Tonight For Dinner...

Tonight, I am going to try Good Earth™ Mediterranean Chicken with Angel Hair Pasta for dinner. My neighbor has recommended the Good Earth products, but she specifically did not care for this one.

This is supposed to be restaurant quality food and I sure hope that it is. The box also says it contains no artificial flavours or preservatives and each serving provides 16g of whole grains, which is a third of your daily recommended allowance of whole grains.

Stay tuned for verdict later...

Larry actually made this for dinner and he said it was pretty easy. He cut up the 1 lb of chicken and followed directions adding milk and other stuff as instructed. The dinner was "fine". It wasn't awesome or taste like a restaurant dinner but it was good enough to eat. The rice sort of did taste like boxed rice but we ate it. Now, am I going to buy this particular box again? No. But I am going to try the Citrus Shrimp kit we bought as well from Good Earth and will follow up with a review of that sometime this week.

Slowing Down...On Purpose...Random Thoughts

I don't know about anyone else, but I need to slow down. I am running, running, running and although I enjoy much of it, it does have its down side. I'm tired, the bathrooms need to be clean and we're always doing laundry and grocery shopping.

Simplify. I need to simplify my life or I won't be able to enjoy this holiday season.

So friends, what are your ideas for simplifying your life?

"Unhealthy" Food is like Poison

Just got back from a weekend with my college girlfriends. I was all prepared to keep my hands busy with magazines and crafts, fit in a workout and make the healthy choices. I thought I had done okay until Monday morning when I weighed in. The scale tells me that I gained 3 lbs over the weekend. So I am wondering if I should start to teach myself that unhealthy foods that are mostly sugar and fat are actually like a poison for my body. Although they look harmless, actually, they look great, they are actually bad, bad, bad.

What did I do well over the weekend? Well, I did get up early and take a 2 mile walk and I refrained from diet pop the entire weekend.

What Next? I've got my water and am attempting to flush all that poison sugar and fat out of my body. And it is back in the saddle to try and get back to where I was before this weekend.

Jodie Really is Martha Crocker

Kit Kat M&M Cake

Yes, This is an actual photo that Jodie took of the cake she made. She made it with the leftover Halloween candy that she had and she's taking it to her daughter's school festival tonight for someone to win. I would sure love to win that contest..........er, un, actually, no I wouldn't. We couldn't have this cake in our house.

Anyway, here is the recipe:

Kit Kat M&M Cake
2 1/3 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. Sunny D (I've never tried actual orange juice)
2/3 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. sour cream
2 eggs (or 1 egg and 2 whites...sometimes it depends on how short I am on eggs. It works a little nicer to use the egg whites, but let's face it...I'm way cheap.)

Cream together butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients except eggs and mix well. Add eggs and beat for two minutes. Bake at 350 degrees until top springs back.

The amounts of this recipe work great for 2 8" rounds. Another hint, too...when using this recipe to make cupcakes, fill the tins and then let them sit out for at least 15 minutes. They will get a nicer (higher) top on them.

For the frosting, I used my normal sugar-high buttercream...
2lbs confectioners sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter (or if you want it to crust, use 1 stick of butter, 1/4 c. shortening)
some vanilla
pinch or so of salt
milk

I place everything in the mixer except for the milk, and then add the milk until I get the right consistency, and then whip it till it's fluffy. If you add too much milk, add some more confectioners sugar.

Cool and trim the cake so that it is level, then fill and ice the outside and top. Next take your Kit Kats (I needed 4 of the large packages,) break them into two bar sections, and start placing them around your cake. When you are done, spread M&M's on the top, making sure that you cover all of your icing. And then finally, tie a bow around the cake! Voila!

Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset...swiftly moving on...

I don't know about you but my days and nights are flying by. It is the first week in November and I'm pretty much booked through the end of the month. Trying to fit it all in before we are too old I guess.

Dinner was a healthy one last night. Salad, grilled salmon and baked potato. No sugar, wheat or flour anywhere. Then, I went home. By 9:00 PM I wanted a snack, I went into the fridge to get the low carb cheese and saw the entire leftover pizza that Larry and Timmy had. I had 1 slice. I felt terrible after having such a good day, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that bad.

Back to work this morning and exercised. I even peeked into the sauna for about 2 minutes, man it was hot in there.

Living La Vida Low Sugar

Today, Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 is my first attempt to live a day without processed/artificial sweeteners or sugar.

So far, so good. I had oatmeal from the cafeteria today with walnuts and no brown sugar. It surely did not taste as good as it usually does, but I managed to eat it along with a 20 oz bottle of water. This too is a change because I typically have a 20 oz Diet Pepsi with my oatmeal each morning.

Mid-morning snack at 11:00 AM consisted of a hot green tea and a bag of sliced apples.

It is 11:30 now and I am okay. I will head down for my Cardio Body Blast at 12:00, then figure out what to have for lunch.