My Beauty Picks under $20

I'm not a beauty blogger and obviously that's not why you come here but I am currently lovin' some stuff that I wanted to share with you guys!  I hope you don't mind.  :-)

1. Organix - Intense Moisturizing Treatment Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil  (affiliate link) I had 80's hair.  The higher the hair, the closer to heaven they used to say and I was downright celestial.  Even 20 years later, I was paying for my Aqua Net sins.  In hearing more and more about Argan Oil and its healing properties, I thought I'd give it a go.  OH. MY. LORD!  The first time I put it on (after a crisping hair coloring), it felt like my hair turned into buttah.  The smell?  The only way I can describe it is if it were a person, I'd make love to it.  If they made it into a perfume, I'd buy stock.

2. Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream  (affiliate link) I had to try out the newest craze and I'm cheap so I had to try the least expensive BB cream.  I've got inherited dark circles, a scar on my cheek and some uneven skin tone.  So the promise of an SPF 30, moisturizer, primer, foundation and such was appealing especially if I didn't have to buy all of that stuff separately.  All in all, I really like it.  It gives a perfect canvas and pressed powder sets it perfectly without looking cakey.  I will say that you MUST remove it at the end of the day.  No sleeping in it or you're gonna wake up with some wicked clogged pores.  I won't tell you how I know that.

3. Bonne Bell Lip Lites Lip Gloss  (affiliate link) I love almost every color in this line and they smell /taste good too!  I love how inexpensive they are but long lasting.  No need to spend a ton of money on high end brands.  I keep some in my make up kit, the glove compartment and my purse.

4. Clean & Clear Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment  (affiliate link) This was recommended to me by a Facebook follower when I asked about something to kill small planets orbiting my face.  While it's slow to work on my well established planetary irritant, it instantly kills any others trying to pop up.  I see a little red bump starting to form and they say "oh, I'm sorry.  Wrong face!  I was just kidding!"

5. Pantene Pro-V Naturefusion Moisture Balance Shampoo  (affiliate link) I've always loved Pantene.  It was my "grown up" shampoo while helping to repair damage from previously mentioned 80's hair.  When the Nature Fusion line came out, I gave it a go and fell in love.  I didn't think I could love it any more but it made my hair softer and more shiny.  Score!

6. Dove Clinical Protection, Original Clean  (affiliate link) I don't wear this everyday but I pack it for vacations.  When we go to Hawaii, we're usually gone from dawn to dusk or later.  This stuff lasts ALL day long with no sweat and no stank.  I don't want to offend locals with an inferior deodorant.

7. Trader Joe's Coconut Body Butter  (affiliate link) This has more of a vanilla scent than coconut to me but I still love it.  It's perfect for spreading on your dangles (baggy skin) to moisturize as you shrink or on your neck to keep that "hard road" look from giving away your age.  I don't have that yet and I'd like to think shea butters are the reason why.

8. Suave Advanced Therapy Body Lotion  (affiliate link) Another really awesome lotion that smells great, lasts a long time and is a God send in winter weather for not a lot of money.

What beauty basics do you swear by?

This post contains affiliate links.

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Veggie Beef Soup

The winter weather is on a crazy train.  8 degrees one day, 65 the next.  This recipe was created on an 8 degree day because I needed a culinary warm fuzzy.  It was originally going to be beef stew but as I tasted it and polled the Mr on which he preferred, soup it was!

Mmm, I think I'm breaking out the leftover batch from the freezer.  Yum.  Let's get started!

Veggie Beef Soup
(Four 2 cup servings)

2 boxes (8 cups)  Pacific Foods Low Sodium Beef Broth
15 oz Target Beef Chuck Stew Meat (trimmed and browned)
1/2 large parsnip
3 medium carrots, sliced
1 1/2 small zucchinis, cubed
1 large red pepper, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
6 cloves garlic
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp thyme
Other no salt spices to taste

Trim all of the excess fat off of the beef and cut into like size pieces so they brown evenly.

Brown your stew meat until cooked through.

Grab your beef broth...

Add your browned meat to a big crock pot and then add your beef broth.  I added no salt spices like thyme, black pepper and onion powder to taste.

Dice up your veggies.

Mince your garlic or put them in whole if you prefer.

Add them to the crock pot party and cook on low all day or on high for 4 hours.

When you have about 2 hours cook time left, add a cornstarch slurry (cornstarch and water) to the crockpot to thicken slightly.

At this point, you want to taste it before serving.  Because this is a low sodium soup, I prefer to let people salt theirs by the bowl.  I could eat it as is but I've also added a dash or two as well...either way, it's still delicious!

Nutritional Information per 2 cup serving:  Calories 288 Total Fat 12g  Sat Fat 5g  Cholesterol 56mg  Sodium 625mg  Potassium 363mg  Total Carbs 18g  Fiber 3g  Sugars 5g  Protein 27g  Vitamin A  157%  Vitamin C  145%  Calcium 7%  Iron 16%

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My not-so-current jams

I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of current music.  I have tried listening to the radio, Spotify and gotten recommendations from friends that have me rethinking our friendship by the end of the list.  What can I say, I'm a 30 something fogey.  So I'm gonna show my age and list some of my favorite workout songs.  I seem to be stuck in a late 90's/00's groove on this one but I don't care because these are my rump shakers.

Duran Duran- Girl Panic

Maroon 5- Moves like Jagger (yes, I'm the only person on Earth not sick of it)

Short Skirt/Long Jacket- Cake

Helena Beat- Foster the People

Goodbye Horses featuring Q Lazzarus (no not from Silence of the Lambs, I think of Jason Mewes with a mangina at Moobys)

The Impression That I Get- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Cherry Lips- Garbage

I Like the Way You Move- Body Rockers

Renegades of Funk - Rage Against the Machine

Tongue Tied- Grouplove

Rubberneckin' - Elvis

Breakout - Foo Fighters

Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani  (Okay, anything off of Love Angel Music Baby)

L.A. Woman - Billy Idol

Milkshake - Kelis

Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club

That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings

Starry Eyed Surprise - Paul Oakenfold

Horndog - Overseer

These aren't my absolute faves but some of the ones that get me up and groovin'.

Your turn.  What songs would make up your ultimate workout playlist?

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Shoe in

Boy when the doc clears me for light impact, I waste no time getting out in the white stuff!

Yes, that is a black cat on my head...don't judge me.

We aren't able to rely on snow in our neck of the woods so when we had snow a few days after Christmas, I sent the Mr. cross country skiing with his cell at a nearby park.  I didn't want him to miss out in case that was our only snowfall this year.  I was super upset I had to miss out on it due to my injury but I was happy to see him so thrilled when he came home.

When we woke up to 4+ inches Saturday morning, he tested the snow shoes in the back yard and there was just enough to warrant a trip to the park!  I chose the flattest trail they had because I wasn't going to push it and set my injury back.  I took it easy, stopped when I needed to and enjoyed being cozy warm in our winter gear.  Just the night before we took a trip to the local sporting goods store because the North Face and Columbia gloves we bought were in a word...crap.  Gordini to the rescue!  We got the goose down, sherpa lined gloves labeled "warmest" and indeed our fingers were nice and toasty in 20 degree weather!   Pair those with Under Armour ColdGear Compression Leggings (affiliate link) to keep him toasty and WICKERS Wicking Thermal Pants under my jeans and we could've gone all day!  (Too bad my hips couldn't...yeee-ouch!)  But 925 calories later, we called it a day.

I enjoyed every slow falling snowflake, every babble of the wintry brook, every crunch of snow beneath my shoes, every chirp or pecking of birds, I smiled at the few people we passed and knew even if this was the only time we got out this year, that I would be more grateful for this outing than ever.  Because even though my foot was giving me the what for the next day, it wasn't bad enough that I needed to be off of it all day.  Matter of fact, it let me get a big project done that I wanted to have done before Christmas but couldn't stand for more than 10-20 minutes at that time to do it.  I gave it a few massages and turns on the spiky ball as a reward as well as flipping our traditional workout to Friday while we did our project which took all day.  (It burned calories so it's not like we slacked)  Poor Mr.  He didn't know what hit him when we woke up Sunday morning to my determination to get the project done and in one day.  But I'll tell you about that another day.

Did you get out and enjoy the weather this weekend?

There are a few affiliate links in this post but if you're a snowbird, you'll appreciate keeping warm with these babies!

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Frustrated Incorporated/Weekend workout - Weigh In

The Mr would've liked the title of that one if he read this on the weekends, which he doesn't.  Anyway, back to the scale.

Nothing.  Zero.

Which means I'll end the month the same place I started it weight wise.  This is where Pollyanna types would be tempted to tell me that I was/am working through an injury and I should be proud I didn't gain.  Well I would be if I hadn't adjusted my calories to compensate for less calories burned for 6 weeks.  I was right in the limits of my new calorie range, drank a goodly amount of water and hit my calorie burn goal for the week.  It's not Aunt Flo week or any of that crap either.  I'm thinking maybe I cut calories back too far.  It was all very doable but my strengths are more prevalent now so maybe there's something to that.  I hate it when I have to make that decision to up calories.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but obviously cutting the calories back hasn't and I'm going to be adding more cardio back in gently so it's time to move 'em back up anyway.  Sigh.  I would like a print out straight from my body that says "you need to eat X, move X and drink X for me to reward you with 2 lb losses per week."  I'd be afraid where it would print out from but at this point I would risk a rectal paper cut if I had to.

Anyhoo...it snowed overnight!!  So much so that I'm thinking snowshoeing is on the agenda today!  We won't do our usual trail, I'll do the flat dog trail so I can get my feet used to being in them.  This may be my only chance to get it in this season since we don't get snow like we used to.  So I will actually be getting in an honest to goodness weekend workout.  Woot!  Time to spiky ball my feet and maybe do a little massage to loosen things up and strap on the gear!  I'm excited!

Hope you have fun doing whatever you've got brewin' for the day!

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Injury progress and Food Journal 1/20-1/24

I know you might've tuned in for the food but you're gonna have to sit through an injury update first!  HA!  Hey!  How dare you try to scroll!  Sheesh.  ;-)

I am on level 4 of 5 of my arch builder inserts and I should be able to switch over by Sunday which will enable my feet to be receptive to their final "molding" to correct my pronation.  Upon my visit last week, he asked what my workouts were and I kind of got the feeling he wanted to tell me to work in light impact but he stopped short from clearing me.  So I decided after I was able to do the new kettlebell workout I got that I would progress from standing during cardio workouts to lightly putting my foot down.  (This was something I couldn't do two weeks ago.)  My light re-intro?  KenpoX from P90X.  I know.  A lot of it is upper body and I took out any jumps and during "breaks" I would squat and do speedbags.  I would get crampy in my arches and a few sore spots on top of my foot but honestly...I had the same feeling walking over the weekend.   I assessed the next day and I was fine.  No new aches or pains.  I did strength the next day and I got on my balance board since I did so well balancing on that foot with kicks.  Wow...I was wobbly.  I felt so dejected at how my balance had suffered and then Right Now from Van Halen came on and it was just what I needed to bring my determination back.  I have already made strides, more are needed and I will make them, it's that simple.  So watch out balance, I'm comin' for ya.  Then Wednesday, I broke out Turbo Fire 45 EZ, one of my old faves.  It was so good to hear the music and mouth the dialogue.  There were some moves my feet didn't like and some high impact stuff I knew was out of the question but I got through the workout at about 70% of my former intensity where I would not have been able to even stand up to modify 2 weeks ago.  When it was over, I bawled like a baby.  It was so good to do it with relatively little consequence in the moment other than a few crampy parts.  I will say afterward my feet and legs were like "what!?  WTH are you doing lady!?!?" and were twitchy the rest of the night and the next morning my ankles and feet were tight.

I went to the chiro Thursday and he worked on my feet commenting on their tightness and worked out some "grain" in my calf which he said all active people have.  I asked about the balance board and told him about my workouts.  He said the balance board is the best thing for me right now so do it everyday if I want to.  He also cleared me for light impact as long as I ease back into it like I have been this past week.  I'm so happy I have the green light so long as my foot is cooperating.  I will definitely incorporate the balance board at the end of workouts to help build the muscles of the foot and legs.  I have 1-2 more visits before he sends me off on my own.

Okay, okay...now it's food time!  Let's eat!

Sunday night was Pacific Crab Stuffed Flounder over thai lime rice.  Calories:  520

Monday was Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos with arugula and broccoli slaw and brussels sprouts with asiago and 1/2 slice bacon.  Calories: 497

Wednesday was pink salmon with lemon garlic sauce and asparagus.  Calories: 444

Wednesday was BBQ salmon burger, russet wedges (w/ 1 tbsp ketchup) and a buttload of green beans.  Calories:  420

Thursday was garlic and herb tilapia and brussels sprouts with asiago and 1/2 slice bacon.  Calories:  395

Whatcha got going on this weekend?  Anything fun?

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What am I crushin' on now?

I'm thinking it's time to go window shopping and share some of my current crushes.

I ran across this Ceramic Squirrel Speaker from West Elm by accident but boy am I glad I did!  I think there is nothing better than turning a squirrel that has an audio cord coming out of it's rump into a speaker!

The Company Store has this adorable postmark looking Rubber Molded Doormat that says Welcome as you enter and Goodbye as you leave.  Or you could flip it around to tell solicitors goodbye and welcome people who live there to the outdoors.  Hmm, I kind of like that more.

My obsession with mixing bowls I have no room for continues with these Rhodes Mixing Bowls from Pottery Barn.  They make me want to whip up cake batter and homemade frosting and go into a sugar coma.

I'm not a country fan but this adorable French Hen bowl from Sur La Table catches my attention every time. I'm thinking some morning oatmeal in this bowl would taste extra comforting.

I did a little fancy Photoshoppin' for this next one from Pier 1.  I don't know why but I kept gravitating toward this peacock serving platter and thought maybe these willow spheres would look pretty in them on our bedroom dresser.  Some of you will like this, some will think I'm high.

What are you crushin' on this week?  Decor?  Food?  Workout?  Vacation spot?

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Trader Joe's Food Reviews: Snack Edition

First off, I know some of you don't have Trader Joe's near you and for that, I bow my head for a moment of silence.  I lurve me some Trader Joe's and just know that I enjoy every bite for you in addition to my own enjoyment.  But you never know, maybe one is coming to your area and you don't even know it!  Click here to see if any are coming to your neck of the woods.

Let's get down to business.

When we saw this Speculoos Crunchy Cookie Butter, we knew we had to see how it compared to Biscoff's Crunchy Spread.  It's all in the name of research, ya know?  Our verdict?  I give it a thumbs up but I will always get Biscoff over this stuff.  Why?  Because Biscoff's version is truly crunchy and is more like "would you like some spread with your cookie crumbles?" and we like that.  Now if Biscoff Crunchy is TOO crunchy for you, then this stuff would be right up your alley.  It's about 60/40 in favor of the butter over the crunch but just enough to give you that texture.  Biscoff is probably 70/30 in favor of cookie crunch.  This delightful spread is 90 calories per tablespoon.  It makes a great topper for a banana, to dip an apple or top your oatmeal.  Yum!

I'm going to pretend I didn't wait until we almost polished off this bag of TJ's Cinnamon Apple Snack Sticks to take pics.  For 140 calories, you get 28g or they claim 38 sticks.  I counted, it wasn't 38 sticks, maybe closer to 28 but still a goodly amount.  The taste?  You know Taco Bell's cinnamon twisties?  They taste like an apple pie version of those to me.  These babies will definitely be making an appearance in our pantry again.

TJ's Mini Hold the Cone ice cream cones.  The Mr wanted mini drumsticks and when we saw TJ's had these chocolate and vanilla versions, we thought we'd give them a go.  They have really good flavor, high quality ice cream for both.  I don't like how stale the cone tastes but I don't eat mini drumsticks so maybe this is normal?  One cone is 70 calories.  I could literally eat this in 2-3 bites if I wanted to and I'll say one doesn't go a long way to make you feel like you ate anything.  Honestly, neither does having two of them.  They're good but for me, not satisfying and the Mr feels the same.  We both like them but we don't know if we'd need to get them again.

So I'd say a solid hit with the cinnamon apple sticks, a hit with the crunchy cookie butter but would probably buy Biscoff first since we like ours uber crunchy and while the cones taste-wise are hits, on the satisfaction scale, they were a miss.

What new things have you tried lately?

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Review: Paul Katami's Ultimate Kettlebell Workouts for Beginners

I was perusing some new release home DVD's because now that strength is going to be a big focus for us, I wanted to get some new blood into the system.  I had a credit on Amazon from selling back some books and when I saw Paul Katami's Ultimate Kettlebell Workouts for Beginners (affiliate link) was 50% off, I thought "yeah this will be the best $.83 I've ever spent!"

Now before you go saying "I don't have kettlebells", neither do we.  Or before you say, "I'm not a beginner,"  neither are we.  Gosh you're pessimistic...HA!  I thought the same things but online reviews I saw said this wasn't necessarily a beginners workout.  We got it Friday and by Sunday it was in our DVD player in the dungeon.

The instructor, Paul Katami, is new to me.  I'm thankful to report he's not annoying.  You know how some instructors can be.  He's joined by two women that are his workout partners.  It's in a nice, tranquil setting with mats and kettlebells.  If you have smaller dumbbells, you could do what we did and use those.  It is a little awkward on a few moves with the free weights but nothing we couldn't handle.  I don't know what size weights everyone was using but I used 10's to warm up and 15's for lower body stuff like swings.

In the total body workout, he warms you up with halos, some twists and you go into your typical kettlebell stuff like swing through's, lunges with chops, side squats with swing through's and all kinds of stuff that really got my heart rate up.  Since I'm working through an injury, you know that made me happy!  It's not high impact so I was able to modify anything my foot wasn't liking and you could certainly do that if you're a beginner and looking to work up to his level.

In the core workout, we did stuff that had me sore for two days and I've been working out my core and upper body a lot the past six weeks!  I think the ones I love/dread the most are ones where he has you do crunches but with the kettlebell, then doing a military press as you come up into your crunch and another doing a fly as you come up into your crunch.  My shoulder blades, lats and abs were killing me!

All in all, this is a great workout.  I burned 670 calories in 50 minutes doing both workouts and that was with modification.  I'm SO glad to have this to put into rotation and it's the epitome of muscle confusion for me right now which is exactly what I need.

Pros:

Workout is based on time per move, not reps so you can start at your own pace and work up.

Workout flows well and is fast paced without feeling rushed.

The instructor isn't annoying or doesn't feel like mute should be an option.

Lots of traditional moves as well as moves that create muscle confusion for a total body workout.

At review time, under $10.

Full instructional video for those not familiar with kettlebell style workouts.

Cons:

I would've liked a preview of each and every exercise before doing it.  I suspect the introduction is where I would find those but it's appreciated within the body of the workout.

Would I recommend Ultimate Kettlebell Workouts for Beginners?  (affiliate link)  Absolutely!  I think if you're looking to get into kettlebells or just mix up your strength routine, this is a great addition to a home workout program!


This post contains affiliate links.  Trust me people, the kickback is a few cents.  I'm not getting rich!  HA!

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Back to Basics: Move it!

Chances are you've probably heard the latest health news that sitting is as dangerous as smoking. Not only is sitting all day bad for your health upping your chances for a stroke, heart disease and a lower metabolism but even if you do an hour of good, hard exercise, it still doesn't negate all of the damage sitting does.  One study shows that sitting for 11 or more hours per day increased risk of death by 40 percent, regardless of other activity levels.  As a person who works from home and spends a goodly amount of time on her tookus (I said tookus) while doing her hour of exercise, this is quite alarming.  It should also alarm people who sit at a desk job like I did for years.  

I have done "challenges" in the past where I challenge myself to do some kind of movement at the top of the hour.  Problem is, I suck at challenges.  Seriously, it's like I have some rebelling gene that kicks in even though I know the challenge is to my benefit.  I don't do well to remind myself at the top of the hour on my own, so I have resorted to this:

Starting at 8:00 AM every weekday, my little mail reminder goes off to tell me to get off my rump and do 10 squats.  It gets my heart pumping and I'm going to do this for a month and make it habit and then move it to every half an hour.  So right now by the time the Mr gets home, I have 100 squats in for the day.  When I move up to every half an hour, it'll be 200 squats or maybe I'll do 100 squats and then maybe 100 of something else like push ups or kick backs or squats with speed bags.  For some reason, hearing that little ding grabs my attention more than when I set the timer on the microwave and would be forced to get up to go reset it for an hour later.  (But that is something work at homers could do if it's too tempting to hit snooze without doing the activity if anyone wanted to join me.)

Do you make time every half hour to hour to get up and move if you have sedentary job?  Would a reminder popping up entice you to do it or would you hit dismiss?

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Plan of attack for week 1/20-1/25

Here's my plan of attack for this week:

1)  Fish week.  Eat fish at least 5x this week for dinner.

2)  Calorie cycle within the bottom 200 calories of my calorie range.

3)  Get in at least 96 oz of water between water, food and decaf tea each day.

4)  Take chia seeds every day.

5)  Movement top of the hour every week day.

6)  Massage legs after every activity even if it's just grocery shopping.

7)  If muscles are sore, take bath, don't suffer just because ibuprofen doesn't work.

8)  Ice or ultrasound inflammation especially after yesterday's episode.

9)  Believe you're healing because you are!

What's your plan of attack for this week?

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Weigh In/Foot update

I'd love to know how I'm up almost 1/2 pound.  I'm getting real sick of this crap.  It's not like I've been slacking on the workouts either given the injury.  *HISS*

I went to the chiropractor Thursday.  I asked the lady if I could lay with my legs over the water jets and she let me.  I think it helped make my legs more receptive to treatment and it felt good hitting on the fibular head.  (Side of my knee)  I think my orthotics are kickin' in because my knees and hips are achy and my stride is definitely changing.  He's very pleased with my progress.  I can stop doing the Achilles stretch because he said he's happy with the lengthening and doesn't want me to over stretch it.  I asked if I should start doing yoga and he was not a big fan.  He said many studies are showing people are injuring themselves more by doing exaggerated stretches and definitely do not hold a stretch for 30-60 seconds.  He said 10-15 seconds is more than adequate and anything over that has high potential to injure.  He said just a normal quick stretch after a workout is fine.  I asked about quads stretches and he asked why I wanted to stretch them.  I said some of my modifications involved squats so I would sometimes have sore quads the next day.  He said to grab the ankle not the top of the foot and lightly pull back but my quads were in good shape and didn't need stretched much.  I've been having trouble with tenderness on the outside of my knee on the bum leg.  He felt around and did some manipulation thinking it would pop but it didn't.  He said it would likely pop while I was walking but did a few deep tissue moves to help speed things along.  Thankfully he didn't do those horrid painful ones he did last time but worked on the back of my calves where I was having some cramping issues.  He said I had rippled muscles back there where the muscle is somewhat trapped and I asked if he was sure it wasn't fat.  He said no, even the thinnest of athletes have it and it just means that it's evident I workout and he needed to break up the area a bit.  He hit a few good spots.  He did another round of the laser then put me on the vibration plate.  I did foot grips, stretches and squats on it for 10 minutes.  It basically increases circulation, helps shake loose scar tissue, activates muscles in a way that working out doesn't and helps with pain.  It has felt better since then.  I actually had a decent foot day yesterday so hopefully this is a good sign of things to come.

I got a new strength workout yesterday, Ultimate Kettlebell Workouts for Beginners .  (affiliate link)  I know I'm not a beginner but it looked like a good workout so that'll go in the routine this week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Food Journal Friday 1/13-1/17

Food Journal Friday baby.  Yep, I'm trying to be good about taking pics of my eats for y'all since some of ya's really seem to like it.  So let's jump in, shall we?

Sunday was BBQ chicken naan pizza and TJ's chipotle potato bites.  It was yummy.  I could eat it every meal...so could the Mr.  Calories:  695

Monday was mahi mahi fish tacos with arugula and broccoli slaw and russet potato wedges with 1 tbsp of ketchup.  Calories: 504

Wednesday the poor Mr was stuck at work on a project so I worked out alone then waited for him to get home before making din din.  I made chicken linguine alfredo and brussels sprouts with 1/2 slice of center cut bacon and manchego cheese.  Calories:  710

Wednesday was chili night with asiago peppercorn bread, low sodium oyster crackers and a side of Gas X since I was going to the chiro the next day.  Calories:  553

Thursday was leftover chili with low sodium oyster crackers, parmesan cheese and a side brussels sprouts and 1/2 slice of bacon.  Calories: 641

God that horrid lighting makes me cringe.

Have a great weekend y'all!

What was the yummiest thing you ate this week?

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Apple French Toast Cups

I totally forgot about this recipe.

Scandalous!

It will become evident by one of the ingredients that I intended to post it around Christmas time even though it's not a Christmas recipe. Then my injury happened and my brain got scrambled.  But don't fear, I have nutritional info for both versions so you can make these any time of year...you know like Valentines Day, Mothers Day, a special birthday...Tuesday.

These babies are so delicious and under 350 calories for two.  They can also be made ahead and frozen in case you want to plan ahead.  (I know that's at least a few people's resolutions this year!)  Let's get to it!

Apple French Toast Cups

(Makes 6 cups)

2 Granny smith apples, sliced cored

2 tbsp Trader Joe's Spiced Cider (or apple/orange juice)

1/4 cup brown sugar

6 slices Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl Bread  (or 6 sliced sprouted whole wheat bread)

4 egg whites

2 tbsp C. F. Burger Creamery Light Egg Nog  (or 1 tbsp vanilla extract)

Cinnamon, ground, 1 tbsp

Hello beautiful grannies!

Peel 'em up!

Core and slice the apples, cut each slice in half and then cut each half into a few thin slices.

Over medium heat, add cinnamon and apple juice and 2 tbsp of the brown sugar.  Simmer until they stew down a bit.

While the apples are stewing, get a big tumbler and press over each slice of bread to make a circular shape.  (Or just cut off the corners if you don't want to go tumbler wild.  Use sprouted bread if you're doing the lower cal/no nog version.)

Ready for action!

In a bowl, add your egg whites and nog.(Or 1 tbsp vanilla extract if you're using the low cal, no nog version)

Dip the bread in the whites and sprinkle with cinnamon.

In a lightly sprayed muffin tin, add each slice of bread to form a cup.

Divide the apples up and spoon into each cup.

They'll be piled a little high with deliciousness, take the remaining 2 tbsp of brown sugar and sprinkle on top. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15-18 minutes or until done.  With a butter knife, gently score around the sides to remove, if needed.

Best served warm and be ready to sink back in your chair.

Breakfast heaven!

Nutritional Info per cup (with nog):  Calories 164  Total Fat 2g  Cholesterol 2mg  Sodium 156mg  Potassium 41mg  Total Carbs 37g  Fiber 3g  Sugars 23g  Protein 5g  Vitamin A 1%  Vitamin C 3%  Calcium 5%  Iron 7%

Nutritional Info per cup (sprouted bread/no nog/vanilla extract instead of nog):  Calories 140  Total Fat 1g  Sodium 171mg  Potassium  42mg  Total Carbs  28g  Fiber 5g  Sugars 19g  Protein 8g  Vitamin C  3%  Calcium  6%  Iron 13%

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