Bad Night, Wonderful Husband, Acai Juice, and Sushi

HAPPY TUESDAY!! : )

It's bright an early before work and I feel MUCH better than last night. As you can tell, I didn't blog yesterday because I worked late and then came home and was crabby all night. Ha, I don't know when it started or what set me off but I'm glad it's over. My poor husband! I was so emotional and extra hormonal and nothing could go right. I tried and tried to get over it and just be normal but it was hard. I could have cried all night for no reason at all. Anyone else ever have bad nights like this?? Thankfully, I have the best husband in the world and he was there for me even though I was being a very emotional girl that was impossible to deal with!Eventually, I just sat down, listened to soothing music, vented in a separate personal blog that I sometimes go to when I need to vent, and prayed. I get so caught up in my routine sometimes I forget to spend time where it's so important and then I have horrible nights like last night. Often times when I'm extra emotional (mostly due to a certain time where girl's typically get extra emotional;), I get really dumpy on myself and start telling myself how bad at everything I am, etc, though I know it's not true (sometimes I need to be reminded). So I vented and prayed and let me tell you, the Lord is good! He is where I find my identity, and with Him everything is ALWAYS going to be all right. He is my anchor, my hope, always there, always strong.

And now that that's all over, a few more V-day weekend highlights ... on Sunday morning we got up and worked our at the Gold's Gym across the street from our hotel. I had a very good workout and it felt good after all the food I at the night before!! Shortly after, I tried this acai juice with blueberry ... Yum! It was super good! My husband got some sushi, and I've never been a big sushi fan, but I'm still open to the idea. I tried his and I actually liked it. And after all that talk about my bad night last night, I've gotta go get ready for work. I still have one more restaurant I want to review from the weekend, so that'll come later : )

HAVE A GREAT TUESDAY!!

V-Day Weekend

Hey All!

We're back from our V-Day weekend and had a GREAT time. I wish the weekend could have been longer!! I'll try to get caught up with blog reading, etc soon but I'm afraid that won't happen tonight ... I've got too much to do to get ready for another week or work since I played hooky all weekend, haha. Thanks for all the comments, though ... you guys, as always, are the best!! : )

Quick V-Day Recap (well, maybe quick) ...

For dinner on Saturday night, we ate at the Eden Alley Cafe on the Plaza in KC. It's a vegetarian, mostly vegan restaurant that was really neat! On their website they say about themselves that they're "Local. Organic. Traditional. Vegetarian. Vegan. Raw. Gluten+Soy-Free." First, we started off with some bread and agave nectar butter.I had the spinach and mushroom loaf served with roasted sweet potatoes slices. It was really good! (and I'm having my leftovers for dinner tonight:) My husband got the sweet potato burrito and it was just as good. I had all intentions of taking pictures of our food while we were there, but I just couldn't ... I felt too weird, lol. So I just borrowed the pictures off of their website. (They're better pictures anyways).

We stayed in The Q Hotel & Spa, which is pretty much in Westport of KC. It's KC's first "green" hotel, and it was pretty cool. Here's a picture in our room ... and another one with my husband posing ... Since this is becoming a long post, I'll end there for now. We did a lot on Sunday, too and I'll do a recap of that later. I've got stuff to get done now, so talk to you later!!!! : )

Hope you have a great Monday!

Happy V-Day!!

Hey everyone ... Happy Valentine's Day!! : )

Those post will probably be quick because I've got a lot to do before we head out on our V-Day weekend, but I just wanted to say HI. (I apologize, I'm behind in commenting due to all the V-Day festivities but I'll be back;) In the meantime thanks for all the comments even if I haven't commented you back!!!

Dinner last night ... Chopped up chicken breast with Brussels. I first sauteed some mushrooms and onions in olive oil, chopped up a chicken breast, and added it to the pan. I seasoned it with Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning and some chili powder. Yum, yum, yum! (and simple, fast, and easy).

Next, here are my beautiful looking and smelling V-Day roses : ) I'm pretty sure I have the best husband in the world and I'm so glad I get to spend my whole life with him!!!! : )

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend! I will be back!

So Much Excitement!

Happy Thursday!!

First off, thank you guys all so much for the nice comments about my hair, you guys are the best! : )

My Thursday started out fairly normal ... got up, jumped on the treadmill, got ready for work, went to work, etc. And then I got home and all the excitement began!

First, I walk over to the mailbox and what do I see??? Yes, my secret cupid gift ... hooray!!!! It was from Laura at Body Mind & Soul.Thanks SO much, Laura!! : ) I was so excited to see my package with it's cute little note!! And you can't tell from the picture but when this next one was taken, there was already a delicious Tazo tea out of the package being drank! Yum! Good job, Laura ;) As you can see it includes Tazo Awake tea, Sharkies, some Z bars, the cutest little cups, and some dark chocolate Dove hearts (which you can't see in the pic). Can't wait to try it all!!

So then the next exciting part of my night occurs ... my husband told me a couple days ago that we were going out of town this weekend but wouldn't tell me what we are going to do. (He likes to surprise me and I like to be suprised). So, I've been speculating and speculating and tonight I was questioning him and he decided to spill the beans (at least some of them). And I'm SO excited and CAN'T WAIT!

We're going to stay in an eco friendly hotel in Kansas City on Saturday night, and he made dinner reservations at an organic restaurant. I don't know what the restaurant or the hotel is called ... that's going to be a surprise. Erik and I haven't gone anywhere or done anything exciting like this in a long time so I'm thrilled (as if you can't already tell). Ha, I tend to get way overly excited about things and just can't help myself! lol. We've never done anything this neat for Valentine's Day before either. I know some people think V-Day is lame but I think it's a great excuse to spend time and do something fun with my wonderful husband : ) Anyone else have plans?

And to end the post, since I've been talking about my husband, here he is chillin' on the kitchen counter in his hoodie and slippers, lol.

Before and After: Chicken and Hair

It's hump day ... yay!

I'm so glad it's already Wednesday! (And I'm VERY excited for this weekend ... I'll talk more about that later on in the week). Now ... some before and after pictures ...

This chicken creation was made a few days ago, but I'm having the leftovers tonight and have yet to post it so I figured, hey ... why not today? It consists of chicken breasts, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, almond cheese, basil, oregano, Mrs Dash's Garlic & Herb, and an oven at 325 for about 45 minutes.

Before:

And After: Now for the next Before and After ... my hair. I was so ready for something different and I can never decide if I like to be blonde or brown better and I've been blonde for awhile so ... I went dark! And I LOVE it.

Before: (eating my cereal ... yum!)And After: That's all I've got for today ... hope you all have a WONDERFUL evening and an even better Thursday!

I've off to check on the Brussels and broccoli that are currently roasting in the oven for dinner : ) and then off to help with youth group in which this month's theme is "Sweethearts" ... how fitting, being February and all, right? ha. Later, friends!!

Quick One

Hey guys : )

Quick post tonight ... (sorry!) ...

Dinner last night was Lemon Chickpea Turkey Stir-fry ...
First I sautéed some mushroom and onions in olive oil, added the ground turkey meat, let it brown a little, and added chopped zucchini, sweet potatoes, a little over half a can of chick peas, water chestnuts, pepper, some lemon pepper seasoning, and when it was almost all done I added the juice of half a lemon. I separately steamed some Brussels and broccoli, and mixed it all together with some pearled barley. I thought it was really good. Erik said it was a bit too lemony for him (though he's not much of a lemon pepper kind of guy).

And as I've done a couple times now, here's some tips to end the post brought to you by The Daily Green. I just discovered this website recently and so far I think they have a lot of neat tips!

1. Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants.
Michael Pollan wrote it. Live it.

2. Eat Super Foods.
Super foods pack the most nutrients into each serving. Use our Superfood Index, which pairs the most nutritious foods with delicious recipes.

3. Eat Real Foods.
Whether you concerned about salmonella in peanut butter and bisphenol A residue from foods packed in plastic, or just plain confused by misleading food labels, less-processed foods are the answer.

4. Eat Local.
Get your foods locally, so you can ask your farmer how she grows her food, and how she cares for the soil.

5. Eat In Season.
Get your nutrition from foods that are in season whenever possible to ensure freshness and reduce food miles.

Last but not least, I got my hair done this evening and it's a lot different ... hooray! I'll show a picture tomorrow ; )

Have a great night and thanks for reading ... I appreciate you all and you're all GREAT ... I mean it!!! : )

Sesame Chicken, Banana Snack, and Clean EatingTips

Happy Monday one and all! (?)

I've had a great Monday. Nothing in particular has made it that way, but none the less it's been great.

And now for the eats ... My husband made din-din last night and here is it. I suppose you could call it sesame chicken. He first sauteed onions, mushrooms, minced garlic and some zucchini in some organic sesame oil. Then ... added some chopped chicken breasts and kidney beans. Yum! We had it with pearled barley, steamed broccoli and brussels (surprise, surprise, right?? ha) Also, we sprayed some balsamic vinegar on top of it all and ate some of my chicken with honey mustard (I love honey mustard), though it really didn't need any.

Here was my a.m. snack of the day ... What is it? Very good! Ha, it's a chopped banana with ground flax seed, cacao nibs, agave nectar, and unsweetened organic coconut on top. And to end this post, some easy recipe alternatives that cut down on fat and calories found in Clean Eating Magazine:

-Don't Fry It: Baking, braising, broiling, grilling, poaching, roasting, sauteing and steaming don't add excess fat, oil or sodium.

-Do Remove The Skin and Fat: Strip the skin off chicken and trim fat from meat.

-Don't Forget Fiber: Use beans or lentils to up fiber and reduce fat.

-Do Replace Cream: Substitute with evaporated skim milk in casserole.

-Don't Season With Butter: Top a baked potato with salsa, low-fat sour cream and chives, plan low-fat yogurt (or greek yogurt, yum!), or chili powder instead.

-Do Read Labels: Opt for leaner cuts of meat, lower or sodium substituions and low-fat finds.

Have a fabulous night/morning/day/whenever you're reading this!! :D ... I'm out!

Grocery Shopping, Etc

Good afternoon on this lovely Sunday! I like Sundays, if you can't tell ... relaxing morning, church, lunch with family ... doesn't get much better than that : )

First, a bit of recap from yesterday ... grocery shopping was a huge success. We've been trying to spend less and find good deals on things and we did pretty good yesterday. First off, some people at work told my husband about a local market nearby that we didn't know existed so we decided to check it out. It was called Fleek's Market and we will DEFINITELY be buying all our fruit/veggies from there from now on. We got stuff way cheaper than we would have been able to at a grocery store and we very excited we found it, so we got A LOT, lol.
Here's the tally: (yes, I know it's a lot ... keep in mind it's for two weeks and we eat fruits and veggies in every single meal) ...

38 bananas (we freeze many of them for shakes)
3 pears
14 grapefruits
19 apples
2 4lbs sweet potatoes (these things are HUGE)
4 lemons
13 oranges
6 tomatoes
5 zucchinis
4 huge onions

But the coolest part is we got all that for only 40 dollars and that is way cheaper than we ever could have gotten all that in any grocery store around here ... hooray for saving! Then, at Hyvee, where we got all our other groceries, we were ecstatic to find half gallon organic milk on sale for one dollar per half gallon!!! That's 2 dollars per gallon organic milk, people!! We were excited and amazed. haha. So, we got six of them, aka 3 gallons which only equaled six dollars, which is normally what just one gallon of organic milk there costs! What will we do with all that milk, you ask? Make yogurt! (and drink a little of it, too ;)

Now onto today ... here was breakfast this morning with my new kind of Ezekiel cereal ... 1/2 cup Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel cereal with some frozen raspberries, some cinnamon and almond milk along with some goji berry green tea. Perfect!

Random snack that I've been having lately that tastes way too good ... a mini Ezekiel wrap with almond butter and some agave nectar. Last but not least, my husband and I went to Old Navy and Target after we ate lunch with my mother-in-law (at Panera) after church and I went away with some very cute and inexpensive shirts (mostly for work), a shirt, and a pair of shoes. I'm all about bargain shopping, I rarely buy any clothes or shoes at full price and I usually have pretty good luck at both Target and Old Navy. My husband and I don't get to shop together often and it was fun! : ) I couldn't seem to take a good picture, so that will have to do ...

That's about all for now, folks. Sorry if I haven't been commenting as much as usual, I've been busy havin' too much fun hangin' out with my husband this weekend, but I'm still here and am still reading and enjoying all your blogs!!

Also, check out Kelly at Every Gym's Nightmare ... I always enjoy her posts and her giveaway this week is a Arctic Flash V-Neck Tank Top from Danskin. Who doesn't love a clothes giveaway?

I hope you all have had a wonderful, joy-filled, pleasant kind of weekend!! : )

Quick Post

Happy Saturday!!! : )

Erik and I woke up "late" this morning (6:30), haha. Since we're used to getting up at 4:45 every day we typically aren't ever able to sleep in when we actually can. So I'm sitting here drinking some warm tea blogging ... awhhh.

Last night we watched The Secret Life of Bees. I remember reading the book in high school and thought the movie was pretty good.

This will probably be a pretty quick and short post because we're off to go grocery shopping in just a little bit (yay!) I actually quite enjoy grocery shopping. Anyone else with me or is it something you dread?

Before I forget, here was the final product of the baked chicken from the previous post ... I've discovered that it's really easy to just throw some frozen chicken breasts in the oven when I get home from work and there are so many different ways to season them and bake them and the leftovers are great to put in salads the next day for lunch.

Last night when I got home from work I chopped up a few small sweet potatoes, and put them on a baking sheet with some veggies and we ate them with turkey burgers made on George. I dressed my burger with a slice of 2% organic cheese, onions, One Carb Heinz ketchup and spinach leaves. It's amazing how good sweet potato fries are!!Thinking back on all my eats yesterday, I'm pretty sure I had way too many carbs but I figured hey, it's Friday and just didn't care. (It doesn't help that my husband keeps making sprouted bread that I've become addicted to!!)

Anyways, we're off to grocery shop ... have a lovely weekend, all! : )

How Much Do You Waste?

Happy Thursday!

I don't know about you, but I'm so glad that tomorrow is Friday! (and it's "jeans day" at work ... hooray!)

Here is what's in the oven right now at this very moment while I type and what also just so happens to be dinner ... I don't know what you'd call it ... Lemon Pepper Chicken with Coconut, perhaps? Basically, it's just some frozen chicken breasts with pepper, a the juice of a lemon, and some sprinkled unsweetened shredded organic coconut on top. I then put a lemon slice on each breast and added some veggies. I'll have to show a finished product tomorrow.

I read this is our most recent Mother Earth News magazine:

"A recent study from the University of Arizona shows that most people underestimate how much food they waste. For example, you might think you are tossing only about 1% of the food that goes through your kitchen, but the real number is probably closer to 15%. Some things get lost in the refrigerator no matter what you do but you can save money day after day by minimizing waste."

While Erik and I don't typically have problems with food going to waste -- (see our fridge the day before grocery shopping) -- I thought these were good ideas and we already do a few of them.

Tips on how to avoid wasting food:

- Use leftovers by combining them in mysteriously delicious wraps, omelets or soups.

-Make smoothies from fruit (or veggies!) that will soon be overripe. Ripe unpeeled bananas will turn black if you freeze the, but they will still be fine for smoothies. Turn overripe apples into spicy applesauce.

-Make your own stocks and broths from meat and vegetable trimmings. You can freeze stock in glass jars as long as you leave 2 inches of head space to allow for expansion.

-Freeze temporary overstocks of bread, including hard crusts or stale bread. Use them to make French toast, bread pudding, seasoned bread crumbs, or savory stratas.

-Clean our your refrigerator once every week. Eat, cook, or freeze anything that's worth saving.

-Declare periodic "food rest days" during which the head cook gets the day off, thus encouraging active refrigerator foraging by other household members.

Hope everyone has a very happy, very blessed, very lovely Friday! : )

Chicken, Veggie Salad, and Coconut Mango Oolong Tea

Well ... we've already made it (almost) past Wednesday ... I can't decide if this week has been dragging or going by fast, haha. Either way, I'm excited for the duration of this week and this weekend because they're callin' for some pretty nice weather ... hooray! (Nice here = 60 ... I realize that sounds "cold" to some readers, but it sounds so warm to me, lol!)

For din-din last night, I had a chicken breasts with honey mustard and a bunch of brussels and snap peas. (I love brussels and snap peas!) Skipping pictures of breakfast and a.m. snack for today, here was lunch ... I decided to go vegetarian for lunch and didn't add any meat to my salad. It had chopped carrots, tomatoes, portobello mushrooms, some crumbled up sprouted lentil bread, a few chopped up dried pitted dates, some left over Ezekiel penne pasta, yummy seasonings, spinach leaves and red wine vinaigrette. Followed by that oh-so-good looking orange, it was a perfect lunch!

My after work snack was some sprouted lentil bread with almond butter and some tea: ) I bought this coconut mango oolong tea a couple months back, had it once, didn't love it and haven't had it since. Now, our tea supply is running low since we need to grocery shop so I decided to give it another try today.

Review :: This time I added a pinch of some organic unsweetened shredded coconut to it to give it some more coconut flavor and I don't know if that's what did the trick but it tasted much better than I remember it being. Yay for trying it again! While it still isn't my favorite tea, if you're a coconut/tropical flavor fan, you would probably love it -- especially with the added shredded coconut.

Hope everyone has a good night watching Lost and/or (fill in the blank), doing homework, hanging out, eating delicious healthy food, or whatever else it is you might be up to ; ) Later my lovely friends!

I've Been Tagged.

Happy Tuesday!!

First off, thanks for all the nice comments about my cousin, you guys all are so sweet! : )

My lovely blogger friend Erica at Itzy's Kitchen tagged me yesterday to write 10 random things about myself. I realize I recently something very similar to this, but 1) I, of course, couldn't just not do it, being tagged and all because what fun would that be?? And 2) I realize that my "random" things change a lot depending on what day it is and how I'm feeling. Haha ... so here I go : )
(disclaimer: i do have other clothes besides this one white coat, lol ... for some reason, my husband likes to randomly snap pictures of me right when we're about to leave the house!)
1) I've recently decided to try and do at least one thing a day, big or small, that I consider to be "spontaneous" for me.

2) Most of the time, I don't separate my laundry when washing clothes, though I know I probably should.

3) I am shy.

4) I hate ever disappointing anyone by anything I do and often end up considering myself inferior to others.

5) I am really afraid of millers. (aka moths ... whatever you call them).

6) My birthday is in March and I will only be 21, though people usually guess me older than that. Aaand my husband is 27.

7) I am what you might define as a homebody ... I like to stay home.

8) Since getting married and buying our house we have't done much entertaining or had many people over and while I like to cook, I don't feel very good at it and I'm afraid of playing the "hostess" role.

9) One of my goals is to be more myself, honestly and authentically, no matter who sees and then to not care what anyone thinks (this blog helps ;)

10) I love hot tea and I have 2-3 cups everyday.

Erica's sassiness must have come along with the tag because like her, I typically don't tag people but I'm going to today. If you want to, I tag ... Emily of The Life and Times of Em, Lindsey at Life According to Mrs. LC, Michelle at Strong and Healthy, Caroline at Banana Cabana, aaaand Kelly at Every Gym's Nightmare.

Last but not least, in case you haven't yet heard, Hangry Pants is having a giveaway of a jar of almond butter ... yum!!!

Have a good one : )

Weekend Recap

Hola chicas ... I'm back!

I had absolutely no time to blog this weekend, as my husband and I stayed really busy (but got a lot done and had a really good weekend : ) .... so here's a little bit about it ...

First off, I've gotta brag on my little 2nd cousin a little. He was in a Universal Studios commercial last night during the Superbowl. Here he is as the little super hero boy ...
It was really neat seeing him on TV : )

Saturday: My husband made flourless sprouted bread number 3 using sprouted lentils.

Before ... And after... the consistency was a lot better this time than last, but it didn't rise like we wanted it to. I bought myself some grapefruit this weekend and had myself a very tasty spinach leaf salad with tuna, almond cheese, rice, chopped carrots, mushrooms, seasonings and red wine vinaigrette with a grapefruit ... yum! Sunday: On Sunday night rather than watch the Superbowl (aside from the commercial mentioned previously) ... we rented Eagle Eye and watched it instead. We were feeling worn out from our weekend and felt like some kind of dessert.

We really rarely ever eat sweets such as ice cream and/or chocolate (except for cacao nibs). So we made a spontaneous decision to go to Hyvee and get some! Here's what I had ... aaaand ... I really never eat bars either just because I always figure I'd rather just have real fruit and/or food to make up for as many calories and sugar are in a little bar, but I decided to try a Clif nectar cacao bar. (Mostly due to a recent review of them made by Fake Food Free) ... My Review: I really like how the ingredients are only organic dates, organic walnuts, organic unsweetened chocolate, organic cocoa, and organic vanilla. I was pretty impressed with the taste, too and actually really liked it. I think I could definitely see myself snacking on one of these once in awhile, especially when I have a dessert and/or chocolate craving ... yum! I'm glad I tried it.

I think a little bit of ice cream did me good, too ; ) Since I rarely, rarely have it, it's fun to splurge a little bit.

Oh, and I got my blogger Secret Cupid gift alllll ready to send off today : )

How was your Monday?

Cereal, Scarves, and 25 Things

Hey all ... the weekend has arrived!

First off, for all those that might care or not care an update on how much I love my still-fairly-new Golden Flax Ezekiel cereal ... I have it with frozen berries, almond milk and sprinkle some cinnamon on top. (I have also recently put a dab of agave nectar in with it, making it taste even better! However, I don't all this all the time). I find myself perfectly content in eating the exact same breakfast every day and look forward to each morning. Yum! In other news, my lovely, crafy, good-at-just-about-everything mom FexEx'ed me three scarves that she made and they had arrived when I got home from work ... I think my favorite is the green one. And though my mom will probably never read this ... Thanks, Mom! (btw, Danelle, if you're reading this, she has instructed me that one is yours, so now you know you're getting one;)
Normally, I don't do things like this, but since all the cool kids are doing it (?), and since I've gotten tagged a few times on Facebook already, and after having read healthy ashley's post, and since I don't have anymore neat recent food pictures, I've decided to follow suit with "25 Random Things About Me" ...

1. My wonderful husband and I will have been married 2 years already on June 23rd.
2. All I do at my job is type all day, and I really like it.
3. I love to read but am finding with my more "real job", "grown up" life it's hard to find any time to do it.
4. I love food.
5. I'm extremely grateful I had my sister growing up. We've always been really close and now live six hours away from each other and I often really miss her.
6. I feel like I have really started to become "me" this past year or so and am loving it.
7. I want to become more spontaneous as my life seems to get busier and busier and I start to feel older and older.
8. I recently have been thinking I may want to pursue something like a Nutritionist degree.
9. I want to love people and be known for my love for them.
10. The thing I want the very most in my life is to be apart of what God is doing.
11. My prayer is, "Lord, Thy government come, Thy policy be done on earth as it is in heaven".
12. Only within the past couple years have I become interested in health, nutrition and cooking.
13. I love my husband more and more each day and am SO thankful for him and our live together.
14. In high school, I often preferred hanging out with my grandma on a Saturday night rather than doing anything else. (that's just how cool she is;)
15. I think brussell sprouts are really good.
16. I never dated nor kissed anyone until I met my now-husband.
17. Sometimes I depend on my daily routine too much and forget to have fun and just live life.
18. I love the feeling after a good workout after I didn't feel like working out but did it anyways. (ha, a couple years ago I never worked out and never thought I'd love it).
19. My husband and I love to workout and lift together.
    
20. I'm grateful and amazed at the (un)answered prayers that have happened in my life.
21. Just like my sister, I often miss times with my best friend growing up, Danelle, and don't know what I would ever have done without her.
22. I never realized how much work puppies really can be until we had two at the same time.
23. I like to watch good movies.
24. I think it would be neat if there were still balls like in Pride & Prejudice, and I think it would be neat if I could talk like that.
25. I love this journey of life. I'm grateful for the past, doing my best to live in the now, and am excited for the future!

And that's all for now! I'm sure I'll think of things I would have rather put up there later but oh well!

Have a great weekend!!! Anyone have exciting plans?