Running in circles

I've driven in 3 huge circles today.  It's like I've gotten sucked into a repetitious vortex that causes me to run in circles.  I had to take Wikkid to the vet at 7 AM.  Then I dropped the girls off at school, came home for an hour, had to go BACK to Mo's school for her "Poetry and Pizza" party, came BACK home for a few hours then went and picked the girls up and then picked Wikkid up.

My poor doggie.  He had to have a bunch of teeth pulled!  So now I have to wrestle with him twice a day to get him to take his medicine.  

Because of all the running around I got no exercise in and I only had time to make a quick simple meal of hot dogs, rice and frozen vegetables.  

But, all the circles has made me think of the current circle I'm running around in with my cookbook.  Yep, I'm currently in the middle of writing a cookbook.  After I got diagnosed with my gallstones I looked for fat-free cookbooks.  There were none on the market so I decided to write my own.  So now, 9 months later, I'm at a standstill with it.

That's what normally happens to me when I start a project though.  I start out really strong and after a few months (and a lot of hard work) I stall.  I either lose motivation, run out of ideas, or life gets in the way.  

Hopefully doing all the recipes for the Fat Free Queen will help me add to my cookbook and get my creative juices flowing again.

Do you have any current projects going?

Beach Dogs and Dinners

                I’ve switched up my workouts for the past week.  Last week I trained for my stair climb all week so I thought I’d give those muscles a rest.  Plus I somehow gained a few pounds while doing it so I decided to change.  I started walking on the beach with my dogs.  I love walking on the beach.  I get to exercise and tan at the same time. 

Exercise + Tan = Double win!

               Tuesday I took Nawtee.  Greatest beach dog EVER!!  I took his leash off and he followed every command I gave him and he stayed no more than 2 feet away from me at all times (unless he was chasing a bird.)  Yesterday I took Wikkid.  He didn’t listen to me at all!  So I kept his leash on him 95% of the time.  But, I still love him and he still is an awesome dog (even if he’s never allowed at the beach with me again.)  Thursday I took Nawtee again but, I took his ball with us.  The dog is obsessed with his ball.  I will never take his ball on another walk again.  After I stopped throwing it he jumped as we walked for about 5 minutes straight.  The rest of the time he searched for it.  He went up and down the beach, nose to the ground, hoping to find it.  But we still got a good walk in. 

Nawtee enjoying his walk

Wikkid running away from the waves

               Mr. Amazing suggested that one of the reasons I gained the few pounds I did was because I was eating more calories than I thought I was.  Why didn’t I think of that?!?  And I hate to say it but, he was right.  He suggested proportioned meals.  Last night the girls were having leftovers so I made myself this.

Egg boat.  

 {Please pardon the horrible pictures.  My camera is currently being cleaned}

               I adapted the recipe from Spoon Fork Bacon.  My version wasn’t as amazing as I expected.  I totally overstuffed them.  I decided to use up the last of the egg whites that were in the container.  In total I poured about 3 egg whites into this poor roll.  The whole recipe (enough for 4 rolls) calls for 5 eggs.  I also added spinach and onions to mine.  It was still very tasty though.  And the only fat in it was from the roll (about 2 grams)  I’m going to try making them again using the proper measurements. 

               I’m still going with Mr. Amazing’s pre portioned meal idea.  Luckily one of the things on my menu for the month (I’ll do a post about the wonders of a monthly menu at a later date) was Egg Turnovers.  I adapted mine from Clean Eating Mag.  I have made this recipe a million times.  I love it because it’s so customizable.  The girls like different things than Mr. Amazing does and I can’t eat certain things so it’s perfect.  This dish is great for a house full of people with different tastes.  

               But, when I went to make dinner my oven decided to be on the fritz so, I had to scratch that and we just had scrambled eggs with various things mixed in.  I didn’t want to waste the pizza dough that I had rising so I divided it into four pieces, rolled it out thin  and put it in a skillet with some pan spray and a little fat free butter (just to add a hint of a butter flavor) and cooked it until it was lightly browned and no longer doughy.  The kids loved it.  But, for some reason Kay can’t get enough of the fat free pizza dough I make.  I even used the recipe to make crescents for Christmas dinner.