Love/Hate Relationship With The Gym

Just a warning, this may be kind of a rant. 

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people still bring their sick children to functions or locations making it a greater chance that they infect those that are healthy. 

Grade school is one thing but a place such as the gym is not the place to bring your sick child. Just because you are selfish and need to get your workout in doesn't mean that you need to do it at the expense of the healthy kids. 

Travis is sick. In the summer. I know it's from playing with the other children at the gym. It has to be. That's the only place he interacts with children daily. Yes, I know there is the slight chance he picked it up from the handle of the Safeway shopping cart, but really, I'm certain it's the gym. 

So, here I am stuck. He's sick, but am I still going to the gym? NO. Because I don't want to bring him in there with his stuffy nose to infect those that weren't infected the first go round. Am I mad about it? A little... but it's not like I can't work out at home. 

Please, if your little one is snotty and coughing don't bring him/her to playgroup, the gym, over to my house for a playmate, etc... bottom line, if you are sick? I don't want to see you or your kids. I'm going to up my MonaVie intake for the day and snuggle with my bug. 

End rant. 

Not your average muffin

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals and I grew up on Lucky Charms and French Toast so it's no wonder that I have a sweet tooth. Ignoring that sweet tooth has gotten easier and easier and I don't even eat cereal anymore. I can't even remember the last time I had cereal.

My oldest still eats cereal, but I buy him organic, non sugary types (that I force him to eat). He doesn't "like" them but he eats them. 

My little guy is happy with a waffle. Every. Single. Day. Or donuts if we take the car to get it washed. Yes, I am that mom who splurges and buys donuts once in a while. 

My husband is the hardest one to get eating breakfast. He wakes early, showers, and leaves for work with no time to eat a breakfast. Now that he is working out quite frequently I am trying to incorporate more of a healthy breakfast alternative for him. Oatmeal gets kind of old after a few days... (even for me, especially since I eat it plain).

Then introduces these "muffins". 

A trainer at my gym that I was talking to said he makes a batch of these and takes a couple a day for his mid-morning snack/breakfast. He rambled off how he made them and I don't remember all of it, but I remembered the basics and came up with these. 

First I browned the extra lean ground turkey I had, such a great source of lean protein and it's low in fat. 

Dumped the cooked turkey, a whole carton of All Whites Liquid Egg Whites and 3 heaping handfuls of spinach into my Ninja blender. At this point, you could probably add whatever other veggies you want; red peppers, zucchini, kale, etc... I stuck to the three basic ingredients this time around because I wasn't sure how they'd turn out. 

Lined my cupcake pan with liners and poured in the goop. I'm not sure how well these worked this time, might try to do them without the liners next time and use a non-stick cooking spray. Once they were cooked, the papers stuck to the finished product quite a bit. 

I liked them so much when I took them out of the oven, I ate three. The first two I ate plain and the last one I tried with some hot sauce on it. PERFECTION. So tasty! 

My husband had some this morning (after they'd been in the refrigerator all night) and said they were good. Edible and tasted better than plain ol egg whites! Next time he wants to put hot sauce on them too.. They would even be good with salsa! 

If you try them out, please leave a comment or email me and let me know what variations you used!! 

Of course, my little helper wanted his photo taken as well while I was snapping shots of the food. 

Happy Wednesday! 

Ingredients:

1 32oz Carton All Whites Liquid Egg Whites

1 lb Extra Lean Ground Turkey

Spinach, how ever much you want! 

Salt (to taste on the ground turkey while browning)

Mix all ingredients in blender or food processor, pour in to muffin tins and back at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes. 

**I wasn't sure how long to bake them, set the timer for 15 minutes and then watched them until they looked "done" 

ENJOY! 

Sweet tooth, satisfied.

All day long, all I can think about is peanut butter.

Is my body craving the sugar? The protein? I just want PEANUT BUTTER!

I was going to make oatmeal cookies, then maybe some peanut butter ones but opted to try making some sort of granola concoction that I could snack on, throw on some yogurt or mush up with some bananas.

My mom had told me how she makes her granola for her breakfast every day, but she puts sugar and raisins and other stuff I did not have on hand nor did I want to use it.

In my pantry, I had all of the necessary items and a little bit of extra time.

This little monkey decided to help me.

I have only made this one time before and I modified it this time around. I sprinkled a small amount of Stevia instead of using brown sugar and mixed up some PB2 instead of "regular" peanut butter. 

What made it easiest for me was to mix the oats and coconut oil first, then add in the honey and peanut butter. It made it easier to blend everything together. I sprinkled the stevia on top and lightly mixed that in. 

Once everything was pretty well blended I spread it out on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and placed in the preheated oven. 

I am not going to lie.... I may have sampled some of this mixture before placing it in the oven. It was pretty amazing, and could definitely be eaten like this as well.  

I baked in the oven at 350 for approximately 10 minutes, stirring it up once about half way through. I was watching it, to see when it turned slightly brown and thats when I pulled it out. It probably could have gone longer and gotten a little crunchier but to me, it's perfect. Just the right amount of crunch. 

So delicious! The perfect healthy, clean snack! If you make some, and make any changes, let me know how they turn out!! I'd LOVE to hear! 

Recipe

1 1/4 C Rolled Oats (I used Quaker Old Fashioned this time)

1/4 C Peanut Butter

1 1/2 tsp Coconut Oil

1 TBS Honey

1/2 tsp (approx) Stevia to sweeten 

Mix ingredients, spread onto wax or parchment paper and bake 350degrees for 10-12 minutes depending on desired crunch. Enjoy!! 

Drink it, Feel it, Share it...

In April I was introduced to something that I never though would have the impact it has had.

I have been trying to eat cleaner for a couple of years now. I never did do a complete cold turkey cut of foods, but have slowly eliminated them and after time, forgot them and don't even want them anymore. Especially after I've learned what they do to my body and have seen how much better I feel without them.

Eating fruits and vegetables has never been a problem for me, I love them. I am not too picky and am willing to try new ones when given the chance. I started juicing earlier this year and felt I was getting "plenty of fruits and veggies" doing it that way. I was healthy. I was detoxifying my body.

But was I really? I was still really tired all of the time, not sleeping well and my skin was breaking out again like I was a high school sophomore. Something was missing and I couldn't quite figure it out.

My yoga instructor had briefly mentioned MonaVie while finishing up class one day and offered up a chance to receive our "Life Score" or antioxidant levels score. I thought, sure! What the heck! I eat lots of blueberries, I juice, and I drink that lovely green juice from Costco called Green Machine. I stuck my finger in the little black contraption that she carries around with her (my husband says it looks like an electronic stapler) and within a few seconds I had my score...

Photo Credit: www.monavie.com 

It was low. Very low... 

The score ranges from red, to orange, yellow, green, blue then purple. The lowest score being in the red range and highest being purple. I was orange. The lowest range of orange, almost red. 

I was shocked. How could I score so low when I ate so well? I don't eat a lot of processed foods, I eat several servings of fruits and vegetables throughout the day but still... not enough. 

That is when she told me about "the juice". Juice that is made from real fruits and vegetables. 100% pureed wild organic fruits and vegetables with glucosamine for your bones and joints, wellmune to get your immune system primed up for fighting off sicknesses, and flax seed oil to help nourish you cell membranes making your cells more susceptible to all of this good nutrition. If I try this juice for 60 days and my score doesn't go up, I will get my money back. 

I decided to try it for a week... see what I thought and then I'd go from there. It's just 2oz twice a day and I could easily add that supplement to my day. 

I was given a bottle of the MX blend to try and just two days later I placed my first order. I am proud to say that I am a distributor and the only regret I've had is that I didn't start drinking this stuff sooner! Even though I was eating healthy and exercising regularly something was missing and I've found the missing block. I can't even begin to list the benefits that I have felt in such a short period of time and now it's completely my passion to share better health with those I care about. Great health starts internally. 

Photo credit: www.monavie.com 

Don't hesitate to leave me a comment with questions, concerns or just to say hi! I love answering questions about MonaVie and just plain old chit-chat about the kids!

High School

I remember how nervous I was going in to high school. The school was so big, classes were spread far apart and my biggest fear was that I'd forget my combination to my locker.

My oldest son starts high school next week. Less than a week away and I am pretty sure I am more nervous than he is. He hasn't said much about it, but I'm sure he's a little scared, right?

In just two days we'll be going to pick up his schedule, drop some money on books, classes and extra curricular activities. I'm most excited about him getting his Freshman ID card - yes, I still have mine. Of course we will pre-order his year book and pay for him to go to dances.

Dances.

Oh my goodness... didn't even think about dances. Homecoming, Holiday, Sadie Hawkins (do they still do that?), Prom... so many. That topic leaves me questioning, will I chaperone? Will he even want me to? I don't even feel old enough to be chaperoning a high school dance! Of course then I start thinking back to when I went to dances, every single dance except for my Junior and Senior Prom, and feel he probably won't want me there and I'm going to have to be ok with that.

Our babies grow up so fast. Seems like just yesterday he was starting Kindergarten and now he's off to high school. Before I know it, he'll be going to college and my littlest human will be starting school. I want to make a change over the next four years, make great memories and really help my son grow in to the already wonderful young man his is becoming.

Sun, Sand & Waves

Vacation.

We needed it.

So we went. 

To Newport Beach, CA. 

We swam and laid by the pool. 

Travis saw the ocean for the first time... 

...and loved it. 

I enjoyed my beach time, and my beach hair. 

And Travis napped, very little. 

I did cartwheels in the sand... 

And stood with my feet in the sand. 

We jumped for joy... 

And did some yoga... 

Made lots of good memories with family and friends. 

I never thought I'd ever move back to California.... but someday, I just might. I loved the area and will definitely be returning in the near future. 

We had so much fun hanging out at the pool, drinking Margaritas at Fred's in Huntington and being silly on the beach. 

It was by far the best family vacation we have been on yet!