Downward Dog

Hola blog world.  Took a little break from blogging last night and watched some West Delaware football... online.  Tyler was asleep by 7:15, and since the game didn't start until 7:30 I thought it was best we just stay in.  Luckily KCRG was streaming the game online.  Pretty awesome.... they came out on top, and beat Decorah!


Let's see if I can remember what I ate yesterday....

Breakfast was a homemade egg muffin-  sourdough English muffin with egg and piece of pepperjack cheese

Lunch was a turkey taco using a spinach burrito tortilla.  Ran out of spinach, so it was only turkey meat, cheese and plain Greek yogurt.

It was a super dose of protein and calcium... check out this label:

If you haven't tried substituting plain Greek yogurt for sour cream, you're missing out.  I can't tell the difference, and it's way better for you.

After a busy day, came home and had some edamame for a snack, since I have 3 bags in the freezer.

Supper was a grilled chicken breast marinated in Italian dressing, and broccoli.  Pretty simple.

Today has been pretty uneventful as far as food goes, oatmeal for breakfast with some almond butter and dried cranberries, and some pulled pork for lunch.

We worked in the clinic this morning, and were lucky enough to have our old babysitter back for the morning.  Tyler loved playing with Ali.  And we loved it because we could see more patients and then hit the gym together after work.  Not a very productive workout though, since I'm still a little sore from a week ago, can you believe that?!  Still managed to crank out the chest and triceps workout, and then ran home from the gym. I'm trying to save my legs for tomorrow, when I have to run a 5K.  The very short run today (1 mile) did not feel good at all, so let's hope tomorrow isn't horrible.

That's all for now, stay tuned for a new recipe!

Did I mention Tyler has mastered crawling??  Keeping us on our toes.  He has also mastered yoga... downward dog!

My apologies.

Sorry about the lack of posts last night, but I really didn't have anything too exciting to blog about.  Not that I ever do, but you get to hear about my life regardless.  =)   

I think the highlight of the day's meals was lunch.  We had some pulled pork in the fridge, and I happened to have 2 ancient grains tortillas left.  So I made a pulled pork quesadilla.  Sprayed some PAM on one side of a tortilla, put it in a hot skillet and layered some pork, pepperjack cheese and bbq sauce on top.  Covered it with the other tortilla, sprayed the top of that tortilla and placed the grill press on top.  Flip it and cook a little more, and you have a delicious little treat.  With a side of baked beans.

For supper I used up the rest of the spinach and had another taco salad, WITHOUT the ranch dressing this time.  Go me.

Now on to today.  Nice early morning with Tyler and and a conference call.  Started with a sourdough English muffin with peanut butter and low sugar homemade raspberry jam.  

Caught up on this week's Biggest Loser with my buddy Erica, we ate cookies and watched them workout.  =)  Don't worry, she went for a run in the morning and I made it to the gym this afternoon.

Over the lunch hour I had a much needed deep tissue massage that I had been putting off for awhile now.  I made sure to chug chug chug the water today so I won't be cursing tomorrow.

On my way home from the massage I stopped at our local produce stand and got some of these:

Exciting things to come this weekend!!

Like I said, I did make it to the gym to complete a shoulder workout.  I also did another super quick treadmill workout.

All at incline 0%

7.0    5 min

4.0    1 min

8.0    2 min

4.0    1 min

9.0    45 sec

7.0    30 sec

6.0    30 sec

4.0    1 min 15 sec

3.5    1 min

Like I said, super short.

For supper tonight, I had one pound of extra lean ground beef to use up, so I decided on some meatloaf.  I tweaked a recipe I found in my Taste of Everly cookbook.  

My Favorite Meatloaf

1 lb ground beef

1/2 onion, chopped

2 small green peppers (I used some sweet red peppers too, check out the produce picture), chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, chopped

pinch of minced garlic

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

salt and pepper

Topping: 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 T mustard

Combine all meatloaf ingredients and mash together well.  Press into loaf pan and spread topping on top.  Cook for 45-60 minutes in 350 degree oven.  

So nice and moist, and full of flavor.  I forgot, I dumped some Cookies seasoning as well.  Lawry's would be a good addition too.  We had some steamed green beans on the side.  

What a good helper.  

Can't believe it's already Friday... big homecoming game here against Decorah.  If it's not too yucky out, we might venture out- depending on the babe. I kind of remember what a big deal homecoming used to be.  Man, that seems like forever ago...

Apple cinnamon oats

I've been waiting for awhile to cook this one up.... today seemed like a nice cool morning to do so.

Thanks to Tyler I was up and at 'em at 5 o'clock.  Fed him while pumping, then got my butt to the gym to do a legs workout.  Got back home around 7, and decided to make some apple cinnamon oats, courtesy of Happyhealthymama.

She makes a good point about too much sugar in the processed packages of instant oats.  This recipe has NO added sugar.  And it's yummy.  Hubby even thought so.

The link will take you to her recipe, I changed mine up just a smidgen.

1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup water
1 cup milk (I used coconut milk)
1 banana, thinly chopped
1 apple
1 T cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 T chia seeds
1/4 cup golden raisins

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine oats, water, milk and banana.  Stir and let sit a couple minutes.  Chop up apple and place in small bowl with raisins and a little bit of water, then microwave for about 45 seconds to soften.  When oatmeal is bubbling, stir mixture and try to mash up bananas until they blend in with the oats.  Stir in apple and raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and chia seeds.  Continue to cook and stir until oatmeal is the desired consistency.  The longer you cook it, the thicker it will be.

After that good start to the day, I took Tyler to his 6 month check-up.  28 inches long and 18 lbs 8 oz.  Not too shabby.  His rash came back a couple days ago so we had to get cream for that, as well as drops for his ears.  Apparently he has too much ear wax.  Didn't know that was a big problem.  Maybe it's because we play our music and our tv too loud so his body is compensating for it.  Just kidding.

Lunch was not too spectacular because I didn't have a bunch of time to prepare anything, and after two salads yesterday I didn't feel like spinach.  So I make up for it by having no vegetables at all.  Two tiny pieces of leftover brisket, baked beans and sharp cheddar kettle chips.  And I had had such a healthy day up to that point.

After work tonight, I threw a couple frozen chicken breasts in the oven to bake.  After about 45 minutes I poured on some Budweiser hot wing sauce that we got from some friends, then let it bake another 10 or 15 minutes.  Accompanying the chicken was steamed broccoli and wild rice.  Not too shabby.

Since Tyler went to bed, I've been working on charts catching up on some blogs.  Sometimes it makes me jealous, reading about what they got at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods (looking at their pretty pictures is pretty depressing too).  I know I shouldn't complain, but we could try so many new things if we had one nearby.  The downside, I guess, would be that I would spend a ton more money.

Speaking of spending money, this morning on the Today show (always on in the background in the AM), they said they were going to talk to some extreme couponer's who save $1000 a month on groceries.  Do people really spend much more than that on groceries a month?!  That seems like a lot, but I guess if you have a big family...?

Ok no more tangents, time for bed.

Hubby to the rescue

Thanks to my wonderful husband, I found my camera cord.  After I looked what I thought was all over, he suggested checking between the couch sections.  I had checked between the cushions and underneath the couch, but our couch is all individual segments, and it was sandwiched in between two of them.  Don't know how that happened.

Today was a little hectic at first.  Tyler got up twice last night to eat, once at 11:30 and then at 3:30.  I don't know how he was hungry, he went through one and a half containers of food and drank seven ounces of milk before going to bed.  When he woke up, we just let him hang out for awhile, hoping he would go back to sleep.  He did not fall back asleep, and when I went to go get him he was smacking his lips non-stop.  He gulped down 6 ounces and fell back asleep.  Did the same thing at 3:30.  What a hungry man.

Since he didn't fall back asleep until about 4 or 4:30, we were a little tired.  Good thing hubby woke up, at 7:15!  That's way late for us.  Sure miss it being light out so early, that always helped.  Grabbed a black cherry Chobani and one of those not-so-great zucchini bran muffins I made awhile back (took a bag out of the freezer).

Had a pretty busy morning, then came home for another spinach salad.  I decided to leave out the pear this time, because it was a little mushy.  I like crunch.  This salad had spinach, sweet pepper, apple, walnuts, feta cheese, and poppyseed dressing.

Salad with dressing

Then came a busy afternoon and home for supper.  Hubby prepared some turkey taco meat, and we each made a taco salad with spinach.  Yes, two salads in one day.  This one hardly counts though, because I added crushed tortilla chips, cheese and a little dab of ranch dressing along with salsa.  Could have been so much better had I cut up the fresh tomatoes I have or added the black beans that hadn't been drained yet.  Too tired hungry for all of that.

I'm sitting here staring at a huge stack of notes... thinking that's not going to happen tonight.  Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow morning, the little guy goes to the doctor tomorrow for his 6 month checkup.  I'm excited to see how much he's grown.

Such a cutie butt.

Short and Sweet

This will be a short post, because I cannot for the life of me find my USB cord to get the pictures from my camera.  This actually works out well for me, since the pictures weren't too pretty.

I attempted to make some banana brown sugar pancakes for hubby, since they were so good in Vegas.  I didn't really know what I was doing, and they did not work.  They tasted ok, but looked absolutely horrible.  I'll try again someday.

Lunch was just a turkey sandwich.  Boring.  Followed it up with a quick trip to the gym for some work on back and biceps.

I did manage to go through Tyler's clothes.  I cannot believe how fast he goes through them.  There are some things he didn't even ever wear.

Supper was prepared by hubby, hamburgers on the grill.  I had some hint of jalapeno Tostitos and the leftover pineapple.

That's all for now... just pumping and catching up on some DVR.  Hopefully I'll find that cord for tomorrow.

BTW, how annoying is Anna Kournikova on the Biggest Loser?  Right, Erica?!   =)

Gym QT

Today actually ended up being pretty darn productive.  Yippie!!

Saw a patient this morning and worked on some paperwork in the clinic for a couple hours.

Folded tons of laundry and did some dishes.

Played with Tyler and got to see him lift himself into a sitting position all by himself.

Made this awesome salad for lunch:  chopped spinach, chopped apple and pear, chopped sweet red pepper, feta cheese, walnuts and poppyseed dressing.

I like how everything was chopped and the same size, really need to do that more often with the spinach.  You can get more spinach in that way.  Today I read on someone's blog about how she puts the lettuce and spinach in a tupperware container and then uses a pizza cutter to chop it up and puts the rest of the salad ingredients in the tupperware.


I finally made it to the gym a little before 3, and spent some quality time (QT) there.  As I mentioned earlier, I'm starting a new weight training plan.  I hate just going and lifting randomly- I need structure.  I came across this free plan from bodybuilding.com and thought I'd try it out.  I'm not following the diet plan right now, because it's not too practical for someone that is still breastfeeding.

Sidenote- Besides training for the triathlon (keep in mind I didn't train as much as I should have), I haven't really pushed myself, workout-wise, since Tyler was born.  I let the weight come off gradually, and it has.  I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I know it's not good enough.  I have lost tons of muscle tone since the pregnancy.  So even though my weight is within a healthy range, my body fat percentage is 26.7% (just measured it today).  Which technically, is considered within the healthy range for a female my age, but I'm used to being at about 22 or 23%.  I can just tell my muscles are not as strong as they were pre-baby.  That kind of scares me, because the weaker I am, the more prone to injury I am.  In my line of work, I can't afford to get hurt.  Plus the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism is.  So this is what is jump-starting my new weight-training plan.

Today was Day 1, chest and triceps.  I really tried to push myself, so of course I could hardly lift my arms halfway through the workout.  I didn't have much juice left over for the triceps portion, but I finished.

Trying to take it quickly so no one notices I'm a big dork taking a picture of myself

I know the plan doesn't include any cardio at this point, but I'm not following that either.  I whipped out a quick 20 minute interval workout on the treadmill after the weights.  I know there is probably a better way to display this, but I just typed it out for ya.

(first 10 minutes at incline 0)

6.0   1 min

6.5   2 min

7.5   1 min

4.0   2 min

7.5   1 min

6.5   2 min

6.0   1 min

4.0  Incline 2.5%  2 min

       Incline 5.0%  1 min

       Incline 7.5%  1 min

       Incline 10 %  1 min

       Incline 7.5%  30 sec

       Incline 5.0%  30 sec

       Incline 2.5%  2 min

4.0  Incline 0%  1 min

3.5  1 min  

Of course I stretched afterwards, which felt great.  The whole workout took 1 hour 13 minutes.  Let's hope I can lift my kid tomorrow.

Want to hear an embarrassing story?  I was totally exhausted by the end of my workout, and walked out to my car in a brain fog.  I got in my car, and realized... this is not my car.  There was only one other guy in the gym by the time I was done, and he happened to drive the same color SUV as me.  He parked in the place I usually park, and apparently does not lock his door.  I jumped out the car and walked fast to mine, praying that he did not just see what happened.

Now for supper.  I bought some jalapeno hot pepper cheese chicken grillers from Fareway the other day, so hubby grilled those up.

For a side, I cut up a sweet potato and two russet potatoes, threw them in a ziploc and dumped a little olive oil in the bag.  For some flavor, I dumped in some Cookies seasoning mix.  I put them on a foil-lined pan and roasted them at 400 for about 50 minutes.

Holy hotness.  The jalapenos were super hot in the chicken, someone left some seeds in.  My mouth was on fire and my nose was running like crazy.  I didn't realize the Cookies seasoning mix was also quite spicy, and had crushed red pepper and chile powder in it.  All in all, it was still pretty good.

For dessert, I've always wanted to try to grill pineapple.  Pineapples were only $2.99 this week, so I bought one.  I cut all the skin off, and then sliced them into approx 1/2 inch slices.  I threw those in a ziploc bag as well, and added about 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, a sprinkle of cinnamon and yes, a sprinkle of cayenne pepper (looking back that was stupid, but I didn't know about the raging inferno of a dinner we would create).  Then I put the bag in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Hubby grilled them up, about 4 minutes on each side.  They were tasty, and I ate way too much.  I suppose you could eat them with some ice cream or yogurt, but I liked them plain.

So that was my day.  Phew.  Tomorrow I'm tackling more laundry and organizing Tyler's clothes.  He's getting so big, he doesn't fit into most of his 6 month stuff anymore.

Hope you're having a good weekend... look at me, sitting on the couch at 9 o'clock on a Saturday night.  Party animal!

All you can eat lessons

Friday went as anticipated.  Super busy in the clinic, tired afterwards.

Tyler did great at daycare, took a couple naps, ate like a champ, and played.  No more "sad" on his report card.  He did get a "sleepy" in the afternoon.  I would get a "sleepy" most days too!

Started my day off with a good ol' Chobani- black cherry style

Lunch was left-over meatballs and sauce, hubby made some whole wheat spaghetti noodles to go with it.

As usual, we were pretty tired after work, so we went out to the country club for their all-you-can-eat fish dinner.  Fried fish of course.

I forgot to take pics, but it wasn't pretty.  Wasn't as bad as the Vegas buffet though.  I think I had three pieces of fish- huge fillets- and plenty of baked beans and mashed potatoes.  I didn't feel uncomfortable afterwards but I was plenty full.  Hubby and I commented on the lack of vegetables (no- cheesy mashed potatoes don't count) at this buffet and most other buffets in Iowa.  How hard would it really be to steam up some broccoli or carrots and throw them on the table?

For some reason, when the words "buffet" or "all-you-can-eat" are involved, I can never just have one plate.  You know what I mean?  I think it's the cheapskate in me, always wanting to get as much as I can for a buck.  I know I should just avoid them period, but it's tough when there's so many in our small little town.  Need to learn that lesson.

source

So now it's Saturday.  I'd really like this to be one of my ambitious Saturdays, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going to be starting my new workout plan today, which I will share with you later.  I'm really hoping to try out a new recipe too, since it looks to be a gloomy day out- which means good day for working in the kitchen.

Already started out with another Chobani- pomegranate!