Friday Five

A weekly round-up of tidbits, tips, ideas, news articles, random cool things...

1. Looking for some weight loss surgery friendly St. Patrick's Day good eats? Here are a few of my favorites...

Shelly's Corned Beef & Cabbage Bites

Shelly's Shamrock Shake

Shelly's Pot o' Gold

Shelly's Irish Tortilla Pizza

Shelly's Rainbow Fruit Salad

For the recipes above and even more St. Patty's Day noms click here.

2. You know that makeover contest that Progresso Soup does each year. Well we have a fellow WLS-er in the running. Let's help Cassie E. win! You can vote once a day through March 25th. Oh and when you vote you get a chance to win soup for a year too so... win-win :) I would LOVE to see Cassie get the same VIP treatment I received when I was one of the grand prize winners of the first Souper You® Contest. This year they are headed to Los Angeles and get to go to the finale of "The Biggest Loser."

Video of my makeover day in NYC.
The Trip Details
Progresso Souper You Photos

I am forever grateful for my friends and family that voted and helped to give my Mum (my VIP) and I that AWESOME memory. Good Luck Cassie! I'll be voting.

3. Some articles I read this week that were worth checking out:

Gain Together, Lose Together: The Weight-Loss 'Halo' Effect
Weight Loss: The Biggest Reinvention Of Them All - the article quotes some harsh regain stats.
Gastric Bypass Saved My Life - mine too ;)
Fat-Bashing: An Acceptable Prejudice?

and KUDOS to California for creating a positive and helpful childhood obesity campaign without relying on shaming and stigmatizing. (Georgia, you might want to take notes.)



4. Reminder: Still time to register for the FREE Obesity & Addiction Webinar, #2 in the 14-part webinar series being held on Mar 29, 2012 8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific. If you missed #1 (Intro to the series) click the link and scroll down to archived events.

5. Sunday is the last day to enter the Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway ♧ Click here to add your name in the hat for a chance to win this awesome prize pack...


I am LUCKY to have you guys in my life ♧ Thanks for being on the other end of my ramblings.

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Post Weight Loss Surgery Menus: A day in my pouch

Here's what my yesterday in post weight loss surgery eating looked like...

Breakfast: About once a month or so I just crave a bowl of oatmeal or sooji. I usually jazz it up with some added protein, a few nuts or some powdered peanut butter.

Shelly's Strawberry Shortcake Protein Oatmeal

1/4 cup Quick Oats (I used McCann's Quick Irish Oats)
2 Tablespoons Ground Oats*
3 Tablespoons Protein Powder (any flavor, I used Celebrate ENS Vanilla Cake Batter)
4 oz. Milk
4 oz. Hot Water
Optional toppings: Sugar Free Strawberry Jam, Toasted Sliced Almonds

In a 4 cup measure mix oats, ground oats and hot water. In a blender bottle shaker mix milk and protein till completely combined. Add contents of shaker to oats & water mixture. Mix.

Nuke 2 minutes stirring once at the 1 minute mark. Pour into a bowl. I topped mine with a dollop of Sugar Free Strawberry Jam, Toasted Sliced Almonds and some more Milk.

*To make the ground oats. I grind (in a coffee grinder) a cup or so of oatmeal into "ground oats" that I keep in a Tupperware container for this use, it's also great for adding to meatloaf or meatballs instead of bread crumbs.

Lunch: Spent the morning doing laundry, cleaning, boring stuff like that. I serve on an Obesity Action Coalition committee and we had a conference call so once that was done I packed up my super cool bento box and took off to my outdoor office, a park with free wifi near my house. My work was portable and I hear we are in for a rainy weekend so I wanted to take advantage and soak in the sun and Vitamin D while I could. The walk is nice too about 3 miles total (to the park, around it, and back.)

Pink Box (top left): Shelly's Mini Cheese Stuffed Peppers
Green Box (top right): Shelly's Pina Colada Pudding
Blue Box (bottom left): Shrimp and Cocktail Sauce (in the mini blue container)
Orange Box (bottom right): Salami and Provolone Cheese

The peppers were leftovers from the other night's dinner. So good. I've made a slightly different version of these before. They are great party appetizers and taste GREAT hot, warm or even cold.

Shelly's Mini Cheese Stuffed Peppers

12-14 (approx. 1/2 lb) Baby Bell Peppers, halved (Costco sells 2 lb bags of these)
sprinkle of Kosher Salt
1 Yellow Onion, diced
1/2 cup cooked Sausage, crumbled
1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
1 Tablespoon Fresh Basil, chopped
1/4 cup Italian Blend Cheese, shredded (Mozzarella, Parmesan, Fontina Blend)
1 Tablespoon Parmesan, grated

Half baby peppers and remove seeds. Wash & dry thoroughly. Place on a baking sheet or casserole dish that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray. Sprinkle with Kosher salt. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Saute onion till golden. Add sausage. Cook 1 minute more. Set aside to cool. Mix cooled mixture with remaining ingredients (except Parmesan) till well combined. Spoon mixture into a quart sized Ziploc bag. Seal baggie and snip off one corner to form a piping bag.

Pipe cheese mixture into par-cooked mini peppers. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Return to 350 oven for 30-35 minutes more or until cheese is slightly golden.

the pudding is super easy...

Shelly's Pina Colada Pudding

1 Sugar Free Vanilla Pudding Cup
1 Tablespoon Pineapple, crushed
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Coconut Torani Syrup
1 Tablespoon Unsweetened Coconut, toasted
a few Macadamia Nuts, crushed for top

Mix together till well combined.

More Eggface Bento Lunches

Dinner: I'm on a shrimp kick right now. I grilled some shrimp on the BBQ. Swipe of olive oil, sprinkle of Greek seasonings. Served them on simple salad of romaine lettuce, tomato, feta, a sprinkle of oregano and a dollop of Greek yogurt "dressing" (plain 2% Greek Yogurt, Greek seasoning, salt & pepper to taste)

Ate it while watching American Idol. My early favorites are Phillip-thinks he's Dave Matthews-Phillips and you can't deny that Joshua kid can bring it. Was the whole fly-on-the-wall sent to the Principal's office dealio with the DQ'd contestant necessary. He's gone, that's all we needed to know. Lame.

Are you watching?

Snacks: Too much coffee, my Pina Colada pudding leftover from my Bento from earlier, a Cutie Mandarin, and a sample of Irish cheese and corned beef and cabbage from Trader Joe's when I stopped in to pick up more of my favorite little bento box lunch items.

A tasty day.

Eggface Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway

Are you feeling lucky? ♧

If you are... you'll want to add your name to the hat for a chance to win this AWESOME weight loss surgery friendly pot o' gold.


The Prize: A BIG 3 lb. tub of SEI Nutrition Max Protein in their versatile Vanilla flavor, a 28 oz. Leprechaun Green Blender Ball Shaker, 2 boxes of Sugar Free Pistachio Pudding Mix, 1 - 150 ml bottle of Sugar Free Torani Syrup in Sugar Free Vanilla.

Everything you need to make one of my favorite St. Patrick's Day themed protein shakes.

Shelly's Lucky Leprechaun Protein Shake

1 cup Soy Milk (any milk will do)
1 scoop Vanilla Protein Powder
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Pistachio Pudding Mix, dry
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Vanilla Torani Syrup
a few Ice Cubes

Whiz in blender till smooth. Top with optional squirt of Sugar Free Whipped Cream and a sprinkle of SF pistachio pudding powder.

or if the green of mint is more your thing. Be sure to make my Shamrock Shake knock-off.

Slainte! (Irish cheers: To your health!)

How to Enter: Become a fan of The World According to Eggface on Facebook and then come back here and LEAVE A COMMENT (include a name and an email addy) on this blog posting. Click on # of comments below to leave yours.

Contest periods ends: Sunday, March 18th, midnight (Pacific time)

Monday, March 19th I'll draw a name using a random number generator and announce the winner here on the blog! I will also email the winner at the address posted. You'll have one week (7 days) to respond to my email or another winner will be chosen. One ENTRY per person. Winner must be a Facebook fan of The World According to Eggface. Blog comments are moderated so there may be a slight delay (up to a few hours) in seeing your comment/entry post. Giveaway is open to anyone in the United States (48 contiguous, Alaska & Hawaii.)

***Want extra chances to win?*** Do anything listed below and leave me a comment letting me know what you did! For up to four more entries per person!!

* Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway: Hey everyone enter the @Eggface Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway ♧ http://tinyurl.com/7ryjvr2

* Post about the giveaway to your pals on Facebook or some other social networking or support forum you frequent or pin this or another favorite Eggface recipe.

If you are a blogger:

* Blog about this giveaway and include the link to the contest (send me the url so I can enjoy your post!)

* Place my super snazzy badge on your site.



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Healthy Party Recipe: The Rainbow Connection

This gorgeous rainbow of fruit with Greek yogurt dip was part of our delicious, weight loss surgery friendly, super healthy St. Patrick's Day themed brunch this morning.

Red Strawberries
Orange Cantaloupe and Mandarin segments
Yellow Pineapple
Green Grapes
Purple Blackberries
in the "Clouds" Banana and Shelly's Nutty Leprechaun Yogurt Dip

Shelly's Nutty Leprechaun Yogurt Dip

1/2 cup Greek Yogurt (I used plain, 2%)
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Torani Syrup (I used SF Almond but any flavor will do)
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Pistachio Pudding Mix, dry
a sprinkle of toasted Almonds

Mix yogurt, syrup and pudding mix till well combined. Top with nuts. Serve with fruit chunks, or skewers, pour over fruit for a great fruit salad dressing or made into parfaits.

Bariatric Surgery Pals: You can certainly add a few tablespoons of your favorite protein powder to it too.

I just finished freezing some of the leftover fruit for protein shakes later on this month.