Body Positive.

I have an app that links to Facebook called Timehop. It showed me a picture of exactly 1 year ago today. Sometimes I see pictures of me back then and look at myself now and still see so much of that same girl. Yes I am smaller then I was then but when I look in the mirror I still see that same tummy and floppy arms despite the gym 4 days a week. I decided that today I would find some inspiration because darn it I have come a long long way and I am proud to not be in a tight 26W pant any longer.

During my search I came across a really good article about loving the skin you're in. Here is the link. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-posnanski/positive-body-image_b_5359575.html

In the article Tony speaks about having his surgery and loosing the weight and being ok with all the left over skin he has and all of the positive things despite not being a rock hard 6 pack abs man that has happened to him. He also mentioned a couple articles I had read earlier about a woman who had lost a lot of weight and Shape magazine wanted to feature her in an article but when she had sent in a picture of herself in a bikini they wanted something different. So she refused to hide herself and declined to be featured by Shape. That was pretty darn inspiring as well. I love having these people out there for inspiration during my struggle to learn to be happy in my new skin. The other 2 inspiring stories can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brooke-birmingham/why-i-refused-to-put-a-shirt-on_b_5274348.html and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/candice-russell/before-and-after-weight-loss_b_5332831.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000046&ir=Women

So to you ladies and one gent. Thank you for giving me a little inspiration today. Apparently I needed some!

On a crafty note. I started a new crochet blanket. It was intended to bet a throw for my hubby but I was a bit ambitious and I am fairly certain it will be wide enough to fit a full size bed easily haha. Oh well who doesn't like a giant snuggly blanket to cuddle with. I am using what is called a V stitch in Violet and mustard. Pretty quick stitch and fun. Thank you YouTube for your instructional videos!
Here is what I have so far.

Cookies Cookies everywhere!

So I get a wild hair and decide hey lets bake some cookies! I wanted to try out the new Splenda brown sugar and thought ooo and almond flour chocolate chip cookie sounds good. Well. I am just trudging along with my cookie recipe (which I will post below) when I realize oh. my. gosh. I just blended 3/4 cup of the Splenda brown sugar into my batter mix. NOOOOO! oh yes. I did. The Splenda brown sugar uses only half what normal brown sugar does. Well guess I will just double the recipe! And I am about 1 cup short of almond flour...so all purpose flour it is! Got to be flexible I tell you. We now have well over 100 choco chip cookies sitting cooling in my kitchen. Like I need that much temptation ha! I have to say though they turned out amazing. I am going to have to either freeze or give away a bunch of these of I will put them in my mouth way to much! Maybe I will do both we have enough laying around especially since I tried an oatmeal craisin recipe today too and that made like 56. I am still working on the oatmeal recipe. Not quite right to me. I don't like them so fluffy soft. Once I get that down I will post it though.

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

Serves: 110 small cookies, regular about 60ish

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup coconut oil, softened

3/4 cup Splenda brown sugar blend

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

5 cups blanched almond flour

1 cup white all purpose flour 

2- 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips

 

**Note you can halve the recipe to make less and if using regular brown sugar adjust accordingly.

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, coconut oil, and brown sugar. Add the vanilla and eggs, mixing until incorporated.
3. Mix in the baking soda and salt. Add the almond flour, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Refrigerate dough for about 15 min. to help the cookies not spread so much while baking
5. Form the dough into teaspoon or tablespoon rounds and place on the lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown around edges.

 

 

 

Free Peppers!

So we had an unfortunate accident where an 18 wheeler turned over on I95 yesterday. It was full of organic bell peppers and sweet peppers. So they don't go to waste at the landfill they are giving them away for free. Facebook is amazing for spreading the word! I have to say I am tempted to head over and pick some up. But I can only imagine how crazy it is going to be there where they are giving them away. There are lots of yummy things I can make with those. hmm. Stuffed peppers, sliced fresh peppers with hummus, grilled stuffed sweet peppers...my choices are endless. I think it may just be too good of a deal to pass up!

As for my idea of making the boozy bundt cake for the passion party Saturday. I have decided maybe I should bring something healthier. I am not really into getting sick with a bunch of ladies and sex toys from eating to much carbs and sugar. So now I am bringing the most tasty finger food ever...I don't even have a name other than Aunt Kathy's horderves. I know it's such an epic name.

The recipe is simple. Oh so simple.

Aunt Kathy's Horderves

Ingredients:

Cream Cheese
Carl Budding lunch meat any type- chicken, turkey, ham etc.
green olives or pickled asparagus

lay out a single slice of lunchmeat, spread some cream cheese on the middle top with either asparagus or the sliced green olives. Roll into cigar shape. Repeat until out of lunchmeat. Done.

Seriously that's it. And so good.

Last night my hubs and I had a sweet tooth craving and wanted some ice cream. So I got to thinking hmm what to do. Then BAM brownie yonanas w/ toasted coconut! (we love toasted coconut if you couldn't tell) It just takes me a few bites to be satisfied so I only make one serving in the machine.

Chocolate Protein Brownie Yonanas
1 Serving:

2 frozen bananas 
1 left over brownie
Toasted unsweetened coconut for sprinkling

after thawing the frozen banana for 10 or so minutes place in the machine and begin running through then toss in the brownie and last banana. Once all banana chocolate mixture has run through simply stir to blend and make more creamy. Top with toasted coconut.

Meal plan for the week.

Today had a normal start like every Thursday. Coffee and snuggles with my Butter and Nana followed by the gym (which kicked my bum today). Thursdays are also the day where I do my meal plan for the week. I start in my fridge, freezer, and pantry to take stock of what I have to try to stay within our little budget we created. We aim for 40 bucks a week but if I find a great deal I will certainly pick it up! Who can resist a whole chicken at 69 cents a pound! A vacuum sealer is a girls best friend when you find sweet deals at the market. And it makes it easy to separate everything into meal sizes if it's one of those super value packs. Doing this lets me often times stay below our meager 40 dollars a week or allows for a little splurge here and there for something exciting.

Such a small food budget is sometimes tricky to stay within when we aim to stay away from boxed processed foods as much as possible. I tried couponing to help stretch our budget but sadly that did not work out like the TV show extreme couponers. Those women have some skills! So now if I occasionally find a coupon to save on something I am picking up anyway I will print it. Otherwise it's just plain creativity and imagination that makes our meal plan.

After taking stock of what we have I will scour my cookbooks or Pinterest for some inspiration. This week I am trying out Bariatric Foodies Faux Potato Salad  (http://bariatricfoodie.blogspot.com/2010/09/they-call-it-tater-salad.html?m=1). I am a firm believer in when you have a BBQ there should be either Tater salad or Mac salad. It just wouldn't be a summer BBQ without one of them. Since we will be grilling it up on Sunday I thought this would be a perfect time to try out her version! I am hoping it is going to feed my need!

I also have to come up with a special dessert for a party on Saturday evening. It's a pajama passion party haha! Sexiest pajamas get a prize. Well I am going in my moo moo/ housedress. It's not sexy I know but it is comfy! I don't really drink often but I am in charge of brining a dessert and bottle of wine. I am thinking of making my grandma's Boozy Bundt Cake recipe. It's moist and delicious. She makes it for all the major holidays. Normally I fudge the recipe by adding 2 scoops unflavored protein powder and replace some of the oil with applesauce or Greek yogurt. You will have to also add extra applesauce/ yogurt to make it moist again. Protein powder dries it out otherwise and I use the SF cake mix. Since this is for a passion party I will just make it normal. Trust me. You want to go make this recipe today. It's that good. My hubbies soldiers were asking for more when I made this for them at Christmas time.

Grandma Betty's Boozy Bundt Cake

1 package yellow cake mix
1 large box SF instant vanilla pudding
1 tsp ground nutmeg
4 eggs
3/4 cup white wine
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Spray bundt pan with pam with flour or butter and flour your pan. Do this well no one wants their beautiful cake to stick in the pan.

Mix all the ingredients together  and bake at 350 degrees F for 50 min and then remove from bundt and allow to cool and a baking rack.

Tah Dah! That's it. It doesn't need anything else.

So that I can still have something sweet I will bring some Greek yogurt with sliced banana, fresh strawberries and a drizzle of honey. It's been my go to treat lately. I just can't seem to get enough of it! And if I have a small nibble of bundt who can blame me! hehe. But in all seriousness I hear there will be a veg platter so I will have great healthy options still at my disposal. And if there isn't one as planned I always carry some roasted soy nuts and a protein bar in my bag. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

What's your go to snack to help you stay on track?

For the Pups Pumpkin Mint Dog Treats and For me a Pumpkin Pie Protein Shake!

In honor of the AC being fixed I am making my pups some tasty dog treats that will keep their breath oh so fresh!

I have several recipes for dog treats. So I will list some variations for you below to the recipe. We go through treats like crazy. Every time we leave they get a cookie, every time we get in the car...They get a cookie...vicious cycle. You even say the work cookie and it's crazy town up in here. So it helps to make our own and I know they will be better for them. A lot of times I use what I happen to have on hand for the treat recipe as well. We always have mint hanging around like 4 different kinds (we drink a lot of Moroccan tea) so it's easy for me to make my own fresh breath treats now and again. Cheaper too...I have even thrown in some left over cheerios before. I do try to limit the sugar in a recipe for the dogs though as I know that won't be very good for them. Today I happened to have just a smidge of light organic agave nectar so I tossed that in to use it up since pumpkin is bland. I don't use exact measuring when I make the dog treats it's more about this or that. So if your dough is a bit thick add some extra applesauce, thin add some extra rolled oats. It will all balance out in the end. Today's recipe included: the core ingredients with rolled oats and flour, agave, pumpkin, and about 1/2c chopped mint (I didn't have any fresh parsley so they can go without this time).

Dog Treat Recipe

Core ingredients:
1 Cup Flour of choice or 1/2 flour 1/2 rolled oats (even thrown some ground flax in before)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg

Variants to add:
1/4-1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4-1/2 cup banana
1/4-1/2 cup applesauce
1/4-1/2 cup peanut butter
Fresh mint/parsley
shredded carrot

*note the cookies with the banana are the sweetest. The others w/o an added sweetener are kinda bland but Butter and Nana don't seem to mind. I also keep the cookies in the freezer in a Ziploc and just take out what I will use for a week.

Bake at 350 for about 15-20min or until done (I peak through the oven window at about 12min). Makes about 24 cookies or so using one of those tiny cookie scoops that looks like an ice cream scooper. I often times split the cookie between the 2 pups. I make mine with the scooper because Butter is old and missing a few teeth so it makes the treats softer and easier to eat. You can always make them more crunchy by making them thinner and doing it like a sugar cookie and make the dough a smidge dryer then I did in the picture.

I had all of this left over pumpkin puree so I thought why not make me a shake. I am a bit low on protein today. So here it is.

Pumpkin Pie Protein Shake

1 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 tbs of splenda *
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla

*I hate the flavor of vanilla protein powder so I used 2 tbs of splenda but if I was making this for someone else I would use 1 tbs. I just need the extra sweetness to mask the vanilla powder.

Blend for 1 min.  Serves 2 of me but 1 hubby Enjoy!

Nutrition (1/2 recipe): 173 cal, 16g carbs, 20g protein

Time to head out and figure out what to make with some chili lime flavored ground pork I bought o sale at Food Lion the other day. Taco's maybe? Grilled like a burger?

If you try the dog treats let me know how they turned out!

Water water WATER and the easy freezer meal!

Man oh man I can certainly tell I have not been drinking my water the last couple days. I must remember to get my water better. I can feel the difference with my energy and my skin. Maybe some soup for dinner tonight to just give a little help. I made some fresh tomato sourdough bread before our vacation and froze the left over loaf the recipe made so we have some delicious bread sitting on my counter. The hubs is trying to cut carbs out so I may heat the house up and just toast one slice for croutons! Ooo or use the grill outside. yum. I love fresh homemade croutons. I make a killer vegetable soup which I have just sitting in my freezer. I found this secret ingredient called TVP that has no flavor but adds so much protein and nutrients which is great for helping me get my 70g protein each day. It's amazing. And I am a firm believer in not being wasteful so after making a giant pot of soup I will take what we will have for leftovers and then use my handy dandy vacuum sealer and seal it up and toss it in the deep freeze for busy days like today when I just don't have time to cook a big meal. And lets face it its 90+ degrees here today so I don't want to cook and a good soup and salad dinner is delish on these days. Sounds like a plan!

Today was also my first official day back at the gym since vacation. Man oh man can I feel it! Whoever says water aerobics is for old people and prego women only have not been to my class at the gym. But I feel so great after going. I am not one who loves working out and since I had this surgery I committed to a lifestyle change which included working out regularly. I love the water so the water aerobics class has been a lifesaver. There are definitely days when I don't want to go but I just have to tell myself get up off your ass and go. New Life. GO. And I always seem to feel so much better after. It helps having such a great supportive hubby too. I am really blessed with him. He is my own personal cheerleader. Ah Love...Now I am feeling all mushy.

Time to finish up some housework and hang some wet laundry and then run some errands! Man I hope I have time to work on a crochet throw I am making!

Happy Memorial Day! This means it's time for pressure cooker protein brownies!

Happy Memorial Day from our family to yours. Coming from a military household this holiday holds a lot of meaning. I know all to well what it's like to pray everyday that your soldier makes it back safe and the fear of what if's that as a mil spouse you drive through not letting yourself dwell on or think about for to long while they are away. I am blessed enough to have the hubs safe with me and thank God everyday that I have him. This holiday is an all to important reminder for all of us that there are those Soldiers who gave their all to protect us and our way of life. And have families who now have to go without seeing their loved one. So to those Soldiers who have given the greatest sacrifice I thank you. And to those family members who have lost I thank you as well.

On a lighter note. Today is a great day! I am down another 2.3 pounds in 5 days! I was on a slow stall for the last couple weeks where it was 1/2 pound or so a week so it's nice to have a little kick! Plus I have a little marble vase set that when I loose a pound I get to move over and who doesn't love to hear the little plink of 2 more marbles in the pounds lost vase! I know this girl does! So I am down 117 pounds in just over a year from my surgery weight!

To celebrate this holiday I found a recipe for pressure cooker brownies. Since I am not using my stove until the AC is fixed this and the slow cooker have been my lifesavers! I read the recipe and thought hmm how can I make this so that it's healthier for me...Boom.  Pressure Cooker Protein Brownies were born! We topped ours with some SF Caramel and toasted unsweetened coconut. Now I am the first to recognize that they were a little drier than I like my brownies to be but I will fix that on my next batch. I am tossing around the idea of adding maybe some extra water or maybe some no sugar applesauce to help them along a bit. The hubs still loved them even being a bit dry. In case you want to give the recipe a go and make a tweek or two for yours the working recipe is below.

Pressure Cooker Protein Brownies

1 stick light butter/margarine
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup flour or almond flour
2 eggs
1 tbs honey
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
1 cup splenda
*water or applesauce to get the right consistency make it not quite so thick as normal batter since the protein powder dries things out a bit.

Directions:
Melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove top. Remove from heat and mix in cocoa powder. Allow to cool slightly.
In a medium mixing bowl combine sugar, flour, baking powder , protein powder, and salt . Mix well. Then to the flour mixture add the honey, the eggs and the cooled butter/cocoa mixture. Mix well. Pour batter into a greased 8" diameter round pan or casserole dish. Cover the brownie pan completely with a two to three foot piece of aluminum foil.

 

Place the metal trivet on the bottom of the electric pressure cooker. Add 2 cups of water and 1 Tbsp. vinegar into the pressure cooker. The vinegar will help prevent your trivet and pressure cooker from developing a milky white film in it and is optional. Fold another two to three foot piece of aluminum foil into thirds lengthwise to make handle that will help you easily lift the pan in and out of the pressure cooker. Place the foil strip underneath the brownie pan and fold the edges together over the pan in order to easily lift the pan into the electric pressure cooker. Place the brownie pan levelly on top of the metal trivet and fold down the sides of the foil on top of the pan

 

 

 

 

Place lid on top of pressure cooker and cook on med high for 35min.

Tah Dah! you have delicious brownies with just under 8 grams of protein per slice. I had ours serve 8 as the hubs likes real sized portions rather than just little bites.

The Yard. Dun Dun Dun.

Well instead of the gym today the hubs and I are tackling the backyard. We have been gone for a couple weeks on our trip to Serbia and just now getting to it after being back a week! I know I know we should have been on it sooner. But lazy is sometimes my middle name. We are spending lots of time outside as the weather is beautiful and our AC is out again. We are still waiting a week later for the company to come fix it for the second time. Yep. Sigh. 2nd time...And it's hot here in NC! With humidity! Our house looks like a dungeon during the day to help keep it kinda cool in here until they arrive Wednesday...Oh sweet Wednesday!

Since we will be chopping down a tree in the back today and other miscellaneous yard work I figured I had better make us a great lunch. So I am making a Thai Chicken Pizza for lunch with left over crockpot cashew chicken. But here is my basic recipe for the chicken pizza. I normally make them in the oven but since the AC is broken I will be grilling them on the BBQ outside.

Chicken Pita Pizza

1 low carb pita or tortilla
2 oz or of left over chicken (we sometimes do shrimp)
low sugar BBQ sauce (1.5 TBS or so)
topping of choice (mushroom, onion, bell pepper, zucchini)
3 TBS shredded cheese or so

Layer up your pizza and bake at 350 until crispy about 20 min or so. I use a crisping sheet but you could either just place directly on the rack or on a cookie sheet.

Nutrition:
Cal 246
Carbs 15
Fat 8
Protein 21
Fiber 4

Because I mentioned my favorite pita on an earlier post here are it's stats.
Josephs Flax Oat Brand and Whole Wheat Pita (one pita):
Cal 60
Carb 4
Fat 0
Protein 6
Fiber 4
Sugar 0

One of my projects I will be tackling while outside today is this killer mason bee nest tutorial. They are great pollinators for your yard and bees that do not sting! We must save the bees! I found this great tutorial while surfing the net. The link is http://themagnifyingglass.typepad.com/weblog/2011/03/make-a-mason-bee-nest.html

Fresh Moroccan Cheese just like mom used to make...

So my hubs is from Morocco and is this beautiful perfect golden color like the perfect roasted marshmallow...While I sit over here yelling hey pull me out of the bag I wanna be toasted too! Basically I glow in the dark. It's sad. Anyway. Since he is so far from back home and his mom makes everything by scratch I try to bring a little bit of home for him now and again. Some stuff I do from scratch like bread and we don't eat processed foods unless it's a treat or something. But his mom does everything from bread, cheese, olives, yogurt you name it. She even makes this dried salted meat called ghadid...oh my gosh amazing! It's to humid where we live that I would be afraid it wouldn't dry right out in the sun here or I would have to learn that recipe. But alas luckily for me there is Cheese. Perfect. Delicious CHEESE! We eat quite a bit of dairy in our house (yay for protein!) so I thought hey I can do this it can't be that hard right? So I watched a few videos on making cheese and we asked his mom what her recipe was and how she made it. We and I mean that loosely as I don't speak Moroccan Arabic so he has to talk to his mom and translate for me. I know a few words from their stay last year with us and learned quite a bit but for this I thought better safe than sorry! So I now have "the recipe" that he grew up on just on a smaller scale. We don't have 10 kids to feed cheese too haha!   

Jben or Fresh Moroccan Cheese

1QT milk
1 QT Buttermilk
1/4 TSP salt
1/4 TSP thyme or other herb of choice **optional** We like it plain ourselves.

1.Take your milk and salt and place in saucepan over medium heat and heat until just before boiling. 2. Poor heated milk mixture over cold buttermilk in a bowl, stir, and let set for 2 hours. Your cheese should begin to make little curds.  If you choose to add a flavor such as an herb to your cheese now is the time to do so when mixing the milk and buttermilk.
3. Take a piece of cheese cloth and lay it over your fine mesh strainer and a bowl. Pour cheese mixture slowly through the cloth and strainer into a large bowl and cover with the ends of the cloth. If you do not have cheese cloth you can just use the strainer.
4. Let sit for 10 hours for cheese to separate from the whey. This can be done just on your counter.
5. Remove from strainer and cheese cloth and enjoy!

Don't throw the whey away! You can use it for so many things like bread, rolls, tortillas, or your pets will love it over their dry food. Butter and Nana went crazy! For the bread just replace it with either the milk or water in a recipe.

This cheese is so yummy over toasted bread with sliced tomato. I also really like it over these lower carb pitas with a decent amount of protein I found called Joseph's Pitas with flax. They also have a wrap as well. Most low carb breads I have tried I haven't been a big fan of not even the tortillas until I found Joseph's. I get them at Walmart up by the Deli counter. They make great mini pizza crusts too!

First Post...Intimidating! An Intro.

So I suppose my first blog post should be about who I am and all that jazz. Well. I am an Army wife who moved across the US to follow love and create a new life with my MR. We have two adorable little dachshunds. Buster who I will most likely call Butter most of the time and  Savannah who we lovingly call Nana. The name of my blog is a play on their nicknames and my relationship with a new way of life and food after WLS surgery in 2013.

In the blog I will be writing about my life as an Army wife and its many adventures, my crochet and DIY addiction, my babies aka Butter and Nana, my new life change with food and exercise due to my surgery and it's tricky little nuances with lots of recipes both successes and failures. For example I remember this one set of low carb pancakes I tried to make. Terrible! But they were a good laugh. And of course our most exciting adventure of beginning a family! My crazy hubs comes from a family of 12 so you know he wants a giant family. I believe his last number was 6 he was voting for. Ha! No way hosay! I will be happy with a few less myself :)

I am sure there will be other tidbits of topics as well that filter in like OoOo vacations!

Feel free to comment about a post! Leave questions or suggestions to make something better :)

This is Butter and Nana. This photo is last Halloween before a party. Buster is in the hot dog costume and Savannah is the little butterfly. The bottom photo is what they do when I try to wash our comforter EVERY TIME.