This and That!

I thought I better post here before another week has gone by! Speaking of which, can you believe a MONTH has already gone by – hello February!

I wondered what to write about? Melissa requested pictures of my cupboards! I never did post any, so here they are. . .  the rest of the kitchen is still a work in progress!

As you can see (above) this side of the cupboards is all bowls and plates, and glasses next to them.

 

The left side looks a little less organized, but it’s the best I can do. Top left shelf is a bit of a mixture, middle shelf houses my electric knife, bread cutter, electric hand whisk and scales, bottom shelf is all vitamins and allergy meds! The right hand side is cups/mugs, measuring cups and jugs and a set of casserole dishes. Exciting stuff eh!

What else have I been up to? Card making! I want to get back in to making my own cards with my Stampin Up stuff. I have a few stamps and supplies, paper, pens etc so I want to put them to good use. I’ve been making ‘Thank You’ cards this week, still got a few to send out after Christmas, so these should work nicely. I want to try and make some Christmas themed ones ready for next year, well actually this year – Christmas 2011 :-)  I also want to try and make my own gift tags for my knitted gifts. You can order personalized ‘knitting’ rubber stamps from Etsy, so I will be doing that soon too.

Once I get in the swing of making these I think they’d make a nice little gift set too – half a dozen cards  w/envelopes and a ribbon wrapped around them would be a lovely stocking stuffer, don’t you think?

Biscuits for Boo!

 

We’ve been meaning to bake these biscuits for Boo every since ‘Santa Paws’ left them in his stocking ;-) We finally got round to doing that last weekend.

Kristen loves baking with me in the kitchen :-) And every time we do it, I can’t help but think back to the days my Mam would teach me how to roll out dough and bake pies and make pastry. I have such sweet memories of it, I hope Kristen will have too.

 

Denise

Healthy Monday!

I can’t think of an appropriate title for my ‘healthy Monday updates’! Anyway, another week gone by and I thought I’d post another update. I’m posting on my healthy blog too, so in order not to bore you too much with the ‘same ole healthy talk’ I might just update here every other week. . . or when the mood strikes me?

Melissa just did a wonderful post about her healthy habits for this year and how she’s doing. CLICK ON OVER to her blog to read it, I always find her posts so inspiring :-) Thanks Melissa xxx

So, after last week and barely losing a pound I decided I definitely needed to get moving more. I did a work out on my Reebok bench last Sunday, then I worked out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, alternating between the bench for toning and my ‘Walk Away the Pounds’ dvd’s for a little cardio. I haven’t done anything since Wednesday though! I also went ahead and changed my weigh in day. I was weighing on Monday but that meant if I over-indulged or had a drink or two at the weekend, I might not actually see any difference on Monday morning – the weekends have always been my downfall. I felt good about what I’d ate all week and the fact I’d worked out for 4 consecutive days that I got on the scale on Friday and was happy to see I’d lost 2lb :-)

Remember the pizza I showed you last week with the Flat Out wrap and ricotta cheese? Well I decided to do another ‘more traditional’ one today . . .

‘Turkey’ pepperoni pizza :-)

Total 5pp (2pp for wrap, 1 for pizza sauce, 1 for 10 pieces of pepperoni and 1 for tblsp parmesan). This was lunch yesterday for me. I’d like to say it was delicious, but to be honest my allergies are flaring up with the high Cedar and Mold counts and I can’t really taste that well :( It was ok and I’m sure very tasty … when you can actually taste.

So all in all, I’m still on track , getting lots of fruits and veg with my meals, drinking water (but would still like to drink more!) and feeling positive :-) How are you doing?

WIAW!

Instead of ‘What I Wore Wednesday’, I’m posting about ‘What I Ate Wednesday’ :-)  Wanting to start the week off on a healthy note, I was going to post an update on my healthy eating and share a recipe with you. . .  but as you can see I never got around to that.  That’s not to say I didn’t blog about it!  I’ve decided to keep my ‘Healthy Den’ blog, mainly just for my personal use, but it’s open to anyone who wants to read it.

I’ve been trying to post on a daily basis, showing the meals I’ve eaten that day and if I’ve exercised or not. I doubt I’ll be able to post every day, but when I can I will and if I slacken off and only post once or twice a week, well that’s still ok too.  You can read my Healthy Blog HERE

The recipe I was going to share with you today is one I saw just last week on Hungry Girl. I’ve heard of Hungry Girl, seen her books in the stores, know that she has a website (but never really used it) but then her first cooking show aired just over a week ago and I tivo’d it to check it out.  Her first show was all about pizzas – did any of you see it?  I was going to give you a link to her tv show where you can find this recipe but her site is always slow to load and this morning it won’t load at all for me!

Anyway, this is it. . .  she calls it Crispy White Pizza. I call it Ricotta Cheese pizza :-) It’s simply fat free ricotta cheese mixed with some sautéed onions, a tablespoon of low fat mozzarella and some  seasonings. Top it with sliced tomatoes then pop it in the oven. HERE'S THE LINK TO THE RECIPE. HG used a whole wheat flour tortilla as the base, but I used a ‘Flat Out Wrap’ (only 2 ww p+)

This makes a great lunch or dinner with a nice crispy green salad. The first one I made (above) was for lunch one day last week.

I liked it so much I made one the next night for a quick dinner for me (Jason and Kristen were having ‘real’, or in other words ‘greasy’ pizza). I didn’t have large tomatoes left so I used some cherry ones chopped up. Still yummy :-)

I still don’t feel like I’m dropping many pounds, but I’m eating much better, starting to exercise a little (could be a lot but it’s still just a little right now!) and in the whole scheme of things, those two are more important than what the scales say.

So, how are you doing on your healthy plan? Staying motivated? Getting moving? Let me know!

 

Denise

Meet Boo!

I’m joining in with DebbieDoo’s ‘PET PARTAAAAY!!!

I know most of you reading my blog know full well that Boo is our little Shih Tzu, but for anyone new coming over from Debbie’s – Hi, and well, Boo is our little Shih Tzu :-)

Isn’t he a cutie! He’s a really good boy (for the most part) a very fussy eater, but that’s my fault not his!

He likes to sleep like this a lot!

Every afternoon you can find him sitting here. . . waiting for Kristen’s school bus to pull up!

Then at 5pm he’s there again, waiting for ‘Daddy’ to come home!

Boo turned 5 last September. We like to spoil him and give him special treats on his birthday. Sept 28th is the actual day he was born, we brought him home from the breeder the day before Thanksgiving that year.

He actually looked like this when he was tiny. Quite a lot darker than he is now.

Well, he’s actually not dark at all now!

He’s our baby boy, and we love him!

WIWT – a practice run!

It’s actually WIWW, which is ‘What I Wore Wednesday’ for those who don’t know! Debbie posts each week what she wore (that’s where I first heard about it) and joins in with The Pleated Poppy for WIWW. I told her I should do that one day because I can’t think of what to blog about right now! Well, let me just tell you whether it’s a Wednesday, Monday, Sunday… no matter what day, right now all you would find me wearing is velvet sweat pants and a long sleeved T!  A school run and a trip to the grocery store is about all I do on a daily basis and I have to confess, I dress up for neither.

Last night was our first monthly book club meeting and I was hosting. Book club is about the only time I get a chance to dress up – isn’t that sad! And when I say dress up I mean I put my jeans on with a nice pretty top, add some jewelry and wear extra makeup.

Well, it being in my house and all, I didn’t even put jeans on, I stayed in . . . . yes my comfy velvet sweats! But I did put extra makeup on, and I styled my hair pretty and put on my cute little leopard cardi (a bargain from Kohl’s), with a little pink tank underneath. AND, I thought, “why not get out the camera and see if I can take pictures of myself”, and if I’m any good at it, well then, perhaps I might just join in one week with WIWW

Let’s just say I’m not very good at it! I’ve tried this before, and I just can’t hold that camera and get a good photo. I do have a tripod and I guess I should get it out and use it for pics like these… but, I just wanted to see how they’d turn out – so I kept on clicking.

Some were ok!

 

Some were NOT!

 

Seriously, how does one manage to hold the camera like this and not shake!

     I seriously think that cardigan makes me look fat!!! (ooh, did I just type that out loud!) 

l anyway, for want of anything better to post about, you got a post all about me ;-) It was either that or tidy cupboards!!!!!  And I doubt I’ll be joining in with WIWW any time soon :-/

Have a fabulous weekend. What are ya’ll up to?

Guess what?    I’ll be knitting!!  :-)

 

Denise

Definitely got the blahs . . .

especially when it comes to blogging :-(  Perhaps because things are slow around here, or perhaps it’s the time of year… but I just can’t seem to come up with anything to blog about. To be completely honest, I can’t even think of what to comment when I visit blogs either? Am I spending too much time on here? getting ‘burned out’?  I don’t have the answers, I just know I feel in a slump.  And I feel like my blog is taking a  turn for the ‘boring’!

I’ve been knitting alot, probably the reason I don’t have anything else to blog about! But I’m determined this year to have gifts ready for friends and family come December, so I’ve been making lists and thinking of what to knit and for who (or is that whom?).

This is one of my latest knits (a custom order for a very special friend) . . .

A ‘felted’ princess hat. Next to it is a flower stick I made to send to the recipient.

THIS is why I knit! Well it’s one of the reasons. . . see that big smile above, and the look of surprise below when ‘Princess Emily’ sees herself for the first time wearing her pretty hat :-)

I love knitting for friends and family. I’d love to sell more of my knits too, even if I don’t make that much from it, but knitting takes time, and while I’m trying to knit gifts too it’s hard to get my Etsy shop full.  The great thing is though, I LOVE TO KNIT – so whether I sell it or gift it, I win both ways :-)

Another finished knit. . . but I won’t say who it’s for ;-) 

I started this post thinking I would show you my ‘decluttered cupboards, because I had nothing else to blog about, but as you can see I got off subject a little – actually I never got on subject, LOL. Oh well, at least it’s a post. I’ll show you the cupboards next time . . . bet ya can’t wait!

Thanks for letting me show off my ‘skills’ :-)

 

Denise

Healthy Eating

No school today and the sun is shining again (it was so wet and dull last week, I forgot what a sunny day looked like). For some silly reason (because I totally forgot there’d be no school) I made an appointment to go to my ENT this morning for a check up and to get my allergy drops refilled. I had to leave the house around 9am when I’d normally still be in pj’s sipping on my second cup of coffee! Oh well, home again now and just relaxing and enjoying the day. Jason is home too, he’s playing on the computer with Kristen.

I wanted to post once a week about my healthy eating plan, it will keep me motivated ( I hope) if I share here how I’m doing. I’m happy to report I lost 2.2lb this past week. Can’t complain at that.

As you may know I am following Weight Watchers for now, and although their point system has all changed (since Nov 2010) it is still easy to follow and it means you can eat just about everything you just have to remember to watch your portions and of course ‘count your points’.

I want to try and make a new recipe from WW each week. This past week I tried their Layered Mexican Lasagna. It was made with light sour cream, diced green chilies, chicken, black beans…. here’s the link to the RECIPE It was really good and was great with a nice big salad for dinner.

Below is a picture of one of my breakfasts this week. I never used to eat breakfast when I was younger and was out working. But that all changed a couple of years ago when I wanted to start eating better. Of course the one thing they tell you, as I’m sure most of you know, is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s how we get our bodies started, we need the fuel to get going or we’ll just slump later in the day.

I’m up at 6am during the week when school is in, which is still too early for me to want breakfast, so I usually just have a cup of coffee then I eat something like this about 8am when I get back from taking Kristen to school,(low fat waffle, low fat peanut butter, scrambled egg + 1 egg white and a cup full of fresh berries).

For lunch I’ve been having a salad and some soup (made some ww veggie soup last week, fresh veg, chicken stock and canned tomatoes – simple)

Below is a shrimp salad I had the other night. I use light mayo and fat free greek yogurt and a little ketchup to make a creamy dressing for it. Really good, really filling.

As well as these kinds of meals I’ve snacked on fruit and cottage cheese or Greek yogurt and I often have a WW ice cream cone at night.

So, how are you all doing? Eaten anything good lately?