If you’ve followed me, you know I have an issue with Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Okay, perhaps an addiction. She asked me to try ALL the diet drinks to try and switch out. Her favorite? Diet Sunkist. I decided to just buy Diet Sunkist without buying anything else. I’ll try those in time but I have to say, I was SOOOO pleased with it. There was NO aftertaste at all!! It tasted just like an orange soda. So right there, 200 calories were cut out of my diet.

Now since everyone was gone this evening, I decided to make a Lean Cuisine meal part of my supper. Since we all know how small those meals are, I decided to add a couple of things but not going over my calorie budget. The average healthy meal is usually 600 calories or less so I kept that in mind. After adding up calories, I decided that I would be able to add some brown rice and vegetables and if i’m lucky, sneak in a mini DP.

The Lean Cuisine was 250 calories. The 1 cup serving of brown rice was 230 calories. I know..that’s a lot but I was really hungry. The vegetables (Great Value Broccoli & Cauliflower) were 25 calories per serving. I had two which equals 50. That totals 530 calories. YAY, I’m doing good so I’m telling myself I can drink a mini DP afterwards.

PRESENTATION MATTERS

Aren’t the little trays in the prepackaged food meals kinda ugly? I’ve learned to take it out of the tray and place it on the tray. This particular dinner was baked chicken with stuffing and mash potatoes.

I took it out, put it on the plate, along with the cup of brown rice, and the 1 1/2 cups of Broccoli & Cauliflower. After adding all that to my plate, I was shocked out how full my plate was!! What if I had left the food in the little tray and not added brown rice and vegetables? I guarantee you that I would have been hungry within an hour. I knew that I had to add something and seeing it on a real plate is much more appetizing and it looks like you’re getting a lot.

That’s a LOT of food huh!! Now here’s my other strategy. I decided to eat in a certain order..sorta. I knew that the chicken & stuffing had the most calories of the Lean Cuisine meal so I decided to eat the vegetables first, then the rice mixed with the taters. Before I could even get to the chicken and stuffing, I was stuffed! I don’t know how many calories are just in that portion but I’m figuring it had to be enough to allow me to have that mini DP, which happens to be 100 calories.

Am I gonna make my goal of 1300-1500 calories for the day?? I SURE AM!! I had 300 for breakfast, 330 for Lunch, 200 for a snack, and now 600 for supper. With a total of 1430 calories I’m barely sliding in there but keep in mind, I was previously taking in 2000+ calories. I’m proud of myself y’all. It may not seem like a big step to you but it’s a HUGE step for me. And now that I know I like Diet Sunkist, I know that I’ll be able to cut more calories by drinking it instead of DP.

Point of the story….put it on a plate whether it’s in a tray, bag, box, or whatever. Add some fresh vegetables when you can or if your calorie count allows it, add a slice of whole grain bread.

I have to say, I LOVED it. For those of you who don’t know, not only had I not had Starbucks, I’ve never drank coffee period so this was a treat! The sad part is, there’s not a Starbucks around here for 70 miles:( But, when I do go again, and I will go again, I am going to try the Caramel Macchiatos. I first heard them from my mom today and then Tara said that’s her other favorite so I’m definitely going to try it!

Since it was such a momentous occasion, Katja was snapping pictures of me with my first Starbucks Coffee. Yep, it was a historic event in A Cowboy’s Wife life.

I would love to hear what YOUR favorite is at Starbucks!  Please share:)

No, I haven’t done a show yet because frankly, I’m a little skeered!  I’ll be scheduling one soon enough though and hope that you guys all listen in when I do have one so that I don’t look like a total loser talking to nobody…capeesh?

So today, we had to call in and do the promo–where we say a little something about ourselves and our show.  Here is what I said…….

This is Lori from acowboyswife.com. I’m a mom of 3 boys and wife to a real cowboy of 16yrs.  Having cooked on ranches for over 10yrs, I’m now bringing you my passion for food on radio.

My show, Mixin’ it up with My Wooden Spoon, is a place where you can share your enthusiasm for food, keep up with the hottest cooking gadgets, and share your ingredients for the perfect recipe. So listen in and get a taste of life with A Cowboy’s Wife!  And stop by mywoodenspoon.com to see what I’m cookin’ up in my kitchen.

What do you think?  I thought it was alright but I was about to puke the entire time.  I’m NOT joking!  And if it wasn’t for VERY GOOD FRIENDS encouraging me and making me smile via Skype, I would have broken down for sure.

Honestly, I don’t know how I’m going to do these shows but I’m hoping you all support me and make me laugh with the chat feature when you see that I am freaking out:)

There will be ways for you to participate so be sure to do that and visit some of the other eleven mom’s shows because they RAWK and have everything from Techie stuff to frugal tips!

P.S. I made the banner myself. Not great but it’ll do.

P.P.S. Join my foodie community because I’ve great some great prizes planned to giveaway soon!

P.P.P.S. And if you are looking to save money on your phone bill….Skype has unlimited calling to any number for $2.99 a month!! Free if it’s computer to computer, and international is cheap!!!  Just wanted to tell you that because that is what I use for my long distance for chatting with my homegirls.

They really were good cookies and easy to make.  Try them and give them to your cookie monster!

For the video group, simply upload a video of you or a family member or whatever cutting the cheese using KRAFT Velveeta…… Include your blog url in the description if you have one.

Don’t have a video camera but still want to do a video??? That’s okay too! Just create a quick slideshow using pictures and upload it here. You can make a slideshow really easy by using Photobucket!!! All videos will have to approved by me before they show up so don’t fret if you don’t see yours right away;)

You don’t have to have a blog to participate but if you do, I’ll show you some link love on my food blog which happens to be a PR 5!

For the Flickr Group, simply upload a photo of you or a family member or whatever cutting the cheese using KRAFT Velveeta. Include your blog url in the description if you have one.  If you don’t want to join flickr, you can send me your picture via email to lori at thecowboyshack dot com and I’ll add to the photo group pool.

All participants, will be included in a drawing for a VERY nice prize or prizes depending on how many sponsors I can gather up!!!  Each group will have it’s own winners and yes, you can participate in both groups.  I will try to update you on sponsors so keep your eyes open;)

I think this Kraft Velveeta is an awesome opportunity for us 5 bloggers.  In fact, for me, it ranks up there with the whole Wal-Mart Eleven Moms thing.  Finally companies are seeing the impact that we bloggers have and what kind of buzz we can stir up.  And with us all being so supportive of each other, it only means that more great things are to come!

I hope that you all join in and upload a video or photo using Kraft Velveeta!!!  It doesn’t have to be much and will only take a sec to do and I would great appreciate your support through all of this.

Could this be part of Monday’s recipe?

Anna’s Flower

Cold, wet, and happy:)

Fire in the Sky

These are my weekly photos that I’m submitting to Sarcastic Mom’s “Weekly Winners” meme.  Join in and share some of your favorite weekly photos!