Mmmmmm

The only thing good about this heat is that I am too hot to pig out as usual! Today's snack was raspberries, mango, and blueberries with a dash of honey.

We lunched on Little Squuezers pizza and then dinner at Red Lobster.
Yes I know eating out way too much and not really exercising at all. Oh well, I'll get back into it soon.

Birthday boy!

Charlie turned two today!

Smoothies

On the menu this morning: toast and smoothies!

Our smoothies consist of whatever is in the fridge at the time.
Today was:

Almond milk
Blueberries
Peach Oikos yogurt
Mango
1tsp sugar

Yummy!

Days

The days are starting to run together since I am jobless. Yesterday the kids had a play doh session then we were basically outside swimming and doing sparklers the test of the night.

Today we ran a few errands then found a shaded park! Of curse the benches for moms were in full sun though.

Monday errands

Today we slept in ( the kids are truly learning!) and then headed out for errands at noon after we turned off the air. We tried a Greek Gyro place that was okay but no kid friendly items other than the cannoli.

Then we headed to Lowe's for wood for a project Chad is doing in the office. Lowe's ended abruptly when I picked up Charlie and got a handful of poop. ALL OVER MY HANDS. A quick change and outfit throw away on the tailgate and off to WalMart for ice cream. Then a mad dash home before it melts. We decided we must invest in a cooler to keep in the trunk as our freezer bags won't cut it for the frozen items. Our chicken nuggets were almost dethawed last trip by the time we got home.

We came home and napped, ate, then tat up!

Look what I found for a dry rack? Two over the door shoe racks for $1!!!
SCORE!

Healthy Eating - YUMO!

I'm in a BIGGEST LOSER challenge at work (as are most folks in January let's face it!) and so am doing my best to CRUSH the 150lb wall that has been firmly placed on my muffin top since having babies.

I've committed to my weekly goal of working out MINIMUM of 4 times a week and have done it so far but the eating is well.....a work in progress.

Today I tried to mimic my friend Kelli's DELICIOSO spinach/strawberry salad without actually having to have any culinary skills and I'll say I did pretty alright.

For roughly 120 calories you get this great lunch.

What was in my bowl?

3 CUPS of spinach (YES THAT MUCH!)

1 oz almonds

Strawberries (and later some grapes I had), about 1/2 cup

1 TBS or so of Trader Joe's Ginger Soy Sesame salad dressing (35 calories per tablespoon so I may just pile it on next time!)

Success? I think yes!

Now on to kickboxing this afternoon for a sweat sesh before the hubby takes the fam out to Mexican and Menards.....oh the exciting life we live.  Off to finish some trim work and ceiling painting before our big open house this weekend!  Are you in the market?  Please buy our house!

Oh Mexican....it is my downfall but I love it so.

I'm sticking with the steak tacos or fajitas with only 2 tortillas.  Sans Pepsi.

Any healthier options you know of?

Back In the Saddle AGAIN....

Tonight is my first night dedicated to my health.  I've signed up for a 5 weeks course at Max Life Fitness (thanks to Living Social it was about 75% off!!).  In light of that I'm also trying to do my best at changing my eating habits, which is my downfall to my gut.  So....I've signed up for a daily email and thought I'd share this amazing information with you this morning.  I'm also going to start updating you on my progress with this 40 day challenge. 



Today's daily email consisted of information on scary ingredients into our food.  We all know processed foods in general are scary and if you can't pronounce it its probably bad for you.  This one stood out to me.  Nitrates.  Coming from Iowa I know that something farmers use on their crops to make them grow and things that pollute the water and you don't really want to eat them.  But...I AM!!! Gross. 

"Scary Ingredient #13: Nitrates and nitrites

 Nitrogen-based compounds that are essential for digestion in small amounts. They occur naturally but are synthetically produced for use in fertilizer and as food additives. They’re commonly used to cure processed meats.

Why they’re scary: Nitrates and nitrites have a tendency to fuse with amino acids to become carcinogenic nitrosamines. Ironically, the processed meats into which nitrates are commonly added are rich with amino acids, making nitrosamine formation very likely. In addition to concerns about cancer, increased nitrate and nitrite intake has been linked to deaths in Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s patients. Despite the risks, the valuable use of nitrates and nitrites as inhibitors of botulism warrant their acceptance as food additives in the eyes of the FDA.

Where you’ll find it: Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Hormel bacon, Hillshire Farm deli meat"

To read all 15 scary ingredients click HERE

I feel bad letting the kids survive on hot dogs, bacon and deli meat when I am too lazy can't think of anything else to make for breakfast lunch snack dinner.  I'm definitely going to try to make a change or at least a brand change here.  YUCK.

Stove Top Stuffing made it twice on their list of 15 scary ingredients so we may also be leaning towards steering clear of that one. 

Does this Nitrate information surprise you? What ingredient have you learned about lately that grossed you out that you want to share with us!

Have you tried Max Life or an intense workout program like it?  Any hints or ideas you want to share with me before I get there? 

HELP!!! I need good for you/easy to make lunches!

I'm doing my best to eat the healthiest possible breakfasts and lunches since we tend to have kamikaze type dinners at home and so logically most of my calories for the day should be saved for dinner (I KNOW I KNOW it really should be breakfast but this gal likes to sleep as much as possible and getting up an hour earlier to do a homemade healthy meal WON'T happen).

I'm also looking forward to teaching the kids not to be glutenous.

So...IDEAS PLEASE!! 

I've been trying to do a meal plan but its kind of hard as I generally do it around the food we already have instead of the grocery buying around the plan.  I buy what's on sale and that's what I eat that week.  I tend to take a lot of the dinners things as leftovers, which is not that great since dinners are the high calorie content meal of the day.

I also work from home two days a week so that makes more intense cooking type breakfasts and lunches possible on those days.  A sneak peak at my yesterday and today for you:

In office work day Tuesday (usually its a home day):

Breakfast: Plum, Water (I usually like to eat more but got busy at work and forgot! SCORE)

Lunch: Lg organic salad w/FatFree Italian dressing & Full Fat Ranch (I mix these to try to use less Ranch.  Sometimes it actually works.), Yoplait yogurt cup, about 5 baby carrots with Ranch Dip (I KNOW but we had to use it from the fridge and being a penny pincher I just couldn't throw this fat laden thing away), Pepsi Max.  (Hey is zero calorie. Improvement)

Dinner:  3 breaded fish patties (larger version of fish sticks), horseradish dipping sauce (better than tartar sauce right?), spaghetti noodles w/EVOO & Parm cheese, 1% milk.

Today (in office)

Breakfast: cottage cheese w/tomatoes & black pepper, finish Pepsi Max.

Lunch: deli chicken & roast beef on wheat w/avocado, tomatoes & squeeze of Mayo.  Grape/strawberry salad, Baked Pita Chips, water.  Its so boring I want to drive to Taco Bell and get something else.

Dinner:  Ask the cook not me!

(Seriously.  I'm not cooking anything.  If its my night we're having chef salads or cereal.)

Office goodies that I am leaving in the fridge in an attempt to eat healthier when wanting a snack: cottage cheese, tomatoes, baby carrots, vanilla wafer cookies (I KNOW! I'm a child!)

So please share.  What works for you? Do you menu plan around groceries or grocery shop around your menu? Please give me an example, recipes anything!

Healthy Dessert? IT IS POSSIBLE

My sister turned me on to this recipe (weird I know I said recipe right?).  I tried it with Launa in lieu of ice cream and it was a big hit.  I gave Charlie a few bites and he ended up eating my entire portion.  If he wasn't so cute and smiley I would have been mad.  So here is a somewhat healthy dessert you can cook up for the fam this week:

1 frozen banana (I'd say at least 1/2 a banana per person eating)
2 squirts squeeze caramel (or chocolate, or peanut butter, or whatever you fancy)
dash of milk

Put all of this into your blender for 2-3 minutes and WHOLLA you have an ice cream texture like dessert with minimal fat.  The kids barely knew it was healthy!

Happy eating!

A Sam's Club Run saves

Frugal Tip for the month:  Baby Food.

MAKE YOUR OWN YOU IDIOT!

Making baby food is one of the simplest and easiest ways to save on costs of those cute little bundles of joy.  Here are tips of my process you may want to consider installing into your monthly routine.

First, check your local freecycle, craigslist, or daycare for empty jars of baby food that you can have. 

ZERO DOLLARS investment AND environmentally friendly.

Next, I had my sissy take me to our local Sam's Club (or any bulk store in your area) and I purchased both of these cans for around $6.  (None of the fresh fruits and veggies looked okay to me this time).  Ideally this would be best if you had your own garden and could eat from your own plot, however with the one tomato plant I attempted to grown (and from which not one tomato grew and even the bugs thought it was too sad and dead to try to eat it away for me), I've all but given up on food gardening.  Maybe someday I'll resume when the hubbs will help since he is a food connoisseur.

Ok digress....two huge cans for around $6. 

Open and drain all juices.  These are extra salty, sugary, etc.  Your baby doesn't need them.

Pour in blender (I kept some aside for sides at dinners and lunches for the toddler and adults). 

The pears had enough juice to sustain the blender.  If you need to add any juices to veggies I always use V8 instead of the juice in the cans.  Its chalked full of salt. 

Any wal-la you have.......

126.5 ounces of servings (roughly 19 dinners for the baby) and 6 sides for dinners for the adults/toddler.

The average US wide cost of baby food is $.60 per 6 ounce jar.  This would have cost me $12.65 in baby food and about $4.00 in adult canned veggies.  I paid $6.00, or saved $10.65 AT MINIMUM.  I've never really priced baby food because this way works for us.

Ice cube and muffin tin trays are AWESOME for freezing baby food (or breast milk!) and  you don't have to spend money on the freezer bags.  One cube or small muffin tin is about 1 ounce of food/milk.  Just pour, cover in Saran Wrap, pop out when frozen, and store in a Ziploc or container of your choice.  I've also just left them in the trays of I'm not going to be making up any other food for awhile.

Don't hesitate to save any dinner leftovers either.  I've blended up left over Mac & Cheese, Beef Stroganoff, squash, etc.  If you just blend what the adults eat that will give you even more savings! 

Super easy and a huge savings.

On a related note, I found an article about the cost, labeling, and nutritional facts of store bought baby food vs homemade.  Check that out HERE.

Blowin up....

So MyFitnessPal.com account is probably blowin up today with the calorie counting.  The GENEROUS folks at work also brought in a plate of holiday cookies (as did I this morning) so the kitchen at work looks similar to this:

And my office looks similar to this....

I went to the kitchen to get a fork to eat my spaghetti for lunch.  I returned to my office with a plate and two sugar cookies.  Sans fork.  So I had to walk back to the kitchen for the forgotten fork.  I'm positive it looks like I'm getting a cookie every time I go over there.  'Cause I am.

YIKES.

I have a love hate relationship with cookies. 

Comfort food....

Italian is the perfect excuse for wine right?

Ok so maybe that's not the greatest Italian Dish.

Or the smallest glass of wine.

But that's how I roll.

Cooking Attempt #1

I've decided I need to step up my wifely duties and attempt to cook once in awhile for the family.  Okay cook beyond using the microwave.  I went to the new Trader Joe's with my sister and got the ingredients for BBQ Chicken Pizza.  How hard can it be with already made dough and left over chicken to use right?

First, I carmelized the onions [first time ever! Go Me!]

Next we rolled out the already made pizza dough onto our cookie sheet [hey we don't own a round pizza pan okay?] And YES we are using a breastpump bottle as our roller since we don't own one of those either.  Darn drawer clean out for the garage sale last year!

Top with sauce, onions, chicken and cheese.....

Pair with milk and a salad [since pizza and salad are one of my most favorite meals]...

And...DRY AS A BONE.  I think I used to much flour when rolling out the crust then not enough sauce.  The chef [aka Husband] said next time maybe coat the chicken in sauce and use sauce as the base.  Well the salad was good.

FAIL.

Better luck next time.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

Me - Honey can we stop by Hy-Vee after dinner to get a few sale things.

Honey - Sure.

Me - Launa let me take a picture with this receipt for my blog so people can see how daddy goes overboard.

AHHHH!!!!

*Imagine receipt going all of the way to the floor.  SOMEONE had to help fold it up at the store so its a little crinkled.

This fine Thursday...

Here's a low down of our day....

I was awaken at 4:30 by Little Man but after a diaper change and hogging down a few ounces of milk he freshly went back to sleep until 7:30!  We NEVER sleep that late so rushed to get to preschool by 8:30 after breakfast, pumping, getting dressed, etc.  My papa helped get my car to the local car repair place for an oil change this morning and then we decided to head to breakfast.  After all this is my work from home day so I get to make my own schedule!  Woot Woot!  Well there a whole THREE Options in our town for breakfast: Caseys, Kum and Go, or Subway.  We opted for the obvious choice: Subway.  I decided to do the healthiest thing I could find: wheat muffin with Western Omlet (egg white, onions, peppers, tomato and a little mayo).  Sans drink since I hate coffee and the other option was soda for breakfast.  Pretty tasty sammy!

The rest of the morning I worked while Little Lady was at school.  Then we had to drive my dad to the doctor since he isn't supposed to be driving after shoulder replacement surgery and he was likely to be sore after the doctor moves it all around at the appointment.  So....we ate in the car.

I brought my own water to save some calories on the soda.  However, grandpa got a strawberry malt...and while he was in the doctor.....lets say I NEED TO WORK OUT.

We went home and worked some more.  Prepared for a craft show Saturday.  Ate dinner. 



The husband tried to doctor the Hamburger Helper up but its just not good. EVER.  I told him to stop buying it to try.  I'd rather just eat cereal.

The we did baths and I put on the Jungle Book and finished working.

Overall a blah day and night.  I'm going to attempt to workout still if I get done working at a decent time. Otherwise I'll have to do double tomorrow night. 

Imagine if my life was a reality show?  BORING.  We'd be cancelled after the first episode.

On a SWEET note.  We booked a KID FREE vacation in February and I'm stoked!



My Day....

 Today was my work from home day but due to computer issues that weren't fixed until mid afternoon I got a lot of organizing, cleaning, laundry, and ebaying done!  So I am up late doing actual work now but taking a break to blog.

I'm doing my best to eat healthy at home (that seems to be my weak link not work).  I'm also trying to get in more exercise than just my Wednesday night class (this is THE CLASS I never miss for some reason).  So here is how my day went for my tummy:

Breakfast:  Cinnamon Oatmeal add raisins, milk

Snack:  Water & Half off a Cookie and Cream Hershey's Bar (I FORGOT I LOVE THESE UNTIL TODAY.  BOO ON YOU HALLOWEEN CANDY BOWL.)

Lunch: Carrots, Chili w/cheese & onions, Pepsi

Snack: 2nd half of Cookies & Cream candy bar (OOPS...OK NOT REALLY LOVED EVERY SINGLE BITE OF IT)

Dinner: PBJ, Oranges, water (Hubby wasn't home to cook but Little Lady scarfed this down.  We NEVER have PBJ)

Between cranky baby and trying to get work done (oh and dog running away. AGAIN), I managed to get 20 minutes on the Gazelle.  Hey its a start!

Night Y'all!

Food Log

I'm thinking if I do some food logging I can eat healthier...we'll see how it goes.  I'm not sure I can do a nightly post as my sister does HERE, but I'll do my best. 

Tuesdays are work from home days so generally leads to worse eating for me with the entire kitchen in my reach all day long.

Breakfast: Cottage cheese with tomatoes and black pepper, water (To die for)

Lunch: Mac and Cheese with fish sticks, milk

Snackety Snacks: Halloween Candy (GET IT OUT OF THE HOUSE ASAP!) Pepsi

Last night was weekly Biggest Loser watching (RIP Anna...you crybaby), so our healthy dinner was made by Matt and Lindsey - THANK YOU FOR THE FEAST!  Check out photos HERE.  Yes I had seconds. And thirds.  But just LAT [Lettuce, Avocado, Tomato] for those helpings so that makes it better right? RIGHT?

No workout for me Tuesday. Boo.  I did take the stairs 5 flights down at the part time job so that counts right? RIGHT?  Ok so I worked out for what 10 seconds? I'll shoot for 20 next week.

GUEST POST: Ginger's Goodies is HERE!

Hi all! My name is Darcy and I blog over on Ginger's Goodies! it's a work in progress and really new but I'm pretty prouds of that little gem over there...go take a look! It's all about my journey to a new fit lifestyle, food, friends, family, and my puppy dog. Ok he may be a old dog but man is he cute or what?

I am Sara's younger sister and this year I have recently changed my way of living to shed some unwanted and unhealthy weight. So far so goo: as of Wednesday's Weigh In I am down 32.8lbs! I am happy with that, I know it could definately be more but it could also be less so it is what it is!

Overall, this weight loss has been through eating healthier and exercising a lot more, ok exercising at all! I started by just doing a half hour on my gazelle while I watched my DVR'd shows. Then I gradually moved it up to an hour and sometimes I will walk on my lunch breaks. The eating is really where I struggle. Or should I say drinking. I am a VERY social person and I love cooking for peeps, hosting parties, and enjoying adult beverages from time to time. It is really hard for me to not to go to a social event if I am invited so I've been able to at least maintain the weight loss through exercise and stil be able to go out so I appreciate that. What works for me won't for everyone so the KEY is to find what does work for you and WORK IT to acheive the goals that you want, be it weight loss, career goals, financial goals, whatev. JUST START DOING IT!

Last night, I walked in from grocery shopping and morphed into Martha Stewart! I baked up 2 batches of cookies(one good and one fail: I think I put too much baking sodaor too much vanilla, I guess I should measure!) but the first batch is pretty delicious and Sara and I have thought about it for awhile:

White Chocolate and Craisin Cookies
Makes 44-1 ounce cookies

Mix the following ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup/stick butter flavored Crisco
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Then add:

• 2 C flour(one cup at a time unless you want a flour storm!)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Then add:

• 1 C white chocolate baking chips
• 3/4 C craisins

Stir. Bake at 375 degree for 8-12 minutes. They were perfect in my oven at 10 minutes 45 seconds :)

The cookie batter is actually off a chocolate chip cookies recipe from my friend Amy. The cookies are also delectable but I wanted to incorporate just a tad of healthy into it. The craisins count right? :)

Either who, this is a great indication of how my life is going right now. I can workout for an hour or more a day and eat healthy then call it a night with a great cookie recipe! It's really all about moderation folks. Except for boxed wine....

Thanks for reading!