It's Christmas already...

and I've been terrible about blogging. I had some big things happen in my life and it put my goals of becoming better on hold. I'm here now...here I go.

Fall is magical.

I feel the change. I've been really not into blogging and I haven't been eating healthy like I was. I really had to just shut myself down these last two weeks and look at the bigger picture. I went to the doctor, I'm waiting on test results for various things. I want to change, I feel the change and so now I'm just enjoying life day by day. I'm taking a break from forcing a change every week and I'm just trying to enjoy moments with my family and taking up new hobbies. Pumpkin patches are very cheerful. Seeing laughter and sparkles makes you think differently.

Fall shoes, fall fashion, make me happy.

My new hobby is crocheting. I want to hand make all my Christmas gifts this year and so ... granny square blankets it is.

I've got a new job substituting and my old job has picked up as well. The money aspect of life is looking better, marriage is looking better, magical family moments are better...life is getting better. I am getting better.

My heart hurts.

Ginger-seasame chopped chicken salad from pei wei. It was amazing. I went to the doctor this last friday for many symptoms that I have. They did a lot of tests, I should hear something back by the end of this week. I don't know if I should be scared or not. We'll see.

Busy day

Today has been busy. I've been running errands, chasing my daughter, making fall crafts and trying to figure out how to become a certified teacher. I have a degree in something other than education and now I'm working on becoming a certified teacher in my state. Anyhow, to the food, some yummy Kashi and yougurt.

Lunch and dinner was spinach and artichoke dip with a tortilla chips. It was delicious and I used fat free mayo, reduced fat parmesan and sour cream and tried to make it as healthy as I could.

So back to the school thing. Since our finances haven't been going so well and I want a normal job I've decided to go back to school and get my certification. While I'm doing that I'm going to substitute teach. I'm pretty excited about this change and I'm looking forward to having a job that is helpful to others. I'm changing already.

Fish tacos and cupcakes = not a good combination

Last week I made something new for our family. I made fish tacos with tilapia. It was really simple except I want to make it even healthier. I fried the fish in light oil because I was afraid it would be too soggy if I tried to bake the fish. I put paprika, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper in the flour to cover the fish before frying. I used light thousand island sauce and shredded lettuce to go inside the taco with the fish. It's really simple and really yummy. This week I may add avocados.


So along with fish tacos I had two cupcakes this week while I was home visiting family. We went to visit some fancy cupcake shops and I had to try one from each place. They were good and I didn't finish each cupcake and I didn't eat them on the same day so maybe I'm safe.

We did go to the Zoo with my daughter. I got lots of walking in so that may have helped with the cupcakes. We'll see.

MIA

I've been missing from my blog for about a week. We had to shut down our Internet service for a week and today we just got it up and running again. While that was going on I made a trip down south for a few days to visit my parents and my baby sister. It was a much needed trip. I've been stressed/depressed/out of my mind lately and I just needed my parents. I know, I know, I'm totally a grown woman but it's nice to just have that comfort sometimes.

While I was down south I didn't eat healthy (well I tried but by dinners weren't healthy at all). My mom and I made this sun-dried tomato chicken thing...with heavy cream and oil (ouch). I'm going to try to figure out how to make it healthier. Any ideas?

So today is Monday, my world is upside down. I'm going to try to get it back together this week and then I will get back to my weekly change to better myself inside and out. See you soon.

Eggplant

Remember all those veggies I got the other day. Well I finally was able to make my eggplant Parisian. I baked the eggplant after I coated it with egg and Italian bread crumbs. I topped it with provolone cheese (remember I'm trying to use all that I already have). I used some left over marinara sauce and some left over spaghetti noodles from the other day. It was good, a little more bitter than I thought it would be but it was tasty and filling. What more can you ask for?


Tomorrow or Wednesday I think I'll finally be able to set up my gym membership. Ugh..taking forever.

Have a good evening.

Over-easy and a highly emotional

Breakfast today was an over easy egg with half of a toasted whole grain English muffin. I topped with Italian seasoning and I ate it with a little bit of salsa. It was really good but for some reason I was still hungry so I grabbed a yogurt to share with P. So I guess I ate half of a yogurt too.


I said in one of my previous posts that I was going to continue my goal from last week since it got screwed up last week. So this week I will again try to work out twice a week.

Another goal I'm working on...which is sorta a month long goal is to completely clear out our pantry and freezer by eating only things that we already have. I will have to buy eggs, milk and bread....stuff like that. So I say this because I know the next few weeks meals will look really strange. I mean stuff like Spam, beans, cornbread, etc. I know that those things aren't all healthy but I have to get rid of the crap in our pantry in order to only shop healthily from now on.

Breakfast of Champions.

Today my and P (my daughter) had a late morning so I decided to make a more extravagant breakfast for us. I made a breakfast bagel with eggs, cheese and bacon. The bagel is whole grain and the bacon was low sodium. I know it wasn't the healthiest choice but it was going to be our breakfast and lunch since it was so late.

I put a little spiced chai in my coffee this morning. It was a little too sweet for me so I couldn't really finish it.

Today I have a big to-do list today. I want to bake a pie for my husband, clean my house, finish all my ironing, do some laundry, organize our art/music studio and teach myself to crochet.

Who thinks I can do it?

Friday business.

Today was busy. I was taking family around town and to the airport and grocery shopping. My photos today aren't very colorful today. For breakfast I had some zucchini bread with a glass of water. I was in a hurry and it was the easiest to grab. For lunch my husband, dad, P and I went to Q-doba. I had nachos with black beans, chicken, sour cream, cheese and avocado. I never eat very much because their portions are so big. I usually give some to P (my daughter) and then whatever is left over my husband eats. I love their chicken there.

For dinner all I had to do was heat up some veggie pasta in my oven. It was actually really good. I think next time I won't put any meat in it. I don't really care for the ground turkey in this particular item. Anyhow, I know it's Saturday morning and I'm blogging about yesterday but I've been so busy that I haven't even had time to blog. So I'm trying to catch up.

I didn't not get to work out this week. I did walk a lot while I was showing my family our new city and we did some shopping. I do think I'm going to go for a walk with P tonight around our neighborhood so that will help out. I think next week I'm going to start over with my week change and try it again.

Just a quick hello.

Breakfast today was a zucchini muffin and some yogurt. My lunch and dinner were out to eat and I had a kid burger for lunch and chicken for dinner. Nothing exciting. I'm bummed out because I haven't gotten my gym situation worked out yet. I'm transferring my gym membership from the city I used to live in to my new city. They don't offer that same options at the new gym which sucks because I'd have to pay 10 extra bucks a month for child care but I don't always work out during the day but I'd like the freedom of choice to go during the day or wait till my husband gets off work. So I'm trying to figure out what I want to do before I transfer the membership. We'll see.

Cooking and Baking all day

Breakfast was quick and easy because I had a ton of stuff to do today. I had a huge glass of water, some yoplait light and a granola bar (which got partially swiped by my 21 month old). I was on a mission today to figure out what to do with all of these veggies!

After some careful consideration of the lovely comment that were left to help me I decided on shredding some zucchini for zucchini bread that I want to freeze. I shredded some squash and eggplant for veggie lasagna.


I also made some fresh salsa with some of my peppers, onions, fresh cilantro and roasted tomatoes. I think I added just a little bit of salt. (sorry about the blurry photos)


I put all of the ingredients into my food processor and purified it. It's a little too purified for me but it still tasted good. My husband really liked it. I can't wait to try it with some whole grain tortilla chips. I ended up putting most of it into some bags and I labeled and froze the salsa.

The next thing I worked on was some "easy veggie lasagna" with my eggplant and squash that I shredded. I used spaghetti noodles because of the containers that I was going to store the "easy lasagna" in to freeze. I put some homemade marinara sauce with my fresh tomatoes, etc. I added cottage cheese and my shredded veggies and then mixed it all up and separated it into some containers to freeze. I did end up putting a sprinkle of mixed cheese and Parmesan on top but it isn't in the pictures. I made 5 full meals for the three of us to freeze and probably some left over for J to take to work the next day.



I also made some throw it all in the pot gumbo. I really wanted to make something to use up the okra in case it didn't keep in the freezer by itself. I made a huge huge huge pot of it. It's actually what we had for dinner and it was really yummy. It had lots of flavors. I think it needs more spice but I think we may just add Tabasco sauce to spice it up. I also froze bags of it to have later.



Here is some of my zucchini bread I ended up making 10, yes 10 mini loaves of zucchini bread. I froze most of it also.

So pretty much we are set for a long long time. Yay Veggies!

Veggies Veggies Veggies

Breakfast today was out the door grab what I can but I did get some hot tea which was amazing and perfect for this chilly morning.

Lunch was baked salmon with salt and pepper with dill and mustard dip, baked sweet potato and green beans. It was very filling and I felt very healthy after I ate it.


For the evening time we went over to this couple's house that work in our youth group to see their property for our upcoming fall/Halloween party. They live on a quite of good chunk of land and they love to garden. They just walked out to their garden and picked all of these fresh veggies, stuck them in a bucket and gave them to us like it was no big deal.



They grew purple okra. I'm so excited to make some wonderful yummy things with all these fresh veggies.



If anyone has any suggestions of how to keep these veggies longer, some recipes, ideas, freezing techniques....anything. Please let me know.

The thing that I want to change about myself this week is to work out at least 2 days a week. That means I just want to do something overly active for a long period of time at least twice a week. This is a huge step for me so we'll see how this goes.

Family Day!

Today was family day for J, P and I and we had an amazing time. For breakfast I forced down some yogurt and a slice of banana nut bread for breakfast with a huge glass of water. We then took P to the play place at the mall, did some walking around the mall for exercise and then went to the park.


I packed a lunch for all of us. It was just pb&j because I was in a hurry but it was on whole grain bread and a had a delicious fiber bar with it and a bottle of water. We had a lot of fun watching P play hard at the park. She loves other kids and being outside so it was a great experience. I love family time.


For dinner I made lean ground beef hamburgers with mushrooms and baked sliced potatoes with olive oil and Italian spices on them. It wasn't my healthiest day but I didn't undo anything that I've been working for so I call it a good day. I did get outside, get some fresh air and some exercise so that was good.

Tomorrow I've got to figure out what my weekly goal/change will be. See you tomorrow.