Beef, Eggplant & Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Beef, eggplant & quinoa stuffed peppers
from http://cleananddelicious.com

Beef, Eggplant, & Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

YIELD: 10 SERVINGS

 

PREP TIME: 40 MINUTES

 

COOK TIME: 30 MINUTES

 

TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 10 MINUTES

Ingredients:

• 5 bell peppers
• 1 lb grass fed ground beef
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1-3 tsp Red pepper flakes
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup of cooked quinoa
• 1/3-cup fresh chopped parsley
• 5 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350

Halve and seed the bell peppers.  Lay the peppers in single file on a rimmed baking sheet and cook for twenty minutes.

In the meantime, heat one teaspoon of olive oil in a large non-stick sauté pan and add in ground beef along with some salt and pepper.  Use a wooden spoon or spatula to break up the meat and cook for about five minutes or until the meat as browned.  Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.

Add the remainder of the olive oil into the pan along with the onions, and garlic.  Cook for about three minutes before stirring in the eggplant, red pepper flakes, and another kiss of salt and pepper.  Cook until the all of the veggies are soft and tender (this will take about ten or fifteen minutes).  If the pan seems dry add a splash of water.

Add the tomato paste and water to the veggies and stir until all the veggies have been coated with the tomatoes.  Add the beef back to the pan along with the quinoa and adjust the seasonings.  Shut off the heat and stir in the parsley.

Stuff each pepper with about a half-cup of beef and quinoa filling (or as much as it takes to fill the pepper).  Pop the peppers back into the oven for about 20 minutes or until heated through.  Remove from the oven and top each pepper with one tablespoon of cheese and then finish them in the oven for another five minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Enjoy!

Makes 10 servings.

Nutritional Analysis

Nutrients per 1/2 pepper: Calories: 205; Total Fat: 10.7g; Saturated Fat: 3.3g; Cholesterol: 36mg; Carbohydrate: 15.7g; Dietary Fiber: 3.5g; Sugars: 2.7g; Protein: 13.9g

*****

Discovered this recipe after Jared googled eggplant for me. We've had quite the stash of them from the CSA and though I've decided I really like their taste, I didn't know what to do with them. We found Dani Spies' video Eggplant 101 and then went to her website and found this recipe. We also got a bunch of bell peppers so it was killing two birds with one stone. Maybe it was b/c the boys were really hungry, but everyone really liked it! I only used three peppers since it was just the three of us (and the last time I made stuffed peppers there were a lot of leftovers I had to eat) and froze the remaining stuffing for future use. 

Couch to 5k Week 4/Week 8 weigh in

Summer Challenge Weigh in

week 8: 181.9 
week 7: 182.3 
Week 3: 174.6 
Week 2: 175.9 
Week 1: 176.6 

Couch to 5K

Week 1 - 5 min warm-up 60 sec run 90 sec walk for 20 minutes
Week 2 - 5 min warm-up 90 sec run 2 min walk for 20 minutes
Week 3 - 5 min warm-up 90 sec run 90 sec walk 3 min run 3 min walk repeat once
Week 4 - 5 min warm-up 3 min run 90 sec walk 5 min run 2.5 min walk repeat once

I did it. I completed week 4. Monday I thought I'd die. That final five minutes was awful!! I was pooped the rest of that day and the following. Although to the next day's credit, I did stay up late (think 1:30 am) and then got up to take my mom to the train station at 4 am. Thankfully I was able to go back to bed when we got home, but still. Not a very restful night. I had absolutely no motivation that day and was really muscle sore. We finally made it out of the house at 6:30 to go swimming (which closed at 7pm). But I digress, I went around the entire neighborhood and passed my house in the course of the training. I walked a little bit further to cool down. When I mapped it, I had gone 1.85 miles. A 5K is 3.1 so I'll need to go twice around my neighborhood to get the job done. The boys haven't had to go run with me since we left for TX, so I have been a little anxious about that dynamic. Since Mom was still around, we all went on Monday. Aaron decided to use his bike to go around the neighborhood. I am glad Mom was there to walk with him because he was SO slow!! It will take awhile before he is really comfortable and confident. 

(short side note:

I am so proud of my mom! She has decided to take the 5K challenge and began a walking regime with me. She is doing the sparkpeople.com 5 week walk to 5K program. She'll walk 3 times a week gradually adding the mileage until race day when she walks 3.1 miles/5K. I signed her up for sparkpeople so she can keep track and even seemed excited about having a food plan to follow. So far she is using it. Go Mom!!!)

When it was time to go on Wed Aaron threw such a fit that I decided to use the treadmill. Oh he was excited then!! He had to have his turn. Well, so did Jared. After falling off twice because of not following instructions, Aaron's turn was cut short. Day 2 was much better than day 1. Perhaps it was because the treadmill is nice and even compared to the neighborhood, or maybe it was that my body was ready for it. I kept my run at about 4.3 mph and my walk between 3 and 3.8 mph. I will say that the last 90 seconds of that final 5 min run were bad!! It felt like it was the longest 90 seconds of my life!!! I had set up the computer so I could watch America's Got Talent while I ran. Each performance is only 90 seconds, so I thought no big deal. Oh my goodness, time seemed to stand still!!! But, I did it. I finished it. Again. Go me! It really helped to have chubby jones' voice in my head telling me to not give up. Love her podcasts!

Today was day 3. I woke up at 7 and seriously considered going for my run outside while the boys slept. After my experience today I am kind of wishing I had :p It was about 9:30 when I finally decided to go do the treadmill. I thought Jared would be the first one up, but it was Aaron. He came down just as I was getting ready to put my shoes on. By the time I had everything set up, Jared was up. We hung out for a little bit and then I got on the machine. As soon as I started the run part, craziness broke out. I had put food and bowls on the table so the boys could get breakfast and had America's Got Talent on for us to watch. Aaron fired question/request/complaint after question/request/complaint and kept coming next to the treadmill after being warned not to come near. I am not able to run and hold a conversation. I just can't. It was so frustrating to have to talk while I ran. Finally by the end of the 5 min run Jared stepped in and explained how hard it was to talk when you are out of breath and together they went to go eat. *whew* I was not in a happy place those first 15 minutes :/ I think Monday they will have to go take it on the road with me because I can handle that much better. 

All that aside, I felt pretty proud of myself. When I started the run at 4.3 I felt like it was too easy (amazingly). I realized that I needed to up the incline to mimic outdoors so I did that and it felt a little more challenging. Of course, the first interval is always the easy one for me because I am fresh, so I didn't want to push myself too hard in the beginning though I felt I could go faster. The first 5 minutes was surprising to me when I only had 30 seconds left. The phone screen had gone to sleep so I couldn't see the countdown. After it happened on the second 5 minutes I realized I really need to be able to see that because seeing the numbers help me talk myself through it. I was really tired and having a hard time catching my breath by the second 3 minutes. The 90 seconds between went way too fast. But off I went for the final 5 minutes. The screen had gone off again when I had about 2 1/2 minutes left. I told myself it was ok. I can do 2 1/2 minutes. I've got this. But soon I was starting to panic b/c I had no idea how much time or energy I had left. I quickly swiped the screen and discovered I only had 30 seconds left. Awww relief. I can do 30 seconds. I did 30 seconds plus the other 270 seconds of that run!! I walked another 7 minutes or so afterwards to cool down. When the program went off I had gone 1.95 miles in 31:32 which about a 17 min mile. I know that's not great, but I think it's pretty good for a girl who doesn't like running very much :) And now I feel pretty good. My muscles are not sore like Mon/Tues and I still have energy for other things. 

My running buddy in TX called on Wed in a panic because of next week's schedule. We have 5 and 8 min running intervals ending with running for 20 minutes straight. I wouldn't really allow myself to think about that 20 minutes, only day 1 and felt confident we could handle it (although I was thinking mostly she could handle it ;)) She is repeating week 4, after having done it two times already,the rest of the week which I think gives her a slight advantage. I had been debating repeating week 4 but if I move forward that would put us back on the same week again which would be nice. I think Monday will be really hard, but I believe I *we* can do it! 

Other fitness/health news:

I finally managed to get my own legit copy of P90X while I was in TX. Not just my beloved CardioX and KenpoX, but the whole shibang!! I spent yesterday morning laying in bed reading over all the guides that came with it. I am not sure I can commit to the nutrition plan side of it, but I think I could do the lean schedule. I have been trying to figure out how to balance the 5k training and P90X. P90x is a 6 days a week program, but I think I may do my own modification and run for 3 days and do the DVDs on my off days. Yesterday would have been core synergy if I'd had the guts to do it. I tried it once before and didn't finish. It was really hard and felt like it was one I couldn't do without friends. But, I am willing to give it a try once again. I know I need to do some strength training on my off days and P90x would certainly fit the bill. I have high hopes for next week being more organized and productive, so I will commit to beginning on Mon (well, run on Mon and p90x Tues). hm, or maybe I should p90x it tomorrow (core) and rest Sunday.... that may be a better option because it would put CardioX on Tues. ...

We (Matthew and I) have been invited to a formal event for his unit at the end of Sept. I am kicking myself for not being more diligent this summer. But, I have one month to give it my best! Go team Val!!

Pounding the Pavement

Wednesday I ran for the first time in a week. The drive back was really hard on my motivation. I spent the drive eating LOTS of cookies and other junk. I had planned on running Friday morning before our first leg and even at hotel stops, but it just didn't happen. I would have called it quits if it hadn't been for the fact that my running buddy bought me new running shoes right before we left. Seriously. I couldn't let her down. So Wed I got my new shoes on and got out the door. I was greeted by a cool breeze and felt positive. I decided to redo Week 3 to get me back into gear before tackling the longer runs and was pleasantly surprised at how easy and refreshing it was to be hitting the pavement. Today I again did week 3. It was harder mostly because I stopped at the beginning when we were drawn into a conversation with someone from the neighborhood. I actually look forward to trying the challenge of week 4. CRAZY!

I weighed myself on Wed after running and eating (normally prefer first thing in the morning) and was correct in guessing I'd gained 10 pounds. The Wii showed 184 = 9.4 pound increase :/ I believe most of that came on in the last week as I sat driving and eating. I weighed myself again yesterday first thing in the morning and I was at 182.4. Not great, but I believe I can get it off again as I get back into my routine. Being in a 3 story house will help a lot besides how active we've been since getting home.

I brought my bike back with me. Jared rode a lot while we were in TX and got really confident. I forgot that I'd picked up a bike for Aaron from a trash pile, so I spent some time fixing his and mine the other day. Last night we went for a family bike ride at a nearby business parking lot.  I love bike riding, plus it is great exercise going up hills :p I look forward to when Aaron is more confident too so we can actually go places on our bikes!

Besides biking and running, we've also spent a lot of time in the pool. In fact, we just got back from spending an hour there. I spent half of that time swimming back and forth across the pool and doing tricep dips on the stairs. I hope I won't be too sore tomorrow but it'll feel good anyway.

It feels good to be in my own environment again too and in control (somewhat) of what I bring in to the house. I'm able to have my green smoothies in the morning and fill the fridge with fruit and veggies. Ahh it is good to be home :)

On another note, Mom drove back with me and as a result has been forced to be more active too. I even got her to ride my bike last night :) Today she tossed around the idea of doing the 5K program as well. I printed out the 5 week walking 5K and the 8 week walk/jog rookie 5K programs from sparkpeople for her. I hope she follows through.

Couch to 5K Week 3 day 1

Wow. I was dreading this one, but I did it and did it successfully!

Week 1 - 5 min warmup 60 sec run 90 sec walk for 20 minutes
Week 2 - 5 min warmup 90 sec run 2 min walk for 20 minutes
Week 3 - 5 min warmup 90 sec run 90 sec walk 3 min run 3 min walk repeat once

Once again adding 30 sec to the run is awful. Last week was really hard and each set I was slower and slower. To get through the second set of 3 min of run I counted down by 10s from 60 until I was happy to hear the final countdown to walk. The counting in my head helps so much to get me through because it breaks it up into smaller increments that if I can just get through I can keep going. My running partner does better being surprised when the time is up. Funny how we each have different coping methods but none are better than the other, just different. I am really going to miss having someone motivating me to get up in the morning and to keep going. But I want to finish this goal too.

Summer challenge - vacation daze

I have no idea what week we are on...5 maybe? 6? I am on vacation and have not weighed in, although I did step on my parent's scale this morning and saw it read 180 exactly. hmm. I think I'll wait til I get back to my Wii before I pass judgment (though I have no doubt it is pretty close to accurate).

I appreciate a question a friend texted me before we left - What plans do I have to maintain my eating/exercise habits while on vacation? This simple query has kept me mindful of my goals over these lazy days. So, here is what I've done: Eat a lot of birthday cake, peanut M&Ms, Chickfila, and Tex-Mex. YUMMINESS! But, I have been exercising! Before I left I committed to a 28 day boot camp challenge through spark people to do a 10 min toning/strength training video 7 days a week. Last week was week 4 though I didn't complete it because I have been running three times a week and was worn out. I met a friend for lunch soon after arriving home, and she shared that her nephew signed the two of them up for a 5K in Sept and just started training. I told her that I'd started that too and didn't follow through so I'd be willing to train with her. Mon will be Week 3 for us of the Couch to 5K. I *hate* running for more than 60 seconds, but I feel so good the rest of the day. I hope that I can keep it up while we travel and then when we get home. This program will actually have me running the entire 5K not just a walk/run which would be amazing.

Summer Challenge Weigh in

Week 3: 174.6 
Week 2: 175.9 
Week 1: 176.6

Dose of reality

Well, after feeling like the Living Lean wasn't applying to much to me because I'd not had any binges in that first week, I have made up for it this week. It is really hard to maintain a healthy diet on the road. We road-tripped to VA for the 4th of July, and despite staying in a hotel with a kitchenette, it had no dishes so  preparing our own meals wasn't really an option. Pizza, tacos, hamburgers, and theme park food were on the menu. Traveling down went pretty well food wise. I packed a lot of veggies and two trail mix bags, as well as home made granola bars. I paced myself with the trail mix and the veggies helped keep me awake in between. Coming home was a different story. I was really tired and it was hot (car a/c is out). I ate to stay awake. We had pizza to eat too so that it wouldn't go bad. Ugh. Thankfully today was fast Sunday so at least I had some caloric intake limit. Though we took dinner to the missionaries and made no bake cookies for them. I think I had 3 or 4 cookies on an empty stomach before we made it out the door to deliver the goods. The little voice in my head reminding me that I have a choice was quiet today - until after I ate and then I was able to listen to it much better.

We didn't make our run goal this week either though before we left on Wed my legs were itching to  do the run. By the end of our journey they were barely walking. But, we did make up for it with swimming and a trip to Busch Gardens aka cross training ;) Tomorrow the boys start camps at 9 am, so we will have to run early. I think we will re-do last week's since we didn't finish it out. I am feeling a little rumbly in my tummy too though so hopefully I can feel good enough to run.

Tomorrow is weigh in day. I am curious if there has been any changes. I think one of the points I wanted to make with my last post is that I am not necessarily interested in counting calories, but just eating a more balanced diet/healthier choices in general accompanied with exercise. If I can keep the binges under control, I think I will have a pretty good chance at successfully dropping the excess weight.

Where I am - Week 1 weigh in as well

While trying to figure out if I qualify for military benefits through the YMCA, I discovered a program on Military One Source called Living Lean. Is it an 12 session program designed to help you break the addiction of binging, overeating, etc aka munching. I am behind on the calendar, but for the most part I have found the tidbits I am getting are helpful. I was proud of myself yesterday when putting the chocolate chips in the pancakes that I didn't grab a handful for my mouth in the process of putting them away. I used my sentence for the week: 'I want to eat __________ and the choice is up to me.' I was able to choose not eat them.

For the most I haven't had much temptation to munch, but I've become aware of the nibbling I do while I prepare meals and also the times I want to eat because I am avoiding something that needs to be done instead. Right now I want to make the blueberry zucchini bread I've been planning to make since last Thurs because it sounds so good. I am craving it. The program says telling myself that I can't have it gives my power away. Instead I should rephrase it, I want to eat __________ and I have a choice. I can choose to live lardy or to live lean.  "My purpose for taking this program is to be continually in the vision of the benefits of Living Lean and to transform my relationship with food and eating so that Living Lean becomes a natural way of living." 

In my summer reboot, the boys said they wanted to exercise with me. Well, Jared said he did but Aaron has to go along with it because he can't stay home by himself. Together we are working on the 5 week to 5K rookie run/walk program. We are on day 4. For the last two days the boys have ridden their scooters in the process while I walked and ran. I figure that is fine because they are still getting their exercise. Today was the first time that Aaron didn't give up and complain about how tired his legs were. He actually woke up at 5 am to go potty. I woke Jared up to go potty too and went back to my room. The sun rises about 5:30 so it was starting to get light out and the birds were waking up. I decided it would be a great time to run and went back to the boys' room. No surprise, they were both sitting in their beds wide awake. As soon as I opened the door Aaron said, it's morning! The birds are awake. I made the proposal for doing our run, they both whole heartedly agreed. It has made for a long day, but I think we'll finally make it to bed on time and the run was great. We all had great energy. It turns out it was a good thing we went to because it has rained the rest of the day.

We've strived for cross-training on our off days. I am grateful we chose the community with a pool because it is well utelized. I had no idea swimming would be so hard on my abs :p They are SO sore. I am not sure if it was the exercises I did on the Wii Fit or the swimming or a combination of both. This was Thurs and today they are finally not so bruised and sore feeling. We went to the pool Saturday and I couldn't believe how hard it was to float because my muscles were so achey. I didn't realize I had even used them to do that. If I can just keep it up all summer, I should be in pretty great shape by Labor Day when the pool closes.

One of the ideas I've been toying with is the raw food movement. We joined the CSA (crop share association) with the farm across the street and have so many fresh vegetables coming in weekly that I needed a way to consume them all. Juicing has been something I've been thinking about anyway, and figured if I have the resources coming in to do it, now is the time. With a little research I came across Rebootwithjoe.com. He has free meal plans ranging from 3 days to 15 days.   Today is the first day that I've really tried to follow it though not strictly. For the last two weeks I've made a green smoothie every day using the kale, collard greens, and kohlrabi leaves from the farm. I guess you could say I am leaning more toward the 'natural' side of things. EX I bought mayo over the other options because it was the most natural state despite being higher in calories and fat. I had been making my smoothies using protein powder and got to thinking that eggs might be a better option. So, I've been adding an egg or two depending on if I am sharing with the boys. It adds a lot of good flavor. Returning to my morning green smoothie has helped me feel a lot better. My skin even seems to be improving. My normal state of acne seems to be clearing - not completely, but I had some pretty large cyst starts going on. I also happened to quit using my lotion on it so that helps too I'm sure. But I feel like there is a healthier look to it all around. Jared seems to enjoy them as well.

So for today's menu, Joe's plan had a berry apple cinnamon bake for breakfast and a carrot apple ginger juice for a snack. Well, the bake takes 45 minutes so i made the juice (smoothie) for breakfast after we got back from the run and did the bake for a snack. It really satisfied that need for warm food. Lunch was a salad and sweet potato fries. I had also heated a pepperoni ham & cheese stromboli from the freezer but it had to cook longer than we thought so by the time it came out of the oven I was feeling rather full. I ate it anyway (power give away?) and felt stuffed. I found myself feeling muncher a little bit later because I was wondering what to do with the boys. Well, they've spent the last 2 hours downstairs on the computer while I've been upstairs on mine. Great family togetherness though in my defense, we've been doing stuff together since 5 am and Aaron wanted to fall asleep at 3:30. This way he is certainly staying awake :p

I like how many fresh fruits and vegetables I - we- are getting right now, but I don't know how sustainable it is long term. Some of my recipes have been a hit (no roll rolled cabbage) and some were a one hit wonder (stuffed quinoa and veggie peppers). With Matthew not helping us eat dinner, there are a LOT of leftovers to go through.

**********

lost my train of thought due to a telephone call. So for now, here is my weigh in

176.6 (down .4 from last week when I weighed)

Living Lean - Session I

• Record at least five instances when you chose to BINGE or EAT your primary or secondary C/O (Main Munches) over the last few days, and figure out why you consumed them at those times.

Situation                                            Item(s)                                     Why you ate them

1) dinnner                                        pancakes                               they tasted really good

2) dinner                                          pizza                           I didn't want them to go to waste

3) 

4)

5)

Write your #1 benefit 10 times in a complete sentence beginning with "I want and deserve to":

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

I want and deserve to have control over my body and enjoy the energy to play with my kids.

What are six ways you gave your power away? 

1)  

Living Lean - Intro & Orientation

Write down five things you don't like about being overweight, or about being a compulsive eater:

1) Don't fit in my clothes
2) Don't like the way my arms flap
3) Feel sluggish
4) Feel weak
5) Don't like that I can't stop myself.

Write down five things you would like about Living Lean naturally:

1) healthier
2) have more energy
3) control over mind and body
4) feel good
5) fit into clothes

Identify 5 addictive foods, and/or relationships with food and eating, that may contribute to you being overweight, frustrated, or unhealthy:

1) When I feel anxious or stressed I will eat anything that I see looks good at the moment until it is gone.
2) cow tails
3) pizza
4) 

Five consequences of being a Muncher I am clear I no longer want are:

1) guilt
2) extra weight
3) lack of control
4) 
5)

Five benefits of being an Ex-Muncher (Living Lean) I am clear I want are:

1) health
2) control over my eating habits - the anxieties, stress, etc induced eating
3) lose weight
4) fit into clothes
5)

In my reboot for health, I am including daily scripture study for my spiritual health. It has been months since I have read my scriptures daily. I think this is the longest I have gone without that habit (it has been months) since I was challenged to read every day as a freshman in high school. I decided that today I would read for the Sunday School lesson since I don't get to attend it due to my calling in Primary. Ironically, the lesson is on the Word of Wisdom. I have been thinking about changing my diet to reflect more natural foods, so for today's reading to be about keeping the body healthy, it is fitting and another indication that the Lord knows me and hasn't given up on me yet even when I have been neglectful of him.

On the Road Again

Now that summer is officially here, Matthew is off to his paralegal training, and we are more settled, I am ready to get back on the wagon. I have had 3 months to eat and veg and gain fat in my tummy, bum, and thighs. It is time to say goodbye to it and the anxiety that has gripped me. Starting tomorrow, the boys and I are going to begin the 5K 5 week rookie training program again. We'll see how that goes because I think Aaron may slow me down, but I think Jared will be a great motivator.

I checked out a Get Fit America video for kids from the library. It is a mix of tai chi and yoga. The moves were simple enough, but I couldn't believe how sore I was today from doing it yesterday morning. Despite all the boxes and furniture I have moved in the last month, my muscles have been on easy street. I actually dread the effort I will need to put forth in the coming days, but I look forward to feeling strong and fit.

See Food Diet

Yesterday I ate a candy bar, finished off a bag of gum drops, ate an ice cream sandwich, three sandwiches at lunch, and much more. Anxiety has wrapped its claws around my will power and strangling it.

Bridge

My record keeping is seriously lacking though I think of tidbits to post and share quite often. We have been busy moving into a new location and though we are far from settled, we are enjoying ourselves in the new space.

May was an important and busy month not just because of the moving, but we also hosted guests every week. Dad came for Jared's chorus concert on the 8th, Mom came for a few days starting the 13th, and Matthew's mom joined us the 21st and just barely flew home on the 6th. It was wonderful to have family with us and both moms were a really big help with the moving process.

Matthew's drill weekend fell while Mom was here and we were able to witness a change of command ceremony for a 2 star general. It was really interesting - and a blessing because it gave Matthew an extra two weeks to prepare for his PT test. The next drill weekend occurred the 1st and 2nd of June along with the PT test that would make or break our future. I headed to Maryland with Matthew's mom and the boys to attend a Bar Mitzvah celebration and prayed hard for Matthew's success. Happily, Matthew successfully completed his run and earned the right to attend paralegal school this summer. YAY! I am so proud of him and excited that he finally gets to fulfill his dreams.

First Cry

We introduced the boys to the movie Where the Red Fern Grows tonight for our family time. I thought they could identify with the main characters longing and love for his dogs. In the scene where Billy goes to hunt the ghost coon and the neighbor boys start fighting him because their dog Blue gets in a fight with Dan, Aaron said Use the ax! When the boy then gets killed by the ax as he trips, it was a wake up call that they really are dangerous and cause harm. I was surprised (and grateful) at Aaron's look of horror that the ax was a really bad idea. The best part came though at the end when Dan dies. Aaron had tears running down his face because the dog died. He told me it was a really sad movie. I was touched at the emotions it evoked in him. It is common to see him laugh or be scared, but sadness is not a feeling he expresses much. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour, but I think the story touched him.

Answers

Over the last few weeks, my personal spiritual habits have slowly slipped much the same as my physical health habits. As one who has always made my relationship with the Savior a top priority, I miss Him and the influence of the Spirit. As I knelt in humble prayer this morning and then opened the scriptures, the Lord spoke to me in these verses - especially 31. I am grateful for His love and patience with me.

"31 And ^aawake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of ^bZion; and^cstrengthen thy ^dstakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest ^eno more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.

 32 Yea, ^acome unto Christ, and be ^bperfected in him, and ^cdeny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and ^dlove God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be^eperfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye ^asanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the ^bblood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your ^csins, that ye become ^dholy, without spot." ~Moroni 10

April weigh in

180 something.

Yep. That's what happens when I don't exercise for two weeks and hormones and pain invade and self controls fades. I've been feeling flabbier, but I was a little surprised that I'd gained THAT much. My body is all out of whack right now and I am not sure what end is up. I'm not sure it does either. I guess there is a reason there is a general feeling that it is harder for a body to bounce back the older it gets.

I will probably repeat myself because the brain is a bit foggy these days too, but I was diagnosed with "eustachian tube dysfunction" last Friday when I went to the doctor after spending days in pain. She looked in my ear and said, "You have bubbles in your ear!" ?!?!?! Apparently the tube in my right ear quit opening and closing the way it was supposed to to drain the fluid and bubbles were created. I am now on a nasal steroid as well as a regiment of ibuprofen and tylenol to keep the pain at bay. I had been alternating them about every 3 hours, but today I could go longer so I assume this is progress. On the other side though, I am feeling more congested in my sinuses than I did last week. So either the fluid is draining from my ear and filling my sinuses, or the congestion is a gift from this beautiful land of cherry blossoms.

Uh.. yeah... about that.....

Well so much for my lofty plans for a routine. I did the treadmill Tues and that was it. Yesterday I did go to the park with Aaron and play ball a little bit, but really it hardly counts as exercise. On the flip side, I have been keeping my eating within my limits so that is something.

I have been dealing with an earache since Sunday afternoon and it is unpleasant to say the least. I am ready for it to be over. I think this is my personal record for popping pills. Natural childbirth has been a better experience. I can relax through a contraction but not the stabbing pain in my ear, neck, and face. The doctor labeled it as swimmer's ear and gave me ear drops with antibiotics to use for 7 days along with 400 mg of Motrin every 6 hours. The motrin gives out after about 5 hours and takes a good 30-45 minutes to kick in. This is day 4 of the drops. The evenings between 5 and 7 tend to hurt the worst, but I feel leaking in my ear then too so I am thinking it is my body really working on getting this thing licked. Maybe I am having contractions in my ear....

Last night I got a womanly surprise, and I have decided that between all the interesting things my body is doing I am just going to be a bum this week. I had lofty plans, but they will just have to be postponed to next week.

Oh, on a side note... spring has sprung. I have worn shorts twice this week because I hadn't done laundry yet to wash all my jeans and it was warm enough that I'd really have preferred the shorts anyway. I still have some room to shrink, but they weren't so tight it was embarrassing. This is good. (Shorts should have been motivating, but they just weren't quite enough).

Reflections...

I have made a loaded (LOTS of spinach and kale along with my fruit) green smoothie every day this week and have been impressed with how filling it has ended up being. I feel like I must be forgetting to add things to my food diary because I have so many calories left at dinner time. In fact, Wed I had well over 1000 calories so we went to a really good Chinese buffet for dinner. I am sure I went over my calories, but when we got home we did danced so we worked some of them off again ;) I tried to make some really healthy choices (like salmon) and veggies (though they were loaded with butter :P). I knew I was full by the end of my first plate, but when you're paying $14 to eat, I feel obligated to go back more than once.

Yesterday I opted to hit the treadmill for a quick workout in order to make it to a 10 am appointment. I was quite sore from the CardioX of the day before. I did the 4 mph program and was proud of myself because I made it through 3 minutes at the steep incline before I had to lower it during the run part.  Last time I lowered it at each 2 min interval. Once again I had 1000 calories left at dinner. We ended up having pizza but I ate a large salad before I dug into the pizza so I had one less slice than I thought I would.

Today I did not really feel like exercising.My muscles are still sore from my workouts earlier in the week and I was super tired, but I put on CardioX and did it anyway. I know that the areas that bother me the most won't change unless I do CardioX regularly. The program works and I feel good when I do it. I had to laugh at myself because the whole time I'd think, oh I'll just do this segment and then turn it off. Oh wait, I like this one. I'll do it and then I can turn it off - until there was only 10 minutes left and at that point it's to the core exercises which I really need and I might as well finish it.

I need to figure out an exercise routine so that every day I don't have to decide what I will choose for exercise. I think I may be more likely to end up quitting if I do. I am starting to think about how much time is invested in the exercise too which tends to put a damper on my motivation. I would like to do CardioX at least twice a week, but I enjoy the dancing too. Tues and Thurs I don't have as much time in the mornings so it would  make sense to make them treadmill days. So I am thinking maybe this schedule:

Mon - CardioX
Tues - treadmill
Wed - Just Dance
Thurs - treadmill (or walk outside)
Fri- CardioX

Maybe I'll try that next week and see how I like it.

April Challenge: Week 1 Weigh in

173.3

I think I need to get a real scale. And a heart rate monitor.

I am sore in my arms and calves from dancing yesterday. YAY! My core could really use some work which makes me lean toward doing CardioX today, but I am having a hard time talking myself into it....

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Just finished CardioX. I am impressed. It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be even with being sore!  Apparently I have built up some muscles after all :) I even did the yoga better than usual. I can already feel it in my stomach so I know I will be paying for it later today and tomorrow! But yay for following through!

Eating and Just Dancing

Back to the grind.

Today I debated between the treadmill, CardioX, or Just Dance. Just Dance won because I wanted to play all by myself without having to take the boys in to account. We discovered with JD4 that there are 4 different sweet modes. We played 10 minutes of almost all of them, but today I opted for the 45 min of the kickboxing version. I remembered how much I enjoy kickboxing and would really rather have done a full 45 min just of that! Unlike the previous versions of JD, 4 counts calories as opposed to sweat points. At the end of my session it registered only 117 calories burned :/ I think I need to invest in a heart monitor if I am going to continue doing JD for my exercise so I can have a more accurate count.

Despite the low calorie burn, I think I played the day well. We just finished up dinner and this is what my numbers look like:

Pretty awesome! I've hit all my goals and still have carbs and fat to go! What's the difference?

I started my day with a chocolate strawberry, banana, pineapple green smoothie. Totally loaded it up on the kale and spinach and didn't eat anything else until lunch which was yummy leftover beef stirfry. I felt like I was snacking often today, but apparently it wasn't as bad as I thought or maybe I just didn't account for it well enough :P Dinner was a baked sweet potato, green salad and tuna on crackers. I was surprised at how full I felt afterwards too. Now if only I could keep it up!

I was looking through the message board on MFP and an April weight loss challenge caught my eye. Many of the goals were to lose 5 pounds.  I got to thinking about this and realized that 5 pounds is totally doable. If I lost 5 pounds every month for the next 3 months, by the end of June I'd be really close to my goal weight!! The question is if I am dedicated enough. I think I really need to pull out the CardioX and use it consistently. I loved the way it made me feel and it works. But it is hard work.

On a side note, my food processor isn't working :( I made some delicious almond butter the other day and was wanting to make more when I discovered it is broken. WAH!

Spring Break

My body says I have done a good job staying active while the boys are out for Spring Break. I didn't even feel up to dancing very much today because my muscles, especially my legs, are sore and tired. We have danced together just about every day this week for at least an hour. It makes me smile when they ask if they can dance :) I was tricky and the other day I told them they have to dance with me before they could play any other Wii game. They decided they had so much fun that they don't even ask to play the other games right now. Score! It is nice to have a game that I like to play too so we can do it together. Matthew plays Star Wars with them, and I dance :) Win-win.

So, here's a run-down of our activities this week and how it counted for exercise:

Mon, eh sick in bed

Tues - Had scripture class in the morning, went to Chickfila for lunch (boys played on playground for 2 hours), then danced for a couple of hours in the afternoon/evening

Wed - Explored a local park. We were supposed to go on one of the trails, but we basically made it from one playground to another via the lake's boathouse and back. There was a nice path around the playground, so I walked in circles for 45 minutes while the boys played. I did 8 laps with lap 4 being a run around (a good explanation for the sore muscles). It was really a great path because it had slopes and everything so I got a good variation of terrain. Planned on dancing when we got home but didn't have the opportunity.

Thurs - Explored the Planetarium and State Museum. Lots of stairs and walking, even if it was walking slowly. There was a 9/11 Memorial on one of the levels. I was surprised at how much emotion it evoked in me as I explained the displays to the boys. Came home and danced.

Fri - Cleaned out the car and spent majority of the afternoon stuck in traffic as we drove a friend to the airport. The boys danced for almost two hours, but I only jumped in the last 30 minutes or so. Like I said, I was tired.

Sat - Headed to a farm to collect eggs and grind feed!! I think there will be a lot of walking on the agenda as well ;) Very excited for this experience! I found out about another farm that has walking trails and allows interaction with their barnyard animals during their open hours. Love that it is closer and FREE! The one we are going to tomorrow is free as well, but it is further away so there is cost in gas. I think we may explore the closer farm on Monday :D

Week 12 Weigh in - End of Contest

Starting weight - 184
Final weight - 171.5

Can't believe it! Well, I can all things considered. I am just surprised it dropped that much between Sunday and today. I look forward to the next 5 weeks (just going to take this one month at a time in case I get any more surprises :P) I am feeling pumped now :)

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ETA:

I think if I can lose another 10 pounds, I could fit back into my shorts comfortably. I finally decided that I am ok with the longer winter because it gives me more time to work on fitting into my summer clothes :D

Final Days

Tomorrow is the final weigh in for this year's Lettuce Eat Cake contest. I would say this has been quite the roller coaster year as my weight has bounced around over the last three months. I weighed  myself on Sunday because I felt like I was actually getting bigger than the week before which I found odd considering some other issues I had going on. Sure enough, my weight had jumped up to 175.9.

I have been dealing with an off and on painful health issue for the last two weeks. Saturday was a good day though and we headed to New York to explore China Town and Little Italy. We spent a good four hours of walking, and I enjoyed all the calories I ate to make up for it :) Sunday was a really painful day and it spilled over on to Monday (yesterday) so I spent most of the day in bed though I did manage to get the boys to clean their rooms and dinner made (even if it was 7:30 pm when it got to the table). I was grateful that I woke up feeling pretty good this morning. I could feel my head starting to hurt but I decided to take an acetaminophen and plow through the day because I had high hopes for a fun day with the boys!! For the most part it worked out well. We had to postpone our trip to the planetarium but we came home and Just Danced together. They gave out before me because they'd played for two hours at the Chickfila playground for two hours, but I managed to dance for an hour. Chickfila ate up a lot of my calories, so the dancing was a must so I can eat something besides salad for dinner :)

While looking in the mirror at Chickfila I noticed that my legs were looking thinner. I know that weight wise there really hasn't been much improvement over the last 12 weeks, but as for overall health, I think I have made a lot of positive strides. I have debated about giving up at the end of the contest, but today, I see value in continuing the journey.

Kitchen Escapades - Pizza

So after a great first day back on 1500 calories, I've managed to go over every day since :/ Tonight we had a movie night so I spent the day in the kitchen preparing for a homemade pizza party for dinner - besides baking bread for the week. Standing in the kitchen for hours and kneading dough should count as some exercise, right? I did Just Dance this morning for about 30 minutes and only burned 178 calories. Fun, but not the most bang for my buck. But I digress....

Twice now I have used this pizza dough recipe. The first time I made it, I thought I overworked the dough and stuck it in the fridge for later. I was really skeptical about it, but once I took it out of the fridge and started working with it, I discovered it was actually a really good dough and a great one to work with once it warmed back up. Pretty forgiving. I used it to make the Pioneer Woman's easy calzones which turned out really yummy (except Aaron didn't like them. He prefers regular pizza.) Though I used white sugar the first time I made the dough, this time I used honey. Calorie wise, sugar was the better way to go (for future reference).

I got 14 large calzones out of the dough. As far as actual pizza dough, it could make two large pizzas or be divided up into smaller ones. We decided to each make our own pizzas, so we ended up with 4 smaller dough balls and two medium sized (put in the freezer for another time). Aaron wanted to use the cookie cutters today, so he made a bunch of little pizzas shaped like Christmas cookies while Jared created the Millenium Falcon. I had a regular round thin crusted Hawaiian BBQ pizza with cilantro, and Matthew had a thick crusted face. It was great fun.

The best part came AFTER the pizza though - dessert. To go along with the pizza theme, I decided it would be nice to do a fruit pizza. I knew the basic concept, but googled for some recipes to nail down the concept and decided on this one for the cream cheese topping because I had all the ingredients. The cookie part seemed simple enough too but I opted to go with a ChocolateCoveredKatie grain free sugar cookie recipe instead. Per a commentor's suggestion from the allrecipes recipe, I used our frozen fruit and added some cream of tartar to thicken the juice as it thawed. Oh. My. Goodness!! It was SO delicous!!!! All 446 calories of it :P (Is it any wonder how I ended up 469 calories over tonight?!)

Here is the ingredient list for CCK's cookie:

• 1 cup finely-ground almond meal (also known as almond flour.) (75g)
• a little over 1/8 tsp salt (1/8 plus 1/16 tsp)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup, or stevia to taste (For substitutions, see nutrition link below.) (30g)
• 1 1/2 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil (15g)
• For maple syrup version: up to 2 level teaspoons milk of choice or extra oil, as needed (5-10g). For stevia version: 1 tbsp milk of choice, added with the liquid ingredients. (15g)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• optional: pure almond extract

What I did:

- Ground up 1 cup of almonds in the food processor, then measured out 1 cup of the meal. Followed the rest of the ingredient list subbing honey for the maple syrup, added 1 tsp of almond extract, and then misread the milk part and added 2 TABLESPOONS!! oops!!! Way too wet at that point, so I added in the rest of the almond meal, about 1/4 cup of white flour, then added an extra 1/8 tsp of salt and baking soda - essentially doubling the recipe for the dry ingredients. It was still sticky, but it was much closer to what I thought the consistency should be at that point so I followed through on the rest of the instructions and it worked!! It was the best dessert I've eaten in a long time!!

Cream Cheese Frosting: (I halved the recipe)

4 oz 1/3 fat cream cheese

1/4 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Blueberry Muffin and Lemon Cake for One

Blueberry Muffin for One and Lemon Cake
courtesy of chocolatecoveredkatie.com

As I've been trolling the CCK blog, I decided to make her cupcakes/muffins for breakfast. The boys both chose the lemon flavor and I went with the blueberry. She gives directions for baking them in the oven, but I was in a hurry and used the microwave instead. I cooked them each for one minute. Because mine used frozen blueberries I ended up adding an extra 10-15 seconds (don't remember). From my previous experience with minute muffins, if you put them in too long they turn hard. Apparently the longer these set out while the boys picked at them, the harder they got.

Aaron liked his and Jared said it tasted funny. I used olive oil in theirs and it was easily recognizable by my buds so I told them that's what it was. Jared did say it tasted lemony though. Mine wasn't bad. I subbed regular butter for the oil hoping for a better flavor. It worked, but when I inputted it in MFP I was shocked to see that 1 TB was 100 calories!!! YIKES! This seemingly innocent muffin turned into a 236 calorie breakfast besides the milk to drink it down. I played around just now with some of the oil options and olive oil would have been 120 calories so I definitely got the better deal with the butter. My best bet would have subbed half of it with applesauce (which is how I made Matthew's but it didn't rise as much).

The recipe is easy enough that I will have to play around with it a bit and see what I can do to slim it down more and further 'healthify' it. In the meantime, here's the link to all of her single serving muffin/cupcakes.

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As a side note, today I am feeling the 4 mph program I did yesterday. My legs haven't felt this sore for weeks when I quit running as much and mostly walked for long stretches of time for my exercise. It is nice to feel like I worked out yesterday not just be tired. Today I plan to do Chicken Fat to get some calisthenics in and see if we can't begin to get this core back in shape now that I have no physical limitations.

Food intake update

Maybe I'll survive the calorie change after all :) We even ate out for dinner! Although you'll notice I didn't make the iron :/

Quinoa Blueberry Muffin

Quinoa Blueberry Muffin
courtesy of Hillbillyhousewife.com

Quinoa Muffins

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cook the quinoa in a cup of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. You will end up with 2 cups of cooked quinoa. Set it aside to cool.

In the meantime combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the quinoa and stir until you have it worked into the flour mixture.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a cup or small bowl, then pour them into the flour / quinoa mixture. Stir it just until everything is combined.

Spray a regular sized 12 cup muffin pan with nonstick spray. Scoop the batter into the tins. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 25 minutes.

Quinoa Muffin Variations

Here are a couple of “

add-on” ideas for these rather plain quinoa muffins. Incorporate those ingredients with the quinoa into the flour mixture, then proceed as mentioned above.

• 1/2 cup of raisins
• 1/2 cup of chopped dried dates
• 1/4 cup of dried apricots and 1/4 cup of chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup of chopped apple pieces and a good dash of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of apple finely chopped apple or raisins and 1/4 cup chopped walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup mashed banana and 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup fresh, frozen or dried blueberries

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LOVE these! They make such a great quick snack. I used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose flour so they were pretty dense and didn't raise much. I made them twice and both times I ended up with 22 muffins. Here is the nutritional info for mine:

Calories: 107

Carbs: 16

Fat: 3

Protein: 3

Fiber: 1

Iron: 4

Cheesy Quinoa Mac N Cheese

Quinoa Mac n Cheese
courtesy of http://aroundthetableri.blogspot.com

Serving Size: 8

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
• Veggies of your choice (optional)
• good pinch of salt
• a few grinds of seasoning salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup soy milk or non-fat milk
• 1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, more for sprinkling
• Optional- Crushed Red Pepper, Panko Bread crumbs for topping
• Toppings (optional)- salsa, hot sauce, sour cream, scallions

I went through a quinoa phase in February and this is one of the recipes I tried. Since most of my experience with mac n cheese is the boxed kind, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. This certainly got mixed reviews. Matthew and Aaron could leave it, but Jared really liked it as did I though as leftovers it took me a few days to be willing to eat it again. I have realized I really don't care for the texture of quinoa except in breads. It has a distinctive flavor too that I am not all too fond of. Since I added garlic to the water the quinoa was cooked in, it absorbed that flavor and really added a nice touch to the overall dish. 

My variation: added 2 oz of cream cheese to enhance the creaminess as suggested by a commenter on the original blog post and bread crumbs for the topping.

Week 11 Weigh in

Weigh in - 174.6

Well, all things considering, not a bad gain. I've adjusted my goals again and only have 1490 calories compared to the 1700 I had before. This is definitely going to take some forethought and effort :P

Back in Action

After not exercising since the 11th and then spending most of the week/end in bed, I finally got back on board yesterday. I felt pretty good and decided with only 2 weeks left of the contest and all the binge-ing I did to feed my emotions, I couldn't delay getting back on the treadmill. I am hoping that I'll be ready to start CardioX again next week. Thurs when I was being productive I tackled some sore spots in our room that will make it easier to exercise in there again.

It was probably a mistake to make all those 'healthy' desserts because they were still full of sugar. It got me back in the habit of eating sweets so now I am needing a fix but trying to abstain. I may have to let a chocolate smoothie satisfy my craving.