Housework is Exercise

Today's the last day of school!  The girls are excited about summer break.  I'm excited because I don't have to get kids out the door at 7:15 in the morning and pick them up at the bus stop in the afternoons.  I'm also excited because we're leaving for Tampa on Saturday.  We are going on a mini-vacation, and it's also Kay's "birthday party."  We're spending 3 nights in a hotel, going to the aquarium and hopefully going to the beach.  They are calling for rain the whole time we're there so hopefully it will just be the typical Florida 10 minute rain storm that passes and makes way for a bright sunny day.  

Today I spent the day cleaning.  Our afternoon swim got rained out but, while the girls were in school I did the majority of the cleaning so we could leave for the weekend.  

I managed to burn 400 calories washing dishes and about 110 folding laundry!  Who knew that doing housework could be such a good workout?  

Dinner tonite was really simple.  Broiled Mahi filets, corn and orzo with garlic.  

I broiled the fish for about 7 minutes.  I glazed a couple for Mr. Amazing and myself.  The glaze was a real easy combination of chili-garlic paste (1 heaping tablespoon) and soy sauce (2 teaspoons, just to thin it out).  Just spoon the mixture onto the fish.  The pasta recipe I actually got from the back of the box and I altered it a bit.

Publix Orzo Pilaf  

4 cloves garlic sliced (the recipe actually calls for 1 T garlic butter but, I substituted pan spray and garlic)
8 ounces Orzo (approx 1 2/3 cups or 1/2 the box)
2 cups water
1/2 tsp steak seasoning blend (I used Tony's Creole seasoning, it gave it a nice kick)
2 springs fresh parsley (I used 1 teaspoon dried)
1/2 tsp salt
sprinkle pepper

1. Coat medium saucepan with pan spray
2. Add garlic and sautee for a minute or 2
3. Stir in orzo and cook for 3 minutes and stir frequently until it's slightly browned (I added a bit more pan spray when the pasta started to stick)
4. Add water and steak seasoning.  Cover, and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove the pan from the heat and add the salt, pepper and parsley.  Cover it and let it sit for about 4 minutes

Doesn't dinner look yummy?  I have decided to give up on intricate dinners.  I'm sticking with simple meals.  After a year of menus and trying new things I have figured out that my family enjoys simple meals like this rather than casseroles or fancy, time consuming meals.  They wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I had made orzo tossed with mahi and corn even though it would have basically been the same thing.

As I told you before I'm doing a blog challenge.  I've weaved most of the other questions in with my normal blog post but today's I just couldn't find a link.  

The question is:  Do you need to look before you leap?  I'm that person that leaps and then looks while she's falling.  I question my decision while I'm in the middle of it or after it's already been made.  Sometimes it works out, other times it fails miserably.  

Do you look before you leap?  What kind of meals does your family enjoy most?

Me + 5 Kids = An Amazing Time

Today turned out to be a good great day.  

It started out shaky but turned out really well.  I woke up with a horribly upset stomach.  I pushed past it and took Baye to the pool but, that was rained out 20 minutes after we got there.  

After we got home things started to start getting better.  The sun came out about 10 minutes after we got home.  Don't you hate when that happens??  

I opened up a letter from Daytona State College and it was letting me know that my financial aid had been accepted!  So now, I'm going to be able to go back to school.  This is something that I've been wanting to do for a while.  I figured out about a year ago that I want to become a Registered Dietitian (even though I like the term nutritionist better.)

I've been making meal plans for my friends since the beginning of the year and I want to (legally) be able to help more people just like my friends.  Now I just need to find the money to take the certification course to become a personal trainer.  I want to be a double threat and it just isn't in the budget right now.  I also like the idea of being able to work from home.

ANYWAY, back to why today was so great...

Underwater shot of Kay and Mo

The girls had a half day because tomorrow is the last day of school.  When they got home I took them and 2 of their closest friends to the pool for about 3 hours.  I actually had a blast with them.  Normally I get horribly bored when I take them to the pool.  They go off and play and I'm stuck all by myself.  Today was totally different though.  After I got about 30 minutes of laps in they actually interacted with me.  We played monkey in the middle, we joked, we laughed, we chased each other we just goofed off and had a blast.  

I couldn't figure out how to log my workout since online systems don't have "goofing off in the pool" as an option, so I just logged it as "water aerobics."  It told me I burned 320 calories in 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Plus I burned another 250  doing my laps!

I LOVE SUMMER!!!

How do you burn calories during the summer?

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?

Pizza anyone?

This morning Mr. Amazing told me that the new adventurous me is kind of crazy because of my bad knees.  

If you take a look at my Bucket List you'll see that most of the things on there are great for your health but not great if you have bad knees.

Recently I've "jumped" into a new adventurous life (or atleast a mentally adventurous life.)  I want to go places and do things.  As a mother of 3 that's nearing 30 I sometimes feel like life is passing me by.  

I think it also has something to do with with my new found self-esteem, and self-confidence since I've lost all the weight.  

You want to know what I'm also adventurous about?  I'll give you a hint.  It's ooey, and gooey but crispy at the same time.

Give up??

Pizza!

PIZZA!  I love making homemade pizza.  The girls have fun making their own pizzas too.  I made a whole wheat dough using Wolfgang Puck's recipe.  It was exceptional.  But do you really expect anything but exceptional from Wolfgang Puck??  

The photo above is of the pizza I made for myself.  It had sliced garlic, mushrooms, spring onions, fat free mozzarella, and barbecue sauce.  I have found I prefer my pizza these days either without sauce or with barbecue sauce.  

I made one for the rest of the family using regular full fat ingredients.  Theirs had mozzarella, mushrooms, onions, red sauce and pepperoni.  They aren't as adventurous and I was using up all the random things I had on hand.  

I can't wait to make pizza again so I can try something different.

What are your favorite pizza toppings?  Are you a homemade, delivery, or frozen food section pizza person?

Fitness Bucket List

Wouldn't you love to find this precious child in your bucket???

I saw on a few other fitness websites that people had made fitness bucket lists.  I also found this awesome site with ideas for your bucket list.  1250 Ideas for Your Bucket List  I decided to make my own fitness bucket list. I broke it up into a few different parts.  

Part 1

Fitness list

• Take a hot yoga class
• Indoor rock climbing
• Outdoor rock climbing
• 25 regular push-ups without stopping
• Learn how to scuba dive
• Compete in a 5k
• Kiteboard
• 10 pull-ups in a row
• 50 push-ups in a row
• Take an ariel class
• Pole dance class
• Trapeze class
• Own a kayak/stand-up paddleboard
• Surf
• .Participate in a swimming race
• Ride 100 miles in a single day (ride a Century).
• Join a beach volleyball team
• Learn to ski
• Learn to snorkel
• Learn to scuba dive
• Go Hiking in the Rainforest
• Be able to bench-press 150
• Participate in the Empire State Building Run Up (you have to run up 86 flights of stairs).

Part 2

Kinda Fit

         ·         Ride a unicycle

·         Be on the reality game show, "The Amazing Race"

·         Learn to ride a skateboard.

·         Ride a jet ski.

·         Go to a shooting range

·         Take horseback riding lessons.

·         Go horseback riding along the beach.

·         Ride a horse bareback.

·         Learn to jump on horseback.

·         Own a horse.

·         Ride a mechanical Bull

Part 3

Not Fit, Just Cool

• Learn fluent ASL
• Go to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee
• The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
• Become a millionaire
• Renovate a house and sell it at a profit
• Go on that honeymoon that keeps getting postponed
• Be recognized as an authority in your field
• Turn a hobby you love into a profitable business
• Become a personal trainer
• Start a bakery
• Be invited to the Playboy Mansion's annual Halloween Party

What's on your bucket list??

National Donut Day

Happy day after National Donut Day!  In honor of donut day I went with Baye and Mr. Amazing to Dunkin Donuts.  If you bought a beverage then you got a free donut.  I was excited because I have been promising myself that when I reached my goal weight then I would treat myself to Starbucks.


Oh yeah, did I mention I reached my goal weight on Wednesday?


I realized 2 things on Wednesday.

1. My goal weight isn't a good weight on me.  I look best between 116-118.  
2. My waist measurement can't be any lower than 27.  When I reached my goal weight my waist was 27 inches.  My original goal measurement was 26.5.  I would have to be another few pounds lighter and I would look anorexic.

The reaching of my goal weight does NOT mean that I am going to stop blogging!  It just means I'm going to stop weighing in every week unless I have a really bad week.


But in honor of National Donut Day (and the fact Kay and Mo didn't get donuts) I made donuts in my Sunbeam Doughnut Maker.  I love that thing!  Mr. Amazing gave it to me for Christmas in 2010.  I didn't want to goto a lot of work so I just used boxed cake mix.

Aren't they (kinda) pretty?

Homemade Simple Donuts


1 box cake mix (any flavor)
Substitute applesauce for the oil 
Substitute egg beaters for the eggs

1. Heat doughnut maker.
2. Mix all the ingredients together
3. Put batter into a piping bag
4. Fill slots and cook for 6-7 minutes.

You can decorate them however you'd like.  I used a powdered sugar glaze (1/4 cup powdered sugar, and a few tablespoons milk) and sprinkles.  I added some strawberry extract to some of the glaze but, it gave it a mediciney taste.  I possibly put to much.

Gone in under a day

I'm going to try some other cake and icing combinations.  Maybe use regular frosting or a nice ganache.


What flavor combinations would you try?

Farmers Market Friday

Since the rain caused me to cancel my trip to the farmers market, I bring you the Farmers Market Friday post that should have been up LAST week.  

Small trip today.  I didn't just buy 1 of everything.  I just photographed it this way to save time.  I also bought 2 watermelons and some oranges.


The corn and potatoes are going to be used for our clam bake on Monday.  The bananas, mushroom and onions are staples in this house and I love kiwi and Mr. Amazing is addicted to peaches.




So I've decided to try a blog challenge.  I've been wanting to do one for a while.  I finally found one done by NaBloPoMo.  It stands for National Blog Posting Month.  It's a blogging challenge where the topic changes every month.  The theme for this month is JUMP.


The prompt for today is "What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the word jump?"


Honestly, 2 things pop into my head.  Baye is the first one.  You forget how much energy a 3 year old has.  She can jump for hours on end, I swear.
The second thing that I think about is jumping rope.  Did you know that jumping rope burns about 75 calories per 10 minutes?  That about 450 calories per hour!  I honestly can't imagine jumping rope for an hour but, I know after 10 minutes I feel like I've gotten a good burn.  It's a great way to get in touch with your inner child.  It's also a great workout to do WITH your child.  I know my kids and I will go back and forth seeing who can jump rope longer.


How do you get in touch with your inner child?