Sigh.  I had my annual yesterday (JOY!) and I talked to my doctor about how slowly the weight is coming off.  He immediately suggested testing my thyroid.  His nurse called today and my thyroid is completely normal so it’s not that.  It’s good that my thyroid is okay but I really wish that I didn’t weigh what I did. He suggested talking to my general doctor and I guess I will.  I need to not get discouraged.

Here’s my weight loss over the last month and a half:

My friend Elaina’s goal is to not gain any weight over the holidays.  I like that goal.  I’d like to lose weight but we’ll see if that happens.  I guess I’ll call it a success if I don’t gain weight.  Although the thought of being 160 STILL on January 1st is very depressing.  I was 153.5 the day I found out I was pregnant.  It would be nice to be close to there come January 1st.

Here I am now.

You’d think with all the hard work I’m putting in that that would be doable.  Maybe I’m kidding myself and not working hard?  Who knows?

What a depressing post.  Sorry!  I’m not going to give up.  I’m going to continue to eat well and exercise and maybe I’ll make a few tweaks.  I do feel much better and I need to focus on that!

Something that’s not depressing?

Gratitude

Today I’m thankful for my open relationship (not THAT kind!) with my husband. I’m so glad we can talk about things and problem solve together!

Tonight the plan was to make salmon casserole inspired by this recipe.  When I got home it turned out that I didn’t have 2 cans of salmon like I thought and so I had to get creative.  I came up with this:

Ingredients:

1 can salmon
1 package mini apple and chicken sausages
1 package frozen veggies (carrots, peas, and green beans)
1 package chopped mushrooms
3-4 handfuls of spinach
1/2 cup of low skim mozzarella cheese
1 TBSP of vegan butter
2 TBSP whole wheat flour
1.5 cups chicken broth
1 package egg noodles
3 tsp paprika
2 tsp Tony’s Seasoning
S+P to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350*. Boil water for noodles and cook according to package. 

While the noodles cook, melt the “butter” and add the flour and stir until a roux is made (kinda like a paste).  Slowly add the chicken broth while whisking.  It will thicken.  Add to that the seasonings.  SIDENOTE: Whenever a recipe calls for cream of anything soup, I do this instead.  It’s MUCH healthier and gives you a similar result-plus no dairy!

Add to that the frozen veggies and mushrooms.

In a casserole pan add the salmon and sausages and the spinach.  When the noodles are done, add them to the casserole dish and add the veggie/chicken broth mix.  Mix it up well and add the cheese (I find that a little cheese helps casseroles and I can handle a little bit of part skim mozzarella-it’s fine without).

Cover with foil and cook for 20-30 minutes or until spinach is wilted and cheese is melted.

I cherry picked so that I had more spinach.

Lu liked it.

But not as much as she likes cookies.

Shaun gave it 3 stars 🙂

Really you can throw almost anything together like this and it’ll work.  You just need a starch (noodles, rice, potatoes), veggies, protein, and either cream of something soup or a roux. Voila dinner is served!

I had a girls’ weekend in Seattle.  My friend’s birthday is today and mine was on Thursday so we decided to have a birthday weekend.  We had a blast!  She has a daughter that was born a few weeks after Lu and it was so fun to see the babies together.  We met on a birth board and on Saturday 3 other Mommies and babies came and we spent the day together.  It was SO fun. 

We stayed at the Four Seasons where their attention to detail is astonishing.  They had 2 cribs set up for us, the entire room was baby proofed (including outlet covers), there was a diaper genie and baby products in the bathroom.

The bathroom WAS amazing.

After we checked out the room, we had to get the girls some dinner.

We headed back and put them down and then hung out in the bathroom.

We brought chairs into the bathroom while the babies slept.

The second night we wised up and put the arm chairs in the bathroom.

On Saturday, the girls played. (Who needs clothes?)

And then their friend Aiden showed up and then ate breakfast. How cute are they?

We then went down to Pike’s Place to meet the other Mommies.  I had to snap some pictures of the surroundings.

We got lunch and then brought the kiddos back to the hotel to play a little (and get warmed up).

VV had had enough!

All the Mommies and babies:

And this one is too cute to pass up:

We went out and did a TON of walking around the market and ended up at a Tully’s for coffee.

While the kiddos napped.

Then we came back to the room where the kiddos shared a Grapple-it’s an apple that tastes and smells like a Concord grape (very weird).

On Sunday we just hung out and had lunch until it was time to go to the airport where I got some cute pictures of Lu.

We did spend a lot of time in the hotel but when you have 2 to 5 1-year olds together and it’s cold and rainy out, it’s your only option. Good thing we had a huge room! 

I would LOVE to go back to Pike’s Place during the week when it’s not so crazy-I could get into some major trouble there!  I had such a blast and can’t wait to see my friends and their kiddos SOON!

Gratitude

I’m grateful for the internet.  Without it I wouldn’t have met a bunch of AMAZING people.

*Half of these pictures are Bethany’s.  All the ones that are a little fuzzy (because I don’t have the originals) are hers.  She’s a MUCH better photographer than I ever thought of being and her pictures were WAY better 😉

I got a bug up my butt to make pumpkin butter without any refined sugar.  I LOVE pumpkin butter.  So much so that I bought 12 jars of it last year at Trader Joe’s so that I wouldn’t run out when it went out of season.  That may have been overkill as I still have 6 jars in my cupboard.  The second ingredient in that pumpkin butter is sugar-BOO! Before I embarked on my “clean” pumpkin butter I did a TON of research.  I probably looked at 50 recipes before putting mine together.  As you know my first batch was an big huge FAIL-too many spices.  My second batch, however, is DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:

3 Sugar Pumpkins (or 40 ounces of canned pumpkin though it won’t be as flavorful)
3/4 Cup Honey
3/4 Cup Maple Syrup
1 Cup Apple Juice
1 TBSP Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
Zest of 1 Meyer Lemon
Juice of 1 Meyer Lemon
2 tsp Vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350*. Wash pumpkins well. De-stem and cut in half. Scoop out guts-I found that the scoop you get in carving pumpkin kits works the best.

Place pumpkins face down on a foil lined cookie sheet and cover with foil.

Bake in oven until soft. ~1.5 hours.

When pumpkins are cooled, scoop out the insides and discard the skin.

Run it through the food processor in batches to get pumpkin puree.

Place pumpkin puree, honey, syrup, apple juice, lemon zest and juice, and all spices EXCEPT the vanilla in a crock pot and stir WELL. Alternately you can do this on the stove and bring it to a low simmer and stir it often and WATCH it.

Cover with a splatter guard or put the lid on half way.  If you leave the lid on it won’t reduce because the steam will be trapped in the pot.

Splatter guard (preferred):

Lid:

Then cook:

On high for 4 hours:

Then on low for another 2 or so hours:

Stirring occasionally.  Some people just put it on low and let it go overnight or while they’re at work.  That made me nervous and I wanted to stir it so I did it while I was home.

Once it’s to a consistency you like, place it in a container and store overnight in the fridge.

The next day, run it through a food processor again and add the vanilla.

ENJOY!

*Please Note: Some recipes out there will tell you that you can put pumpkin butter in a warm bath to can it and that it will be good for up to a year.  The USDA does NOT recommend canning pumpkin butter-it does not keep well and can grow dangerous bacteria.  It can however be kept in the freezer up to 1 year and in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks.

Lucy gave it 2 thumbs up!

*This made 10 pint jars of butter.

…is croup!  I cannot stop coughing and feel pretty icky.  In adults, croup is more like bronchitis and man do I have it :(  I took Benadryl before bed last night and I slept really well, so that’s good!

We went to the So You Think You Can Dance live tour last night.  It was fun!  I didn’t bring my camera because I didn’t want them to take it away.  It turns out I could have had it but oh well.  I did get one blurry iPhone picture of Shaun and I at dinner:

It was REALLY fun.  The shrieking squealing girls made us laugh so hard that I had tears running down my face.  It was hilarious and  was a window into the world we’ll be joining soon with Lu. Unfortunately, Philip was hurt so we didn’t get to see him dance but everyone was SO impressive.  I think Brandon and Kayla were the MOST impressive to me.  Brandon’s solo was A.MAZE.ING and Kayla danced so many times that I was in awe.

Last night was a big night for us.  It was the first time that Lu was put to sleep by someone other than Mommy or Daddy.  She did GREAT!  Auntie Laina said she was a breeze and they had fun.  I kept getting text updates and pictures. I even got blurry iPhone picture updates:

She ate her dinner, told Auntie Laina when she was “All Done” (she didn’t throw her food on the floor but actually signed “All Done”!), and she ate 3 cookies and refused the fourth!  She went right down to sleep and even reminded Auntie Laina to close the curtains.  *sigh* I love that girl.

Tonight, we’re having leftovers (happy birthday to me!) and I’m going to can my pumpkin butter and pack.  Lu gave the pumpkin butter 2 thumbs up.  She ate 2 pieces of Ezekiel bread with almond butter and pumpkin butter last night before I left.

She REALLY liked it.

Elaina tried it too and said that she’d better get some.  So now I feel confident posting my recipe.  The hope is to get it up tonight!  We’ll see though.  I do have to pack as well…

I did get a present from Lu yesterday.  It was supposed to be for Thanksgiving but I’ll think of it as an early birthday present 😉

It’s a placemat that she made.  She glued the feathers on the turkey and colored the leaf.  She’s the third kid from the right in the picture (and the only one looking at the camera!).

It came with this sweet note:

My daycare is GOOD 🙂

With that, I should go.  I’ve got a TON of work to do today.  BOO!

Gratitude

Today I’m grateful for my parents.  Without them, I wouldn’t be here!  I’m also grateful for my friends.  I’ve gotten SO many birthday wishes already an it makes me feel really loved.  Thank you!

I went to bed at 10:40 last night (too late) and just woke up at 3:10 this morning.  Boo.  I laid there for over an hour with my eyes closed and it didn’t work.  So, I’ve been up since 3:10 am after a whole 4 and half hours of sleep. Joy!  I think I’ll be breaking out the Benadryl tonight to help me sleep and to help with the congestion.

At 4:30 I went and got my phone and just played around online and then at 5:30 I actually got out of bed and got ready for my planned 3 mile run.  I sat my clothes out last night but as I was getting dressed I realized that my outfit was ALL black and I’d be running in the somewhat dark.  So, I chose safety over looking good and put on a white reflective shirt from when I was training. I’m about 15 pounds too heavy to be wearing this shirt but I’d rather look funny than be hit by a car.  Being the cheese that I am I took pictures:

Little tight, eh?

Kissing the guns ;):

It turned out to be a VERY good choice.  I got out there and it was PITCH BLACK.  I reconsidered my original running route-I usually run in a fancy smancy neighborhood with beautiful houses but there are no street lights.  Thankfully during my training I ran all over this town, well really the entire Bay Area, so I was able to deviate and run in a nice neighborhood that had street lights.  My house is in a funny location-it’s a GREAT location-right by downtown.  But, if you go east 3 blocks you’re in a pretty shady neighborhood and if you go west 2 blocks you’re in a multi-million dollar house neighborhood.  So, needless to say, I have to be careful.  The sun started to come up 30 minutes into my run.  I have to say that the run was AWESOME.  Even though I have a bit of a headcold right now, it still felt great and I did 3.20 miles in about 40 minutes.  I broke the ‘ol Garmin out of retirement so that was fun.

After I dropped Lu off at daycare I stopped by Kmart to get some canning supplies.  Target didn’t have anything and I thought that Kmart for sure would.  NOPE. WTF, right?  I think I have to order it online.  I have jars but none of the cool tools.  I can make do for now but that seriously sucks!

Kmart, by the way, was AWFUL.  The layout makes no sense, they had boxes everywhere and it was just an overall unpleasant experience.  Plus, their prices weren’t any better than Target and then had way fewer options.  I did find a splatter guard that I’m using right now for my new and improved pumpkin butter:

This will be perfect for spaghetti sauce too!

Speaking of pumpkin butter, I tasted the new concoction and it is 100% better.  I’m so excited!

Man, daycare just called and they only have 1 diaper for Lucy left.  She’s Miss Sensitive Butt and can only have a certain diaper or else she gets a horrible diaper rash.  Off I go to daycare again.  At least I get to see Lu!

Gratitude

I’m grateful for NPR.  I listen to it everyday and just yesterday they were doing a tribute to a soldier who had died in Afghanistan recently.  It was so well done and such a great celebration of life that it really made me appreciate NPR.  I love that station.  I’m glad I support them so heartily every year (even though I hate pledge drives!).

Facebook that is.  Today, the New Oxford American Dictionary announced that the word of the year is “unfriend”. Defined as: “v. To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook." The linguist in me finds this very interesting.  New words are intriguing BUT according to a spokesperson for the New Oxford American Dictionary “unfriend” was first used in the 1600’s in much the same way, just with a different modality.

I was listening to that story on the radio as I pulled up to a local produce market and saw this:

Part of the charm of the Milk Pail is it’s old world charm.  See?

Well, it’s on Facebook, consider yourself notified.  Lastly, Shaun turned on XBox Live and exclaimed “AWESOME! Facebook is on XBox now!”  Seriously-it’s taking over the world.

Why was at my local produce market you ask?  Picking up some more pumpkins.  The pumpkin butter was a failure :(  I’ve done some more research and I’m ready to tackle it again.  I’m Working From Home tomorrow so it’s a perfect day to try out my new and improved recipe.  I’m making it without refined sugar and it’s definitely taking some tweaking.  Elaina tried it today and said it was good and “she would eat it” but I want it to be GREAT.  I think I put too many spices in it last time and it took over the consistency. I really hope this batch turns out!

I came home to meat marinara in the crockpot. I only needed to boil some pasta and I used extra pizza dough from last night to make some breadsticks.  Shaun actually got home around 6:15 and we had dinner as a family-it was great!

Here’s my dinner:

I took a big bunch of spinach, put about 10 whole wheat penne pasta on top (I went light on the pasta so I could have breadstick), and topped that with the marinara and parmesan.  Lu ate about 1/4 of that breadstick.

Lu loves pasta and marinara and was too busy chowing down to smile for Mommy. So no cute pictures of her tonight.

With that I think I’m going to go watch some So You Think You Can Dance (dance…dance…dance…) with my hubby.  Tomorrow we get to go see the tour LIVE! How awesome is that?!?!?!

Have you ever had one of those nights where you sleep like such crap that you’re RELIEVED that it’s time to get up?  That was last night.  I was super congested, couldn’t get comfortable, and kept having weird dreams.  When the alarm went off I wanted to scream “THANK YOU!”

I got up and saw a good number on the scale 🙂 I do weigh myself everyday. Personally I need that accountability.  I know that whenever I stop weighing myself, it’s a bad sign and I’m about to gain some weight.  I wish I could be one of those people that could just go by the way their clothes fit but I can’t.  So on the scale I go almost every morning. If I forget, it’s not the end of the world. I’m no where near this weight:

(oh how I love that dress) but I am working on it.  Soon to be there! P.S. I’m so glad my hubby doesn’t have that beard anymore!

I did Core Synergystics and it KICKED MY BUTT.  I’m in my 5th week of P90X and I’m able to do a LOT more than I was when I started and it’s making the workouts much more intense.

After my workout I browned some meat and threw it in the crockpot with some marinara for dinner tonight.  I’m a single parent again tonight 🙁 (Shaun has to work late AGAIN) The easier the better!

Last night I went to Target and FINALLY started my Christmas shopping.  I also got Lucy her first winter coat in preparation for a trip we’re making this weekend to colder weather. How cute is she?

I want that coat!

Gratitude

I posted on Facebook that I was grateful for 5:30-that’s kind of a cheat.  So today I’m thankful for the awesome conversation I had with my hubby this morning.  He reminded me that Rome wasn’t built in a day AND that I didn’t grow Lucy in a day.  He’s so supportive and I’m thankful everyday that I’m married to my best friend (and MORE =D).

Shaun had to work late tonight so I made Lucy an easy dinner of cherry yogurt, almond butter and jelly sandwich, and some veggies.  After I got her down I made myself a whole wheat pizza with goat cheese, spinach, salmon, and capers.  Here is was before it went in the oven:

I get the whole wheat dough from Trader Joes.  Shaun actually prefers it to the white dough that they sell.  I don’t have time with working and Lu to make my own dough and Trader’s is so convenient and only has flour, water, yeast, and some salt. 

Here’s the pizza after it came out of the oven:

I made a simple salad with mache and my last cucumber from the garden.  I dressed it with some Annie’s Goddess Dressing and balsamic.  Next time I’ll put the salmon on after it comes out of the oven.  It was still good but I had one at Central Park Bistro last week when Kath was here and they put the salmon on at the end-it was better.

Now I’m sitting on my couch watching some SNL waiting for my hubby.  I have a feeling I may be going to bed without him 🙁

I feel some pizza in my lunch future!

At lunch today, I did get out for a walk.  It was a beautiful day.

As much Fall foliage as you’re going to find in Northern California:

I was looking at the blog and realized there are very few pictures of me.  So here I am enjoying my walk.

Those lips could use some chapstick, no?

I’m cooking the pumpkin butter some more tonight.  I don’t think I cooked it enough yesterday or had enough sweetener-I’m using agave, honey, and some maple syrup.  It’s almost where I want it.

With that, I think I’ll sign off.  Have a great night!

Those fajitas that I’ve been trying to make since Friday?  They finally got made for lunch yesterday.  I forgot to buy beans so I decided to make some nachos.  Here are Shaun’s fully loaded nachos:

I didn’t take a picture of mine because they weren’t nearly as pretty.  I had about a fourth the amount of chips and I used goat mozzarella that I picked up from Traders-no tummy issues! My fajitas were not as tasty as they normally are so I’m going to hold off on posting that recipe until I have it figured out (again).  Isn’t it weird how you can be really good at making something and then it just goes away?  This happens to me occasionally.

The pancakes I made yesterday (sorry no pictures-it was in the middle of the sink crisis) were made from this recipe. I subbed 1 TBSP of agave for the brown sugar and I should have used more.  They were just okay but Lu liked them!

A lot of you were asking about the lentils from yesterday.  When I was making them I felt like there wasn’t enough spices.  I added a little more than the recipe called for and I added red pepper flakes.  About halfway through cooking I tasted it and it was NOT flavorful enough so I doubled up on the spices.  Shaun had a bite and still thought it lacked a little flavor.  I’m having it for lunch today so hopefully sitting overnight helped it.

As for the pumpkin butter, I’m creating this recipe and I’m still not 100% happy with it.  I’m going to work on it tonight and see if I can get it just right.  Then I’ll post an entire tutorial ;)  Some of you may even get some 😉

Last night we went to Shaun’s Mountain Bike Boot Camp end of season party.

I LOVED the house that it was at.  Usually in the Bay Area you find houses that are HUGE on teeny tiny lots.  Shaun and I both feel strongly that a 3-4 bedroom house is perfect for us. I’d like 4, Shaun would like 3-I want a craft room :). This house was the PERFECT size, a GREAT floor plan and it was on a HUGE lot.  The back yard was like 2 football field lengths and at the back they had a playground.  Not a play structure but a PLAYGROUND.  Our friend owns an upscale construction business and his clients ask him to haul away things all the time that he adds to their play area. I wish I had gotten pictures but I left the camera in the house :(  We had a GREAT time and Lu did so well.  I had total house envy.  Too bad we’ll never get a house like that here.  *sigh* I need to win the lottery! That means I’d have to play the lottery…

Here’s another picture that I LOVE-too bad it’s all blurry 🙁

This morning I had the alarm set for 5:30 to workout but I turned it off at 5:25.  I had a hard time sleeping last night with Lu coughing and I seem to have come down with a touch of what Lu had/has. I’m also pretty sore from running on Saturday and Kenpo yesterday.  My IT band is KILLING me :(  I foam rolled it out and hopefully I’ll be 100% tomorrow.  I plan to go for a nice walk at lunch-I wore my running shoes today and everything.

Lastly, my sweet husband let me start wearing my birthday present a few days early-isn’t he awesome?  Here it is:

The “diamonds” are a bit blingy for my taste but the Coach one that was almost exactly the same without the “diamonds” was 4 times as much.  So I’ll get over the bling.

Gratitude

I’m grateful for MY house.  It’s pretty awesome and I own it which makes me smile.