Monday's don't deserve to be this yummy

We had dinner at one of our neighbor's houses last night, and it was so good, I'm still in awe!  They know we are planning a trip to Tuscany, so the night had a Tuscan theme.  We started out with a salad of mixed greens, scallions, pear, pomegranate seeds, and goat cheese.  It was so flavorful!  I'm sometimes shy about mixing fruits with vegetables, but this combination was delightful and a flavor sensation.

The entree was actually from a Cooking Light Recipe, but our host prepared it even better by using pappardelle (I think) wide noodles.  This recipe includes porcini mushrooms, shallots, an exotic mushroom blend, minced garlic, chunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, heavy whipping cream, fresh sage, truffle oil, etc...  It was to die for.  I kept my portion fairly small, so it was about 400 calories.  I can't imagine what the full fat version would be.  This was one of the best meals I have had in a long time.  If you try the recipe (as I'm going to), let me know what you think!!

Of course they offered us dessert as well, and they served us creamy gourmet vanilla ice cream topped with melted mexican chocolate and fresh strawberries.  LOL - it was sinfully delicious, and *not* a cooking light recipe.  I have been avoiding empty calories, but this was well worth the exception.  I kept my portion size small, and my calories for the day yesterday were about 1250 - a miracle considering this dinner I had.

Let me tell you - Tuesday is going to have a lot to live up to at this point.  ;-)

We managed to get our work out in before the dinner.  We went to the pool, and I got about 45 minutes of cardio in - I also did all the rest of the work out in the pool.  Combining my cardio with the rest of the exercises is probably cheating, but as sore as I was, and as little time as I had, I did my best.  Today is a day of rest for me, according to my trainer, but I may get 30-40 minutes of swimming in.  It's low impact, a good calorie burner, and it won't throw me off for my training tomorrow.  Plus, I still have calories to burn from last night.  :)

This week is full of challenges for me.  I have a business lunch today at Friday's, of all places.  Friday's is terrible about sharing their nutrition information, so I only have a very limited selection to choose from, based upon the few dishes I can find the nutrition information for.  I think I will order the turkey burger on a whole wheat bun (410 calories) with no cheese or mayo, and I will use mustard to make it wet enough to swallow.  I'll eat half of that and have a side salad instead of fries.  Salad (and light dressing) + half the burger will put me at about 300 calories for lunch, which is fine.  I probably won't like the food, but I'll get the protein, whole grains and veggies in that I need, so that's what counts.

I have a lot of work to do today, so I'm planning to work late, get a swim in, get started on some homework, and then have an hour to relax before I go to bed and start this whole thing all over again.

I was down 3 of the 6 lbs I was up from yesterday, so I'm officially down 8 lbs for the past 5 or 6 days, and I'm hoping to be down the other 3 tomorrow, to have an 11 lb loss for week 1.  Then I'll totally feel like a legit biggest loser contestant.  ;-)