Breakfast Cookies

I bought a box of Fiber One Cereal a few months ago.  We totally can’t bring ourselves to eat it.  So I have been wanting to find a recipe that I could use them in, so that they won’t go to waste.  The back of the cereal box features Hungry Girl’s Grab and Go Breakfast Cookie. Some of her stuff looks really great…but I do not like them because she uses artificial sweeteners.   That being said, I took her recipe and turned it into my own.   Oh and mine has 20 calories less 🙂

Mix and set aside:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix:
2 tbls. unsalted butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3 tbls. honey

Mix into sugar and oil mixture:
1 egg
1/4 cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla

Now mix the flour mixture that was set aside into the batter.
Then mix in:
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup Fiber One Cereal
1/3 cup dried cranberries
2 squares Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Bar coarse chopped

Use a large cookie scoop or roll into a ball.  Place on cookie sheet and pat out flat.

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes
138 calories per cookie

 

 

Hair Cut

Since I can’t load a picture onto FB here it is.  I chopped it all off!  It is shorter in the back…I couldn’t take a picture of the back of my head.  I didn’t plan on going this short but I really like it!

Piper 1 year!

We have so much going on lately…one of which was Piper’s first birthday last week!   She is such a happy little girl…totally not a baby anymore.  I don’t know where the past year has gone but it has been great!

We went to Ohio last weekend to celebrate with my family.  My sister made this beautiful cake for Piper, topped with her favorite character from Yo Gabba Gabba!  Thanks Lauren 🙂

Shaping Up

I am currently going to an amazing Zumba class!  Girls if you haven’t heard about Zumba you must check it out.  Trust me there are classes everywhere so you will not have trouble finding one.

Even though I am doing better at getting a good workout I have not been losing any weight.  So it is time to tackle the eating, which means counting calories.  So here it goes for a few days last week:

Monday 4/26 Calories/Fat/Protein/Carbs

1:30 Frosted Mini Wheats               200/1/6/48
1/2 cup 1% milk                                    55/1/4/7

1:45 Brownie (small)                          122/4/1/21

2:00 20 0z water

4:00 Burrito with turkey                  533/23/35/47
(black beans, salsa, ranch dressing)

5:30 1 hour Zumba

7:00 Cliff Bar                                          240/5/10/44

8:30 2 Corn Tortillas                           130/0/3/27
(turkey and beans)

8:40 whole wheat muffin                  320/12/9/45
with Nutella
(oops I ate 2)

Daily Total                                            1920/58/77/284

Tuesday 4/27

11:30 Cliff Bar                                       240/5/9/43

12:00 water

12:00 30 mins run/walk treadmill

1:30 Turkey Sandwich                     370/8/34/31

5:30 Salad                                              165/16/2/2
Turkey on Corn Tortilla                    300/8/24/27
Yellow Rice                                            200/1/4/43
Water

7:45 Green Smoothie                            140/0/2/33

9:00 Orange Juice                                   110/0/2/26
Cottage Cheese                                          110/5/12/5
Peaches                                                          60/0/0/15

Daily Totals                                                1695/41/90/225

Wednesday 4/28

11:00 Cliff Bar                                             240/5/10/44

2:00 2 Corn Tortilla  (turkey)                300/8/24/27
Yellow Rice                                                    100/0/2/21

5:30 Pizza Hut Pasta                                   350/17/17/32
1 bread stick                                                    150/6/4/20
Lemon Pound Cake                                        245/10/4/36
Lemonade                                                          98/0/0/26
Salad                                                                  174/15/3/8

11:00 Cottage Cheese                                  110/5/12/5
Peaches                                                               60/0/0/15

Daily Totals                                                   1827/66/76/24

This was really hard for me because I usually do not eat this much each day.  I have had some depression problems since having Piper and my eating has been greatly effected.  So I tried to eat more through out the day.  I think overall I did pretty good, I did lose 3.5 pounds that week!  Sadly I think I gained some of it back because we went away for the weekend.

Check out Sunshine’s Zumba Blog for her nutrition tips.  She is my Zumba instructor and I love her for that!

Erin Craig Photography

I have been so busy trying to get my photography off the ground.  I finally have a site up and I am booking appointments!  Check it out!

http://erincraigphotography.smugmug.com/

A Breath of Fresh Air

Oh don’t you just love the spring!  This weekend was great!  We worked around the yard doing some spring cleaning.  I even got a little sun burn!

For the most part I ave been enjoying the weather by throwing open a window on these warm days.  I have had so much going on that I haven’t been able to get out most days.

This month I have accomplished so many things!  I feel great and have just been on top of everything.  A few things I have checked off my list are:
– Mopping the floors and cleaning the baseboard.
– Organizing the entire kitchen.
– Organizing the bathroom closet.
– Buying a laundry sorter to solve the laundry mess.
– Purged the bedroom and office from paper junk and other items that didn’t belong there.
– Sticking to my weekly cleaning routine.
– Sticking to my monthly menu.

On top of that I am finding a little time to work on starting my own business.  I am getting back into photography finally.  I have a few jobs lined up in the next few weeks.  I am hoping to make enough money from these to purchase a set of lights and a few backgrounds!  I am so excited!!!

I hope everyone else is starting to have a great spring!  I love spring because of all the new growth.  How are you growing this spring?

Menu for March

As I said earlier, I am trying planning for a full month.  Keep coming back because I will be adding recipes as I cook all month!  Also just an fyi I use ground turkey in place of beef for every dish I make.

Week 1

Monday 1st–  Chicken Enchiladas

Tuesday 2nd–    Baked Potatoes and Broccoli

Wednesday 3rd–   Church Fellowship

Thursday 4th–   Crockpot Pineapple Chicken

Friday 5th–   OUT OF TOWN!

Saturday 6th–   OUT OF TOWN!

Sunday 7th–   OUT OF TOWN!

Week 2

Monday 8th–   Burritos Skillet

Tuesday 9th–   Crescent Chicken Squares

Wednesday 10th–   Church Fellowship

Thursday 11th–   Turkey Burgers

Friday 12th–   Homemade Pizza

Saturday 13th–   Out for Dinner

Sunday 14th–   Left Overs

Week 3

Monday 15th–   Taco Salad

Tuesday 16th–   Meat Loaf

Wednesday 17th–   Church Fellowship

Thursday 18th–   Lasagna

Friday 19th–   Homemade Pizza

Saturday 20th–   White Chicken Chili

Sunday 21st–   Left Overs

Week 4

Monday 22nd–   Burritos

Tuesday 23rd–   Southwestern Chili

Wednesday 24th–   Church Fellowship

Thursday 25th–  Greek Pitas

Friday 26th–   Homemade Pizza

Saturday 27th–  Sloppy Joes

Sunday 28th–   Left Overs

Week 5

Monday 29th–   Chicken Roll-Ups

Tuesday 30th–   Spaghetti and Meatballs

Wednesday 31st–   Church Fellowship

Click on the button at the top to see more menu planning!

What To Do When You Can’t Sleep

Or at least this is what I did!

Why not attempt to plan my menu for the entire month of March?!?  For some reason I have decided to make March a month full of trying new things to get more organized.  So for starters, I completed my menu!  It was really easy; easier than doing my weekly for some reason.  Now don’t get too excited over this…come back at the end of the month to see if I actually followed it!

First I sat down with a blank calendar and started filling in things that we have going on.  For example we will be out-of-town one weekend and taking the youth group to a concert another weekend.  Then I filled in our Wednesday’s because we eat dinner at church, Friday’s we always make home-made pizza and we are going to try Sunday’s eating left overs.

Next let me just say that I compiled a list last year (one weekend while I was confined to the bed during my pregnancy) of all the food we like to eat regularly.  So after the first step that left me with 16 days to fill in…not too bad!  Then I just went through my list and plugged things in.  To help spread things out I made Monday’s Mexican themed, Tuesday’s are easy meals and Thursday’s are more gourmet since I feel more like cooking later in the week.

I finished it all up in less than a half an hour…this is really good for me!  This month I only put one new item on the menu.  Since my menu will be hanging of the fridge I plan on writing if we liked the new recipe or not.  Then at the end of each month I will put the menu in my 3 ring binder that sits nicely with my cookbooks.  So when I sit down to plan future months it should go really fast as I can refer to past menus!  At least that is my plan!

Oh one additional thought…as I sit and look over my menu I am seeing some ways that I can prepare ahead.  Like I have 3 meals that require taco meat.  Since I buy my meat in bulk I can easily cook enough taco meat for the whole month the first day I have to make it.  Then I can just divide it into 3 portions and freeze the ones for future meals.

Come back Monday and I will post me final menu…just in case I change anything this weekend!

New Beginnings

I miss blogging!  As any of you mothers know, my life was turned upside down this year when we had our first child.  Blogging was NOT on the top of my list each day and I am sure you can understand why.  Now that things are getting settled and we are implementing a good schedule and routine I am missing everyone here!

I am thinking of starting a new blog and leaving this one behind.  I just feel that starting fresh would be nice.  And I would like to refine my content so that it isn’t just so random.  I need to know what my readers would like to see.  (Those few loyal ones that are left!)  So comments would be appreciated.

I do have a few things planned in the next few days.  One of which is detailed photos and video of an overhaul on my kitchen.  I organized the entire thing!  So stay tuned for that!

Getting Some Much Needed Exercise

Piper is now 9 months…where has the time gone?!?!  Oh and she is keeping me busy!