Monday nights are do much fun at Aladdin's! Although I'm a regular customer for hummus and tabouli, last night our table went for the appetizer sampler.
The baba, hummus and tabouli were all excellent as always. The fourth item was dawali-grape leaves stuffed with rice and chickpeas. They were delicious! We also split a veggie plate for dipping our hummus and baba.

The real treat is getting to know people you may otherwise never met. We share stories if our lives, and recipes for healthy meals on a budget. So far Reider's is the place to go for great prices on produce!


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Well, I'm only down a couple of pounds - a little shy of my 1 lb per week goal, but my clothes are fitting better - and I got into a pair of jeans I couldn't even zip last month! so I'm feeling pretty good about that. The best part about the weigh in was seeing everyone again and cheering for each other as it seemed like everyone had lost at least a couple pounds- kudos to Jane - 11 lbs!

Hoping for the thumbs up on Monday to move ahead on a fitness plan that will help me reach my goals a little faster. Looking forward to a new dish at Aladdin's this week. so far everything has been delicious and more than filling. Thank you Daad and your team for working with this program this year!

Who would have thought 40 degrees would feel like such a heat wave! It was a great day to step outside several times to enjoy the fresh air. It will be even more exciting to see this all melt away to walk the neighborhood again with the dogs - they do not get to do that in winter due to ice melting chemicals used on the streets that are not pet friendly.

Looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend. Loving Monday nights at Aladdin's - enjoying new foods and great friendships. Overall our group does not seem to be as shy this year when we are together at dinner. Thank you to all of the organizations involved in making this happen!

I am developing such an appreciation for those who write daily or weekly for a living! As we journey through this life-event, I wonder, "what will I reflect on this week?"

Monday night was a great start at Aladdin's. I am a huge fan of their hummus and tabouli - clean, light and always delicious! I really like the collegial attitude this year seems to be taking among contestants. I feel like we are in this together more so this year than last - and in reality I am more into it this year than last.

This week I am feeling simply grateful. Grateful for the friends on this journey with me; grateful for a supportive husband who is loving this Mediterranean diet; grateful that I am ok with having those two slices of wonderful Molinari's bread and four chocolate covered Malley's pretzels - because that was all I needed this week; grateful that I am feeling better regardless of what the scale may say next Saturday - I am sleeping better and my clothes fit better - that's two big wins worthy of merit. I am grateful that I am learning to say 'no' - not only to food, but to the usual stressors of deadlines and outside expectations. I have worked hard at keeping my crises and not allowing others to make their crisis my crisis this week and it is paying off.....so good choices beget more good choices....feeling on the right road this year!

We had a great first night of shared dining at Aladdin's in Mentor! The staff was so helpful in selecting our meals and filling us in on ingredients - well except for the incredible hot sauce! I'm really looking forward to exploring this menu as my doctor and I just spoke about the heart benefits of a Mediterranean diet. I've been following it for a week - excellent foods and I feel better already!

I was so impressed with Jane - 10 pounds down already! It was great to hear her husband talk about her diligence and dedication to the program. And go Cathy- 5 pounds! Ann and I will catch up to you two leaders - please keep us inspired. There was some conversation about belly dancing when we reach our goals- LOL! One step at a time my friends.

We had the good fortune to get away for a week - and it was a perfect week to get away in more ways than one! I am not at all remorseful about missing the sub zero temps of the past week and I was grateful for the sunshine of Florida coming out on a couple of days while we were there.

One of the great take-aways from the week away was starting with an empty refrigerator. As we arrived and began thinking about what we needed for the week, we realized we would eat out most days at either lunch or dinner. Thinking about breakfast and lighter meals gave us a chance to make heathy food choices starting from scratch. It made us realize how many little things we have in our fridge that maybe we need to eliminate - not that we keep a lot of "bad" food in the house, maybe just too much food overall.

It was very cool to just buy what we needed for the week - actually we tried to just buy enough for two or three days at a time. It worked really well! The grocery list included healthy snacks like fresh hummus and cucumbers and carrots instead of maybe the usual chips and dip we might have otherwise purchased. Fresh shrimp were plentiful and affordable and greek yogurt was the breakfast staple along with fresh cut fruit (this was one big splurge to buy the bowl of precut fruit:).

Meals out were often salads or seafood (love those gulf oysters and tuna)!

Now that we are home, I have a refrigerator to evaluate and minimize!