New Month, New Me

Happy December 1st everybody!  I'm so happy November is over!  It was really not a good month for me.  I mentioned most of the things that went wrong during the month in my last post but, here's a quick recap.

• Sick for the first 2 weeks of the month
• Stressed-induced ulcer
• Depression
• My body refused fish of any kind.  The only animal protein I could tolerate was eggs, yogurt and cheese
• I only made it to the gym a handful of times
• The family's diet was seriously horrible due to everything that was going wrong with me

I'm happy  to say that I'm physically and mentally better, and I have reduced my stress by half.  My body is now allowing me occasional fish, I'm changing the family's diet back to normal as of today, and I'm headed back to the gym on Tuesday {I would be going back tomorrow but, Christmas doesn't shop for itself}

I don't know if this is happening everywhere in the world but, where I live, many of the fat free foods are being taken out of the local supermarkets.  My local Publix no longer carries light soy milk.  I could understand if they only carried the Greenwise Market {Publix's brand} brand light soy milk and no longer carry Silk or any other company's light soy milk but, they have taken every brand off the shelves.   I also have difficulty finding fat free coffee creamer {I buy it when I want to treat myself and don't want to pay coffee shop prices.}  I think it's interesting that while everything you read is talking about how unhealthy Americans are and how much we need to reduce our fat and calorie intakes, Publix is taking the healthier options OFF the shelves.  Does this make sense to you??!!??

So, in short, I now shop at Wal-Mart for my light soy milk and I make my own coffee creamer.  After Publix upset me by not carrying any flavor other than French Vanilla in the fat free creamers I started searching the internet for how to make my own.  Every website had the same basic recipe.  This would probably be a great gift for the coffee aficionado in your life.  

Ingredients
1 14 oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk
2 cups skim milk

Directions

1. Whisk together

You can add flavorings to it.  Here are a few links that have a bunch of flavoring ideas.  

Mrs. Happy Homemaker: 20 Different Flavors
Deliciously Organic: Homemade Coffee Creamer
She Knows: Fall Flavored Coffee Creamer 

Another great thing about this recipe?  The calorie count!  1 tablespoon {without any flavoring added} has 21.3 calories and 4.6 grams of sugar.  It makes 3.75 cups/ 60 tablespoons.  

For my first rial I made a pumpkin chocolate creamer since I am currently obsessed with Dunkin Donut's Pumpkin Mocha iced coffee.  Add .25 - .5 cup pumpkin puree and 1-2 T sugar free chocolate syrup to the base recipe.  You can also use cocoa powder but make sure to heat a bit of milk and mix the cocoa powder into the heated milk before mixing everything together.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope your Thanksgiving is great!  I will be spending time with Ken, the kids and Ken's coworkers.  

Get out after dinner for a walk {I know we will}, and remember, moderation when it comes to dinner {and especially dessert}

Thanksgiving

Here are the recipes I plan on using for my Thanksgiving dinner.  

Main

Meatloaf

I'm altering Martha Stewart's All-American Meatloaf to be vegetarian.  

 

Photo from:  Martha Stewart

Ingredients

3 slices reduced calorie wheat bread

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 celery stalk, roughly chopped

1 onion, quartered

2 garlic cloves, peeled

.5 cup tomato sauce

3 {12 oz} bags of veggie meat (thawed)

2 t dry mustard

1/2 cup egg substitute (equivilent to 2 eggs)


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 and spray a 9x5 loaf pan with pan spray
2. Process bread in food processor.  Place in mixing bowl
3. Process carrots, celery, onion, and garlic until they are minced.  Add to mixing bowl
4. Add ketchup, dry mustard, veggie meat, and eggs.  Mix with your hands until everything is mixed tgether. 
5. Bake for 35 minutes.

Sides

Peas and green beans with sauteed mushrooms and pearl onions
Ingredients
16 oz frozen peas
16 oz frozen green beans
16-24 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 bag pearl onions

Directions

1. Saute mushrooms until soft, set aside
2. Cook peas and green beans according to package directions.  Add pearl onions into one of the vegetables
3. Toss everything together.

Mashed potatoes
1 lb of potatoes per person
Sour cream
Skim milk

Directions

1. Boil and mash potatoes as you normally would
2. Use sour cream in place of the butter normally used and use skim milk instead of whole milk or cream

Mashed sweet potatoes
{Follow same directions as with the mashed potatoes}

Gravy
There are 2 ways to do your gravy.  They are both super simple and easy
For both recipes
16 oz mushrooms, sliced
1-2 onions, diced
2 cloves of garlic, either minced, or sliced

Directions

1. Saute onions, mushrooms and garlic until the vegetables are soft, and the onion is translucent

#1
Ingredients
Vegetable broth
Cornstarch 
Water

Directions

1. Bring desired amount of broth to a boil
2. In a seperate bowl mix together 1 T cornstarch and 1 T water per cup of broth
3. Whisk cornstarch slurry into broth, bring back to a boil and simmer until thickened.  If it isn't as thick as you'd like it then mix together another tablespoon cornstarch with a tablespoon water and whisk in.  
4. Mix in mushroom, onion mixture

#2

Ingredients

Lipton Mushroom Onion Soup Mix

Directions

1. Follow directions on box.
2. Add in mushrooms and onions

Stuffing

Ingredients

Approx. 18 slices of bread, cubed
1 cup of onions, diced

2 cups of celery, sliced small

1/2 lb of (veggie) sausage [optional]

1 T poultry seasoning

1 T ground sage

1/2 cup egg substitute

1 cup veggie broth 

Directions

1. Sautee onions and celery until soft (if you're using regular non-vegetarian sausage you want to cook it too at this point)
2. Place all ingredients in a big bowl and mix together (use your hands, it works the best.  Don't be afraid to get messy!)
3. Place in a baking pan and cover with tin foil. 
4. Put into a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes
5. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown.

Dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/almost-famous-pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe2/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe/index.html

I'm sorry I didn't give you more definate measurements.  The measurements will honestly depend on how many people you are cooking for.  If you need help deciding how much to make here are a few good links.  

Hufffington Post
Foodista
Cooking For Dummies

Fancy Seeing You Here!

Hey guys!  Sorry I've been gone for the past 3 weeks.  This month hasn't been any fun for me.  The stress of life kind of sent me into a mini depression.  Ontop of that, the girls and I each were sick.  I wish that once, just once, all the kids would get sick at the same time.  Whatever it was that the girls had went from one kid to the next.  I didn't get a break from it for a week!I'm happy to say that I am stress-free, mentally clear, nobody is sick, and the house is back to normal (or atleast what's considered normal in the house.)

There is one thing that isn't normal though.  The fact that my body has decided it no longer wants to eat fish.  For the past 2 weeks I have been living off of egg substitute, egg whites, and Greek yogurt.  Does this bother me?  Honestly, no.  I actually really like eggs.  Plus they are an AMAZING source of protein.  1 cup of egg substitute and egg whites hava 26.6 grams of protein and only 133.25 calories.  1 cup of plain Greek yogurt has {roughly} 140 calories and 23 grams of protein.  

Before I get any comments on the fact that there are so many other protein sources available that are vegetarian let me explain something.  The only reason I haven't varied my protein much is because I haven't gone shopping.  

Yesterday Mo and Ken went to a Daddy-Daughter Dance at Mo's school yesterday.  

Even though it was a gloomy, drizzly evening they had a blast.

I forgot something important!  Today is the 21st!  The 21st is Recipe Redux reveal day.  The theme for this month was DIY mixes.  As soon as I read the prompt I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do for you.  Flourless chocolate Cookies.  These are some of the best, fat free cookies I make.    Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the mix.  But this is what they look like when you bake them. 

Cocoa Cookie Mix
Makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients
2.25 cups powdered sugar
.75 - 1 cup cocoa powder

1. Mix together the powdered sugar and cocoa in whatever container you are giving to your hostess

Directions for finishing the cookies
Ingredients
3 egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a cookie sheet
2. Add egg whites to mix
3. Drop 1 T batter onto cookie sheet.  Make sure they are nicely spread out or they will bake together
4.  Bake for about 8 minutes or until the tops start to crack.  
5. Cool on the pan

{You can also whip the egg whites and make them into a semi meringue type cookie.}
 
Nutritional Information
Calories: 55
Fat: 0.5 g
Carbs: 13.2 g
Sugar: 11.1 g
Protein: 1.3 g


Hope you {and whoever you give this mix to} enjoys! 

To My Loving Husband...

I love you!


My NaBloPoMo prompt for today is:  If you found one million dollars in the morning and had to spend it by nightfall, what would you do with the money?
Which I find very fitting on my husband's birthday.  I will start with him, I'd give him the money to start his scooter business.  
For me/the family -- A new truck and a house sitting on a big piece of land with some animals

Tomorrow,  I'll share photos from Halloween and Ken's birthday.

Recipe Redux October 2013 Slow Cooker Recipe

Sorry for being gone for so long.  School and life has been kicking my butt, AGAIN.  Seems like it happens every few months.  But, I'm {hopefully} back.  I have some new posts planned and I'm super excited.  

My slow cooker is a very under-loved piece of kitchen equipment.  But, for this month's Recipe Redux I was supposed to make a slow cooker dish.  The slow cooker is a great piece of equipment if you are short on time.  

Kaylee has told me before that she loves soup, stews and chilis.  The weather turned chilly for a while so I decided to make this chili.  But, of course, with my luck, the weather was a humid 90 degrees the day I made this!  This recipe was still delicious. 

This recipe is super flavorful and healthy.  I add sweet potatoes to give it a bit of chunkiness and due to my stomach problems I don't add very many beans.  If you love beans in your chili then you can add 1 or 2 more cans. 

Sweet Potato Chili
1 onion, chopped
2 T minced garlic
1 sweet potato, chopped into 1 inch cubes
8 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 carrot, chopped small
1 rib celery, diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp pizza seasoning
2 bay leaves
1/3 cup TVP
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
12 oz beer or 3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 can (28 oz)  crushed or diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained


Directions

1. Stir everything together in crockpot except beans
2.  Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours
3. Add in beans during the last 30 minutes of cooking

Gym Time!

 Image from:  Cheezburger.com


For the week leading up to the Mud Run I stayed out of the gym.  Thnis was in order to make sure my knees were okay for it.  {They have been giving me some issues lately}

In order to prepare myself for the run I had been doing nothing but cardio.  I am NOT a fan of cardio!  I was really looking forward to getting bvack to the gym and getting back to my weight training.  Unfortunately, I managed to bruise my tailbone.  It kept me out of school and the gym on Monday but, I decided to test it on Tuesday.  

I can't sit without pain so, the only exercises I can do are ones that allow me to stand.  Did you know that MOST weighted exercises are either seated or put pressure on your tailbone?  I didn't either until I hurt mine.  Luckily, squats don't hurt that bad.  Wednesday and today I did 25 minutes of mostly squats and squat variations.  I threw in a few standing ab exercises to give my knees a break.  

I have put together a list of good standing exercises that don't put too much pressure on your tailbone.

Squats
Lunges
Calf raises
Barbell Rows
Kettlebell swings
Kettlebell pushups
Single leg deadlift
Ab Twist with dumbbell, kettlebell or medicine ball
Deadlift


Astrid, the woman behind Better Believe Fit actually teaches kettlebell classes.  She has some awesome workouts up on her website.  *Bonus:  They're all tailbone friendly!*
Better Believe Fit Workouts


I'm hoping this pain goes away soon so I can go back to my normal workout.  Tomorrow I'm working my abs so I can give my glutes, hamstrings and quads a rest.