Chinese New Year

Every year I tell Ken that I'm going to make a Chinese dinner in honor of the Chinese New Year he replies with the same 4 words, "but we're not Chinese."  Yes Ken, I know, we're Korean.  Yes, he's half Korean.  He is the reason I love Korean food.

This year I told him that we were having Korean in order to celebrate Seollal, the Korean lunar new year.  Seollal is the first day of the Korean Lunar Calendar.  It falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice.  This day is about family and ancestors.  It's one of the most important Korean holidays.

2014 is the year of the Horse.  According to the Official Korea Tourism Organization,

"Every year is represented by one of the 12 zodiac signs, which take the form of animals known as Sibijisin. These signs change with every new year and rotate over a 12 year cycle. For a fun activity at the beginning of each year, people, especially elders, analyze the relationship between their birth year zodiac sign and the new year's sign to find out their fortune. 

The year 2014 is referred to as "Gaponyeon" or "The Year of the Horse." The horse is the seventh in the group of twelve guardian animal deities collectively known as the Sibijisin, which literally means "twelve (sibi) gods of the earth (jisin)." People born in the year of the horse are said to be open-minded and have a cheerful disposition with a good sense of humor. They are likely to achieve success in any activities they undertake. However, they can be somewhat self-centered and must beware of trifling away money on pleasures."

For more information on the Sibijisin check out the links at the bottom of the post.


So onto dinner.  I pulled out my tried and true Korean cookbook.  The Complete Book of Korean Cooking by Young Jin Song.  I love this book.  I have used it too many times to count to make myself many Korean meals.  {Buy it HERE}  I decided that I wanted my favorite noodle dish, Japchae,  and fried zucchini (hobakjeon.)  Unfortunately Japchae was the 1 recipe that is NOT included in the book.  So, I turned to the internet and found a recipe on Korean Bapsang.  Get the recipe HERE for the Japchae and the recipe for the fried zucchini HERE.

Japchae

HobakJeon

The most time consuming part of all of these dishes was the chopping.  I was in the kitchen for nearly an hour chopping, slicing and dicing.  After all that is done the meal comes together quickly

Everything turned out delicious.  Yet, it all paled in comparison to my mother-in-law's cooking.  Me making Korean dishes is alot like when I make a recipe of my mother's.  It doesn't have exactly the same flavor as my mother's or my mother-in-laws.  Maybe I'm lacking the same love that they made it with?  Ken raved about it to his mom, who was very impressed.

Below are some links about the Lunar New Year celebration in Korea.  Did you make anything interesting for the Lunar New Year?

KoreanTourism.org: Seollal (Lunar New Year) Celebrations in Korea

KoreanTourism.org: Sibijisin Story

Samantha Birthday Cake Recipes and Birthday Recap

The initial plan for today was a trip to the zoo {hello calorie burner!} but, due to yucky weather we had to change our plans.  I am the Queen of Plan B.  I always have a plan B especially for activities that are going to be outdoors.

Buddie had an appointment to be neutered today so our day started early because his drop-off was scheduled for 8:15. Breakfast was a special raspberry coffee cake. After we dropped off Buddie I surprised Mo by picking up Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 so we could have lunch and a movie.  The movie was really cute.  I'm thinking there will be a movie themed dinner in the future.

After the movie we headed over to the Allure European Day Spa.  They were awesome with the girls.  Each of the girls got a manicure, pedicure, hair cut and the stylist even did a really cute braid for each one.  

When we got home I started on dinner.  Mo decided that she wanted tacos for her birthday dinner.  I used Boca soy crumbles for the "meat" and seasoned it using Mrs. Dash Taco Seasoning.  I also made taco shrimp using baby shrimp.  I seasoned it with chili powder, paprika, onion powder, minced garlic and cumin.  It worked really well.  After dinner was cake a presents.  Mo is obsessed with One Direction and panda bears {do you know how hard it is to find things with pandas on them?}  Her cake was a panda bear cupcake cake with I love 1D written on it.  She asked for half of her cupcakes to be chocolate and the other half to be strawberry.  I was really amazed at how well BOTH of these recipes worked.  The chocolate cake was just as moist as a tradional full fat cake and the strawberry cake tasted like strawberry ice cream.  I did the standard Cool Whip frosting.  The recipe for all 3 are below.  

Mo had a great day.  Here are all the pictures from the day:

Chocolate Cake
adapted from Hershey's "Especially Dark" Chocolate Cake Recipe

1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
.25 cup cornstarch
.75 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
egg substitute/egg whites equivilent to2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
.5 cup pureed zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325.  Grease muffin tins.  (The recipe says it makes between 28 and 30 cupcakes)
2. Mix together dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl mix egg substite/egg whites, milk, zucchini and vanilla
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry
5. Pour in water and blend well
6. Put batter into muffin tins and bake for 30-35 minutes
7. Cool  in pan for 10 minutes then finish cooling on a rack. 

•  

Strawberry Cake

Adapted From Paula Deen's 1-2-3-4 Cake Recipe

1.5 cup sugar
2.5 cup flour
.5 cup cornstarch
1.5 T baking powder 
1 cup strawberry puree
egg substitute/ egg whites equivilent to 4 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1 t strawberry extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease 24-30 muffin tins
2. Mix together dry ingredients
3. In a separate bowl mix your wet ingredients
4. Stir your wet into your dry
5. Fill muffin tin 3/4 full and bake for 30-35 minutes.
6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then place on a rack to finish cooling

Frosting

8 oz Cool Whip

1 package Pudding

1 cup milk

Directions

1. Whisk together milk and pudding mix
2. Fold in Cool Whip
3. Place in fridge for atleast 30 minutes before using.

How do you celebrate your kids' birthdays?

Happy Birthday!

Today is Mo's 9th birthday!  We are going to the Jacksonville Zoo and I'm making tacos for dinner.  I'll have a full recap for y'all tomorrow.  

Something To Go With The Smoothie....

Last nite I told you about the Spinach Smoothie.  Today I'm giving you the recipe for the muffins that were in the background of the smoothie photo.  I snuck vegetables in those too!

I adapted this recipe from Happy Herbivore Light and Lean cookbook.  My recipe isn't vegan but it's equally delicious and I'm pretty certain it has less fat.  

Orange Zucchini Muffins
Makes 12 regular or 30 mini muffins

Ingredients

1.5 c flour
1 T baking powder
1 small banana
.75 c skim milk
.5 c fat free Greek yogurt
zest and juice of a clementine/blood orange
1 cup shredded zucchini (about 2 small zucchini)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray a muffin tin (I made mini muffins as you can see)
2. Squeeze all the water out of your shredded zucchini and set aside
3. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
4. In a blender or food processor puree banana, milk, yogurt, zest and orange juice
5. Mix banana mixture into flour mixture.
6. Fold in zucchini
7. Bake 18-25 minutes for regular muffins and 15-20 minutes for mini muffins

These were delicious.  The orange stood out but didn't overpower.  The zucchini added a nice bit of moisture.  You can actually substitute the orange for any citrus probably.  The original recipe calls for lemon.  It would be nice to try with grapefruit.  

An Inspired Post

My trip to Smoothie King really opened my eyes to the possibilities of vegetables.  The fruits really blend well with the vegetables.  They also hide the taste.

Tonite was smoothie and muffin nite.  I decided to slip some spinach into my smoothie.  I was surprised at the fact that I couldn't taste the spinach at all.   

The one in the front is mine.  The only difference between mine and the girls' is the fact that I added spinach.  But honestly, I bet if I had added spinach to theirs they wouldn't have known.


Spinach Smoothie
Serves: 1
Calories: 226
Carbs: 41 g
Protein: 17 g


Ingredients

4 oz (.5 cup) Fat free plain Greek yogurt
.5 medium banana
About 2  cups of spinach
.25 cup blueberries
.25 cup raspberries
4 frozen strawberries
.25 cup light soymilk

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in the blender and puree until smooth.

Do you add vegetables in unexpected places?  I'd love to hear about it! 

Finally!! A Perfect Veggie Burger...

Everyone has that dish that they can NOT seem to perfect.  I bet you can name one right now can't you?

Mine is a veggie burger.  I've altered every possible aspect of the recipe.  I've tried more online recipes than I can count but, none of them have seen truely delicious until this one.  

I used TVP as my base.  One of the biggest problems I've had with veggie burgers in the past was that they fell apart on me when I would take them out of the pan.  These stayed together very nicely.  

My binders were canned pumpkin and breadcrumbs.  The flavors comepletlly belend.  Nother pverpowers anything else.  They are all together harmoniously.  

I had a bit too much time on my hands so Sunny and I decided to make Naan bread to use as a bun.  

Naan
1.5 cups flour
.5 T active dry yeast
.25 cup warm plain nondairy milk
.5 cup plain nondairy yogurt
1-2 T garlic

Directions

1. Heat milk in microwave for 20 seconds until warm
2. Sprinkle yeast on top and let sit for 10 minutes until frothy and bubbly
3. Mix all the ingredients together and stir until combined
4. Let rise in a warm dark place (like the oven) for 60-90 minutes
5. Divide into 10 pieces and roll into either a circle or a square. 
6. Heat a skillet sprayed with pan spray on high heat.  
7. Heat naan for about a minute on the first side then flip and cook for another minute on the other side.  Both sides should be golden brown and bubbly.  
8. Cover with a lid and cook for another 30 seconds to 1 minute.
9. Use 2 per burger.  One on top and one on the bottom.

TVP Burger
2.5 cup TVP (I use Bob's Red Mill)
2.5 c boiling vegetable broth
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 onion, grated

Directions

1. Put TVP in a bowl, pour boiling water over it and cover.  Let sit for atleast 10 minutes
2. Mix all other ingredients into the TVP and mix thuroughly.  (I find using my hands is the easiest way but, make sure your TVP is cool enough before you do!)
3. Form into 5 patties.  
4. Heat a skillet sprayed with pan spary on medium high heat and cook for about 5-7 minutes each side until golden brown

You can also broil them 5-7 minutes each side

What is the dish that you have been having trouble perfecting?

Something It's Not

January 23rd, 1/23, 123.  Don't you wish everything in life could be as easy as 1,2,3?  I know I do.  But, you know what's easy?  Saying "happy birthday."  It's my mommy's birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  She's the one who taught me how to cook.  She showed me nothing is hard and she's one of my biggest supporters.

Winter has finally settled in down here.  Mornings and evenings are in the 30's and the afternoons are only getting up to the low 60's (if we're lucky.)  I can honestly say I did NOT move to Florida for this weather!  It beats the winters in Virginia any day though.

Winters aren't easy for me.  I'm not a winter person.  My body wants to shut down.  Honestly I think in my previous life I was a bear.  I really wish I could start hibernating. Okay, enough about how cold I am.

I find that altering a recipe to taste like something else isn't easy.  But, I managed to make a pizza that has the same great flavors as lasagna.  Yes, LASAGNA!  I'd love to say that this recipe was born from pure creativity and that fact that I'm that awesome but honestly, it wasn't.  It was born from lack of time.

Lasagna Pizza

Ingredients
1 recipe of pizza dough
2 oz fat free ricotta
2 onions, sliced thin
16 oz mushrooms, sliced
.5 - 1 cup tomato puree
7 oz vegan sausage (I use Light Life Gimmie Lean Sausage)
16 oz fat free mozzarella cheese
3 cups spinach (optional)

Directions

1. Saute the mushrooms and onions separately
2. Roll out pizza dough and spread a thin layer of ricotta
3. Spread half the sauce on top of ricotta layer, cover with mushrooms and onions and the sausage, half the mozzarella, the other half of the sauce, put the spinach on now (if you're using it)  and the rest of the mozzarella.
4. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes until the crust is brown and the cheese is melted.

Every Day is a Good Day For Pizza

Recipe Redux day!  The theme for the January is Pizza Party.  If you type "pizza recipes" into Google, it finds 99,400,000 results.  Did you know that pizza is a $32 billion industry?  $32 BILLION!!  That's crazy.  Pizza is a $32 billion industry and you can't find a fat free pizza {I actually found a company that mail orders fat free pizza and I have contacted them to see if I can't review their product for you.  I'll keep you updated}  

I love pizza.  I love to eat it and I love to make it.  It's a blank slate that you can customize as much - or as little- ask you'd like.  You never have to eat the same pizza twice.  I watch alot of cooking shows and read alot of cooking blogs so, I've seen quite a few pizza combinations. But, really there are 4 main components to a pizza.  The crust, the sauce, the toppings and the cheese.  Here are just a few options for pizza:

Sauce
Alfredo
Tomato
Pesto
Minced garlic/garlic paste

Vegetable Toppings (honestly most vegetables work on a pizza)
Mushrooms
Onions
Olives
Green Peppers
Spinach
Jalapenos
Banana Peppers
Tomatoes
  
Protein Toppings
Pepperoni
Sausage
Chicken
Ground Beef

Cheese 
Mozzarella
Cheddar
Feta
Ricotta
Any hard cheese that you can grate


There are many ways to put these pizza parts together.  There's a traditional pizza, deep dish, a stromboli {basically a rolled pizza}, and a calzone {a folded over pizza}

I have many many pizzas {pizza night is a monthly thing in our house} and I have eaten many pizzas.  Ken's favorite when we were living in Virginia was a white pizza from Reynolds Street Bar and Grill in Alexandria.  CLICK HERE for a link to their website.  I've never actually had a favorite place for pizza but, before I became the Fat Free Queen my favorite pizza was a Barbecue Chicken Pizza.  {Which you can actually make VERY low fat using vegan chick'n}  

With 5 people in the house it's hard to decide on pizza toppings.  Luckily, we can all agree on mushrooms and onions.  On the days that we have time I like to let everyone make their own personal pizza.  A couple Fridays ago I had a serious craving for pizza.  Friday is one of our eat-on-the-run days.  We have to be at cheer AND swim at 5:00 so dinner is eaten in the car.  

Pizza isn't really a car food.  I made calzones so  that the mess would be minimized. Everyone in the house enjoys BFD (Breakfast For Dinner) so I made breakfast calzones.  Scrambled eggs, melty cheese, sauteed mushrooms and onions, vegetarian sausage and tomato sauces wrapped in crunchy, yet soft pizza dough.  Perfection!

Breakfast Calzones
Serves 5
Calories: 455
Total Fat: 1 gram
Cholesterol: 10 grams
Sodium: 1,053
Carbs: 70 grams
Fiber: 7.6 grams
Protein: 39 grams


Ingredients
10 egg whites (or equivalent egg substitute)
5-10 slices of fat free cheese
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
2 onions, sliced
1 recipe for your favorite pizza dough
1.25 c tomato sauces/pizza sauce/pasta sauce
5-10 oz vegetarian sausage (I used light life)



Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Saute onions until soft and translucent (7-10 minutes)
3. Saute mushrooms 5-7 minutes
4. Divide pizza dough into 5 portions and roll out into circles
5. Cook eggs
6. On one half of the dough layer: .25 cup sauce, eggs, cheese, sausage, mushrooms, and onions.  Fold other side over filling, crimp closed, cut 2-3 slits in the top (so it can vent), spray top with a bit of pan spray
7. Place on a greased sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown

With the Super Bowl coming soon you could even make these mini and serve them as an appetizer!  

Veggie Power!

Disclosure:  Smoothie King provided me with a $25 gift card to review their smoothie.  The opinions are mine.

I was really excited when I heard about Smoothie King's new Veggie Power line of Smoothies.  A yummy way to eat them without actually feeling like you're eating them.  It is also a great way to sneak vegetables into your kid's diet.  

Smoothie King has come up with 3 different flavors.

Apple Kale Kiwi -- Deliciously defending your immune system with tangy Vitamin C and free-radical fighting antioxidants.

Berry Carrot Dream -- Powerfully packed Vitamin A for strong eyes and skin, plus heart-healthy fiber for a lean digestive system.

Carrot Kale Crush -- A mighty serving of veggies, plus our Slim and Trim Vanilla Protein Blend for a strong body with fearless immunity. 

All 3 flavors have 280 calories in a small and 0 grams of fat!  One of these make a perfect lunch!  

Since Ken and the girls were all off today I decided it was a good day for smoothies.  I ordered the Apple Kale Kiwi.  It was delicious!  Sweet from the apple with a hint of tart from the kiwi.  If I hadn't been told that there was kale in it I honestly wouldn't have known.  Ken was actually surprised at how good it was.  Both Sunny and Mo agreed that it was delicious.  I think I will be headed back to Smoothie King soon to try the other 2 flavors.  

My New Toy

Ever look at a dog and think "you don't look like a (insert name here)"?  Well, that's kinda what happened with Astro.  We just couldn't get in the groove of calling him by the name he was given (even though I really actually liked it).  So, after debating on it for over a day Ken suggested the name Buddie.  For some reason the name fit.  So, that's the story of how Astro became Buddie.

Buddie is a chewer.  The first day we brought him home he managed to chew up an MP3 player cord and Ken's computer cord (oops!).  In order to keep my house from being destroyed we rope him off in the master bathroom area when we leave.

Tuesday I realized my gym workouts were going to have to stop until Buddie gets a little older and can be left home for longer periods of time.  Because Ken doesn't want to hear me complain about not getting my workout loves me, he bought me this.....

A 100 POUND BARBELL SET!  You will never guess how much this cost.  I was shocked by the price.  $40!  It's was a steal.  You can get it here but, it was $10 cheaper in the store.  

It's a nice starter set.  There are 2 25 lb weights, 2 15 lb weights and 2 10 pound weights.  I would recommend it if you want a simple set.  The bar isn't TOO sturdy {it's actually 2 pieces you bolt together} so I wouldn't recommend adding too much extra weight to it.

I'm super excited because I managed to beat my personal best deadlift weight.  I deadlifted 50 pounds.  I know it's not alot but normally at the gym I only do 40 pounds.  

Here are a few moves to get you started

Arms
Standing Row
Bent over Row
Curls
Bench Press
Shoulder Press

Legs
Squat
Hack Squat
Lunge
Deadlift
Bulgarian Split Squat
Straight Leg Deadlift

I will post a formal workout soon for y'all.

My Favorite Christmas Gift -- A review

Due to me being sick I never told y'all about Christmas.  I honestly recieved most of my Christmas list.  

One of the best gifts I got was from my parents.  It's a Polar FT4 Heart Rate Moniter watch.  I love it!  And it's PINK!  

I was a bit hesitent about the chest strap at first though.  I wasn't certain it wasn't going to be annoying.  To be honest, I didn't want one.  After you put it on you actually forget you are wearing it.  

I have used it every time I've worked out.  This is a great starter heart rate moniter.  When you have your chest strap on it tells you your heart rate, calories burned, the length of time you are in your heart rate "zone", and the length of time you've been working out.  

Using my moniter actually motivates me to workout longer and harder.  I love watching the calories rack up.  Normally I'm bored at the gym after about 20 minutes and I have to fight with myself to stay another 10.  The last time I went to the gym I did 45 minutes and only left because I had errands to run.  

My only wish is that the watch had a few more features.  The type of feautures you'd find on a typical watch, stopwatch, alarm, that type of thing.  But overall, I am very pleased.  

Polar has recently released their mobile tracker app, Polar Beat, for the Samsung Galaxy S4.  It allows you to track all your data, plan out how many calories you want to burn, analyze your workout, and even share your stats via Facebook and Twitter {do you follow me on Facebook and Twitter??  You should!  Check below for the links to both pages}.  You need one of their Bluetooth enabled chest straps though.  I think that one will definately be on my birthday list.  

But, I would highly reccommend the Polar FT4.  I give it 2 thumbs up and 5 stars.




Links

Polar FT4
Fat Free Queen Facebook
Fat Free Queen Twitter

This is Why I Should Never Get Bored

"Boredom is the root of all evil" - Soren Kierkegaard

"The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom" -Arthur Schopenhauer

Drab, monotonous, mundane, reptitious, routine, stale, tiring, unexciting, uninteresting, unvaried, or my personal favorite, platitudinous.  These are all synonyms for the word boring.

I realized on Wednesday that my life has become painfully boring.  Every day I do the same thing, it's the same routine.  I wanted something new, exciting and fun.

Since a baby isn't the near future.....

I'd like you to meet Astro!!

Isn't he cute???  He's a 3.5 month old Australian Shepard.  We are in love with him.  I can't wait to take him to the beach once he gets better at walking on the leash.

The Possibilities of Pudding

Simple, healthy, low calorie dessert.  Those words aren't found together very often are they?  I always bounce around with my favorite dessert.  For a month it will be fruit with cream, another month it's broiled bananas, another month it's something else.

My new favorite dessert is pudding.  Simple packaged pudding.  It's light in both calories and feeling, it's quick and it's really easy.  Best of all?  You can customize it to your liking.  Jello makes 8 different flavors of fat free, sugar free pudding mixes.  Jello's sugar free, fat free pudding has 80 calories in 1/2 a cup and even if you add 2 tablespoons of Fat Free Cool Whip you'll only add 15 calories.  So, for 95 calories you get a pretty substantial, yummy, cheap, easy dessert.  There's a different flavor for every mood.  I've listed some of my favorite flavor combinations below.  

Combinations

Chocolate 
Any berry (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries)
PB2
Bananas

Banana
Bananas
Cinnamon
Raspberries
Strawberries

Butterscotch
Rum extract

Cheesecake
Orange
PB2
Berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)

Pistachio
Cherries
Cranberries
Lemon

Vanilla
Bananas
Berries



Now that I've given you some examples get to the store and pick up some pudding!!  

Are there any flavor combinations I've forgotten?  What do you like to add to your pudding?

Cheer Mom....Let's Go Jets!!

A few pictures from tryouts

Last weekend Mo spent 3 days at tryouts for the competitive cheer team at her gym.  She spent one day learning a cheer, and one day learning a dance and about tosses.  On the 3rd day she had to "try out" and show the coaches everything she had been taught.  

When the names were posted after tryouts I had to tell her that she didn't make the team.  As a parent do you know how heart breaking that is?  To have your child's hopes get crushed?  I don't have many things that get to me but, my kids definitely are one of the major tender spots in my heart.  I don't like to see them hurt.  But, luckily she didn't take it that rough {or at least she didn't let it show.}  She knew that she would still be doing gymnastics and she was even getting another class added every week.  

Tonite we showed up to the gym assuming it was class as usual.  I looked up at one point to notice Mo and her coach pointing and staring at me.  Come to find out, she DID make the team!  Obviously, someone who is getting over pneumonia, is doped up on 2 different prescription medications and cough syrup should NOT be put in charge of reading names.  

So now I am the mother of a competitive cheerleader.  She starts practice tomorrow.  I have a LOT to learn.  I know absolutely NOTHING about cheer.  I do know that Mo is a flyer and I actually know what a flyer is.  

The kids also start their at home training on Saturday.  Stay tuned for how that goes.

If you have any advice for a new cheer mom please let me know in the comments below!

Buti, Buti, Buti!

This post is my 300th post!  I can't believe I've done so many!!  So, to commemorate this day I burned over 300 calories!

A few weeks ago I came across an article online about a new workout called Buti Yoga.  I was really intrigued by it.  But, due to the fact that I live in a small town I assumed that I'd never get to try it.  Imagine my surprise a few days later when my gym announced that at the beginning of the year they were going to start offering a class!

I had to hold off on the class until my lungs were in a bit better shape though.  I finally decided that my lungs were good enough to try it today.  {Even though my family wanted me to stay out of the gym a bit longer} 

After I got all the kids off to school and I ran a few errands I headed to class.  This class is no joke.  It was intense.  It's a mixture of yoga and tribal dance with a sprinkle of twerking.  Up, down, hip swivel, downward dog!  My legs were jelly after class.

I wore my heart rate monitor to class and even tho it decided to pause on me about 10 minutes before class was over I had already hit 300 calories.  Needless to say, I will definitely be going back to class next week.  {and the week after, and the week after that}  

If you want a workout that doesn't feel like a workout and isn't one of your typical exercise classes, find a Buti class!  Below is a link to the Buti Yoga site and a link to a YouTube video of a Buti routine for y'all to check out.  


Official Buti Yoga Site

Good Earth Tea Buti Workout Video on YouTube

Have you taken a Buti class??  What did you think?

Welcome to 2014

I ended up getting sick a few days before Christmas.  A few days after Christmas I spiked a fever over 104 that lasted for 3 days.  I finally ended up at Urgent Care on Monday.  Diagnosis?  Abnormal pneumonia.  They loaded me up with 2 different medications AND an inhaler.  As of right now, I'm doing much better.  Not 100% but, I don't feel nearly as bad as I did a week ago.  

The worst thing about being so sick is that it forced me to lay on the couch and do nothing.  I'm not good at doing nothing.  After the birth of all 3 of my girls and after 2 surgeries I did not lay around and "do nothing."  My body does not like being inactive.  My joints have started to ache, and my muscles are weak.  I have started aching in places I haven't ached in years.  But, getting my lungs cleared up is the most important thing right now.  Plus, any physical exertion causes me to go into a coughing fit.  Not something that people at the gym appreciate.  

It's January and everybody is thinking about their resolutions.  Have you thought about yours?  Here's my list.  I don't go crazy with my resolutions.  Nothing too crazy and nothing to difficult to achieve.  

Resolutions

1. Make 2014 the family's healthiest year
2. Save money
3. Get organized
4. Get the family's eating in check
5. Blog more regularly
6. Use social media more often

January Goals

1. Set up a regular weekly exercise routine for the whole family 
2. Cut out processed foods 
3. Yoga 2 times a week
4. Some type of physical activity 7 days a week

I don't think I have made any goals that are too wild or un-achievable.  In the next week or so I will be posting a few product reviews and hopefully some new recipes.  

What are some of your resolutions?

Happy New Year!