Monday – Breakfast – granola and yogurt, OJ with protein powder (snack at work) Lunch – leftovers, kiwi, mini peppers Dinner – salmon cakes, salad
Tuesday – Breakfast – smoothie, OJ with protein powder (snack at work) Lunch – leftovers, kiwi, mini peppers Dinner -braised chicken with cauliflower and pinto bean mash
Wednesday – Breakfast – granola and yogurt, OJ with protein powder (snack at work) Lunch – leftovers, kiwi, mini peppers Dinner – leftovers
Thursday – Breakfast – smoothie, OJ with protein powder (snack at work) Lunch – leftovers, kiwi, mini peppers Dinner -turkey tacos with pintos
Friday – Breakfast – Carry in at work Lunch – leftovers, kiwi, mini peppers Dinner – chicken, and dumplings
This year I’ve loved the flavors of gingerbread. I love the taste of the mixture of molasses, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. So when I was going to bake some cookies for my husband for a cookie exchange, I decided to make some ginger snaps with those flavors. These ended up being delicious!!!! :) (I think I used enough exclamation points.)
3/4 c. butter (room temperature) – 1 and 1/2 sticks
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. molasses (Spray measuring cup with cooking spray before adding the molasses.)
pinch of cloves
2 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 – 1/2 c. flour (I used white whole wheat.)
Steps:
Preheat to 350 degrees.
Beat butter, sugar, and egg until nice and fluffy.
Add the molasses until incorporated. (You might need to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure you’ve gotten all of the molasses.)
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter, sugar, egg, and molasses mixture. Mix until completely combined.
Place 1-inch balls on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed down with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the balls of cookie dough with granulated sugar.
Bake for 8 minutes or until you see the cracks on the top of the cookies.
Let cool for 2 minutes on a cookie sheet and then move to a wire rack.
I made some cranberry relish for Thanksgiving. Yum!! Since my mom and I were the only 2 to eat some, I had plenty left to enjoy. I decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich with cranberry relish in the middle. It was delicious.
Yesterday’s challenge was to call someone and let them know how you are grateful for them in your lives. I called my aunt and talked to her for 45 minutes. On Wednesday, I texted one of my former students and told him I was grateful for being one of his teachers. He has an impact on my teaching.
Today’s challenge is to drink plenty of water. I took one of my quart-size Mason jars and drank out of it. I filled it up 3 times in total for 72 ounces of water. Guess where I spent most of the day?!?
I may drink a cup of hot tea without any sweetener and another glass before bed today.
Tomorrow’s challenge is to treat me. I’ve got to do some shopping and go to a baby shower. During my time out, I will treat myself to something.
This month I was paired up with Anne from Pennsylvania. She and I had similar likes in foods, so that was a help when buying her goodies.
When I got her box, I was delighted. There were a lot of yummy treats in the box. One of the items I am extremely excited about is the Pennsylvania Dutch apple butter. If I hadn’t opened up a jar of pumpkin butter, I would have opened that jar up right away. I was born in the Pennsylvania Dutch area, so it is nice to have a treat from where I was born.
All the goodies were from her area, which was nice because I like to try local foods when visiting other places.
Chocolate leaves and turkeysI’ve tried the smothered graham cracker. Delicious!I’ve tried the apple quinoa crunch. Had to get used to the lentils, but it was good.Yum!!!!!!!I have to keep this away from the Imaginative One. He loves chocolate-covered pretzels. I had the one on the right. It was delicious.A little snack container – I think this would be perfect for Disney. I could put some trail mix in it.Granola – This is delicious.I’ve actually driven past the factory when I went to that area in 2001.Almond Fig BarAlmond Fig BarHoney!!!! I was looking at local honey that morning. This is my little bear.Her handwritten noteSpice blend – Tuscan picnic – Smells delightful and tastes great. (I used it in our tomato soup the other night.)
So as I said at the end of my post, yesterday’s challenge was to unsubscribe from catalogs or emails. I chose to unsubscribe to multiple email lists. I did it on my work email, Gmail, and road runner email accounts. I also cleaned up my road runner and work accounts. This helped me feel lighter not having all those emails to wade through.
One great website to use is unrolled. Me. Unfortunately, it only supports certain email services. I could only use it for my Gmail account. It really helped me unsubscribe from that account.
Today’s challenge is to try a new workout. I don’t exercise unless you count my walking around the school building. My classroom is isolated from everyone else, so if I need anything, I need to walk to get it. :) That’s great for getting some cardio in.
Last night I put some fast-paced music on youtube (Florida Georgia Line – Cruise) and made sprints across the living room to get some cardio in. I continued for the entire song. Then I put on Pink’s Just Like a Pill and did some circuits of 10 reps of waist twists, toe touches, knee lifts, and jumping jacks. Toward the song’s end, I slowed my motions to cool down. It wasn’t much, but it was a small step for me.
This morning, I did a barre3 standing core exercise. I plan to do a yoga video later on during the day. This is something new to me. I really need to get my belly area in check. I’m short-waisted, so all my extra weight seems to land there.
I’m finally getting to recapping yesterday’s challenge and discussing today’s challenge.
So yesterday was a meatless Monday. It wasn’t really that hard for me. I started the morning with a green smoothie. The smoothie also contained some protein powder to help keep me full. I needed chia seeds also because all I kept thinking about while I was in the dentist’s chair was how hungry I was. Of course, I couldn’t eat while they were working on my mouth.
As soon as I left the dentist’s office, I ate a Larabar that I had gotten at the grocery store. It was a seasonal flavor – Snickerdoodle. It was pretty yummy!
The day before, I had gone out to eat at a new to us restaurant – Roma. I had gotten a Bruschetta pizza to save some for this challenge. I also had some leftover garlic bread made with olive oil instead of butter. Since my mouth was still numb, I didn’t bite on it using my front teeth. I folded it up and chewed with my molars. When my dentist called me later, I told him what I did, and he told me I was pretty clever. I love that my dentist will personally call his patients after they have work done on their teeth to make sure they are doing good. He ends his call with, “Call me if you need anything.” He means it.
Since my mouth was numb, I ate a banana for a snack. I am not a banana lover, so Hubby was shocked when he saw me eating some.
Dinner was quick and easy tomato soup. I also cut up French bread that I toasted with olive oil, garlic, cheddar cheese, and basil. We used those croutons to put in the soup instead of dipping grilled cheese sandwiches. The boys were not fans of the soup. The Imaginative One, though, loved the croutons.
Dessert was a pumpkin whoopie pie from a local farmer’s market. Yummy! I had a yogurt parfait with granola and fresh pineapple as an evening snack. So happy my meatless Monday went well!
Green SmoothieLarabarPizzaTomato Soup with homemade crouton
Today’s challenge is to unsubscribe. I don’t know how many different emails I unsubscribed from. I also cleaned up two of my in boxes while I was at it. It’s amazing how much lighter you feel without all that extra mess in your life.
I’m so excited about the challenges. Maybe not the burpee one but the others, yes.
Here is a funny story about the burpee challenge. I told my family about this week’s challenge, and my mother-in-law didn’t know what a burpee was. She thought it was Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory” burping pi. So Hubby and I demonstrated what a burpee was. The response from both my father-in-law and mother-in-law was that I was going to hurt myself.
Anyway, today’s challenge is the Meatless Monday challenge. We are challenged to eat no meat today. So the question was, “How do I feed my meat loving husband a meatless meal?” The answer is simple. We are having tomato soup for supper. He won’t complain about that, and when he gets to work, he can eat all the meat he wants away from me.
Here are some dinner or breakfast-for-dinner recipes from my blog that could help you decide what to have on this meatless Monday:
So last week, I had my blender cup washed after making a smoothie. The Wee One and the Imaginative One put away the dishes after the dishwasher was finished. Somehow my blades got put into the silverware/ utensil drawer (double drawer), and the band that held the blade was missing. I had been craving a smoothie but couldn’t make one because of the missing piece. :(
Today the Wee One found the piece in our cereal/ plastic ware cabinet, so I decided to make the smoothie I had been craving. I had bought some fresh cranberries today, so I decided to put them in the smoothie. Yum!!! Since I didn’t put any sugar in the smoothie, it turned out tart, but that’s okay with me. If you make this, you may want to put some sweetener in it if you don’t like tart flavors.
This smoothie is called tastes of Thanksgiving green smoothie because I love eating cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving and the flavors of this smoothie remind me of cranberry sauce.
Tastes of Ta hanksgiving Green Smoothie
Stars of the recipe:
1/4 c. fresh cranberries, washed
1/4 c. frozen strawberries
2 c. greens (I used power greens – kale, spinach, and Swiss chard.)
1/2 c. orange juice
water if you need more liquids (add a little at a time)
Optional: 1 Tbsp. of your favorite sweetener (more or less depending on your taste buds.)
Steps:
Add all the ingredients to your blender cup.
Blend together on the smoothie setting until blended together.
Last year I joined a group called Elf for Health. I was paired up with 3 different Elves who I helped motivate and who helped motivate me. To be honest, one of the elves fizzled out, but Gretchen and Lyndi were great. We would email each other daily trying to stay motivated. When Gretchen’s and my third elves didn’t follow through, we were each other’s elves for the last 2 weeks.
This year, they’ve shortened the challenge from 6 weeks to 4 weeks, so we’ll finish it right before Christmas, which is good. People get so busy once Christmas rolls around that it’s hard to keep track of your elf.
I’m a little nervous, though, because some of the challenges are physical, and I have to be extremely careful, especially since August. My pinched nerve started acting up at the end of our Super trip because of how much strain I put on it with all my walkings between the beach and Folly and then visiting Atlanta and Huntsville. I was seriously out of alignment when we returned and could barely walk. Yuck!
Then in late September/early October, I had another relapse where my leg would almost give out. This was happening at work, and I had to walk from place to place. (My room is isolated from everyone else.) So I’ll participate in those but may have to modify how much I do.
As you can see, I don’t exercise much because of that darn pinched nerve. When I was 12 years old, I broke both bones in the bottom part of my left leg. I was in casts from February to June of my 7th-grade year. Twenty years and five months later, the pinched nerve started acting up. I could barely walk at times which is not good for my job because I’m a special education teacher and would have to walk from classroom to classroom for inclusion or pick up students for intervention. Sometimes I would be in a second-grade classroom sitting on the floor, barely able to get up.
It now acts up at times with irregularity. I walked all around Chicago on a trip in 2012, and it did not act up. I went on my awesome trip this past July/August, and it acted up.
When I was in college 20 years ago, I would walk everywhere. Even though I ate a lot of fast food (I worked at Mcdonald’s and got free food), I was fit because of all the walking. I miss being able to do that without the possibility of the pinched nerve getting in the way.
Anyway, I will go into this challenge with gusto and modify some of the challenges to what I can do.
If you are interested in this challenge, check out the Lean Green Bean for more information. You must sign up for the first round by Friday, November 22.
