Salmon Patties!
It would take a long time to type it out on my phone, so I will post that recipe/pictures on a different post!

Have a healthy day!

The Future Goddesses.

Goddess Diet on a New Year’s Dime – Day 6!

Christine’s Post: So my mother and I have come to the realization we can’t blog every day, but we will try to at least every other day! We had a great New Year – even a semi-low calorie one! We stayed in and had a whole house full of 10 people! We had my two nieces Ebony and Destiny, my step brother, my boyfriend, Mom, Dad, Grandma, my little brother Jacob and his friend AJ. What’s an easy, low-fat dinner for so many people? Tacos!

Tacos are low in fat if you use the right ingredients like low-fat shredded cheese, low-fat sour cream and lean beef. Refried beans are pretty fattening, but a couple spoon fulls isn’t too bad on the calorie count! It’s about 50 calories – 100 calories for a half cup – which I didn’t need. They have low-fat refried beans I am going to try next time! Lettuce and tomatoes are healthy for you and low in fat!

Here is a great, low-fat taco recipe from eHow.com!

Tasty Low-Fat Tacos with Beef and Beans

1. Put two hard taco shells on a plate.
2. Put the stove on medium heat and add lean beef. 93% lean or higher is best. Cook a half pound (6 oz).
3. Open a can of fat free refried beans. Heat a half cup in a pot on the stove on low heat.
4. When the beef is ready, add taco seasoning.
5. Place the beef in the taco shells first.
6. Layer with salsa.
7. Add fat free refried beans.
8. Add shredded lettuce.
9. Add fat free sour cream.
10. Top with shredded fat free cheddar cheese.
11. Enjoy! (You may need napkins).

That’ it!

So far Mom and I have been doing a great job on our Goddess Diet! I hope you have too and have been following and trying out some of our recipes!

We wish you the most success in the New Year! Let’s make 2010 a less-fattening one, shall we?

Low-Fat Drinks!

This would have been more helpful yesterday, but like I said, we had a full house! One of the biggest downers on a diet is alcoholic drinks! They are really high in calories and can put a damper on your diet. However, let’s be realistic… I can’t ask you to give up alcohol, so here are some low-fat drinks for when you’re feelin’ a little weak.

White Zinfandel is only about 80 calories a glass, depending on the brand. An entire bottle of Sutter Home White Zinfandel is 540 calories… not too shabby for wine!

Here are some hand websites for low-calorie drinks – they even give recipes and tips!

– Fat Loss School’s Drink Recipes

– Fat Loss School’s Tips

Love Your Margaritas?

I found a website that offers sugar-free margarita mix! Click here to check it out!

The Chaos of Family

So we all decided we had to hook up a DVD player in the main living room – something we’ve not been successful with before. Well, Andrew (the boyfriend) decided he “was not technologically challenged” and tackled the task with my Grandma and Dad…

Mom was very proud – especially when they completed the task!

Very helpful tip!

I have had it confirmed to me by two people (one my Aunt and one a doctor) that going under your target calorie intake can be a bad thing! It’s important to try and stay close to the 1500 or 1300 calories/day you’ve allotted yourself.

Why?

Two reasons, really. One is because your body will get used to the lower calorie intake and when you actually do eat your 1500 or 1300 calories, you will gain weight. That’s the opposite of what we want to do! You will gain weight because your body became used to a lower calorie diet and when you raise it back up to the 1500, your body thinks it is extra calories!

The second reason is something we humans call “starvation mode”. If you skip meals or starve yourself, the next time you eat your body will hold on to every calorie! It doesn’t know the next time it will get nutrients, so it clings on to everything in can get!

Post your recipes!

Post your low-fat, low-cal recipes for us to try and we will rate/review them!

The future Goddesses,

~Lisa and Christine

P.S. One week weigh-in tomorrow!

P.S.S I won tickets to see Chicago at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis! Thanks, 92.7!

Goddess Diet on a Dime – Day 4!

Christine’s Post: The days seem to be flying by! We are already on day 4 of the diet! Today my friend Sadie and I made a recipe! We found the original idea on Epicurious, a recipe application for the iPhone. It wasn’t low-fat enough for us, so we improvised – and it turned out great! I would give this recipe an 8.5!

Low-Fat Tuna Casserole, 164 calories/serving, makes four servings

Ingredients:

1 5oz. package of tuna, in water

1 package of spiral macaroni (don’t use the cheese packet, just the noodles)

2 small tomatoes

1 medium cucumber, sliced thinly

1/2 red bell pepper

4 oz. light ranch

Salt for taste

Directions

Beginning boiling water for macaroni noodles. Our package took about 6 cups of boiling water.

Mix tuna (make sure you drain it, first!), tomatoes, cucumber and red pepper together in a large bowl.

Add macaroni noodles to boiling water and cook about five minutes, or until tender.

Run cold water over noodles to prevent sticking, then drain them. Mix noodles in to the large bowl with the other ingredients.

Stir in 4 oz. of light ranch dressing. Salt/Pepper to taste, we just sprinkled some on top of our individual dishes.

This was a quick, easy, low-fat delicious recipe! Makes four servings, 164 calories/serving. Total of 655 calories.

On a Dime:

We had all the ingredients in our house – didn’t cost us a dime! However, if you do have to buy the ingredients, vegetables are cheap, so is tuna. The most expensive thing would be the low-fat ranch dressing, which is only a couple bucks.

Welcome, Will!

We’ve added a follower to our Goddess diet – except he calls it his “Fat Boy Goes Slim” diet. Best of luck!

We need you!

Post your low-fat recipes for us to try and rate!

Guilty…

Mom went over her calorie count yesterday, but we aren’t going to let that get her down now, are we? Nope! She did very well today and even turned down cupcakes when she went into work because she knew she had some low-fat, yet delicious pumpkin spice bars waiting for her at home! Mmmm! For that recipe, check out Day 3 of our Goddess Diet!

A great snack

We’ve discovered two great snack when we are feelings weak. 1. Hard-boiled eggs – they are high in protein and super filling. Each egg is only 90 calories. 2. Popcorn in light butter (Orville Redenbacher) – only 15 calories per cup!

New Recipe!

Thanks again to RadioCindy for the next great recipe we are going to try! It involves ricotta, vanilla and fruit! Mmmm, can’t wait to try it!

Signing off,

The Future Goddesses,

~Lisa and Christine

The picture is of Sadie and me since we made the recipe!

Goddess Diet on a Dime – Day 3…with Dessert! Mmmm!

Christine’s Post: Today my little brother, Jacob, and I conquered some low-fat pumpkin bars! They were absolutely delicious and the whole family gave them a 10/10!

Here’s the recipe! It is from a fantastic low-fat website, Low-Fat Lifestyle! You have to try this recipe!

This recipe comes from their dessert section – are you ready for this? Pumpkin Spice Bars! Here’s the recipe!

Pumpkin Spice Bars – 79 calories/serving

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup apple juice
1 – 16 ounce can pumpkin
2 eggs

Icing Ingredients:

1 ½ cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons margarine, non-saturated fat
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 to 3 tablespoons plain non fat yogurt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray a 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan with cooking oil spray and flour. We used an 11 x 8 inch pan, it’s the closest size we had. Since we did this, we cut ours into bigger pieces.

In a large mixing bowl, beat all bar ingredients at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Spread in prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Since we used a different sized pan, it took us 40 minutes to cook!

But wait! There’s frosting, too!

This frosting was so delicious! I am going to use it for…well…everything!

Frosting Instructions:
In medium bowl, combine all frosting ingredients, adding enough yogurt for desired spreading consistency; beat until smooth. Frost cooled bars; sprinkle with nutmeg, if desired. Refrigerate to set frosting. Cut into 48 bars. 1 bar is a serving size! We cut ours into 24 bars since we had a different sized pan! I would actually recommend doing it this way because the piece size is bigger! 🙂

Handy Websites:

Here are some websites we found while perusing the web. The one I mentioned yesterday is like a free Weight Watchers site, it’s called The Daily Plate, and it is a site through LiveStrong! You enter what you ate and it tracks the calories for you! Plus, did I mention it’s free? Give it a try, click here!

Another site I found is through Fresh Cucumber. It tracks blogs around the web that post low-fat recipes! This website is how I found Low-Fat Lifestyle, the site with the delicious Pumpkin Bars recipe!

On a Dime:

The pumpkin bar recipe we tried today was cheap for us since we already had many of the spices. We did have to buy the wheat flour. Just think, though… you get a whole tray! Plus, you are assured there are no preservatives or plastic wrappers that hurt the environment!

I tracked my calories through the Daily Plate yesterday and came in at 1076/1500.

Mom finished off at 1400/1500.

She is feeling a little guilty about her calorie total today…any words of wisdom or advice? Let us know! And please, please, please try the pumpkin recipe… it was so good! The very best!

Post you low-fat recipes here and we will try them! Christine is a vegetarian, but Lisa isn’t. So one of us will be sure to try it and rate it!

Signing off for the day.

The future Goddesses,

~Lisa and Christine

I am posting a picture of my little brother Jacob and myself since he helped me with the pumpkin bars! 🙂 He was the blender master.

Goddess Diet on a Dime – Day 2!

Post by Christine: So today we tried out a new, lowfat recipe! I gave it a 7.5/10 and Mom gave it the same score. The recipe was for a Greek Salad…here it is if you want to try it out! We left out onion (for Mom) and garlic (for me). It was a Jenny Craig recipe…I think the oregano dressing is what I didn’t like the most.

I understand the font may be a litte small, so let me type out the recipe for you here:

Jenny Craig Greek Salad – 141 calories/serving – Makes four servings

Ingredients:

1/2 head romaine lettuce

2 cups chopped tomatoes

1 small cucumber, thinly sliced

1 small onion, thinly sliced (we left this out)

1 small green bell pepper, seeded, cut into 1/4-inch strips (we used a red bell pepper, Mom thinks they’re sweeter)

4 oz. reduced fat free feta cheese, crumbled (best part!)

2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tbsp. water

1 large garlic clove, finely minced or pressed (left this out…I hate garlic)

1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed (I would actually put less in, it was pretty strong)

1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a large bowl, toss together lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion and green pepper. Top with cheese.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, water, garlic, oregano and black pepper. Pour over salad and gently toss. Yields four servings.

That’s it! The most time consuming part was cutting the red pepper… haha.

Handy Websites: Thanks to RadioCindy for sharing this! She recommended The Daily Plate, a nifty website that gives you tons of recipes and even has a calculator that factors in your weight and how much you want to lose! Definitely worth a look – thanks, Cindy! She also recommends adding 24g/fiber a day.

Want to know the big deal about fiber? This isn’t going to be censored… dieting people love fiber because it makes you go to the bathroom. And not just #1… it makes you poop, folks! That aids in weight loss and gives you some more reading time!

Our Calorie Total for Yesterday:

Christine: 940/1500

Lisa: 1500/1500

Some lifesavers were a Vegetarian Chili I made…it was so delicious! I got the recipe from my pastor at Wilkes Boulevard UMC. Interested? Post some comments!

For that chocolate craving:

We really need to look for some low fat dessert recipes because the Weight Watchers just aren’t cutting it! They are delicious, don’t get me wrong…but oh, so, small! My personal favorite is Weight Watcher’s Ice Cream Candy Bar…it’s like an ice cream snickers, but better because it is low fat and won’t go straight to your tush! It’s 150 calories.

Hope to hear from you soon! Post your lowfat recipes for us to try here! We will rate it and share it!

Thanks for reading!

~Lisa and Christine

The Goddess Diet on a Dime: 30 pounds in 90 days…Day 1

Well, now that Old Saint Nick has come by with his milk and cookies (Lisa: and blessed my butt with five more pounds), it’s about that time  we start what my mother (Lisa) and I call: The Goddess Diet <insert heroic music here>.

Here’s what we’re gonna do: Lose 30 pounds in 90 days.

Here’s how we’re gonna do it:

1. Calorie Journal – we will limit ourselves to 1500 calories/day (with the help of a FREE calorie counting website)

2. Drink six glasses of water a day.

3. Exercise 5/days a week… this one will be interesting because I just had knee surgery. Day 1: Chair Aerobics <—click here for the exact video we did!

4. Look for and share low calorie (and delicious!) recipes…no crappy ones allowed. This is where you will help!

We would appreciate your feedback, support and recipes! We will try them out and let you know! I am a vegetarian, Mom isn’t…but feel free to post any recipes and one of us will try it!

When we try a delicious new recipe, we will post it here! Instead of putting our actual weight, we will post our weight lost weekly, and fill you in with some of those recipes…and have the calories counted out for you (aren’t we swell?).

We will see you at the end of the week – we look forward to your comments!

–Lisa and Christine – Day One