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! 

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!

Salmon with Cucumber and Strawberry Relish

Salmon:

4 salmon fillets

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp ground mustard

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

Relish:

¼ tsp dried basil leaves

1/2 tbsp extra light olive oil

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp sugar

1 cup finely chopped strawberries

1 small cucumber, deseeded and finely chopped 

Directions: In a small bowl, mix the first 5 ingredients with the salmon, rubbing mixture on salmon. . Refrigerate, covered, for 1 hour. For relish in another bowl mix together the chopped strawberries, cucumbers, basil, oil, lemon juice, and sugar.

When cooking the salmon you may grill it accordingly. However I personally cooked it in a pan on medium heat, just spray the pan with a little cooking spray and cook until brown on both sides.

These pictures really do not give this recipe justice...but it was a really great mixture of sweet. Typically I don't like anything sweet but the combination of strawberries and cucumbers really works. I have more relish than necessary on my salmon because...I really liked it. :) I used some leftovers on top of yogurt..SO GOOD.



Now I am off to register my baby for pre-k. WAHHHH! I might cry. I just might.

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.  

 

I have discovered the joys of putting fruit in your salad

I don't like mixing my foods like fruit and veggies, or sweet with something that should be salty or zesty. But I really like this strawberry and spinach thing! ;)

Lunch Ideas

I am always in a grind come lunch time. I don't particularly plan lunch well, just dinner. I grab a bunch of things at the store that I know I could make a quick and easy lunch with. We do a lot of sandwiches,nuggets, and wraps. If I ever have leftovers these days they go in to my husband's lunch box. I like to think of myself as resourceful though. I like to make things new and interesting for the boys to prevent them from being picky eaters. As I've said before my oldest is a great eater for the most part, my youngest...eh. I'm lucky if I get him to eat anything at all. But I do know one thing about my little picky eater, he will eat fruit! I thought I would share some lunch ideas for the kids from now on as well. Just in case any moms out there need some inspiration or ideas. Needless to say though some of these things can be put in to adult lunches as well. Adults like sandwiches, wraps, and nuggets too, right? Or is that just my husband? :) lol

Hahha, Blake..wtheck? Liam is all like "Noooo not carrot sticks." and Blake is like, "Oh gosh! It's going to be another battle today!"

These are my FAVORITE plates for kids, you can get them from target for like $1 I think. But this is a good example of what lunches look like in our house. Wrap, Green apple slices, carrot sticks, yogurt ranch dressing for dipping. 

Turkey and Cheese on a Spinach and Herb Wrap. You just need 3 slices of turkey, 1 wrap , and shredded cheese. Line the turkey along the middle, sprinkle with cheese, and roll like a burrito (Which means tucking sides in as you go.) Your package of wraps should give you directions. My favorite wraps are the Xtreme Wellness brand.

My favorites....well, two of my favorites! :)

Breakfast 249 calories= 1 large granny smith apple (peeled), 2 tbsp whipped peanut butter, 2 tablespoons honey nut cheerios. This is also one of my favorite snacks. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Croutons 

 So, I love ceasar salad. Store bought croutons, aren't exactly the best for you and it wouldn't be a ceasar salad without croutons. Plus buying them packaged is kind of a waste of money when you can make them yourself.

Start with a slice of whole grain bread. This particular slice is 50 calories.

Dice your bread like so and place on a sheet of tin foil. Spray with Pam, sprinkle with onion powder, garlic powder, and salt. Then toast lightly in a toaster oven.

Yum! 297 calories worth. Romaine lettuce, lite creamy caesar dressing, shredded Parmesan, and croutons. 

For dinner we had southwestern chicken soup, which can be found in the other post from today. 

It has been super wet, rainy, and dreary the last few days. Perfect soup weather? I think yes! :)