Applesauce, Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

 

I took the challenge this month to try to feed my kids a better breakfast, things that do not come from a package.  My kids love muffins and loved a similar muffin I made from my nutrition plan.  I based this on a recipe from the Eat-clean Diet cookbook by Tosca Reno.  So here is my version:

1 cup of dry oatmeal

1 cup of unsweetened homemade applesauce

1/2 cup of skim, fat free or almond milk (i am realizing now i added a full cup - no wonder it wasnt as thick as expected)

2 egg whites, beaten

2 Tbsp + 1 tsp canola oil

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup of blueberries

1) preheat oven 375 be sure to spray your muffin liners as there is very little fat in this.

2) Combine first 5 items in a medium bowl.  In another bowl mix the dry ingredients including berries.  Add wet ingredients and mix until combined.

3) Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and back.  Full size muffins will take 15-20minutes and mini muffins took about 12 minutes.

Everyone seemed to enjoy them, even David stole one!!

Spring Chicken

Yesterday we got our chickens.  The kids were so excited that when I got home from bootcamp at 955am they were already in David's truck buckled in.  They entire way to Oneida they were going Cock-a-doodle-do or peep peep peep.  Then Emma would say: I want my chickens!  Poor thing fell asleep 5 minutes from the meeting point.

Yes it was a hicks version of a drug deal.  A F250 pulls into the back corn of TSC parking lot.  Two men wearing work boots, work coats, jeans and baseball hats exit two other vehicles.   All three men huddle around a small box in the passenger seat of the F250.  The small black, yellow fluffy merchandise is quickly displayed before being stuffed back in the box. A handshake with the swapping of $$ and the men quickly return to their trucks, each with a box. 

It was that quick, and it was over. we were parents to 20+ chickens.

The kids were crowding David as we tried to move them from the box to their new home!  I was suppose to be counting but I kept having to move the kids out of the way. So I am really not sure how many we have:

Finally they got a closer look:

We have mixture of Rhode Island Reds and Barred rock chickens.  Most were only a day or 2 old but he gave us some week olds too. 

Hopefully we have a lot of hens.  I am really looking forward to getting our own eggs!  The kids are going to love it!

peep peep till next time!!

Growing Kids and Growing Family

When did my kids grow?  Who gave them permission..they need to be put in time out.  Lets start with Tyler:

First he knows his address and his phone number.  He can logically argue with me, and make statements that I can not dispute.  Tonight on the way home he told me that when he grows up he is going to be a: Policeman, a UPS driver or a racecar driver!

A few years ago, we were driving to Stephanie’s and Tyler says:  “Mommy look the moon is following us to Stephanie’s house!”  For years he has believed and mad comments about the moon following us.  But today he said: “mommy, I don’t think the moon follows us to Stephanie’s.  I think the moon is so high in the sky that the WHOLE earth can see it.”  Yes Tyler you are correct.

Its may not be significant to you but to me it was, a chapter closed with that statement.

Little miss thinking (aka Emma) is also growing leaps and bounds.  Last weekend she was counting.  1-2-1-2-1-2  She has been singing songs like Twinkle twinkle little start and Rock a-bye baby!  It was so cute.  She even makes sentences now.  Like today she said: where did Jenna go!  She has to do everything tyler does!

This morning when she walked out to the car I realized how big she is getting.  She put her own boots on that she had to pick out from her shoe collections.  she put her own coat on and need her hat perfectly straight.  Her lunch pail was over her shoulder like a purse with her juice in the other hand, just like mommy carries her coffee!  As she walked to her car door she was signing …oh oh oh oh ( from Beyoncé's Single women song).  She was even bopping her butt up and down! DIVA

Now tomorrow our family is growing more!  Our 20 baby chickens arrive at 1030 tomorrow.  We were not suppose to get them till April but they are coming tomorrow all 20 of them.  So while it snowed this week and its been only a high of 32, we are getting chickens!  I am excited to get our own eggs!  Emma will love them and so will Tyler.  The last 2 years we have raised pheasants.  I really wished it would warm up so I could start my garden…I have major spring fever.  I will post photos of the chickens later this weekend!

Menu plan

Here’s the menu plan for the next two weeks:

• Today: Kabobs, Corn and salad
• Saturday: Panini sandwiches, Salad, Applesauce??
• Sunday: Gilled Chicken wraps with Green bean and salad
• Monday: Steak and asparagus, salad
• Tuesday: Spaghetti and meatballs
• Wednesday: Leftovers
• Thursday: Haddock, Rice and broccoli
• Friday: Taco
• Saturday: Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potatoes wedges, salad
• Sunday: Mac N cheese, salad broccoli
• Monday: leftovers
• Tuesday: Steak, cauliflower
• Wednesday: stuffed haddock, veggies tbd
• Thursday:  Pancakes or maybe pizza!  hmmm

Project board

For the first weekend in a long time we didn’t have any place to be.  Finally the house got a damn good cleaning.  Then there is the 8 loads of laundry!  But the best part of the weekend was some projects we completed.  I have wanted to make the kids Project boards that they could could all there artwork and projects on.  Today we did it!
Tyler painted his camo colors and pappy helped him add a buck to it!

Emma’s is pink and brown like her room with some flowers and butterflies.  It was not easy to get a photo where you could see the board and a good photo of emma:

Saturday night the kids played dress up:


Friday was a hectic day for us.  Wyatt had to have surgery to remove the fatty tumor from his back. they discovered more then that.  He had a baseball size tumor in with his boy parts that they removed.  So now the poor thing has a ton of stiches and is missing a lot of fur!

Also on Friday, Tyler and David built a wood duck box.  They are going to send the below photo into a magazine contest about wood ducks.  If you ask tyler he will tell you all about how he made it.  He will then tell you that they are going to put it by the lake (AKA Swamp) and watch the wood duck family move in.  The side slides open so he can look inside and see the nest.
He will finish the story telling you how in the fall, he and his dad are going to go out to the lake and shoot them because its duck season.  My husband is raising a redneck…
Next weekend we are hoping to take the kids to maple weekend at VVS but also to start our planting! more to come I am sure!
Have a great week!

Weight loss vs. Getting Fit

Pop quiz for you…which Kristen weighted less:

2008 - May	2011- March

so what did you guess.. 2008 or 2011?  The answer is later in this post! ( I have to keep you interested!)

In 2008 I lost about 50 pounds from Jan-June.  I stopped eating junk, and a lot of carbs and about 5 times a week a walked on my t’mill.  I would jog a bit but it was mostly speed walking.  I didn’t do anything to increase my strength.  I simply lost weight.

In 2010-2011 I changed everything.  No processed foods, more fruits and veggies, more active.  my workouts are interval training, high intensity!  its cardio, its strength training and more!  I have gained so much strength – this week I did 45 pushups from the toes..I couldn’t even do that in high school.  Last weekend I ran 3 miles in 33 minutes and honestly I have had worse workouts (burpee ladder 20-1).  56 pounds and from a size 20-12 on average.

So do you want the answer to the quiz?  Guess what I weight about the same within about 3 pounds of each other..Seriously. 

I feel the difference is in 2008 I loss weight and in 2010-2011 I am getting fit and healthy.  If I ate like I did in 2008 I would drop more on the scale but its so easy to gain back that way.  I need to keep doing it the right way.

Lets look at those photos again:

Then	Now

So to sum it up…if you are feeling great, losing weigh/inches and succeed on physical achievements then enjoy it.  Don’t let a metal object with number that sits on a cold bath room floor define your level of success.  Step back and look at the whole photo.

*As a side note, I am sorry the mirror was not cleaned before photos were taken but emma loves to give the mirror baby kisses.  And dang it the rest of the house was clean..it’s a give and take in my life!

5K DONE

I am so excited! I finished my first 5K on Saturday!  Ok so technically they were calling it a 3 mile.  Some paperwork was stating 5K other 3mile. I will need to google map it but either way:

I FINISHED IN 33:19!!!

I was suppose to run with my GF Lisa, but her uncle had a heart attack and she was at the hospital with her family.  How ironic since it was America’s greatest heart run and walk??  The event raised 1.1M from our small little middle income area.  I raised $195.00!!

I was worried at first about running alone not having anyone to push me.   But I have gotten myself this far I could do this:

I wrote on my hand with eyeliner “you’ve got this”.  My trainer Steve tells us that all the time.  You’ve got this you can finish, turn your mind off. 

That was my before photo, just incase I didn’t finish.  Another good thing about our event, I was never more than 3 miles from the hospital!!!  Safety feature!! lol

The 3 mile run course is not the same as the 3 mile walk.  The Run course is all up hill.  there are a few down hill moments but you are constantly going up some sort of incline.

The worst was heart break hill.  I wish I could find a photo of it for you but at the moment I can not find anything on the internet. or than this article:
http://www.uticaod.com/news/x2096602326/New-York-Mills-hill-hardly-heartbreaking

I used my MP3 player to set my pace. I wouldn’t let myself walk until I had listened to the 1st three songs – figuring that would put me past the 1st mile. I walked quickly and had a drink of water before running to the base of heartbreak hill.  I pushed myself up the first part of the hill.  then it levels out for a moment during some S turns before you climb part 2.  My legs were burning.  This part I did a combo of running and walking.

The final part is burrstone road and then into the college.  Burrstone road has 2 more hills besides its stead grade up.  I ran to the top of the first hill then walked for a moment.  My legs were on fire.  Then I ran to the top of the second hill, I had a quick walk and water before finishing the final leg without stopping.

I caught my husband unexpectedly and this was the photo he was able to get:

I was so glad to finish! And so hungry!  They had for us water, granola bars, bananas, oranges, apples.  Then if you went to the gym they had subway, Greek yogurt and more.

Like I said I was hungry and not stopping eating while taking photos!  After my banana I did take a photo with tyler who was there to cheer me on!

My husband left the camera on video while he ran to the finish line.  Its kind of like my post race interview its really funny but long…I hope I can upload it!!

I am so glad I ran this event!  Afterwards I chilled in my PJs.  Its funny that you can be so hot from running and so cold from 40 air at the same time!!

Food Challenge (with a side of my input)

My Friend Jenny (Click here to visit her rockin’ Blog) has always been an inspiration. She was a stay at home mom raising 2 great kids.  She has the best craft ideas, besides being darn good in the garden.  Her, along with her hubby and kids, even raise bees!  Not too long ago she went back to college and is almost done with her degree!  Now she is finishing up school before starting “her dream Job”.  Jenny has been like family to me for years!  I love to collaborate with her but usually I am stealing ideas from her because she is that cool! 
Today she posted that she is taking a food challenge:



Jenny has a crazy drive to and from college each day and with just being a mom, wife, student, employee and more she doesn’t have time too cook.  She is using this challenge to change that.
So I have to be like Jenny.  I, like many of us, have crazy days.  But I have found planning out my dinners 2 weeks in advance (more on this later) have helped me to put good food on the table.  However, I have one area that I am not good at….Breakfast.


My breakfasts are fine, Whole wheat waffles, egg white omelets, Oatmeal, but the kids are not.  Sugar filled cereal (like choc cheerios) , or I heat up frozen french toast sticks from a box.  Then of course there’s the pop tarts and mini muffins from a bag.
So I am challenging myself!  I am starting off small for March. At least 2 times a week I will make my kids a good breakfast.  Nothing processed, preserved or packaged.

Now quickly about my dinners.  I have every payday off, so that is the day I do my grocery shopping for 2 weeks.  Thursday night, while watching Grey’s, I write out my menu:

Sunday	Mac N Cheese, salad green beans
Monday	leftovers
Tuesday	Chicken with goat cheese, brown rice and veg
Wednesday	Steak, sweet potatoes
Thursday	Fish, broccoli and cottage cheese
Friday	Mex. Chicken
Saturday	Shrimp Pasta
Sunday	Kabobs and salad
Monday	Tacos
Tuesday	Meatloaf wax beans
Wednesday	Fish and Broccoli
Thursday	Chicken tenderloins, brown rice and corn

This saves me so much time.  I can write my shopping list from the menu.  that way I am not standing at the butcher counter trying to pick out things for the week, or standing in front of the freezer each night saying “what should we eat? what do you want with that?”. 

I keep the list on the freezer door.  tonight I looked at Monday and Tuesdays items.  Leftovers for tomorrow – yes that is easy. Tuesday is chicken so I took the chicken out of the freezer.  Monday night I will prep it,  I will get as much done as possible so that David only needs to bake it on Tuesday afternoon.  Basically I cook tonight for tomorrow.  IT WORKS FOR US!
One benefit we also have is our garden, we collected so much food this summer we are still enjoying our bounty. but I am going to be out of beans and broccoli after this week.  Still I have canned sauce from our tomatoes to put on  pasta if we run into a jam and don’t have time to cook.

Since I am still losing weight, knowing what I am eating for dinner helps me to plan out the rest of the days food!  Its all about being organized.
More to come later this week. I want to talk about my success at running from over the weekend.  And we have updates from the kids…darn things are growing like weeds!
Have a great week!!