Craving Sweets

Monday I was home on a pre-approved vacation day. I was feeling much better and actually made it through the whole day without needing cold medicine! Progress!

Since I was home, I cleaned the house, ran errands, and bought a pumpkin.

And no I haven’t carved it yet (as my friends on Facebook pointed out to me…I suck at pumpkin carving. ;))

Since I was home and Michael was at work all day, I fixed dinner. We had some tiny sweet potatoes that a friend gave me from her garden. We had to eat them or toss them.

They were tiny potatoes, so I decided we’d cook them all. I brushed Grapeseed Oil onto the skin.

I put the sweet potatoes in the oven at 350 degrees a few minutes before the salmon while I got everything else ready.

Two defrosted salmons from Costco. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Then I mixed together Dijon Mustard and brown sugar:

Whisked together it becomes similar to a honey mustard. Then I poured it on each salmon.

I wrapped the salmon loosely in foil and then popped them into the oven with the potatoes.

Baked for about 20-25 minutes. While dinner was cooking, I made salads for us to eat. My salad:

Michael’s salad was all baby spinach instead of a mixture of spinach and green leaf lettuce. He also had bacon and blue cheese crumbles on his salad:

Then dinner was served.

Even though the sweet potatoes were tiny, I guess I should have baked them a little longer. Parts of them weren’t quite cooked all the way. Good thing we each had two. There was enough cooked in each one to make one potato. 😉

It was a good combination. The sweetness of the honey mustard glaze went well with the sweet potatoes.

Thank you all for all the great questions on yesterday’s post!  I saw a common theme among a lot of questions: How do I handle cravings?

The answer is simple: I give in to most cravings.

The secret: I do it in moderation.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: denying myself of things is a recipe for disaster. So I follow the 90/10 Rule. 90% of the time I eat everything in moderation. I eat healthy meals, I eat fruits and veggies for snacks. I do eat treats but I make good choices. For example: if I crave chocolate I eat a serving of chocolate chips (about 80 calories). It’s just enough to satisfy the craving. Or I have a Rice Krispie Treat for dessert (90 calories).

Then 10% of the time I let myself enjoy food without beating myself up. For example: going out to dinner or dessert, going wine tasting, beer tasting. For Weight Watchers peeps it’s also called a “cheat day”. That does NOT mean I go hog wild. Far from it!!

When Michael and I go out to enjoy dessert, we’ll split a piece of a cheesecake. Splitting it is just as good as eating the entire slice myself. Tastes the same, the craving is satisfied, but I save money and calories.

QUESTION: How do you like to prepare your salmon?