An Ad for Exercise

Wow, I didn't realize I haven't posted for such a long time. I have no projects to report nor recipes to review today (at least not right now). 

 Instead, I just wanted to share a success. That little box full of Xs is proof that I finished an exercise program! Now, lest you be too impressed, I did not do my 30 days of the "30 Day Shred" consecutively.  There is speculation as to exactly how it should be done. Some people say everyday for 30 days, others are of the a few times a week camp, and in a few places I have read that Jillian herself said it wasn't intended to be every day, but more like 2 days shred, 1 day cardio, repeat and then rest. Whatever the truth may be, I started a lot more consistent and felt I wasn't progressing and just hurt, so I dropped down to 3 times a week about halfway through it all. On level 3 I never could do all the "Natalie" moves, but still felt like I was getting my butt kicked. Maybe when I go for another round of this in the future I can handle the jump-training a bit better.

One of my favorite parts about doing the "30 Day Shred" besides the obvious physical benefit was my partner in crime. My 2.5 year old was super into it. She loved turning on the ceiling fan for me and getting sips out of my water "bottle" (it's a collapsible one called a Platypus and I LOVE it.) She loved talking to me about "the girls." Jillian and Anita were fine and all, but her favorite was Natalie, especially when she would occasionally talk. Some days she'd also exercise with me. On one particular day, still pajamas clad, she requested a ponytail on top of her hear like mine, got her socks and shoes on, and made herself some weights out of Trios. (I semi-stealthfully too this blurry pics that morning while trying to do my own exercises!)

And then she got her shred on. There were some exercises she liked better than others (don't we all?), but was always adorable, especially with that skiwampus form that kids have for proper exercises. One day in between my shredding days, I did a Pilates DVD and my daughter was NOT happy and said that is was not exercise. When I later showed her another Jillian DVD I had gotten from the library she was very excited, especially to find out who the two girls in the background were!

Today was the first Monday in a long time that I didn't start out sweating alongside my DVD player and Jillian Michaels tough, but also encouraging, love. Instead I hit the pavement to continue prepping for the long journey of training for a marathon this fall. The nice morning air sure beats the stagnant torture of a treadmill. Exercise-wise, running has always been my first love. I'm not great at it, but it makes me feel good. And I've been super proud of myself. My husband kindly laughs as I keep telling him how proud I am of my exercise habits. So, if you know you need to start exercising (and we all should be), let me be proof that even though it is hard at the start, it gets easier and more awesome. 

Once while running awhile back, I realized as I felt my muscles working hard and my lungs and heart really pumping, that exercise is really what our bodies were made for. It was sort of a silly epiphany, but it has changed the way I look at exercise. It makes it better and easier in some way.

(Extra info - I love keeping track of my exercise type, minutes, and distance if applicable on a spreadsheet. I'm sort of a little nuts about it, but there's something awesome about seeing it all logged in. I also use SparkPepople to track my exercise, though not always. If I'm on counting calories mode, I use it religiously for food and exercise.)

Recipe Review #11

These three recipes should fulfill your breakfast, lunch and dinner needs.

Let me start with saying I don't love oatmeal. I am trying to like it more because I know it is good for me, so I thought that this recipe for Overnight Oatmeal from The Yummy Life looked like an interesting one to try.

She has several versions and I went for the Apple Cinnamon variety. I don't have chia seeds, but I do have flax, so I just added those instead. Also, I just used regular and not Greek yogurt.

You are probably wanting to know how it tasted. Well, It was cold oatmeal, so that was a bit weird, but I still sort of liked it. I have only made it that one time (and this was actually months ago), but have recently thought about making it again, perhaps trying other flavors.

I have found a few recipes from Our Best Bites that I like, including this Caribbean Salad. I'll admit that the picture just looked pretty too and that alone made me want to try it before even reading the recipe.

Mine is not as beautiful, but it was mighty tasty. Instead of black sesame seeds, we just used the regular ones that we had.

The recipes suggests craisins or dried cherries. I chose the cherries because they sounded like a better match. The salad was really good and now that I am staring at it, I think I might add it to my list of meals to make in April. (Again, this was made months ago, I just am now getting around to doing a write-up.)

I'm always excited when I find a crockpot recipe that works. This potato soup from Plain Chicken has easily become a favorite. You don't need a lot of ingredients and the soup really is so good.

Though the recipe calls for hash browns, I have used a variety of frozen potatoes, including tater tots. I'm actually planning of using regular potatoes the next time I make it. The soup turns out really creamy, but not too rich. The added toppings are a must in my opinion.

A trick I use for bacon, is that I bake the entire package it in the oven whenever I need it for a recipe. I resist the urge to just eat whatever I don't need and freeze it. This saves me time later. I freeze a lot of things and have been taking pictures a long the way. I know there are a lot of posts about freezing food lately (which I LOVE!), but would anyone be interested in my two cents on the matter?

Recipe Review #10

I promise I didn't make all these sweet things at once.

Who doesn't love monster cookies? This recipe from Recipe Girl looked like it had the best of all worlds - peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and M&M's.

 I have made this two times. The first time I tried a few batches the big size and then a few the small size. I liked how the smaller ones turned out better. The second time I made them I just made regular sized cookies (baked at 375 on light colored cookie sheets). The funny thing about these is that both times I have decided on the first day that I didn't like them that much. They are really rich and I even halved the chocolate chips and M&M's.

 The second and third day they seemed so much better. I'm not sure why this is unless I just got used to over-sugaring myself. I shared them in a group setting and everyone liked them. However, after some debate, I decided to not keep this recipe as a "go-to" cookie. The main reason is that the ingredients are pretty expensive compared to most other cookies. Anyway, you should try them, you might find it worth the cost.

I love truffles. I don't think there ever has been a chocolate treat I have liked more. When
I saw this "Easy Dark Chocolate Truffles" recipe I instantly repinned it and put it on my mental "to make" list.

The directions were written great and they truly were easy! I opted to use both the coatings she did and dip some too.

My truffles were not as pretty as hers. This is my good cocoa one.

This is my ugly one. (I only did 2 of these.)

My almond ones were a little prettier and my husband liked these the best.

I made the most of these ugly things. I added peppermint extract to my melted chocolate (it's dark, though it looks more like milk chocolate in this photo).

I'm not so great at dipping, so these were not quite as good as the others, but still very tasty. Plus there is something marvelous about a hard chocolate outside and a soft smooth inside.

 And not surprisingly, they were kid approved!

It's been quite awhNutella cookies. Nutella is good. Cookies are good. So, I thought when I saw this recipe from Tasty Kitchen that these would have to be great.

What was great was using up all of my Nutella. I decided I didn't want to buy it anymore and this was the perfect way to finish it off.

They were easy enough to make, but I didn't like them.

Once the first batch was out of the oven, I added chocolate chips to the rest to try to improve them,, which i did, but not by much. So, thumbs down on this recipe for us.

Hello Friday!

Hi. I'm just checking in to say hello. I started a post on Monday that began just about the same way this one. 

 I just finished my 15th day of "30 Day Shred" by Jillian Michaels.  Whew! Today is the first time I added weights (I only have 4 pounders) for level 2 and my arms are shaking just a bit still. I have never stuck with a DVD workout this long, so I am so proud of myself. I seriously love it and can tell I'm getting stronger.

  I haven't been doing a whole lot of projects this week. I did make some truffles yesterday that should make it to a recipe review "soon." (You know it's like an unwritten law or something that if you are exercising you HAVE to make treats.) I've been being a little bit better at my housework and doing projects with the kids. We made Gak this week and some kid jewelry. Oh, and my sister came over and helped me clean out my clothes. I got all the maternity stuff out (yea!!!) and filled a few bags of other clothes to donate (I think I was up to something like 25 non-maternity shirts that I got rid of among other things.)

 I have been reading a lot. The most recent 2 were "Little Princes" by Conor Grennan and "A Week in Winter" by Maeve Binchy. They were both good. The first was for book club and is non-fiction book about child-trafficking in Nepal. Very interesting and both sad and inspiring. Proof that one person really can make a difference. The second is the last book my favorite author wrote before she died last year. Maeve writes in a slow-paced full storytelling way. 

Anyway, that's life this week. I hope you all have a great weekend. :)

Cleaning up the Cards

I've disappeared again, haven't I? I have been feeling so buried by life. And it's my own doing. And sadly, it's not life as in activities, volunteering, etc. (though I have done some of those too). It's my mess and my lack of finishing projects. Every once in awhile I swear I have ADD. Not the bouncing off your seat kind, but specifically ADHD-I (because the term ADD is actually outdated). Can you tell I've done my research? Basically, to sum it up unscientifically, I'm calm and quiet, but I cannot focus on tasks very well. I'm not saying I actually have it, but it all sounds so familiar when I read the symptoms and attributes of those who do have it. 

I WANT to multi-task, but I shouldn't really because then I get only a morsel of 10 things done and the resulting mess from started projects is all over my house. I have literally dozens of tabs open on my window browser at once. I have so much to work on that I get nervous about it (weird, I know) and don't know where to begin.

Thankfully I'm not always like this. It's just when I feel particularly buried. Which is right now. It's the switching out seasons and sizes of clothes time. Getting rid of maternity clothes and baby clothes. Trying to keep up on laundry for 6 people. Trying to make sure we have good tasting and healthy meals every night. Trying to be a fun mom while still doing my projects (my family blog is still not caught up from Christmas). And don't even get me starting on cleaning! I love to think and love new ideas and my mind goes crazy just wanting to to them all, but then it gets so filled with that, that I do so very few of those things I get excited to try out.

Ahhh, it's nice to have that out. (And for the record, as I type this I am thinking about about 15 other things I should/could be doing.)

 My latest project has been scanning papers. I hate papers and am a total paper junkie. It's a problem. I love the idea of having less of everything, with paper junk high on that list. I'm making progress, but the project has taken over my living room. I set up our laptop and scanner in there to be able to be by the kids, have more room to spread out, and leave the desktop computer available for my husband to play Civilization at night.

I'm a sentimental sap and I like having physical reminders of memories and moments in time. I used to scrapbook until I just got way too far behind.Several years ago I asked a very organized friend what she did with old Christmas cards and things like that. Despite being a minimalist, she also preferred to keep her cards versus just tossing them out. Her solution was to punch holes in them and put them in 3-ring binders. I've seen similar ideas in the last year or so on Pinterest. Such as this and this. My binder worked for awhile, until it wasn't caught up anymore and I had stacks of cards around. I decided I just wanted to end all the paper stuff and came up with a genius plan. (Is that okay to say one of your own ideas is genius?)

So I made a private blog! I am the only person who has access to this. I scan the cards, create a post for it, categorize it based on whether it was was a wedding announcement, thank you card, Christmas card, etc. I also label whether it was from family or friends. On the thank you cards that match up with something I made for that person, I also add a picture of the item. Or, if it is a wedding invite, I add a photo from the special day. Doing this has given me peace of mind that I can be sentimental and not keep all the actual crap. The blog is super organized and I try to post-date everything so it serves as a timeline of the events. I love it. Now I need to get back to scanning so my family can have the front room back.

(Also scanning kid papers, which is a whole other project that I am far behind on!)

Recipe Review #9

 

If you've got a few extra cans of black beans around, I have two recipes I tried that I would suggest (well, one is a keeper, the other not loved all around). I also reviewed what I considered a dud (and sadly I made two of that one and froze the one we didn't eat right away, so we have to suffer through twice!)

This BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad by What's Gaby Cooking appealed to me because I like pretty much all the ingredients and have very few quinoa recipes. I'm guessing I'm going to never have many in my collection based on the votes of those I cook for.

 I liked it. My husband did NOT like it, one kids voted almost thumbs up and the other said it's medium. My 2.5 year old ate all of it, but slowly. So, basically, it doesn't make the cut. I think it's something I could probably make for lunch for the kids and me when we happen to have left over BBQ check, but otherwise, we're not making this again.

 (I made a few changes. I doubled all of it. Instead of just a cup of beans I used and entire 15 oz. can. I left the avocado out as a topping instead of mixing it in. My kids don't like them and they don't sit well in mixed up left overs. My cheese was Colby-jack and I also added a bit of red onions as a  topping.)

I was excited to see this variation of a enchilada on Pinterest from food.com. Jalapeno's Spinach Enchiladas were toted as being one of the most popular entrees on the menu at the Houston restaurant.
 Imagine my photo here because I guess I didn't take a picture of this one.
It looked promising: spinach, garlic, onions, cheese, spices I wouldn't usually put in enchiladas like nutmeg and it was all topped with a cream sauce full of cilantro. I'm sad to report that we were all disappointed. It was just too weird for us (and we love our Mexican food around here). NOT a keeper.

And while we're talking Mexican style food, let me tell you about the Tortilla and Black Bean Pie from Martha Stewart. I like black beans. I like to have a variety of dishes I can make with them, so I was drawn to this recipe. I thought my husband, who hates casserole type meals, would say to me "why not just make regular burritos?"

I was right! Ha ha. When he finished the first bite he admitted that is was good after all. And it was. For some reason I had two kids that didn't want to eat anything for dinner, so I only have one kid review which was positive. I also liked it. That being said, the amount of effort, but more so time that it took to make it, I would follow my husband's advice and just make burritos. So, the only reason I'm not keeping this one is because it just takes longer than a meal like this should (in my opinion).

Mix & Match Onesie/Skirt Set

A friend of mine has been very generous giving me the clothes her daughter outgrows. She even gave me a pile of really nice maternity stuff - half of it still with the tags. The clothes are super cute and it has really helped me out. So, my friend was set to adopt a baby girl and I was very excited to feel like I could return the clothes favor (especially since I had all the clothes this new baby would have grown into!). So, I made this little mix and match onesie-headband-skirt set...back in August.

The onesies were pretty simple. I've done this ruffled collar style before. It's pretty quick, especially with knits.

For the skirts I broke into a few thift store/garage sale jackpots. I used the fabric from the shirt on the top of that pile on the right (I know you can't see it, but it was an XL camisole style tank top and the fabric was high quality knit.)

 I had scored all of these trims in a notions grab bag from the thrift store. I actually just bought it for that lace that I couldn't seem to find new. The pack of narrow light blue bias tape found its way into my project.

 So, here are the two skirts. I didn't hem the blue skirt. I knew that would give it a bit of a rough frayed sort of look, so I cut out a bunch of circles and basically just sewed an "x" across them. As the skirt gets washed, the circles should fray too, completing the look I was going for (which also matched the ruffle from the same fabric on the onesie). For both skirts I tried out the colored elastic that is gaining popularity. I think it is fun. I just bought some more this week in red to finish up a skirt for my daughter. As for the other skirt, I used Dana's circle skirt pattern. Super easy. Instead of hemming it I used the narrow bias tape. I really loved how the skirts turned out.

 

When I make baby gifts I like to make them feel complete, so I whipped up a couple of headbands. The dark brown one is left over from my brown skirt and inspired by Delia Creates. The other is just a simple stretchy lace headband with a flower thing on it. I just stacked some circles and sewed an "x" though them.

Here's all the mixing and matching. This is seriously one of my favorite baby gifts I have given in awhile. It makes me feel bad when I can't/don't have time to make gifts for other moms-to-be and just buy something. It also reminds me that I should be doing this for my OWN kids.