Say hello to MENU MONDAYS! Beef Vegetable Soup

Hi ho, everyone!  Well, everyone who is kind enough to take however long it takes to read one of my long-winded blog-ramblings to visit and read the latest ramblings I have.... I don't pretend to think there are too many of you, so "everyone" is a very select group of folks...

I totally lost myself in that non-thought.  What am I here for??

OH yes.  Welcome to: MENU MONDAYS!


So, I'm pretty jazzed about this - I've been thinking, honestly, for months to start doing this and then, obviously, never did.  But then I've found it so relatively easy recently to share DAILY what I'm eating that I figure, YES! I CAN do this sometimes!  hahaha

Basically, when I eat something absolutely fabulous, I'll take a picture, post it, and share the recipe.  Sound good??  It does to me, but I'm kind of NUTS about food, so....

FIRST UP: Mom's Best Ever Beef Vegetable Soup

Not my best ever food picture, but I took it on my phone, so let's all be sufficiently impressed, yes? Fabulous.

First thing you have to know...this is really easy to make. And DELICIOUS.  And my mommy used to make it. She may still (why wouldn't you??)


Ingredients: 
1 lb ground beef
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
6 cups water
3 tbsp beef bouillon, or 2 oxo cubes
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup pot barley (or pasta stars or some other such thing - I use pot barley)
2 bay leaves
2 tsp each chill powder and basil
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 7.5oz can tomato sauce
1 or 2 cups green beans (can use 2 14oz cans, a small bag of frozen, just as long as they're cut up)


Directions: 
Brown ground beef in large pot.  Drain off fat.  Add onion, celery and carrots.  Stir and cook 5 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients except green beans, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 50 minutes.  Add beans, cook until heated through.  Discard bay leaves.

This one I made up earlier in the day, simmered for the 50 minutes, and then left Mr. Man in charge of chopping up, adding, and cooking the green beans.  Soooo.....the beans were a little on the long side O:-) and a little on the crunchy side.  hahaha BUT I happen to love green beans so it was still pretty fabulous.  Just cut them up however you like them, and make sure they're heated through so they, you know, go with the soup!

Even Little Miss ate it.  Which is saying something.

Texting Dad

(image from: http://lmg.letmeget.net/blog/texting-symbols-list-facebook)

Recently, my Dad has skyrocketed himself into the twenty-first century and figured out how exactly to work the text messaging function on his phone.  It's kind of fabulous, and really cute to hear how he's been regularly texting my mom while she's been away (in Florida - horrors! hahaha). 

Anyway, to mark the occasion, I sent him a text message congratulating him on his newly acquired skillz, and we have since become text buds.

Then, a few days ago now, we got a phone call at the house.  Mr. Man picked it up, listened, and hung up before announcing that Dad had texted us to find out about Mr. Man's job prospects.

This made me smile - it's not the first time someone has accidentally selected our home number instead of cell number(s) when sending us a text message, and we always just smile and return-text from our cells. 

So I texted Dad:


You texted our house phone. :-) :-) Always makes for an interesting phone call! 

AND I got THE GREATEST RESPONSE EVER:

Sorry.  Made a mistake.  I remember phones that had a crank on the side and you placed a call by verbally telling the operator what number you wanted.  Our number at home when I was a kid was 346 ring 1 3. When the phone rang it was not always for us.  Only if there was on long ring followed by three short ones. It was called a party line. Anyone on the line could pick up and listen in.  I have come a long way but apparently have far to go. :s

BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 

Ohmigoodness, I love my Dad! 

5 AM Phone Calls

(image from: http://thetwors.blogspot.com/2011/04/sleeping-in-and-saving-environment.html)

I'm tired today.

Currently, I'm not feeling it.  Adrenaline and all that. You know how you get so tired you just can't help but function on overdrive?? That's how I feel at the moment.  But my need to overdrive is currently finished for the day - we're having family snuggle on the couch Sunday (except for Little Miss, who is mimicking Pete's skipping in the movie we're watching, Pete's Dragon.  So I'm sure the adrenaline will pass in a bit and I'll crash.....

The past few nights have not been good sleeping nights for me.  Which is honestly, really weird, because when I lay down at night, I fall asleep, and then I am OUT until Little Miss bombs me out of bed in the morning.  I would sleep until the afternoon every day if I could, I kid you not, and still be able to sleep at night. I LOVE sleeping. sigh 


Thursday night I realized how insanely busy Friday was going to be, rushing to fit everything in we needed to get done and get to my SIL's to surprise the nieces after school, so stayed up late crafting the birthday presents I wouldn't otherwise have had time to make.

Not ideal, but no BIG deal or anything.  I watched silly tv on Netflix and made oodles of earrings and necklaces for the 8-year-old dear to accessorize with now that she's got pieced ears.  It was fun!

But then Friday morning around 5 Little Miss decided she needed to come crash my sleep for some snuggles.

Fine, no big deal. I love snuggles.

Then Friday night we slept away from home, which again, I don't usually have a hard time with. When it's time for me to sleep, that is that!  I'm lucky that way, I guess.

But I stayed up a little bit late blogging about the epic fail and by the time I got to bed Mr. Man was definitely asleep.  And laying on his back.  Which for me, means a NOISY night.  MAN can he snore.

And then my nieces all wake up at like, I don't even know - some hour of the morning I've never seen before! hahaha So I didn't really sleep in yesterday either.

Okay, but LAST night.  Really.  UGH.

Mr. Man knew I was getting tired going a couple of days without ideal amounts of sleep - some people function just fine and dandy, but I'm one of these for whom a lost hour's sleep equals a disproportionately huge shift in mood, so it's usually in his best interest I'm well rested ;-) - and so insisted that we get to bed at a decent hour last night.  He made me go to bed BEFORE 11 even.  I mean, REALLY!!

But then I couldn't fall asleep!  WHAT??

I finally fell asleep sometime after 1 AM, after listening to his slow, NON-snore for EVER, and fighting the urge to get up and do ANYTHING other than lay there like a useless lump... if I'm awake I may as well be productive and DO something, right??

Anyway, I finally, eventually fell asleep.  Yay for me.

5 AM. FIVE IN THE MORNING.  Mr. Man's cell phone, out in the dining room, rings.  Mr. Man's cell phone.  Mr. Man's cell phone NEVER rings.  Not EVER.  I don't even call it.  He has this pay-as-you-go plan where texts are unlimited and phone calls are limited, so no one EVER calls him 'cause he won't answer it anyway!  hahaha Sometimes my brother forgets and calls Mr. Man's cell phone, but that's it. It NEVER rings.

It rang.  At five o'clock in the morning.

Did he hear it??

Gosh, no, of course not.

And so I lay there, having been aroused by someone ELSE'S cell phone probably having been accidentally drunk-dialed or something stupid at 5AM, with a wandering, wide-awake mind.

And then I thought, gee, you know, the only person who ever really calls Mr. Man's cell phone IS my brother.  I wonder if it was him calling.  I wonder if everything is okay.  I wonder if everyONE is okay.  I mean, why do people ever call other people at five o'clock in the morning?  Not ever for anything except to say that someone's died or something other such fabulous news.  I wonder who's DEAD?! Why didn't I run and grab the phone? Did Mom get in a plane crash coming home from Florida? Even though she's not flying home until Friday??

Wait. Wait a second. If someone's dead then whoever called will call again.  They won't call once and not get us.  When you call people at 5 in the morning you expect that they're asleep and you'll have to call again.  They'll call again.

...........

Then MY cell phone rang.

Ohmigoodness, someone IS dead!  WHO'S DEAD?!?!

I GRABBED my phone, looked at the caller ID to see: "unknown caller," and frantically pushed the button to answer the phone.

Except I pushed the wrong button.

I PUSHED THE WRONG BUTTON!!

I accidentally pushed the lower right button instead of the upper right button to answer my phone.  Now, I totally understand why I did it - my phone really doesn't ring very often either; as popular as I am people just don't call me (it's okay - I don't call anyone either. Phone chat isn't really my thing).  So I don't have oodles of practice on automatically pressing the 'answer' button. When my phone does ring I have to look at it and register which button is answer.  And in the pitch-black of 5:05 AM I hit the wrong button.

NO! NO NO NO NO NO!  Someone's DEAD and I just DIDN'T answer the phone!! OHMIGOODNESS!  PLEASE call back! Please call back!! I'm sorry! I know which button it is now! I know!  CALL ME BACK!!

I lept out of bed with my cell in my hand and raced to the living room to grab the portable off of the charger - we have a charger in the bedroom, too, and keep a phone in there for just such an occasion, but of course it's migrated to somewhere else in the house so was of now use to me this morning.

With my cell phone in one hand and the house phone in the other - obviously someone who wants to get us badly enough at 5 am to call both our cell phones will next try to rouse us with the landline, right?  Right?? - I headed back to my bedroom.  Where I proceeded to turn the ringers way down so as not to wake up Mr. Man before necessary when one of the phones inevitably rang again.   And then sat there.  One phone in each hand.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And imagined what the news was.  WHO called?  Maybe Mom was coming home early for something and the plane went down?  Maybe my dad's cold this week wasn't just a cold and he succumbed during the night??  WHO IS DEAD?!?!

And I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And WAITED.

Finally around 5:30 I put the phones down on my side table - if I heard Mr. Man's cell phone in the dining room I'd hear the land line from the other rooms and the turned-down ringer by my head.

And I lay down and waited.  Waited for the phone to ring. Waited to fall back to sleep.

Back to sleep. HA! HAHAHAHAHA!  As IF!

I was SO worked up.

No one ever called.  To the best of my knowledge all my family members are alive and well.   Mr. Man checked his phone when he got up and the only missed call was a 'blocked number,' whatever that means on his phone.

I don't know who it was, what was going on.  Was someone trying to get a hold of us to tell us something?  We were both pocket-dialed by someone, one after the other? Were we both wrong-numbered at 5 in the morning? That's happened to us before.

NO IDEA.

But, promise me something, please.

If you ever accidentally pocket-dial, wrong-number dial, or WHATEVER to someone at 5 in the morning and you don't talk to an actual person? LEAVE A MESSAGE and say  "SORRY! Wrong number!!" so that at 5:01 AM when the poor unsuspecting, used-to-be-sleeping-and-is-now-going-insane-with-worry soul can say "Oh. MORON!" and then go back to sleep!!

I'm going to go take a nap.

Detox Days 8-11 & the epic FAIL

Howdy, folks!

So, the past week has been fabulous. I've eaten great foods, lots of variety, lots of yummy things.  Eggs in the mornings, meat & veggies and snacks in the non-mornings.

And as I've gone I've even taken photos of some of my favourites so I can share them with you.

But, today, I have to confess.

And every time I have to confess, I feel like it's OKAY, because, this IS "Confessions of a Kin Major," and while I may have graduated my Kin degree and have moved on to....more school....I still make "mistakes" and have things to fess up.

So, here's what happened.

I have four nieces. They are spectacular.  And today the oldest one turned 8.  And Little Miss had a day off school today - is it PA or PD day now, I don't even know - soooo we decided to trek up to visit the family and surprise our nieces with a Happy Birthday visit and sleepover.

HUZZAH!

So after a morning kickboxing class (I got four classes in this week!  Including what Sensei G calls an "F-U Day," and yes, F & U stand for....exactly what it sounds like. hahaha The idea is that by the end of it everyone in the class should be yelling that particular expletive at him or he's not worked us hard enough... it's a brilliant workout) we ran around like mad and got ourselves organized, and out of town.  To surprise the girls getting off the school bus, play some games, craft some jewellery, make birthday dinner, and then eat said dinner.

Dinner was chicken parmesan with whole wheat spaghetti, shrimp, escargot with bread for dipping in the garlic butter, caesar salad with homemade croutons (I made them!), broccoli, & sparkling grape juice.

I did NOT eat that.  Promise.  My darling SIL kept a hunk of chicken from being smothered in cheese for me, and I didn't eat bread dipped into melted garlic butter.  I didn't eat the croutons in my salad, nor the escargot (um, ew?), and I had water to drink.

Dinner was delicious!!

Then we cleaned up, gathered gifts, and the celebratory birthday dessert started coming out of the kitchen.  Including a rousing version of "Happy Birthday To You" from everyone, of course!

So, the birthday girl, for her 'cake,' requested the following:

brownies

vanilla ice cream

whipped cream (the icky kind in a can, that tastes deliciously like whipped butter.....drool)

chocolate sauce

jujubes

Oh. My.

And for some reason, the brownie 'cake' which was decorated with jujubes, ended up right in front of myself and my other SIL at the table.  Just sitting there.

Taunting me.

..... I don't know how it happened, but all of a sudden an orange jujube found its way into my mouth....

And since the detox is kind of ruined with a jujube....it seemed a little pointless to bother keeping up with it after that point! 

Yes, those white flecks all over the table are from my liberal application of whipped cream to my, uh, mountain of dessert.

I swear it didn't look that big from where I was...nom nom nom...oh, never mind!

So... I totally caved.  I just gave in.  I WANTED brownies, ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce!  I mean, who in their right mind WOULDN'T want those things?? 

And you know what? I'm totally FINE with the fact that I ate that giant mound of dessert.  IT WAS YUMMY.  It was a special occasion.  I haven't eaten dessert since Christmas.  I AM back into the pants I busted out of over Christmas, with a little bit of wiggle room.  I went to four kickboxing classes this week instead of 'just' three. I've learned how to eat properly for MY body.  

And except for the GINORMOUS zit that's taken up residence on my face at the moment, I look fabulous. 

So, I'm good. 

Tomorrow I won't have dessert.  Or bread.  Or crepes (which is the planned breakfast - I'll think of my last delicious outing with crepes over Christmas and then whip myself up some eggs).  And in another few days or so, maybe I'll have 'earned' my next splurge/cheat.  But I'm good with today's.  

It was delicious. 

Detox Days 5, 6 & 7

Hi!

Sorry for the weekend hiatus, but I had a fabulous weekend and kind of kept away from the computer a bit.

Saturday we actually had NOTHING on. NOTHING!  It was FABULOUS. All three of us lounged around the house in our pjs until about noon, playing games, chill axing, eating breakfast.... huh - totally drawing a blank on what we ate. hahaha PROMISE I didn't cheat, though.  Okay, chatting with Mr. Man I think I had a couple of boiled eggs. Oy, how we forget such monumental moments! ;-)  Snacked on nuts, crab meat...don't remember if I grabbed any veggies....probably not, WHOOPS! Anyway, we ran some errands, cleaned the house, played some more, and then Mr. Man and I, get this....WENT ON A REAL DATE!!

I KNOW, right? CRAZY!!

We got a baby-sitter and the whole nine yards!

Dinner AND a movie!!

We went to Jack Astor's for dinner - there is ONE detox-friendly salad on the menu, and it was DELICIOUS.  AND I didn't have to make it!  And, because we were dining out and having some fun we even splurged and had SPARKLING water. hahaha  OOOOOOooo CRAZINESS!

Then we FINALLY went to see the new Sherlock Holmes flick.  I, personally, LOVE the first one, and got a big kick out of reading one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's collections near the end of last year.  I find Holmes to be just a hilariously delightful character and LOVE Robert Downey Jr in the role.  So yeah, basically it was the perfect evening.

We even TALKED over dinner.

GASP


And then Sunday I was off to class for the day!  Ate some eggs and nuts for breakfast, took some leftover spaghetti squash and sauce for lunch (it's yummy cold, too!), and then came home to a house full of family!  My in-laws trekked down for the afternoon/evening to celebrate Mr. Man's turning even OLDER, and spoiled us with a fabulous, detox-friendly meal of flank steak, asparagus, cauliflower, and a scrumptious salad (and for non-detoxers, potatoes, cheese sauce for the veggies, escargot & bread, plus black forest cake).  Another FABULOUS detoxing meal I didn't have to prepare.

See?  TOTALLY spoiled over the weekend. FABULOUS.

Today, I weighed myself, just to see where I am, post Christmas eats (for the record, it was NOT my mother's fault that I totally binged on cinnamon buns.  I did it willingly and knowingly...and even made myself a pair of elastic-waistband pj bottoms so I had pants that would grow with me as I gorged on...everything in sight! Whoever said 'nothing tastes as good as thin feels' has NOT eaten at my mother's house!) and with almost a week of detox and back to kickboxing, and I was happy to see that I'm not imagining feeling better - I'm 5 lbs down from my last weigh-in before Christmas.  Which was great to see!

Then, tonight, at kickboxing, I thought, what the heck, let's see where I'm at since last Monday night, 'cause I was weighed to start off our 'biggest loser' challenge at the club.

I'm down 5 lbs from last MONDAY.

Holy COW.

So...there are multiple reasons.

1 is definitely the detox, no question.  I feel fabulous.  And it's funny, as much as I LOVE all the stuff that's proven to be not great for me, when I'm cooking for myself now I don't WANT it, you know? I want a giant plate of veggies with some sort of meat.  Dinner tonight was a chicken breast smothered in Epicure's Italian sansel (I prefer the Red Garlic for sure) with carrots and green beans. It was DELISH.

2 is definitely...I was being visited by my, uh, monthly 'FRIEND' last Monday. hahaha And that usually, honestly, puts about 5 lbs on me each time anyway.

3 - I'm working like crazy at kickboxing. It's kicking my butt but I'm kicking back. MUAHAHAHA!

Anyway, that's the weekend re-cap.  Detox goes 'till next Monday, then I'll be reporting on Cheat Meal Tuesday (BOOyah!  ...unless I do it Wednesday 'cause I teach piano on Tuesdays and it's hard to make dinner....so if I hold off a day and do it Wednesday I can spend ages in the kitchen prepping my feast...which will totally include a giant cookie, by the way.)

Okay, I have some chillaxing to fit in before falling asleep tonight!  Happy Monday, everyone!

Oh, and check out my post on Crafty Betties today, if you're into crafty stuff - we post Mondays and Thursdays about all sorts of different things!  It's very Holly-Homemakerish, and very cool. ;)

Cheers!

Detox Day 4

Today, I was lacking.  I don't know. I got my to-do list and then some done today, but I lack....zest. hahaha  It's all good, I'm fine and dandy, I just had a bit of a meh-feeling day.

SO... we went pretty easy for food.

Boiled eggs, snap peas, and a few cashews for breakfast.

Crab meat for snack (yum!)

Leftover pork stirfry for lunch with a salad on the side - romaine lettuce, snap peas (they're so easy to prep), and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds.

Dinner we ordered pizza from the place around the corner - I had wings (they're not breaded - win!) and another nice big salad - iceberg lettuce, green peppers, onions.

I watched people eat giant cookie & ice cream, wept a little bit inside, and drank a huge glass of water. hahaha

On to the rest of my meh-feeling night! Maybe I'll fold more laundry... :-D

Cheers!

Detox Day 3

Today is Mr. Man's birthday!  He's OLD. hahaha Yikes. Keeps freaking me out.... oy vey.

This morning I made Mr. Man and Little Miss special birthday french toast for breakfast...then I rinsed out my egg dipping container thing and whipped myself up some scrambled eggs with chopped up onion and a wee bit of ham.  It was yummy, and extra quick because everything was already out for my sweeties' breakfasts. :-)

Lunch was teriyaki salmon with beans - Mr. Man okayed the menu and even chose the vegetables for lunch.  I cheated and used Epicure's teriyaki mix again (it's SO FAST and ALMOST as good as my homemade... I USUALLY cheat and use it if I have any around) and marinated my salmon for about 15 minutes each side, then popped the whole thing under the broiler on HI for a few minutes on each side - I've taken to just cooking my salmon in the marinade for the little bit of extra flavour without constantly basting or anything like that.

Yes, I am a lazy cook.  :-D

 For dinner I made spaghetti - it's delicious, everyone likes it, including Little Miss (though tonight she sure gave us a run for our money - OY!)  and with all my birthday cooking it was nice and easy.  AND used up some of the ground chicken we got at the store the other day ($2 for a 1lb-ish pkg! BAZING!)

Now, when I make spaghetti sauce I use 1lb of some sort of ground meat - usually beef, but second-most often, chicken, and occasionally, turkey.  My dad made it once with ground sirloin or something....drool  It really doesn't matter, just some ground meat. Extra lean, of course, if you can swing it.

Cook up your meat, drain it, then add 1 chopped up onion.  Heat that until the onion turns a bit clear, and add about a teaspoon each basil, oregano, and garlic powder.  Mix that up, and add 2 cans of tomato/spaghetti sauce (whatever brand is on sale that week for a buck!  hahaha)

All you have to do is heat it through, but if you can leave it on lo for about half an hour it gives all the flavours time to mix and get yummy.  Totally depends on how much time I have whether or not I bother with letting it hang out on my stove or if I just start dishing it out onto plates!

Now, you may recall that I'm not eating PASTA and be wondering how in the heck this works with my making spaghetti for dinner.

I made noodles for Mr. Man and Little Miss (who decided to wait for dessert instead of eating her sgetti - argh!)

Let me introduce you to my fabulous friend, Monsieur Spaghetti Squash:

YUMMY and easy easy easy.  

First, I chop the thing in half, lengthwise (or as in the last couple of cases, I have Mr. Man do it for me because my hand hurts too much to grip the knife as ridiculously hard as I need to - it's akin to cutting through a pumpkin.) 

Then, scrape out the crap from the inside (just like when you're scraping out your to-be jack-o-lantern!)

Crap inside

All scraped out!

Then I put a wee bit of water on a cookie sheet, turn my oven on nice and high, like 425 degrees, and put the squash halves open-side down in the water on the cookie sheet.  Put them in the oven (I don't usually bother waiting for it to heat up - they'll cook as it heats), and then leave them for 25-30 minutes, ish. I don't know exactly how long I leave them in - I do them first and put them in the oven so when I'm done everything else they're ready! 

When they're done, flip them fleshy-side up and attack it with a fork - the squash like, falls out and, surprise, looks like spaghetti!

It's a delicious side-dish, but I love mine slathered in spaghetti sauce. 

YUM! 

 So, that's what I ate tonight.

Cravings today??

Giant cookie cake. hahaha  Because Little Miss and I made one for Mr. Man.  I mean, tell me this is NOT super tempting:

And while the finished product has a bit of an ew, yuck, disgusting factor and should absolutely be featured on Cake Wrecks, that factor was achieved with liberal application of icing and sprinkles...... 

OH how my tummy ACHES to partake of this horribly ugly dessert concoction!

If I weren't detoxing I would totally be splurging on this with my family.  sigh  OH well!

Okay, that's my blogging for today's food.  Thankful Thursdays will hopefully return after the detox is over and I can think about something other than food during the day. hahaha

I have dessert and birthday presents to serve.  Cheers! Happy eating!

Detox Day 2

Today, I did groceries. hahaha

For breakfast I made egg-in-a-frame using peppers as the frame - I saw this in a commercial on TV last week and have made it a couple of times and it's YUMMY!  I don't know what exactly they did in the commercial, but I slice a pepper NOT the long way, so I end up with 'round' bits of pepper, then plop them in the frying pan and crack an egg in the middle.

Easy peasy and supper yummy.  

Lunch was for Mr. Man and myself again, and right after my groceries run, so I had more options! hahaha  We went for minute steaks with onions & mushrooms and a side of peas - I love me some frozen peas! SO quick and SO tasty!

So we sliced and diced our vegetables (and by WE I mean Mr. Man - he sliced and diced while I put groceries away and prepped the pan and cheered him on - thanks darlin'!)

And I've taken to buying up meat when I'm at the store that has this FABULOUS little orange sticker on it! So eating this was has actually proven to be much CHEAPER than my groceries before, which I am constantly surprised and thrilled about.  Huzzah cheap meat! hahaha

So we fried up the veggies for a while, then painted some BBQ sauce onto the minute steaks, and plopped them down in the pan with the veggies.  Cooked the whole kit n' caboodle for a couple minutes, turning the steaks, and voila: 

LUNCH!

It was super yummy.

Dinner was pork tenderloin cut up and cooked in a yummy teriyaki sauce (using Epicure's Teriyaki Seasoning) with frozen stir-fry veggies and I felt like cauliflower, so cauliflower. :-D  I made rice for Mr. Man and Little Miss as well to go with their stir fry, but I just ate the cauliflower and stir fry. It was yummy.   And another super quick one to make.

Sorry the picture's so much worse - the sun was WAY down by dinnertime, it being winter and all, soooo my natural light LEFT me! hahaha  BOO! Don't they know I'm taking photos of food?!?!

Snacks - as I didn't have any nuts at breakfast I've had a handful to snack on, and bought myself some sugar peas for crunching on when the need arises. Maybe tomorrow I'll mix it up and have nuts and veggies at ONCE and call THAT a snack!

So, sorry this is a boring post for those looking for the ins and outs of life, but nothing much happened today, really.  I chatted with my mommy on the phone, firmed up plans for Mr. Man's birthday (tomorrow) celebrating on the weekend aaaaaand cleaned the kitchen! Yay me!

Until tomorrow, then! Happy eating!

Detox Day 1

Today, was a good day.  It really was.  I tidied up, vacuumed the bedrooms (yes I vacuumed. I know, right? Win!)  Went outside of my comfort zone a little and uh, 'applied' for a wee teeny tiny little bitty 'job' I really wanted, had a fabulous lunch, practiced singing for this production I'm participating in in March, helped Mr. Man work out some of his work woes, GOT the teeny tiny no-big-deal-but-HUZZAH job (more on that later, I promise. It's not actually coming up for a while, so don't get your knickers knotted wondering/guessing about it. I'll tell you when it's time!) watched a tv show, fell asleep on the couch for a bit, taught piano lessons, played lego, ate dinner prepared by my Mr., and went to an awesome kickboxing class.

See? It really WAS a good day. :-D I TOLD you!

Detox day 1.... I need to do some groceries. hahaha  AND I need to place an Epicure order! Oy!  I'll have to put that on tomorrow's to-do list...

Anyway, there has been some interest not only in what I'm eating, but recipes and ideas, as well.  So, I figure I'll just tell you what I ate each day and if there's a recipe involved I'll share it, sound good??

I most often start my mornings now with eggs - I have been cautioned against eating the same thing every day because you can develop food sensitivities, BUT I'm just not that creative and I really LIKE eggs.  And on busy mornings I have boiled eggs - I pop a couple of eggs in a pot, NEARLY cover them with water, pop them on the stove, and then get back to my everything-that-needs-to-be-done in the morning.  It's easy, it's yummy, it's not cereal. Which I now haven't eaten in months - weird!   Anyway, I also eat a small bunch of nuts. Right now, usually cashews (they're my favourite - I don't actually like nuts very much so this is one of the hardest things about detoxing I find) or pistachios, neither of which are technically nuts, I know, but we're ignoring that 'cause they totally count.  And when I say a small bunch of nuts I'm talking like, 5 or 6 cashews.

I'm going to show you my lunch today - it's the only "recipe"-able thing I ate today, really!  And it's not really a recipe - I throw whatever's laying around into my salad. Yum!   Today I had romaine lettuce, some cabbage, some broccoli-slaw, crushed pecans and sunflower seeds.  I cleaned and chopped and threw it all together with a couple cut-up chicken breasts (Mr. Man was home - salad for two!) that I cooked in olive oil (this isn't the best oil for cooking, but it's what I have. I've been looking for coconut oil or something that's more stable than olive buuuut I really can't be bother popping from store to store to store getting different parts of my grocery list. If I can't get it at one store then I probably won't get it. hahaha) and sprinkled liberally with Epicure's Red Garlic Sansel.  Then I use just a wee bit of an oil-based dressing - ideally I would make my own olive-oil based dressing but I'm often too lazy to bother so get some balsamic vinaigrette or something from the store, aaaand the DELICIOUS combination ends up looking like...

This is SO SO SO yummy.  Usually I put in diced up mushrooms, but I didn't have any today. 

Yes, salad without tomatoes or cucumber.  I HATE tomatoes and cucumbers. Ick. Ick ick ick.  And don't tell me that cucumber has no taste. It TOTALLY does and ruins EVERY SINGLE BITE I accidentally (or out of courtesy, purposefully....shudder) choke back.  

And then dinner I was GOING to do this yummy pork stir fry, buuut as I mentioned I totally fell asleep and then had to dash off to teach piano, so when I got home Mr. Man offered to make us all bacon and eggs (WIN - this is TOTALLY MEAT so edible on detox days! BOOyah!) and I took him up on it.  I almost NEVER eat eggs for other meals when I have them for breakfast, but today was, obviously an exception.  And my dinner was DELISH. (Thanks, Mr. Man! MUAH!)

Snacking today?  Just chipping away at my bag of broccoli-slaw.  I have to replenish my veggie stash, hopefully tomorrow, so I have a bit more variety tomorrow.

What am I craving??  An ORANGE.  I found not eating fruit the hardest part of detoxing last time I did it, too.  I LOVE fruit.  I LOVE sitting on the couch at the end of the day, zoning out to something stupid on Netflix, and chowing down on a giant orange.  Drooling.  Last time the hardest thing was not eating apples.  The difference is probably that I had a big bag of BEAUTIFUL apples when I started last time, and this time, there are four giant, fabulously juicy bright orange navel oranges taunting me in the kitchen. 

Sigh

And now, I'm off!  Hope your Tuesday was as fabulous as mine!  Happy detoxing! :-D 

Detox time!

Just a quick one tonight!

I'm back from my first kickboxing class of the year and I've signed up for the club's annual 'biggest loser' contest.  Well, I actually have no idea if it's a contest, but whatever. hahaha   I'm not too concerned about what the scale says, but you know I let myself have some serious fun over the holidays and I'm ready to be accountable and behave myself.

Anyway, step one, tonight, was to get weighed and measured and whatever.

Next step.... tomorrow we all start the detox....which wowzers do I need to do.  I've been trying to talk myself into it again the past week or so but I haven't been able to turn down cheese or greek yogurt!  hahaha  BUT 14 days - been there, done that, can totally do it again.  :-D

So, for the next 14 days I'll check in, let you know how it's going, what I'm eating, and what I'm ACHING for - I'm thinking this might be easier because I'm not eating as many carbs as I was when I did it the first time, but I could be totally kidding myself.

Starting tomorrow morning back to meat, nuts, and vegetables for 14 days.  C'est tout!

(Time to start planning the cheat meal, folks! WAHOO! hahaha)

Until tomorrow, then!

Cheers

Abdominal Massage

(image from: http://ishellneville.com/maya-abdominal-massage/)

So, apparently, I have a bit of a phobia. Or something.  SOMETHING.

I mean, I guess there were maybe SOME clues.... I dunno, maybe when Mr. Man snuggles up close to me, draping his arm across my tummy results in his very swiftly being elbowed in the face and yelled at I should have seen the signs.

Maybe when I was pregnant and strangers (sometimes it's people you know who really are just STRANGE) placing their appendages on my distended belly immediately and without fail caused my blood to boil, I should have GUESSED.

I HATE having my abdomen touched.

I HATE it.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE it.

I don't know if it's totally 100% an insecurity thing - that definitely doesn't HELP, I'll admit, ESPECIALLY my post-baby belly. Even 4 years later and skinnier than high-school...ICK - or if it's just...I dunno, my weird thing (I don't have any other idiosyncrasies, right? RIGHT?? .... come on people back me up, here...)

Whatever it is, though, I hate having my tummy touched.

So, today, at school, when we talked about doing abdominal massage and how fabulous it is for this and that and the next thing.... MY abdomen was busy flip-flopping around as my horribly overactive imagination skipped ahead to the part of class where we strip down and practice on each other.

Oy.  Oy freaking vey.

Anyway, I get myself partnered up with Sensei D. Which is fine and dandy; we've partnered before and it's fine. A bit funny sometimes because we know each other outside of class - it's a bit weird to see someone at kickboxing that has also seen and massaged my glutes, I'm not going to lie - but he's a good guy and we have fun. And my other friend, Zinds (blog names are tricky sometimes! I like this one. At least how I created it - muahahaha!) currently has a blood clot in her arm so CAN'T massage, really, so she tagged along with us.

Now, one of the best ways to get over discomfort with massaging a uh, sensitive area, is to have that area worked on yourself.  So with this theory in mind my partners (and instructors) suggested I hop on the table first to get it over with and get comfortable with it.

Ohmigoodness.

To have your abdomen done first you have a towel placed over your chest, and then you, the patient, hold on while the therapist pulls the blanket and sheet down from underneath the towel.  It's very neat, very discreet, proper, conservative, whatever.  Highly appropriate uncovering, you know? Maybe you don't - I'm finding out it's weird for the general public to be as laissez-faire about body parts as most health care professionals are.

So, Sensei D gives me my itty, bitty, wee teeny tiny towel, FOLDS IT IN HALF and places it carefully where it goes.  Then asks me to hold on so he can undrape my belly.

I was dying. DYING.  I think I was holding on so tight it made it SUPER hard for the poor guy to get the blanket to move! hahaha  I couldn't NOT hold on for dear life, though! I mean, what the heck?? I have kickboxing tomorrow! Hey, Sensei! How WEIRD was that when my boobs fell out in class yesterday?? Yeah, NO! that was TOTALLY not going to happen!!  Soooooo, yeah, I kinda' crossed my arms and held on.

Then, finally, he got to undraping my tummy.  Boobs safely covered and tucked, nothing anywhere it shouldn't be.

Except wait a second, my belly is HANGING OUT, just sitting there.

I was dying.  I can't even tell you.  I know, because Zinds told me, that Sensei D started to do my abdominal massage and then offered it to Zinds, who having never done it before decided to ignore her serious health issues and give it a shot.  She worked on me for about ten minutes, during which time I had to continuously be reminded to breathe, my instructor kept trying to get my shoulders out of my ears, and I could NOT perform proper diaphragmatic breathing, which is generally pretty easy, to have my diaphragm treated.

Honestly, I think I would have preferred Sensei D to have been practicing breast massage on me.  That, I mean, I KNOW is going to be awkward for everyone involved, then we're going to get out our giggles, get over it, and move along.  My abdomen?? BLECH.

It was torturous.

NOW, IF/when you go for a massage to release the serious serious serious tension in your body HAVE ABDOMINAL MASSAGE - it's fabulous and amazing to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, WHICH is the one you want working when you're looking to chill.  Also, it will unconstipate you, which is faboosh 'cause you're probably are constipated - who knew, right?  There are 20 people in my class and I was the ONLY one having a spazz attack on the table, so...there's at best a 20 to 1 chance you'll react like me.  And, frankly, I haven't given up hope that I WILL RELAX and be able to RECEIVE this treatment and then be awesome at performing it in my own practice.

But today? Was freaking BRUTAL.

So what have we learned??

Stay the heck away from my tummy!  hahaha

Cheers!

Where'd I go?

image from http://www.moxiebird.com/2011/11/does-talking-about-your-diet-undermine-your-success.html

Okay, so I'm a day late - my apologies. I had a friend emergency yesterday during my would-have-been blogging time.  Everyone and everything is hunky-dory, but there's my excuse. ;-) Am I forgiven?

I thought today I would tell you about the thing I'm sure was one of the more interesting things I mentioned on Tuesday (even though, yes, it is Thursday and I should probably get back into the habit of Thankful-Thursday posts, 'cause they're a blast to write so... do be doo...) AND even has to do with the supposed SUBJECT of my blog here: 20lbs down in kickboxing!!

WAHOO!!

So, here's how it went down. It being the number on the scale, and definitely my pant size. (Muahaha!!)

You may or may not know about me - I can't for the life of me remember if I've ever written about it on here before or not - that I occasionally suffer from fabulously debilitating bouts of depression. It's just a blast.  I totally shut down, stop being able to function properly, if at all - really depends on the day - usually eat a lot... part of my not functioning is my fun inability to get myself motivated to exercise on a regular basis.  So, when I throw ridiculous amounts of binge eating together with life on the couch instead of out pounding the pavement with my runners....I pack on the pounds. And the uh, extra-fluffy appearance.  It's super nice.  And helps me feel just fabulous about my uber-depressed self.  sigh  Vicious cycle and all that jazz.

I don't know this time around what my trigger was, but I'm thinking it had something to do with all the ridiculous change that happened when I graduated university (which was amazing, by the way. I totally freaking have a degree. BOOyah!)  So for like, a year and a half I'm over here, floundering beyond belief, and I packed on...about 40lbs, give or take.  First time I hit 198lbs without being pregnant. ;) (Though when I was pregnant my high score was 225 - beat THAT! hahaha)

Anyway, through a series of events and circumstances, I ended up trying a kickboxing class at the dojo where Little Miss started taking jim jitsu in September - she picked jiu jitsu over dance.... is she related to me, you think?  And when I say kickboxing, I don't mean an aerobics class with sports-bra Barbie bouncing at the front of the room, I mean boxing gloves, kick the bageezies out of your partner, hitting things kickboxing.  I went to class a couple of times and fell in love with the intensity, the fabulous sound of a roundhouse kick smashing into a bag.... and I KNEW I was never going to get better without some assistance, so I took the plunge and committed myself to attending minimally twice per week - I'm paying for it, and people will notice if I'm not there. Two big motivators for me.

So fine, so I take up kickboxing.  La dee dah.

Some nights are better than others - I still have serious anxiety - the first class I showed up for I was practically having a panic attack out in the waiting area and Sensei had to literally come, grab my hand and drag me into the room.... - but all in all I LOVE it. And I generally, now, try to make 3 classes per week - class runs minimally an hour and fifteen, we work our BUTTS off, learn stuff, and have a blast.

Anyway, in October Sensei started announcing that he had arranged for some amazing someone to come down and teach interested parties about nutrition blah-de-blah-blah aaaand after some coercion he convinced me to sign up for the seminar.

So one Saturday in November I toddle over to the dojo to meet the guru and learn all about what the heck is wrong with the way I eat.

It was amazing.

Ah. MAZE. ing.

Have you ever had your body fat percentage calculated by skin-fold measurements? Someone takes callipers to all your flabby spots and tells you how fat you are?? Being a KIN major this is a normal occurrence in my experience buuuut I'm learning it's not necessarily so for the general populous.  Anyway, THIS technique uses a FABULOUS...I think theory? I don't know if it's a proven whatever, yet... where each skin-fold measurement site is associated with various hormones in the body - increased "fat"ness at a site is an indication of an imbalance.  So, for example, a large number at the umbilicus (by the belly button - belly fat) is indicative of elevated cortisol levels: cortisol is a stress hormone so you're probably overstressed (or in the case of athletes overtraining).  There's a thyroid site, I think your patella (knee cap) is related to your growth hormone - if you don't have enough of that you're not going to increase your muscle mass very easily - there were ten.  It was cool.

On ME, my initial measurements indicated that I may have some trouble with insulin i.e. an insulin resistance. That means when I eat oodles of carbs, as I TOTALLY do, all the time, and my body secretes insulin to deal with all the excess blood sugars....nothing happens.  Well, relatively nothing, anyway. Not like, diabetic nothing, but less happens than should, ideally.

The first thing suggested to me seemed a bit radical, but I thought, what the heck, let's give it a try. For 14 days I did a detox - I totally eliminated wheat, oats....pretty much everything from the 'grain' category, fruits (fructose), dairy.... I ate, literally, nothing but eggs/meats, nuts & seeds, and vegetables.  And oil-based dressings.  It was an interesting experiment, as I am the pickiest eater I know.

By the end of two weeks my jeans were literally falling off.

At the end of two weeks I had a cheat meal - as allowed by the 'plan' - one meal after the detox that lasts as long as you're sitting a the table - once you stand up meal is over. (We had shrimp pasta, cheesy garlic bread, caesar salad with bacon and homemade croutons, cheesecake, cookies, and ice cream - it was divine).

Then there was another week - another week on the detox-type plan and another cheat meal. Chicken parmesan, alfredo sauce.....drool.  Heaven on the dinner table.

Anyway, I was having some serious success on this detox plan and actually finding myself able to DO it, which is new for me.  Oh, and somewhere along the way I started back up on antidepressants so, the drugs, and the regular exercise with some major health victories.... I was doing great.

So then we had a second seminar - more measurements to see almost what had happened to us on the detox, you know? Like, get the after measurements.  I was down 11lbs, 2 sizes, much more capable at kickboxing - no longer having to sit down before the end of class with my head between my knees... it was weird and awesome.  And my second set of measurements indicate yes, that my stress hormone levels are high (um, I have a four-year-old, an out-of-work husband, and am in school.... DUH), AND that I have a genetic predisposition for this fabulous insulin resistance.

Translation?

No more bread. Pasta. Flour. Oatmeal (yay - I hate oatmeal - was trying to eat it to be healthy! BOOyah!)  It's in my waistline's best interest for me to avoid like the plague wheat, oats, and spelt.

And you know what? It's CRAZY.  I spent most of December basically following those guidelines - I eat mostly meat/eggs veggies and nuts most of the time, some fruit now, and yes I eat dairy (Greek yogurt? Who knew? YUM!)  I got into my jeans I both when I was my skinniest ever while running... I looked awesome, even if I do brag on my own behalf... O:-) And I FELT amazing. SO cool.

Aaaaaand....then we went to my mom's for Christmas. hahaha  I knew we'd be going - I specifically ordered homemade cinnamon buns for over the holiday and there was bread and spaghetti one night.... We arrived on a Thursday and I kid you not, by the TUESDAY I had already started, visibly, to put fat back on around my midsection/lovehandles.  It was INSANE.  In one week I went from fabulous to being, literally, an inch away from being able to line up the button of my jeans with its hole to do them the heck up!  Yes, I overate a couple of days - Christmas dinner and all that jazz - but seriously?  I put on INCHES, INSTANTLY!

Wild. Wild wild wild.

So, now we know, like, exactly, what happens when I eat carbs!! hahaha  So now I'm home, aaand I'm back to not eating carbs. Been home since Tuesday.  Already feeling svelte-er, which I wouldn't think possible exactly except I watched it go SO FAST the other way. I swear you could watch it happen!!

Anyway, so that's the skinny with my skinny. I'm still eating, just totally DIFFERENTLY. Better for ME. It's fantastic. And makes SO much sense that each individual person has different nutritional needs - everything else about interpersonal health issues depends on each individual person, why would our dietary needs not vary slightly person to person??

I can't recommend that you try what I did - it's such an individual thing, and you need whatever measurements to know what your imbalances are. But wow, knowing mine, and being able to tailor my food accordingly.... and I feel like I have total control of it now - if I want to eat a cinnamon bun, that's totally fine and dandy, I just don't want to do it daily because, hot dang it sticks. Like glue.

I'm kinda' half-watching "Men In Black" as I type this, so if this is the worst, most half-butted posting ever, sorry - we had gifts cards for HMV from Christmas, Mr. Man and I, and went and blew them today. :-) $100 between us plus $16.36 over and we scored 13 movies, 1 tv season, a CD, and a $3 points card. Sheer shopping brilliance.

But that, my friends, is the very lengthy, complete tale, of how the heck my waist got back to where I want it so quickly, how it ballooned back out a wee bit, aaaand how I plan to get it back in the next little while. Kickboxing starts back up again after a 2 week hiatus on Monday - I can't wait!

Cheers, all!

(FYI the guy who came to do the seminar was from a relatively local SST location - http://www.sportsspecifictraining.com/ I think they're super-dee-duper expensive, but check it out!!)

The end of 2011 in a nutshell

Hiya!

It's me. Yes, me. The one who let her blog totally fall to the side.

Even with SO much going on and fabulous would-be blog posts rattling around in her head.

Yup. THAT me.

I'm back. Well, today, at least.  No promises, 'cause I don't want to upset anyone (cough, cough, HEATHER, cough cough)

Anyway, as I said, OODLES has been up over here and oodles of it has been rattling around in my brain itching to get out soooo I'm HOPING to get back to it!

So, here it goes!

Life, in a nutshell:

Sept: Little Miss started jim jitsu and I started kickboxing. We both LOVE our respective uh, martial arts. She has since graduated from white to yellow belts (she's SO proud of herself, and has set her sights on her orange belt! Go munchkin, go!)  Also, it was both my and Little Miss' birthdays. And school (yup, that's right - did I mention I'm in school again? I THINK I did....) kicked my butt.

Oct: More kickboxing, jiu jitsu. School for Little Miss & I. Mr. Man lost his job (BOO!!!)   Yeah, that one SUCKED.  Also, my mom made Little Miss the GREATEST Batman costume for Hallowe'en EVER. And when people would see her costume and say "Hey, it's Batgirl," she'd get all upset, Little Miss, and correct them: "No, I'm BatMAN!" hahaha LOVE her to bits and pieces.  School really kicked my butt this month - I was a little distracted with the whole husband-out-of-work thing.  Oy.

Nov: More kickboxing. Crafting for Christmas. School kicking my butt.  Nutrition seminar that gave me some serious pointers and lessons about how I need to eat for ME, that included a 14-day detox - I got a cold right as I was starting my detox, so missed a week of kickboxing, but still shed 11lbs.  It was crazy.
Uuuummmm.... can't think of any other big things that happened in November.  Learned some awesome stuff at school - even while it kicks my butt I'm LOVING it and learning oodles.  I'm going to be an awesome massage therapist.

Dec: Second nutrition seminar. Apparently I have been eating wrong for my body like, my entire life. Changing my eating and I'm down about 20lbs since starting kickboxing in September, the majority of which is since detoxing in November.  Also down 2 sizes and am back into my 'skinny' jeans - huzzah!  Also, a wickedly HUGE amount of crafting, my baby brother's 26th birthday, painting at my parents' to earn some cash, and hello CHRISTMAS.

So there you are, all caught up!

Mr. Man is patiently waiting for me to chillax and tune into some TV as we unwind after all our Holiday Vacating (we just came home today), so I think for now I will leave it at that, and PLAN to be back tomorrow (leave threatening comments if I'm not) to give some more details about some of the interesting stuff. :-D

2012 is going to be a great year.  I can't wait.