So Far...

Today is day 5 of my fit 4 summer challenge and I feel great. I have exercised every morning and have posted all my meals and fit drills daily, Yea Me... Funny how different your day is when it starts with a defined purpose. My personal challenge this weekend is to start cleaning my scrapbook room its a HOT MESS. Next week is spring break for the kids and yes we will be cleaning...Some.

Fit 4 summer Fit 4 Life Fitness Challenge

I putting myself on blast...what does this mean? I'm publicly saying I need to loose fifty pounds that I have gained this winter from seating in an a office all day and not exercising regularly.

So my Team Beachbody crazed friend started a challenge and I have accepted. I kinda thinking I must be crazy. I'm already participating in the Move More Eat Well workshop with Cathy Zielske. I know my friend will call me out, knock on my door it's no hiding from her. In my defense i'm not doing PX90 or insanity, as I have RA so i'm going with Body Gospel which has slower pace. As explained to me I will have to check-in every day with my exercise and meal plan. This will be the hard part for me I never post consistently. The prize will be losing fifty pounds and femme fatale Dog tags... I'm up for this Challenge...

Fluffy Pancakes

I hadn’t fixed myself breakfast in a long time, I haven’t been off on Saturday for a while either.

So decided to fix pancakes. This recipe is great, I added some fruit for taste and color. YUMMMMOO!

RECIPE

Servings: 6 medium pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted

cooking spray

DIRECTIONS:

Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

I topped my pancakes with cherry pie filling but you can add whatever you want.

JYC 18

Christmas Dinner

we discussed Christmas dinner on Sunday

We are having:

Ham

macaroni and cheese- my son

Country greens-my Nephew & I

Eight layer casserole- my daughter

We are not usually home Christmas day. We visit a lot that day.

Eight-Layer Casserole

ingredients

3 cups dried medium noodles (6 ounces)

1 pound ground beef

2 8 ounce can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

8 ounce carton dairy sour cream

8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup chopped onion (1 small)

10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, cooked and well drained

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (4 ounces)

directions

1.

Grease a 2-quart casserole or a 2-quart square baking dish; set aside. Cook noodles according to package directions; drain and set aside.

2.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook beef until brown. Drain off fat. Stir tomato sauce, basil, sugar, garlic powder, salt, and pepper into skillet. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

3.

In a medium mixing bowl beat together the sour cream and cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Stir in milk and onion. In prepared casserole or baking dish, layer half of the noodles (about 2 cups), half of the meat mixture (about 1 1/2 cups), half of the cream cheese mixture (about 1 cup), and all of the spinach. Top with the remaining meat mixture and noodles. Cover and chill remaining cream cheese mixture until needed.

4.

Cover casserole or baking dish with lightly greased foil. Bake in 350 degree F oven about 45 minutes or until heated through. Uncover; spread with remaining cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle with the cheddar cheese. Bake, uncovered, about 10 minutes more or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

5.

Makes 8 servings

It's my babies Birthday tomorrow!!! And he will be 15...

JYC Day 17

The Perfect Gift

The perfect gift is always one of the following:

1. A gift made with love and thought. Like a knitted hat & scarf or a quilt made with your favorite color. The cute little gifts you kids make for you at school.
2. A gift you asked for. It meant you really listened to them, which means you heard them, you payed attention to them. That gift you asked for but thought there was no way you would get it.

I did't go to church today. I don't go every sunday but most sundays I do. It was raining really bothering my RA. I stayed in and rested. later in the afternoon I prepared for my son's Birthday tomorrow JC will be fifteen...WOW time flies. He requested lasagna and of course Peach cobbler nope no birthday cake for him. So I started preparing the lasagna and told him he had to help me so he could learn to make it for himself and my son says" mom you could have bought a frozen lasagna" My reply "who wants frozen lasagna for there birthday?" I use to always make it fresh, until I met my ole man he claims he can't cook so to help when I was working late he prepare frozen lasagna. By the way everything he cooks taste great I think I got duked. Tried another cookie recipe needs some work. But I had this butternut squash from the boutifulbaskets.org(food co-op) that I need to use so I made butternut squash soup, it was good so here the recipe.

Butternut Squash soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 1 (32 fluid ounce) container chicken stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 40 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
2. Transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pot, and mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

**** I Baked my squash first @ 350 degrees for 1 hour then peeled, seeded and cubed. Really brought out the flavor.****

JYC Day 16

Gratitude

My family has so much to be grateful for, it just warms my heart and my eyes fill up with tears of joy for the many blessing we have received this year, Health, Fiances and spiritual growth. That cover everything...

JYC Catch up 10-15

day 10

Wrapping paper

First off if you know me you know I love paper, So I could stop there...

Pretty wrapping paper is not precious to me, its the one time I love use it unlike me & scrapbook paper. To wrap a present correctly you must have the right supplies:

good sharp scissors

scotch tape-splurge

ribbion

bows

tags

table with plenty of space & good lighting.

Know your cuts must be straight and your corners neat and tight. Be sure to take your time, and experiment with your ribbons & bows, but most of all have fun.

I ordered from my first food co-op (boutifulbasket.org) I toke my dad to keep me company, it was quick. I thought it would be like a farmers market it was not, the volunteers had our items boxed and ready to go. Oh my I added on to my order big mistake sooo much produce!

Day 11

Oh Christmas tree

First of all I love the smell of a fresh tree but I hate when the needles fall off and I always forget to keep it watered. Adding lights scares me the most and I must have lights.

Artificial trees do the job, they always the right shape, mine is pre-lit. The down fall is I don't like packing it up and putting it away.

Today was a day of rest, ran a few errands with the ole man

Day 12

Christmas past - it ain't what it used to be...

I remember growing up believing in Santa. Watching all the Christmas movies & cartoons on TV, cause we had not DVD's. Shaking my presents that where under the tree, sometimes sneaking and opening the box...I now I was a nosey kid. The smell of my mom baking her famous Red Velvet Cake, german chocolate cake and sweet potato pies, yummo. On Christmas morning all our toys laid out under the tree ready to be played with. Those where the days.

This was a bad mental day for me. I couldn't catch a break so I made one the class I was teaching was the last night so we left early. Once I made it home I had a taste for something sweet... I struck gold so I thought I would share Fudge Crinkles should be called crack.

Ingredients:

• 1 (18 1/4 ounce) box devil's food cake mix (Betty Crocker Super Moist suggested)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• confectioner's sugar, for rolling

Directions:

1. 
   
   Preheat oven to 350°. Stir (by hand) dry cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl until dough forms.
   Dust hands with confectioners' sugar and shape dough into 1" balls.
   Roll balls in confectioners' sugar and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
   Bake for 8-10 minutes or until center is JUST SET.
   Remove from pans after a minute or so and cool on wire racks.

Day 13

Christmas music

My favorite song:

Day 14

Gifts

It's christmas morning around 8am everyones up all the gifts are piled up for each recipient. each person sits in front of the tree and opens their presents. I take a bunch of picture and a few videos. everyone gets a pair of PJ's, lately I have added Itunes cards.

Today was a great friend day I spoke with all my good friends for hour we caught up laughed, cried you know girlfriend stuff.

I'm having fun sharing my Christmas planner/journal sheets. This is great for gift exchanges. Maybe next year I'll make them fancier. But for now simple works.

Get gift Questionaire here

Day 15

Vistors

We usually don't have visitors that come for Christmas and we have never traveled for Christmas.

But this year was different my ole man's sister came for a week. We really enjoyed her stay. We will miss you Ruby...