P2D4

Zowee! Down another 1.4lbs! Woot!

Things are definitely getting better. I have less and less dizziness. I feel like I am functioning at close to 100% normal as far as energy goes. I am still hungry the last 1-2 hours before my next meal, but it is tolerable.

Pilates today was great. Had plenty of energy and strength, but sweat a lot again. Still wondering if it is because the studio is warmer than usual. Guess I will stop questioning it as long as my strength keeps steady.

So, I have to tell you about last night's dinner. I had marinated flank steak and tomato soup. It was amazing and yummy and I was actually full after I ate it and not hungry the rest of the night.
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Marinated Flank steak and onions
1-1.5 lbs flank steak (I think any lean beef would work just as well)
1 C sweet onion, thinly sliced (about 1/2 of an onion)
2-3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1/4 C water
1-2 cloves crushed garlic
ground pepper, to taste

I took the flank steak and sliced it across the grain, holding my knife at a diagonal. I have always done this with cooked flank steak , but never raw. It worked well. I put the sliced steak into a large ziplock bag along with the remaining ingredients. I mixed it all up so that all the onions and all the steak were coated and the garlic was evenly distributed. I then let this marinate overnight in the fridge.

When it was time to cook I preheated my Foreman Grill and then put the steak and onions on in a thin layer. I cooked mine for 4 min and this made it well done. I did this to get as much fat out of the meat as possible. If you want it closer to medium, I would start checking it after 2 minutes. I had to do 3 rounds of cooking on my small grill. After it was all cooked I pulled out 3 oz for myself and put 2 additional 3oz servings in containers for future meals. The rest of the steak I seasoned with McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning (sorry HCGers, it has sunflower oil in it, so not for us) before serving to my family. Although they are not big steak eaters, this got the thumbs up all around.

counts as 1 protein (and 1 vegetable if you eat all the grilled onions)

I ended up not eating my onions because I wanted to eat soup. The onions did, however, provide excellent flavor to the overall dish. I put some with my leftovers for another day.
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I also made this fabulous tomato soup from that list of recipes I posted earlier.

Tangy Tomato Soup
1 C fat free, sugar free chicken broth/stock (I make my own, but there is a recipe in the list)
1 large or 2 small tomatoes (I measure it as 1 C when chopped and I needed 2 small)
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 tsp onion salt
1/2 packet stevia
1/2 tsp dried basil (I used 1/2 Tbs chopped, fresh basil, see below)
ground black pepper

Saute garlic in 1 Tbs of the chicken stock, set aside. Puree tomatoes in a blender (I used my Vitamix for the finest grind), then cook over medium heat to a boil, stirring frequently. Turn heat to low and add remaining stock, garlic, onion salt and stevia to the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Stir in the pepper and basil (I used fresh, but there is some who believe fresh herbs have more oils in them. I am not one of those people. Oils do not evaporate when something is dried, they usually stay with the dried item....so I am taking my chances. You will have to decide for yourself.) Serve.

counts as 1 vegetable

I doubled the recipe so that I could have leftovers for lunch.
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Here is today's menu:
B: MR blended with raspberries
L: leftovers of tomato soup and grilled flank steak (yum!)
D: chicken and either green salad or minted cucumbers

and lots of water and tea all day.

Not sure what I am doing to the chicken breasts, but rest assured, I will tell you the results tomorrow.

Cheers,
Amy