Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Two Firsts

Just a quick post tonight!! Today was the first day of school for the girls, early morning means early to bed…for us all! lol ;) This morning went off without a hitch and they had a great day, so proud of them..wish they would grow up a little slower, though!
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Jumping to dinner, I made their favorite! Stuffed Potato Skins with broccoli and black forest ham…mmmmmm!
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Now I’m off on my first run in the couch to 5k plan before putting the girls to bed!   
Wish me luck!!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Ready or Not!

First of all I want to shout out a huge thank you to everyone that has encouraged and inspired me to start running. I have enjoyed reading all your comments and have taken everyone’s advice. Follow a program and start slow, just what I am going to do. Couch to 5k seems to be the most popular so that’s what I’ll be starting with tomorrow! Can’t wait to get started, I’m so excited and nervous! I know it’s going to be tough especially starting a new program the same week the kiddos are heading back to school and my daycare has started back up but I think I can manage to find 20 minutes and I’m hoping the energy will follow! I’ve put my Couch to 5k Plan on my Workout page, on a couple of  the rest days I will still be doing 30 Day Shred or video of some sort,  just because I really enjoy them! That is if I can walk, I can hardly walk from my run yesterday so I’m guessing I didn’t do enough stretching after wards! Live and learn, I suppose! ;) “Pain is fear leaving the body” Jillian Michaels. In my case I hope that’s true! lol
So for breakfast I had a bowl of mixed cereals and banana.
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Lunch was yogurt, fruit and granola…forget to take a pic!
Afternoon snack was two Wasa multi grain crackers with Laughing Cow cheese, grapes and carrots!
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Dinner was a delicious quesadilla! Here are some of the veggies…I cooked the red onion down slowly till they were a golden brown, nice and sugary! :D
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I added some feta, leftover chicken from last night and sliced tomatoes.
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Well tomorrow is the first day of school for my girls, 6th grade and 1st grade. They are excited and nervous and completely bummed that summer is over! I am expecting a lot of getting out of bed for water, belly aches and the like! :( 
“Night!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

A First and Leftovers

Did everyone have a great weekend, it went by way too fast if you ask me! I really enjoyed the day around the pool with the girls, can’t believe they are headed back to school  on Tuesday!
This morning I woke up before everyone and decided to sneak out of the house without the dogs and go for an early morning walk. Only my walk turned into a run!!! I was shocked, it wasn’t a lot but it was a start. I’ve always wanted to start running but fear has been stopping me for some reason. So out of the blue I got off my street and just ran until I got tired,which was about 15 minutes, walked a little and started running again, I did this for about 30 minutes. Hoping I will be able to walk in the morning, I did a lot of stretching when I got back home.  lol Does anyone have any programs to suggest to me, I’ve heard about couch to 5k…I need to get on some sort of schedule. Although I only have  a few months before the snow arrives and I don’t own a treadmill. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)
So for breakfast I toasted a whole wheat bagel thin and topped it with Barney almond butter, my granola and sliced banana, it was soooo good!!!
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Lunch was a nice big salad
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For an afternoon snack I had some fresh fruit with plain greek yogurt and a half of larabar (hubby was a recipient of the other half) ;)
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And dinner was a rotisserie chicken I picked up at the market and some leftover pasta and veggies…
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Heading to bed early, the sun completely drains me!
‘Night!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Perfect Ending…

What a gorgeous day, if I could bottle it up and save it forever I would!!!
I slept in little this morning so I had a late breakfast of cereal and fruit. I could hardly wait for lunch, leftover buffalo chicken pizza!!!! Even better the next day!!! :)
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Dinner was light and easy!! I made Lemon Pasta with Veggies. I cooked some whole grain penne in a large pot, during the last 3 minutes of cooking I threw in some broccoli, asparagus and zucchini, easy trick to save time and dishes!! I hate doing dishes, my hubby does them for me most of the time, teamwork works well with us!! ;) Back to the recipe…in a large pan I heated some olive oil, red pepper and garlic slices, a lot! Once the pasta is done, toss it in with the garlic oil and squeeze the juice of 2 lemons, add basil, chopped tomatoes and parmesan cheese! That’s it, soooo easy!! You can also add chicken or shrimp!
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Since we had such a light dinner I thought it would be fun to have a little indulgence tonight, this time I had the girls in mind! See if you can guess, I’ve give you a hint…it involves a nice roaring fire…
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If you guessed s’mores your right…kinda! We jazzed them up a little bit by changing the graham crackers to chocolate chip cookies and added some peanut butter!  I only got one good pic before my battery died! Boooo!! But they were a huge hit with the girls!!
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A perfect ending to a perfect day! :D
‘night!

Fresh Out Of The Oven…

Mmmmmm, my house right now smells like a blend of  roasted nuts, sweet fruit and maple syrup!  That’s just what you get when you bite into one of Ellie Krieger’s Energy Bars…again, very easy and delicious!
Click here for the full recipe
Here’s some of the  dry ingredients, almonds, raw sunflower seeds, oatmeal, toasted wheat germ and a mixture of dried fruit.
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One of my favorite maple syrups
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After processing all the ingredients… I didn’t completely process the mixture, I like to see what’s in my bars!!
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Press into a prepared 9x13 baking pan and bake for 20 minutes
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Fresh out of the oven, I let them completely cool and cut them into bars a little bigger than a larabar. For some reason the one in the picture below looks a lot larger than it actually is…
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The recipe makes 24 bars, I wrap them up individually and store them in the freezer. Perfect to grab quickly before heading out the door!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday!!! :)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Happy Friday!!!

Happy Friday and hello weekend!!! :) We are at the beginning of a gorgeous weekend here in MA, going to try and make the most of it since Fall is fast approaching and this is our last stress free weekend before the girls head back to school!
Didn’t get a workout in this morning, decided to do a major cleaning of my house instead, somehow having  a clean and organized house makes for a happy mom and everyone knows when mom’s happy….everyone is happy! :D
Breakfast was a bowl of cereal; Kashi Go Lean and Multi Grain Cheerios with Almond Milk and fruit. Morning snack was a banana.
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I made myself another not-so-boring lunch= parfait
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And for my favorite meal of the day!!! Pizza, of course since it’s Friday!!! Tonight I made Tina’s (Carrots N Cake) Buffalo Chicken Pizza. Holy hot and delicious!!!! I am a sucker for buffalo chicken so I had to give this pizza a try and it is a-mazing!!! 
Here’s the before: Boneless chicken cooked in a little butter and lots of Frank’s hot sauce. Dough was spread with ranch dressing some mozzarella cheese and scallions then topped with chicken, drizzled with Frank’s and topped off with the rest of the mozz cheese and scallions.
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Here it is right off the grill! I hate heating my house up in the summer so I put my pizza’s on a pizza stone and put it on the grill over indirect heat. Pizza comes out perfect every time!
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Can’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!!
Thank you, Tina for a super- delicious- hot pizza!!! =D>

Since our girls don’t like the hot sauce they made their own cheese pizza tonight. I love going to BJ’s Wholesale and buying the Boboli Pizza Kits. The kit includes 8 personal mini pizza crusts with individual sauce packets for $7.99!! Not bad, right?! I throw them all in the freezer and take them out as needed.
So here they are putting their own personal touches on their pizzas…
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Two satisfied customers…pizza makes everything better in our family! :)

What are some of your family’s favorite pizza toppings?

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Sunshine n’ Baking

It’s amazing how a little sunshine can completely lift your spirits and make the world a better place! Yes, it has finally stopped raining and the sun is here to stay for the weekend! :D
After my “way to early” workout this morning I made myself an egg, bacon and tomato bagelwich (I used a bagel thin) and it was pretty good!
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I was in the mood for baking today so I made some of Ellie Krieger’s Nutty Granola. Totally addicting and delicious! Click here for her recipe!
Oats, chopped nuts and dried fruit of your choice…
DSC04682                                       Mix it all up with some maple syrup, cinnamon and a pinch of salt
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Spread on a baking sheet and bake  in a  300 degree oven for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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You can store this granola in the fridge for 2 weeks….mine never lasts that long!! ;) 
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I decided to make my boring lunch no so boring today!  How? Well by making it into a parfait!! lol :)
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I layered my Chobani yogurt with granola and fruit, I have to say it tasted much better eating it like this that eating it out of a plastic container and sitting by the pool didn’t hurt much either! ;)
Dinner was light, simple and casual…my favorite kind!
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A blt in a whole wheat wrap with baked rosemary fries, yum!!!
Hope everyone had a great day, can’t believe the weekend is already here!!!!

‘Night

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Back to the Grind

Today I welcomed back one of  my daycare kids. She brought me a wonderful surprise, just what I needed on a rainy, Wednesday morning!

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Because I’m a bag-a-holic she brought me a Life is Good tote, a pink pen with a “K” and a yummy bag of peanut butter chocolates that I immediately hid in the freezer from hubby for emergency purposes only! It’s hard to get back in the grind after not doing daycare during the summer so this was a great way to start the week off! :)

After my early morning workout I chow’d down a bowl of cereal with fruit and soon after had a larabar, chocolate coconut chew…not bad.

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During naptime I cleaned out the fridge, it’s Wednesday after all and I was planning on getting to the grocery store before summer. I like to take stock to see what I have, is low on and need to get. I HAVE to plan out my dinners and write a list, if not I get home from shopping and I don’t have nearly what I need! As you see in my previous post today, I love to cut out coupons and get the most for my money, it really does add up and some weeks I can save between $20-25 dollars. That’s a post for another day! ;)

Lunch was the usual, Chobani Yogurt, fruit and a cheese stick.

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Dinner was even more boring! I guess I’d rather have boring rather than stopping on my way home and picking up fast food like I used to after doing groceries!

Italian Wedding Soup, whole wheat wrap spread with hummus and brown rice chips…

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…perfect night for soup, just wish it was homemade! lol

I have a date with hubby, the couch and our dvr!

‘night!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

My oldest daughter, Kailey who is 11 years old was out to lunch with her friend Annie and her mom. How funny is this, she took pictures of what she ate and sent them to my phone!! :)) Possible future Food Blogger?? lol

Here’s her salad, so proud!! :)

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Here’s her entree Ribs, potatoes and broccoli*GetAttachment.aspx

*note, the broccoli hasn’t been touched :(  hahaha

 

As for me, it’s STILL raining!!!  Mother nature has a sick sense of humor!!!

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Perfect day for cutting out coupons and getting some groceries!

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Hope everyone is enjoying their day!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Comfort Food

Happy Monday!! Hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was rainy and it’s still raining…that only means one thing, comfort food!!!
This morning I worked out, I am on day 23 of my 30 day shred!! Feeling great, just wish I saw more of a difference in my muscle tone. Patience…I have none! lol For breakfast I had Multi Grain Cheerios and Kashi GO Lean with some strawberries. And for a snack I had a Kashi bar, Honey Almond Flax…
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For lunch I made a hummus, tomato and basil sandwich on whole wheat roll along with some carrot/celery sticks and brown rice chips. And for my afternoon snack I had a handful of almonds, grapes and laughing cow cheese…
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By dinnertime I was craving some comfort food, with all this cool rainy weather we have been having so for me that’s a big ol’ serving of pasta with lots of tomatoes, garlic and basil and garlic bread, of course! :)
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I had 2 servings and NO SALAD!!!  Just sayin’!! ;)
Tomorrow will be the last day I have quality time with my girls,  day care kids are back on Wednesday and they start back to school next week! :(  Booooo!!!!

What is your favorite comfort food?

 


‘Night