The Biggest Loser, Week 15

I gained about half a pound this week. But I was on vacation - I cannot be expected to diet on vacation! Our long bike rides helped, but we ate a lot of good food.

Death by chocolate cookies

Thanks for the recipe, Mom!

1 package of chocolate chips
1 additional package of chocolate chips or white chocolate chips
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Microwave 1 package of chocolate chips in a large bowl for 30 seconds. Stir, microwave an additional 30 seconds, and repeat until smooth. Never microwave chocolate longer than 30 seconds at a time or it will burn. My mom taught me that.
3. Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the brown sugar, butter/margarine and eggs.
4. Stir in the flour and baking powder.
5. Stir in the additional bag of chocolate or white chocolate chips. You can also add 2 cups of nuts.
6. Bake at 350 for 12-13 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for a few minutes before you move them.

Another theft

Last week our office was once again the victim of a thief. This time, a mentally ill person walked into our reception area in the morning and took the purse off of our employee’s desk. She had just arrived and gone into another office for a few minutes. This is getting crazy!

We looked everywhere for the purse before deciding that it must have been stolen. The situation was so strange. An hour or so later, someone called our office and said that his friend had stolen the purse, and he left it at a hotel several blocks away. Nothing was even stolen.

Santa Cruz

Here are a few photos from our weekend trip to Santa Cruz.

These are all along the bike path on West Cliff Drive, which is pretty far up there on my list of favorite places in the world.

Our new bike rack worked fabulously and we biked almost everywhere. It was much funner, easier and cheaper than driving. And we burned calories, and I accomplished goal #68 on my list of goals to accomplish before my 30th birthday (take our bikes on a vacation).

The Biggest Loser, Week 14

I'm down about half a pound. Down about 7.5 pounds total!

This weekend

This weekend was very, very good.

On Friday night I went to Rose’s house and watched The Women, ate popcorn and listened to her 19 year old neighbors pretend like they were in Old School. They think they’re really cool. She called me at 10:30 right before I was about to go to bed. I wasn’t expecting to go anywhere, but I have to take advantage of us living in the same city. We may never again, which is sad because I really love hanging out often.

Saturday James’ mom came over, at my invitation. She brought the dog and we went for a walk with him and I made Greek Orzo Salad and Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken. It was fun.

Sunday we wanted to go to lunch at Chicago Fire – which I highly recommend! It’s a pizza restaurant that has Chicago-style pizza, both deep dish and thin crust. Both are delicious but I was craving the deep dish. We drove over to midtown (I really wanted to bike but James said he was too tired after running at the gym. Lame!) to discover that they’re only open for dinner. What the hell! They’d get plenty of business during the day, judging by the crowd at dinner. So this was terribly disappointing. We went to Thai Basil instead, and that was really good anyway.

I also saw a new restaurant that I really want to try (maybe it’s not new, but I’ve never seen it before) – My BBQ Spot on J St. They don’t seem to have a web site, but it’s sounding really good right now. Too bad I didn’t see it until I was sitting on the patio at Thai Basil :(

The bad thing about this weekend was that I was simply too lazy to work out, other than walking. I’m going tonight after work.

Next weekend will be even better - we're going to Santa Cruz!

Greek Orzo Salad

This pasta salad is my thing to bring to potlucks. I ♥ it and made it tonight for our dinner tomorrow, when James' mom is coming over. It's not cheap to make because it has lots of ingredients that are a little pricey. The whole dish cost over $10. The amounts given here make a huge amount of food though.


1 1/4 cups uncooked orzo pasta
12 oz. marinated artichoke hearts
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
1 cucumber, cubed

1 red onion, chopped
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 can black olives, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper

1. Cook the orzo pasta according to the directions on the box.
2. Drain artichoke hearts, but save the liquid for later.
3. In a large bowl, combine pasta, artichoke hearts, tomato, cucumber, onion, feta, olives, parsley, lemon juice, oregano and lemon pepper.
4. Toss and chill for 1 hour.
5. Just before serving, stir in the reserved artichoke marinade. If the artichokes you have are not marinaded, you can stir in 1/2 cup of Italian dressing instead.

AllRecipes.com says a serving (1/6 of the recipe) is 348 calories and 10 grams of fat. However, 1/6 of this recipe is a very big serving size. You will be surprised at how much food you end up with.