Oat-A-Licious

Good Morning! :)

This morning's post is going to be pretty quick. Jason's getting ready to take the dogs to my sister's house. I have to get the girls in the bath tub and then I have to shower ALL before he gets back from my sister's house. RUSH, RUSH, RUSH!!!

Breakfast was a steaming hot, freshly cooked, yummy tasting bowl of oats...

For the first time I made a single serving amount of steel cut oats. You would think it would be easier or as easy at the least, but for some reason I am super used to making a pot to last all week so I felt like I had never cooked before! :D

Here's how I did the Single Serving Steel Cut Oats...

1/4 c steel cut oats, dry

1/2 c water

1/4 c vanilla soymilk

pinch of cinnamon

drizzle of vanilla

Bring all of that to a bowl and reduce heat. Stirring pretty often, allow it to cook for at least 20 minutes. At this point I stirred in 1 egg white (for an extra protein boost and added fluffiness) and 1/2 banana chopped.

I let it cook for another 10 minutes or so stirring frequently.

Transfer to your favorite oatmeal bowl and then slice the other half of the banana, sprinkle about 2 T dried cranberries, add a dollop of pumpkin butter and a heaping scoop of almond buttah... HOLY GOODNESS!!!

It's EVERYTHING you need for a completely nutritious and super good breakfast.

Linsey doesn't like oatmeal (or so she says) so she and Regan had scrambled eggs and waffles. Jason toasted his last Everything bagel (while avoiding the camera at all costs this morning) and added the rest of the scrambled eggs. I think our refrigerator is officially empty.

WOOT WOOT!!

Gotta get the girls and myself ready now. Jason just pulled out of the driveway. I'd say we have about 3 hours to get everything ready to go have Christmas with Jason's parents and family.

I'm bringing the last of the New Years Eve cookies ("healthy" chocolate chip cookies)

I've decided for 2010 to end each post with a quote that I love. It may pertain to the post or it may just be something that I love. I hope you enjoy them... :)

"We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

New Years Night...

Good evening...

Hi Everybody. How's 2010 treating you so far?? :)

Today has been a stay in the pj's and get everything ready to leave the city kind of day.

Olivia went home this afternoon and we all kind of lounged around for a while. We had some lunch which basically consisted of things that we either needed to eat or would end up throwing away tomorrow. I had left over veggies & dill dip and a few cheese pizza rolls...not real yummy, but it didn't get thrown away. After that I had one of our homemade Cinnamon Streusel Banana Nut Bread Muffins. YUM!

After lunch we started packing the suitcases. Linsey & I are going to share my sister's big suitcase and Jason & Regan will share our big suitcase. While packing we realized that we needed to get some last minute laundry done before the trip so Jason took it all down the street to the laundry mat to get it finished while the girls and I stayed at home and played.

We decided to watch a movie while snuggling up on the couch. Linsey picked Finding Nemo which is one of my favorites! Eventually Linsey took over the couch, Regan wanted her own chair and the dogs even joined in the lounging by piling up together in front of the couch.

Jason and I decided that since we had a kitchen FULL of dirty dishes and won't be home except for breakfast tomorrow - ordering pizza for dinner was the best option. Our refrigerator is basically emptied out as much as it needs to be except for the breakfast food for tomorrow so I ordered pizza to be delivered at the same time he would get back with the laundry. It worked out that he walked in the door about ten minutes after the pizza guy left.

We have started a new tradition of dining by candlelight for dinner whenever we're all home so that's what we did...Domino's (and more of last night veggies) by candlelight. :D

After dinner we knew that avoiding the dishes could go on no longer so we tag teamed this mess...

That's a LOT of dirty dishes and we don't have a dishwasher. I guess tonight's cardio is washing dishes! Jason and I passed the time (while the girls played in the living room) by playing a game called BOMB. It's kind of like horse, but with movies and movie star names. Jason says an actor/actress and I have to name a movie they are in then he has to name an actor/actress in that movie and so on. If you mess up or can't think of anything you get a letter and the first one to spell BOMB is the loser. It's more fun with more people, but it works just fine with the two of us - especially since I ALWAYS win and it's the ONLY game that I always win when playing against him.

We finished the dishes...

and found this in the living room...

Apparently she had a bit too much New Years Eve and couldn't hold out past 9:00. Once the camera came out Regan showed me just how 'not sleepy' she really was by jumping and bouncing and laughing and trying so hard to walk Linsey up.

They were both in bed about fifteen minutes later!

Now Jason and I will be in bed about fifteen minutes from now. We still have lots to get done tomorrow AND we're having Christmas with his family. Whew!

Good night.

Sleep tight.

Don't let the bed bugs bite...

Welcome 2010 - Nice to meet ya!

Happy 2010 EVERYONE!!

I hope that everybody had a fantastic time ringing in the new year last night.

I hope that everyone had someone amazing to kiss at midnight. :)

I hope that everyone got a good nights sleep afterwards too.

New Years Eve Recap...

December 31, 2009 started out with a 6:00am pilates session in the living room with Linsey who has been DYING to do it with me...

Then headed off to work for the last day of the year AND the last day before our VACATION!!

Enjoyed some yummies...

Almond Butter...oh how I've missed you in my Sunday oats.

Work went by easily. I kind of floated all over the building working in different areas - kitchen, front desk, I/T room...where ever they needed me really. Linsey had fun playing with my friend, Melissa's son, Malik, but I never could snap a picture of them. I guess 8 year olds a too quick for me.

Had an easy and tasty lunch...

Linsey and Malik hung out in one of the classrooms and watched Horton Hears A Who and ate pizza. Lucky for her the teacher was one of her old teachers so she was able to sneak right in and enjoy herself while I finished the day. We picked up Regan at 3:00 and headed home. Jason met us there and I got busy with some last minute cleaning. Regan pretended the dining room chairs were a train...

She kept yelling - chug a chug a choo choo!! I guess she's really ready to ride the train to Chicago. :)

While I cleaned - Jason finished up the last of the cooking.

Once that was all done we sat in the living room to "relax" a little until our guests arrived, but the girls had other plans...a pillow fight sounded more fun!

Jeff, Jennifer, Olivia and Mia made it to our house a little after 6:00 and we INSTANTLY got all the food set out and started chowing down...

Jeff couldn't even let me finish taking the picture first!! :D

With the amount of food we had you would have thought we had WAY MORE people than we actually did, but everyone grazed most of the night.

In the end, we decided to bust out the scrabble game while the girls were blasting Hannah Montana (or whatever) in Linsey's room. We also brought the chips and cheese dip to the table too. It was soooo much easier than having to get up every time we wanted some!! :D

I lost, but who could really win with letters like these all night!?

Linsey, Olivia, Mia and Regan started a game of hide n seek and I think Regan came up with the best hiding spot of the night...

The other girls eventually found her, but she did good being still and quiet.

(or as still and quiet as a 2 year old can be!)

The adults ended up in the living room flipping back and forth between Carson Daly (carsonjdaly) and Ryan Seacrest (RyanSeacrest). The girls coldn't wait for midnight and once it came (Mia and Regan were already crashed out) Linsey and Olivia were STOKED!

They instantly ran outside to scream and holler and do their confetti poppers!!

Then we kicked everybody out and went to bed...just kidding. Jeff and Jennifer took Mia home shortly after and we went to bed shortly after that - HEY!! We're old and no matter how late we WANT to sleep our children will get up when they get up...

That's why I started this morning out with...

And while I cleaned up the kitchen and cooked breakfast had this...

And then sat down with my breakfast and this baby sitting right next to my plate...

Yep - 3 cups of coffee by the time I sat down to eat a Grands biscuit with apple butter, 2 Morningstar Farms maple veggie sausages and 2 scrambled eggs (that I couldn't eat because I salted them a tad too much :( ).

Linsey and Olivia are playing in Linsey's room and Jason is out having a coffee meeting with a friend. Regan and I are hanging out in the living room watching Maggie & the Ferocious Beast while I drink the last of my 3rd cup. Don't worry - there's still more waiting for me in the coffee pot!!

HAPPY 2010 EVERYONE!!

MAKE IT GREAT!!