RealFitMama: Diary of a Wanna Be Health Nut

Oat-A-Licious

2010-01-02T09:14:00.000-06:00

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...

2010-01-01T21:51:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-01-01T10:37:00.000-06:00

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!!

Happy New Year's Eve...

2009-12-31T16:09:00.000-06:00

I have so much to do to get ready for our friends coming over so tonight I leave you with the most powerful and amazing New Year's Resolution I think I have ever heard. It comes from a website that I get daily emails from. They are uplifting, thought provoking and beautiful. You should check it out and sign up to receive The Daily Love yourself...

My New Year's Resolution

I thought long and hard about what I wanted my New Year's Resolution to be. I take my NYR's very seriously and always try my best to actually manifest them in my life. I thought about setting goals for making a certain amount of money, or to finally meet "the one", or for Love Yourself and The Daily Love to reach a certain amount of success, or for any number of "dreams" I have to come true. And then I reflected on all my past NYR's and while some came true, some didn't. I'm actually glad that some of them didn't because in hind sight some of my "wishes" for myself, though at the time seemed like exactly what I wanted, if they had actually come true it would have actually delayed or prevented my best life from manifesting. Then I thought, wow, even with Intention, and Positive Thinking maybe the external desires I'm visualizing and Intending might not be what's best for me when I look back 5 years from now.

So this New Years my NYR is to try to simply trust. It's going to be an interesting experiment because everything I've laid out below I've resisted for so long because I've always wanted to control my environment. I'm going to do my best with these, Heaven knows I'm not perfect! Well here goes nothing!

I'm going to trust that focusing on the internal vibration of feeling good instead of any external things, people or situations will bring what's truly best for me.
I'm going to trust that even if I think that many things seem to be going wrong, that maybe for the first time I'm actually feeling what it feels like for things to go "right".
I'm going to trust that the ideas I have are great, the creative impulse I feel should be expressed and that no matter what - I will always be taken care of while I walk on the path of gratitude, forgiveness and love.
I'm going to trust that as long as I am walking a path in service that the right people, places and circumstances will always show up right on time.
I'm going to trust that some of the best things in life don't show up with a grand announcement and flashy introduction but instead in humble packages.
I'm going to trust and be receptive to every situation or person that the Universe places in front of me.
I'm going to trust the Love that is trying to find me and embrace it no matter how scary it might seem.
I'm going to trust that my Creator and Source has my best interests at heart and I'm going to try my hardest to allow It's will to be done, not mine. My mind is limited in comparison to the Source, so I'm going to get out of Her way and let all things be done though me instead of by me.
I'm going to trust to show up every day not trying to accomplish everything, but just to do the best I can each day.
I'm going to trust that taking care of and truly loving myself will be the gateway to creating fulfilling relationships and life circumstances.
I'm going to trust that by healing myself will be the best way for me to heal the world.
I'm going to trust that as long as I keep focused on feeling good and take actions that help the greater good I will always thrive regardless of what the stock market, financial markets or consumer confidence is doing.
I'm going to trust that my inner guidance is the only source of truth I will ever know and that what's happening to anyone else has nothing to do with the world I am consciously creating around me.

And finally, I'm going to trust the things that bother me most for they are the true portals of discovery and the key to unlocking why I can't just let things be.

Happy New Year!

Mastin

I will be back with the ENTIRE recap of my New Years Eve!

Be Safe...

Have Fun...

See ya next year...

A Whole Lotta Bakin...

2009-12-30T22:13:00.000-06:00

So tonight has been busy.

I decided to have leftovers for dinner tonight because (like I've said a ton of times) cleaning out the refigerator is a 'top priority' in my life right now! :) But mostly because I knew that Linsey and I were going to be doing a TON of baking and I didn't want to dirty up anymore dishes than needed.

We dined by candle light this evening. It's a new tradition we're starting for 2010...What new traditions are you guys going to start for next year??

Like I said, dinner was just leftovers tonight. I promise that my food is going to get much more exciting over the next few days, but for now...RERUN!! (except I added a piece of Texas toast..)

We decided that something sweet was definitely in order. So I broke out a little something I had been hiding away for a special occasion. Don't worry - I didn't eat it all. We split it four ways and it was GREAT.

Linsey was excited - of course if you put chocolate covered rocks in front of her she's be excited!

Regan enjoyed her portion too. :D

Jason took Regan straight to the bathtub and Linsey and I headed for the kitchen. We had a baking schedule all planned out and then we realized something disturbing...NO FLOUR!!

So we made a very quick run to the grocery store to get whole wheat flour, honey, eggs, and a brownie mix. Once we got home we got to baking. First we made...

Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread Muffins

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 c white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 c unsweetened applesauce

1 c walnuts

3/4 t vanilla

1/3 c packed brown sugar

2 T whole wheat flour

1/8 t ground cinnamon

1 T butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups or line with muffin papers.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla and applesauce. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture just until moistened and then add walnuts. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups.

3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 T whole wheat flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 T butter until it is a streusel consistency then sprinkle topping over muffins.

4. Bake in preheatede oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool and then ENJOY!!

We doubled this recipe for part of our New Years Eve goodies and they smell fabulous...

Next we made...

"Healthy" Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 c unsweetened applesauce

1/2 stick of butter (softened)

3/4 c raw honey

2 t pure vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg white

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 c whole grain rolled oats

1/4 t ground nutmeg

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1 t baking soda

1 t fine sea salt

12 oz package Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips

1/2 c chopped walnuts

1/2 c dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In large bowl, mix together applesauce, butter, honey, vanilla, egg and egg white. In seperate bowl, mix together whole wheat flour, rolled oats, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and sea salt.

3. Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir. Once mixed, stir in chocolate chips, walnuts and dried cranberries.

4. Using a cereal spoon, drop cookie mixture onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 10 - 14 minutes. Let cool on wire rack and enjoy!

After we put the girls to bed, Jason and I split one opf the cookies.

We had to make sure they tasted good - no? :)

Now we're hanging out in bed watching The Notebook aka one of the best movies EVER!! I can't decide which is my favorite of these two The Notebook or Pride & Prejudice (with Kiera Knightley).

Tough call...

Just. One. More. Day...

2009-12-30T16:06:00.000-06:00

Happy Hump day... :)

How's everyone's Wednesday shaping up? Mine has been pretty good so far. I mean - I can't complain. Woke up this morning SORE AS HELL, but (you know) the good kind of sore. That sore feeling that says, "I worked my butt off in my workout!" :) I ADORE that feeling!!

Made it to work on time even though the roads were terrible at 7:30 this morning. Attendance at school this week gets lower and lower everyday so it's hard to judge how the day's going to go.

Had breakfast about 8:30 and it was very filling (and a little sweet too.)

After his meeting last night, Jason and the girls stopped off at Starbucks and got me the soy gingerbread latte that I was craving yesterday ALL DAY!! I saved it for breakfast this morning. Along with that (which I have decided I don't love) I had a homemade biscuit with pomegranate jelly and a veggie sausage plus a Honey Oikos with a little concoction I created. All this equals right at a quarter of a cup so it's really not too much of any one ingredient, but I mixed equal parts of dried blueberries, chopped walnuts, dark/mint chocolate chips and shredded coconut. Then I topped my yogurt with it. HOLY YUM! I was about 3 or 4 bites shy of finishing the whole thing and it was heart breaking to throw it away, but I didn't want to feel sick later so I did it... :(

Linsey spent the day helping me, doing some homework and playing Bananagrams...

Lunch time rolled around and I had three bean chili with a piece of corn bread crumbled on top. It was fairly tasty on a cold and snowy day.

Then I had a piece of homemade banana bread that one of my coworkers made. That was super tasty!

Since attendance at school has been so low I've managed to get out about an hour early everyday. Today was no exception. I finished up and as soon as Regan woke up from her nap we hit the road. I was on a mission to find a plastic cover for our jogging stroller to use while we're in Chicago, but had no luck. Target doesn't carry them and none of my jogging stroller owning friends has one for a single stroller. I really don't want to spend a fortune on one, but may have no choice. The girls were excited to go to Target though...

because that means a cookie at Starbucks for them...(like Regan's painted face?)

And a coffee for Mommy!!

Now that we're home I have tons to do. We leave in 4 days!!! Plus we're having Jeff, Jennifer and the girls over for a NYE party...we ARE party animals after all!! :D

What's everyone doing to ring in the new year???

Free time and a butt kicking...

2009-12-29T20:52:00.000-06:00

Whew...
Jason is being Mr Mom tonight and I am totally letting him! First, he took ALL our laundry to the laundry mat in the freezing cold and did it ALL! I stayed home with the girls and played and had dinner. It was nothing fancy because by the time we realized we needed to eat Jason was going to be home again. So cheesy pasta with Morningstar Farms veggie nuggets it was. Of course the pasta was whole wheat shells and I added about a cup and a half of frozen peas at the last minute. Then I stirred in some garlic parmesan cheese sauce compliments of Ragu! Not the world's healthiest dinner, but far better than other options we could have gone with at the last minute.

Then Jason did the unspeakable...he took both girls to his 7:00 meeting!! What?! That's right - I got over an hour of 'house all to myself' time. So I took full advantage...I put Regan's laundry away and most of mine and then I decided to get in a quick workout. I started out looking like this...

See how happy and content I look taking a terrible picture of myself in Linsey's room. I am revelling in my new found freedom and super excited about the events to come. Then I popped this baby into the DVD player...$10 at Target!

HOLY MOLY! Now I look like this...

Not revelling anymore. Notice that I lost my shirt AND my socks. Oh wait...apparently I lost my feet in this photo too. Oh well, I started out in my cute and fuzzy hot pink life is good socks and ended up bare foot and sweating like a pig. Yes...a 20 minute workout DVD can make you sweat like a pig. I never believed it was possible until tonight!

Jason and the girls will be back shortly so I need to get my lunch together for tomorrow. It will be time for jammies and bed when they get back.

Keep checking back because I am going to have the www.relfitmama.com launch giveaway coming up very soon. I'm hoping it's before the new year!! Lots of good stuff heading this way. :)

Good night for now...

A Day Without Coffee...

2009-12-29T15:15:00.000-06:00

What's UP?!

Hey Everyone (like I have a TON of readers :) )!! How's your Tuesday??

Mine started off at 5:40 this morning with a really great 30 minute pilates workout. Jason had a 7:00 meeting so I was on my own with the girls. we hurried around, got ready and headed off to my work. I got Regan dropped off at her class and then realized - I FORGOT MY COFFEE!!! :( I was sad, got over it and immediately got to work. Linsey had breakfast with a couple of her friends who were running around the school today and then I had my breakfast a little while later.

I am in love with my new little dishes! They are the perfect size for oats, they are microwavable AND they come with their very own lid. I have 4 of them so now on Sunday nights I can portion out my oats for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday is too busy to reheat and then eat oats so I will find other things to bring, but these are LIFE CHANGING!!!

Linsey was with me for a portion of the day, but Jason picked her up and took her to the eye doctor. She has been blinking her left eye a ton since Sunday and she says it's constantly watering and her eye lid is slightly swollen, but after a very thorough examination the doctor has absolutely no idea what is wrong. She doesn't need glasses. There is no infection. There is nothing in her eye. Her eye hasn't been scratched - no idea. She referred us to a pediatric opthamologist. YIPPEE!!

Since I still hadn't had any coffee I was getting hungry. So I dug around in my purse and found a snack that I brought for Linsey one day last week that she never ate...so I ate it. Shhhh - don't tell her!

A little while later it was lunch time so I carefully laid it out and then devoured it. Apparently coffee is an appetite suppressant also. Who knew??

I brought cheese and crackers today with a side of Yves veggie slices to go on top and two teeny tiny cuties...

My day ended a little early again today and I'm home with Regan this time. Linsey decided to go back to work with Jason after the doctor's appointment. I think she's getting her fill of old mom...

Regan and I shared a Peanut Butter LARABAR when we got home (that went unphotographed) and now we're just hanging out until Jason and Linsey stroll in.

What's everyone having for dinner tonight?? I need some ideas...

Blogging from bed...

2009-12-28T21:32:00.000-06:00

Quick post tonight my friends...gotta get up early tomorrow.

After my earlier post I had a quick snack while playing with Linsey. I tried the new LUNA bar flavor and have to say I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but not as flavorful as I was expecting. I won't go searching for these anywhere, but if I run across them I might buy a few more.Don't buy them expecting to get a peppermint burst though!

Jason and Regan got home shortly after and we quickly got down to everyday/after work activities. Sadly, our couch still STINKS and I'm pretty pissed off about that! We have been spraying it with vinegar and sprinkling baking soda all over it then letting it dry and vacuuming it up then repeating the entire process. I think it's getting better, but when you put your face to the cushions - WHEW!! :(

Jason made dinner tonight - or heated up food to eat (as he stated very clearly) because we had veggie burgers and fries tonight. They were super tasty and even the girls ate them without complaining. I had a Gardenburger tomato basil burger with muenster cheese melted on top and then he grilled some red onions to put on top of that. HOLY COW(less) :D

We each had a little bite of chocolate after dinner because who doesn't like a bite of something sweet after their dinner?? I know I do...

Then the girls got nutty...I think they may have issues with sugar!!

Yep...those are my girls. As crazy as they are - we still love them (most of the time!)

Everyone's in bed now and I'm ready to watch a little television and crash out. I leave you with the image of what is taking place in my living room right now.

Good night blog addicts...pray for my couch!!

Red Bowl Monday...

2009-12-28T15:06:00.000-06:00

Howdy Folks!!
How's everyone's Monday going so far?

Breakfast
I made Sunday oats last night, but did something a little different. I upped the protein value by stirring in two egg whites towards the end of the cooking process and I have to say they were a little more fluffy this morning. Maybe it's all in my head, but either way they tasted yummy.
I had about 3/4 c of Sunday oats, 1/2 c vanilla soy milk, a scoop of the All Natural Peanut Butter & Co white chocolate wonder, about 1 T slivered almonds, a drizzle of maple syrup, 1 T dried cranberries. and 1/2 of a pear chopped. YUM!

The day went by like a breeze (surprising since I was solo today) and I even was able to help Linsey with some of her school work that she brought home to make up for the days she'll be missing next week.

Lunch

It wasn't anything exciting (sorry - I'm trying to clean out the fridge) but it was still good. I brought more leftover vegetarian shepard's pie and then drizzled it with hot sauce. For a "dessert" I sliced up an apple and sprinkled cinnamon and brown sugar over it. It's almost as good as a piece of apple pie...even though my favorite part of the pie is the crust!

I have gotten quite addicted to these Ocean Spray water bottle mixers. My favorite one is the Cran-Pom.

OH HOLY YUM!!

One packet is perfect in a 20 oz bottled water.

While I finished up Linsey snuggled in MY jacket, listened to the radio and played with her Rubik's 360...yowza!! She hasn't completely figured it out yet, but she's getting there. Today she managed to get two balls in their correct spots before having to start over. I must admit...it's kind of addicting. :)

I managed to get done with work a little earlier than usual so Linsey and I are using the quiet time to hang out together. Jason's going to pick Regan up on his way home from work. She was just waking up from her nap when we were leaving so we figured she could stay, have snack and play outside with her class until Jason got there. The day went by like a breeze today. Linsey was a big help and now it's done. :D

Hope your day is going great.

Three more days until another long weekend!!

Oh Sunday...Again.

2009-12-27T19:28:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys...
Today has really brought me out of the "holiday spirit" and back into the real world that I live in. I'll just give you all the dirty details in the order of which they happened...
Whee I left you was getting to house work and lunch. Lunch was leftover chinese food (as earlier predicted). we're leaving next Sunday to go to Chicago for a few days so I'm trying to make sure ALL the food is eaten before we go. I hate to see food go to waste and don't mind eating the same thing multiple times in a row. So I did just that. I finished off my Christmas chinese of vegetable fried rice and spring roll with a little spicy mustard and sweet thai chili sauce. It was still just as tasty!

Afterwards I required a little something sweet. A reeses peanut butter Christmas tree and york peppermint snowflake hit the spot. Thanks a bunch Santa...

All morning I was smelling something funny in the living room and couldn't pin point where it was coming from until after lunch when we all sat down to rest a minute before finishing up the house work. That's when we realized what the cat had done...You all remember Maggie right? The sweet, adorable cat that Jason rescued from the freezing cold winter temperatures and gave a loving home...well - Maggie hated our dogs. She wouldn't leave whatever room she was in no matter what because of them. Even if we them shut in the kitchen with the baby gate she wouldn't go near the kitchen doorway. Sadly, to get to her litter box she had to do just that. Well, she refused and decided peeing ALL OVER my couch was a much better option!!! AHHHHHHHHH...so we spent the afternoon spraying our couch with Febreze pet odor remover and when we realized that wasn't going to work we took desperate measures. Jason looked up online what to do to fix it and then left the house to go to the grocery store, but on his way he (lovingly) dropped Maggie off at the Humane Society. She can't possibly live in a house with two dogs if she won't even go past them to go to the bathroom in her litter box. DON'T JUDGE! The ladies at our local Humane Society told Jason that as cute and loving as she is she will find a good home in no time. :) Linsey was a little upset at first, but realized that she wasn't happy living with the dogs and this way she can find a dog free home to live happily ever after in. And now we're working to rid our home of the smell of cat piss...

I do feel quite guilty, but am sure she will find a much better home and be super happy somewhere else. At least we saved her from the cold and the snow...right?

Moving on...all the craziness of the afternoon caused us not to get the laundry done, but while Jason was gone I kept Linsey occupied by playing Bananagram's with her. It's actually a pretty fun game, but she beat me every round!!

Once Jason made it home from his day of unexpected errand running we had dinner. Leftovers again, but different ones this time. We had leftover Shepard's Pie and made a new spinach, walnut and feta salad with dried blueberrues and balsamic. It was yummy an VERY filling. I spiced it up quite a bit with some of Jason's habanero sauce. That stuff is H-O-T!!!

Now we're doing a little last minute house work and getting things ready to go back to work (boo hoo) tomorrow. I hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend and isn't too bummed that it's quickly coming to an end.

Until tomorrow...

Oh Sunday...

2009-12-27T12:23:00.000-06:00

Good Morning...
Sunday is upon us and it's kind of depressing. There has been all the build up to the holiday and in a matter of minutes it was over. We have moved back into 'real life' and tomorrow brings going back to work. :( I can't complain too much though because we only work 4 days and then we're off until January 11th!! Chicago here we come...Sunday January 3rd!
Anyway - I kind of left ya hangin last night, but after a veg out session on the couch with the family and this little baby as a substitute to dinner...

We all ended up going to bed pretty early. It was much needed sleep after the crappy night of sleep the night before. Anyway - that was a little piece of my (affectionately called now) vegan pumpkin pie pudding topped with a few little scoops of my very own ice cream flavor...peppermint cookies and cream. The flavor combination was much better than I had anticipated actually. And the whole thing left me feeling full all night.

This morning we woke up to this...

Sadly it won't be enough damage to put off work one more day. St Louis is pretty used to snow by now and it takes more than an inch or two for my work to shut down due to weather. I guess I can handle 4 more days. :D

While Jason and Linsey worked on their puzzle at the table and Regan put one together on the floor...

I did more motherly duties - like make a lovely pot of oats for my loving family!! Blegh...I'm not that mushy really. Lately though I feel like Donna Reed or Carol Brady for all the home cooking and baking I'm doing. I wish I had more time to do it everyday. Being a stay at home mother would be fantastic, but it's just not realistic right now. Anyway - here's my super yummy bowl of oats with half a banana, a scoop of the All Natural Peanut Butter Co.'s White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter (it's starting to grow on me) a handful of chopped walnuts, a drizzle of honey and a shake of cinnamon.

We took the Christmas tree and all the decorations down after breakfast and now the house is slowly getting back to normal. We're going to have a quick lunch of leftover chinese and then Jason is off to do laundry while Regan takes a nap and Linsey and I play Bananagrams.

Enjoy what's left of the holiday weekend.

Real world comes back tomorrow... :(

The Holiday Craze...

2009-12-26T16:42:00.000-06:00

Happy Saturday!

Has anyone else braved the holiday craze at a mall or department store?? Wow! We just got back from the West County Mall here in St Louis, but first a quick food recap...

After a terrible nights sleep (it was freezing in our bedroom last night) we woke up late (thankfully) and headed out to have bagels and coffee with the Pomranka's (welcome back routine of normal life!) The girls had a good visit and we got to talk with Jeff a little while munching on yummy, chewy, warm gingerbread bagels with hazelnut cream cheese. Plus I threw in the large hazelnut coffee for good measure...would you have expected anything less??

After breakfast, Linsey took off for a play date with Olivia and Mia at the Pomranka house and we set off to do a little after Christmas shopping. :(

We took Regan and drove all the way out to West County Mall because Jason decided that his watch was too big to fit comfortably on his wrist and wanted to return it. So - off we went.

After returning the Hugo Boss watch and deciding there wasn't much else he was interested in we left Nordstrom to roam the rest of a mall we aren't really familiar with since we don't live all the way out in West County!! We live closer to the city and usually do all of our mall shopping at the Galleria. We found Jason's favorite store, American Eagle and spent the majority of our time there. Jason browsed for new jeans...

While Regan and I entertained ourselves in front of the GIANT mirror!! :)

Jason FINALLY decided on one pair of jeans and I returned a sweater and cami that the girls got for me. Then it was time for lunch because Regan couldn't handle anymore shopping (and truthfully neither could I!!) We decided upon California Pizza Kitchen.

We had about a 15 minute wait before getting a table so Regan and Jason played a little game of "drop/pick up" in the hallway outside.

Finally we got a table and ordered some food!! Regan refused to sit in a booster seat, but she looked SO adorable sitting at the table next to Jason that I HAD to snap a quick pic!! :D

We were all pretty hungry by then. Regan (of course) wanted mac n cheese and Jason got the Chipotle Chicken pizza. I ordered the Grilled Vegetable Salad which was romaine lettuce tossed in balsamic and then toped with warm roasted corn, sundried tomatoes, avocado, asparagus, eggplant and zucchini. It was quite tasty and HUGE (I ordered the HALF) I couldn't finish the whole thing, but I devoured a good portion of it.

We're home now and Linsey will be here in a few minutes. I gotta get laundry sorted and get some other house cleaning done before Regan wakes up from a VERY late nap.

Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend!!

Merry Christmas...EVERYONE!!

2009-12-25T20:50:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!
I hope that Santa came by your house last night. He's a pretty cool guy...

Christmas Eve dinner went off without a hitch at the Sparks' house. :) Everyone made it. Everyone enjoyed the food and then everyone went home! Just kidding...it was fun to have my family over for the holiday. We will celebrate with Jason's family on New Year's Day when they come up here and stay at his aunt's house. That should be interesting because there will be a ton of us!
Anyway, here' Christmas Eve in pictures...

Linsey was so proud of the table that she set and the name tags she made so that everyone would know where they were sitting...:)

Brie en Croute for snacking on before dinner and vegan pumpkin pie to snack on after dinner.

Two versions of Shepard's Pie (1 with beef & 1 vegetarian)

Here is the recipe...

1.75 lb ground beef (substitute veggie crumbles for veg version)

2 lbs russet potatoes (I used sweet potatoes in the veg version)

2 T cream cheese

1 lg egg yolk

1/2 c vegetable broth

salt & pepper to taste

1 T oil

1/2 c frozen peas

1 carrot chopped

1 onion chopped

2 T butter

2 T flour

1 c vegetable stock

2 t worcestershire sauce (veg version)

1 t paprika

In a large pot basically make mashed potatoes with the potatoes, cream cheese, egg yolk and vegetable broth. While that is cooking brown the ground beef and then add carrots, onion and cook for 5 minutes (if making the veg version saute the carrot and onion in the oil and then add frozen veggie crumbles). In a small saucepan melt the butter then add the flour and stir well while cooking for about 2 minutes then whisk in the vegetable stock and worcestershire sauce. Once it is thick add it to the meat or "meat" mixture in skillet. Stir in frozen peas and then transfer to a small, but deep dish and top with the potatoes making sure to spread out evenly. Cook under the broiler until potatoes are evnly browned and then serve.

The girls were ready to eat, but I don't know where everyone else is. Somehow I managed to not get one picture of my parents, my sister OR my nephew while they were here. :(

The Shepard's Pie was sooooo good!! This salad was amazing too (if I do say so myself). I tossed baby spinach and baby mixed greens with 1/4 sliced red onion, a small container of strawberries chopped, 1/2 cup (or so) of chopped walnuts with balsamic vinaigrette and then crumbled this AMAZING cinnamon cranberry goat cheese on top at the last minute. HOLY GOODNESS!!!

Then, after cooking and cleaning ALL DAY, my dinner was finished and this was what remained...

Then we spent the rest of the evening visiting and opening gifts. Once everyone went home we put the girls to bed (after Linsey put Santa through the ringer!!!) Take a look at this...

Poor Santa - not only does he have to stop at EVERY house in the WORLD, but bratty, nonbelieving kids make him jump through hoops to prove he exists...poor guy! :)

But he came through...in a BIG WAY!

MERRY CHRISTMAS...

Just as I predicted, Linsey was up at about 6:20 this morning. She woke us up in pure excitement because Santa had eaten his cookies, drunk his vanilla soymilk AND signed the letter like a good boy should. Plus he left this...

It looks like we have the next Martha Stewart or Julia Child on our hands...?

She's a blogger in the making with her new laptop (or old one rebuilt for her!)

Jason felt the urge to show off his new Hugo Boss watch!

Then it was time for me to make breakfast...

TaDa...I managed to make edible and yummy homemade biscuits!! :D

Throw in some scrambled eggs, veggie sausage, homemade gravy and good ole OJ and it was the perfect breakfast for Christmas morning.

PLUS...we got a teeny tiny bit of snow!

After a long morning of playing with all the new goodies the girls and I decided we needed a little 'snack' :)

Apparently Santa DOES bring coal to bad little girls! It comes in the form of chocolate!!

After the girls had a taste I decided it was the best time to rearrange the living room! I know...Christmas IS the best day of the year to move couches and large chairs and area rugs and end tables. But while this furniture moving was going on Jason had a little 'mishap' with our armoire resulting in a pause in the activites so that he could work with tools.

While he was fixing the drawer I was very busy looking cute and eating chocolate!

Lunch was leftovers from last night. The vegetarian Shepard's Pie was just as tasty today as it was last night.

Then we vegged on the couch while Regan took a nap and watched It's A Wonderful Life. Such a great movie...

Regan woke up just as the movie ended and we were already hungry for dinner. Jason really wanted chinese food (apparently ALL our Jewish friends eat chinese and go to the movies on Christmas) so he decided that's what we were having even if it meant he had to brave the frigid temperatures to go and get it.

I had the vegetable fried rice with LOTS of spicy mustard and two spring rolls. Then, after giving the cookie part to Regan, I read my fortune...it was GREAT!!

So I did just that...

Now it's dark and Christmas night is coming to an end so Jason, the girls and I are continuing a Christmas night tradition. We're curled up on the couch under blankets watching The Polar Express. :)

I hope that everyone who celebrates Christmas has had a wonderful day with the ones they hold close and those who don't celebrate have enjoyed the day off and the traffic free streets!

Good night...

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

2009-12-24T14:20:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I hope you have amazing plans for today and the weekend. This day has been super busy so far. See, we're having Christmas Eve dinner here tonight so i took today off because I knew I had a ton to do. We got up this morning and breakfast. I made the girls apple cinnamon waffles from Van's. They are gluten free and so tasty. I forgot to take a picture though. Linsey asked me at breakfast if I would start taking pictures of her food too! I had Sunday oats. They were a little bit of a let down because I had been dying to use the white chocolate peanut butter that I bought the other night at Target (and some moron had stuck there finger in it and put it back!!) Jason took the jar back and exchanged it for one without a finger print in it so I got to use it this morning. I had a cup of oats, 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk, tablespoon of the white chocolate peanut butter, sliced half of a banana and sprinkled a little ground flaxseed meal on top. It wasn't bad, but it was as great as I was hoping. I also had my giant coffee mug of fresh brewed coffee to get me through the morning.

After breakfast Jason took Regan to school. I felt bad sending her even though we were all at home, but I knew she would have more fun there and we would be soooo busy here. I got so much more done ahead of time with her being at school than I would have if she's stayed home. DON'T JUDGE ME!! :)

Once they were off - Linsey and I got to work making the first of many food items for tonight. We started with the pie. Who doesn't like doing dessert first? We made the vegan pumpkin pie my friend (and one of Regan's teachers) Colleen gave me the recipe for...

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

3/4 lb silken tofu (dessert style)

1 16oz can of pumpkin

1 1/2 t cinnamon

3/4 t ginger

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 t salt

1/3 cup oil

1 t vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 T molasses

1 pre-made graham cracker pie crust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together with a wisk. Then pour into pie crust. Bake for one hour and allow to cool completely.

It tastes fantastic, but for some reason it doesn't set all the way. Mine has turned out to be more of a vegan pumpkin pie pudding!! Oh well...

Once the pie is completely cooled I will take a picture, but this is what it looked like when we put it in the oven.

While Linsey and I were baking like Martha Stewart, the 'real' chef in the family (yes - he really is a chef) was busy doing 'other' chores...

Yes Ladies...he even scrubs toilets! :D

After this Jason and I proceeded to tag team a Brie en Croute and TWO versions of Shepards Pie. One is vegetarian with sweet potatoes and the other is the traditional version. I'll post ALL food pictures tonight once the festivities have ended.

Linsey is doing an AMAZING job setting the table right now and Jason will be picking Regan up from school shortly. Hey - I'm on vacation. I have no desire to walk into that place again until Monday morning.

Linsey and I are really bummed that it isn't snowing! It's been raining since yesterday which is just gross. Hopefully when Santa comes tonight he'll bring the snow with him!!

Hint Hint...

Gotta Get Crackin!!

2009-12-23T19:45:00.000-06:00

Hey Everyone!
How's your Wednesday??
Mine has been busy busy. Got up at 5:30 this morning and hit the ground running. I knew that today would be crazy at work since it's delivery day so I did all my morning stuff 30 minutes early so I could go into work 30 minutes early. It ended up really helping in the long run because we managed to get everything done so early. Kids are dropping left and right this week (for vacations not from sickness :) ) so that is helping make things a little smoother.
After things slowed down I had my breakfast. Last night I made myself a veggie egg scramble. I chopped up some red onion, two crimini caps and a roma tomato then sauted that in a little olive oil. Then I added two eggs, a splash of water,coarse sea salt and about 2 tablespoons of shredded cheddar cheese. Then put it in a tupperware container to bring it to work in this morning. I also brought two slices of Rudy's Organic Bakery 7 grain and flax bread so I could make myself a little breakfast sammich. I toasted the bread and added a little bit of apple butter. YUM!

That along with my travel mug of hazelnut coffee and I was set for the morning. I got another gift from one of the kids today, but was so excited about it that I forgot to take a picture. I got a $10 gift card to Bread Co or Panera to everyone who doesn't live in St Louis.

Work was a fast pace, but I was so thankful because it was my last day before the holiday and I really didn't want it to drag by. Linsey was there again and so were a couple other girls who's mom's work with me. They all played together so that kept her out of my hair for most of the day. :)

Then we had a quick lunch. Nothing fancy, but just enough to hold me over until I got home since I forgot to bring my lunch today.

Of course I HAD to have one of the homemade cookies a coworker brought in...it is Christmas after all! Ok I had two...and one sugar cookie, (they weren't photographed so you can't prove it!) :) but who's counting!!

I then proceeded to help get my other coworkers set up for tomorrow since I won't be there (thank goodness) and then made three sheet trays full of sugar cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies for snack for the entire school. Once that was finished and snack was handed out we packed it up and headed out. The girls and I all came home and rested for a while in front of the tv. I think we all needed it for some reason.

Jason made it home sometime after that and then I made dinner.

(after watching a Real Housewives of NYC TiVo marathon)

Dinner was simple. Thin whole wheat spaghetti with a portabella red sauce. I did have one piece of cheesy Texas toast, but one never killed anyone.

Sorry for the terrible picture, but the lighting in our house sucks and something is wrong with the crackberry. It has been acting strange since yesterday. The flash is sooooo bright that it basically lights people on fire!

Oh well. Gotta get crackin. Lots to wrap and want to get a head start on house cleaning. Tomorrow's the big day around the Sparks' house. I have a really great menu planned and I think everything will work out well.

Peace out and Merry Christmas...I'm praying for snow!

JACKPOT!!!

2009-12-22T21:02:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys!
Sorry it's so late tonight, but this day has been hectic. I was up at 5:30, did 30 intense minutes of pilates and then made the menu AND wrote out my shopping list for Christmas Eve dinner all by 6:45. Whew...
Once at work I was STARVING! So I made my oats...sunflower butter, pear butter, spoonful of ground flaxseed meal, sprinkle of craisins, half a banana sliced and then (since my white chocolate peanut butter idea was shot to hell) half of a chocolate mint candy cane crushed up ON TOP!! :) It was so yummy...

Doesn't that look tasty?!?!

And then - I hit the JACKPOT! We had our Secret Santa exchange and potluck in the Infant/Toddler room that I work in in the afternoons. The rule was we couldn't spend more or less than $20 and we HAD to keep it a secret. To help out our 'Santa' we had to fill out an informational sheet answering a bunch of questions about ourselves. My Secret Santa either knew me well before or followed my survey to the letter because I got...

Hello coffee - let's get better acquainted!

Then I got a gift from a parent whose daughter is one of my special diet kids becuase she has extreme allergies to dairy and eggs. And the director of the school gave us all mini banana nut bread loafs with 'Thank You' cards for being such great employees.

Today was an all around great day.

Work went by smooth and easy and then Linsey and I had some lunch because she's with me EVERYDAY until we leave for our vacation. Lunch was simple yet tasty - vegetarian spaghetti, sweet corn, garlic bread and a SoBe life water that was surprisingly very good.

I finished out the day with no snags or troubles, picked up Regan and then we headed off to the (dreaded) grocery store. It was C-R-A-Z-Y and Regan was NOT in the mood to be shopping so all together the trip was less than fabulous, but I held it together (barely) and got everything I needed for Christmas Eve dinner.

Jason made it home before us (thank god) so he helped me with ALL the groceries and making dinner. I had a huge asian salad with dried blueberries and a sesame ginger dressing. I topped it with two Morningstar Farms asian patties. We all sat around the table together (rare for a week night) and then Jason headed off to a meeting where HE was the speaker (so proud!). Once he left I snuck into the kitchen and had about four spoonfuls of my very own (made especially for me by Jason) peppermint cookies n cream. I'm so bummed though because something is wrong with my blackberry and I can't transfer the pictures I took tonight to my computer. :( Maybe I'll get a digital camera for Christmas...(hint, hint, hint)

Oh well...I'll try again tomorrow and show you the AMAZING ice cream that was made just for me! :)

Until then...3 days until Christmas!!

Goodnight...

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

2009-12-21T22:23:00.001-06:00

So Jason, the girls and I had some really yummy chili and corn bread muffins for dinner. I have to say that it was quite a tasty meal. I love chili in the winter time. :)

After crunmbling one muffin into my bowl I decided halfway through dinner that I needed one more...they were just so good.
Then we got the girls ready and ventured out to see Santa. It's a yearly tradition that has gone well every year so far (except when Linsey was 2 years old) and we figured tonight would be good too. Uh...NO! It started out sweet and funny and loving and full of Holiday Cheer...

Jason (aka @chefsparks79 for my readers who tweet!) has decided this is the perfect time to take up tweeting again. He was just in shock at how many people brought their dogs to have pictures taken with Santa! :D

And then it was our turn to see Santa and have the yearly traditional photo taken. I snapped a quick shot with my blackberry too...

Yep...Regan backed out at the last minute. Then when we paid and walked awy she realized she'd missed her chance and all hell broke loose.

That's our girl!!

We managed to get her calmed down by the time we got to the car. We made a quick trip to Target and I found something that looked so tasty. I was very excited about adding this to my oats in the morning so I bought it...

Looks really good huh!? Yep...I thought so too. So once we got home and got the girls into bed I started getting my things ready for tomorrow. I got my clothes out, wrapped my gift for my Secret Santa person in the classroom I work in and then started on my oats (a very important part of my day) and when I opened the jar THIS is what I found!!!

Can you believe that someone would do that!?!?!? I was so pissed and then bummed because I was so looking forward to having this in my breakfast tomorrow morning, but my HERO of a husband is going to take it back to Target in the morning and get it exchanged for me. He does drive right by it on his way to work after all...Thanks Honey! You rock my socks and hopefully after all this the new peanut butter does too. :)

Goodnight everyone...

4 days and counting!!

2009-12-21T16:38:00.000-06:00

Afternoon everyone!
How is your Monday so far? Mine went super smooth. I got up at 5:45 and did 30 minutes of heart pumping Pilates and realized that I am not flexible at all. I love my DVD, but have realized that I will quickly tire of doing the same one over and over so I need to buy some new ones. Any suggestions??
Made it to work on time, sent out ALL my bills and made my breakfast. I couldn't wait to have oats with the pear butter I made yesterday. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. The pear butter tastes great, but gets over powered by the sunflower butter pretty easily. I also added half of a small banana, and the last two Pepperidge Farms Ginger Man cookies. THANK GOODNESS THEY'RE GONE!!! I could literally hear them calling my name from the kitchen a few times. Really - I could!

Jason made it in with girls about 9:00 (after sneaking off to Bread Co for breakfast WITHOUT me) and surprised me with a coffee. He probably felt guilty! :D

Since Linsey's on 'Winter Break' she's with me at work for the next two weeks. I thought for a minute or two that I was going to have to give her a beating for arguing with me, but she quickly realized that I am the boss and arguing with the boss while she's at work is a super quick way to get herself in serious trouble. So after a quick pep talk from Daddy on the phone - her attitude did a total 180!! Then we had lunch...

Linsey was spoiled and got to have her favorite meal on the planet...Mac N Cheese! She ate the broccoli with little fight (good thing too) and then worked on some of the homework she has to do for the week that she'll be out of school for our family vacay!! Then she read her Harry Potter book for almost two hours. She's trying to earn a free ticket to Six Flags by entering a reading contest and reading for six hours. She'll have it by the new year.

I had a super yummy and some what spicy sandwich for lunch. It was mayo, honey mustard, bibb lettuce, red onion, roma tomatoes, swiss cheese and Yves deli 'ham' on a whole wheat Arnold sandwich thin. The best part were the Eckert's zesty bread and butter pickles...YUM!

The rest of the day was a snap and then it was over. The girls and I made it home in time to have a snack before dinner. Linsey and Regan had a fiber one bar and nutri-grain bar (respectively) and I had half of one of the best CLIF bars I've ever had...

It was so hard to only eat half of this bar, but I told myself I would be able to indulge in the other half tomorrow and that made it easier! :)

I'm going to spend a little time with the girls before Jason gets home and then we'll have dinner. We're taking the girls to see Santa tonight and they are soooo stoked!! Secretly...so am I! I cannot believe that Christmas is in 4 days...:) :) :)

I should be in bed...

2009-12-20T22:25:00.000-06:00

Hey All!

How's it going?

My alarm is set for 5:30 tomorrow morning and my pilates DVD is already in the DVD player so I really should be in bed, but what can I say? I'm on a roll today!

So like I said earlier, I made pear butter and a huge pot of chili tonight. I got so caught up with making the pear butter and cleaning the kitchen that I totally didn't eat lunch until 4:30 and whent he chili was ready about two hours later I was still stuffed. So I skipped it and finished some house work that needed to be done.

The pear butter turned out FANTASTIC! I am already prepared to eat some in my ~~Sunday~~ Saturday oats tomorrow.

I made it like this-

I had some pears that were REALLY ripe and going to be bad within a day or two So I cored them and chopped them up and dropped them into a saucepan. Here's the actual recipe I came up with...

6 ripe pears cored and chopped

3-4 T orange juice

1/8 c brown sugar

1/8 c white sugar

1 c water (which ended up being a little too much so I would 3/4 c next time)

1 tsp salt

few sprinkles cinnamon

And you get this...

Let it come to a boil, then turn the heat WAY DOWN and cover it for about 30 minutes. You can either blend it in a blender or mash it up with a potato masher. We have a stick blender which is so much easier. Then you have this...

(totally freaked out that you can see the chili splatter on my stove!)

Since it was a little runny Jason made a cornstarch slurry (about 1 T corn starch and 2 T water) to help thicken it up. After it sat on the stove with the heat turned off it began to thicken up even more.

While the pear butter AND chili were cooking and after the kitchen was cleaned I decided I needed to eat something. Of course, like I said, it was 4:30, but food had to be consumed so I finished what vegetable fried rice Jason had left for me. I added some frozen peas to it and cut up the last two pieces of fried tofu to go on top. I drizzled a little dark soy sauce and sirarchi on top and was good to go.

Sadly I have no photos of the chili, but Jason says it was super yummy. He made some corn bread muffins to go along with it. It's just something we have to have in this house when having chili. Don't fight it - just go with it. Tonight's chili was a little different because it was almost ALL beans. Here's THAT recipe...

6 garlic cloves chopped

1 white onion chopped

sweat those in a little olive oil then add the following...

1 can black beans drained

1 can white kidney beans drained

1 can red kidney beans drained

2 cans garbanzo beans drained

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 reg can fire roasted tomatoes

1 can sweet kernal corn

Bring to a boil then reduce heat to the lowest and cover for 30-45 minutes stirring often.

At this point add one whole bag Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumbles and let cook another 10 minutes and then enjoy!!

Jason went to a meeting and I gave the girls a bath, got jammies on, brushed and braided hair, read a bedtime story and threw their little butts in bed! :D

Once Jason got home I decided I was a tad hungry (shocker!) so I made myself a little snack...

PB&J on a whole wheat Arnold sandwich thin.

Now it's off to bed before Jason decides to throw away the computer!

Good night...

Say What??!!??!!

2009-12-20T15:34:00.000-06:00

Afternoon readers...
Well, I've spent the biggest part of my Sunday sitting at my computer working. Hopefully someday all this writing will actually pay some bills as opposed to just taking up my time. Don't get me wrong, I love to write. I love my blog. I love foodbuzz.com. I love writing for the Examiner, but I love my husband and my girls too. If I keep doing this as a 'hobby' they might start to get upset. My dream is to turn all these things into my 'fulltime' job. I will continue to have my fingers crossed.
So, like I said, been behind the computer all day. I did, however, finish my Sunday Segment article. So check it out and let me know your thoughts.

I also read, while working, that Brittany Murphy has died!!! Say what!?!? I loved her in Clueless, 8 Mile, Little Black Book and that one with Ashton Kutcher. She was very pretty, but I always thought she had a very unhealthy look about her. She seemed much too thin. Now, I get that exact statement from my family all the time, but something about her looked unhealthy. Maybe it was just me. Anyway, I send prayers to her family and friends. It is never easy losing someone so unexpectedly.

Not sure what this tweet from Perez hilton means, but...kind of creepy, "Yes, it's true. R.I.P. Britanny Murphy. Details at http://PerezHilton.com God will punish that husband of hers!" Guess I might have to go on over there and read whatever he's talking about, but first I have pear butter, veggie chili and cornbread to make!!

Until next time...

Sunday Morning Pancakes - Christmas Style!

2009-12-20T12:01:00.000-06:00

Happy Sunday!!!
We're at 5 days and counting...
I can't believe it! I feel the holiday cheer in the air so this morning I HAD to make Christmas inspired pancakes. I must say - they were quite yummy!!

Christmas Pancakes
1 c flour
1 c old fashioned oats
1 t sugar
1 t splenda
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 1/2 c eggnog
2 t vanilla
Ener-G egg replacer (to equal 2 eggs)
1/8 c pomegranate apple sauce
1/8 c cinnamon apple sauce
Then mix!
White chocolate chips were dropped in once pancakes were in the pan!! :)
Then 'snow' fell on them in the form of shredded coconut and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Of course - no Sunday morning pancake breakfast would be complete without the To Do List mug of coffee! It is my favorite mug after all. It's my favorite because it's G-I-A-N-T!!! I need some more giant mugs, but haven't been able to find any I like OR that are big enough. Oh well...

Hope everyone is enjoying the last Sunday before Christmas. Remember, this is supposed to be a time of family, friends and good cheer. Don't go crazy with the money spending or trying to find the PERFECT gift. Being with the ones you love is all the gift you really need...:)

Check back tonight for my Sunday Segment - Beef: Should it be what's for dinner?

Hello Grinch - We are the Sparks Family.

2009-12-19T20:48:00.000-06:00

Hi Guys! :)
Hope you're enjoying your Saturday wherever you are. Ours hasn't been too bad. We've spent the entire day (after breakfast of course) inside doing housework or eating! :D Hey - what else is there to do on a freezing cold, dreary Saturday? We managed to get the entire house clean except for dishes and laundry which will get done tomorrow. Both of the girls rooms are SPOTLESS, but won't be by tomorrow...BET!?

Jason's been jacking around working on the old laptop ALL DAY with no luck. He's finally given up for the night much to my surprise. He even skipped dinner which was really shocking, but not to worry. I'm sure he'll find himself in the kitchen at some point before bed. That is a double BET!?

The girls had the last of the leftover pasta from dinner the other night with Morningstar farms veggie nuggets and clementines. I had a little something that has been staring at me from the freezer forever now. Every time I open the door it's there, looking at me, calling for me and I've resisted - until tonight.

As you can see - I held strong and only enjoyed half of this EXTREMELY fattening dish. I love Trader Joe's, but just because most of their products are great doesn't mean that all of them are really great for you. Please don't be offended TJ, but you know it's true. Nothing can be perfect all the time. I'm on a pear and PB kick these last few days, but what can I say? It's really yummy and satisfies the sweet tooth without being too bad for me. The drizzle of honey gives it an extra kick of sweet. Totally worth it!

Now it's time to kick back on the couch in our jammies with the girls and watch one of the best holiday movies I know...

"Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you? Why have you gone away?..." Oh Cindy Lou Who - sing it girl! Help the Grinch find the L-O-V-E!!!

Goodnight everyone.

Until tomorrow...

Lazy Day??

2009-12-19T16:24:00.000-06:00

Hi Again!
Today has been an odd Saturday. It is super cold outside and I'm still not feeling 100%, but have been really busy all the same. Linsey and Olivia have stayed hold up in Linsey's room since we got back from breakfast so we have hardly seen them (except when they wanted food!) Jason and I did housework and he did geeky tech stuff to the old laptop (which is still not working) and Regan played all around the house until nap time. I tried to get her to eat some lunch first, but she insisted she wasn't hungry so she hasn't eaten since breakfast. I wish I could say the same.
By about 2:00 I realized I was STARVING and we really don't have much to fix for lunches except sandwiches and it's too cold for that in my opinion. So Jason decided that having chinese food delivered was the best idea. Anything to stay indoors I guess. :) I had some vegetable fried rice with three pieces of fried tofu and a really yummy dipping sauce.

I couldn't eat the vegetable roll (too peppery) so I gave it to Jason, but managed to wolf down everything else on my plate. I was so full, but in no time was sort of hungry again. Damn chinese food!! So I had this little treat to satisfy my sweet tooth...

So now I'm going to try and get some more housework done before Regan wakes up from her nap. Still have a kitchen to clean and laundry to sort.

But first a question for my readers: Does anyone have any good workout videos to recommend? I need something that is between 30 minutes to an hour that will give me a good burn at 6:00 in the morning. :D

A 'Snowy' Saturday...

2009-12-19T11:41:00.000-06:00

Mornin peeps!
I have been hearing about all this snow happening in the NorthEast causing flights to be canceled left and right and I feel kind of bad for the 'snow' that we got. Once we were up and ready we headed out to brave the 'tundra' in our frontyard. :)

It was cold though...so I had to let the car warm up!

Then we headed off to meet Jeff, Olivia and Mia for breakfast at Bread Co. We haven't been in a few Saturdays and I must confess - it's not as much fun to drive as it is when we walk. The walking gives it a little more adventure and feels like we really deserve the bagels and coffee. Like we worked hard for it or something. Oh well - the bagels still tasted good and the coffee was still hot. All wasn't lost in the morning. The girls had a good time. Jason, Jeff and I got to chat grown up style. A good morning was had all around.

Jeff is a sutterbug too...can you tell? How many people take there camera's to Bread Co on a Saturday morning to take pictures of people eating bagels and drinking coffee? Well - I DO!!

Regan enjoyed her bagel and had fun playing with Mia from across the table.

Jason was busy being goofy while I tried to get a good picture of him so this is what he gets stuck with this morning. Maybe next time he'll cooperate? Doubtful...

I went the holiday route this morning and tried the Gingerbread bagel with honey walnut cream cheese and my usual large hazelnut coffee. It was very yummy! (despite what the guy behind the counter said)

Oh sweet nectar of the gods!

The morning ended with the girls running around the shop and the grown ups deciding it was time to call it quits. So we packed up and brought the gang back to our house for a while. The girls played in Linsey's room while the grown ups did techy stuff.

Jeff and Mia have gone home, Regan's crying because Linsey and Olivia won't let her in the bedroom, Jason's still trying to fix the old laptop and I need to clean house.

Welcome to my life. :D

Don't Call me MOMMY!!!

2009-12-18T20:40:00.000-06:00

WOW! My night went to hell in a hand basket faster than I could blink.
Jason said that he and Linsey were going to go out and finish the shopping they had tried to do last weekend. At first I thought he might take Regan too, but was quickly informed it would be much easier to shop without her. I'm sure it would. I've shopped many times with both girls and know how difficult it can be, but I figured - no problem. Regan and I will hang out at home and play with her toys and just chill while they gor some Daddy/Daughter time.
Boy was I W-R-O-N-G!!! Regan was PISSED! She let Jason know before he even walked out the door that she wanted to go too and she would not be satisfied until that was the case. Well, that wasn't the case and I paid for it the rest of the night. She cried and screamed and threw things and hit me and I finally put her in her bed (about ten minutes after they left :D) to work it out on her own. About five minutes later I hear a little voice from down the hall say, "My body's calm Mommy." Sure. She suckered me. I fell for it and went in there. I picked her up only to have her start crying as soon as we made it back to the living room and she realized they were still gone and she was still not.
We managed to have dinner. Nothing fancy at that point. Just a baked potato topped with some shredded cheese, light sour cream, roasted garlic hummus and sea salt which she and I shared.

As you can see, she calmed down long enough to eat a little dinner, but quickly went right back to the event of the evening when she realized Daddy and Sissy were still gone and she was ~~stuck~~ at home with me! All I've heard all night is, "I wanna go shopping!" "Daddy Sissy come back." My head is about to explode!

We shared a pear with peanut butter and honey which she asked for and then only took about two bites because she couldn't stop crying long enough to eat any of it. She finally cried herself to sleep on the couch...

After this I let her be on the couch for a little while and enjoyed a nice bowl of Jason's (he whom I ~~loathe~~ love right now) butter pecan ice cream and added a little extra yumminess by way of two Pepperidge Farms Ginger Man cookies. It's kind of an addiction and luckily there's only a few cookies left in the bag.

I finally carried the BabyBeast to her room and she's sleeping (like a princess) in her bed with her BoBo (teddy bear) and BB (blanket). Hopefully she sleeps in tomorrow because I plan to. At least until 8ish because we've been invited to have bagels and coffee with our friends The Pomranka's at Bread Co on the Loop. We've missed a few Saturday's and I really wish it was going to be warm enough to walk.

That's all my brain can pump out for tonight...

So...Yeah.

2009-12-18T15:45:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys! :D
I am ECSTATIC that the work week is O-V-E-R!!! I can't even tell you how glad I am. I have had a rough week (again) and this time it was all because of this stupid cold. I mean, come on - I made it through H1N1 in my house without getting sick. I made it through Regan getting sick with whatever she had and Jason got sick and all the while I stayed healthy. Then out of nowhere I get knocked out with - A COLD? Really? But I am feeling a little better this afternoon. I decided that a positive attitude works just as well as all those crazy chemicals in medicines so that's what I'm using...my good spirits! So far so good. :)

Last night we made 'burgers and fries' for dinner. They were quite yummy. I do love the Morningstar farms Mushroom lovers burger and crispy spicy french fries with b-b-q sauce for dipping sent the meal over the edge.

I apologize for the crappy photo. I didn't realize it looked like that until just now. :(

Today went by super fast because I've been running since 7:00 this morning. Flying solo on Friday's has become like second nature and I actually enjoy having the place to myself to listen to music and do my thing.

Breakfast was slightly different this morning. I'm in a gingerbread cookie kind of mood I guess because I had Sunday oats as usual. You know - sunflower butter, apple butter, vanilla soymilk, 1/2 apple chopped, but then I broke up 2 Pepperidge Farms Ginger Man cookies and sprinkled them on top of the oats for some extra crunch and ginger goodness. YUM!!!

Jason decided to take the girls to Bread Co for breakfast before school and, to my surprise, he filled my heart with joy (and my tummy with Hazelnut coffee!) with this treat...

God Bless that big, red cup. It is filled with Hazelnut-y goodness and what I need to make it through the day. I love you big, red cup and Jason too (of course). The day flew by and I got in a much needed work out (sort of) because today I even ate my lunch while standing. I walked, ran and moved all day long. I even lifted chairs and pushed brooms. I'm telling you - I was a busy girl!

I also found out who my super great Secret Santa was today. Nancy got me an amazing last gift...

On the questionaire we had to fill out it asked what things we enjoyed doing and one of the things I said was writing. So Nancy got me this really beautiful journal and I adore what it says on the front...

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars."

I kind of feel like that is what I'm doing with this blog. My dream is write and get paid for it. I feel very strongly that this blog is the key to getting there. Thanks Nancy! I'm shooting for the moon.

Lunch (the one I ate standing up) was leftover pasta from dinner the other night with three Morningstar Farms Buffalo Wings on top. It was decent. I could at least taste the heat of the buffalo wings. I'm telling you - this cold has made eating kind of no fun. I can't taste things unless the flavors are BIG!

I guess I had a thing for blue bowls today - totally by accident.

I got off about an hour early today which made the day even better. So the girls and I are at home having snack - Nutri Grain bars for them & a LARABAR for me thanks to my super great Secret Santa!

Saying good bye for now. Going to hang out with the girls till Jason gets home and then I think he's taking them Christmas shopping again. Maybe they'll have better luck this time. :)

And Then...

2009-12-17T17:45:00.000-06:00

Hey Peeps! Sorry for the disappearing act yesterday, but by the time I got home my cold had turned into something that was kicking my butt. I managed to make dinner for the girls, eat dinner with them and then we were ALL in bed by 8:00pm. Instead of giving you all the details of yesterday I'm going to show you how the day went.
Wednesday...
Breakfast

Secret Santa

Work... Then Lunch

Lunch was pretty random because I had been craving a baked sweet potato. So I baked one at home, and packed it for my lunch. In a seperate container I packed some brown sugar, walnuts and craisins to put on top. But (dummy me) I forgot the second container so had to come up with something else to put on top of my super yummy baked sweet potato. I ended up making a veggie burger and then putting leftover steamed veggies with cheese on top of the whole thing. My cold was getting pretty bad by this point so if it didn't taste good I didn't realize it. :D

Work ended (thankfully) then Snack

Dinner with the girls

Something Sweet

Then off to bed...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thursday...

Today has been a pretty go, go, go kind of day. First I slept a long time last night, but still felt pretty bad when I woke up. Luckily I got to sleep in a little bit because Jason's last final was at 7:30 this morning so it was my job to get the girls to school. No biggie. We slept in a little, got showers and then had breakfast together. It was actually quite nice despite the fact that I felt like my face was going to explode!

I made us oatmeal to share. Regan's got a little apple butter. Linsey opted for leftover biscuits with cinnamon sugar and they both had an applesauce. My oatmeal had sunflower butter, apple butter and a broken up ginger snap from the cookie party last weekend. It was really yummy.

Once I got Linsey to school Regan and I went to school. I got her dropped off at her classroom and got to work. The day wasn't too bad and by then my medicine had started to do it's job. I got the last 'secret' gift from my Secret Santa and tomorrow we reveal who we are...

I have to say that I have the BEST Secret Santa!!

Three larabars in one week!!!

Once lunch rolled around I was pretty hungry because my bowl of Sunday oats was smaller than usual since I gave up some of it to Regan. Today was a leftover day. I warmed up the last two pieces of veggie pizza and had a cutie to amp up my vitamin C intake. Some very bad person brought a cake in for everyone and when I walked by (after waiting most of the day to go to the bathroom JUST so I wouldn't see it) there was ONE piece left. ONE PIECE!!! And it was a corner...how can they do that to me?! So, I took it and ate it with pleasure. It was a small piece and I only ate one of my cuties so I didn't feel that guilty.

I was hungry for my snack earlier than normal today probably because my lunch wasn't really all that good for me or all that filling. So I had my Secret Santa gift along with a small bottle of orange juice. I'm determined to kick this cold.

I finished out the day in Regan's classroom. Today's weather was surprisingly nice for this late in December and the kids were having a ball playing outside. I couldn't stand to tear Regan away from her friends or outside time so we hung out a little longer.

Once we got home I did a week's worth of dirty dishes and now we're just hanging out waiting for Jason to come home so we can have dinner. I'm really ready for the weekend this week...

I'm SOOOOOO ashamed...

2009-12-15T20:51:00.000-06:00

Hey guys.
Before I go into detail regarding my very shameful behavior I want to wish my grandmother, Phyllis, (who is a devoted reader because she has this amazing and sometimes uncanny ability to believe in every one of our silly little dreams or desires or whatever's without judgement and with unbelievable commitment) a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! That comes all the way from St Louis down to Springfield with all the love my 'selfish and exhausted and never a dull moment around here' heart can handle! Linsey and Regan say Happy Birthday too (Jason would I'm sure, but he's at work) we miss not seeing you everyday since moving away and know I don't call enough or come down enough, but also know that you're ok with it (for the most part) because you want me to be the best mother I can be and a lot of times that means staying up here when we really should take a weekend trip down to where you are. We love you so much!!! :)

Now - let the shaming begin.
I came home a little early from work today because of Regan being "sick" (I seriously think she faked us out) and Jason needing to get to work. I owned up to eating two workout cookies as a snack with Regan while watching Olivia shortly after she woke up from her nap. I must confess that two more workout cookies went unphotographed and landed straight in my mouth!! It's shameful - I know. You're only allowed to eat ONE workout cookie after actually WORKING OUT!!!!!!!!!!
Then Regan and I went out in the freezing cold to pick up Linsey from dance and I really had no idea what I was going to make for dinner. My nose is still really stuffy, I'm tired from the lack of sleep lastnight and the cold weather just draws out every bit of energy I have. I really do think I need to live some where warm, but that's an entirely seperate post!
I finally decided on butternut squash soup, but knew Linsey wouldn't go for it. So I told her (here's more shame) that it was 'yellow tomato soup' and she believed me. She still didn't really like it, but she at least tried which is a major step for her (even though I lied!) she managed to gulp down four spoonfuls followed by four giant gulping sounding drinks of water before I let her eat her grilled cheese sandwich. I added garlic and parmesean croutons, sour cream, sea salt, black pepper and a TINY bit of sirarchi to mine. YUM! I paired it with one half of a grilled (muenster) cheese sandwich. Regan ate the other half. :)

After the guilt of the 'meal I lied about' I offered up an 'I'm sorry' piece of chocolate to both girls. While they each had one hershey's kiss and one reeses peanut butter cup I ate THREE peanut butter cups (again unphotographed because I knew it was wrong :( at the time) of course they were the miniatures, but still... I may have to move to a different state where the shame of the entire evening won't follow me!!!

Anyway, if you follow me on twitter you may have already seen this, but I put out a request to all my readers - tomorrow morning at 5:30 BLOW UP my inbox (I get my email on my phone and my phone is my alarm clock so it's right next to my bed) with messages that read GET UP AND WORK OUT!!!. My email address is realfitmama@gmail.com - let's see how well this works.

Now - I have this waiting for me...

So I'm calling it a night.

Good night...

Another Day Another Sandwich

2009-12-15T15:50:00.000-06:00

Hey Peeps!
How's your day going? Mine hasn't been too bad. I crashed on you lastnight during our GLEE marathon and pizza picnic. Here's what you missed ~
Linsey, Regan and I had a picnic on the living room floor while we watched the last 3 episodes of GLEE! We were a little behind and HAD to get caught up. Last night was the perfect night to do that because the weather was yucky, I was tired and the girls begged for pizza. Here's how it all went down...Do you watch GLEE? OMG!!!!

Looking at these pictures reminds me that we still have to go and buy Regan a new stocking. Somehow her's got lost when we moved. :(

As you can see - I had the Pacific Veggie pizza on thin crust. For delivery pizza it cannot be beat, but I forgot the most important part - ADDING PINEAPPLES!!

Regan and I both had a rough night when it came to sleeping. My nose is now officially stuffed up and I could not breathe last night to save my life. Apparently Regan wasn't feeling well either because she woke up about 3 times throughout the night crying for various reasons. She ended up staying home with Jason today who was studying for finals and I (sadly) still had to go to work. I woke up with the worst headache and skipped the morning workout. The cold weather moved back in overnight so running outside wasn't happening anyway. Jason and I are getting a gym membership after the first of the year and I can't wait!

I ran late again this morning, but once I made it to work I was super hungry. Sunday oats were calling my name. This morning's mixture was 1/2 fresh pear, 1 c Sunday oats, 1/2 c vanilla soymilk, 2 scoops of apple butter, a big scoop of sunflower butter and a few craisins.

Day 2 of the Secret Santa went EXCELLENTLY!! I am in LOVE with whoever my Secret Santa is! Look at what he/she got for me today... :)

Two larabars AND free tickets to the Botanical Garden!! YAY! :)

That will be a really fun Saturday trip for Jason and I to take the girls on. Hopefully we'll have time to go this weekend.

Not much could top the excitement of my Secret Santa gift and it kept humming and singing (to myself of course) all the way up to lunch. I ended up eating my lunch standing up because I knew I would get too tired too fast if I sat down. So I ate AND worked all at the same time. I'm a sucker for a good sandwich (obviously) and today's would have tasted AMAZING if my tastebuds weren't being stolen away by this stupid head cold I'm trying really hard not to fall victim to! It was roasted garlic hummus, muenster cheese, sliced red onion, bibb lettuce, jalapeno-black olives, sliced roma tomatoes and avacado slices. YUM! I felt the need for a vitamin C jump start so I had two cuties to go with it.

I ended my day early because I was lucky enough to do that today and hurried home so that Jason could go to work for the evening. Regan woke up literally 5 minutes after I walked in the door. DAMN! I was really hoping to take a little nap, but oh well. She and I had a snack in my bed while watching 'Olivia' on Noggin. She had a cheese tick and a graham cracker and I had 2 (unphotographed) workout cookies. Maybe that will guilt me in to doing an actual workout tonight!? We'll have to go pick LInsey up from dance at 6:00 so Ray and I are going to veg until it's time to go. It's so cold outside and the lucky duck is still in her PJ's anyway.

Run Free...

2009-12-14T17:01:00.000-06:00

Hey Peeps!
How goes it today?

For those of you who can actually SEE 'realfitmama' I apologize if you're having trouble. I was informed over the weekend that a lot of readers can't get onto the website and I got super freaked out. I'm not sure what the problem is because all the website work is being done on the new site and not this one. I've been doing a little trial and error to see if I can fix it, but have had no luck thus far. I'm hoping that realfitmama.com will be up and running VERY soon so this problem is dead and gone, but until then PLEASE be patient. I'm trying to get it fixed. On another note...

I have really had the BEST Monday ever and it's crazy because nothing really happened. I did manage to drag myself out of bed at 5:45 this morning and go for a run. I kicked out 2 miles in 22 minutes! That felt pretty good considering I hadn't been running in almost 2 weeks!! :(
I rewarded myslef with a little treat idea that I stole from Tina's (Carrots N Cake) health.com post. You can find her recipe here.
My version of the 'Workout Cookie' is slightly altered because of what I had available at home lastnight. To make 'Maria's Workout Cookie' use the following recipe...

1/4 c flour
3/4 c old fashioned oats
1/4 c ground flaxseed meal
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c raisins
1/2 t cinnamon
4oz non-fat plain greek yogurt
1/8 c canola oil
1/2 large very ripened mashed banana

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl with freshly washed hands (because it's more fun) and divide evenly into a lightly greased 12 opening muffin tin. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then enjoy one cookie after a really good work out!! :) Here's my 6:45 in the morning treat...super YUM!

I ran very late this morning because of a multitude of factors - the main one being I have children and they have NO concept of time or schedules. Then while searching for my keys, I found our newest addition, Maggie, hiding out here...(notice that I made time to take these pictures :D)

Sorry that the first picture is so grainy - my blackberry is somewhat tempermental in the mornings too!Maggie was just chillin like Bob Dylan watching all of us crazy two legged people run around the house like -well- crazy people! :D

I finally made it to work (about 10 minutes late) and got the day going. Our Secret Santa started today so I dropped my gift off and realized that there was ALREADY one for me there. That means my Secret Santa gets to work early also. Hmmmm... Here's what I got today.

YAY!! CAFFEINE!!

After being super stoked that I had a giant Diet Dr Pepper to go with my lunch I got down to the business of breakfast. My breakfast that is. I had the usual combination, but since Jason went out and bought me the ground flaxseed meal I added about spoonful to my oats. HELLO!? YUM-O! Along with that there was the last (boo hoo) of my pumpkin butter (about 1 huge spoonful), two spoonfuls of sunflower butter, a few dried cherries and blueberries, one very small banana and 1/2 cup of vanilla soymilk.

The work day went by like a faint memory. And then it was time for lunch. I wasn't all that hungry after my morning 'cookie' and huge bowl of oats (that I honestly couldn't finish) so I only ate the sandwich I brought. I had a pear to go with it, but I couldn't even take a bite. I saved it for tomorrow, but I ate every bite of my sandwich (it was small) and drank ALL of my first Secret Santa gift.

Today's sandwich was on a multi grain Arnold Sandwich Thin with mayo, dijon mustard, bibb lettuce, jalepeno-black olives, sliced red onion, muenster cheese and Yves roasted chik-n. It was only so-so, but just enough to fill me up.

It has gotten really cold compared to this morning's 40 degrees at 6am so the girls and I are just going to chill 'comfy clothes' style tonight and wait for Jason to get home from his first of three finals. I'm pretty tired and scared that I'm starting to get sick so I have no energy to cook tonight. The girls have talked me into pizza and sadly, I gave in.

Sue me...

Time for bed...

2009-12-13T22:54:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm keeping my promise - sort of. I've decided to do my Sunday Segment on examiner.com and link to it from here. That way I can talk fun stuff with you guys and do serious stuff on the freelance end. But have no fear - my article tonight is INTENSE!!! Just click here to go right to "What kind of children are we growing?" I think it's my best one yet!!

Dinner
Tonight I had the hankering ( :) love that word) for a scrambled egg sandwich so that's just what I had. I toasted a multi grain Arnold Sandwich Thin and scrambled an egg then topped it with a slice of Trader Joe's organic cheddar cheese, Morningstar Farms veggie bacon and a piece of bibb lettuce. I paired it with a yummy little cutie!

After that the girls and I read the cutest book called Mystery at Eatum Hall. If you have kids I highly recommend this book. It's really funny and has super cute illustrations. After I got them in bed I became a baking machine. I made a dozen pumpkin muffins with the help of Trader Joe's. I used the Pumpkin Bread & Muffin kit, but added the other half of canned pumpkin from breakfast this morning. I hope that Jason and the girls enjoy them for breakfast over the next couple of days. Then I made something called a Work Out Cookie that I found on Carrots N Cake's examiner page. You can find the recipe by clicking the link and following it to her blog.

I'm looking forward to running in the morning because it's supposed to be about 44 degrees by 6:00 tomorow morning.

I have to say good night now before Jason rips the keyboard out from under my fingers and throws it out the window! :D

GOODNIGHT!!!

After the cookies are all gone...

2009-12-13T18:33:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys!
Let me tell you a quick snippet about the '5 Holas' Cookie Party! The Holahan's are our dear friends and their kids are friends with our kids and so on and so forth. We are part of a little 'group' or whatever you want to call us who have kids (all the oldest ones) in the same grade at the same elementary school. We have been friends for quite a few years now and spend quite a bit of time together in different capacities at different times, but when we can ALL come together it's loud and rowdy and fun. Tonight's party was our 'group' which consisted of us, the Barnes', the Pomranka's and the Holahan's (lovingly known as the 5 Holas now because there are 5 of them) plus a TON of other people and their kids some we knew and some we didn't. It's just a fun couple of hours of chatting, eating cookies, fruit and drinking coffee while the kids run around and destroy the house...as kids will often do. :)
I was very well behaved because the spread was huge (sadly NOT photographed) but I stuck to a couple pieces of fruit, one cracker with cheese and my choice of three cookies (two were the smae one cause it was that good) and that was it. I mostly talked with the people there and tried to make sure Regan didn't get knocked down the stairs or run over by the older boys. Good times!

Jason, John and Regina enjoying some conversation and coffee. They weren't really interested in being photographed so i just snapped while they ignored me. :)

Jeff is enjoying his coffee and trying to look distinguished. He's also super proud of himself because he didn't eat one thing the entire time we were at the party. GOOD JOB JEFF!

Jen really didn't want to be photographed, but she was a good sport and put on a silly smile while talking to Jeff. She indulged in enough cookies for the both of them I think. Love ya Jen!

Regan only ate one or two cookies I think because she was too busy playing with all the new toys at someone else's house. Linsey was off with the big girls all evening so we didn't see her until she came down at the end of the party and told us she thought she was going to throw up. Talk about ending a party on an abrupt low note. We left immediately and she is currently vegged out in our bed.

This is my indulgence for the evening. The m & m cookie was a little hard for my taste so I didn't eat the whole thing,but I loved every bite of the Trader Joe's peppermint bark. Somehoe I can't get away from Trader Joe's stuff no matter where I go.

Now I need to make a little dinner for me and the girls. Jason is out studying and doing the laundry. I'll be back later tonight with the Sunday Segment. Get ready people. I'm on the rampage tonight!!

We're Going to a Cookie Party...

2009-12-13T14:05:00.000-06:00

Hi Guys! :)
How's your Sunday? I've spent mine cooking and cleaning and eating. :D Perfectly acceptable Sunday behavior - no?
Here's a quick recap from last night...

Lastnight's Dinner...
Jason made a really good gnocchi dish with onions, garlic, artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes in a red pasta sauce. He swears he never wants to be a 'Professional Chef' again, but he does seem to enjoy himself when he's cooking at home (on the rare occasion that he does it).

I made a really yummy salad using the rest of the artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes with sping mix, pine nuts, snap peas, shredded carrots and a poppyseed vinaigrette. It too was quite tastey if I do say so myself even if I'm NOT a chef.

Then Jason, Linsey, Regan and I curled up together on the couch with a few oatmeal raisin cookies and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It is one of my ALL time favorite Christmas movies and we ahd never watched it with Linsey, but she's been begging for a few years now so we finally gave in and shared our movie with her. She laughed quite a bit, but didn't seem to find it as hysterical as Jason and I still do. Oh well - it was still a good night with the fam.

This morning we all got up and prepared for the day in our own ways. Jason made a pot of coffee. I got ready and started making breakfast and the girls - well - the girls did their own thing.

Regan...

Linsey...

I love my girls, but sometimes they are as different as night and day.

I made a big batch of pumpkin oatmeal pancakes this morning. I did it quite different than the last time. Here's the recipe I came up with...

1 c flour

1 c old fashioned oats

2 T sugar

2 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

1 1/2 c organic vanilla soymilk

2 t vanilla

1/4 c mashed (very ripe) banana

Ener G Egg Replacer (make equivalent to 2 eggs)

3/4 can of organic pumpkin

Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and ladle out one scoop per pancake. They were dense and cake like with a hint of sweetness. I topped mine with a small drizzle of sunflower butter, 1/2 banana sliced and a drizzle of maple syrup. YUM-O!! We also made Morningstar Farms maple flavored veggie sausages because we are addicts! However, that will be changing so come back tonight for the Sunday Segment to find out why!! Teaser - I know...

After breakfast Jason took a shower with Regan (trust me - it sounds crazy, but works so much faster when your 2 year old is TERRIFIED of the bath tub :( ) Then he, Linsey and Regan left to do their Christmas shopping for someone - :) while I cleaned house. I can get twice as much done in half the time if I'ma ll alone. I managed to get the living room, dining room, Regan's room and our room COMPLETELY cleaned from top to bottom while they were gone. When they got back they brought a sleeping 2 year old and Jimmy John's so I called it quits with the cleaning to sit and have lunch with Jasona nd Linsey. They got me the vegetarian (duh!) and skinny chips and I must have been hungrier than I thought because I ate the whole sandwich and about half the chips.

This doesn't really apply to Jimmy John's as a quote, but it brings a good point and reason to my next paragraph. This is something we should all be questioning and I will be tonight. Trust me...

"Our kids have ten minutes to eat tator tots and chicken nuggets. We're training the next gen of fast food consumers."- Michael Pollan

Jason told me that he got into an arguement with the sandwich maker because Linsey is also a vegetarian, but there is no vegetarian sandwich for kids except the Slim Cheese which is usually what she gets, but Jason asked if they would add a little bit of lettuce for her because she loves lettuce and they told him no. He started arguing with the guy because he gave the woman in front of him a free cup to get soda. It seems very odd to me that they will give away the cup AND the soda for free, but not a tiny bit of lettuce on a cheese sandwich for a kid. Are we purposely trying from every angle possible to make our country fat?? I'm just totally confused and disgusted and bothered and PISSED OFF about what is happening in our world today. My Sunday Segment is going to cover this in detail because right now I have to go take a shower and get all prettied up because we're going to the annual 'Holahan Cookie Party' at 3:00!!

The Disappearing Act

2009-12-12T17:40:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone :)

I hope your Saturday has been great so far. Mine has been JAM PACKED! Sorry I disappeared last night. I needed a night free of technology and things to do. Linsey and I ended up getting Qdoba for dinner and I had the grilled veggie burrito naked with black beans, pico, corn relish, lettuce, guacamole and a little sour cream. It was really good. I have a thing for Qdoba and Mexican food in general.

Then we basically vegged out all night and hanging out at home. Nothing too exciting, but low key and just the four of us. Trust me - after the week we've had we needed it. Regan did a little entertaining act at the piano after dinner though...Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a smash hit around our house!

Not to worry though because we've made up for it today. The morning started out with dirty dishes and coffee! Much needed coffee after the wake up call Jason got!

The girls are IN LOVE with the new kitty, Maggie, and after the Maria version of a good old fashioned southern style breakfast - vegetarian maple flavored sausage, scrambled organic-cage free eggs, flaky biscuits and organic grape jelly with real irish butter - Jason took her to see the vet.

She has ear mites and a tape worm. She needs to be spayed and get shots, but the vet at the Humane Society is so great that he's working out a payment plan with us since we rescued her and told him we tight on the cash flow. She weighs 6lbs 6oz and will be just fine after meds, shots and lots of love. The girls couldn't be happier that she's here - I can't really say the same for the dogs, but they will live I'm sure.

While Jason and Maggie were at the vet I took Linsey and Regan to do a little Christmas shopping for my Secret Santa at work (I have two) and for Jason. We ended up getting him something A-W-E-S-O-M-E thanks to the lovely sales lady who will go unnamed for now at a store that will also go unnamed for now. I would have taken her photograph, but for secrecy purposes we chose not to!! Can't let him know what his gift is or where it came from now can we???

After an afternoon of shopping with crazy, maniac shoppers all over the city of St Louis the girls were hungry and I knew I wouldn't be able to get Regan home and awake without feeding her some lunch first. I went against my better judgement and made a stop at the foodcourt - UGH! We had Sbarro's beause that's what the girls really wanted. I made the best choice I could find. One slice of mushroom pizza with a side of tomato & cucumber salad. I only ended up eating about half of it because the pizza was GIANT!

We finally made it home, got Regan in bed and hid the purchases that needed to be. Then Linsey and i got to work on sorting a week's worth of laundry. I talked her into watching Food, Inc. with me if I helped her sort the laundry (which is one of her ONLY chores) and of course she agreed. I had already seen it, but thought that having her watch it would help give her answers to a lot of her food questions. She feels (a lot of times) uncomfortable or different or weird because she is a vegetarian. There are very few at her school and most of the kids she knows buy their lunches everyday. I know of a few times that she's even been made fun of for my food beliefs. She was called a 'vegetarian freak' by a little girl not too long ago and that's been a source of anguish for her. I feel bad that this kind of thing happens to her, but I stand very firm on my choices and wanted her to understand why. The movie hit home pretty hard for her and me too. I realized something that had NEVER crossed my mind before. Monsanto is the DEVIL!!! And they are behind almost ALL of the veggie foods that I eat in some way. This leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth and lingering feeling that more changes will be made in my home and to my (and my children's) diet. Tomorrow's Sunday Segment will be about all of this. I'm already working things over in my head!!

Off to spend some more time with the fam now. Jason's done with finals studying for today so we're going to make gnocchi, red sauce and a caeser salad. He's currently bugging the HELL out of me while I type this so I'm sending him to the store to pick up a few needed items just to get him away while I type! :D

See you Sunday...

TGIF!!! (I'm sure I've said that before!)

2009-12-11T17:24:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys! :)
Today is Friday and I couldn't be happier. This week has been crammed full of stuff to do and places to go and too many dishes needing to be washed and I'm just ready to veg for a little while. I still haven't figured out how to get Linsey's musical video from my blackberry to my computer, but of course I have been at work all day so that might be why!
I didn't sleep very well last night because we have a new addition to the family! She wasn't meant for us, but since we're suckers she is now the newest member of the Sparks' family. Her name is Maggie (according to Linsey) and she is probably less than a year old. She was abandoned near Jason's work and he and some co-workers had been feeding her for about a week or so until he just couldn't stand leaving her out in the frigidly cold temperatures any longer. She was meant to go and live with one of my co-workers, but Jason became quite attatched to her so she now lives with us. And she slept in mine and Jason's bed last night which is why I didn't sleep all that well. Every time I moved I was worried that I would turn over on her or disturb her in some way. I slept right through my alarm and didn't get out of bed until a little after 6:00 this morning. Here is Maggie Sparks - our new cat...

Now that she's been formerly introduced I'm sure you will be hearing lots of funny stories about her attacking our dogs or spilling things are what have you...cats can be NUTS!!

Now - on to F-O-O-D!

Breakfast was so good today. It is just so cold now and a giant bowl of steaming hot Sunday oats is the closest thing to Heaven I have found so far. The combo was a tad different, but nothing major. I had 1 cup of Sunday oats, 1/2 cup of vanilla soymilk, 2 scoops of sunflower butter, 2 scoops of pumpkin butter, a handful of dried blueberries and a small banana sliced. What can I say - that's my fav and I'm a creature of habit. :)

I drank my travel mug of hazelnut coffee before the oats were even in the microwave, but that was super good too. The work day went by smooth and quick (just like I like it) and before I knew it - my tummy was telling me that it was time for lunch. I brought another really good sandwich from home on my multi grain Arnold Sandwich Thins. I had roasted garlic hummus, sliced avacado, sliced jalapeno black olives, sliced red onion, muenster cheese and leaf lettuce on it with a cutie on the side. This is quickly becoming my new favorite sandwich - no question!

I hate to admit this on the internet, but the sandwich was so good that I wolfed it down in about five minutes!! Beat that professional eaters of the world!

The rest of the day was smooth sailing too and it was time to go get Regan and hit the road. Which is exactly what we did! Now we're home, the girls are playing witht he cat (and ignoring the dogs) while Jason does the last bit of his homework for the semester. I'm on my way out to pick up some dinner for us. I'm thinking either Qdoba or Chipotle.

Decisions - Decisions...

And FYI - my new website is coming along nicely. I'm hoping to debut it in the next few weeks!! :D

Go, Go, Go...Crash!

2009-12-10T21:56:00.000-06:00

Hey Everyone! :) I'm going to do a super quick food recap, tell you the excitement that happened tonight and then say good night! I am sooooo tired and losing speed as I type.

I slept in this morning just a little. It was so cold and my bed was so warm and I just couldn't drag myself out at 5:45 this morning. Sadly, no workout took place though.

Breakfast
Sunday oats (nothing new) but they still taste so yummy to me. I swear I could eat them every morning (and I think I almost do!). It was the normal combo again today. 1 cup of Sunday oats, 1.4 cup vanilla soymilk, 2 scoops of sunflower butter, a big scoop of pumpkin butter, a sprinkling of craisins and one smallish sized banana. My travel mug was filled with hazelnut coffee as usual. I really needed it today. It was 12 degrees when I left my house at 7:25. 12 DEGREES!!!

Work went well. Not too mcuh happened that's worth writing about.

Lunch was a really great homemade sandwich. I used one of my favorite things...Arnold Sandwich Thins!!These things are so good that I have to buy two bags for my house now because Jason steals them to use as hamburger buns! I have my bag hidden though. :) I bought the multi grain ones by accident, but they are just as good as the whole wheat ones. I put mayo, honey mustard, Yves smoked 'chicken', muenster cheese, red leaf lettuce and sliced BLACK OLIVES!!! I abnsolutely love black olives. When I was little I would put them on my fingers, all ten of them, and eat them one by one and then ask my mom to refill my fingers! :D I also had a little bowl of red grapes too.

After work, I grabbed Regan and we picked Linsey and Nicole up from school and drove them to dance. Regan and I shared a KIND bar while they were in ballet. It was probably my favorite one so far and Regan loved it too!

Linsey and Nicole were both in the Winter Musical at school so we had to leave ballet early, drop Nicole off at home, go home have a speedy dinner (mac n cheese for the girls, yogurt bowl for me) then get changed and be back at Linsey's school by 6:10. Whew... My yogurt bowl was Oikos yogurt, Fiber One Carmel Delight, spoon full of apple butter, candied walnuts from Trader Joe's, a sprinkling of dark & white chocolate chips and a little bit of honey. It was like dinner and dessert in one!

Then the event of the CENTURY commenced! Linsey had a solo in the Winter Musical among singing with the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. The show was so great. It was called The Wonders of the Earth (right up MY alley :) ) and the kids ALL did FANTASTIC!!! Of course, I'm biased because I think that Linsey did the best, but that's just me! As soon as I figure out how to get the videos from my blackberry to my computer to my blog I'll post those too, but until then here's some photos. Regan and Nicole's little brother, AJ, were having a ball dancing and watching their sister's sing and dance. Aren't they just soooo cute!

My baby did such a great job! I am so proud of her. I don't think I would have had the guts at 8 years old (or 30) to get up in front of that many people and sing all by myself.

WAY TO GO LINSEY!!!

Goodnight...

I SURVIVED...

2009-12-09T20:58:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys! :)
I surveived the girl scout meeting, but by the skin of my teeth. We'll get back to that. First...

Dinner
After wolfing down two of the vegan sugar cookies I wasn't all that hungry. I made the girls Morningstar Farms veggie hot dogs with peas and apple sauce. Boring, but kid friendly (and easy) dinner in a hurry. I was also baking 30 drop n bake oatmeal raisin cookies for the 'crazy girl' girl scouts. Linsey was not thrilled with having to eat 'THAT MANY PEAS'!

Regan, however, felt much differently about her meal than her sister did. Apparently, when you're 2 years old, pouring your peas into your organic blueberry applesauce and then eating it by the spoon full is an extremely normal and rational thing to do!

YUCK!!!

I opted for something light and quick for my dinner as well, just not what the girls were having. I LOVE triscuits! I expecially love the different flavor options of triscuits! I SUPER love taking the different flavored triscuits and cutting up swiss cheese and veggie lunch meat and making little finger foods out of the them! That's what I REALLY love!! :) So that's exactly what I did...

I definitely think that eating them on a Dora and Boots kiddie plate made it seem extra fun and really yummy, but that's just me. :)

So we left for the girl scout meeting and picked up my surrogate, adopted, just as mouthy as my birth-daughter. We made it to the meeting a couple minutes late, but we had the snacks so they weren't going anywhere without us! The meeting went fine, for the part I was present for. I had Regan tonight which is NOT the best idea (mental note) and we ended up walking the halls of the school for about half of the meeting. We made it back just in time for cookies though.

Regan actually stole this cookie right out of my hand just after taking the picture so I was forced to pick a different one, but it was ok because the new cookie was smaller - which was better for me. I had already had two cookies earlier - remember?!

We're home now. Jason's home froms chool and we're putting the girls to bed and going to watch a movie. I tried talking him into watching Food Inc, but he wants to watch Funny People. I guess I'll let him win tonight...

Good night!

Crazy Day!!

2009-12-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

The morning started out cold and windy at 5:45 and just kept going. I did a really good strenth training workout in my living room using nothing more than a chair and my own body weight (all 118lbs of it!). I did...
3 sets of chair dips (10 reps each)
3 sets of push ups (10 reps each)
4 sets of squats (10 reps each)
4 sets of crunches (10 reps each)
4 sets of calf raises (10 reps each)
4 sets of the plank (20 seconds each)
I did 20 jumping jacks in between each set too just to keep the blood pumping!
I did some yoga stretches afterwards for about 10 minutes too.

Once I got to work I fixed my breakfast and realized I had forgotten my blackberry (which is the camera I use) and had no way to photograph it! :( It was Oikos yogurt with dried cherries, blueberries, craisins, shredded coconut, Fiber One Carmel Delight, maple syrup and granola. That sounds like a lot, but it was a tiny bit of each ingredient mixed with the yogurt so it was a nice, well rounded breakfast.

Then the day kind of went down hill - Wedneday is delivery day (I think I've told you that before) and the truck is usually there about 7:30 when I get to work, but today it was not. And it wasn't there at 8:00 and it wasn't there at 8:30 either AND it had things on it that we needed for breakfast!!!! So we had to improvise, but we pulled together and made it work. Apparently our regular driver got in a small accident yesterday so he was off today and they had to call someone else in who has never driven the route before. Our guy will be back next week I'm sure.

After that, I got my little butt working on 3 huge pans of eggplant parmesean for lunch. Surprisingly it turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to like it alright. It's really difficult to cook for 200 people as opposed to 2 or 3 (like I normally do), but you do what you can to make things good. My biggest goal is to make things kid friendly and healthy...it doesn't always work though so you try to do better tomorrow.

Finally I had my lunch and it was pretty yummy too.

add in Morningstar Farms buffalo Wings & a little extra shredded cheese and you get this...

It was filling and full of veggies.

YUM-O!! (hey...I love Racheal Ray)

It's still freezing this afternoon so Regan and I booked it over to Linsey's school, went and got gas so my Jeep will continue to run in the arctic temperatures, then rushed home to have a little snack and get ready for Girl Scouts. Remember the vegan sugar cookies I found on Carrots n Cake we made the other night? Yeah - I had 3 of them when we got home!! Thank goodness they're almost gone.

Well - gotta go for now. Have to bake more cookies for the girl scout meeting (don't get excited - it's drop n bake dough from Regan's school fundraiser) then make dinner and get us back out in the frigid cold for an hour and a half of loud and crazy 3rd grade girls.

Wish me luck!! :)

And I'm Still Going...

2009-12-08T19:50:00.000-06:00

HEY! :)
I've been up and running since 5:30 this morning. I already told you about my ~~running~~ pilates workout this morning. After that the day didn't slow down a bit. I got Linsey up and showered, woke Jason up and got myself ready for work. As sad as it makes me, I usually try to get out the door before Regan leaves her bedroom - less drama that way. She's better behaved for Jason and super stoked to see me at school when she gets there. Win Win situation...

Breakfast was yummy - as usual.

It was pretty much the normal combo - local peanut butter, pumpkin butter (oh how I've missed you!), handful of dried cherries and a small banana. Nothing new today, but so good anyway!

Lunch was something totally new...

I took my favorite bread, Rudy's Organic Bakery 7 grain with flax, and spread roasted garlic hummus on both pieces, then topped one side with sliced red onion, roma tomato slices and muenster cheese. On the other side I put red leaf lettuce and sliced avacado and then put the two pieces togther. It was HEAVENLY!

After that I needed a bite of something sweet so luckily I had this on hand...

It hit the spot!

After work I spent the ENTIRE evening driving across town and back again. Linsey has dance on Tuesday's (as I've said a ton of times) but for some reason she can't seem to remember her dance bag in the mornings. She's just like her dad - can't remember ANYTHING! So Jason picked it up on his way to school and was going to take it to her after class, but HE FORGOT TOO! So that meant that I had to leave work, drive to Jason's work, get the bag, drive it to Linsey at dance, drive back across town to pick up Regan and then drive BACK across town to Linsey's dance school and then drive us ALL back across town to go home. WHEW! Now I'm really tired.

Once we got home I heated up leftovers because they were there, we were hungry and I was T-I-R-E-D!

I know that the chili/corn bread pie thing doesn't look all that pretty in the pictures, but OH MY GOODNESS does it taste fantastic. And then of course these were a must after...

My night is complete and I'm turning the computer off to veg on the couch with the girls for a few minutes before it's time for them to go to bed.

Good night moon...

Crunch Time!

2009-12-08T06:47:00.000-06:00

Good Morning! :)
I planned on getting up this morning and going for my usual 3 ish mile run, but I stuck my head out the door at 5:45 and realized that it was just too damn cold!! So I busted out a video I haven't seen in a while...

I haven't done this work out in quite some time, but it was like riding a bike. I got right back in and felt it instantly. My legs are stillshaking!

Now it's time to take a shower and get this day going. :(

See ya later...

Cookie Monday

2009-12-07T22:13:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys...
How's your Monday going? Mine has been incredibly busy actually. My headache finally went awayin the late morning and I got to work. I started with a trip to the grocery store where I about had a heart attack when I saw the total. Who spends over $200 on groceries??? Me apparently, but give me a break - I hadn't been to the store since BEFORE Thanksgiving. If we had gotten a major snow or freak alien invasion we wouldn't have had ANYTHING to eat! :)
I brought the groceries home, put them away and had a quick lunch - leftover chili pie stuff.

Isn't Linsey's little Christmas tree so cute? She made it a couple years ago in girl scouts and it comes out and has a spot on our table every year...(sigh) memories.

After that I hustled my little bootie up to the laundry mat and did 7 loads of laundry. SEVEN!!! Whle it was drying I walked down to pick Linsey up from school and then Jason met us back at the laundry mat to help bring home all the clothes. Then he picked Regan up from school, ate some dinner and then he headed to school. Finals are next week so he's working his tooshie off this week.

The girls and I had a little snack once we got home. I sliced up some pears for everyone. They were quite scrumptious...

Isn't my plate soooo cute??? Obviously I smeared a little local peanut butter on my pear half and then drizzled a bit of local honey over that. I'm all about the L-O-C-A-L stuff baby! :)

Then we had dinner. I kept it light because we had cookie plans for the night. I made a caeser salad and topped it with a few Morningstar Farms Buffalo Wings.

It was good and just enough to satisfy me, but not fill me up. I had to save room for what was coming next...COOKIES!!! YAY! :D

I think that Linsey and Regan had a great time making these cookies, but I KNOW they had a great time eating them once they had cooled. As you can see, Oliver is in the back ground trying to figure out a way to steal that cookie from Regan...Watch out Oliver - she does NOT like to share!

You all know that Linsey, Regan and I are vegetarian, but we also make a lot of vegan items as well. I found this recipe for Vegan Sugar Cookies on one of my favorite blogs...Carrots N Cake. Tina is not a vegetarian, but also seems to try the occasional vegan recipe. When she does - bet I'll be trying it right along with her!

Tina, they were fantastic!

I took the recipe exactly how Tina has it, didn't change a thing, but I did make a recipe and a half. I didn't want to waste the remainder of the tofu.

I know I missed the Sunday Segment last night, but I managed to finish my freelance article tonight which was about a similar topic. I'm going to put a little more work into my Sunday Segment from yesterday and post it as another article for examiner. Check out my latest piece at examiner.com called We are making our kids fat.

Good night everybody. I'm going to run in the morning so I need to get some serious sleep!

Sick & Yucky Monday

2009-12-07T10:35:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys -
Sorry about the Sunday Segment last night. Blogger was not my friend and my headache continued to progress. I've determined it was a migraine because after a while I started to feel sick to my stomach too. :(
I'll get it up by tonight - PROMISE! I'm better today, but stayed home from work just in case. Didn't want to get any babies sick if it was more than that. I would rather be safe than sorry this time of year.

So far I've gotten my girls ready for school and sent them on their way with Jason and had coffe & oats. Not quite the productive day I had planned, but I'm getting more energy as the morning goes on. I tried something new with my Sunday oats yesterday. I have a BUNCH of bananas sitting in my freezer not doing anything usefull so I chopped one up and plopped it in with the oats while they cooked. Turns out - it's pretty tastey. :) So this morning I added about 1/4 c vanilla soymilk, a heaping spoon full of local peanut butter, a handful of dried cherries and a handful of Trader Joe's candied (very lightly) walnuts and a drizzle of honey to not quite a c of cooked oats. It was decent. Not the best bowl of oats I've ever had, but for sure not the worst.

Now that my tummy is full and I've had a giant mug of 'get my ass movin' - I'm off to the grocery store. It's freezing and I'm a HUGE baby when it comes to the cold, but I can do this. Besides - I'll spend less money at the market with my tummy full of oats - no?

Happy Monday...

Why are weekends so short?

2009-12-06T19:08:00.000-06:00

Well, I left you earlier telling you how great the morning was - I must've jinxed myself because it went downhill really fast. The girls started fighting. Jason and I started fighting. Linsey was being a total brat. Everyone was screaming at everyone and by the end no one knew WHY we were screaming. :( So we decided to have some lunch - hungry people make for grumpy people.

I had a simple yet satisfying sandwich with sliced apples. I baked a Morningstar Farms griller chik patty and put it on an Arnold Sandwich Thin with sliced red onion, sliced honey crisp apple, leaf lettuce, honey mustard and a tiny bit of good ole Sweet Baby Ray's. I cut up the rest of the apple to have on the side of my sandwich. I was feeling pretty good after that.

The rest of the fam must've been too because Regan went to sleep and everyone just chilled for a while. Then Linsey and I got ready for our afternoon at the ballet. Her dance school, Dimensions Dance Center, puts on a production of The Nutcracker every year. Linsey was too young to try out for this year's production, but I think after seeing it she's ready to try out for next year. :) If you're interested, I wrote an article about this very thing for one of my latest Examiner articles. Check it out and subscribe to my column (if you wanna!)
I apologize for the picture quality. Obviously the lights were turned down and flash photography was not allowed. We went with Linsey's friend, Nicole and her mother (also my friend :) ) Sarah. The girls have been taking dance together at Dimensions since Nicole joined Linsey about a year or so ago. I think they both had a good time.

The production was beautiful and I remembered what I love about The Nutcracker and the theater in general. It takes so much work to put a production together and you could tell that the girls had worked very hard for quite some time. I had a great time and I think the girls did too.

Once we got home Linsey and I split this...

and I made this all for me...

Now I'm making a chili cornmeal bake thingy for us to have for dinner. I took my go to vegetarian chili recipe, put the chili into a 9 X 13 pan, then made a box of Trader Joe's cornbread mix and poured the batter on top of the ENTIRE thing. I smell it baking away in the oven as I type. I am sooooo hungry and getting a migraine as well. Hopefully it's just from being hungry...

So here's dinner...

It was really yummy, but now my tummy is full and my head still hurts. Time to get things ready for tomorrow. Check back a little later for the Sunday Segment...Am I Passing on My Body Issues To My Daughter's?

What a Saturday...

2009-12-06T09:50:00.000-06:00

HI! :)
So here's what my Saturday looked like.

LUNCH...

A Trader Joe's pulled 'chicken' bbq sandwich on an Arnold sandwich thin.

YUM!

And then two squares of...

REALLY YUM!

And then we decorated our Charlie Brown tree. :)

And since I have the BEST mommy in the world Jason and I were able to go out for an evening of dinner and Christmas shopping - KID FREE!

First dinner...Jason and I decided to try out Pi Kirkwood. We have eaten at Pi on the Loop (around the corner from our house AND President Obama's FAVORITE pizza) but we were there with the girls and it was kind of stressful - obviously. So this time we went without the girls and it was AWESOME! Jason makes ALL the ice cream that Pi (and MOST other restaurants in the city) uses so he knows the owners and is friends with the Pastry Chef Mathew. One of the perks from this is that even though they were on a 45 minute to an hour wait last night - we got right in. :D THANKS MATHEW!! As an appetizer we had the Peperone Rosso which was fantastic. The mixture of the cheese and the olives and the red peppers was out of this world. For dinner we split a small Berkely (which is what we had at the Loop location) and it too was AMAZING, but then Mathew put it over the top and just about killed me with what came to our table at the end of dinner...hold on just a sec and I'll tell you.

(Jason's hands are quite shakey :) )

And here it is...H-O-L-Y - Y-U-M!!!

Mathew sent us over a piece of the Chocolate Peppermint Mousse pie. I thought I had died and gone to chocolate peppermint HEAVEN!!! This puts EVERY chocolate peppermint dessert that I have EVER had to major shame. THANK YOU MATHEW!!!

Check them both out at @mathewsweet and @pistl.

After this FABULOUS meal we made our way around town and finished ALL of our Christmas shopping.

The End...

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Sunday morning hasn's been too shabby either. We got up and had breakfast. Mine was a HUGE cup of coffee and two pieces of 365 whole wheat toast with sunflower butter, organic grape jelly, banana slices and a drizzle of honey. There is no photo...I was too hungry!

Now it's time to shower, and go grocery shopping. Linsey and I are going to see The Nutcracker this afternoon.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend - where ever you may be! :)

Please Be Patient...

2009-12-05T15:33:00.000-06:00

I want to apologize in advance. My blog is going to be undergoing some MAJOR changes in the next few weeks so please be patient and KEEP coming back to see my progress. Regular posting will continue as normal!

Back in a Jiffy!!!

2009-12-05T13:59:00.000-06:00

HEY ALL!! :)

I hope that everyone's Saturday is going well. I have been SUPER busy. Linsey spent the night at her friend Nicole's last night after the Girl Scout caroling. I tried to take some photos, but had serious camera trouble. The dinner photos didn't turn out well either. :( I need a new camera (hint, hint, hint!)

Jason, Regan and I ate at our favorite mexican place right around the corner from our house. It's called Mi Ranchito and everyone in the area SWEARS by it. Super YUM & Super CHEAP!!

This morning I got right up and started cleaning the house because Jason and my dad had a date to take the rest of our things out of storage and bring them to our apartment. We moved in the beginning of the year and were not sure what we would have room for. So now that it's time for a Christmas tree it was also a great time to get rid of the unneeded expense of a storage unit!! :)
I made us oats for breakfast because I can't get enough and surprisingly - neither can Regan!
I ate mine totally different this morning - at least WHAT I ate them in was different.

It's the perfect 'bottom of the jar' recipe. Racheal Ray would be SO proud!! :D

After breakfast - cleaning resumed. I have been straightening, vacuuming, doing dishes, sweeping, scrubbing AND put up our tree. It isn't decorated yet, but that will happen later. I just fed the girls some lunch...

As you can see - Regan really gets into her food. :D She's just like her mother.

Linsey chose to eat her pizza a little neater, but she HATES having her picture taken - she's just like her mother too! YAY! Both my girls are just like me...

Now it's time to get Ray down for a nap, finish cleaning, take a shower and then figure out something to make for dinner when we have NO food in the house. I haven't been to the grocery store since BEFORE Thanksgiving. We're taking care of that and Christmas shopping tonight thanks to my mom who doesn't mind giving up a Saturday night to baby sit!!

THANKS MOM!! LOVE YA!!

Anyway - I'll be back later with more regular posts...I missed the Friday night Fight songs last night so I'll work on that today too! Bye for now...

Does it HAVE to be so C-O-L-D???

2009-12-04T16:49:00.000-06:00

Howdy Folks!! :)
Hope that everyone had a great week and has awesome plans for the weekend. I am so glad the work week is over. I need a little break from that place. FOR SURE!
This post is going to be short and sweet because we have to get dinner and then go caroling with Linsey's girl scout troop. It's FREEZING outside, but we're going to buck up and deal...or least I am.

It was freezing this morning so I didn't run - again. I NEED A GYM! FAST!!!

So I got up and got ready for work feeling guilty the ENTIRE time...went to work and had breakfast. My oats were a mixture of some really yummy local peanut butter, craisins, pumpkin butter and another small banana. It really hit the spot on this freezing cold morning. Then add in my travel mug of super hot hazelnut coffee and I was set..

The day went by fairly fast and not too much happened. I had my go to sandwich for lunch except instead of Tofurky I had Yves 'turkey' slices. They are just as good as Tofurky and might even be a little bit cheaper. I had two slices of Rudy's Organic Bakery 7 grain and flax bread with honey mustard, a little bit of mayo, sliced red onion, leaf lettuce and my FAV muenster cheese! It was yummy and I had missed it so... I sliced up another pear to go with it. I was definitely full when it was all gone. :D

Sorry for the short post peeps, but I gots to go if we're going to make it their in time.

But what to have for dinner???

6 SHOTS!!!

2009-12-03T19:26:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys...

How's your Thursday?

I've had a blah kind of day. Things are going on in my little world that I can't discuss in detail because nothing has been officially decided yet, but once it is things around the Sparks' house are going to change considerably. :(

Whatever happens will be for the best, but waiting for the decision is making me nuts - just a little.

Once a decision has been made I'll let you know the WHOLE story, but until then just know that I'll keep on keepin on - like I always do. :) And besides - I'm moving on to bigger and better things in the future. I'm actually in the process of having my very own website built AS WE SPEAK! realfitmama.blogspot.com will be moving in the near future, but don't worry - I'll keep everyone in the know. The new site is going to be bigger, better and filled with AMAZING recipes, funny stories and eventually RealFitMama gear!!! I'm totally stoked and can't wait to start doing some give aways and product testing too. Keep checking back because things are moving forward.

And keep checking in on me at examiner.com because I am the St Louis Kids' Nutrition & Exercise examiner. New articles are coming out soon regarding what we're actually teaching our kids when we sit down to eat, how we teach kids to feel about themselves by the ways that we act and SO much more.

Anyway - moving on for now... :)

I over slept this morning. I thought I hit the snooze (like I do every morning) but in actuality I turned the whole thing off. I normally am getting into the shower after my morning run right about 6:35ish, but this morning I didn't JUMP out of bed until 6:50!! AHHHHH... so I showered, got dressed, got my food together and ran out the door. I was only about 2 minutes late to work. :D

Breakfast was - WAIT FOR IT...OATMEAL!!! Bet you never would've guessed that. It was the usual mixture, spoon full of sunflower butter (I'll be glad when that's gone so I have an excuse to buy more almond butter) two big spoons full of pumpkin butter, a hand full of dried cherries and one small banana. YUM!!

I ate my lunch in fork full bites! I literally didn't sit down from 7:30 until almost 2:00 this afternoon because I had so much stuff to do today. It worked out though - I didn't run this morning so I walked ALL day. :) I ate left over pad thai for lunch with a side of red seedless grapes. It was just enough to hold me over until snack time.

I left work right at 3:00 today because Regan had her check up at the pediatrician's office at 3:45. We got there a little early so we ate our snack in the car. She had graham crackers and I had a PURE cherry cashew bar. No photo though...sorry.

The doctor informed me that she was a little behind in her vaccinations and would need 6 SHOTS to get caught up!!! HOLY CRAP! I hated every second of it and Regan did too (obviously). She's very cranky tonight and doesn't want to walk at all. I'm sure her legs are VERY sore, but I'm still freaking out a little in my head. You hear all these horror stories of people getting this vaccine or that vaccine and some freak thing happens and they can't walk or they can't talk or they DIE!!!

I have to stop...

We had a very easy and not so healthy dinner tonight. I ate a Trader Joe's black bean and corn enchilada with a dollop of light sour cream on top. It was decent, but I wasn't really into it.

The girls had Annie's Organic mac n cheese with Morningstar Farms veggie nuggets and sliced pears. I ate my pear for dessert with a bit of sunflower butter and honey drizzled over the top. That was KILLER!

I think the best part of the dessert was eating it off this plate!!

Anyway - I'm done for the night I think. Regan is really clingy and cranky and just wants to be held. Linsey is DYING to lay in my bed under the flannel sheets and watch a movie so I think that's what we'll do as soon as I make lunches and she gets out of the bath tub.

Good night readers - say a little prayer for the Monkey Girl...

Baby it's COLD outside...

2009-12-02T21:29:00.000-06:00

WOW!
It got really cold today and tonight is just getting colder. I have NEVER been a fan of the cold, but it seems like the older I get the less I can stand winter. I love snow on Christmas, but THAT IS IT!!! I need to live some where that stays in the 60's or warmer all year round.
I guess it's time to move... :D

Thankfully my hubby, Jason, is a FANTASTIC guy and knew that I was not in the mood to cook tonight. I told you - I don't function well in the cold. When winter rolls around I lose ALL motivation. It's really sad... :(
So he decided we were having chinese for dinner because that's what he loves and craves ALL the time. So Pei Wei it was...

I had my favorite from there - Pad Thai with tofu and vegetables and a spring roll. The portion they give you equals about 3 meals for me so I already know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow! :)

We ended up not doing much of anything tonight because we were all so cold and unmotivated. The girls did talk me into making some more of the chocolate chip cookies. I had another unphotographed one after dinner, but I figured that once you've seen a chocolate chip cookie you pretty much know what one looks like. It tastes just like I remember (from last night and this afternoon) too... :)

Speaking of things tasting good - if you've never tried a GloBar A) you should cause they are super tastey and B) you should check out this give away! 10 free GloBars sounds good - No?

The Healthy Diary is giving away 10 GloBars, but you have to hurry because the giveaway ends tomorrow at 12:00 so - HURRY!!!

I'm off to snuggle under my totally warm and cozy flannel sheets with Jason while he studies for the MacroEconomics test he has tomorrow.

Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite...

Wuh Wuh Wednesday...

2009-12-02T16:56:00.001-06:00

Hey Guys! :)
How's your hump day? Mine turned cold and nasty really fast. :(
I managed to get in another great run this morning, but for those of you who follow me on Twitter read - it's probably one of the last outdoor runs for a while. That makes me very sad, but as someone who has lived in Missouri (or 'Misery' as we fondly call it) I should be used to it by now - somehow I'm not.

Once I made it to work I was starving (as usual!) so oats were a cookin, but for some reason I am a pro at boiling my oats over in the microwave. I start out cooking them for a minute after I add the vanilla soymilk and then do 30 second intervals after that, but I almost ALWAYS cook them over! WHY?? It's such a waste of yummy oats, but I've gotten smart to my problem and keep a paper plate under the bowl so that I can hold on to any oats I spill over.

Work was uneventful for the most part. We had a large group tour the school today so everyone was a little on edge. It's never fun to be watched or studied, but when you're working and you know that a person or group of people are there for that reason it's even more nerve racking. All in all the day was good though. Everything ran smoothly and the day moved quickly. Wednesday's are always busy though so that did help move things along.

I made lunch and then ate it one bite at a time while finishing up some other work. It was a super yummy lunch - if I do say so myself. last night I took an Arnold's Sandwich Thin and spread some light sour cream on one side then added leaf lettuce, sliced red onion and (oh sweet goodness) muenster cheese! Then today I cooked a Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger in the over for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees (turning half way) and sliced up a super sweet honey crisp apple. HOLY YUM!!

I managed to get Regan out of her class without much of a fight today. It was freezing cold and raining by then so I wanted to get Linsey and go home! Which is exactly what we did. As soon as we walked in the door the girls started bugging me for a snack (as they ALWAYS do after school) so we had a chocolate chip cookie left over from last night. Mine went unphotographed because I ate it THAT fast! BAD BLOGGER!

Jason will be home in about an hour and will more than likely be hungry, tired and cranky so i better figure out what we're having for dinner! Hope everyone's day is great and the evening is even better!!

Break The Cycle

2009-12-01T21:47:00.000-06:00

The day is winding down and I'm blogging from the comforts of my bed underneath fuzzy flannel sheets! The girls are in bed asleep and Jason is still at work. The house is scary quiet (except for the snoring of the dogs Gabe and Oliver at the foot of my bed) and I LOVE it this way.

I'll get to the food in a sec, but first I HAVE to talk about what's on television right now. I am watching the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on CBS and it's CRAZY!!! I've never watched it before, but I guess I wasn't aware how big of a deal underwear has become. I mean, seriously, the Black Eyed Peas need to be there live and in concert for some super gorgeous, super thin, amazingly tall women to prance down the runway in barely there underwear? WOW! What those models go through in the gym is C-R-A-Z-Y!!! I wish I had that trainer working with me every morning...

Ok...FOOD!! :D

After finally finishing up a freelance article I meant to have done last night it was time for us to eat! Dinner ended up being super simple (obviously). I had tofurky slices with roasted garlic hummus, sliced red onion and leaf lettuce on a Trader Joe's everything bagel. I stole the bagel from Jason so if we can keep that between us I will be forever grateful.

Sorry that the photo quality is so bad. Something is wrong with the camera on my blackberry and I can't figure out what it is. What I really need is a new camera...

Anyway - after dinner the girls and I busted out the tub of chocolate chunk cookie dough that we bought from a fundraiser for Regan's school (also my work). Not the healthiest, but I only cooked eight cookies. I put one in Linsey's lunch for tomorrow, I ate one...

and the girls each had one as well...how friggin cute are they?! :)

That leaves four left. One is for Jason and then we've still got some left for tomorrow night too. See - I was thinking ahead!

But for now I'm going to curl up under the covers with my other addiction...

two in one night I CAN'T EVEN CONTAIN MY JOY!!

Good night peeps...

Eating with a Spoon...

2009-12-01T16:55:00.000-06:00

Hola Readers! :)

How's your Tuesday? Mine's been pretty good. I had a shorter day at work today because Linsey had to go see the orthodontist! I can't believe it. She's only 8 and we're already talking about braces! Anyway, I'll get back to that in a few.

First...

I had a GREAT run this morning. I made my distance longer because somehow I managed to shave off 6 minutes from my usual time. :D I have NO IDEA how I did it, but I did so I added another block to the morning routine. It felt really good - I must admit!

Once I got to work I was starving and in desperate need of coffee. So I chugged on my travel mug of hazelnut coffee (my fav!) and got down on some Sunday oats. (technically these are Monday oats since I made them last night) Oh how I missed them yesterday!

After they were all ready and stirred together I took a bite and realized that something was missing!! I forgot to chop up the apple half I had ~ MUCH better. They also had a scoop of sunflower butter, two scoops of pumpkin butter and a small handful of dried blueberries.

The work day flew by because I knew I had to leave early so I kept busy by getting things ready for tomorrow WHILE doing today's work too. By 12:30 I was starving so I threw together my make shift lunch that I brought from home and ate it one spoon full at a time. That seems to be the theme of the day!

These ingredients made this...

I know that it doesn't look very appetizing once it's been mixed together, but trust me - it tastes PHENOMINAL!

I left work at about 1:30 to pick Linsey up for her orthodontist appointment. I tried to get some pictures of her doing x-rays and taking impressions, but she said she would KILL me if I posted any of them. :D

Long story short - she's getting a palate spreader in January and starting braces sometime after that.

When we left the orthodontist's office we were both hungry. Luckily I had bars in my bag!!

Linsey had the chocolate brownie PURE bar and I had this...

I had never had this one before, but it was really good. I thought I was eating a candy bar!

Now we're home and the girls are crying for dinner ALREADY! I don't have anything picked out so let's see what I can throw together. I'm not used to making dinner this early on a Tuesday, but Linsey skipped dance because of the appointment so we're home already.

Peace Out!!

Just Another Manic Monday...

2009-11-30T20:17:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys!
Today has been a fairly straight forward day actually. Nothing exciting happened, but nothing too bad happened either. I did, however, miss my run because last night I must have been so tired that I forgot to set my alarm back to 5:30 from 6:30 in the morning which is what time Jason and I were getting up to go work out. Sadly, that didn't leave me with enough time to freeze my butt off while running outside this morning. :(

Then, I was out of creamer so I had to go by Bread Co for coffee ( :) ) which was just a huge ~~PLUS~~ bummer! Bread Co has the best hazelnut coffee and a large is only $2.00.
SWEET NECTAR OF THE GODS!

Breakfast this morning was slightly different than normal because I used up all my steel cut oats over the weekend. I had to replace them with the Cream of Wheat that we had for breakfast at work. It wasn't nearly as good as my oats, but it worked. I added a spoon full of sunflower butter, a couple scoops of pumpkin butter and a handful of craisins.

Lunch today was a Probar. I've never had one before because they are pretty high in calories. I usually buy them for Jason and I knew that he loves them. So today I brought one to have as my lunch and I gotta tell you - it was DELICIOUS and FILLING!

The second half of the day went by as smooth as the first half and then it was time to go. Linsey and I ran by the grocery store because we were basically out of EVERYTHING. Then we went backa nd got Regan, came home and I had a brownie that snuck past the camera. By that point I was pretty hungry.

HEY - four hours had passed by that point!

Jason got off work late so he ended up skipping class and actually got to eat dinner with us tonight. I made the Morningstar Farms Grillers Chik n Patties, with french fries and vegetarian baked beans. Not to bad for a 'throw together whatever you can find in the pantry' dinner.

I had BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, red onion, romaine lettuce and a tiny bit of mayo on mine.

The Sparks' around the dinner table on a Monday evening - NEVER happens!

I was very proud of Linsey for eating her baked beans without complaining. She usually complains about everything that we have to eat.

Notice anything different about Regan's face? She decided that paper was a boring option to draw on and her face seemed like way more fun!! :)

Butter Pecan!!! Three bites and I was perfectly satisfied. :)

Now I'm off to help Linsey finish her homework, get the girls in bed and spend a little quiet time with Jason before we both crash and burn. Hope that everyone had an easy time coming back from the holiday...

I'm Back...for real this time!

2009-11-29T22:19:00.000-06:00

HEY PEEPS! :)

It feels like it's been forever! I had so much trouble with the WiFi at my in-laws house over the holiday weekend that after my last post I just gave up. I either couldn't get onto blogger or I couldn't get onto the internet at all. Instead I decided to put the computer away and enjoy the time with my family. It was so nice seeing everyone and being away from St Louis for a few days is ALWAYS nice, but it is good to be back in my own bed ~ even if that means going back to work tomorrow. :(

So a quick recap in photos is what you're getting tonight simply because I am exhausted after the five hour drive on a jam packed interstate.

I hope that EVERYONE had a great Thanksgiving - just like I did.

* * * * * * * * *

Thanksgiving 2009

This long weekend has gone by way too fast, but it's always like that these days. I spent some quality time with my family and Jason's family and the girls had a ball playing with their cousins and being spoiled by their grandparents and great grandparents. All in all it was a great holiday weekend.
I am very proud of myself and Jason because we got up at 6:30 three out of the four mornings to go and work out. Thanksgiving morning we went on a great 4.8 mile run. It felt so good to be able to exercise with him! The rest of the time we worked out at the gym in his parents building. It got fairly cold the past few nights so running outside was not an option. We took full advantage of the gym's treadmills, ellipticals and weight machines. It felt amazing! I ate very well (considering it was a holiday) and only have one food photo to share (bad food blogger) I took more, but the one I am sharing is THE best...
Jason and I got hair cuts by my bestest friend Heather in her super cool spalon (Mo Jo Pie), Linsey spent the night with Heather's daughter (Alex) and then her cousins so we hardly saw her the last half of the weekend and when we were with her she was so busy playing that we still didn't really see her so there is only 1 picture of her from the WHOLE weekend!!
Still - We had a fabulous time!

Thanksgiving evening we took the girls to Silver Dollar City with Jason's family to see ALL the lights. I think they had a really great time despite the fact that it was FREEZING!

Then Friday morning (after our workout) Jason and I went to get much needed coffee and desperately needed hair cuts... The inside of Heather's shop looks like an art gallery AND it kind of is because besides doing hair and nails - THEY SELL LOCAL ART!

This is the world's BEST pumpkin pie made by MY grandmother!!!

And a couple random cute moments by Regan. Linsey was too busy being with her cousins to hang out much with us this weekend. :(

And this is what happens when the grown ups are too busy talking and a two year old finds someone's bubble gum chapstick!!

Bye Bye Thanksgiving 2009 - it's been GREAT!

* * * * * * * * *

For those of you who actually read the Sunday Segment I apologize because I don't have one! :( I thought of some ideas, but am holding on to them for the weeks to come, b ut I will leave you with the link to my latest freelance article. Hope you enjoy the holiday travel tips.

Good night...