We got a Y membership. We've been 4 times in the last 5 days. Pretty proud of us. :) Also tired. Sorry so short. ;) #Swole (Google, or better yet, Urban Dictionary it) :P
Monday, March 6, 2017
The Gym
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Weight Watchers Monte Cristo
I've never had a Monte Cristo before. I had no idea what it was, to be honest. But my mom said she liked them, so when a skinny version popped up on my Pinterest I thought I'd give it a try. Turns out, they're pretty good! Basically like a turkey sandwich speed in egg like French Toast! Super tasty! Again, no pictures, we didn't eat dinner that night until after 730 because of our new garage door opener, so we scarfed them down before there was a photo opp. Maybe next time! ;)
Asparagus Pancetta Hash
Sorry again, no pictures. Yesterday was a flurry of activity! Avery didn't feel well Monday so she didn't go to gymnastics. So yesterday was her make-up class. At 4:30. Michael had to get out of work a little early to get her there. While they were gone Connor and I stayed home and played some games, then I made dinner. But halfway through, I realized I forgot to buy asparagus. So I called Michael and he and Avery brought some home from Andover. I finished up sober about the time we were supposed to leave for church. We had to eat in a big hurry. Then we only ended up being about 5 minutes late for kids connect at church. After an hour of that we had choir for another 40 minutes. Thank you, Rosie, for letting us out early! Then back home to get the kids ready for bed. Because we were so rushed, I didn't take a picture, but dinner was good! I used turkey bacon instead of pancetta because I always have it on hand. And russet potatoes instead of Yukon gold because, again, it's what I have on hand. Connor ate it pretty well, Avery ate some. Michael and I really liked it. It would make a great breakfast or brunch recipe too! Enjoy!
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Trending down!
When Michael and I first started losing weight I had all the numbers written down. I knew exactly how many calories we ingested each day. But as time went on I got lazy and knew, but didn't have exact numbers. Then I stopped paying as much attention. I knew I was eating healthy meals, but I didn't keep track of any numbers. I just assumed I was within the 1200-1400 calorie range. I also didn't really count my snacks. If I took a bite or two of this or that, I just ignored it instead of adding it to my daily calorie count (because I want really counting anyway). But the last two days I have counted everything! Including the 1.5 chicken nuggets I finished off the kids' lunch plates and the 8 popcorn chicken that I snacked on while we were shopping last night. I put everything I ingested into my MyFitnessPal App and diligently counted my calories. I must say it helped 2 days ago because I knew I spent all my calories already and it kept me from getting a snack late in the evening even though I desperately wanted one. The last 2 days I have been within 50 calories of my 1200 calorie daily goal. Yesterday morning I was down 0.6 lbs (after a week of barely moving 0.4 lbs up and down), hitting a month-long low. Today I was down another 0.8 lbs (140.2), starting my new month on a low! Yay! I'm feeling much more positive about reaching my goal by my birthday knowing I have 10.2 lbs to go in 5 weeks than a couple days ago when I had almost 12 lbs. Like I said, each day trending down is worth celebrating! Today I'm especially excited! And you can bet I'll be tracking all my calories very carefully for the next week until we leave on vacation. I want to give myself plenty of cushion for vacation!
**Note**
Started this entry yesterday, failed to post. Adding a bit more this morning.
Still headed down!! I was down to 139.6 this morning! Down another 0.6 lbs and only 9.6 to go in the next 5 weeks! I gotta say, tracking the calories really seems to help a lot more. Big shocker there. For three days now I have actively tracked my calories. The first two days I was within 50 calories of my 1200 calorie day. Yesterday I was within 100 calories of my 1200 calorie day. The next 3 mornings I was down 0.6, 0.8, and 0.6 lbs. That's 2 lbs in 3 days!!! If I can maintain that kind of momentum, even vacation can't stop me from reaching my goal! My plan is to keep tracking carefully until Wednesday when we leave for vacation. Hopefully I'll give myself enough of a cushion and we'll be plenty active in Texas, that when we get home and I still have just under a month left to work, that 130 will be attainable. Just wishing I had been carefully tracking my calories a little earlier... Oh well! Shoulda coulda woulda...
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Toddler Friendly Baked Oatmeal Cups
My kids love muffins. We all love oatmeal with various mix-ins as well. So this recipe was a no-brainer. I doubled the recipe so I ended up having 6 muffins of each flavor. So far I've tried two of the four flavors. Both were delicious! The PB&J tasted better, but the Blueberry Almond had fewer calories with a very satisfying crunch and texture. This recipe is incredibly customizable! I look forward to making these again with our own flavor combinations! I also look forward to trying the Strawberry Chocolate Chip and the Carrot Cake flavors in the fridge! Enjoy!
Italian Style Crockpot Roast
No pictures for this recipe, but I highly recommend you try it! The egg noodles make it a little bigger calorie meal, but it felt so deliciously hearty I didn't even care! (And my weight went down this morning, so I kept my daily caloric numbers in check.) ;) As is another crockpot recipe, it's super easy! Slicing carrots was the most time consuming part. I omitted the pepperoncini the recipe called for, but did use the roasted red peppers. I didn't buy the special seasoning the author suggested, but used generous amounts of Italian Seasoning and Garlic Powder instead. Smelled wonderful! Avery liked this recipe. Michael loved this recipe (as did I) and Connor wasn't a fan. Can't win em all. Oh well, Michael and I liked it enough we will definitely have this again! Plus, my roast was too big, so I have enough leftover meat in the freezer to make another half recipe sometime soon! Yum! Check it out!
A month of weight loss
Welp, February is at an end. You'll remember I set myself a lofty weight loss goal at the beginning of the year. 130 by 30. Sends easy enough until you remember I weighed 151.6 at the beginning of the year. The weight has been coming off, but not as fast as I've wanted in order to hit my goal by my birthday. However, every step forward and tenth of a pound lost is a step in the right direction worth celebrating. :) Today I did something I haven't ever done in the last 14 months that I've been weighing myself daily. You see, at the end of each month I keep 4 post-it's of my weight to summarize my month. I keep my starting and ending weights and my high and low for each month. Some months I only keep 3 post- it's if my starting or ending weight is my high or low for the month. This month I only saved 2 post- it's!! My high was the first day of the month, my low was today, the last day of the month! A lot of times I go up sometime during the month and am working my way back down at the end of the month. But this month, despite a couple small ups and downs over the month, I ended at a month-long low! First time ever to start and end on a month-long low. :) I'm at 141.0 this morning. I have 5 weeks and 11 lbs to go. It looks pretty daunting as far as reaching my goal, especially considering we have vacation in a week. But I'm going to keep trying! A little over 10 lbs in 2 months is still huge success in my book considering it took me a year to lose 40 lbs last year. One day at a time. :) Celebrating each successful step along the way! :)
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Star Wars Family Night
Before I get to our new tradition, a little back story...
Michael's birthday is January 5th, 11 days after Christmas. So when Michael's birthday comes we are already broke from Christmas and burnt out from months of holiday celebrations. I tend to not do real well celebrating him (which is why I planned his half birthday surprise last year). This year for his birthday I got him gift cards, sounds lame again, but let me explain... I got him gift cards to Best Buy and Barnes and Noble because they tend to be expensive places and they only sell fun stuff, not stuff we actually need. I wanted him to be able to go and get whatever frivolous stuff he wanted (within reason). From Best Buy he purchased the complete (ish) 6 movie set of Star Wars, episodes 1-6. (I say complete ish because the last 2 years two new Star Wars movies have come out, episode 3.5 - Rogue One, and episode 7 - The Force Awakens)
Fast forward a little, the kids are getting interested in Star Wars, so on Friday nights Michael makes popcorn (Connor helped this time) and we all snuggle up in our big King-sized bed and watch a movie together. It's been so much fun! The kids have a great time and ask a lot of questions. Most of them Michael has to answer as I am not the big Star Wars buff that he is. ;) Love these memory making moments. :)
*Note*
I write this a week ago but apparently I never posted it! Whoops!
Pizza Pasta
We've had this recipe before and I might have even blogged about it before, but I can't remember. Either way, we had it again and our was delicious! This is another one of our favorite healthy meals! No pictures, sorry. :\ Make sure to chop your veggies super fine if you've got a picky eater. ;)
Michael's New Clothes
I mentioned this yesterday, but Michael, the kids and I went shopping this weekend (and again last night) for some new clothes for Michael. It's been ages since we bought him new clothes other than work clothes. His Spring and summer wardrobe needed freshened up, so that's what we did! New shorts, pants, t-shirts, casual button downs, polos, a blazer, shoes, and a belt! Lots of neutral and earth colors so everything can go together, mix and match, like his own capsule wardrobe! I love his new look! He's a little hesitant, but he's always that way with change. ;) I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty of pictures of him in these new clothes soon, especially from vacation! :) I think he looks awesome!
Packing for TEXAS!!!
I'm not sure I've mentioned it on the blog yet, but Michael, the kids, and I are going to Texas two weeks from tomorrow for our family vacation! Michael's Aunt Shanna lives outside of Austin and is willing to host us, so we're headed to Texas! It's been over 10 years since I've been to Texas (outside of the airport), so I'm looking forward to getting back down there. For a bit, when I was a kid, I was going down there every summer. Looking forward to sharing Texas with the kids. Vacation is still a couple weeks away, but I'm already getting excited and packing. Yesterday I packed Avery's clothes. I bagged them in gallon zip lock baggies with socks, underwear, accessories (if necessary), and clothes for each day (and then some). I tend to overpack on long trips because I like for everyone to have options for different activities, weather, and moods. :) Same goes for Michael and I, not just the kids. ;) So Avery is almost completely packed except for shoes and jammies. I'm working on laundry today, Maybe I'll get Connor all packed up today! :D I'm so excited for our trip! More on that later! Lots more blogging to do! ;)
Korean Beef in the Crockpot
No picture for this one either, but it was tasty, easy, Chinese esque and Michael liked it! ;) This was the first time a crockpot recipe ever had me put raw ground beef into the crockpot. I've done it with almost every other meat, but not ground beef. I made a side of rice and a steamer bag of veggies and dinner was done! Easy peasy! You probably have all the ingredients on hand if you're looking for a recipe tonight! Give it a try!
**Note: The link has 6 recipes, the Korean Beef is #2.
Pulled Chicken BBQ Sandwiches
I didn't take any pictures of last night's dinner because pulled Chicken looks just like pulled pork or bbq beef. But since I mentioned it in my last post I thought I'd write a blog about it. ;) There's not much to the recipe. If you've made Crockpot bbq beef or pulled pork, the chicken is basically exactly the same. They had actual measurements for the spices, but I just sprinkled to my hearts content (ended up using more spices, but that's just more flavor). I used a bottle of BBQ sauce from Aldi's that cost $1.19. I used 2 lbs chicken breasts from Walmart for $1.99/lb (Dillons has the same deal in their fresh meat counter). And instead of buns I used my Multigrain bread from Aldi's which is $1.89. So to feed my entire family 2 meals (it made 8 servings) it cost me $7. $0.88/serving! Score! Now if that doesn't illustrate why we're not eating out in the month of February, I don't know what will!! Speaking of February's health and financial goal, for the most part it's been pretty easy, but Sunday when we were at the mall shopping with the kids it was hard telling them no to mall food and pretzels. Fortunately we were there at lunch time, so we loaded them up on samples to tide them over. ;) And didn't spend a dime (on food). Ok, back to the point of this blog... Food was delicious! Here's the recipe:
Water Water Water!!
Good Morning, Friends! I am pleasantly surprised to announce that I am at a new low for my weight this morning! And I owe it all to WATER! To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to weighing myself this morning. While I ate good meals yesterday (roasted green pepper and tomato egg casserole, fish and "chips", and pulled BBQ chicken sandwich) I also snacked (several cups of coffee with creamer, leftover Chinese food, cheese curls, and chips). I was afraid the snacks were going to outweigh my good habits and my weight was going to be up this morning, that's what I'd prepared myself for. But what I failed to mention about my day, was that I drank A LOT of water! Each day I aim for 5-16 oz glasses of water. When I first read the rule of half your body weight in ounces of water I weighed 160 lbs, so I needed 80 oz each day. As my weight had gone down I've kept that goal, knowing if I fall a little short I could still hit my actual goal. Yesterday I weighed 142.8, so I technically needed about 72 ounces. I ended up drinking 112 ounces! Needless to say, I was peeing constantly. Especially because I had the first 48 oz down before 8:30am! So despite the fact that I didn't feel like I made the best food choices yesterday, I drank plenty of water and it seemed to make up for it! This morning I was at 141.6, a full 1.2 lbs down from yesterday and 0.8 down from my low this month! I'm pretty excited! I still have 11.6 lbs to go and only 6 short weeks to get it done before my 30th birthday, but I'm continuing to go down and I'm keeping a good pace, so even if I don't make it for my birthday, I'm proud of the progress I've made and am sure it won't be long after my birthday that I hit that ever elusive 130 lbs. ;) Oh yeah, and if you didn't guess already, I'm drinking lots of water today too! Let's put this water theory to the test! ;) It's currently 7:43am and I've already drank 32 ounces and have refilled cup #3. :) One day at a time, I'm going to get these stubborn fall, winter, and holiday pounds back off! And well before swimsuit season!! :D Have a great day, Friends! I have lots more recipes and updates on life to post, get ready for another busy blog day!
Monday, February 20, 2017
Zoodle Chicken Lo Mein
Yum! Zoodles are so fun and tasty! The kids ate them just like noodles. Be aware that they release a lot of liquid when cooking, so keep your sauce thick and the liquid from the zoodles will thin it. I liked this recipe a lot. Michael enjoyed it as well add he does most Chinese esque recipes. The kids enjoyed it too! Tasty!
Skinny French Onion Soup
I messed up when making this recipe. It called for a teaspoon of sugar or other sweetener. I used a teaspoon of Stevia, it sweetens a lot more than regular sugar. It ended up making my soup sweet, which was weird when I was expecting savory. :\ I'll have to try again. I may omit the sugar all together. Liked good, tasted weird. If you made it correctly I'm sure it would be good. I'll let you know next time I try.
Valentine's Day Dinner
Michael and I decided not to eat out in the month of February for our health and finance goal. That meant Valentine's Day dinner would be at home this year. I didn't want Valentine's Day ruining our diets, so I made healthy recipes. I also didn't want it breaking the budget, so I worked with what I had on hand. Our steaks were compliments of my in-laws who gave us a big assortment of Omaha steak products for Christmas. Our baked potatoes were from that same gift (and we're nice because I didn't have to do anything, although they weren't as great as I would have liked, tasted a little freezery). I had Brussel Sprouts in the fridge already so I made Brussel Sprouts Gratin for our veggie side. They were delicious! As if the steak weren't fancy enough, I wanted shrimp too. ;) So I made Healthy Shrimp Scampi. It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. But it was still ok. I also tried making a dessert, but it didn't work out. :\ Can't win them all. Overall, it was a nice dinner and a great night with my favorite guy!
Fish and "Chips"
I made this recipe for Michael and I on Saturday. I didn't have fresh fish from the farm, so I got some frozen Tilapia at the store. It worked well enough, but fresh bass from the farm is better. Michael wasn't crazy about this recipe. I liked it. He didn't like the parsnip "fries". He expected potato fries and parsnips taste kinda weird. Next time I try this recipe I'll make it with farm fresh fish and I'll make my DELICIOUS sweet potato fries. :) Not giving up on this recipe yet! Also, the homemade Tartar Sauce was great, Michael and I both agreed on that one. :)
Bang Bang Cauliflower
Oh my goodness! This recipe was so good! Michael and I ate an entire head of cauliflower in one sitting because of this recipe! The sauce was awesome and perfect! It was a lot of work breading the cauliflower, but worth it in the end! The recipe says to use half the head of cauliflower, but the egg and breading mixture EASILY coated an entire head of cauliflower. So yummy! If you're trying to substitute cauliflower into more recipes and enjoy Chinese food, you'll like this recipe!
One Sheet Parmesean Pork Chops, Potatoes, and Asparagus
I love one pot meals, but this was my first attempt at a one pan meal. All your veggies and meat are on the same cookie sheet baking together. This recipe was great! Unfortunately, I failed to take a picture of it. We had it Saturday with Sis and Adam when they came over to watch Fences and La La Land (Oscar nominated beat pictures, both stunk in our opinions). Everyone cleaned their plates!! Delish! You know it's good when I have two picky eaters and one sensitive stomach and everyone cleaned their plates! Plus, Michael doesn't like pork, but said he really liked this recipe! Win again!
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