The Fresh Diet Meals Review & Photos of Thursday, Mar. 31, 2011

"IN THE BAG"

I didn't need a jacket today, it was sunny and 80! This was taken on the Historic Oceanside Pier at Oceanside Beach. It is one of the longest wooden piers on the West Coast, spanning 1,942 feet in length. It was first built in 1888 was destroyed by storms in the winter of 1890, and was rebuilt in 1893. The pier is a popular fishing spot and Ruby's Diner, a 50's style diner, is located at the end. 

This was a good day for swimming, surfing, sailing, and many other water sports or just walking on the beach. As soon as it cools down, I'll take my Lily for a walk, she's already getting impatient and banging on the shutters. Her sign for, let's go walking! She spent most of her day going in and out, in and out and nudging my leg for me to join her.

 The Fresh Diet meals for today were just awesome! 

 BREAKFAST 

I chose CREAMY SCRAMBLED EGGS with SAUTEED SPINACH & WHOLE WHEAT TOAST for my breakfast today. I usually don't get a whole slice of toast, so this was a surprise this morning. That's okay, Chef Ray, I forgive you. Hahaha! It was delicious, the eggs were moist and the spinach, one of my favorite greens,  had a creamy sauce to it. Altogether a good combination and a very satisfying breakfast. I nearly lost this one to my Westie, Lily, but that's a story for another day.

LUNCH

I teased you on the Fresh Diet Facebook page today with a preview of this photo.  This lunch of GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST with BABY ARUGULA, ORANGE SEGMENTS, MANGO, STRAWBERRY & CITRUS GINGER DRESSING is one of my very favorite salads. Just the colors in the salad makes it so inviting. The grilled chicken pieces were tender and the fruit were not just pleasing to the eye but so delicious and refreshing on this hot day.  Oranges, strawberries and mangos are some of my favorite fruit.  The arugula was a nice change for the greens. 

SNACK

Today's snack was more generous than usual. It could be because I'm on maintenance and I have a high activity level. This snack was amazingly tasty! Thank you Chef Ray. This is the ASIAN STYLE BROCO-SLAW with SHREDDED TURKEY. It has cabbage, carrots, broccoli, turkey strips and the most tasty dressing. This crunchy salad was great after having a light salad lunch and also very refreshing for the high temps of today. 

DINNER

This and TFD's Florentine Baked Chicken are my all-time favorite chicken dinners! WALNUT CRUSTED CHICKEN APRICOT ROULADE with SOUTHWESTERN CORN SAUTE and SAUTEED KALE. Wow!! I sat in the sunroom to enjoy this one and savored every bite. 

 I made sure to give Lily her dog food first, hoping she would be full and leave me to my dinner. The aroma that wafted through the kitchen, when I reheated this,  awakened her senses! She immediately started that jumping dance of hers trying to get my plate as I was walking into the sunroom. Hahaha! I tricked her and walked out the sunroom door, of course she followed me all the way out, but I made a quick turnaround and closed the door behind me. I'm so mean! 

TFD's baked chicken is always so tender and the apricot filling and walnuts make this so gourmet. This is one meal I ALWAYS choose when it comes around. Oh là là I so enjoy this! The southwestern corn with the red bell pepper in it is the best. The kale is my favorite green and Chef Ray has an awesome way of preparing it. This dinner was a special feast for me. 

Dessert

I looked forward to this CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESE CAKE. This one looked a little different then usual. It had a beige tint to it instead of a whiter color and less chocolate chips. It had a mild chocolate flavor with chocolate bits in the bottom. It was creamy and smooth. I'm addicted to TFD's cheesecakes, so this one was savored just like all their other flavors of cheese cake. I had this one on this pretty plate while Lily stole the container and licked it clean. She was in heaven as well as I was. To thank me, she cuddled with me all evening. 

Hopefully you were all good today and stayed "in the bag" as well as drink water and exercise. You'll be thankful on Monday when you get on the scale.

DON'T WAIL ON THE SCALE IF YOU CHEAT WHEN YOU EAT.


Hahaha! Sorry, I couldn't help myself again with the silly jokes. You'll have to watch out tomorrow.  It's April Fool's Day!! 


I'll see you Friday and we'll have a good time then.


xoxo
Carol

THE Fresh Diet Meals Review & Photos of Wednesday, Mar. 30, 2011

IN THE BAG

From the look of those containers and menus, you could say,  I love The Fresh Diet! The stack of menus I now have is much bigger. This was one of the photos taken several months ago for a Poster Contest. No,  I didn't win it. It wasn't dramatic enough. Well, I tried, hahaha! Those containers were a one week supply for two of us. They get recycled every week.

It's so easy to stay "in the bag"! The Fresh Diet does their best in providing us with nutritious and gourmet meals. Are you enjoying this contest as much as I am? 

You have all been wonderful staying exclusively "in the bag",  drinking your 2 qts of water and exercising so far.  By the end of the 7-day contest you will be closer to your goal. I'm very proud of you, my friends. 

If you find you're starting to slip, check out some of my blog entries here for inspirational help. Give out a shout for help on TFD Facebook and you'll get lots of encouragement there too. You're not alone on TFD. We're a family that help one another. Sometimes we do get "silly".  Laughing is so good for us that I even did a blog just on "TFD & Belly Laughs".

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.

Today, I chose a few lighter options for my meals. 

BREAKFAST

This is FRESH FRUIT SALAD With PINEAPPLE, STRAWBERRY, ORANGE, WATERMELON, BLUEBERRY & COTTAGE CHEESE. The Fresh Diet always offers very FRESH fruit, as you can see in this photo. The blueberries were big and sweet, as were the pineapples. The strawberries were perfect, similar to the ones I could buy down the hill from my house at the strawberry farm. I enjoyed the oranges and watermelon and cottage cheese as well.  

I find The fruit salad always puts me in a good frame of mind. It's so colorful and festive as well as delicious. It's a good way to start my busy day.

LUNCH

Doesn't this look good! My lunch choice was TURKEY SOUVLAKI on WHOLE WHEAT LAVASH WRAP With CUCUMBER SPEARS & TZATZIKI SAUCE. I usually grill my wraps. This one I removed the filling to just crisp up the bread a little because it's open at both ends. I grill it just enough so I can still fill & fold it. I just tossed the turkey cubes on the grill for a minute to heat them up. I then built the wrap with the sauce ( which was in a separate container), cukes and turkey. The cucumbers were very crunchy fresh, such a cool veggie. I love them. They go well with the sauce and the spicy-peppery turkey. This wrap is spicy and tasty, another favorite of mine.

SNACK

I was in the sunny garden when I had this snack. It was very refreshing. FRESH BERRIES & PINEAPPLE with STRAWBERRY YOGURT. The Fresh Diet Yogurt is always very good, satisfies my craving for a good yogurt. Just look at those berries, mmmmm, I savored every one. 

Reminds me of the wild berries that were out back in our yard when we lived in Massachusetts. It was wooded back there with lots of berries, along with rabbits, woodchucks, deer, wild turkeys and more!

While I was eating these, today,  the berries brought back memories of my Grandmère. My mother's mother. She only spoke french, as did my parents for the most part.  She loved berry picking out in the woods and sometimes when we were little she would take us. We would pick buckets full. She'd bring them home for homemade, pies, muffins, jams, etc. I loved her! She was so funny, and fun to be with. I miss you Mémère. We had some good times. Rest in Peace.

DINNER

GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST with RED WINE & SHALLOT REDUCTION SAUCE with CARROT TARRAGON MASH and SAUTEED WAX BEANS was my choice for dinner. Good choice! The chicken was tender and the sauce & shallots brought a little sweet taste to it, mmmmm, OUI! Très très bon! I've got to say that I really enjoy all the Fresh Diet's mashes. I love the taste of tarragon in this one. The wax beans were very fresh and cooked just the way I like, NOT over-cooked! This was a wonderful meal. 

Do you see that rose above the plate? I cut that one from the huge rose bush by my front door. What you see is just a bud! When it opens it gets enormous.  Bigger than my hand. The bush gets taller than my house in the summer. It's not a climber. It's an old rose with a trunk-like base. It was such a beautiful sunny day today. I enjoyed puttering in my garden. I've got more garden work to do tomorrow, I found two snails on that rose bud. 

DESSERT

Here we go again! I know, I just can't help myself. I chose a piece of cheese cake for dessert! This one is Passion Fruit Cheese Cake. Once more I found it to be creamy, smooth and délicieux.  Look at this,  don't you just want a bite right this moment! 

I Photographed this earlier today and took a small bite, before putting it back in the fridge. I HAD to,  so I could write this review this evening.

You won't believe this, Laurence just called out to me,  just now,  to take his cheese cake out of the fridge, to let it sit for a few minutes. He likes his closer to room temperature. It seems even creamier that way. Since it's almost 7:30 in the P.M. I guess I don't have to wait any longer to devour mine.

He's calling out to me, AGAIN.  Now he wants me to watch the sunset. He says it's beautiful! Well! I guess I better take my cheese cake and go watch the sunset with him.

I'll see you tomorrow on The Fresh Diet page.  Let me know in the morning if you're "in the bag" and we'll have a good time then.

xoxo

Carol

The Fresh Diet Meals Review & Photos of Tuesday, Mar. 29, 2011

"IN THE BAG"

No! I didn't go into the jungle today. This is just a palm tree in my backyard! I can't believe I forgot to put make-up on for this photo. Oh boy, am I slipping! This is what I get for rushing. 

Hopefully you all stayed "in the bag" today.  No! Not that bag, the Fresh Diet bag! Don't forget to drink lots of water and to exercise. I've been a very good girl, drinking my water and I did my core exercises this morning out in the fresh air of my garden. Laying there on my mat, I had a great panoramic view of the blue sky and wispy clouds moving by. It was exhilarating doing my exercises this way, except for the fact that I had to fight Lily for space on my mat the whole time! If she wasn't trying to cuddle up when I was on my side trying to do  the hip/leg lift with ankle weights, she'd lie on my mat under my legs while I had my knees bent doing the lumbar pelvic tilt. When I finally scooted her away. She amused herself licking my face. 

Much later in the afternoon, I finally gave her what she wanted. We went out for an hour walk. I've accumulated almost 12,000 steps on my pedometer so far and the night is still young.

I'm having some of my Papaya Cheese Cake as I'm writing this and I couldn't wait until the end of this review to show and tell. Can you see just how creamy this looks! Oh Chef Ray, you are spoiling me! I love it! It's just perfect! What a great DESSERT.  

Now on to... 

BREAKFAST

I chose for today TOASTED GRANOLA With DICED PEARS & HONEY ALMOND RICOTTA CHEESE. This is absolutely heaven! This breakfast is like having dessert, or like eating crunchy oatmeal cookies. Oh làlà, this is probably why I LIKE it so much. It's the best granola I've ever had, and I've tasted many. The pears were nice and fresh. I enjoyed them, I love all kinds of fruit.

The ricotta is a favorite with me, and this honey almond one was just super. Look at Monday's flower it's still beautiful. Waking up to this breakfast was pure joy, it put a smile on my face.

LUNCH

Doesn't this look mouthwatering! This is RUBEN STYLE DELI WRAP With SMOKED TURKEY BREAST, SWISS CHEESE, BABY LETTUCE & THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING. It was such a beautiful day I had to enjoy this scrumptious lunch in the gazebo by the garden. I first grilled it to brown and toast the wrap a bit. It's so good that way. There was a lot of fresh lettuce in this, so when I bit down into this wrap it was crunching. Now that is fresh lettuce! The swiss cheese was very buttery and good, mmmm! To top it all off the turkey and dressing just made it all such a sweet memory.

 It wasn't so easy photographing this, because grilling it brought out some delicious aromas and it drove Lily absolutely craaazyy. She kept jumping all over me!! I nearly dropped it! 

SNACK

Another winner! WHOLE WHEAT BEEF RAVIOLI With SUN-DRIED TOMATO PESTO was a thrill to try for the first time. I usually don't eat beef but on The Fresh Diet, I've been trying just about everything. Doesn't this look special! These would be gone in a minute at a cocktail party.  This little munchkin had a lot of tasty beef filling. This combination of flavors was a culinary delight!

DINNER

This scrumptious dish is GRILLED CHICKEN BREAST With APRICOT CURRY SAUCE With STEAMED SPAGHETTI  SQUASH & STEAMED ASPARAGUS. The asparagus are a favorite of mine and The Fresh Diet cooks them just the way I like it,  a colorful green with a nice crunch. I never had this kind of squash before. TFD has such a variety of foods, it gives me the opportunity to try something new.  A variety of foods is good for the body. I found this squash to be quite tasty. I'll definitely invite this back on my table. The sauce made this grilled chicken just amazing! Of course, apricot is tops with me, add curry and you have gourmet chicken with an exotic taste.

My compliments to Chef Ray on another wonderful day's feast.

This concludes my review of Tuesday's meals. Remember you are what you eat and TFD will make sure your body gets the proper nutrients. All you have to do is ENJOY!

See you tomorrow and we'll have a lot of fun then.

xoxo

Carol

The Fresh Diet Meals Review & Photos of Monday, Mar. 28, 2011

  "IN THE BAG"

First I have to mention this: Why am I not smiling in this picture! GEESH!!

MONDAY MAR. 28 MENU

BREAKFAST

I wanted oatmeal for this morning, so I choose The Fresh Diet's very delicious HAWAIIAN STYLE OATMEAL With PINEAPPLE & TOASTED COCONUT FLAKES. This one is one of my favorite Fresh Diet oatmeals. I love it because it's has fresh pineapple & coconut. With this combination, I can just imagine myself on a beautiful Island, maybe Maui or Fiji or some exotic place. This beautiful exotic flower came with my oatmeal! My Chef Ray Ruiz is such a nice man. I call him my chef because he's like my own personal chef. This food is always so fresh and good. I feel like he prepared it in my own kitchen. Today the oatmeal was delicious and satisfying as always. It carried me over until lunch.

LUNCH

Surprise!!! I had what I chose for Dinner for my lunch. The reason being that I took off and went for a hike in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains in the desert. I had chosen a burger for lunch but dinner was better eaten cold than the burger was.

Of course, I took this dinner out of the container to photograph it, so you could see how beautiful this dinner looked. Before I packed it back into the container, I heated the sauce to thin it out. That worked out beautifully! I then put it in my TFD bag along with my snack and the ice packs. At the site, I planned on putting it in my backpack with the ice packs, along with water. This is TURKEY BREAST CUTLETS With ROASTED PEPPER & SHALLOT SAUCE With CILANTRO ROASTED YELLOW TOMATO And SAUTEED RUBY SWISS CHARD. 

The turkey & sauce was actually very tasty cold, no different than if it was put in a salad. The turkey was extremely tender! I enjoyed every "morsure". Of course tomatoes are always good cold and these had a little cilantro spark to them. The chard is one of my favorite greens hot or cold.....so I enjoyed this meal in the great beautiful outdoors of the desert mountains. I didn't have to fight a mountain lion for it. Kept my eyes open though. Having this for lunch on the trail kept me very satisfied all afternoon.

SNACK

This snack was RASPBERRY VANILLA PUDDING. This was very refreshing outdoors and it was so smooth and creamy. I love the Fresh Diet puddings. It just had a little bit of raspberries but it was big on flavor. I'm just happy I didn't have to share it with any mountain beast.

DINNER

Now you can see why I saved this one for dinner instead of lunch! this is THAI TURKEY BURGER On WHOLE WHEAT CIABATTA With SAUTEED BOK-CHOY & PEANUT SAUCE. First thing I did is put the roll in the toaster, wrap the burger & bok-choy in wax paper and heated it in the micro.. .about 25 seconds on one side and turned it over & 20 seconds again. Built the burger back up with the peanut sauce and then sat back to enjoy a taste of heaven!! This is one of my favorite burgers. I love the seeded crunchy roll with a little bit of a chew....so french! The burger itself is spicy tasty scrumptious. The bok-choy is usually brighter green and crunchier, the way I like it, but today it was more cooked, but it didn't take away from anything. The peanut sauce....well....chèr, what can I say, "C'est très très bon!"

Dessert

PINEAPPLE CHEESE CAKE. Creamy, smooth tasty and delicious, what more can I say, except that I have been enjoying this dessert the whole time I've been writing this review!! Hahahaha!!! I love to tease you! Please excuse me while I have my last yummy bite, or as the french say, "Ma dernière morsure délicieuse." 

The Fresh Diet meals today as you can see were great. Along with this, I drank more than 2 qts. of water, and have done my exercise. Hopefully you have done the same.  I shall see you all on TUESDAY. We'll have a good time then.

xoxo

Carol

IN THE BAG, THE FRESH DIET BAG THAT IS!

From Monday March 28 through Sunday April 3rd I am hosting "In the bag" for The Fresh Diet Customers. We have been doing this for about the past three weeks as a means of supporting each other to stick to foods in the Fresh Diet bag only. This is made into a contest and someone will be chosen from all who participate to win a FREE WEEK of The Fresh Diet. Of course, in the end, we are all winners. Weight will be lost and good health will be gained. We'll have fun in the process.
The Fresh Diet bag contains all the meals and snacks you need for the day. Three meals and two snacks, selections you choose yourself from a list of delicious food.
I must say, this is the easiest contest ever. You choose the foods you love. Check out below, at the very bottom of this blog, lots of examples of very delicious food.

I'll be reminding you to drink at least 2 quarts of water daily along with The Fresh Diet. I know! You've heard it, at least a million times on the Fresh Diet Facebook page to drink water! But, I'm going to bring it up again anyway. To see why this is SO important, please read my post of September, 2010 titled, "The Perfect Couple".  It will make a difference!

EXERCISE is also part of the deal this week! Check out many ways to do this, also one of  the September posts, titled, " The Fresh Diet says, "Keep on Moving". 

I have a pedometer that I wear on my waistband by my hip, and try to do at least 12,000  steps a day. You don't need a pedometer. A few ways to increase your steps would be to:

Take a walk with your spouse, child, or friend

Walk the dog

Use the stairs instead of the elevator

Park farther from the store

Better yet, walk to the store

Get up to change the channel

Window shop

Plan a walking meeting

Walk over to visit a neighbor

Get outside to walk around the garden or do a little weeding

Do a dance/exercise video

Roller skating or roller blading

Walk while talking on phone

Housework, dust, vacuum etc. 

At work go visit colleague instead of e-mailing

Use restroom further away 

These are just a few suggestions, you can use your imagination and be creative. There are lots of ways to exercise. Do what's right for you and make it fun! Go to the gym, run, bicycle, etc. What exercise do you like to do?
                                               MONDAY
Today we start by weighing ourselves first thing before breakfast then put the scale away until next monday. You'll see a pleasant surprise.
Be "in the bag" only. The Fresh Diet bag of course.
Drink at least 2 quarts of water every day.
Increase your exercise from last week. You can do it. Push yourself a little.
Remember OBSTACLES are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
In my next post I'll put photos of today's food.
Good luck to you!