Week in review. ish.

So I wanted to check in and report on my week. Another post JUST for me, that means, I know. But...you'll get over it. ;)

Tuesday-Friday went exactly as I'd planned, INCLUDING the wonderful book-club-Italian-feast food dalliance I had been counting on......and LOOOOOOOVED!! DELICIOUS chicken-breast lasagna, scrumptious caesar salad (by yours truly), garlic bread, chocolate mousse cake.... mmmmmmmmmmm......... I even drank gasp POP! OH it was DIVINE! hahaha

The rest of the weekend, I sort of resigned myself wold be another food-weekend-from-delicious-empty-calorie-ridden-fantasy-land. My parents were over (my mom's first book club attendance equaled a fun family sleepover!) aaaand we had delicious, healthy smoothies for breakfast Saturday morning....coupled with my dad's famous "Daddy eggs" - delectably fried eggs in....bacon fat!! And YES we ate the bacon, too. And toast with butter... hahaha Lunch we did all-you-can-eat Sushi, and for "dinner" I took my darling pal, for her 13th birthday, to the movies to see the fantastical Justin Bieber in documentary/concert movie 3D splendor, which was obviously coupled with popcorn, hot dogs, and nibs! O:-) Her BIRTHDAY dinner the next night consisted of delicious chicken parmesan with....perfectly too much cheese, another caesar salad, and polished off with ice cream cake.

So yeah. Talk aBOUT some straying from the path there! But you know what? I ran 30K last week, which I know isn't much for SERIOUS runners, but it's the most I've ever done in a single week, and I'm STOKED about it, and I KNOW I can do it, and I plan to do it again this week soooooo.... whatever. Weekend was a throw away. I can survive that. BOOyah!

Feeling a wee bit like I can do anything THAT regards tonight, so YAY for that! hahaha A WELCOME, refreshing change!

Now, I JUST READ on my darling Shop Girl's blog a great post about gratitude. She ends the post with a plan to post every Sunday 10 things she's grateful for. I LOVE this idea, and as soon as she gives me the green light (no pressure, my friend!) I'm TOTALLY STEALING IT!! I oh so DESPERATELY need some positive focus in my life right now and this is just such a great exercise. Like Oprah's gratitude journal or something. hahaha I'm currently beyond excellent at seeing all the hum drum, la dee dah, and blech in my life - yeah, I'm a real peach to be around at the moment - and committing to reflecting on ten different things I'm grateful for each week just seems brilliant. ...I haven't assigned myself a check-in-day yet, though. Shop Girl's doing Sundays, but I don't know if that will be realistic for me as I'm NOT currently in the habit of posting every day and rarely post on Sundays soooo... I'll get back to you on that, along with posting my first list!!

Be excited.

And that, I think, is that for now. I'm reading "The Princess Bride" at the moment and am finding it much funnier now than I remember it being last time I read it - oh the surprises of a maturing humour! aaaand it's sitting here near me calling my name soooo.... into my bed and Florin I dive for the balance of the evening!

Until next time!

MMMMMmmmm....chiiiiilli.....

I know, I know. Another boring food post. I KNOW!

But, you're keeping me accountable, so get over it. hahaha

And I HAD to tell you....

I don't really like chili. Never have. Every time I go to a big event where they're promising food and surprise, surprise, they're serving CHILI.... well, I stock up on the rolls. I mean, I eat the chili but it's never ever been a favourite.

Hot dang, did I make delicious chili last night! hahaha MMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! I think this recipe I stumbled upon is for SURE going in our collection of favourites! AND it's another crock-pot wonder, so BOOYAH easy to make!

Once again, from Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes, I present to you.... Vegetarian Chili With Pasta

1 15oz can garbanzo beans (chickpeas) rinsed & drained
1 15oz can red kidney beans, rinsed & drained
2 14oz cans diced tomatoes
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 large onion, finely chopped (1 cup)
1/2 cup chopped green or yellow sweet pepper (I used red 'cause it was on sale)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 to 3 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp ground red pepper (optional)
1 cup wagon wheel or elbow macaroni (I used whole wheat bowties)
(optional - we opted out) shredded cheddar cheese

In a 3 1/2- to 4- quart slow cooker combine beans, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, onion, sweet pepper, garlic, chili powder, oregano, and red pepper, if desired.

Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours or on high-heat setting for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Stir cooked pasta into bean mixture. Serve in bowls, and, if desired, sprinkle with cheddar cheese.

Nutrition Facts per serving (makes 5 servings): 273 Cal, 2g total fat (0g saturated fat), 0mg chol., 868mg sodium, 53g carbs, 10g fibre, 14g protein. Daily values: 57% vit C, 13% calcium, 22% iron.

Day 2.5

Wanted to tell you how it's going, a whopping not-even-three-days-later. hahaha

So Tuesday, before I posted, I did all sorts of searching for some new, yummy, 30-day-plan-to-lifestyle-kickstart meals. And HUZZAH I found some!!

Here's a quick run-down of the plan/mindset behind everything (which you can find in full detail here) - BASICALLY, you eat HUGE amounts of produce. hahaha Aaaaaand that's about that! No, really, though. I was SUPER skeptical when we were talking about it and planning...the plan hahaha, BUT then I thought about it - what's the recommended daily intake for fruits/vegetables per person per day? Like, oodles, right? 6-7 or something like that? (I really don't know off the top of my head.... Oh, nope! I just looked it up here: 7-8 for females, 8-10 for males (unless over 51 then you just need 7 servings). Alright, fine, so yay. 8 servings.

Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh......I LIKE fruit & veggies. I, regularly, do NOT eat 7 servings per day. No way. Maybe 2-3? Maybe? I mean, if I remember to grab an apple out of my fruit bowl and ingest it in a day I'm having a super-good healthy day, right? Now I have to remember to do that SEVEN TIMES????

So, basically, the PLAN teaches you how to make doing that EASY, and in so doing you get better portion control of everything else in your healthy diet!!

For 30 days you eat...LOTS of vegetables, fruit, legumes. White meat/fish once per day, red meat ONLY once a week, and at least once in the week you have a meatless day. GASP HORROR! What about PROTEIN! Um, hi. Chickpeas are one of my "new" FAVOURITE things. Just for an example. :)

At the end of 30 days your body, taste buds, whatever, is adjusted to this fantastic way of eating, and if nothing else you've added a bunch of delicious, vegetable-rich meals into your repertoire, making it easier to stay properly balanced.

OH yeah, and your body's a little busy going WHAT-the-heck-are-you-doing-to-me, and you shed some fat mass. Huzzah bonus!

Okay, so Tuesday, I did up the meal plan and kicked off with a new meal we'd never tried before. DELISH! Loved it! And I'm not going to lie, I was kinda' skeptical about this one.... (sorry the picture's not like, pro-quality. I took it partway through the bowl when I realized just HOW MUCH I was enjoying my dinner)

Recipe from "Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes" (yes, that's right - it's a crockpot meal, so you dump it together HOURS before dinner, smell it all day, and then VOILA delicious dinner! HOORAY!)
Eggplant-Tomato Stew with Garbanzos - garbanzo beans and chickpeas are the same food. Usually they are stocked along with canned beans or in the Mexican foods section of grocery stores.

1 medium eggplant, peeled, if desired, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
1 15oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 15oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced celery
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth
1 6oz can Italian-style tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf

In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker combine all ingredients. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 8-9 hours or on high-heat setting for 4 to 41/2 hours. Discard bay leaf.

Nutrition facts per serving: 227 Cal, 3g total fat (0g saturated fat), 0mg chol., 1,231mg sodium (depending on your broth - mine would be less 'cause we used Epicure's vegetable soup base), 44g carb, 12g fibre, 13g protein. Daily values, 176% vit A, 38% vit C, 8% calcium, 18% iron.

YUUUUUUMMMMM!! And it made OODLES (6 servings) so...I'm definitely eating it for lunch today.

Bore you with more later! :)

Finally!

I have started writing this post so many times and just never got around to finishing it, posting it, whatever. hahaha AND I just finished writing a friend who was kind enough to check in with me and realized, OHMIGOSH, I just finally wrote my blogpost! hahaha Soooooooo here's the not-so-skinny:

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting via Skype with this gal pal of mine who I just think the WORLD of - I aspire to be her. hahaha At least outwardly, this gal has got it ALL together AND she's absolutely stunning. She's one of those girls everyone wishes they could hate because she makes the rest of us look bad, but you can't hate her because she's too darn friggin awesome. ;) Whoa, tangent much?

Anyway, we were chatting and I don't even remember what was said but something about taking to her and not being who I want to be or doing what I want to be doing made me feel ridiculoulsy self-concious, embarrased, whatever.

So, here's what I've written to her the last couple of weeks. Cheers!

Subject: So, I'm fat.

hahaha APPARENTLY chatting with you last night was the kick I needed. I don't know.

Anyway, I'm DETERMINED to get on top of my eating problems. Spent the morning planning the week's meals, all to fit in the 30-day plan, and got back from a very successful 30-day-plan grocery shop.

Mr. Man and I have been saying for weeks we need to get back at it, need to get back at it, need to get back at it......

Soooo thanks for letting me vent for a minute 'cause, this week at least, I'm back on board. I WANT TO FIT MY PANTS!!!

Cheers!
Me
________________________________

You're hilarious. Thanks for the kudos, but I'm sure they're undeserved - I've been battling with myself for, well, long enough that I've gotten nice and chuuuubby! hahaha

I may use you, I haven't decided yet. O:-) I'm trying to get back into blogging, but when I went to blog about this after chatting with you it just didn't get done - had to make the meal plan, grocery list, do the groceries, and then chase my kid around! By the time I got a moment we were already STARTED and I missed the blog post. hahaha Maybe tomorrow??

Fast Sunday, though? KILLING me! But I have a 30-day-challenge recipe "broccoli & red pepper soup" simmering on the stove waiting for me!! ....dunno how I missed trying this one last time around - it looks and smells GREAT!

I think I'm just so awed by YOU, you gorgeous thing, that talking to you when I'm NOT at or looking my best is, quite frankly, HUMILIATING. hahaha Just like, hot dang, I SHOULD have this together.

Anyway, thanks again! For sure chat soon!
A super-starving ME!
________________________________________________

(In response to her question to me - "so, how's it going? Still eating the 30-day Fit-to-life plan?")

Ugh.

hahaha

Last week it was like everything on the planet was conspiring against me...including my evil inner daemons! Grrrrrrr... I've done a couple 10K runs to try to compensate... O:-) And because I wanted to get back to being somewhat comfortable with that distance, but OY oy oy the FOOD!

So we were great for about a week... and then it was time-to-go-to-groceries afternoon, and my darling girlie thought putting her teeny hand on a burning-hot stove was a good idea, so instead of me doing groceries for my awesome meal-plan I got stuck at home all afternoon with a screaming invalid! (She's totally fine, just her first real burn - ouch!)

The NEXT day I had rehearsal (I'm doing this play again... glutton for punishment or what? hahaha) but Mr. Man agreed to brave Saturday grocery-shopping and get the list for me. Which was great. Hooray!

Except he forgot that WW in front of pasta = whole wheat.

And I needed a small bag of marshmallows to make fudge for a YSA activity, but he was afraid to get too few so got the giant-sized costco-pack of marshmallows.....

....just a few the-man-did-the-groceries quirks that were disheartening. (I have BIG issues with marshmallows. Weird, I know.)

That night we had tickets to go to see "Billy Elliot" in Toronto with my parents, and every time we go to the theatre we get Hagen Daz at intermission, so I KNEW that was coming up, and ate pretty vegetarian-healthy in preparation! hahaha But Mr. Man's darling mother, who came down to our house to babysit for us for the night, showed up with a huge box of icing-doused cinnimon buns for Sunday breakfast.......and dinner with my parents was a huge helping of chicken with butter/sugar-doused vegetables.

Then the NEXT day, at church, after succumbing to the oozing icing for breakfast by my oh-so-kind-and-horribly-tempting-MIL, the RS president mentions to me, oh-you're-having-the-elders-for-dinner-tonight-right? WHAT?! I'd already put a new squash+lentil soup in the crock-pot in the morning, and there DEFINITELY wasn't enough for four adults plus Little Miss AND we'd just had them a few days earlier and served...wait for it... LENTIL SOUP! I mean, COME ON!! So I frantically ran around when I got home to see what I could make to satiate the Elders, and came up with my mom's hommade mac n' cheese recipe - which is DELICIOUS, but definitely not 30-day-plan friendly. So we had that and the lentil/squash soup on the side.

Then what? OH yes! Then Monday was VALENTINE'S day, which, honestly, is SO not a big deal at our house. AT ALL. But Mr. Man and I have recently been called as the YSA advisors in our ward and so were preparing for our first YSA FHE...so Little Miss and I got to baking - the fudge mentioned earlier and icing-laced sugar cookies.

There's a lot of icing left over when you make cookies.

And there are a lot of cookies left over when you only have three YSA come to your first event.

AAAAAaaand by that time my perfect week's meal plan was totally thrown out the window - we were so off what we were supposed to be eating when and where and with whom and whatever it was just let's try to use up these groceries week. :(

WHY is it so HARD?!

SO I'd kinda' decided to throw in the towel and forget it - I'll just work up to running 10K 5 or 6 times a week, and then who gives a crap if I eat the extra marshmallows by the handful everytime I wander through the kitchen?? I mean, really.

THEN I got your message yesterday.....

So today I will be hitting the grocery store to fill our kitchen with the things we need for the following to get us through 'till Saturday:

tonight's dinner: Eggplant-tomato stew

Tomorrow
breakfast: oatmeal & an orange
lunch: scrambled eggs with veggies (30-day recipe)
dinner: Sweeny Todd Stew (30-day portabella mushrooms & beans recipe)

Thurs
Breakfast: banana & orange (I love this breakfast combo!)
Lunch: spinach/lettuce salad with nuts, seeds, chick peas, etc.
dinner: vegetarian chili with whole wheat pasta

Friday:
Breakfast: Kristen's smoothie recipe (30 day, obviously)
Lunch: More yummy salad, possible dip into leftovers
Dinner: vegetable stew
Friday night - book club meeting will include Italian foods i.e. lasagna, caesar salad, bread.... it's my planned food dalliance

Saturday:
Breakfast: yummy smoothie recipe from Epicure (DELISH! Similar to yours, but with some epicure seasoning)
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: 30-day rolled eggplant...but we've adjusted it into a pasta sauce - it's SSOOOOOOOO yummy!

I ran 10K yesterday, and am currently planning to run 5 tomorrow, 10 Thursday, and then 5 on Saturday.

....fingers crossed....

Sorry for such a long response, but there it is. AAAAAAND I may just steal this whole thing and post it on my blog, because I've been MEANING to post it all for some time now.

THANKS for checking on me! I need it! hahaha
ME

I've been HACKED!

So, a couple of hours ago I got this rather alarming e-mail from lord Google. 

Dear site owner or webmaster of [my business site]


We recently discovered that some of your pages can cause users to be infected with malicious software. We have begun showing a warning page to users who visit these pages by clicking a search result on Google.com.


Here is a link to a sample warning page:
http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http%3A//leifayre.ca/store/
 
We strongly encourage you to investigate this immediately to protect your visitors. Although some sites intentionally distribute malicious software, in many cases the webmaster is unaware because:
1) the site was compromised
2) the site doesn't monitor for malicious user-contributed content
3) the site displays content from an ad network that has a malicious advertiser

If your site was compromised, it's important to not only remove the malicious (and usually hidden) content from your pages, but to also identify and fix the vulnerability.

Once you've secured your site, you can request that the warning be removed by visiting
[crazy google support site]
and requesting a review. If your site is no longer harmful to users, we will remove the warning.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team

Yeah.  How do you like THEM apples, huh?! GEEZE!  I read the first line, got confused and lost - is this even for REAL?? - called Mr. Man over aaaaaaaaaand.... there's definitely something going on.  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  And I spent TIME on it today, getting things updated and new stuff posted! 

I feel like a cyber criminal.  The owner/operator of a malicious website. sigh .... but I HAD NO IDEA!!  Apparently some smart guy who's a complete and total jackass meanie (does my mommy read this?) is sitting around with nothing better to do than to exploit little glitches in people's shopping cart software, so when people visit JEWELLERY websites, of ALL things, they're at risk of being infected by Google only KNOWS what! 

Gotta' tell ya', my heart rate sped up a few notches reading through that.  It sounds so official and scary, right?  And even when Mr. Man gets it all fixed and straightened out Google doesn't take down the warning until we APPLY for a REVIEW. 

Oy.

IN the meantime.... the website has been deactivated, so typing http://www.leifayre.ca will NOT give you a virus, but will in fact redirect you to our FACEBOOK PAGE! Hooray!  Where you can still view everything, 'like' the page, even, and then EASILY share it with all your friends!  Come on! You know you want to!  It's been a tough battle against the evil-cyber-bots hell-bent on destroying our little corner of the internet and hitting 100 'likes' would be fantastic. hahaha (You'd think with 400+ facebook super-close-pals I'd be able to find a quarter of them who like handmade jewellery, eh?  Geeze.....)

On a HAPPIER work note, wanna see what I made today?:-)

Huzzah!

I think it's time to call it a night. At least, productively speaking. Cheers!

Angry Much?

(From http://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/35)

Do you ever just get so mad you want to scream? Throw things, stomp around, slap the offender or just, just....really rub in how ARRRRRGH the whole thing is to make sure IT NEVER EVER HAPPENS AGAIN? And then when you're a bit calmer and you're thinking back to Sunday school and that dang 70 times 7 lesson about forgiveness and you're a bit chagrined for having behaved like a fool, so you chill and apologize for blowing your top but then discuss why you blew your top and what events led up to your feeling so ridiculously helplessly out-of-control-ly FURIOUS??

.....and then it happens again??

Mad. Calmer, but upset. Forgiving, understanding, emotion sharing... crisis over.

....and then it happens AGAIN.

......and again....

.....and again.....

And it's not always the EXACT same thing, or situation, it's just the same pattern, the same...disappointment, frustration, hurt.... leading to the same anger at the sense of betrayal.

And you get to the point where as much as you NEED to SCREAM to release the pressure that's building up there's just not point anymore because it's not like anyone's listening, or that they care. Or at least not that they care enough to do anything about it. Nothing big enough to make a difference, anyway.

So, eventually it will blow over. You will be perceived as being a holy terror, a tremendous over-reactor... time will "heal" and you'll get over it. And the cycle will just keep going on and on and on and on.

When people totally SNAP, like, flip their lid, lose grip on reality, give up, whatever.... I wonder how many gazillion times they've been through the cycle before it's too much.

I wonder how many times I have in me....

(In lieu of screaming my head off and waking up my Little Miss let me just say: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)