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!

Project Zucchini Part Two

Three day weekends are nice.  Sorry about no posts last two nights, guess you didn't get lucky.  =)  Don't worry, this will be a long one.

Let's see... I think I last blogged on my way to Davenport.  When we got there we enjoyed a nice lunch at one of our favs, Granite City.

We don't go there too often, so I was bad and got one of my old favorites- half sandwich and cup of soup.  Doesn't sound too bad, right?  French onion was my choice for the soup de jour, covered with a nice piece of cheese.  The sandwich I chose was the Overlake: turkey, bacon and some herb mayonnaise on grilled wheat bread.  Add some waffle fries with Granite dip and a happy girl it did make.

When we got there it was pouring rain outside and they had the air conditioning blasting.  So I thought I needed a little something to warm me up.  Plus it was hard to avoid this when we sat down.

I chose spicy mix, Worcestershire sauce, Absolut Peppar, olives, celery salt rim and pickle.  I somehow ended up with a piece of celery too.

Here's about two days worth of sodium (hence the 3 glasses of water):

After lunch we headed over to a friend's house so hubby and Tyler could hang out while I shopped.  First time I went clothes shopping in a very long time.  I actually scored some pretty good deals, mostly on summer stuff.  You'll have to wait for Vegas pictures to see some of the new outfits. (T minus 10 days!)

Supper was late that night, had some tacos at the friend's house and off to bed.  

Our friends made breakfast Sunday morning: eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy.  Good power food for more shopping!

Only got a couple hours in before it was time to go to the family reunion.  It was such a beautiful day outside, and great to see family.  It was located at a park with a nice trail, so I decided to take a little jog after a lunch of fried chicken and fruit.  And a brownie.  Or two.

We always play a game of softball, which is fun.  Not exactly competitive so sometimes it's a little hard to dial it down and not swing for the fence.

After a very long day, drove home and went to some friends' house because some college friends came into town.  Boy, it sure sounds like we have a lot of friends.

Our friends had grilled up some hot dogs and hamburgers, and made some yummy chocolate chip bars.  I enjoyed all of that and a glass of Galena wine.  The wine probably didn't help, because I was already exhausted.  Didn't stay long, but it was great seeing you Heidi and Katie (and Adam)!

That brings us to today.  Thank goodness for 3 day weekends.  Had a great night of sleep and then off to yoga in the park.

It was a little chilly outside, but once we did a couple sun salutations I warmed right up.  We had class under a big bandshell, so I only took a picture of our instructor from our point of view.

When I got back I had nice little bowl of oatmeal with a glob of almond butter and a drizzle of honey.

Got some stuff done around the house and played with Tyler the rest of the morning.  He helped fold towels.  Not really.

I had some left-over whole wheat spaghetti noodles sauteed in garlic oil with parmesan cheese for lunch- again.

This afternoon was devoted to zucchini.  I still had 2 big and 1 little zucchini to use up.  I knew no matter what I wanted to shred it all.  I got out my trusty food processor and chopped it all up.  It made about 7 cups.  I spread it all out on some paper towels to soak up extra liquid.

Since I had some old bran cereal on the shelf, I decided to make zucchini bran muffins.  I put the other 3 cups in a freezer bag to use up at a later date.

I pretty much just googled zucchini bran muffins, and this is the recipe I decided on.  I had to make a couple changes because I didn't have some of the stuff.  Oh, and I made the double batch.

1. I used ground ginger instead of grated.
2. I didn't have a lemon, so I used 1 T of lemon juice concentrate (that was all that was left in my bottle).
3. I used 1 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar.
4. No raisins for me.  Didn't feel like adding them today.
5. I used 1 cup of canola oil instead of olive oil, because I didn't have extra light olive oil. 
6. I used extra cinnamon because I like extra cinnamon.

So yeah, just a couple changes.  I used All-Bran, which are bran buds.  I haven't ever made muffins with those before, so it turned out quite interesting.

Here are the dry ingredients, looking a little like kitty litter.  

Here they are mixed with the liquids.  

Usually when you use bran cereal you have to soak it in a liquid (water or milk) to make it mushy.  The recipe doesn't say anything about that, so I didn't, figuring the wet ingredients would be enough to soup it up. 

Well it wasn't.  I let it sit for about 15 minutes and not a lot of change.  I made them anyways, without adding anymore liquid.  They turned out ok, but some of the bran buds on top were crunchy.  I actually liked that part, because I like crunchy things.  If you make them you'll want to soak the bran buds first with a little liquid.

And the quantity is definitely wrong.  I was prepared for 24 muffins, but I ended up making 24 regular size muffins and a whole pan of mini muffins.  

Had to sample some!

Since this post is getting a little lengthy, I think I'll save my next recipe for tomorrow.  Here's a preview, hubby grilled some bbq chicken drummies and I made quinoa stuffed peppers.  Pretty easy but time consuming.

  

Heading to bed early again, gotta fend off this sore throat and yuckiness that I've been feeling last 2 days.  Think the little guy is feeling it too, he's coughing a little and very snotty.  But still happy.  =)

On the road again

Sorry no post last night. Super tired and a huge stack of notes. Guess that's the theme of Friday nights.

Nothing picture-worthy for breakfast or lunch yesterday, piece of Ezekial cinnamon raisin for breakfast and leftover pizza and small spinach salad for lunch.

Last night we tried to go to the new (and only) steakhouse in town. They said it would be over 1/2 hour wait to sit but we could wait in the bar. The bar was almost empty and they said we could only order sandwiches there. We thought that was strange.  Guess they're still working out the kinks. While we sat there, at least 3 other tables got up and left without ordering anything, saying they had been waiting long enough. We decided not to press our luck since we had Tyler with us.

So we packed up and drove out to Pin Oaks, the country club. Got right in, ordered our food and had it in less than 20 minutes.

I had a grilled chicken sandwich- no cheese or mayo!- with sweet potato fries. Their portion sizes are very reasonable, which was too bad because I think I could have had a whole plate full of the fries. Something about the seasoning. So good!

This morning I got up, fed baby, pumped, worked out with Jillian again, made a power smoothie (protein powder, strawberries, blueberries, spinach, organic yogurt and almond milk), and worked in the clinic. Very productive morning.

Now we are off to Davenport for friends, family and shopping for me.  Haven't been shopping in ages so hopefully get some good stuff.

Not sure if I'll get blogging tonight or tomorrow, since it will be on my phone like this one. Maybe I'll surprise you. :)

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend everyone!

Correction

Going back over last night's blog, I realized that when I was talking about the wheat kernel and the Ezekial bread, I should have clarified a little more.  When the whole kernel is ground up and used to make bread (or whatever baked good), it is called a whole grain or whole wheat flour.  You can find many loaves of bread out there that contain the whole grain, just check the ingredient list.  If the first ingredient says "whole wheat" or "whole grain" it's probably a good bet- just as long as high fructose corn syrup isn't the very next ingredient. And the word "enriched" shouldn't be found in the list.

I checked my spaghetti and this brand was a whole wheat pasta, so no enriched grains.

Ezekial bread is a whole grain bread but it is made from sprouted grains, which means they allow the kernel to sprout then grind it up to use in the bread.  So it's still a whole grain, but when it is sprouted, the kernel releases enzymes that help digest the wheat before it even enters the body.  It also contains more protein and more available vitamins and minerals.  The texture of the bread is a little different, it's more dense and flavorful.

So I hope that makes sense.  As long as you are reading the label and eating whole grain or whole wheat, you're good.  Sprouted bread is just a little step up- it's also more expensive.  Stay away from white bread!

source

If you can't feed birds white bread, why should you feed it to your kids??

Oh, and if you're gluten sensitive or have celiac's... just ignore everything I'm talking about- you can't have any  of it.

The return of yoga

After an early morning full of baby kicks, conference calls and pumping, I finally made it to a yoga session!  Started at 9:30 and I ran in just as it was starting.  It was a little hard to slow my brain down, but I managed.  I'm still a little sore from the Shred workout, so it felt good today.  I think yoga will have to move up on my priority list.

I didn't bring my camera to yoga, but wanted to share a pose we did today.  I've done it a couple times before, but today it had a special meaning:

The happy baby pose

Source

If Tyler can do it, so can I!  Only after doing this he puts his feet in his mouth, which I definitely cannot do.

Breakfast today was some black cherry Chobani and cinnamon raisin Ezekial bread, toasted with some yogurt spread.

Someone asked me the other day why Ezekial bread was so much better than regular bread.  Here's my answer:

When you buy something that says "enriched flour" as one of the ingredients (or you'll hear them referred to as "refined flour"), it means that the wheat kernel has been stripped of the bran and the germ so that it can be ground into flour.  This eliminates most of the fiber and vitamins and minerals that you would get from the whole grain.  Since the good stuff has been stripped away, companies then add synthetic vitamins and minerals to "enrich" the flour.  Your body doesn't absorb these nutrients as well as the natural ones that are found in whole grains. Ezekial bread is made out of sprouted grains, which contain all parts of the kernel so you get the fiber, protein AND the vitamins and minerals.

Here's a little diagram I found that hopefully helps to explain.

And that's your lesson for the day.

For lunch I had some whole wheat spaghetti noodles (probably enriched, need to check the box) sauteed in garlic grapeseed oil with a handful of spinach and some minced garlic.

Supper was grilled pizza part 2.  I made semi-homemade dough this time, so instead of out of a tube, it came out of a box (this time I'm sure there's enriched flour in it).  I didn't do any crazy toppings this time, just plain ol' pork sausage.  I did add a bunch of garden fresh jalapeno peppers, onions, green peppers and banana peppers while I was browning the meat.

Note to self: smaller pizzas = easier when it comes to grilling.  I had a hard time getting the big one on and off the grill so I split the second piece of dough into two pizzas.

Pert' darn good.

Tomorrow's Friday!  Yippie!!