Clean Eating Challenge

Flashback to January 2014...

 

A girl I went to school with since 6th grade was posting all this information on Facebook about an Arbonne clean eating challenge.  I had seen her talking about it  for a few months prior and decided to contact her to ask what it was all about.  She explained it to me and told me of her own reservations for trying it and it took her a year to work up to finally going through with it.  She had mentioned that prior to her husband participating he would have a horrible time sleeping at night and said that his body using so much energy to process his dinner it would actually keep him from sleeping through the night.  Maybe that's what my problem was too with staying asleep, since I have zero problems actually falling asleep.  She sent me a sample menu with the grocery list and also gave me a few sample items like protein powder, green tea, fizz stick, etc.  After looking at the menu I knew there was no way that Jimmy and Kiera would eat the majority of the meals or let alone the side dishes plus I just wasn't willing to cook 2 separate meals for the 3 of us.  So that is where it all ended.  For the rest of the year I would continue to sit on the couch every evening for hours doing nothing.  I was pretty down at times and didn't have the motivation to get up an exercise or anything else.  I knew what was going on I just didn't care.

 

Fast forward to December 2014...

Jimmy's cousin got me a Misfit Flash activity and sleep tracker for Christmas.  I knew that she had one and I had always wanted one it just wasn't something I though about buying for myself.  I am so in love with this thing it's not even funny.  It is exactly what I need to get going.  If I saw that I wasn't going to reach my goal of activity for that day I would get up and move around. 

 

January - March 2015...

After having my activity tracker for a couple weeks I decided it was a good time to start exercising.  We have had weights for years we just never did anything with them so I brought them out along with my yoga mat and started doing some easy exercises at home.   A number of the exercises I just used my own body weight which was enough to feel the burn.  I also started changing what and how much I was eating.  I started eating smoothies for lunch a few days out of the week, less bread and dairy, minimal sweets, smaller meal portions.  In February we bought an elliptical which I just freaking love.  I began gaining muscle and losing weight.  I also started sleeping better through the night and not waking up at 3am for the day on the weekends!  By the end of March I had lost 13 pounds! During this time my friend Kailan and I started talking about the clean eating challenge.  She wanted to participate but was in the same predicament with her husband and 3 boys.  We decided that we were dead set on doing the challenge and she offered to cook the meals and we would split the cost of the groceries. 

 

March - April 2015...

So at the end of March we began the clean eating challenge!  Things were going great for the first couple weeks, and I didn't have a problem with the transition since I had already changed my ways of food an eating.  There in the middle it got a little rough for me.  I did cheat just a few times throughout the month but not even enough to throw anything off.  It was too keep my sanity alright!   

(Baked sweet potato, steamed  zucchini, blacked salmon, mango salsa - all made my me)

And now our clean eating challenge has ended.  Since January I have lost 21 pounds and 8 of those was during the challenge.  I feel great, I am sleeping through the night, I have lots of energy and no stomach issues after eating. Not that I had any before but there is no more bloating and indigestion that I would get after eating big heavy meals.  Except for the celebratory pizza lunch Kailan and I ate at the end of the challenge.  Within 20 minutes I was completely drained of energy, I was so bloated and my heart was racing.  I won't be doing that again!

 

I am half way to my goal body type and I know that I can and will do it!  Plus the cute exercise clothes that I have bought help to stay motivated.  It really does!

Smoothie Queen

3 weeks ago we were in Sam's doing some shopping I decided right then and there that I needed fresh fruits and veggies in the house.  So I went a little crazy and ended up buying carrots, organic baby spinach, bell peppers sweet potatoes, bananas and frozen fruit.   Jimmy and Kiera are not fans of many fruits or veggies, especially raw.  I decided that even if I can't get them to eat all of them I could at least sneak some of it into other foods.  As for myself I decided to start eating smoothies for lunch.  It took me a couple weeks of making smoothies until I finally got it down.  We don't even have a fancy Ninja or Vitamix blender, just a good ole Osterizer!  But I thought I would share what works for me and maybe it will help someone in their smoothie making adventures!

 

The ingredients I have used are...

Mixed frozen fruit (unsweetened)

Baby cereal (got it for free so might as well use it)

Carrots

Organic baby spinach

Yogurt

Sweet potatoes 

Water

Crushed ice

Cranberry juice

Bananas

Protein powder

 

To prepare the sweet potatoes I cut them into cubes and boil them until soft.  I let them drain really well and then I put them in a gallon size bag and freeze them.  They will clump together in the freezer but I just threw the bag on the floor a couple times and they broke right up.  I guess you can throw them on the counter instead but it is just habit to throw it on the floor since that is how I break up bags of ice for an ice chest.  Then when I make my smoothie I just grab a small handful and toss it in the blender. 

 

 

In order to get carrots ready I grate them with the smallest size cheese grater I have.  It really helps to keep from having any chunks in the smoothie when they are so small to begin with. I have actually thought about boiling or roasting sliced carrots and freezing them the same way as the sweet potatoes.  I will have to try that sometime. 

So after seeing all sorts of pictures of smoothies in blenders online, I have noticed that for my machine tossing everything in all at once doesn't work.  I have to add things in stages and blend really well between ingredients.

 

~First I blend up my spinach with a little bit of cranberry juice or water (I see a lot of people use almond milk, so I may try that one day)

 

~Second I add my banana and my yogurt and blend that up.  Then I throw in the protein powder or baby cereal and blend. 

 

~Third I add my sweet potatoes or carrots and blend the heck out of it. 

 

  

~Fourth I add my frozen fruit. 

 

I always have to add more liquid and actually have to manually stir to get the frozen fruit on top down to the blades.  And then I blend some more.  And probably add more liquid if it is still a tad too think and not blending on its own by now. 

And then it's done!  Depending on my fruit mixture the color of the smoothie turns out different colors. 

I have this handy little container that I put my smoothies in. I use a funnel to help get it in there since my smoothies tend to be on the thick side which by lunchtime they are the perfect consistency!  I also bought silicone straws at Target for 3 bucks.  They have a larger opening than regular straws and getting the smoothie through them is super easy. 

So the differences I have noticed is some weight loss (would be even more if I drank the smoothies on the weekend but those are my "cheat" days, which I need to change.  Baby steps).  I also feel not so yucky, and I may be sleeping a little better.  But I also haven't been eating fried foods or even bread that often, and I am rarely eating sweets.  I definitely don't feel that great when I do eat badly and it has really torn up my stomach after eating that way.  Oh and I have a little something called Keratosis on my upper arms which has gotten much better after drinking smoothies for lunch and eating better dinners.  So I am taking baby steps and hopefully I will work up the nerve to participate in a clean eating challenge before the year is up!

I'm never buying crutons again

Every Wednesday Panera donates their leftover bread and other items to my work, since we are non profit.  I grabbed a small bag of white bread the other day because I wanted to take a stab at making croutons.  It was a nice thick sliced bread, like Texas toast.

Now staying true to my ways I didn't use any measurements.  I just added what I though would be a good amount of spices and liquid and of course taste tested it as I went.  So I used...

Bread

Garlic Salt w/ parsley flakes in it

Onion Powder

Grated Parmesan cheese (no it wasn't fresh)

Italian seasoning (just the sprinkle stuff of herbs that comes in the plastic container)

 1/4 cup  Margarine

1/2 cup Olive Oil

 Cube your bread.  It sure is nice to have  a little helper too.

  Melt the butter, pour it in with the olive oil, and throw in all the spices.  Mix well.

Drizzle a little at a time over the crumbs and gently fold the bread to coat all the crumbs.

Pour the bread onto a cookie sheet.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Take out of the oven to move the crumbs around then put back in the oven for another 15 minutes.

Then it's done!

It was so freaking easy to do it made me wonder why I didn't try it earlier.  They taste absolutely wonderful too.  We haven't had a salad to eat them on yet but that hasn't stopped up from popping a few in our mouths otherwise.

Caramel Oreo Cups

I made these little treats for a 4th of July get together we had with some lovely friends and man were they a hit. They were so stinkin' easy to make too. 

Here are my super duper technical directions with exact measurements.  Ok not really but lets pretend. You will need...

1 package double stuffed Oreos (I think there were 27 in the package before 2 were removed for quality control testing by Kiera and I) 

1/2 stick ?? margarine or butter, either is fine

1 box of Jello Mousse caramel

Milk (to make the mousse)

 

1.  Make the mousse according to the box and put in the fridge to set for a few hours.  Though I only waited like 1 hour.  The mousse wasn't set quite yet.

2.  I blended all my Oreos in the our food processor until they were nice a crumbly then I added the melted butter/margarine to make a crust.  I put my Oreo crust mixture directly into mini muffin pans though I will actually put liners in the pan FIRST next time (note to self).  

3.  After the cups set an hour I carefully popped pried them out of the muffin pan (this is where already having them in liners would have helped tremendously) and put them in liners.  Then I took out my soft set mousse and piped them in each cup.  I used parchment triangles to pipe them with but you could use a plastic baggie if you don't have the triangles or a canvas bag on hand. 

4.   Add desired topping. I made some chocolate shavings from a bar of bakers chocolate.  I wanted to have chocolate curls but the chocolate was too dry to curl. I also thought about putting a single cherry from a can of pie filling on top but knew the cherry wouldn't stay put so I decided against it. 

  

Mmmm.  They were so good.  I have all sorts of ideas of different flavor combinations!  Like golden Oreo crust with a lemon Jell-O pudding filling.  The clear-ish tangy lemon that you have to add egg yolks to, not the other one.

I like that they were tiny so you could just eat one and not feel bad about it.   Only I ate like 3.  I just felt a tiny bit bad!

Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas

I found this recipe on Pinterest one day and made it basically exactly as the recipe called except I changed one thing which was adding just a little bit of the sour cream mixture to the chicken to add some moisture up in there.  It was just ok but ended up pretty runny.  Over the weekend I decided to try it again but I changed up the recipe a bit. 

*random piece of info Jimmy sits on the left, I am in the middle, Kiera on the right.

 Here is my version...

Small package of corn tortillas

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

2 cups shredded cheese (any kind you want)

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup sour cream (plus extra to serve on side if you like)

1 (4 oz) can diced green chillies (I use 2 cans)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 glass dish.

2.  Cook chicken and shred, set aside in a bowl.

3.  In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute.  Add broth and whisk until smooth.  Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly.  

4.  Stir in sour cream and chilies.  Do not bring to boil, you don't want curdled sour cream.

5.  Add 1 cup of cheese and about half of the sour cream sauce to the chicken and mix.

6.  Pour just enough of the sour cream sauce in your greased dish to cover the bottom.  This will keep your tortillas from getting rock hard.

7.  Layer tortilla, chicken, tortilla, chicken (like a lasagna).  You will need to break some of the tortillas in half and lay them along the edge to to cover all of the pan. 

7.  Pour remaining sour cream sauce over the top and sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese on top.

8. Bake 22 min.

9.  Remove from oven and add remaining cheese to the top then broil on high until cheese is browned.

10.  Slather on some Cholula hot sauce and sour cream if you like.

11. ENJOY!!

Mmmmmm,  it was so so so good.  Jimmy kept going on and on about how good it was and was in heaven.  You don't see him like that very often so I was pretty darn excited.  Kiera even ate all of it too!  We will definitely be having this a lot more often! 

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

On Pinterest I came across a picture on of toilet tissue rolls covered in peanut butter and rolled in birdseed and I decided this would be a great little project for Kiera and I to do.  After thinking more about using the tissue rolls I figured at they wouldn't hold up outside for very long I decided to do them on pine cones (I did this when I was about 8 years old in vacation bible school).

It was nice and messy.  All you do is slather peanut butter over a pine cone, roll it in birdseed and tie a string around it the tie it to a tree.

 

  

You may need to take a short break to watch some Chinook's and then Black Hawks  fly over your house.  Oh wait, that's only me since we live 4 miles from the airport and Army and Air Force base.

 

 

 

Hopefully the little birdies enjoy the special treat we made for them!

PF Chang's Birthday Lunch

Jimmy's birthday is coming up on Wednesday and his dad's was on the 13th.  Every year we go out  to dinner in the middle of it somewhere to celebrate. 

 

 Have you been there?  I have now only been the one time .  Jimmy's first time to experience this wonderful food was while he was in California a couple weeks ago.  We have always heard how good the food is but never ventured to the restaurant since it is near down town Tulsa, 20+ minutes away from our house.  

Unfortunately Jimmy's dad wasn't feeling well so he stayed home but his mom came along with his aunt, cousin and her daughter and my brother.

We had the Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Mongolian beef, Chang's Spicy Chicken, Singapore Street Noodles, the best Egg Drop Soup ever.  Ohmygoodness was it awesoooome!  No pictures for you.  I was too busy eating.

After we ordered our food Kiera kept asking for dumplings. She was continually telling us she wanted some and was pretty bummed out we didn't order any.  She even tried to flag down the waiter to tell him she wanted them!  We decided to order some even though we had no idea where she even heard of dumplings.  We got pork and she absolutely loved it.  Later on the way home we asked how she knew about dumplings and she told us the panda bear.  We though she meant Panda Express, though we have never ordered them there, she tells us "the panda on TV".  Ooooh...Kung Fu Panda. 

My brother snapped these awesome pictures of her.  She would not use the fork and only used the chopsticks.

Um, I kinda got completely off track from the "birthday" meal there but how can you stick with boring adults when you have a character like that to talk about and take pictures of?

best peanut butter cookies. ever.

One day while I was surfing around on Pinterest I came across this 5 ingredient peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe that I decided to try over the weekend.  Really only 5 ingredients?!  Oddly enough didn't have brown sugar on hand and so I just had to run across the street to the Dollah General to grab some.

Ohmygoodness.  So.freaking.delicious.

 

This is a cookie that Jimmy said "You know I don't really care for peanut butter cookies right?"  No.  I didn't really know that, but it leaves more for me!!!

 

 And then he decides to try one out and tells me it's pretty good.  "Actually it's really good" he tells me and gets two more. 

I know a whole plate full of those delicious moist little cookies would have been better to look at but that was THE last cookie.  Which I promptly ate after dinner.

date night

I took Jimmy out on a date last night.  I paid.  Not that it was really "my" money since we only have one joint bank account, but I paid with what I had in my wallet.

 First we ate at this little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant down the street from our house called El Fogon.  It is seriously the best Mexican food we have ever eaten in our entire lives.  Probably because it is real Mexican food.  The first time we ever ate there was in 2006 shortly after we moved into our house.  We eat there at least once a month.  They have this roasted red pepper salsa that is to die for.  Jimmy had the Mexico City Tacos (one of our favorites) and I tried the Enchiladas Camarón (shrimp).  Yum.   


Then we went to see Battle: LA, which I called "Battlefield" and the girl giggled and corrected me.  I laugh out loud at myself too. 

 

What???  It's $8.50 for a movie?  That's why we stick to matinees!  I always forget that the Owasso theater sucks and the only speaker that worked in our theater was the front left one.  No surround sound.  No bass.  Boo.   Still we aren't going to drive all the way to Tulsa unless its a movie that absolutely has to have great sound.  Movies like Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Star Wars, etc.  Oh well, I only cried one little tear when someone died.  At least the kids were OK otherwise I would have lost it. 

So what if I cried.  I cry at commercials...and cartoons on the Disney channel.  Seriously I got all choked up over an episode of Phineas and Ferb one day.  Stupid kids do that to you.  OK they aren't stupid.  Don't laugh because you know you have done it too.

banana nut bread

About 1 1/2 years ago I was looking to make some banana nut bread cause I had some yucky bananas on hand.  I will only eat them when they are still slightly green and firm, once they turn yellow I won't eat them.  I looked around online to see if I could find a super easy recipe that only required the items I had on hand.  Well I found one (can't remember where) and boy is it awesome!  

Dark Loaf Pan (buttered)

3-4 old bananas, the uglier the better

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups nuts of your choice (optional)

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. melted butter (margarine)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 egg scrambled

pinch of salt 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1.  Peel the banana's and throw them in a stand mixer.  Use the paddle attachment to mash those suckers up.  They will be lumpy and that's ok.  A hand mixer works quite well too if you don't have the stand mixer.

2.  Next mix in the melted butter

3.  Pour in the vanilla extract

4.  Then mix in the dry ingredients

5.  And the scrambled egg last

6.  Pour in the majority of the nuts (save some for the topping)

7.  Next you will pour the mixture into your buttered loaf pan and sprinkle the remaining nuts on top of the batter.

8.  Bake for 1 hour

If the bread isn't done by this point you will want to bake it in 5 minute increments...

9. ...until a toothpick/cake tester comes out clean. 

10.  Let it set about 30 minutes in the pan before removing to slice. 

11.  Lay it out for about 5 minutes to cool before packaging!

Yummmmm!

you will eat what we give you

Recently I have been getting a lot of questions lately from family members about what foods Kiera likes or if she will eat something specific.  My answer is always "she will eat what you are eating."  You may have to force her to take a bite but she needs to eat what you fixed for lunch/dinner.  There will be none of this making a separate meal and catering to her pickiness, which she is NOT a picky eater.  Of course she does have preferences just like everyone else and there are some things that she doesn't really care for but we make her take a couple bites of it anyway. 

I remember the time we went to visit my friend and her daughter and I bought Kiera and I  a burrito from Taco Bell to share.  We sat down at their table and I tore off a piece for Kiera (she was about 1 1/2).  Here's how the conversation went...

Friend:  Is she gonna eat that?

Me: Yes

Friend:  Has she ever had a burrito before?

Me:  Nope

Friend:  Well how do you know she will eat it?

Me:  Just because she will, she likes all food and besides she doesn't have a choice.

Friend:  E will only eat the beans and it can't have cheese...

Um no, not gonna fly.  Did I mention R is a picky eater herself?

We do give her a choice on what she would like to eat at a restaurant, what she wants to drink, what condiments she would like, etc.  But as far as refusing to eat what we are eating, that's not acceptable.  You don't get something different, nor will I make you a meal later.  There are times she has refused to eat dinner with us so we just leave it out and she eventually eats it because she is hungry. 

Gotta suck it up girl! 

Only don't feed her eggs, cashews, or pistachios.  I don't want her dead.  I really like having her around.

Yep she has food allergies.  That was a fun day.

I Am A Professional...

...cake decorator.  I worked at Merritt's Bakery for 8 years, 3 of which I was an assistant manager and 5 that I was a cake/cookie/cupcake decorator.  I think the most cakes I decorated in one day was like 40 cakes.  Yeah I said 40.  Cookies I did like 1000 in one day.   Yep you read that right too...one thousand. Cupcakes were pretty close to that also.  Now those were during holidays like Halloween and Christmas.

Here are a few of my favorite cakes I have pictures of.  These were all decorated with butter cream icing and drawn free handed.  Just for kicks I will tell you how long it took me to decorate each one.

10 min

45 minutes

This torso cake was for my longtime friends (like 16 years long) husband while she was pregnant with their 3rd baby boy.  We all go way back since they are high school sweethearts (who I set up) and I dated his cousin in high school. 
1 hour

10 minutes

45 minutes

30 minutes

20 minutes

These were painted for another friends baby boy

This diaper cake was for the torso friend's baby shower

I also like making these little letters for my friends kids

I love decorating cakes and I did decorate on the side all last year but it (baking the cake, making the icing, decorating the cake) just takes too much time to do it on a regular basis since I already have a full time job.  Now I just do them for my them for my closest friends and family. 

Feels Like Stealing

Ya'll may remember my excitement a couple weeks ago about the vending machine at work giving me 2 bags of Gardetto's for the price of one.  Well the other day I really wanted something salty for breakfast so I decided to get a bag of Gardetto's again.  I also ate an apple so at least I had something nutritional.  Take that!  

But I didn't just get that one bag...I got 2!!!  Another free bag you say?  Heck yeah!


Around 3 o'clock I was wanting some chocolate since I haven't been eating many sweets lately.  I ate an orange and that just didn't cut it.  Maybe 'cause it isn't chocolate?  Yeah.  So I went to the machine again (bad bad Ashley) and decided to get some Famous Amos Chocolate Chip cookies.  The stupid machine jammed again like it did the first two times with the Gardetto's but I just stood there and smiled.  Because wouldn't you know it, there drops 2 packages of cookies!  Bwahahaha (imagine me laughing in a hysterical Spongebob type of way)! 


SERIOUSLY???  This malfunctioning machine is my new BFF.  Not really.  Because I don't need all of this food that really is not good for me, though the Gardetto's are a Fit Pick so they aren't that bad.  I feel really guilty about getting all of this free food though.  Like I should go donate the money I haven't paid to something meaningful.  It messes with the balance of things.  OR maybe something in the universe is telling me that I have been a good and decent human being and this is my payment?  Nah.  There will be bigger and better things that.

Tiny Goodness

Occasionally I make these tiny little biscuits of goodness.  Super easy. Super good.  

I didn't take any preparation pictures because I was too busy making them and cleaning up dishes and taking meal orders from the little one.    

For a family of 2.5 you will need...

1 can of small buttermilk biscuits

3 eggs

Sausage of your choice (we like Jimmy  Dean Hot)

Sliced Cheese

1.  Cook you up some sausage patties

2.  Bake the biscuits per directions

3.  Scramble the eggs in a bowl and pour them into a small skillet and when ready flip them over to make them omelet-like.

4.  Quarter your sliced cheese 

5.  Assemble

6.  McDonald's who??