The Week That Got Away

         Hi! It's me , Abby the tabby. Remember I laughed at my crazy mom while she danced through West Side Story. I am writing my mom's blog this week to cut her a break.

                       This week did not go quite as planned. It started out okay. Mom worked out and planned two days in a row and then it hit her. "Life"! Life has a way of getting in the way of best laid plans. You humans allow life to drive you nuts when you should just do what I do. Go lay down and take a nap. She found herself dealing with situations and then caught a cold on top of that. On the third day she dealt with "Life" and did not work out because , you know, the weekend was coming and you can do a lot on the weekend. But she woke up to sinus trouble. I told her to rest a little bit and then do some laps and rest some more. But my wonderful older brother Josh decided to pull up the wall to wall carpet in two rooms for us and she could not let him work alone.Personally I would have.Plus he was removing my favorite thing in the world to scratch. So she found herself helping him move the piano, and the couches and the computer desk with the computer on top. Also, since he was pulling up the carpet, she was loading it up onto the shopping cart and bringing it down to the basement to dump. This went on into the night. And after she cooked dinner, she was cooked.

          She did not sleep most of the night, but she had Sunday. And then there was more "Life" and it went into most of the day. By the time she got home there was more dinner to cook. She did not sleep well that night either. On Monday, she did not take a sick day because she will be on vacation next week. So she dragged her sorry butt into the office. When she got home, she medicated myself and passed out. I had to look after her. A cat's work is never done.

         After all of that she was not looking forward to getting on the scale but I heard from a reliable source that she did it anyway. As it turns out, she gained 1.2lbs.Trust me, you don't want to know her on a bad weigh in day.She has a 'tude. Now I know it sounds like a wild pity party but it is behind us now.  She put it in a box,  put the box on a ship and watched it sail away. Bye, bye wasted week!
         This week she is getting back to POINTS PLUS MADNESS. So she decided today that she was going to make the infamous Zero Point Vegetable Soup. I know what you're thinking. You mean she never tried to make the soup that it a gift to all Weight Watchers? No, she never did. I did my best to suggest it but some moms never listen.I finally opened up the new Points Plus Getting Started booklet to page 88 to show her and  I followed her up and down the kitchen watching her every move. I even took pictures. My mom made some changes to the recipe (mostly because my dad could not find zucchini and purchased dried minced garlic). She also added Sazon cilantro and tomato seasoning like she does to most stews and soups as well as two bay leaves. Mom also had some mushrooms left over in the fridge. I looked them up on E-Tools and I it says that they are zero points. Take a look.

bay leaves

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/4 cup diced onions
2 tbsp minced dried garlic( dad may have improvised but this way it will last forever)
3 cups of fat free chicken broth
1 cup diced green cabbage
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup fresh mushrooms
2 dried bay leaves
1 packet Sazon cilantro & tomato seasoning
1 tsp black pepper (mom likes it hot)

                I snuck in a little taste when she left the kitchen and it was good. She put it into three containers. It did not come to six whole servings, so she now has three almost two cup servings to take to work. Mom can even put one in the freezer to take to work Monday morning.Hey wait a minute she's not going to working Monday morning. Maybe I'll have it for lunch while she is at work.

               Tune in next week to my mom's blog. I promise you that she will be on her game if I have to become her trainer like Bob and Jillian. By the way , did you see last night's season finally of the Biggest Loser. I knew Patrick was going to win all along. Mom was rooting for Ada the Terminator. Ciao.