Friday Smack Down

So yeah I gained 1.8 so yeah. Can you say I'm a bit frustrated? I am following the program what is the deal? I am getting a visit from Aunt Flo so maybe that is it, I was super emo this week so maybe thats it? I don't know but I'm resolved not to quit this thing. The hubs is going to keep me accountable maybe I got off track and haven't been writing things down; I asked him to remind me to count what I'm eating and also measure things out this week. I have a goal before me and I will not, cannot quit. Back to the beginning, need to learn to be healthy and relearn and relearn. I just wish it wasn't this hard and bad weeks didn't coincide with emo weeks.
On a good note Mama K and I went to Yoga last night, it was my first time ever and I liked it. I could do some poses and I couldn't do others, I'm going to practice at home for things I was having problems with and then we're going back Saturday. I sat next to two lady's that couldn't stop laughing and I was proud of myself for not joining in, I think I'm maturing or something. When I got home I was checking to see if my super flexi hubs (he's a hockey goalie) could do the poses that I couldn't but he wasn't able to as well. I took hope in his inability that we both can do those at some point. I'm excited to have something new like this to try.

I'm sorry arteries

Lookey lookey at a picture I found on serious eats

I'm thinking next superbowl, we make these and fill them with bacon.
Yum.

Febreeze-in cocktail form

So I was reading Mama K's blog about green cleaning and using vodka to disinfect your couches and such, so I figured I would try it last night. The hubs looked visibly quizzical as I poured our good vodka into a spray bottle and added some essential oils. I would be curious to see what he actually thought I was going to do with it. Like maybe lay on the floor and spray it up in the air and try to catch all the dropules, yes I said dropules, in my mouth. Needless to say he wasn't too sure when I started spraying the booze on the couch. Seems to work I guess, I stuck my nose farther into my couch than I ever have before to see if it "smelled". It passed the test. I don't think I'm going to "test" it anymore seeing as most time its a butt receptacle.
The end.

Domestic Domination-Baking Bread

So I decided my next step in Domestic Domination was to bake my own bread, thats right bread. I was scared, the yeast is what gave me the most fear. What is this reaction it does, will it work, will I be able to stand the waiting, oh the waiting. Since I'm a glutton for punishment I did this during kitchen remodel '08-painting phase; everything that could be moved into the middle of the floor has been, spackle covered what used to be hideous wallpaper, my spice rack was taken down and the contents spread on the counters. I was fighting nature here. I took out my trusty tool, my Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook and faced the bread baking demon that has been laughing at me behind my back, mocking me that I've been buying our bread from the store, the freezer section even. I took action and opened my cookbook, to my suprise it didn't look as hard as I was imagining. For some reason I was thinking you needed a third hand to bake bread correctly. To my suprise you needed only 1 Tbsp active dry yeast, 3 cups water, 1 1/2 tsp salt and about 6.5-7.5 cups of flour. I took that dry yeast and mixed it with a quarter cup of warm water (think baby formula), I watched it for awhile as the mixture became creamy and developed a nice bready smell. From there I added the salt and the rest of the water. This is where I turned on the bread hook as I added cup after cup of flour (alternating between whole wheat and white with each cup). When I got to about 6 cups I realized it was looking like bread dough, I added another 1/2 cup just to show it who was boss. I took it out of the mixer and kneaded it a little with my hands to make sure it was good and ready. At this point I threw in some rosemary, garlic powder and oregano, cause I'm fancy like that. I cleaned out the mixer bowl and buttered the sides, from there I put the dough back in and placed covered in a warm oven (but not turned on). I let it rise for about 3 hours till it doubled in size, then beat it down a little bit more. It needed to get taken down a notch so I separated it into two and formed those two pieces into a loaf shape. I put the loaves in bread pans that were coated with olive oil and let them rise for another 45 minutes, then baked them for 40 at 350 degrees.
At the end of the day, I surpassed all of the challenges and tasted some of the best bread I've ever had. A nice hearty crunchy crust and a nice soft inside with just a hint of a rosemary flavor. Oh this is good, real good.
I'm on top of the world but without pictures.

Friday Smack Down!!!!

So this Sat, the hubs and I went to Melting Pot to celebrate Valentines Day. Yes, I think it is a lame holiday that people made up but I do love celebrating anything and it gives us a good reason to go to Melting Pot. The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant that is sooo good, usually we start off with some drinks, then move to the cheese fondue (with bread, apples and veggies as dippers), then comes the salad, followed by the meat course that you cook in a broth with tons of dipping sauces, all of this topped of by chocolate fondue with cheesecake, brownie bites, fruit and marshmallows as dippers. Yes, this is a Weight Watcher's worst nightmare. I was sweating this dinner because even with my weekly allowance of overage points that I'm allowed there is no way Melting Pot fits into the Weight Watchers guidelines. We went and had a lovely time, there is a new one down in Atlantic City that the set up is just lovely. We scored a VIP table which is in its own private room with its own door, it was so romantic being served in our own little room. So following this I tried to rectify the week by eating raw for breakfast and lunch and then basically did a vegetarian dinner exept for one night. I did eat all my points every day. I went to Weight Watchers last night and I'm down 1lb, I'd hate to think of the carnage that would have been if I didn't do a little damage control after Melting Pot. So I'm very happy with my 1 pound loss and now I'm at a respectable 15.6lbs gone total. This weight loss has been a little slower than I would like but I know I'm making very positive changes and cutting out things that just aren't good for me. When I lost weight before I ate lots of diet foods and just ate weird things, for example I would "save up" my points to eat out at a fast food place for a meal. This time I really feel like I am making life changes, I notice myself paying attention to what I eat and really attempting to eat the best I can for me. Eating lots of Organic fruits and Veggies, incorporating Legumes more into our day to day, cooking things from scratch without preservatives and harmful chemical additives. In general I feel like I'm making some life changes that will benefit my health and my future, when we do become parents this will help our kids have a healthy upbringing and prayerfully bring them up with a healthy relationship with food and nutrition.

Cool Pics of the Lunar Eclipse

So about 9:45 last night I realize, oh yeah we're having a lunar eclipse, so I called the hubs and we ran out to check it out. Then I realized that oh yeah I have a cool camera, let me take pictures. So I took a few and they were lackluster and then the hubs reminded me that I have a new telephoto lens so I ran inside and grabbed that to try it out. The pictures turned out neat, I think if it was not so cold I would have messed around with my camera's settings a little more but Dirkey was freezing her tucas off so this is what you get. Oh the thing off to the right was a really bright star.

Spaghetti squash goodness

Tonight we had a spaghetti squash and it was sooo good.
I cut it in half and scooped out the inards.
I cooked them turned upside down onto a tray and put in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
I took it out and kind of ran a fork on the inside to loosen up the squashy goodness.
I then topped with some spaghetti sauce, basil, oregano, garlic salt, onion powder, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and some spinach. Once its all doctored up I put back in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Soooooooo good :) Soooo sooo good

Raw Food Detox Diet Update

So this week we've been doing the raw food detox diet and I have noticed that the juice gives you alot more energy in the morning, so I think I definitely will continue with that. Some of the salad dressings are amazing too, albeit a little stinky with the raw garlic. It definitely cleans a girl out though, the other thing, which I'm not sure if its related to this or not. I fell asleep at 8:30 last night and slept through till 6 am today. Granted the night before I got a really crappy night of sleep but still that is unusual for me to sleep so long! I wonder if the detox diet is kind of kicking my body into doing what it needs to do. Schmoop and I also went on a nice walk after work and I'm starting to realize just how out of shape I am, so we are going to try to do this much more often than we do. Maybe before we eat dinner. Usually I'm starving by the time he gets home cause I get home two hours before him and I'm prepping dinner the whole time. I'm going to try to snack more when I get home like have a piece of toast or something thats more filling so I'm not soooo hungry when he walks in the door.
Anyway, I like how we are eating alot more fruits and veggies. I also like that all the calories and fat we are intaking are the good kind. Without any high fructose corn syrup or anything clogging us up.

By the way there is a link on the sidebar to Mama K's store Non-Toxic Tots.

Awesome in a camera

So my friends parents just found a camera I had lost and forgotten about in their house. I left it there about 4 years ago, so I was checking out the pictures and I found this gem...


My niece is and now pictures prove has always been; straight up sexy.

mmmm also found a picture of when I went to Serendipity in NYC with some friends.

If she jumped off a bridge..

Yeah I probably would too.
So Mama K was saying how great the whole Raw Foods Detox Diet was, so of course I had to jump on the bandwagon and drag my loving husband with me. :)
We spent a particularly disturbing amount of money on produce (I'm addicted to Whole Foods Produce, or as Mama K calls is Whole Paycheck), dusted off our Jack Lalaine Power Juicer and went to town. We had some warm ups on Sat and Sunday, we juiced both days in the morning and did salads for lunch with snacks of nuts, fruit, Lara Bars but we decided that we needed something to detox from. So we went to Melting Pot and filled ourselves with alcohol, cheese and chocolate and figured that would be a good jumping off point. Today was our first serious day on it and I juiced before I left the house and Schmoop is bringing salad up to my work for a romantic lunch together. I do notice that I feel better in the mornings the juice really does energize you. The only problemm is the amount of waking up that needs to be done to get to the juice. Schmoop was on schedule to play guitar at church so we needed to leave the house around 6:45 yesterday so I got up and went downstairs to start the juicer and forgot a vital part of the equation, my juicer has a pulp bucket. If you don't put it on I found out that the pulp just shoots out the back of the machine. Yes, I was on the second lemon when I figured that gem of knowledge out.

Friday Smack Down

So this week I stayed exactly the same. Looking back over the week I'm thinking that I may have picked and snacked some without adding it in. I'm going to make more of an effort to write everything in the planner. I do have a history of gaining in this week of the month so I'm not totally bummed about this, just a little worried as I'm going to the melting pot this weekend and its not really known for being ww friendly.
I'll just have to be extra good for the rest of the week.

Oh he's good

Last night he gave me this:

I laughed then we got down to business and had a tournament, I won't embarrass my love and tell you who won :)
Today I came downstairs and was greeted by this



and he really is, not the monkey, the schmoop

Then I came to work and got these

They are soo pretty!! I love me some flowers!
Complimented by a very sweet card and some chocolates.
I have it really good.
Man my masthead is soo true! :)
Happy Valentines Day!!!!

grr can't get my pictures to save right side up, so tilt your head :)

Wordless Wednesday-Cutie Patootie

Picture of Meggie taken by Dirkey on Feb 9th.

The Great Television Turn Off

So the hubs decided that this week we are not turning on the television. We're doing it old school and reading, listening to music and ****gasp**** talking. We both have things to study for, me for my Doula certification as I have my training class next week and he is studying for more networking certifications cause he's smart like that. Today is the first day and its a little weird. I'm a big background noise person, growing up in a large family you get used to living with a certain amount of insanity. So generally I will turn on the tv, radio and talk on the phone when I'm cooking dinner, its just whats normal to me. Not having that noise and commotion takes a little getting used to, it is nice though. We'll see if I can make it through the week without my smut. Now if he said no internet for the week, I think I would have started shaking and going into convulsions. :)
Take the challenge too, see if you can handle it. At least you know you won't miss any episodes of the office!

Friday Smack Down

So to those of you who are regular readers of my blog or know me in real life its no surprise that I struggle with my weight. Currently I am rather overweight but I'm working towards becoming healthier. Its hard to admit that as blatant as it is, because I have fought this weight thing and won before only to pack on the pounds again. Its also a bit disappointing to me looking back over the past few years and notice the weight fluctuations. I joined weight watchers again in December of this year, as this is the program that has worked for me before and that I can follow. I noticed when taking stock of failed attempts and gains that they happened when I wasn't accountable to anyone, so I've resolved to attend the meetings until I lose all my extra weight and to keep attending as a skinny me.
Schmoop has been wonderful in this and always asks how he can help me and what he can do. I simply told him that the best thing he can do is MAKE ME GO TO MEETINGS, complimenting when he sees improvement is always a help too. He is not my babysitter and doesn't need to monitor my intake or "remind" me that I'm on weight watchers, this is my job to get healthy, not his. For the record, he has never tried to do that and is wonderfully supportive just saying what is not a help for those wondering.
So I decided last night that a regular Friday feature on my blog is the Friday Smack Down. Thursday is my weight watchers meeting and the moment of truth with my little friend, the scale. So Friday is the perfect way to update you on the weeks progress and maybe show some pics.
So this week I lost 2.4, yes even with the Superbowl Bacon Fiasco '08 I still lost 2.4!!! I'm pretty happy about this and my total amount lost so far is 14.6lbs. Woot woot!

Tutu-Tacular!

My gorgeous niece Hannah is having a 3rd birthday very soon, and I was trying to think of something special to make her. Well I came up with 3 things; a scarf cause she loves playing with mine, a sock monkey because every child I know needs to have a one of these and finally a tutu cause she's just that type of girl. Hannah loves princesses and all things girlie so a tutu is just up her alley. I went to Mama K for directions because she is the queen of background researching and cause she had just made one for a little girl in her family; she gave me two this one and this one. Looking at both of the directions I realized how easy this tutu business is, the difficult part is cutting the tulle its like trying to wrestle a wet cat it kept sliding all over the place on me. I didn't really follow the directions (surprise surprise) and just kind of made things up as I went along but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. So happy I'm in the middle of making tutu's for Gracie and Meggie for Valentines Day.

Up close and personal so you can see the hot pink rinestones I put in it.
I sooo want to make one of these for me :)

Superbowl Party Food!

So you all know I had a little Superbowl shin-dig. You also know that the most important element to a Superbowl Party is the food.
I'm going to clue you in on what worked for us and what didn't.
As far as appetizers we had Chips, Pretzels, Tortilla's-worked
French Onion Dip, Veggie Dip-Worked

Football Cheese Dip Worked. This looked soo cute on my Football plate and got some good reviews on the taste as well.
Spinach and Artichoke Dip-Worked and was sooo good!!!
Homemade Salsa-DID NOT WORK-problem was I put everything in the food processor just mushy ingredients. I SHOULD have just finely chopped everything, live and learn.

Ham and Cheese Calzones-Worked was a modified version of this recipe

Asian Chicken Skewers-Worked (Just took Asian Salad Dressing and marinated chicken in it, cut into strips and put on skewers and grilled).

Jalapeno Poppers-Oh my gosh did these work. I think they are some type of aphrodisiac as well, sooo good. Mama K brought over the recipe and has it on her site.

Bacon/cheesey/cracker things-worked, another Mama K find. Are you noticing a trend here with Mama K's recipes??? Also sorry about the picture I didn't have any baked pictures of this yummie treat.
My Good friend Mel also brought over a yummie Mexican Layer Dip mmmm!!!!
My brother and his wife brought over a nice big salad
I also chopped up a bunch of veggies for a huge veggie tray-to try to dislodge some of the cholesterol from the rest of the food :)

For Dinner I served Chili, worked not many people seemed to hungry after all the apps. That is until the dessert.

For dessert we served

New York CheesecakeThis worked so yummie and creamy. Recipe read like a dream too, very easy to prepare this is the dessert that lead me to predict the New York Win. :)


Boston Cream Pie This did NOT WORK, I hated this recipe. I feel like I need to do it again just to do it right but me and this cake did not get along. I think I need to walk away from it for a few years and maybe try again.


My mom's Brownie/Ice Cream Cake-Boy did this work!!! Take brownies and bake in 9" rounds fill center with ice cream and ice with Chocolate Frosting. As you can see my mom was in denial that the Eagles were not in the Superbowl.


So yeah, Schmoop and I are on a Veggie and Fruit fast for the rest of the week to try and rid our bodies of all that bacony goodness :) Also we had a great time, its always nice to have friends and family over. We set up Rock Band in our Family Room and had the Superbowl going in the Living Room. Made for a fun party. :)

Superbowl

If only I was a betting woman.
You can always tell by the desserts. :)

My Superbowl Prediction

So you know I'm a HUGE sports fan and thats why I'm having people over tomorrow, ok ok or I just like having people over cause it gives me an excuse to cook and clean the house. Well in honor of the Giants Vs the Patriots I made a Boston Cream Pie (Boston=Patriots) and also a New York Cheesecake(Giants). Based upon what a pain in the butt the Boston Cream Pie was to make (all three components kicked my butt) and now it looks like a bunch of kindergarteners made it I predict that the Giants are going to win. The cheesecake looks so yummie... I'm sure the Boston Cream Pie tastes good, well maybe....