Peaches and Cream

What oh what should I do with the leftover peach compote from yesterday's breakfast?  How about throwing it on top of some cooked oatmeal?  Ok!

Kind of looks gross but when I mixed it up it was absolutely delicious.  Reminds me of the old 112 song- Peaches and Cream.  Only there's no cream, just peaches.  And I'm pretty sure that song wasn't actually about peaches...

Pretty typical Monday around here, very busy in the clinic and not a lot of time for anything else.

Lunch was a spinach salad with chicken, celery, green pepper, feta and sweet onion vinaigrette along with some fire-roasted tomato Triscuits and roasted red pepper hummus.

Supper was another taco night.  We had one more tube of lean ground turkey to use up, so we made more turkey taco meat.  I had a taco on a whole wheat tortilla with cheese, spinach, iceberg lettuce and taco sauce.  Pretty simple but that's all I had the energy for.

Almost 10:30 and still haven't finished my charts for the day.... I'm out!

A day that we'll always remember

I don't always have the best memory of events, but I know I'll always remember where I was 10 years ago on this day.  I was just getting out of the shower after waking up (oops skipped a class that morning) and came out into the living area of our Farwell dorm room at Luther.  Someone had the tv going and they were showing footage of the first plane hitting the WTC.  It was just so surreal.  We didn't get to stay to watch too much coverage that day, because everyone was called out of the buildings and told to evacuate the campus because of a bomb threat.  I think I went to Walmart or Subway with some friends because I didn't have anywhere else to go.  

A day like today just makes me so grateful to all the men and women that fight to keep our country safe.  

On a happier note, Tyler had a much better day.  I tried to take a picture of the teeth that are coming in, and this is the sequence of pictures that I got:

He's a squirmy one.  Can't even see it very well, but one's sticking out and it's sharp.

For lunch today we had some brisket sandwiches, with bbq sauce and provolone.  

The afternoon was spent in a hot and stuffy gym.  The past couple years I've helped one of my good friends coach a youth volleyball camp that runs every Sunday for about 5 weeks.  It's 3rd through 6th grade girls.  Today we had almost 50 girls in the 3/4 grade session.  I was a little scared of how that was going to go, but it went pretty well.  I don't think I screamed too much and I didn't make anyone cry.  Always a good day.  =)

Supper tonight was a massive salad.  I'm not kidding, it was pretty epic.  It had spinach, green pepper, celery, tomatoes, apple chunks, chicken, avocado, feta cheese, and walnuts.  All topped off with some roasted red pepper and vidalia onion vinaigrette.  It was so big I had to use a big girl bowl.  

Tasted like summer.  

Here's crazy-pants in his jumper, he can really catch some air.  

And here he is looking strangely evil because of the weird light.

Off to bed, only 3 work days this week, then Vegas!!!  If anyone has any "must-see's" in Vegas, post a comment and let me know!

Snooki Saturday

Poor little Tyler had a rough Friday night and Saturday.  I'm pretty sure it's his teeth.  He just wasn't sleeping long and wouldn't eat.  No fever or anything else, just fussy.  Hard to get upset though because he's so darn cute.  So that led to about 2-3 hours of sleep for me on Friday night.

I sucked it up and got outside to get some fresh air and went for a quick morning run, ending up at the farmer's market.  I picked up some farm fresh eggs, apples, sweet peppers and peaches.

Taking advantage of the eggs, I had 1 egg and 4 egg whites with a little hot sauce, accompanied by a whole wheat english muffin.  

Then at lunch I headed in for my spray tan.  That was quite the experience.  You wear a swimsuit or your undergarments, whatever you want, and just stand there while she sprays you down.  That part is fine but then you have to just stand there for at least 10 minutes while you dry off.  I got bored and did some squats.  Multi-task!

The rest of the day you're not supposed to get wet or sweat or anything.  Yeah right.  Tyler drooled on me right away and left a blotch on my arm.    

I'm not really orange, just really brown.  Don't be frightened, but here's a self-portrait (with my bottle of Galena wine because I had to have a glass while cooking):

I was referred to as Snookie or LWOWW several times yesterday.

I'll try to get a picture today after a shower when it's calmed down a bit.

Speaking of cooking, hubby got out the smoker and smoked up some ribs, turkey legs and brisket yesterday afternoon.  I made some baked beans and skillet cornbread to go with the meat.  We ate at about 3 or so, so yesterday was a 2 meal day.

We also watched the big showdown, Iowa vs ISU- way to go Cyclones!  

We were supposed to go to another Wildtree party last night, but with Tyler being fussy and hubby not feeling well, we just stayed in.  I had plenty of time to blog, but something took up waaay too much of my day yesterday:

I actually started it on Friday night, but then finished it up last night.  Pretty easy read, obviously, but really good.  I just love young adult books - can't tell you how many times I've read the Twilight series- so I thought I'd cave and read the one that everyone's talking about.  

Great book, lots of action and interesting concept.  It's a book that I'm actually really excited to see the movie version of, because there can be several points of view that can be shown as opposed to the book which is just one POV.  You'll have to read the book for that to make sense.  =)

This morning I really wanted to use up some of the farmer's market peaches.  Hubby wanted pancakes, so I made some buttermilk pancakes with a peach compote (more like peach syrup).

I just used a mix for the pancakes, with a little vanilla added.  For the peach compote, I cut up 4 peaches and put them in a medium saucepan.  I added 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg and a pinch of cloves.  I brought it to a boil then turned it down to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes.  

Pretty tasty, but ended up making my pancakes mushy because it was so liquid-y.  

Off to play with Tyler- who after a full night of sleep is a much happier baby.  

Early morning struggles

Another early morning.  Guess Tyler is just going to be an early bird... not good for this late owl.  Today he woke up around 5, but I decided I would make the most of it.  I fed him while I pumped, and he fell asleep about 15 minutes after eating.  I put him back to bed, then got my butt up and did level 2 of Jillian's 30 Day Shred.

Let me tell you, it was so hard to motivate myself to get up and do it.  Part of me just wanted to go back to bed and sleep for another hour.  I really hate working out in the morning but man does it feel great to be done with it so early.

After my workout I enjoyed my overnight oats creation that I put together last night.

I'm still working on tweaking it, and this one was pretty yummy- I think the coconut milk makes a big difference.

1/3 c old fashioned oats
1 c plain coconut milk
2 T chia seeds
1/2 mashed banana
1/2 T chocolate protein powder
1/2 T cocoa powder

Just mix it together, cover it up and pop in the fridge.  You can heat it up in the morning if you want, but I like it cold.  It was like eating dessert for breakfast!

I know it looks like vomit or feces but it really does taste good.  I promise.

Lunch was a softshell taco on a whole wheat tortilla.  Turkey meat, cheese, spinach, taco sauce and plain Greek yogurt.  Hubby made up some taco meat using ground turkey yesterday, which we haven't done in awhile.

Good tip- for lower fat and less calories, substitute ground turkey instead of beef.  Just make sure you use a lean turkey- I think ours was 98% lean.  It does taste a little different, but once you mix it with other ingredients, it's less noticeable- especially tacos and chili.

Supper was a grilled chicken breast with leftover veggie stuff- veggie basket from last night and the last quinoa-stuffed pepper.

Looking forward to tomorrow- Iowa vs. Iowa State, hubby is smoking a bunch of meat in the smoker, trying a spray tan for the first time!, and several other exciting activities.

Anyone else out there ever try a spray tan?

Stay tuned!

Time for bed

My day started off bright and early with Tyler screaming at 4:45 am.  Yippie.

Conference call at 7:30

Breakfast

Oatmeal made with almond milk, cinnamon, almond butter

Played with Tyler and finished charts

Quit flashing that light in my face Mom!

Lunch

Tyler wanted some of my taco salad

Highlights and eyebrow wax (Lacy's Looks- 927-2500- she's awesome)

Ran errands

Picked up new running shoes (and 2 more pairs of dress shoes, shhhhhh)

Fed Tyler

Worked out- Level 3 of the Shred

Prepared supper- bacon wrapped turkey medallions, grilled veggies and rice

Bright light... scary fork shadow

Cleaned kitchen

Put Tyler to bed

Finish up blog.

That was pretty much my day, there might have been a couple other little things in there but bottom line, I was productive!

Galena Canning Company

Tyler has been such a good boy lately, sleeping through the night again.  However, he is being a little piggy and exhausting his milk supply!  I can't keep up so we've been going through his frozen stash.  I had a ton of frozen milk, and we're down to the last 80 ounces or so.  You'd think that'd be quite a bit.  Well this little stinker has been going through 35-40 ounces a day.  And I've even been better about doing rice at night (last night was avocado).  Hopefully this is just another little growth spurt.

I was feeling much better today, which is good because we had another super busy day.  My breakfast was 2 mini zucchini bran muffins and a black cherry Chobani yogurt.

Lunch was taco leftovers.  Hubby used up most of the taco meat, so I used chicken instead.  I used a whole wheat tortilla and added chicken, black beans, taco cheese, iceberg lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, salsa, and plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  Great substitution, because it tastes sooo similar to sour cream, and much better for you!

Dinner was prepared by hubby.  He used the cast iron skillet to make some sandwich-cut ribeyes, a baked potato that we split, and his idea of a salad: cut-up iceberg lettuce, spinach and a couple carrots.  A little simple, so I added a touch of a new dressing I got in Galena: Vidalia onion and sweet pepper vinaigrette.  I also opened a mango habanero salsa from the same store (Galena Canning Company) the other day and loved it.

Thin sandwich cut rib-eyes (I had 1/2 of one, he had 1 and 1/2)

I'm off to get a good night's sleep because tomorrow is going to be a productive day!!

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Since I had a bunch of green peppers (from one of my favorite patients!), I needed a recipe to use up a couple of them.  I had some quinoa that I wanted to use, so I made these bad boys for supper yesterday.

I didn't really use a specific recipe, kind of blended up a couple different ones that I found on the internet.  My recipes are basically based on what I have on hand.  Here's the approximate recipe:

4 bell peppers- I used green because that's all I had
2 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 T tomato paste
1/2 c water
1 carrot, grated (I chopped it)
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 c quinoa
2 c water
shredded cheese


Cut peppers in half, lengthwise, or just cut the top off.  Remove seeds.


In large saute pan, heat oil and saute onion, garlic, carrots and jalapenos until onions are translucent.  Add cumin and oregano and cook for another minute, stirring frequently.  Add tomato paste and 1/2 c water and cook for a minute.  Add quinoa and rest of water and stir well.  Cover and cook on medium low heat, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes, until quinoa is cooked.  


Fill the bell peppers with the quinoa mixture, sprinkle the tops with a little shredded cheese and place in baking dish with a little salted water in the bottom of the dish.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until the peppers have softened.




So this makes approximately 4 whole or 8 half peppers.  It was pretty good, but not too much flavor.  I think the spices need to be kicked up more, and I should have used chicken stock instead of plain water.  I think it would be good to use the cajun quinoa and black bean dish I did awhile back as a filler.

That was dinner last night and lunch today.  Still felt a little crappy this morning when I woke up, so I pretty much took it easy today, besides working the afternoon.

Tyler was a little crabby this morning.  He just gets so tired but wants to play, so he won't nap.  Finally got him to lay down for a little bit so I could have a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast.

Here's what was in it today:

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 T chia seeds
• 1 cup almond milk

I combined these and heated in the microwave for 2 1/2 minutes, stirring every 20-30 seconds.  I ended up letting it sit for about 10 minutes while I calmed Tyler down because he started crying, so it got nice and firm. I hate soupy oatmeal.  

On top I used a glob of almond butter, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of honey.  Yum yum.

Here's the almond butter I'm currently using

Close-up!

I already mentioned lunch- just some leftover peppers.  I wasn't too hungry since I ate breakfast at like 10:30.  Don't worry, I had a couple mini muffins when I first woke up this morning.  Have to eat something within the first hour of waking up to get that metabolism going!

After work this afternoon I managed to run to the grocery store to stock up.  Apparently everyone else loves Chobani, because it was nearly gone!!  I managed to swipe up 2 black cherry flavors and one pineapple.  For some reason there were tons of pineapple left.  Probably because it's 2%.

See those 2 containers way in the back?  They're mine now!

In case you're new to the blog, Chobani is a brand of Greek yogurt that is very tasty.  And better for you than regular yogurt, since it's strained more.  Less sugar and more protein.  I love the texture of Greek yogurt, thick and creamy, unlike regular yogurt.  Check it out (unless your grocery store is out)!

Supper tonight was taco Tuesday.  Made some taco meat using extra lean ground beef.  I made myself a taco salad, using spinach, black beans, avocado, a sprinkle of cheese, taco meat and salsa dumped on top.

Tomorrow is looking to be a crazy crazy day... hopefully the little man keeps up his sleeping through the night!