Cookie Monster

This weekend was our annual cookie baking party.  The Grammies, me, my girls and Auntie Bible (a friend and the bible teacher at work so DQ has always called her that) and in the last two years Carrie (who couldn't make it this time) have gotten together to spend all day baking up a storm of Christmas goodies.  

It has been a wonderful tradition that is going 6 years strong now.  The funny thing is the Grammies and Auntie Bible don't bake lol.  I didn't know this when I started it but they all try once a year for me and it so much fun and something crazy always seems to happen. Like one year Grammie C was making rice Krispie treats and just poured in the cereal and marshmallows in all together and made a big burning clump of crispy Krispies.

 

TaTa making some Oreo Truffles yumm...

Auntie Bible and Grammie J make the famous PB Blossoms.

 

and since there was so many cookies happening and of course we had to do some quality control and taste (just a few) TaTa and I decided that between every  batch coming out of the oven, or any waiting time (there were 4 of us using one oven) we would go in the backyard and run, squat, lunge, to the fence and back...that fence was far).  I even got in all 10,000 steps.

We are doing high knees here :) 

 

Then we always exchange small gifts.  This year I made every one a personalized cup.

 

and Auntie Bible gave us the most snuggly blankets ever!!

 

Linking up with Healthy Diva Eats and Life of Meg

I Knew I Should of Named Those Cupcakes

Last weekend when I was gettin' in girl time with the DQ She wanted to make cupcakes…

Ahh..Lawd really  we all know I can't resist a cupcake so I did some damage control I "healthied" up the cupcakes with this little and super easy trick.

Yup that's all you need.  But wait,  I actually only used a half of the can and froze the other half for another time.  I also added about 1/3 cup water and that was it.

The batter is very, VERY thick so just scoop it in, then bang the pan a bit to set them

and bake at 350 for 35ish minutes.

and don't forget the best part

then add some frosting, since it's healthier it totally cancels it out right?

maybe a sprinkle or a gillion...

and enjoy!

P.S. We made lemon cupcakes and the pumpkin does not change the flavor at all , but my favorite way to do this is with spice cake mix so yummy and perfect for fall.

WiW....Sweat Bomb

I'm back down, but only a few ounces. I really wish things would move a little faster, but I guess as long as it's moving (down) I shouldn't bitch. 

 It had been a pretty quiet week so far. The hubs has been out of town since Monday for work.  This is both good and bad, bad because I miss him when he's gone, but good because I don't feel so bad being at the gym.  He really doesn't give me crap about it, it's all me. I'm sure I've said this brfore but I commute a long ways to work every fricken day so that means I'm pretty much gone from 5am to 5pm then if I hit the gym right after I end up getting home after 6 most of the time and we go to bed pretty early (between 8-9) since we get up at 4am so that doesn't leave much time for a whole lot.

Any way I digress, since he's been gone I have turned into a sweat bomb (thanks DQ for helping with the pic though she took like 500 lol)

and that smile is coming straight from the heart.  I did my treadmill HIIT workout. Then I was feeling so good with the running parts I ran another 2 miles after.

Look at that burn, and my legs have that great achy feeling, not bad but just enough to let em' know who's boss. 

Another great thing when the hubs is gone is that if I don't feel like cooking I can just make a protein smoothie.  I found this while browsing online the other day. The brand is Cellucor and they have a bunch of different flavors I haven't really seen and the great thing is the sell them in a 4 serving "trial" pack. It's a little more than buying the big one, but I hate when I buy something then turns out I don't like it.  It's worth the extra to test it out.  So far I've tried the Red Velvet (yum!) Cor-fettie Cake Batter (yum and it even has cute little  sprinkles in it) Cinnamon Swirl (just ok as a drink but great to cook with)

And of course no post is complete without a chicken picture.  They are all getting so big and Noodle is finally not looking like a crack head anymore, and finally has some feathers.

from top to bottom DQ, Xena , Princess, and Noodle.

Linking up with Fitness Blondie, the WiW girls and Vodka and Soda.

WiW…Waffles and Workouts

It's a weigh in wednesday with no actual weigh-in, this week.

It's got a little to do with this...

But mostly because I wasn't home.  Yesterday was DQ's back to school night so I stayed at Carrie's house and got to sleep in a whole hour (5:30)!!  But yes after the school thing, Grammie and I went to Bruxie's for dinner.  It was sooo good and worth every bite, I will be going again but maybe as a treat meal after a killer hike or a race. 

I have been killing the workouts again Monday DQ had a bit of a pool party hangover (aka too much swimming in water not enough drinking it) and didn't feel good so she stayed home.  When the hubs got home I was able to hit the gym before the after work crowd.

Since it was pretty empty still I did something I never do... free weights.  I don't know why I feel so uncomfortable "lifting" on my own but I really like it so I put on my big girl panties and did it!

I have a few of these workouts I put together and printed out, but I felt a little like a dork bringing in the paper so I just too a picture with my phone and referred back to that  when I needed to.  

Guess what no one stared, no one pointed and laughed or told me I din't know what I was doing, in fact no really cared.  I got in a great workout, and felt awesome! 

and even though I don't have a "scale" measurement today I have this.

Pictures can speak a thousand words.

Linking up with WiW, and Fitness Blondie.

Oxymorons

Another weekend in the books.  This one was pretty relaxing and I'm not complaining. Pretty soon (like two weeks) DQ will start school and the hectic back to school craziness will start.

Saturday started off with a not so quick 3 miles.  My pace has slowed way down, I am so not happy about that but tit's my own fault (it has been a struggle to get myself motivated as you all know) I think I may need to get back to my early morning runs and quick!. After my run I enjoyed a coffee protein shake (like my glass lol) by the pool.

Then it was off to the farmers market and Sam's Club (yes I realize that is an oxymoron of sorts but I'm a rebel…and just to prove it I'm ordering my chicken coop for my urban farm fresh egg layers from Amazon haha) to stock up on some healthy eats.

And though I will be ordering my coop from Amazon it won't be for a few weeks (the chicks need to stay inside until they are fully feathered about 5-6 weeks). So the hubs and I built this cool little chick brooder all by ourselves( he even let me use the circular saw that is after i pouted that I was a big girl and knew how to use power tools), and the new tenets will be here next week.  We, ok DQ and I are so excited the hubs still thinks I'm nuts  but how awesome will pet chickens be!

To end the weekend we went to The Cheesecake Factory.  It was so good and  easy to stay on track they have the best skinnylicious menu.  I know right Cheesecake Factory and "healthy-ish" food who knew...

How was your weekend? do anything nuts?

Linking up with Katie and Motivational  Monday.

Friday Five....Refrigerator Surprise

Yup I am still doing Fridays Five I can't help I like it :)  this weeks five is pretty much a little recap of my week so let's do this.

 

{one}

I have been doing great in my food choices and staying on track.  Sometimes it's really hard since my school serves up some pretty tasty snack for the kiddos ie. pot stickers, bean and cheese burritos, English muffin pizzas...so much food.  But I am staying strong and my  goal is to only eat what I have brought in my lunch  bag (yes I pack a lunch every darn day).

 

apples + pb = best combo ever

berry chicken salad
 

{two}

and as far as food goes it is not the only thing in my fridge at the moment thanks to DQ.  She is my own Dr. Doolittle.  This girl loves every creature under the sun (except maybe spiders but can you blame her) so some times I find things like this.

dand I need to go to the grocery store...

 

{three}

continuing on that path I think I'm slightly to blame for her creature/animal obsession.  I was like that too when I was younger and still am a bit the only thing that stops me now is that my mom isn't here to take care of the animals when I tire of them lol just kidding sort of  hence how we ended up with a dog after the hubs swore we would never have any more (just had to give him the sad eyes... works every time how do you thing I finally got my dish washer).

 

{four}

which brings me to my new pinterest board

Yup we are getting chickens.  Not right this minute probably in the next month or two. We need some time to get a coop (hello those thing can be pricey, any one out there want to donate to my farming dreams lol)  and all the other necessities for being "urban" chicken farmers :)

{five}
add that to my little plot of a garden and I am a happy little "wanna be" urban farm girl!

isn't my cantaloupe cute

Now I'm off to celebrate Carries Birthday with a few margaritas and some paddle boarding.


Linking up with, Oh Hey Friday, That Friday Blog Hop, and, Sincerely Paula

 

It's Hot, Sticky, Sweet....

 So what do you think?... I changed things up a bit on here.  I blame the Diet Dr. Pepper I drank at 4pm on Friday night...I should know better, but any way.

It was another great weekend, wow I am on a roll.  The beginning of this summer I promised myself that this year I was going to use our pool more and so far so good!

Saturday we had the "un-birthday" party for DQ lol.  A few close friends came over for pizza and swimming it was super laid back and though we did do pizza,  I made sure to have lots of  veggies, fruit and salad. I will admit to a slice and a bit of ice cream cake but I was balanced and still enjoyed with going over bored.

nothing like eating cake in the pool

The other great thing about summer time swimming is since you are outside you can have tons of messy drippy watermelon then just jump in the pool (cause I'm a cool mom and don't pool days count as baths in the summer??.)  Honestly I absolutely love watermelon it's the perfect healthy summer treat, but I used to never buy it because I HATED cutting it and I'm too cheap to buy the pre-cut.  Talk about sticky, juicy mess twss I know sorry couldn't help it.  That is until I learned this little trick.

Thank you Pinterest!

How To Cut a Watermelon with Less Mess

 1. Get a BIG ass knife (I like to use my serrated bread knife)

2. Hack off the top and bottom of the watermelon.

3. Carefully cut the rind off, so you kinda have a naked looking  watermelon.

notice there is hardly any juice...see it works.

4.Now just slice and dice how you like (you can pretend your Dexter)

 now there will be some juice at this point but I found if you do it on a cookie sheet it pretty much stays contained  (I was just to lazy to do it yesterday so by the sink worked just as well)

The great thing I still have a ton of watermelon left over for this weeks snacks!

 Linking up with these awesome chicks...

                                                             

Weekend Recap... So much Food

How was your weekend?

 Here we had a quiet and relaxing weekend.  Not much going on just some house cleaning and grocery shopping,  we were running pretty low.  Of course I went just before lunch so I was starving... but  as you can see it's not always a bad thing.

 

They recently closed  Trader Joe's by me...NOOOOOO!!!   Luckily they did open a Sprouts (think TJ's on a slightly bigger scale with more fruits, veggies, and well everything...they even have stuff like oat flour, chia seeds, and stuff that you can buy in bulk from these huge wine barrel type things) 

... so all is forgiven. 

My instagram pic on Saturday you can follow me here

With all these tasty things in the house I had an itch to order pizza  cook  so Saturday night I tried my hand at eggplant pizzas. I have a zucchini pizza recipe on my Pinterest  page but I liked the idea of a bigger, heartier bottom, 

 and because I need  a cure for that pizza craving.

It was really easy to make just slice a large eggplant about 1/2 inch thick, then sprinkle a good amount of salt on top to "sweat" it and lay a paper towel on top (to soak up the extra moisture), let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour then wipe off any extra salt.  

Heat oven to 350 F, lay your eggplant on a cookie sheet (I lined mine with foil so I wouldn't have to scrub off stuck cheese cause I'm lazy like that) Then top with pizza or tomato sauce of your choice, skim-milk mozzarella and turkey pepperoni (or what ever other pizza topping you like). 

Pin this recipe by hovering over the picture for the Pin it button :)

This was GOOD....

  like I may be cured of my pizza craving forever, ok for at least another week. 

I had two of these and a light Caesar salad for dinner. Oh and they are even better the next day!

*myfitnesspal calculated it to be approx. 115 kcals, 6g fat, 9.6g carbs, 9g protein, and 4.5g fiber per pizza

The rest of the weekend we did some more shopping at Ikea (me and the crazy cat lady lol) and the 99 cent store.  I was actually pretty shocked at some of the decent produce I got there.  Mushrooms, cauliflower and a big bag of mini peppers and they were all still fresh...not to bad. Sometimes eating healthy on the cheap is possible.

Girl takes after her pizza lovin mama...and I didn't even have a bite,  go me!!

So  did you try anything new this weekend? 

Fab Friday ... Link-Up

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 This weeks fab find came when I was browsing Target without the kid the only time I get to browse.  I totally pulled a fast one on the hubs.  I had to take my car to get an oil change and recall part taken care of (Thanks Toyota) and when the shuttle came I left DQ with the hubs and of course stopped by Target for a "few" things, yeah famous last words.  I can't help it if I had to go down every single isle to look for those "few" things ;)

I digress,  of course I was hungry so I go down the food isle.  I didn't have my normal starbux cuppa joe so these babies caught my eye....ummm caffeine.

They are MOCHA flavored almonds... yum.  Of course I had to check the serving size I didn't want the flavoring to add so many calories that I only  got to eat a few some times it has to be quantity or have a shit ton of sugar that totally negates the health benefits see I'm thinking quality too 

To my surprise  it wasn't to bad  you get 24 nuts per serving at 160 calories,  3g of fiber, 6g of protein, and only 3g of sugar. 

They claim that one serving size has the same amount of caffeine and 2oz of coffee so I'd have to eat the whole bag to get my fix.  But overall they were really good, not super sweet and the mocha flavor is pretty mild.  I really enjoyed them they are a great alternative to plain almonds and have a  less sodium than dry roasted.  I think they are a great sweet treat that fits in with my healthy diet.

This is one serving size