Spring Break! Kind of…And Diet Hacks!

This week has been our ever-so-wonderful Spring Break from school…but don’t let the word break fool you, I have read three quarters of one book, took three pages of notes for a presentation, have another book to finish as well as another 120 pages or so to read for a different class…I have gathered resources for a research project (which I must now write a Precis for), researched for another paper I have to write by Tuesday, I have to find a topic for an additional research project, and I was really hoping to catch up on some extra credit in another class to potentially raise my grade..because lord knows I have no idea how I did on my midterms yet. I have also been working my normal schedule this week.

To add to that pile, the Ryan and I found a new place to live and will be moving in a couple of months. Hooray for more floorspace and a safer area! Not hooray to my commute to school being doubled and my work commute tacking on an additional 15 minutes..T__T; Also packing..packing sucks. BUT! It is what it is. At least I can decorate, (we can paint and everything!) which will make my heart smile.

With all of this business, you’d think I’d be hard at work, right? Nope. I have definitely decompressed by spending countless hours on Pinterest and I even went out window shopping the other day. WHY had I never gone into Hobby Lobby before? There was definitely some extreme sensory overload there. All the colors! All the projects! All the different ways I could spend way too much money and not even blink. I am proud, though. I picked up one item in Pier 1 and then talked myself out of it. I did not buy anything anywhere…except groceries later in the day. That’s some self restraint, folks!

Speaking of self-restraint, I have managed to somehow lose 10 pounds on this diet thing I’m doing, and am finding myself having that problem where my pants are starting to get loose and feel weird, but they’re not quite loose enough to go down an entire size. Don’t you hate that? Annoying. Anyway, another problem I’m finding is that today, I was a dumbass and got on the food board on Pinterest (why did I do that? I must be hungry) and everything on there looked soooooooo bad for me in a way that made me want to binge eat all of it because it would be soooooooo worth it. At least during the time I was eating it…after that it would probably turn into a mountain of shame and regret. I was even bad and ate a Skinny Cow chocolate bar today. Bam, I’m a rebel! 110 calories be damned!

I’m also craving enchiladas verdes more than anything and for the life of me I cannot tell you why. I don’t even really like green sauce. No, I’m not pregnant….I’m just carb and cheese and deep-fried deprived! I want Doritos! I want tacos! I want enchiladas! I want deep fried, fatty goodness! So I’m going to make spaghetti tonight with turkey meatballs. And maybe tomorrow I’ll make enchiladas verdes because I have all of the ingredients (Pro Tip: corn tortillas are significantly less calories than flour). Maybe I’ll even blog that, because it is on my Pinterest board, and I did say I would blog some Pinterest recipes..right?

In the mean time, the pictures I have of myself in my wedding dress (conveniently located on my phone so I have a portable reminder of why I’m inflicting this torture upon myself) are serving as motivation, and it has worked. I have also picked up the hobby of growing orchids so that I can focus my free-time energy on NOT snacking mindlessly, but instead on nurturing something beautiful and rewarding. Orchids are pretty!

But for those of you who are dieting, and are having a hard time, I will share a few cheats and tips and tricks I have learned in the last month or so:

1) The MyFitnessPal app is pretty damn awesome! It really helps you to visualize what you are eating and how many calories it is. WARNING: Double check the math! Just because something on the app says it’s X amount of calories doesn’t mean it is. The calorie amounts in the app are input by users, so they tend to vary..and not just by a little bit. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, put in your own. It helps. Trust me. It also tracks the calories you burn with exercise. Plus the little graph lets you track your weight over time and it’s such an awesome feeling to watch that line go down.

2) Popsicle Fudgesicle bars are a life saver. I have a serious addiction to chocolate. I tried that Pinterest recipe where you take the Greek yogurt and you put cocoa powder and Stevia in it…yeah, the sweetener didn’t really make it sweet, no matter how much I added. So then it just tasted like powdery, off-brand plain yogurt…plus it was still like 100 calories. It was gross. The Fudgesicles are the best thing since sliced bread – 2 of them for 80 calories, one of them for 40. It’s nice to have the sweet tooth and get the chocolate without feeling guilty. I can have three Fudge pops for the same calories as I can have one Skinny Cow treat..Plus you get about 20 fudgesicles in a box as opposed to 6 skinny cow treats for the same price if not slightly less depending on where you live…Think about it.

Choose THIS:

Not THIS:

3) Stevia is your friend. I bought some organic Stevia after reading about all the fun controversy surrounding it, and if the Mayans could use it, I could too. I’m sure Stevia didn’t wipe out their civilization. If you want some healthier options to the Fudgesicles, try fruit with Stevia. I have been getting strawberries at the Amish market and have been cutting them up and putting some Stevia on them. They’re a delicious snack, and a cup of sliced strawberries is 52 calories.

4) BEWARE THE SALT! Sodium causes you to retain water, which makes you hold onto water weight and thus gets discouraging..it can make you look like you’re not losing weight even if you are. So many processed and canned goods contain ridiculous levels of it! What’s more, the recommended daily dose of sodium is ~1500 milligrams. According to the CDC, the average American consumes 3400 milligrams per day! WAY too much! Excess sodium can raise your blood pressure, and in turn can put you at risk for heart disease and other nasty diseases! If you want delicious spices without the salt, try Mrs. Dash brand. Yummy!

4) Measure EVERYTHING!! I mean it. Seriously. Portions, portions, PORTIONS!! 35 calories for a Tablespoon of creamer? I stir my coffee with the tablespoon. 200 calories for 2 oz of uncooked pasta? Weigh it on a scale. (Also, 2 oz may not seem like a lot, but once its cooked its actually a good portion)

5) Substitute whenever possible! When I make pancakes, I use Stevia instead of sugar and I use apple sauce instead of oil. Why? Because one tablespoon of oil is 120 calories and one tablespoon of applesauce is like 40. Check out this list of things I sub on a regular basis:

• Need chips? Choose Special K Chips. 110 calories for 27 chips. Count them. Portion them into baggies and take them with your lunch. It actually makes you feel like you’re getting more, and you probably are. We all know that a Doritos bag, which is 175-200 calories for the snack size, is half full of air and probably doesn’t have 27 chips in it. Also, White Cheddar Cheetos are 150 calories for 1 ounce (the bag says about 32 pieces) where the traditional Cheetos are 150 calories for 21 pieces. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to my Cheetos, I’ll totally eat 11 more pieces for the same price.
• Like sandwiches? Arnold brand Sandwich Thins are 100 calories for the entire thin. They come pre-sliced so you don’t have to, and not only are they darling (who doesn’t like to eat tiny food?) but they cut the bread calories in half. So I can have a whole sandwich AND a couple snacks and still fit within my calorie limit for lunch. Bam! Plus, they make good toast (the Ryan had me make him an egg sandwich on one this morning ^_^). BONUS: No high fructose corn syrup.
• Wine! I am simmering spaghetti as we speak, and instead of using legitimate wine in my sauce, I am using Holland House “cooking wines.” Yes, I know they’re notorious for having a lot of sodium in them. But it’s less than 200 mg of sodium, and I’m cool with that. 1/2 cup of this wine is 80 calories. 1/2 cup of a drinking wine used for cooking, let’s say a Merlot, is about 123 calories.
• Choose your condiments wisely! Did you know that yellow mustard has no calories? Light mayonnaise is 35 calories per tablespoon, which is totally more than enough for a small sandwich. Traditional mayonnaise has 57 calories per tablespoon.
• Instead of Olive Oil, use PAM whenever possible. One tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories…that means that 1/2 cup of Olive Oil, used for some recipes, is 960 calories!! Obviously, you can’t use PAM under some circumstances – last night I made roasted boiling potatoes (the super cute tiny ones!) and I coated them with 1 tbls of olive oil before putting them in the oven. PAM would not have worked. But for cooking a sunny side up egg or sauteeing chicken, it works just fine.
• Go sugar free where you can. I bought sugar free syrup by Spring Tree. 1/4 cup of syrup is 30 calories. Log Cabin syrup (my favorite brand!) is 100 calories per 1/4 cup. On top of the substitutions I make in my pancakes, I don’t feel guilty at all eating them for breakfast.
• Instead of sour cream or cream cheese, use Greek yogurt. Instead of butter, use avocado – you still get fat, but you get the GOOD fat. In place of oil, use applesauce where possible.
• Go lean: The general rule of thumb is that chicken is about 40 calories per ounce. Beef is about 72 calories per ounce raw and ground, and pork is about 62 calories per ounce. Turkey is 38 calories per ounce roasted and 67 per ounce ground (probably because of the added fat). I have made turkey chili (when you have 16 oz of meat, the 5 calorie difference adds up to about 80-100 calories saved) and it tastes great! Two Bob Evans turkey sausage links are 60 calories for two, while the traditional sausage links are 93 for two. Additionally, I have switched to turkey meatballs instead of beef. (It may not seem like a lot, but throughout the day saving 30 calories here and 40 there can add up to an additional treat for you later in the day if you so desired (saved 100? Have two fudge bars!)).

6) Eat breakfast! Studies have shown that eating a good breakfast will boost your metabolism and give you energy throughout the day. Also, breakfast should be your largest meal of the day. I generally have two eggs, a cup of oatmeal with a tablespoon of brown sugar, coffee with creamer and a clementine. The protein gives me energy and keeps me full, as well as the oatmeal, which is less soluble so my system feels fuller, longer because it takes more time to break it down. Coffee I can’t live without, and the fruit is nice and sweet and makes me feel like I’m eating extra with my breakfast.

7) Get enough sleep! Studies have also shown that the less sleep you get, the more your body will crave snacks that are bad for you! I know, who knew? This is because when you don’t get enough sleep, certain chemicals in your brain cause you to a) not feel full after you eat and b) stimulate your appetite. This may be the body’s way of craving more energy since it didn’t get it from sleeping. For information related to this study, click here.

8) Most Importantly: Don’t deprive yourself!!! Outback Steakhouse is one of the Ryan and I’s favorite haunts! We went there a few weeks ago and since I knew we were going ahead of time, I looked up Outback’s menu online. The 6 oz filet with grilled shrimp on the barbie and steamed fresh green beans is 474 calories. If you eat the bread without butter, that’s an additional 200 calories for one loaf. So I ate my meal and half the bread, and it was sooo delicious. I ordered unsweetened iced tea, and I was good to go. This past weekend, I am fairly certain I ate about 6 mini brownies with Bailey’s buttercream frosting, as well as way too much spinach dip on bread and Tzatziki on pitas and some Carne Asada (it was a multicultural St. Patrick’s!). I also had a giant green cocktail. I gained 3 lbs overnight and then lost it again the next day (can you say SALT?). Your body can’t process a badrillion calories in a day, so every once and a while you just have to let yourself eat! Just be aware – the Ryan’s insides (and mine) were extremely unhappy. That will start to happen once you clean up your eating habits.

Now, not just dieting will get you where you want to go. We all know you have to do exercise. That said, I have lost 10 lbs and all I really do is walk around school all day and I speed walk for 30 minutes during my lunch break on my days at work. On my days not at work, I do exercises like squats and lifting small weights and ab stuff, but it’s not cardio. I will jump rope, though, and I always take the stairs. Mostly, I just want to slim down and tone up so that I can do my sleeveless wedding gown some justice. Also, another tip: take advantage of special offers! My office building has a gym in it that members can pay $28 (I think) a month to use. Since I am only there 2 days a week, I didn’t want to join, but I recently saw a “Fitness Challenge” that our gym is hosting that is specifically geared toward non-members. For $25, I can come in during my lunch for 8 weeks and work with a personal coach who will help me set and achieve goals, and I have access to all of the machines. Additionally, they’ll measure my progress by taking body fat measurements. If I complete the 8 weeks successfully, I will get my $25 back. Unfortunately, I will not complete the 8 weeks because in the 7th week, my summer field school will start, but it’s still $25 well spent – it breaks down to $1.25 per day to use the gym and receive coaching during the days I am there. I’m cool with that. Another cool thing is that I pay out my butt in mandatory fees (those aren’t so cool) in my tuition at school. One of those fees is an “athletic fee.” What does that mean? I dunno, something to do with jocks, I suppose. That said, I can use the school gym (which isn’t a gymnasium, it’s an actual gym with machines and everything) for free. Be aware of options like this in your surroundings, and definitely utilize them!

Don’t like the gym? Don’t worry, I don’t either! But there are plenty of fun things you can do at home with no equipment! For instance, the Ryan is big into doing Cross Fit type stuff, but it’s about $250 a month for him to join a center. He has ordered a few kettle bells of varying weights, and through intense study and talking to folks who used to be in the military (they use Cross Fit in their training), he has done a bunch of exercises here at the house..and let me tell you, his arms look sexy. 😉 He may not think so, but I sure do. Another thing is to make it fun! My mom wants to look good in her Mother of the Bride pictures, and she has lost 12 pounds so far (I’m so proud of her!) doing Zumba with a friend! And of course HAVE A BUDDY! Buddies will keep you motivated and give you someone who you can count on. Early in the game, I hit a wall for like 6 days and I was so discouraged and wanted to give up…but the Ryan was insistent that I not give up, and suddenly I lost three pounds over 4 days! It was so awesome!

And last but not least: DON’T GIVE UP! You can do it! 😀

The Groundhog Lied! And the question of “Organic.”

I don’t know about the rest of you, but as I was walking around campus today in some kind of cold, blowing ice/rain mix, I felt compelled to tell ol’ Punxsutawney Phil to take his tiny groundhog shadow and shove it where the sun don’t shine…because the sun is clearly not shining today! Early Spring my ass, furball!

On my way home today I stopped by the Mom’s Organic Market to have a poke around. I can’t resist the smell of the place, and I can’t meander around the aisles looking at things while the Ryan impatiently stares at me, so I figured it best to go alone – besides, I needed some tea.

This past weekend I went wedding dress shopping (I found “the one” and damn it’s gorgeous!) and while I love my dress, I was a bit…well, more than a bit upset by how I looked in the pictures. Too much holiday (and poor post-holiday) eating has finally caught up with me. The poor Ryan was on the receiving end of my realization Sunday morning when he stood there in the kitchen hugging me while I cried over how fat I was and how I’d disgrace my beautiful dress. Being the adorable dude he is, he told me I was beautiful no matter what and he was sure I’d look amazing, but you know us females – that’s not good enough! (Although I thank him for being so sweet and sincere ^_^) Have any of you seen that shirt on Pinterest that says “Sweating for the Wedding”? Someone get me that! I’m feelin’ the motivation!! I am also going to repair my eating habits – I got too lax over the holidays and, well, just kept going once school started. Shame on me! Back on the calorie counting train I go.

So, during my time enjoying the sights and smells at the Mom’s market, I pretty much picked up and examined the food labels of everything I encountered (focusing on calorie content and nutritional value, mostly).

I learned a few things, such as: pre-packaged turkey burgers contain the same amount of calories as pre-packaged veggie burgers (mind = blown) and apparently one specific brand of pita bread’s serving sizes are based in grams, while my scale measures ounces. Gah!! No calorie counting for that pita bread.

My exploration also led me to ask some questions:

Exactly what is the difference between organic and non-organic products? Other than one is grown with synthetics/hormones and the other is not (or so we are told). In some instances, I can see the value in organic products, but in others, I can see how the word “organic” can just be a money filter for hipsters who think it’s better for them and the environment to go organic (I’m not saying don’t hug the trees, y’all). Now before you yell at me, take eggs as a case study. According to IncredibleEgg.org’s FAQ page, Federal Law in accordance with the USDA prohibits the use of hormones and antibiotics in hens that produce eggs for consumption, except when the hen becomes ill, which is rare:

“Are there hormones in my eggs?

Whether it says so on the carton or not, laying hens (hens raised to produce eggs) do not receive hormones in any form.

Do Antibiotics in Eggs Contribute to Antibiotic Resistance?

Antibiotics aren’t considered a food-safety issue for eggs. Low levels of antibiotics are occasionally, but only rarely, used to prevent disease and ensure the health of laying hens, just as for humans. Very few antibiotics are permitted and there is an economic incentive not to use them due to the additional cost. Rather than routinely, antibiotics are used only if the birds become ill – a rare occurrence because hens have to be healthy to produce eggs. Because so few antibiotics are used and are used to such a small degree, they aren’t likely to contribute to the problem of antibiotic resistance.”

Additionally, hens that lay eggs for human consumption are selectively bred through traditional means — so no genetic modification whatsoever. Any food the hen eats that was genetically modified (say, Monsanto corn grain or something) would be broken down by the hen’s digestive system. Anything genetically modified is changed on a DNA level and cannot affect the genes of an ingesting creature, such as a hen.

So why do people pay through the nose for “organic, antibiotic-free” eggs if all of our eggs are the same? Because, in this writer’s humble opinion, the word “Organic” allows the product to cost more (I understand that the operating costs of organic farming can be higher, but seriously – they have to make a profit, too, and I am inclined to wonder just how much of that profit is from the novelty of “superior” food). That being said: I also understand the concept of buying that $6 organic dozen eggs on the principle that the hens are allowed to be all free-range and frolic with the unicorns and kittens and rainbows. I get it. So if that’s why you do it – keep it up. If you do it for the simple fact that your organic eggs are somehow better, you’re really paying for the label instead of the product.

What else is out there that we can safely buy non-organic?

For me, the jury is still out on fruits and vegetables. I have it on good authority from some farmers I know that pesticides cannot penetrate the waxy skin of most fruits and vegetables…That being said, I am aware of the numerous articles on pesticide contamination being linked to XYZ cancer/disease/whatever that the patient contracted from ingesting a contaminated food item. It was also pointed out to me, however, that there are equivalent if not higher risks of food contamination involved with organic farming (think disease and microbial laden manure being used to fertilize the ground your food grows in…the plant will surely absorb it, which creates a risk for diseases transmitted by feces such as: E coli, Listeria, Salmonella and Giardia).

If your fear is genetically modified food, according to the National Institute of Health, the FDA rates GM foods as “Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS).” Another article on Co.Exist.com cites GM foods as necessary for an increasing demand on the world’s food supply. No conclusive studies have shown the trustworthiness or lack-there-of of genetically modified food, and those same farmers I cited earlier use GM crops in their growing – I believe for a higher yield. Again, there are plenty of documentaries and sources advocating for the abolishment of GM food, and you know what, Monsanto is f*cking evil, so I suppose on principle if you could get away from buying their product, it would be pretty awesome.

Steering away from all of this heavy controversial stuff, I am hoping to avoid the subject altogether over the Spring/Summer by planting my own herbs and vegetables on the patio. Our new apartment has plenty of sunlight, and we are in a good position to “Vertically Garden” as it were. And before you criticize me, I buy my fruits and vegetables from the Mom’s Organic Market not because they are organic, but because they are actually cheaper than supermarket prices. And not only is the market locally owned, but they sell produce from local farmers whenever possible, so I am happy to support them. As for some of the other organic products, well…that’s for another time.

And one final, unrelated note: I have been pinning my heart out on Pinterest and after mid-terms in early March, I am hoping to do a “Cooking from my Pins” series where I make selected recipes from my Pinterest board. 🙂

Oops! And News!

I know, I know! I said I’d do “Freezer Meals” on Sunday, right? I’m a slacker. That was totally yesterday. And I’m still not doing them today! (I am, instead, reading the last 25 pages of this Method and Theory assignment and making Spaghetti)

You see, I was sidetracked on Friday night. What does Friday night have to do with Sunday? Well, just hang on. The Ryan came home from work Friday evening and despite the fact that it was totally snowing outside, asked if we could go to Outback. Not wanting to turn down free Aussie cheese fries (when you share them, they are only half the calories, AMIRITE?) and the opportunity to get some delicious dinner, I agreed and braced myself the entire time we were driving because the roads may as well have been covered in road tar slurpees. We sat in our usual booth and enjoyed a nice, quiet dinner with prompt service because nobody in their right minds wanted to drive out in the snow.

When we safely returned home, I took the opportunity to pelt the Ryan with snow…He sought revenge, but I got him good (I won). After putting on some tea, the Ryan suggested we watch a movie, and I agreed. While I waited for the water to boil, I came back to our couch and sat on his lap…where he asked me two questions: “Do you love me?” and “Will you spend the rest of your life with me?”

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Look at that, boys and girls! My best friend in the entire universe just asked me to spend my life with him. (He did an awesome job, did he not? Picked that out all by himself! I may just be biased because he got my dream ring, but I don’t think I am. ^_~) As it turns out, the Ryan didn’t come home from work on Friday after all. He came home from the jeweler!

The mundane details of our evening may seem insignificant to you folk, but they perfectly entailed our entire relationship. Outback? One of our favorite places to eat. We usually go once a month just to be served so I don’t have to cook once in a while. And we always sit in the same booth. We usually end up with the same waiter, too, which is kind of fun. It’s a nice little “us” thing. Snow? Snow is the MOST romantic thing in my book…Yeah, it’s cold. But it’s quiet, it’s delicate, and it changes the landscape into a sparkling blanket of serenity. I absolutely LOVE snow…and I love my best friend. We play together, we wrestle, we dance in the rain, so a snowball fight on a nice winter evening is totally us. As for the movie? How to Tame Your Dragon. Yeah, it’s silly…but it’s the first movie we ever saw together. When we first started dating and didn’t live together, I would come over for the weekends and Fridays were our “Mega Movie Friday” date – we’d either order a pizza or go out to eat and then curl up under a blanket and watch movies until the wee hours of the morning together. With my schooling and his deployment (which lasted up until Christmas, if you can believe it O_O!) the movies fell to the wayside, so the fact that he wanted to get back into our first ever tradition really made it that much more special. And finally, “Will you spend the rest of your life with me” is a very special and meaningful line in our relationship – it’s part of a silly rhyme we recite back and forth to each other in banter. I won’t share it, though, it’s private. 😛

To top it off, when the Ryan’s grandmother died last year, he inherited her wedding ring (his grandparents were married for 72 years or so! Amazing!) and he has worked it out with the jeweler to design my wedding band to include the center stone from her ring…Which, of course, made me bawl like nobody’s business. It was the most touching and sweet thing ever, and it’s going to be so beautiful when everything is put together.

Needless to say, not much got done this weekend. We did our shopping at the Amish market, and I took the Ryan to Cold Stone for some celebratory splurge ice cream..after all, I can’t buy him a diamond..But he really REALLY likes ice cream. 🙂 So it worked (for now). Otherwise, we just spent our time hanging out and floating on our little cloud of congratulations and excitement from friends and family. I will do a crock pot meal, I promise. I have to get one together tomorrow for Wednesday, after all!

Look for it! ❤

Quick Update!

Good afternoon, folks!

Thought I’d died, didn’t you? Luckily, such is not the case. I have just been EXTREMELY busy. Like chicken with her head cut off plus one armed paper hanger busy.

On the day of my very last final exam for Fall semester, the Ryan and I came home, packed, slept, and left the next day for California, where we spent 9 days visiting his parents and touring the area. It was lovely, I enjoyed the relaxation very much, and I got to cook some stuff. Yay! We did run around quite a bit, as I’ve never been to the Sacramento area and wanted to see it and San Francisco, so there was much traveling and eating out to be done. I can now say I own a shot glass from Bubba Gump Shrimp Co from Pier 59 in San Francisco and one from Old Sacramento. Whoop! (Yeah, shot glasses..it’s a thing. The Ryan thinks I’m insane).

I also got to see the Golden Gate Bridge. 🙂 It was on my bucket list, so I am a happy girl. (I took that picture. *flex* Go me!)

Upon our return home, I had to work, and then we went to a New Year’s Eve party, spent New Year’s day recuperating, and January 2nd was the beginning of my Winter semester, which just ended yesterday. Today is the beginning of the Spring 2013 semester, and I am leaving in about an hour to go to my first class. I’ve got potato soup going in the crock pot (thank this Pinterest find) and prepped everything for the Ryan to finish it up for me when he gets home, as I will be later than him (a change, no?). In completely unrelated news, however, I did get an enameled cast iron dutch oven for Christmas from my granddad. /swooooon! Look for a few recipes using it soon!

Anyway, I’m crazily carrying 5 classes (one of which has a lab, so in essence, 6) and working 2 days a week, so you can definitely say my schedule is quite full. Every Wednesday, I’m going to be late, so this weekend I am planning on writing a post for you lovely people complete with 4-6 “Freezer Meals” (they’re all the rage now!) that I can thaw on Tuesday and dump in the Crock Pot before I leave Wednesday morning, thus sparing the Ryan of having to sit around waiting for me to get home so he can eat, or worse, trying to cook something himself! (Egads!) It will also give me more time in the evening when I get home to spend with him and the cats (cuz, for real, we have TV now and I need my Restaurant Impossible and Triple D fix) or doing homework or laundry or whatever. You know, life stuff.

Look out for my Freezer Meal post this weekend (probably on Sunday), and enjoy the rest of your week! It’s all down hill from here!

Ta ta!

Energy Bites (no bake)!

Yep, you guessed it, if you spend any amount of time on Pinterest like me, I found the recipe there. 🙂 I am always down with “no bake” stuff, and since the Ryan has been kind of picky about breakfast of late, I figured I could give them a try. Bonus: I got 2 lbs of flax seed at the Amish market for $3 on Saturday. And 2 lbs of rolled oats for $2.70. Winning!

I will first start out this entry by saying hey, it’s the Veterans Day holiday. So, make sure you thank a soldier or five today, okay? We owe them a lot.

Nextly, I will lament on how beautiful the weather is today, and how since I’ve been sick the last week and change I will sadly be spending today cleaning my entire house top to bottom. We’re talking deep cleaning – scrubbing toilets, showers, counters, vacuuming, even dusting (ugh, the woooorst!)…everything. *sigh* The Ryan is working today, so I can at least happily blast all kinds of music I would otherwise reserve for my iPod and sing at the top of my lungs with only the maintenance men and the cats to hear me. They, too, will be the only ones to see me dance. Mwahaha.

After that, I intend to do homework…did I mention that my university doesn’t honor federal holidays ON the actual federal holidays? Something about moving them all to Christmas break so the school can close and whatnot. Works for me, I suppose, but I haven’t slept in a single federal holiday this year..=P So I got up and went to class this morning, and am now home to clean and do homework. Lame! Being a grown-up sucks….but I digress.

The Ryan gets up at the last possible second in the morning and runs out the door. I, too, make an egg to toss on toast as I run out the door before class, so when I read about these little energy bites, complete with chocolate chips, oats and flax seed-y goodness, I figured I had to give them a try. Peanut butter offers protein, the oats offer nutrients, the chocolate is…well, let’s admit it – chocolate is amazing. The Ryan doesn’t like coconut, so I subbed with whole wheat flour. Hopefully, I can bag up a few of these each night before bed that the Ryan can grab on his way out the door, and that I can snack on during my later class to hold me until I get to work. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t NOT feed my man – he just got tired of what I was feeding him and has decided that one piece of toast on his way out the door in the morning is somehow good enough to hold him from anywhere between 11 am and 3 pm depending on the day (yes, that is his real, awkward lunch schedule). Solution, please!

And, since they’re no bake, they’re very easy!

1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/3 cup honey, 1 cup flour, 1/2 flax seed (I ground ours up in the coffee grinder), 1/2 cup mini chocolate morsels, 1 tsp vanilla.

Mix it all together, I had to use my hands because peanut butter and honey are very difficult to mix with a spoon. 😦

When it’s all mixed together, stick it in the fridge for about a half hour and let it get cold.

When the mix is chilled, roll them up/pat them into a ball. Put them in a bag or Tupperware container and snack on them whenever you’d like!

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They’re not the tastiest things, but if you like granola, you’ll like these. 🙂 They’re sweet and peanut buttery and honey-y, but they’re not like candy either. I like them. 🙂 I don’t know if the Ryan will, but if not, more for me!

Update!

Hello! 🙂 I am still alive, check it out! Though today I am suffering from the worst cold I’ve gotten all season. 😦 I guess I should be thankful that I made it all the way to November without being really sick, though. The Ryan, bless his heart, has been to the store three times since last night to get me soup, tissues and medicine (and ice cream and flowers, because he’s awesome). He also decided to watch a war flick while I was trying to nap, so…I’ll take what I can get, ya know?

School has been very busy, and I have been studying for a test almost every weekend so far this semester. Pack on top of that midterms, essays, lots of reading, normal homework, and the Ryan’s still-insane (through Christmas now..*sigh*) work schedule, and you’ve got the headless chicken that is me. So I apologize for my lack of presence.

The good news is that I finally sat down to crunch the numbers of my experiment with meal planning. Since September 23rd, I have been keeping track of what the Ryan and I spend on groceries. I have everything in an excel spreadsheet, and categorized our food expenses into meal plan, breakfast/lunch and sundry items (tp, paper towels, shampoo…you get it). I am pleased to announce that it has worked as far as getting our grocery spending under control. Not going to the store every day (and being tempted while being there to buy other things) has really helped. We go on Sundays, and we also found that going to our local Walmart has saved us a tremendous amount of money. The only thing we don’t buy there is produce, out of our own prerogative (and the Ryan’s stories about how they treat their farmers). Instead, we get produce at our local grocery store. Last weekend was the exception, and we decided that since everyone and their mom would be at Walmart trying to buy stuff for the impending hurricane, it would be better for us to just suck it up and stay close to home and buy everything at the grocery store instead. It cost more than we were used to, but I don’t even want to imagine what that Walmart must have been like the day before the storm. No thanks. A friend of mine a little ways south of here said that people were literally buying everything at the Walmart near her – including pillow pets. Because somehow those will help you during a hurricane?

Mercifully, Sandy didn’t come as far inland as we expected, I got 2 free days off of work, 4 whole days with the Ryan, and all that happened was rain and some leaf and twig debris. We were spared. 🙂 And very very lucky. My heart goes out to those who weren’t so lucky, including a slew of co-workers in Philadelphia and New York.

Anyway, for some numbers: Since Sept. 23rd (~42 days), we have spent ~$200.14 on dinner food, including the meat that we get from the Amish. This brings our total per day to $4.77 or $2.38 per person for dinner. Not shabby at all if I do say so myself. There was one day that we had to order a pizza because I accidentally boiled and separated some cream (oops!) and we also went out to dinner one night after a movie. So the numbers are probably a little higher per day, but only by about 25 cents. All in all, I have decided that meal planning is a useful tool for helping us manage our grocery spending, and being forced to break it down in the spreadsheet really makes any kind of silly spending habits apparent immediately – which we can then address and fix.

The next step the Ryan wants us to take is figuring out how much each individual meal costs so that we can balance a couple of cheaper meals with a more “tasty and extravagant” (his words) meal every now and then that probably costs a little bit more. Like a steak here and there, maybe. Cuz every man loves a big, juicy steak. I will be working on this soon, but not today, as all I want to do is veg on the couch and browse Pinterest in between naps. I feel like dog poo. It’s unfortunate, too, because the Ryan and I’s anniversary is tomorrow. Boooo! Murphy and his blasted law strike again!
That’s all for now, really. If you are interested in meal planning, see my previous post and give it a try. One day when I have more time I intend to sit down and go through all of my cookbooks to make a list of meals I could easily make with few ingredients to give our menu a little more variety. And the holidays are coming up, so look for at least a few posts from me – I am seeing so much cute food stuff on Pinterest and all around that I want to try for family gatherings! In the mean time, stay warm and full, everyone!

TGIS and Meal Planning!

Am I the only person who is beyond happy that it’s Saturday? No, I doubt it very much. 🙂 This past week was just harrowing for me, and the Ryan and I still haven’t quite recovered from the lack of sleep last Sunday.

But that is all about to change! Mwahahaha! For tomorrow is Sunday, the day we can sleep in! I actually have the Ryan to myself this weekend, and it feels pretty amazing to have him home with me again (for now, he’ll be away again soon). The kitties are asleep on their respective perches, the wind is blowing outside, the sun is shining, the windows are open, and it is just a nice, peaceful day. This morning the Ryan and I got up and went to the Amish market and stocked up on all things meat (and ate some pretzel logs, yum!)…We even had time to browse the book store. 🙂 Soon, we will be making cat food and then sitting down for a nice movie, popcorn and snugglefest. Hooray for Saturday!

Moving on, recently, the Ryan and I have been discussing various ways to try to save money. I had to take a pay cut in order to go back to school, and he isn’t seeing the fruits of his overtime labor yet (and won’t until the project is finished. Bummer!). We also have a Christmas trip to California to cover, and are trying to save up for a trip next year. Since the biggest expense we currently incur (that we can actually cut back on) is groceries, that is where we chose to start looking for savings.

I was emailing a friend of mine the other day and asked him how he and his wife saved money since they recently adopted two kids. He said his wife does a meal plan and only goes to the grocery store once a week, and that it works like a charm. I decided to research the idea and came up with two very helpful and interesting websites:

Meal Planning 101 is a blog (albeit an older one, but still legit) about meal planning, and she also blogs the meals she makes and puts her own meal plans up, so you don’t even really have to think about it. Cool!

And Organized Home’s article has some extra helpful hints and tips that I didn’t find on the other website (And vice versa), so I decided to use it. It also provides various worksheets you can print out for free to keep your home organized and make plans/budgets/etc. I actually chose this one, and am going to print one out each week and hang it on the fridge. 🙂

One thing that will make this easier for me is that for the most part, the Ryan and I always have anything we would need to create a basic meal on hand. We get our meat organic and cheap at the Amish market once a month (for only $100 including the meat we use to make the cats’ food), and we keep 3 kinds of rice, various noodles (we stock up when the boxes go on sale for 10 for $10 or something) and canned goods in the house almost at all times. Really, we only have to shop for vegetables, eggs and the Ryan’s habit of diet Pepsi. However, that doesn’t make us exempt from buying things like cheese, eggs, sour cream, cream cheese, half and half, milk, and anything else you may need for a meal. Since I have the bad habit of surfing the internet every day and making things up as I go, I generally end up having to go by the grocery store for SOMETHING every single day. So, we decided to give this meal plan thing a try.

A tip I learned during my research is to make your meal plan based on the coupon flyers you get weekly in the mail for the surrounding grocery stores. I’ve already gotten mine this week and thrown them in the garbage with the rest of the junk mail, but I will know for next week. 🙂 And I think that since it’s Saturday, we will actually get more today. Since we get our meat at the Amish market, we are not as concerned about that as you may be – but pay attention. If your stores are having an awesome sale on chicken, then be creative with chicken all week, and maybe go meatless for one of the days. We will be deciding where we shop based on the vegetable sales and other sundry items…but mostly the veggies.

Here is my meal plan for the week:

The websites I researched suggested that including a night out (if you wanted) and a night for leftovers, as well as going meatless (like I did two nights with veggie soup), will help lower your bill as well. I based my meals this week off of what we already have in our fridge…some ground beef that needs to be resurrected (stuffed peppers), celery and carrots I need to use (veggie soup), two random potatoes leftover from the cheesy potato soup (also in the veggie soup), the bags of rice in our pantry (hello stir fries!), leftover broccoli into the stir fry (first set of broccoli is going into the veggie soup), and I have a box of spaghetti noodles in my pantry begging to be finished off. As you may have noticed, both the Ryan and I are celebrating birthdays this week (we’re old!! It’s gonna be awesome!), so we reserved next Saturday as a date night for both of us to celebrate. 🙂

So, my grocery list for the entire week consists of:

Bell peppers, broccoli, bouillon cubes, cheese, meatballs, tomato sauce, and green onions. Six items for an entire week? Yeah, that should save us some serious dough! I’m going to gather my bank statements and add up my per-week expenses over the last 2 months, and then starting with this, I will monitor my weekly expenses until November, and see where I come out. If it works for us, we will stick with it.

In case you are thinking of doing this yourself, but are unsure of where to start, I want to share some awesome dinner ideas for busy people that I found on Pinterest:

~ 40 Recipes for Shredded Chicken

~ 39 Meals to make in 30 minutes or less

~ 20 Freezer Meals

And there you have it! I will post my actual figures after this experiment in two months and let you know how it has gone for us! 🙂 And don’t worry, I’ll still be thinking of new and creative things to blog, so I will still be posting when I can (barring homework or the zombie apocalypse).

Enjoy your Saturday!

Cheesy Potato Soup

Sorry for the lack of appearances, guys! Things have been kind of hectic, especially today! Well, since Sunday, really. I have attended my first exam review (yep, had a midterm already..har har), aced my first quizzes in math (which I hope keeps up, we’ll see), and been trying to be diligent about my homework. Unfortunately, though I am able to complete about 90% of my reading, one of my textbooks makes me wish I was pulling teeth or stuck in a car with someone singing “this is the song that doesn’t end” repeatedly instead. Yes, it’s really that boring.

This weekend was good in that the Ryan actually had it off and we could hang out, but bad in that I spent 10 hours in the ER from Sunday into Monday morning, missed my classes, missed a test, and otherwise lost an entire day of lecture, which made me mad. The good news? I don’t have a heart condition OR a blood clot in my lungs! Huzzah! (I was admitted for severe chest pain lasting multiple hours). The bad news? The cartilage around my ribs and the lining of my lungs are inflamed, thanks to all the walking germ bags students at school that are kind enough to openly spread their illnesses.  So after my awesome ER visit in which I got EKG’d, x-rayed, vampired and injected with radioactive isotopes (and I got to breathe radioactive gas!),  I finally got released. Since neither of us had slept, the Ryan and I went home and crashed. Sadly, we could only nap for about an hour and then had to get up and make the haul down to my doctor’s office for the rest of the evening. Exciting, no?

This morning, I got up late, felt awful, forgot my coffee, and got in a fender-bender outside of school. I’m fine, she’s fine, it was my fault, and I totally got screamed at incessantly over a scratch in the paint. But that’s okay. Who needs low insurance rates, anyway? Things turned around on campus, thankfully, and then a few hours after I got to work, the amazingly horrific storm we were experiencing today led to a tornado warning and all of us ended up hiding in inner shelters (we have interior shelters in our building since the whole damn thing is glass) until being released to go home. Ironically, despite the storm, I have to say that this afternoon’s commute is probably one of the best commutes I’ve ever had. Nobody sped or power-weaved, everyone gave each other wide berth, and they all drove at a reasonable speed appropriate to the torrents being blown around us at 40+ mph. The only beef is that some idiots weren’t privy to the “wipers on, lights on” law, and made it extremely difficult to see them. That’s annoying.

So, with the craptastic start to my week (I must be facing karmic retribution for some recent wrong-doing), and the rainy, windy misery settling in outside to stay overnight, what better thing to have for dinner than soup? I found this recipe on Pinterest this past weekend, and when the Ryan saw it as well and went “OooOOoooOoooh, that looks yummy!” I decided hey! Why not?

Let’s make some sooooooooup!

You will need: 1 onion (diced), 1 cup celery (I forgot to picture it), garlic (1 tbls, minced), all-purpose flour (2 tbls), potatoes (6 cups, peeled and diced), dry mustard (1 tbls), paprika (2 tsp), chicken broth (I forgot to picture that too, it’s been a rough day – 3 cups), Worcestershire sauce (1 tbls), Tabasco sauce (1 tsp), shredded cheddar cheese (4 cups), half-and-half (2 cups), bacon, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste, minced scallions (for garnish).

First, I prepped everything. 🙂 Cuz you need to do those things.

Cook some bacon in your soup pot and set aside on some paper towels when cooked. Drain off all but 2 tbls of the drippings.

Saute onion, celery and garlic in the bacon drippings until the onion is soft.

Stir in flour and cook for about 2 minutes.

Add potatoes, dry mustard and paprika and stir to coat the potatoes.

Then add broth, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes.

When potatoes are tender, mash them coarsely and then add half -and-half and cheese and stir until cheese is melted.

Season with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.

Garnish with bacon and scallions. Yum!

The Ryan and I just finished this. It was a hit! He totally loved it, and I must say, I did too. We have some left, so yay for another round tomorrow! 😀 Or maybe the next day. With bread or something. Like Panera!

Anyway, make this. It’s awesome!

I am going to retire with a glass of wine and a book and kiss this horrible day (and week) goodbye!

Week 1: Success!

I survived!! My first week of school! *raisetheroof* Come on, we all know how that feels. I even have homework already. Oh joy!

No, seriously, I do have homework. As a matter of fact, my geology professor keeps all of his notes on a website and I’m in the process of printing them all out to put them in a binder. The Ryan says that our laser jet printer can print a few thousand sheets before it runs dry, so I’m up to the challenge with this print job. 🙂

Yep, isn’t it pretty? There’s the school. Sadly, the back where that final building meets the tree line (toward the middle right of the picture) is where I park my car…and all of my classes are to the left and right of that big M down front, respectively. I think the best part is that to walk back to my car, I have to walk up a fairly steep hill. Will I be building butt and leg muscles this year? You bet I will! I like the campus, though, and am looking forward to seeing it in the fall and spring when the leaves turn and again when all the trees bloom. I bet it’s gonna be pretty. 🙂

My classes should be good, though Statistics is gonna whip my pale white fanny, so I’m a bit worried about that. If I drop off the face of the planet this fall, it’s because every teacher expects me to do the reading, and I’ve got Statistics first thing in the morning 4 days a week with a quiz every Tuesday that there isn’t a test. Oh boy! Since math happens to be my weakest subject, I wager I’ll be spending a lot of extra time on it. Geology and History both require papers, and Archaeology, I don’t know what to expect from that quite yet. My professors are good, so I am at least thankful of that.

In the mean time, I am praying that the Ryan will be off this weekend so we can actually spend some time together, he’s going to be out of state …like far, far out of state, for the next couple months starting the week after next..so who knows?

So, all of this means I don’t really have a lot going on in the kitchen at the moment. Tonight is chicken fajitas, but you don’t need to know how to make those, as they’re hilariously simple. 🙂 I promise I’ll find something soon, though!

Crock Pot It: White Chicken Chili

Yeap, more crock pot, just like I promised. Yesterday, while I was at the store going crazy on baking supplies, I also picked up the ingredients for white chicken chili. I am going to a Girl’s Night Out date tonight in downtown Washington, D.C., so I won’t have time to cook when I rush home from work, shower, change and head to the Metro station. Instead, I wanted something I could cook all day, scarf down when I come home, and that would still be nice and warm for the Ryan when he gets home…you know, whenever that happens to be.

So what better appliance to use than the crock pot? Since I knew I was going to be out today, I went ahead yesterday and prepped everything so it would be ready to just toss into the pot on my way out the door before work. I’m not a morning person, so the less I have to do, the better. It leaves me more time to sleep. 🙂

In case you’re wondering, the chick date is to a drag show, complete with champagne and dessert in a historic mansion situated on notorious Dupont Circle. It’s a wandering soiree, so each different room has a different theme, and the whole mansion apparently has 64 secret doors leading to other parts of the house. We can enjoy touring the house, which is also a museum and hotel, drinks in hand, before heading to the show to stuff dollar bills down the shirts of our fabulous dragsters! I am looking quite forward to this, as my chick friends are all buckets of fun before booze comes into play. 😀 And why not have a girl’s night out on the town, even if it does mean getting home after 11 and waking up at 5? Sleep is for the weak!

But, I digress. The ingredient list on this one is quite simple, and thankfully so. It was easy to throw everything together in a pinch and keep it overnight so could just dump it all in this morning. So without further adoo, white chicken chili:

The recipe calls for a can of diced tomatoes and a can of diced chiles, so I just decided to be lazy and use Ro*Tel diced tomatoes and jalapenos, as well as an additional small can of green chiles. 32 oz box of chicken broth, two 15 oz cans of white beans, drained and rinsed, a white onion, diced, 1/2 cup sour cream, a bag of frozen corn (but since corn is still in season, I bought fresh), a packet ofMcCormick White Chicken Chili mix, and, of course, chicken.

I drained and rinsed the beans, chopped the onion, and removed the corn kernels from the cob. I then put them all into plastic containers and stuck them in the fridge.

I also cubed the chicken and stuck it in a double-layered ziploc bag and stuck it in the fridge too.

The rest, I just set up and had sitting next to the crock pot for first thing in the morning.

Before I ran out the door, I went ahead and popped everything in and gave it a good stir.

Put it on low, ran out the door, hasta la byebye, dinner.

When I came home, as you can see, it looked pretty much the same. Only it smelled delicious!!

Ta da!!
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Not to be rude, but I gotta run!! Enjoy!