Monday Weigh-in and Day 8!

I lost 5.6lbs! :) it's a little Kate to post as Monday, but its 1am and the first chance I've gotten.

Breakfast: peach and blueberry breakfast cobbler 

Lunch: chicken strip salad 

Dinner: roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese Dunkers 

Day 6

 

Breakfast: Voskos Wild Strawberry Greek Yogurt with 5 medium sized strawberries sliced and mixed in. 

Lunch: Chicken Salad (Containing- Romaine, Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, zesty Italian dressing, and a baked chicken breast. )

Dinner: Summer Fajitas (recipe follows below) 

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Tonight I was making tacos, and as I'm browning the meat...I'm feeling really grossed out by it. Sometimes I'm very anti-red meat. Plus I wanted to have some leftover meat so that Travis could have Tacos for lunch tomorrow at work. So, I thought to myself no problem I'll just make myself some chicken fajitas with my leftover chicken...except I didn't have any peppers. Then, I was like...who needs chicken? Or peppers? With all the squash and zucchini I have from the Summer crop this makes an easy simple meal. I'm always trying to come up with new ways to use my squash and zucchini. I love it sauteed as a side, but sometimes that gets boring and old. If you're like me, and you have so many tomatoes, squash, and zucchini either from relatives or your garden..(mine are from my relatives). This is an awesome recipe to use some of your Summer veggies. 

I ended up not adding my chicken to this because I checked out  my tortillas, then my veggies and realized nothing else was going to fit in them! But this would be delicious with chicken, or shrimp!

Summer Fajitas 

Serves Two. 

Ingredients:
1 cup diced squash
1 cup diced zucchini
1 yellow onion sliced
1 small tomato sliced
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chili poweder
1/2 tsp cumin 
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp light sour cream
2 flour tortillas (100 cals each or less)

 

Directions: Heat olive oil over medium heat, prepare your veggies while your pan heats up. Swirl the oil around in the pan, then add your veggies to the hot oil. Mix your veggies around with a spatula to coat with oil, then stir in seasoning. Cook, stirring often, until veggies have softened.  Add 1 tbsp of sour cream to each tortilla and top each tortilla with an even amount of veggies. Enjoy.

I like to look through magazine for recipes, workouts, house plans, garden plans, things to do with the kids, or for the kids. Here is an awesome work out I got from Redbook Magazine for your booty. I have a paper copy in a folder BUT I looked on the internet and found it for any readers I may have. Also for my own keeping. :)

Redbook's 15 Minute Best Booty Workout!!!

For Instructions Click Here! 

Day 5

Breakfast: Peanut Butter Belgian Waffle topped with frozen bananas blended in the food processor.

Lunch: Caesar Salad with chopped tomatoes, black olives, Parmesan cheese, and mixed deluxe nuts. 

Dinner: Sautéed Cabbage with Zucchini Cakes.


Just bleeeeeeh on today. We lost a goose , Winifred. So I'm a little sad about it. I would've cried though had it been my Alfred, he's my favorite out of our geese.

Also I keep trying to upload my recipe for homemade tomato sauce, and it isn't working. Promise to get that up soon though!

Day4

Breakfast: zucchini hash browns (recipe coming as soon as I perfect them)

Lunch: squash sliced thinly to act as noodles (sautéed) with one large tomato I put through my new food processor with oregano, basil, garlic, pepper , and red pepper flakes . Sprinkled with Parmesan.

Dinner: 1 slice of sausage pie, and a side salad.

Plus taste tests of waffles and waffle batter lol

I pretty much ate veggies all day so that I could have a slice of sausage pie for dinner. :) Not complaining!

For my sausage pie recipe click here! 

Day 3

Breakfast:
1 slice of whole grain toast
2 tablespoons of applesauce spread on top
Sprinkled with ground cinnamon 
Sprinkled with deluxe mixed nuts

Lunch:
A big salad out of several veggies with Thousand Island Dressing

Dinner:
Cheesy Buffalo Cauliflower
Celery Sticks
Light Ranch for Dipping
1 loaded potato cake with about 1 tsp of ketchup on top

I decided to do some of my work out apps.

Rise and Shine with Apple-Strawberry Mini Muffins

I've been up since 7am. I'm not sure why Blake isn't sleeping lately. I just hope he isn't a grumpy butt. Thank goodness I made some muffins yesterday because I was NOT up for cooking this morning. Even if I knew I had to wake up early regardless. Today I have to head to a town near-by-ish where my Dad lives, take the boys to him, and then take pictures of a 6 month old for some old friends of mine. I have to leave my house by 11, it is about 8 now.  Luckily I made a set list for my family and a to-do list of things I need to do, mostly before I leave me house.

To Do List 

• Recipe Blog Post 
• Feed Chickens
• Feed Rabbit 
• Feed Dog 
• Feed Kids (lol) 
• Start Chicken Gumbo in the Crock Pot 
• Find Crochet Tomato Hat and Box 
• Find Picture Frame Clean basket and Owl 
• Charge Camera Battery 
• Get Dressed 
• Get Makeup on 
• Load up the Truck with the Above 
• Load up the Truck with Donations to Goodwill
• Pack a Bag for the Boys
• Pack Camera Bag

 Yeah, I need some motivation to get started. I have some really cute ideas and I believe the mommy and daddy of the 6 month old does too. Should be super CUUUUUTE! And I'll try to share a sneak peek on here later. For now though, I will leave you with a muffin recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour (or 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup milk (low fat or whole cow’s milk, almond, rice or soy milk will work)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce or canola oil
• 1/2 cup honey or agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 cup strawberries, diced
• ½ of a gala apple, peeled and deseeded then shredded with a cheese grater

Directions

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk egg and add milk, applesauce, honey, vanilla, and lemon zest and stir.  I used my standing mixer but you can use your hand and spoon as well to slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet until incorporated. Stir until just mixed, try not to over mix. Add the strawberries and shredded apples to the batter.  Line or grease muffins tins and fill 2/3 of the way with batter. Bake for 16 minutes or until toothpick tester comes out clean.

 I swear, muffins never last between my boys and my hubs. These are practically all gone now. I just made them last night!

New truck, No kids, and Whole Wheat Strawberry Banana Protein Pancakes! :)

Travis and I have been SUPER busy lately. First things first....we bought a new truck. If you know us, you know we've been trying to make our old cars work for us and save money but they just can't anymore. We have no room for groceries, the kids were running out of room in our back seats. We ended up getting a 4 door Toyota Tacoma, everything all set up with tires, rims, bed cover and lift. It is actually perfect for us. I am LOVING having a radio, A/C, and 4 doors. I'll still drive my Camaro around when I HAVE to but I don't go anywhere too often alone. It is just NICE to go from a 1994 Chevy camaro, and a 1989 jeep wrangler which both have no A/C and other issues to a new vehicle. Each have their pros and cons when it came to our family, but neither were working out. HERE it is:

 I am TRYING very hard to eat breakfast in the morning. It is something I really fail at because for 1 I don't like eggs, I don't care for oatmeal, I have to be in the mood for cereal (or at the very least I can't have a lot of milk first thing),I'm not much of a fruit person so that is also something I am trying to change. I'm just an unhealthy breakfast person. I like my toast, waffles, bagels, pancakes, hash browns, sausage, bacon, biscuits, and biscuits and sausage gravy. So, toast isn't horrible for you if you do whole wheat or whole grain. Pancakes and bagels pack a lot of calories. And let's not even talk about the meat, and biscuits n' gravy, we don't even need to discuss it to know it isn't good for us.

Travis and I will not have the boys for a week or two. So we went grocery shopping for just the two of us. Just wow! We're all set for two weeks health and fitness. Especially when it came to breakfast. I got the everything bagel thins, mini wheat, and I made some strawberry and banana protein pancakes and froze them in single servings. (Recipe will be at the end of this post). Travis is borrowing his dad's bicycle for myself and we are going to go ride the cooper river bridge tomorrow. I'm actually pretty excited for that. I'm going to try to go for a run on the treadmill tonight after dinner. Travis wanted to have a frozen pizza so I'll need to burn that off. Other than that, I am looking forward to a week or two, give or take depending on how well the kids do at my mom's house for that long, to just relaxing and living for me. I'd like to say that I am going to sleep in, and get a lot done...but probably not. I WILL get a lot done around the house of course, but I plan on catching up on lots of movies and getting myself use to waking up early while the kids are gone. That way if I am tired and grumpy it won't be around them.

Besides that, nothing new to report..I'll try to keep up with my recipe posts though. I have a few pictures uploaded and future posts in the works, but for starters I'll share my pancake recipe.

What I do when I make pancakes is I'll calculate how many calories each is after all is said and done, I'll make a big batch and then freeze single servings in sandwich bags. That way all I have to do is pop them in the microwave for a minute or two. This is a really great use of protein powder because of the sweetness of the powder and fruit I don't feel like the batter needed any sugar or sweetening.

Ingredients:

 1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup 2% milk

1 egg

2 scoops of strawberry whey protein powder

1 medium banana

6 medium strawberries, chopped

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt 

Directions: First, mix together your dry ingredients, and then start mixing in your fruit and wet ingredients. The banana should be mashed in to the batter, or if you prefer mash it before adding it. 

Heat a large pan sprayed lightly with cooking spray over medium heat. Add two spoonfuls of batter for one pancake. Flip when you see "bubbles" form. 

You should end up with about 15 pancakes.

Each pancakes is about 69 calories each. 

I freeze 3 pancakes as a serving for breakfast which gives me about 207.4 calories during breakfast.  

 

Broccoli, Spinach, & Tomato pancakes!

Let's chat a second about how much of a picky eater my Mr.Liam is. Vegetable on his plate? Forget it. Pasta? Forget it. Bread-like food? YES. My lover of all things carb.  Fruit? You bet, Yes! Broccoli, Spinach, or Tomatoes- Yeah right! Except, maybe if they are made to look like pancakes? I had some leftover broccoli, and some tomatoes and spinach that needed to be used. It was worth a shot, here is my little invention for the day. Serve with marinara, ranch, or ketchup. We used ketchup and it was delicious. I couldn't stop nomming on them! It could work as breakfast too though!

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup broccoli, blended on chop
• 1/2 cup tomatoes, blended on chop
• 1/2 cup spinach, blended on chop
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 clove of garlic (1 teaspoon garlic powder)
• canola or vegetable oil 

Directions:  Prepare all your veggies. I used leftover broccoli for supper the night before so it was roasted. But I imagine if you have a food processor you can use fresh without a problem. Then mix together the rest of the ingredients, minus oil. 

Mixed together 

Put about 1 tablespoon of mixture each on a heated medium high heat pan with oil. 

Cook until brown. :) 

I know they look kind of funky, not the prettiest recipe I have prepared but, Liam actually ate them and enjoyed them. So I call it a winner! I even have photo proof that he liked them and ate them! Not to mention Blake and I loved them as well.

Out of Commision

I just feel like I should post something!

I strained my neck somehow washing dishes. I was standing at the kitchen sink, when all of a sudden a sharp pain happened, then it happened again. Needless to say, I'm down for yesterday, today, and hopefully not tomorrow. After i feel up to par I have some awesomeness to share. :)

In the meantime try this recipe!(I don't have a picture, it was gone to soon. Next time I make it I'll make a more official post.)

Tangy Salsa Chicken 
4 boneless skinless chicken breast in the crock pot
Mix in 1 chunky mild jar of salsa
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp brown sugar
LO 6-8hrs serve over rice!

I get nauseated whenever I get up and do too much. So last night it was hot dogs, tonight...idk what I'm going to do. I hope i feel better by then! I'll pick the next easiest think off my list of meals for the next 2 weeks.

I've been going to bed early with my hubs and waking up early. I think I'll continue that whenever my neck heals and hopefully it'll get my sleepy head out of bed to work out.

My days are filled with reading and snacking. I can't do too much of anything else without feeling bad. I've had healthy snacks though, pretzel crackers, kettle popcorn, almonds, yogurt.... I'm being good!:)

What yesterday looked like, and what today will also look like.

Breakfast= multi-grain cheerios, seedless raisins, and 1 banana

Quick and Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Liam is my picky eater, he inhaled these. And obviously so, because their sweet. Notice lately I’ve been making breakfast? It’s because I ran out of all the simple things. Now I have to replenish our stock of frozen pancakes and now waffle sticks. So I came up with this on a whim. It took me hardly any time at all.The kids loved it, I tried one to make sure they were good, and they are. :)

Rolls

·         1 package Pillsbury crescent rolls

·         Brown Sugar

·         Cinnamon

Glaze

·         3 tbsp powdered sugar

·         2 tbsp milk

·         Dash of Cinnamon 

Directions: Unroll the rolls from their package, sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar on each triangle. Then roll up each triangle in to a croissant shape, then bake according to package directions.

Mix your glaze in a tiny bowl while your rolls bake.

After your rolls are done, drizzle your glaze on top, if you can stand to wait let them cool.

*Tip/FYI- These would also be delicious with a cream cheese glaze. I think I will be doing that next time! 

*Not the best pictures because its from my phone. I need to stop being so lazy and grab my big camera!