Update Post, Grilled Cheese Dunkers with Tomato Soup, Cardio, Banana Bites.

*Quick Updates*

1. I'm falling behind in blogging I know. 
2. My Biology class and lab is stressful, but I know I'll get through it.  
3. My Aunt (Mom's Sister) just found out she has cancer, possible stage 4. We'll know all the details tomorrow after their appointment with the oncologist. I'm guessing we'll get a good idea of what is going to happen and possibly how long she has to live. Its really hurting my whole family, we could use a little prayer or two.
4.  I've been at my mom's house, upstate, for a week. I just got back yesterday. 
5.  Weight loss has been going good, except when I was at my mom's house. I probably gained a little bit. Travis and I had an agreement that when I get back home we are going to change the boy's bedtime to 8 at night instead of 9, so that we can work out together. (We have work out gear in our shed outside.) 
6. I've decided not to weigh myself religiously anymore. It isn't about weight to me anymore but about being healthy. And getting to a point to where I feel good (and look good). In other word as long as I feel as if I look good then I'll be okay. 

So I'll leave you with a few fun things. 

A little something, something to get your blood pumping!

These are so amazingly awesome, freeze banana slices then add peanut butter.

Liam helping mommy make grilled cheese dunkers.

 Grilled Cheese Dunkers and Tomato Soup 

Tomato Soup Recipe (click here). 
Grilled Cheese Dunkers:
Slices of bread
Slices of Cheese 
1 tbsp Butter 

All you need to do is flatten the bread with a rolling pin, add a slice of cheese, then roll it up. Repeat! Add to a pan with melted butter and cook on each side until brown, and cheese has melted.

Note:
The number of slices depends on how many you want to make. You could also take the crusts off and they would most likely look prettier. But I love the crust on a grilled cheese.
 

Day 17 & 18 & 19, A Work Out, and Recipes!

 

 

Day 17

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 18 went something like this.

 The big hits today were a Fried Shallots salad. (Fried in Olive Oil) Super delicious and much better than the store bought fried onions.

For dinner I originallywanted to make Chicken Georgia, but  realized we had a lot of left over pot roast. The guys had that, and I had some Cajun Salmon, green beans cooked in leftover pot roast juice, crinkle carrots, cucumber salad, and a fresh sweet corn cob.

I've had so much pot roast for the past 2 days that I think I am going to blow up. 

The way I make my Cajun salmon is so simple. I make it all the time, seriously! 
Cajun Salmon
1 tsp olive oil
McCormick Cajun Seasoning
Garlic Salt
Ground Black pepper

-Season to taste, and cook until brown on each side. I like my skin side slight black, as you can see. :) 

Day 19

 Breakfast: Strawberries and Cream Oatmeal made with water, 1 strawberry whey protein scoop with 2 tbsp 2 % milk and 3 large strawberries sliced.

Lunch: Fresh Tomato and Corn Salad with Chicken(Recipe Coming soon.)

Dinner: 2 hot dogs sliced with ketchup, mustard, sauteed onions in olive oil, and 1 cup romaine, 1 tbsp Ken's lite creamy Caesar dressing, 1bsp shredded Parmesan.
*Weird combo, I know. I went bun-less *pats self on back* I love hot dogs, my kids love hot dogs, everyone in this house loves hot dogs. Hot dogs do not love me. I wouldn't have bought them when we went grocery shopping but we had like 4 hot dog buns leftover from our camping trip that we needed to use before they went bad. It worked that I went bun-less because Travis could have 2 and the boys had 1 each.

Day 7

 

Breakfast: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal with a Diced Gala Apple and extra Cinnamon on top

Lunch: Chicken and Zucchini Bake and 2 cups Sauteed Cabbage 

Snack: Granny Smith Apple Slices with 2 tbsp Creamy Reduced Fat Peanut Butter (I'm in an apple mood today.)

Dinner: 4 oz Salmon Fillet and 1 yellow Squash cooked in the pan with 1 slice of bacon, Mrs. Dash Original Blend Seasoning and Salt.

I came up with the Chicken and Zucchini Bake on a whim. (Recipe at the end of this post!) And I submitted to the Sparkpeople's Sparkrecipes. :)

Quick Work out for the night. I didn't feel like doing too much, but wanted to burn at least 100 calories. 

	Chicken and Zucchini Bake
	Ingredients 2 zucchinis, sliced length wise 2 banana peppers sliced 2 baby bell peppers 3 cooked chicken breast, diced 3 med tomatoes, and 4 plum tomatoes pureed in a food processor for sauce with 1tsp basil 1 tsp oregano 1 tsp garlic powder 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese Nutritional Info Fat: 3.1g Carbohydrates: 12.7g Calories:169.3 Protein: 23.6g Layer zucchini, chicken, peppers and sauce ending with sauce. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, then top with cheese and bake an additional 15 minutes. Serving Size: Serves 4 Number of Servings: 4

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 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.

Day 2

I have had a day on the go, so I feel like each 'meal' was a grab and go, quick and easy type thing. I never felt hungry though because if I would've then I probably would've added a salad in here. I think that's the thing, some days we just feel hungrier than others, and other days its like we can't eat enough. Does anyone else ever feel like that?

Right after breakfast I had some down time on here. Then I left with the boys before lunch to the town over to see about adopting 2 wolf hybrids. I would've made time to eat lunch before leaving but I had to leave quickly and get to the animal shelter before anyone else could adopt them. Turns out the trip was all for naught because we didn't have any veterinarian proof that we have experience with wolf hybrids.  After leaving the animal shelter I got the boys a snack, and myself a Clif bar...walked right past the doughnuts, pizza, candy, chips, and hots dogs. After the boys and I got home Blake and I worked outside on our "outside chores"- feeding animals, playing with them, and refilling everyone's water outside. By the time we were done with that, Travis got home and we left to pick up a few things grocery wise before we can get around to doing our big shopping trip in a few days. On the way to the store we stopped at the store so everyone could get a snack and drinks (again). Instead of getting real chips I got the special k cracker chips...pretty good, actually.. I was surprised.

When I got home I had just enough time to make a pizza before we got hit by a summer storm. I don't usually have busy days that are unplanned, so this is pretty random for me. I'm still patting myself on the back for making healthier choices.

Well besides the pizza, but everything in moderation. I've learned enough after losing 40lbs to know that if I restrict myself, I will over-do it, and pig out on the next given opportunity. A slice gives me the satisfaction of eating pizza but without going overboard, especially if I add a nice side salad with it.

Breakfast: 1 granny smith apple with 2 tablespoons reduced fat creamy peanut butter
Lunch: Clif energy Bar
Snack: Special K Southwest Ranch Cracker Chips
Dinner: Three Meat Pizza 

And to make my day even better I got a surprise visit from my mail lady who handed me a packaged food processor, that I did not order, addressed to me. Turns out my really awesome aunt sent it to me after I made a whiny FB posts about needing one because my blender just wasn't cutting it! I had to do some tracking down first before I found out it was my aunt! :) It really made my day! 

Like my little stick figure guy? :p I think I will be doing this tonight plus my leg work out.

Sparkpeople app

Day One

I have got to lose this last 20lbs. As I was telling some family recently, I feel really comfortable right now. I'm happy with where I am. I know I've come along way...but I want to be fit and strong. I don't want anything to jiggle- at all!I think that blogging about it EVERY DAY and holding myself accountable through blogging will really help me NOT fall off the band wagon. So on some days there may be more than one post, or super long posts. Bare with me! :)

Today I ate
Breakfast: Egg, Cheese, and Bagel Thin Sandwich.  245 calories.

Lunch: Creamy Caesar Creole Salmon Salad. 338 calories.

Dinner: 2 loaded potato cakes= 222 calories + sauteed summer squash = 265

Snack: Chocolate Pudding 90 calories

Work Out
Nothing serious, just ran after the kids with silly string. Cleaned the truck. Did a lot of heavy cleaning. After all that I was exhausted.

Arm Work Out

Somehow, I always come up with my own routines as far as what works for me. If I do a work out I WANT to feel sore the next day, or it doesn't feel like it is working right? This is a just arms work out I like to do whenever during the day when I have time. It is easy to do certain strength exercises in the den with the kids than it is to get full on cardio done. Arms is verrrry easy to do with the munchkins on board.

Have a nice day! :)

Leg Workout and an Easy Dinner

This is an amazing leg work out combo that I've put together. Prepare to be sore!

 

Heinz 57 Chicken with Smashed Reds and Green Beans

 And this is something really quick and easy I put together on lazy nights that I don't feel like putting much effort in to dinner. This chicken is versatile enough you can grill it, bake it, or slow cook it in the crock pot. I use baby reds because I actually like eating the skins on those.

Chicken: 
1bottle of Heinz 57 sauce
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sprinkle both sides of chicken breasts with salt and pepper, place chicken in a glass baking dish and cover with heinz sauce, cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until done. Or grill or slow cooker on Lo 6-8 hours. :)

Smashed Red Potatoes: 
Baby Red Potatoes  
Shredded Cheese
Bacon Bits

The quantity depends on your family. Cover the bottom of a medium to large glass baking dish with just enough water to cover the bottom. Add baby reds whole in to the glass baking dish, and bake until they are soft along with your chicken. Smash all the potatoes while they are still in the glass baking dish and leave them as is. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Drizzle with extra light olive oil. Sprinkle with cheese, real bacon bits, and green onions.

Active Week Without Kids

Hubby and I on the top of the Cooper River Bridge

I’d like to think that Travis and I had a really awesome week together without the kids. It was nice to relax and just spend time alone and together. Travis borrowed a mountain bike from his dad and we spent 2 days biking. Day 1 we did 4.2 miles just around our neighborhood and house. Which was super tough because we live on a dirt road, biking through dirt is killer. Travis is a big time pusher which is both annoying and good. I think we should of waiting a day before doing the bridge because my arms and inner thighs were still killing me from the day before. I think we did about 2.4 miles of the bridge on the next day. We basically went to the top and then back down, not all the way across and back. I’d like to state RIGHT NOW that it will be a new goal to build up enough endurance to do the whole thing. 

On the plus side my arms were KILLING me. I could hardly lift them up. This is excellent! Let’s hope that I lose some more inched on my arms. I’ve always been pretty thick. I just really need to tone everything and lose a little bit more weight and I will look how I want. 

Saturday I spent the day getting burnt with one of my oldest friends on Kiawah Island Beachwalker Beach. My sunburn is ridiculous. I'm praying I don't peel and it turns in to a tan.

Originally my mom was suppose to keep the boys a little longer. But turns out she had a lot more going on than she originally thought. Which is okay. We worked it out to where she will be bringing just Blake home. He really needs some one on one time with us. He's been having behavior issues lately with anger and getting so frustrated. I've been trying to find articles and read up on this all night and some more today. I hope some one on one time with mom and dad will do him some good. He hardly ever gets alone time with just us. If we get alone time with anyone it is usually Liam because everyone wants to get Blake overnight because he's older. I'm pretty excited now to spend some alone time with my baby boy. And I REALLY hope we can get all this anger under control and teach him better ways to handle his emotions.

Arms and Ab Work Out

I thought I would create a few of my go to moves, and share. This is one of my most used combos because I like to do abs and arms together, and sometimes abs and legs. Try to do this after 30 minutes of cardio for a double whammy. Have fun! :)

Motivation,Where are you?

I seriously haven't worked out since a before Valentine's day. Granted, I've been dealing with some issues like a pinched nerve, pulled muscle in my neck, and getting sick. I really need to get back on track starting tomorrow. How many times have I typed this in a post? I'm not sure. :) But I mean it this time.

The ONLY time I am going to be able to accomplish anything is in the morning when the boys are asleep. I get interrupted too much when anyone is awake, including my husband. So I am going to attempt waking up at 6 am tomorrow. Travis has to work so I am going to get him to call me before he goes in to make sure that I am waking up on top of setting my alarm on my phone. So wish me luck. I NEED to do it. My body wants it.

I'll take it slow starting off. I'm thinking 30 minutes treadmill, no goal for tomorrow. I'm just going to do my best and see how far I can get in that amount of time. Then I am thinking I will do my iPhone workout apps like maybe my abs, legs, and arms. I'm not 100% sure how to operate the new (to us) weight machine Travis has but I know I am able to use it as well. I might get him to give me a briefing on it and do that Tuesday.

I don't even want to know how much I weigh right now, because I don't want to know how much I've gained in the last few months.

So Tomorrow's workout should take me about 1 hour to complete and will look like this:

Cardio 
30 minutes Treadmill

Arms 
Overhead Press
Bicep Curls
Tricep Extension Right
Tricep Extension Left
Bent Over Rows
Front Raises
Reverse Bridge Dips
Half Push-Ups
High Side Plank Right
Hide Side Plank Left  

Abs
Basic Crunch
Right Oblique Crunch
Left Oblique Crunch
Bicycle Crunch
Reverse Crunch
Long Arm Crunch
Crossover Crunch
Half Curl
Vertical Leg Crunch
Plank

Legs
Side Leg Lift Right
Side Leg Kick Right
Inner Thigh Raise Left
Side Leg Lift Left
Side Leg Kick Left
Inner Thigh Raise Right
Hamstring Curls
Quad Lifts 
Static Lunge Right
Static Lunge Left

I can put anything in a salad!

I was craving chicken nuggets with honey mustard. So I made it a salad! These chicken nuggets are lightly breaded and their chunks. So I like that! :) I just did a basic tossed salad (romaine, tomato, cucumber) put the chicken on top after following the heating directions. Then tosses with ken's lite honey mustard dressing. I thought I wouldn't have enough calories to spare to add cheese, but it turns out I did. I just didn't know that until afterwards. I feel like it's okay because I felt full all day yesterday and
didn't eat the best.

A slice of pizza for breakfast.
Chili for lunch.

I managed to work out though so that's good!

Today I'll try to add a work out in again. Blake is coming home from my moms house today, so we'll see.

I know it's been awhile since I updated but I've been concentrating on my hobbies, kids, house, and fitness. I need to come up with a study guide for my certification test.

Busy stuff! :) I'm updating from my phone right now. When I get on the computer again I'll share some fun Liam and I have had during our week of one on one time.