Back on Track...for now

Ever since the holidays it seems like I've lost my motivation to eat healthier, or at least to eat less. I allow myself to indulge for the holidays hoping that when life gets back to normal, I'll fall back into my groove of a healthier disciplined diet & exercise regimen. Well, up until last week that hadn't happened. Since I stay home with my daughter, I have this problem of just eating all day. A little here & there, but it adds up and my jeans were getting waaay tight. Mornings are my main problem. I like to graze and eat about 3 or 4 breakfasts worth of food before lunch :(. I do love my cereal/pancakes/waffles/muffins...you get the picture. And those foods don't really keep my satisfied & full. So, it was good timing that I ran across this recipe for a 'Power Smoothie' on Our Best Bites. We haven't been using our Blentec much lately like we should, so I decided to try this smoothie and hopefully let it do its magic. I even tracked down the oat groats at the 'healthy grocery store'.

I've changed up the recipe some, my smoothie is basically this:

1 frozen banana
1/2 c frozen blueberries
1 apple
1 orange
handful of spinach
1/2 c greek yogurt
2 T oat groats
1 c orange juice


This smoothie tastes wonderful! It's hard to believe you're ingesting all that goodness when you just drink it up through a straw. I can't imagine having a whole banana, apple, orange, pile of spinach, etc on a plate and eating it, but in a smoothie, it's so fun & easy, not to mention delicious! And it has really changed my eating habits, seriously, almost magically. I make one after returning from taking my son to school, drink it up and I am NOT HUNGRY the rest of the morning. And it seems to carry over to the rest of the day. I just don't get those wild cravings of wanting to eat anything I see. My other little trick is my carrots & peanut butter snack. They make an awesome afternoon snack, low carb and protein rich, carries me over to dinner time, no problem.

I've also been working out 3 or 4 times a week. I've been doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred along with a couple Denise Austin DVD's that I really like. I have a couple new ones on order since I'm growing tired of my little library.

So, I'm feeling great for now, under control, a bit fitter and more energetic. But...we've got a party weekend coming up so I'll need to get back to damage control come Monday. Thankfully I'll have my spinach & oat groats standing by.

English Muffin Breakfast Pizzas

Thank you to my awesome sister for sharing this recipe with me! It's just what I needed, something new, different & yummy that can be made ahead of time for busy school mornings. It seems we've been in a breakfast rut since Christmas break. The kids are getting tired of pancakes & waffles and even tired of my breakfast burritos which they used to love. And I get a great big frown when I set the cereal out in the morning (yeah, they're a little spoiled). But I love having variety in my breakfast foods so I don't mind the challenge of coming up with new & different things to eat in the morning.

Anyway, this recipe for English Muffin Breakfast Pizzas is from Our Best Bites. It's a simple recipe that can be changed up depending on what toppings you want on your breakfast pizza. I topped ours with some cut-up pre-cooked sausage, shredded spinach and finely diced jalapenos then some shredded mozzarella. I made a few non-veggie ones for the pickier kid. Here they are heading into the oven.

The unique thing about these pizzas is that the English muffin is dunked into the egg mixture before baking which gives it a moist, eggy texture. They aren't dry like they might be if you just put all the toppings on top. I made this batch on Sunday, let them cool, then froze them. I just love having such a good breakfast all done & ready. Just pop them in the microwave for a minute or so and they're done!

Just look at the adorable little orange juice! Yes, I pay a slight premium for the cute packaging but it's a fun little breakfast juice treat.

Potato Soup or Waffle Batter...

Hopefully this will win the prize for my strangest blog post title. And I'm only sharing this to prove that I did indeed make another new soup last week. It's a potato soup recipe that is in our Blentec blender cookbook. I added more potatoes than it called for and I think I blended it too long (hense the thick batter consistency). I roasted a few extra veggies to add- onions, a couple carrots and a jalapeno pepper. I blended it all in the blender and it had a nice flavor, but something about the texture and its apprearance...and the fact that it did indeed have flour and butter in it...whatever it was, I just felt like I was eating waffle batter. The strange thing is that the kids liked it! So, not a total fail. Here's a pic:



It's a bit hard to get motivated to make more soup when the forcast calls for 60 degree weather the next couple days....maybe a gazpacho or a chilled cucumber soup? Sounds good to me!

Valentines!

I ran across this idea last year but by the time I did, it was too late to make them before the big holiday. So I was excited to try it this year and we had a great time making them! They are a fun, unique card for kids to hand out to friends.

Here's the basic idea, take a picture of your kid with their hand stretched out like they are holding a giant lollipop. Then edit them with borders and text, or whatever else you choose. After they are printed, cut little slits above & below their hand and slide a sucker stick through the holes.

Here's our original pics:

Here they are after editing:

And here's the finished cards complete with dum-dums:(you can click on any of these images for a larger view)

I used PICNIK to edit and add borders and text. If you have never been to that site, check it out! But, do it quick and don't fall in love with it too hard because they are 'closing' in April. Don't even get me started on how upset I am about this. I use Picnik all the time and have never found any other online editing that is as easy & fun. I'm hoping somehow they will change their mind and stay open.

I had these printed at Walgreens, they were kind of a test run. I pasted two 'cards' on each 4 x 6 print then cut them apart.


I think I may get them on 5x7's for the final products so they are bigger and I will definitely get a matte finish. They'll end up being quite economical. If I used 4x6 prints, they would end up being less than $2.00 for a classroom full of kids and for 5x7's closer to $5.00. Not bad! And dum-dums are cheap ;)

African Peanut Butter Soup

Here's my first soup of the week. Here's a clue as to whose recipe this is:

I like gooey peanut butter
You may not like gooey peanut butter
Still we like each other

Do you remember who sang that cute little song? I'm dating myself because it was sung on Sesame Street in the 70's. It's Grover! And I found his recipe in this cookbook:

It's a great kids' cookbook I found at Goodwill. This copy is in perfect condition and it has some wonderful kid-friendly yet mostly healthy recipes.

I thought this one would be fun to try, something different but simple and it used ingredients I already had on hand.

I ended up making just a half a batch and I added a diced carrot but didn't use a red pepper. Other than that, I think I followed the recipe pretty closely.

African Style Peanut Butter Soup

1-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 t chili powder
1 T olive oil

Saute above in olive oil till chicken is done. Then add:

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
1/2 peanut butter

Bring to a simmer till all heated through then add:

1 cup prepared rice (brown or white)



I really loved the way it turned out, the rest of the family was just kinda 'eh' about it. It was very low in salt, I used low sodium broth and didn't add any salt so it was a bit bland, but actually that is one of the reasons I liked it so much.

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I'm still deciding on my next soup. I'm kinda remembering that I'm the only one in the family who likes soup very much. I know they all like stuff like chili & chunky potato soup. But the more brothy, vegetable-y ones are not so popular. I need to work that into my game plan or else just invite my Mom over for dinner 2 x's a week for soup then make something else that everyone else likes too. I don't want to have to do that (well...the Mom part would be okay, but the extra cooking part NO) I really just need to work everyone's likes into my recipe choices or else I'll be enjoying lots of leftovers & lots of whining.