Oh, fat lady, I will miss our good times!

Ive done it. I have entered into hell. Ok well, not really hell, but this is what I imagine hell would be like. Jillian Michaels likes to call hell her "30 Day Shred". Its a booty kicking in a dvd. A wonderful friend bought it for me after I mentioned that I wanted it.




I have many friends who have either been doing it, or planning on starting it soon. I started it Wed night. All I can say is WOW. Its an intense (at least for lazy people like me lol) 20 minute workout consisting of abs, strength and cardio. No breaks, no rest. Wed night I started it (as did spidey haha). I am proud to say I made it throught the whole thing! Afterwards, though, I barely made it up the stairs :-X. Thursday morning brought an unusually less amount of soreness then I expected, but that didnt last. By Thursday night I wanted to DIE. Like, cut my head off, it will hurt less then this die. I am SO out of shape. Sigh.

What Im about to write is scary for me, and I am not even kidding. I am admitting to the world my measurements. My hope in this is that it will motivate me even more to get going and get back to bikini ready! (well Ill probably never wear a bikini again but you get what I mean!) So here goes....

Starting weight: 155.6
Waist: 39 1/4"
Thighs: 24 5/8"
Arms: 11 1/2"
Hips: 40"

Maybe tomo if Im feeling really bold I will take some before pics. Dont hold your breath though lol.

I have no hips, and no butt. Jay will attest to that.

I didnt do too much "healthy shopping this week, so most of my dinners werent the greatest diet wise. Next week watch out! I HAVE to do something about this. I never lost the weight from AJ. I lost alot when I was sick in the hospital that week. And then I put it all on. So I need all of YOUR help. Some healthy, tasty dinners. Fish recipes are ok for everyone else, but ::cough:: Im not a fish eater. Snack too please. Get my butt in gear! I would like to lose 20-25lbs. Is that realistic of me? With diet and excercise? How do you stay motivated?

I leave you with this delish (and pretty healthy) recipe I made tonight. It was the yum! And super easy. Had my name written all over it!

1 lb. pasta (I used whole wheat shells)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 lbs.), diced
1/4 cup olive oil
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
5 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°. Set a large pot of water to boil. Once it comes to a rolling boil, salt it and cook the pasta until just al dente. Drain.

While the pasta is cooking, set a large skillet over medium heat. Once it’s hot, heat the olive oil then add the chicken. Brown the chicken on all sides – about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and simmer with the chicken until it’s fragrant and begins to turn golden – about 3 minutes.

Add the salt. spinach and white wine to the skillet and cook for an additional 3 – 5 minutes, or until the spinach begins to wilt. Toss the contents of the skillet with the pasta and place in a casserole dish. Cover with cheese and bake for 25 minutes.

Makes about 8 servings.

It was soo good. I didnt have the whole wheat pasta, which would have made it better, but I did use lofat mozz. So I made up for it a bit right? Right. Ok all, off to bed! Wish me luck! Anyone wanna hop on the train with me??

Riceball Recipe (thanks Big Craig!)

Ok here (finally!) is the recipe for riceballs. I make these once a week-once every two weeks. They are alot of work, but sooo worth it! Ive actually cut the recipe in half, because the first time I made them it was too many, and you really cant eat more then 1 or 2. The things Ive bolded are my little tweaks on the recipe.

Riceballs
Makes about 20-24 balls (they should be about baseball-ish size)
3 Qts white rice (we’ve found that a great shortcut is to get it from the Chinese restaurant) This part is HUGE! The chinese restuarant rice is sticky already, and super easy to work with.
18 oz. Mozzarella cheese (cut into very small cubes)(another short cut is to use shredded)
about 15 eggs (separate whites from yolks)
1¼ C grated cheese (romano or parm. –romano has more of a bite!)
1½ lb chopmeat
1 8 oz can of peas, drained
1 15oz can sauce (you might need a little less, might need a little more so get an extra small can.)
Seasoned breadcrumbs
Enough vegetable oil to deep-fry
½ t Onion powder (about)
½ t Garlic powder (about) or more to taste


In a pan, brown chopmeat. Drain. Add peas and tomato sauce. This mixture should be wet but not soupy. Cook on low for about 15 minutes stirring gently. Let cool a little…in the mean time…

Put rice in a large bowl. Add the egg yolks, mozzarella, grated cheese, onion powder and garlic powder. Mix well. Use your hands…get them in there and really mush it all around.

This step requires a lot of patience…the rice sticks to everything and sometimes it seems like it will never form a ball…keep at it…you should get it eventually.
Cup a small handful smushed against the inside curve of one hand to make a little bowl. Add about 1 T of the meat mixture (make it as meaty as possible-trust me!) Cover the top with rice completely and gently work it into a ball like you were packing a snowball. Try to keep the filling totally on the inside. Roll the ball in the egg whites and then roll it in breadcrumbs.
Deep fry until golden brown.

Put a little salt on them when they get out of the fryer.

I actually just make them in a frying pan of OO, and just turn them when brown.

Serve with sauce and enjoy!

*NOTE* The first time I made these from start to finish took about 2 hours. Worth it, but time consuming. Im now down to about an hour start to finish. :)

Dinner = FAIL! (and some good recipes too :) )

So I found a recepe that sounded delish. I decided last night to make it. Well, in my own little beginner cooking world, I forgot that there is in fact rice thats NOT minute rice. The recipe went something like this (the baby is sleeping where the cookbook is):

Brown 3/4 lb ground beef in a pan with a half of an onion, minced. ( I used a whole small onion). In an 8x8 casserole dish, put 3c water with 1c rice (duh, NOT minute rice haha), 1 can of diced tomatoes with juices, 1 tsp of olive oil, 1 tsp each of dried italian seasoning and garlic, salt, pepper and the meat and onion mix. Cover with aluminum foil and put in oven for 1 hour at 350. Take out, sprinkle with chedder cheese and return for about 10 minutes (or until melted).

Sounds good right? I figured, what could be bad about that? Well while making it, it seemed like a bit much liquid, because whenever I make rice (minute rice that is, who has time for regular rice?) its always equal parts water and rice. It came out GROSS! Mushy and BLAND. I called my mom (AKA Betty Crocker) and explained to her. She then pointed out there WAS in fact something other then Minute Rice and thats where I went wrong. Who knew??

The best part of the meal was the fresh spinach. I just take some OO and sautee minced garlic in it. Then I throw the fresh spinach in the pan and sautee. Word to the wise, also something I learned along the way: fresh spinach shrinks down ALOT. I bought a bag one time thinking it would be plenty. I think we all ended up with like 2 forkfuls. (oops!) But hey, Im still learning!

I do have some tried and true recipes to post today. Ive been so crazy busy the last week or so with doctor appts, bringing Jay back and forth to work and Spidey going to school. We have been getting SLAMMED with snow this winter already and were getting ANOTHER 3-5 inches tonight. Cant wait til summer! Anyway, keep an eye out later today and dont forget to pass my blog along!

PS- The cookbook I got that recipe from was "The 5 dollar dinner mom cookbook" HIGHLY reccomended. In fact, I plan on posting a review of it in the near future. But when I looked on her site for the actual recipe, it was COMPLETELY different then the book! Here is that version: http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/03/rice-meat-casserole.html

Weekend wackiness and whats to come!

Hope everyone's weekend was enjoyable! Our was insanely busy, but such is our life now-a-days! We started Friday night with a date night, hubs and I watched "Going the Distance" with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. HIGHLY reccomended! It was so cute and funny! And it wasnt too "chick-flicky" for Jay so you can even convince your SO to watch it. Sat was just insanity from the minute we woke up. We had to help my mom move some furniture, then we had our oil burner fixed (yay heat! haha). Jay was offered work (moving more furniture) but he had to be 40 min west at the same time AJ had to be 25 min the opposite direction for our neighbors daughters birthday party. I didnt want him to miss the party, but obviously we didnt want Jay to miss the work. luckily, our AWESOME neighbors offered to take AJ along with them! Im so glad too because he had so much fun! It was at Build-a-Bear and he made a dark brown bear with (and Im quoting him) "reading glasses". Hmm. Ok then! Its adoreable though, I will add pics at a later time.

Today AJ (little chef) and I (big chef) made red pancakes (his idea!) for breakfast. Then we went grocery shopping. Now, usually, I try to con Jay into watching BOTH kids, so I get a bit of a break, but he offered to go, so away we all went. Now, you may be thinking "recipe for disastor!" but it really wasnt bad. AJ and Jay had "missions"- Id give them things to find in the store and bring back to me. AJ had a BALL with that. I cant believe my baby is going to be four. ::tear:: Ive also been couponing lately. Im so ADDICTED! Its become a hobby/obsession lol. Today, between sales and coupons, I saved $103! Im averaging around $100 per week now. My current coupon system is one of those little coupon organizers, but Im working on putting together a binder. More to come on that at a later date! After shopping, we FINALLY cleaned the whole house. Its so hard to keep up with both kids and the hecticness we call life, but it desperately needed it. Daddy stepped up and helped, and now its nice and clean. Laundry done! He even deep cleaned the bathroom :) Im a lucky gal (sometimes! haha)

Soooo! The plan for the week... tomo is supposed to be the coldest day of the year, so other then school for AJ, Im thinking well make some salt-dough ornaments for christmas presents. I figure its a fun activity (and a frugal gift!) for us to do. Tuesday is oil change day for me which Ive been putting off for waaay too long. And Jay has a test to see if he has carpel tunnel. Thursday Jay has another appt, this time to get a biopsy on a mole in his back (wear sunscreen kids!), which were not too worried about. Thats about it! What are your plans for the week? And whats your dinner menu look like?? Heres ours!

Mon: Honey glazed ham, roasted potatoes, broccoli
Tues: Rice balls
Wed: Pot Roast
Thurs: Salsa Chicken with rice
Fri: Tacos
Sat: Spagetti with clam sauce


Enjoy your week!