Whole 30 (round 2) Day 1

I figure the best way to keep myself on track this time is to write about my journey. I had great success with my first Whole 30 but every time I try a second round I don't get past day 3. This time I feel is a bit different. I over did it at Thanksgiving (and the days following). I feel content with the decisions I made, but I'm ready to move past it and clean my body up again. So Day 1 was good and successful. Here's how it went.

Breakfast- Coffee with organic coconut milk and 2 boiled eggs. (clearly this meal was not well rounded, but I had not made a trip to the grocery store just yet.)

Lunch- The end of leftover turkey, homemade chicken broth, with carrots, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and a scrambled egg (similar to egg drop soup but with carrots.)

Snack- handful of raw cashews and 3 strawberries and 3 grapes

Dinner- Nomnompaleo's Cracklin' Chicken (http://nomnompaleo.com/post/74180911762/cracklin-chicken) roasted organic fingerling potatoes, sauteed garlic asparagus, 2 sliced strawberries with about a tablespoon of coconut milk.


I highly recommend the Cracklin' Chicken. It was delicious and very simple to make. The hardest part was the de-boning part. :)

Purple Drink

I can't really think of a name for this concoction. It turns out deep purple so "Purple Drink" it is. This is really delicious and is packed with good stuff!

1 cup frozen sweet cherries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup Chobani Greek yogurt (vanilla)
1 cup Coconut Milk
1 Banana
1 tsp ground flax seed

put all in the blender until smooth. You can add more or less coconut milk depending on how thick you like your drink.

Cheers to your health!!

Super Green Smoothie Recipe

Here is a recipe that is actually for the juicer, but I have tried it in my wonderful and fabulous Vitamix Blender and found that I like it better in the blender. SO, here it is. This recipe makes approx 2 large smoothies.

3-4 medium leafs of Kale rinsed
1 Small Handful of spinach rinsed
2 small apples, cut and cored (remember don't eat the seeds!)
1/2 cucumber
1 tsp ginger root
1/2 cup of water
1 lemon peeled and seeded

And to make it a bit sweeter, you can add a handful of green grapes!
Also, if you make more than you can drink, you can keep it in the fridge for 2 days! So CHEERS to your health!!

Skinny Green Tropical Smoothie

Lately I have been on a smoothie kick. I make 1-2 smoothies a day. I feel as though its better to blend all of these good things together and drink them raw than cooking them and reducing the vitamin content. And Kannon LOVES a smoothie. Today I came across this recipe and tried it. It was one of the best green smoothies I have tried yet! I did make some changes to it though. I used a tablespoon of coconut oil (yes that is weird but it has good fats in it). And water instead of coconut milk and shredded coconut. So, I since I loved it so much, I figured others may enjoy it too! So CHEERS to your health! And thanks Skinny Taste for the great recipe. I love this blog!!

Skinny Green Tropical Smoothie
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 2 • Serving Size: 1 3/4 cups • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 6 pts
Calories: 228 • Fat: 7.7 g • Protein: 10.2 g • Carb: 30.2 g • Fiber: 3.9 g • Sugar: 19.4 g
Sodium: 70.5 mg


Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup light coconut milk
• 6 oz fat free Greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup fresh pineapple, cubed
• 1 ripe medium banana
• 1 cup spinach
• 2 tbsp sweetened shredded coconut
• 1 1/4 cups ice

Directions:

Put everything into the blender and blend until smooth. Makes about 3 1/2 cups.

Garden Lasagna

So today I tried this recipe. I made a huge mess making it. At the end of making it, I was thinking to myself "this better be good or else..."
But it was the best veggie lasagna I have ever had. I did change a few things based on what I had at home. I used whole milk rather than 1% milk. I also used whole wheat noodles. I used the Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole grain lasagna noodles. You couldn't even tell that they weren't regular noodles!!
Anyways, I wanted to share this amazing recipe with you all....
ENJOY!!!

Garden- Style Lasagna

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Garden- Style Lasagna

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 45 min

Cook Time: 60 min

For a low fat recipe, this one is unbelievable! We really enjoy the flavors, and it's even better the next day for leftovers.

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
2 cups chopped zucchini
2 cups chopped yellow squash
2 cups thinly sliced carrot
2 cups chopped broccoli
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
dash of nutmeg
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 1/2 cups 1% low-fat cottage cheese
2 cups (8 ounces) pre-shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
9 pre-cooked lasagna noodles, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until lightly browned. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Spoon onion mixture into a large bowl.

3. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and yellow squash; sauté 4 minutes or until tender and just beginning to brown. Add to onion mixture.

4. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add sliced carrot; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add chopped broccoli; sauté 4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add to onion mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt; toss well to combine.

5. Place flour in a medium saucepan. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook 2 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg; stir until smooth. Stir in spinach.

6. Combine cottage cheese and 1 1/2 cups mozzarella; stir well. Spread 1/2 cup spinach mixture in bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 3 noodles over spinach mixture in dish; top with half of cottage cheese mixture, then half of vegetable mixture, and about 1 cup spinach mixture. Repeat layers, ending with noodles. Spread remaining spinach mixture on top of noodles; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan and remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella.

7. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Nutritional Information per serving:
Serving size: 1/12th of the lasagna
Calories per serving: 286
Fat per serving: 4.52g
Saturated Fat per serving: 4.52g
Sugar per serving: 7.77g
Fiber per serving: 3g
Protein per serving: 20g
Cholesterol per serving: 26mg
Carbohydrates per serving: 33.45g

WW POINTS per serving:
Points Plus Program: 7 Old Points Program: 7

Source: RecipeGirl.com (Adapted from Cooking Light )

We have a walker on our hands...

Kannon turned 15 months on 12/12, just a few days ago. Seems like just yesterday he was just a little bitty baby! Yesterday, 12/14, my mom came by to drop off her dog and the in-laws were here helping diagnose a washing machine problem and also to drop off their dog. Everyone is traveling this weekend and Russell gets the job of dog sitter! While everyone was here Kannon decided to take his first steps. It was by accident too. He didn't realize that no one was holding onto his hand because he was holding a piece of toast and not someone's hand! He then took one small step and stopped, then took another and another before sitting down. He did this maybe 5 times yesterday! We are so excited and no proud of our little man!

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Soon to be Christmas....

Kannon had a blast on Halloween. As you can see he was a tiger. Specifically, Mike the Tiger!! (Geaux Tigers!) He really enjoyed seeing all the people. We sat in the front yard and handed out candy with Sunshine and PawPaw Wayne. Kannon even went to a few neighbors houses to say hello. He tried to crawl into each like he belonged there!

Then there was Thanksgiving....
Kannon absolutely LOVED Thanksgiving. We went over to the Eyring's house for Thanksgiving. Kannon had a blast playing with his cousins and visiting with family. Most of all, he LOVED the food. He ate a huge plate of food, but that wasn't surprising. We are so lucky to have such great cooks in the family!!!

And now onto Christmas. Russell and I have been slacking on the Christmas cheer this year. There's just a lot going on right now. Lots of decisions, decisions, decisions. Russell's job just moved even farther away and now he has quite the hike to get to and from work. So, we have recently been trying to get our house ready to put on the market. Our 'honey-do" list is quite lengthy still, but at least we have started. So, Christmas hasn't been on the top of our list. We finally put up our lights last night. We went and bought some new LED, energy star rated lights. And they are pretty cool! We still have ALL of our Christmas shopping to do too. YIKES!!! But I enjoy shopping so I won't complain... Wish us luck!