BOUNTIFUL BASKETS!

Hello friends!

I just had to share my love, fascination and excitement with the Bountiful Basket program. It is so much fun to sign up for a basket full of fruit and vegetables that are fresh, whole, and a SURPRISE! You never know what you are getting, so it is fun to take the ingredients and find fun recipes and ideas for the wonderful produce.  ( A lot of ours actually gets eaten before it makes it into the recipes).

I had many friends ask me what I do with some of the ingredients, as the baskets are the same, even though we are in different states.  I told them that I would post the ideas on Facebook.  Some of my friends on Facebook love this, but some dont, so I decided to put the recipes HERE ON THE BLOG!

Do you want to know what I got in my basket today?  Green long peppers, yellow peppers, a big, beautiful head of romaine lettuce, fennel, and tomatoes for the vegies.  Strawberries, blueberries, apples banans and plums.  WOO HOO!

I cant wait to share the ideas and recipes with you here.

This week my promise to myself and to you is to EAT WELL, SLEEP WELL and EXERCISE!

Family Dinner

With older kids and crazy schedules, we dont get around to being together much anymore.  Jeff and I talked about it, and we decided that we were going to have "Family Dinner" 2 times each month, so we could all be together.

We had a marinated flank steak, Lynsies "Garden of eatin"  which is quartered red potatoes and any other vegie mixed with a bit of olive oil, sprinkled with parmesan, sea salt and fresh ground pepper and oregano... ( tonight it was asparagus, fresh green beans, carrot, onion, mushrooms, and red pepper.  You roast in the oven until the vegies are golden and delicious. We also had a huge bowl of chopped apples and oranges.

We laughed, and visited...everyone showed up and we had a great time!  Jacey and Jordan were trying on my old cheerleading uniforms...was I really this tiny??

Man, I love my family!!

CONFESSION~

Hello friends...

It has been a while since I have blogged, and here is my confession...

1.  I started eating sugar on Easter and have not stopped since
2.  My motivation was lagging as the end of winter kept holding on to my favorite season of all, SPRING.
3.  I have been quite stressed at work
4.  I have been worried about my beautiful children and hoping they will all find their happy spot.

Whew...done!

Now that I have gotten that off my chest, let me tell you some amazing things...
1.  I have been going to a lunch-break class at my work.  I am lucky enough to have a Sports Training department downstairs in my very building.  They have 30 minute lunch classes.  They switch off between Circuit Training, Weight-Lifting and Spin.  I am getting stronger every day and kept up in the spin class this week.  It is hard work!  I go back to my office with a red face and out of breath, but oh it feels so good to get strong!

2.  Sammy my wonderful little niece has been teaching Lynsie and I, along with a few of our kiddies some incredible lessons each Sunday!  She is becoming a life coach of sorts, and she has been helping us tap into our potential.  I love getting to know myself better, my kids, Lyns and her kids as well, and Sam has been great!  We have made vision boards, written down what we really want in life and execute it, we have a little drawing we each made of our own body with enpowering words in there that I look at EVERY morning to get those in my head...holy cow, it works!  Guess what?  I AM AMAZING...crazy huh?

3.  We have been eating healthy meals around here.  It is hard to cook for just a few as Riley and Jocelyn are the only ones home right now, and Riley is only here 1/2 the time.  We make it a point to sit down and enjoy dinner and conversation.  If you are caught with your phone at the table it gets taken away!  For those of you who know me well, you know that I have an addiction to my Iphone...eek ( this is a confession post, right?)

4.  Alot of people have been complimenting me on my weight, telling me that they can tell I am losing. I dont care how many times a girl hears that, it DOES NOT GET OLD.

5.  Guess who is turning 47 tuesday?  ME!  and guess who is going to greet 48 at 130 pounds...you've got it...ME!  I will never be in the TERRIBLE TWO HUNDREDS AGAIN...ONEderland...here I come!

Goal for this week:  Eat clean, stay focused, exercise 6 times, love my family and myself~

SATURDAY...

There was no family work out scheduled for today, so I took it upon myself to look through other motivating blogs to see if I could find a good plan for training for a 5 k I signed up for in June.  I read some great ideas!  I am going to take a few plans, tweak them for my age, level of fitness and I will post my finished product here tomorrow.  5k..HERE I COME!

So exercise today will consist of a Rockin' work-out party in my living room with my fitness tapes.  Sometimes I like to do that, because I can shake my booty all I want, dont have to get dressed, and I can hop on the WII and have them tell me that I am still obese.  It doesn't bother me anymore, because I look at that cute little cartoon character and I tell her..."I cant wait for the day when you will say..hmmm, she is not obese anymore, she is healthy."  IT WILL HAPPEN LITTLE CARTOON LADY!

I started my day off with a yummy smoothie with 2 cups of baby kale, an apple, a date for sweetness, a spoonful of coconut oil, almond milk and whey protein powder...

EAT CLEAN WITH ME TODAY!  It feels so good!  Take it one day at a time.  Just tell yourself that you are going to feed your body healthy, strengthening foods and drink your water...just today.  Tomorrow you can tell yourself the same thing.  I think this is an important approach, because if you have one day where you don't do well, that is only ONE DAY!  You can start over the next day...trick your psyche...

One more thing...take a few minutes today and clear your mind, and just breathe...deep breathes...cleansing breaths.  Refocus on why you are important and why you need to treat yourself well

Namaste

HAPPY VALENTINES!

~Love Me:)

Beef and Broccoli

Another easy dinner idea.  For those of you who don't eat red meat, chicken or firm tofu are great in this as well:)

I buy lean sirloin and just get about 10 to 12 ounces.  I freeze it so it is easy to slice into thin strips.

...put the sliced strips into a bowl with one Tablespoon of low-sodium soy sauce, grated fresh ginger ( you can freeze a chunk of ginger as well to use in your cooking, one crushed garlic cube, one T of corn starch, sesame seeds.. and stir up.

Meanwhile take one pound of fresh broccoli and chop into bite-sized pieces. peel the stalks and cut at an angle.  I chop up one red pepper too, because I love the color and the vitamins.  Chop one small white onion.

In a small bowl combine 4 more tablespoons of the low-sodium soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper, 2 T. agave nectar or honey, three more T of cornstarch and one cup of water.

Heat on T of olive oil in a saute pan or wok.  The secret of great stir fry's is Hot pan and oil before adding vegies or meat...cook the meat for one minute and set aside.  add a bit more olive oil and quick saute the vegies for about 2 minutes.  Add the meat or tofu and the little bowl of sauce mixture and freshly ground black pepper. Cook until boiling and thick...not too long.

I like to serve on a combo of brown and wild rice that I cook while preparing the Beef and Broccoli.

Easy and yummy...experiment... I like to squeeze a fresh orange in this sometimes, or add bean sprouts.

I served this with a few oranges I chopped quickly and threw in some pomegranate seeds.

 Dinner was served before we all sat down to watch "The Walking Dead"...zombie on friends:)

UPDATE ON PROGRESS...

I  LOST ANOTHER 2.8 POUNDS!  This brings the total to 36 pounds lost!  This is really happening!  I am so excited and SO ready to reach my goal.  I know it will take me another year, but I am getting there and feel better every day!