Carb Lover's - Day 4

I didn't think that what I brought for lunch today would be filling enough. All I had was a black bean burger, a small apple and string cheese. I did feel immediately hungry afterward, but I think that was more because I was used to eating MORE in volume. After a bottle of water I was good to go until my 3:30 snack of 2 wasa crackers and almond butter. I LOVE almond butter!

Tonight I made the recipe from Carb Lover's that I was most excited about. I give you, Chicken Pasta Primavera.

I love a good pasta dish. I always loved pasta. Give me a seat at a table at Olive Garden and I'm basically in utopia! Perhaps that's just the unlimited breadsticks though....

I think that the editors of Carb Lover's Diet printed the measurements wrong on this recipe. If you follow it exactly, the servings only allows for 1/2 a cup of pasta and 2 ounces of meat. That's a pretty small serving to me. Here's what I did:

- Used 1 cup of dry pasta, which roughly gives you 2 cups cooked; diving into two servings. Even by increasing the serving size in the recipe I was eating 1/2 a cup less than the serving suggestion on the packaging.
- Cooked about 1 lb of chicken breast; divided into 3 portions that's about 5.33 ounces per serving (these are all estimations as I don't own a food scale)
- Cubed the zucchini vs. ribbons (It was just easier to prep that way)
- Served it with 2 T of Parmesan cheese per serving instead of 1 T
- Omitted the salt

It resulted in a nice, filling portion of 435 calories for dinner. And it was pretty delicious (but it needed the salt).

What I ate today:
B: Banana and fiber granola bar
L: Morningstar black bean burger on whole wheat thin bun, small apple and string cheese
S1: 2 whole grain wasa crackers w/4 tsp almond butter
D: Chicken Pasta Primavera

Calorie count: 1,239

How I feel:
Still going strong. Walked before dinner for about 25 minutes.

I had the realization today that of course I am rocking this new menu. I am doing so well because it is within the structure of Monday thru Friday. I generally don't have a problem eating right during the week. The real test will be Saturday and Sunday. I'm glad I've started to think about this so I can start to mentally prepare myself to stick to the plan and not slip. Especially because I am going to the National Banana Pudding Festival! No pudding samples for me unfortunately...

Thank God tomorrow is Friday!