Saturday Food Love - New Feature!

So, it's almost the end of the week, and I've been eating some yummy food! 

Here are some of the foods Vince and I ate for our healthy eating challenge:

{Brown Cow Cream Top Vanilla Yogurt and Bakery on Main Triple Berry Granola}

Delicious, right? Maybe you want the recipes?

Well, what I've decided to do is, instead of Saturday Love with different pictures and links, I'll do a Saturday Food Love, and give you recipes! I make 98% of the food I eat for lunch and dinner, which means I make a LOT of food. I never have a great way to share it, so I'm going to do it here! 

I have severely limited my internet use because I'm missing out too much on my real life, which means I'm not finding as many fun links and pictures as I used to. I also feel like it's a more useful thing to share wonderful and healthy gluten free, mostly dairy free, and frequently vegetarian recipes instead of 'time wasters'! Most of the recipes will be for 4 servings, so they will be perfect for small families or for people/couples who want leftovers, like me. 

If you want a bunch of great links to 'waste time' with, check out the blog Yum & Yuk, which is one of my new favorite blogs. I love the way she has her blog set up and I wouldn't consider her links a waste of time because they are full of great and thought-provoking info. 

You can also check out this link on Fridays, and this link on Sundays!

So, my recipe for this week is :

I am a HUGE lover of brats with sauerkraut. Growing up my dad and stepmom had tons of BBQs which meant tons of brats cooked in beer and grilled. While I can't boil my bratwurst in beer anymore, I sure can eat it. I have yet to find a gluten free bun, so now I just incorporate brats into various meals. This is a new one that Vince and I made and will be added to our monthly rotation! 

Spinach And Bratwurst with Rice & Beans

4 Servings          Prep Time: 5 minutes      

Cook Time: 30 minutes {slow cook rice}, 15 minutes {instant rice}

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked brown or wild rice

4 cups water

1 Tbls olive oil

4 bratwurst, cut up in quarter sized rounds {I use Johnsonville Brats}

1 whole onion, cut into 1/4 inch slices

3 cups spinach

1 cup sauerkraut

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can black beans

sprinkles of mozzarella cheese

salt & pepper as desired

{1} Cook rice according to directions on the packaging.

{2} In a large pan, heat olive oil and cut up bratwurst over medium-high heat. Cook until the bratwurst is slightly browned. 

{3} Add the slices of onion and cook until softened. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

{4} Add 1 cup of spinach and put a lid on the pan. Allow the spinach to wilt, while occasionally stirring. Should take 1-2 minutes. Continue adding spinach until it is all added. If the pan is large enough, you can add the spinach all at once.

{5} Add sauerkraut and garlic and cook until sauerkraut is hot, about 4 minutes.

{6} Seve over brown or wild rice alongside the heated black beans.

I look forward to giving you guys a new recipe next week! It will be the garlic and spinach quinoa.
I hope you enjoy this new 'feature'. Let me know if you make anything or if you want me to make something specific to blog about!

Working Out...Again.

Working out. 

Goodness, are you completely sick of hearing about this?

So it's been one week since I made my 3 goals, and I blew myself away. I never thought I would have been able to stick to them, and do it so willingly. I thought I would be dragging myself to workout, but it was easier then I thought.

I think the biggest thing was my attitude towards it. I really want to have a toned body. I want my tattoos to stay good looking for a long time, I want my body to look good, but most importantly, I want to have more energy and a clear mind! I went into my workouts knowing my ass would get kicked, and knowing it would be hard, and that I was fine with that. I know I have to put some kind of effort into it, I know it won't come easy!

As a review, here were my 3 goals:

{1} Do the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred or another workout video 3 times a week.

{2} Ride my bike to the gym and do anything there, whether it's lifting weights, running, swimming, etc.

{3} Walk or run with Roxanne 5 days a week. 

And here are the workouts I did over the past 7 days:

Tuesday-  

Jillian Michaels video

1 mile run

Wednesday-

Nothing

Thursday-

Nothing

Friday-

Jillian Michaels video 

1 mile run

1 mile walk

Saturday-

Jillian Michaels video

Sunday-

3/4 mile run

3/4 mile walk

Monday-

Jillian Michaels video

1 mile walk

---------------------------->

{I kept track of my workouts on this calendar I bought from 

Sarah Von!}

Goal 1 - Accomplished. I worked out to a video 4 days last week, so one day more than I needed. I'm about to move up a level in the video, which I am excited about!

Goal 2 - Failed. I was not able to get to the gym at all, but I am not upset about it one bit. I still worked out a lot and I don't feel like I could have done it better at the gym! I still want to go to the gym with some friends {Annie, Veronica and Cassie!} but I don't feel like I am missing out on a whole lot right now since I'm so new to working out.

Goal 3 - Almost accomplished.  I walked or ran 4 days last week. I really should have done something on Wednesday morning, but I was SO tired even though I went to bed at 10pm and slept until 11am! I had to work from 12-9 and then came home and made dinner and passed out. On Thursday I got my tattoo and we went to dinner, and we were both pretty tired when we got home. Roxanne was mad at us those 2 days! And Saturday...I have no excuse. I'm just lame.

So overall, I was pretty good. I'm positive that I will do just as good, if not better, this next week! I also decided that if I continue this workout for the next month and keep it up, then I'm going to treat myself to a massage! It's a perfect gift to myself.

So here is the best thing I've learned this past week:

It is SOOOOOO much easier to run when you have some sort of muscle.

I have tried to get into running so many times but I would get so tired so quickly because I had no muscle for it. My legs would turn to jelly and my body would just feel so incredibly heavy and it would feel like I was stomping with every step. 

After doing the workout video for a couple weeks, I noticed a huge difference in all my muscles and after each workout, I felt like I could do more. I definitely couldn't do more of the video, but I felt like my workout wasn't complete. So I ran! I actually felt like running. I went straight outside after the video and ran for an entire mile {the long way around my block...I measured it in my car!} without stopping once. Granted, there was a block or two when I was running as fast as I can walk, but I was still running!

I can't explain how amazing it felt. I could feel my muscles doing exactly what they wanted to do and it was so helpful to have some muscle already there to help me 'get through it'. So, if you want to start running, you should really workout for a week or two first. It makes is so much easier!

It was really fun to go on hikes and walks with Vince and Roxi. What I started to do was run a 1/8th of a mile away from them, and then turn around and run back so I was running a 1/4 mile at a time. I kept doing that over and over and talking with Vince in between and it was so fun! Vince kept laughing at how giddy I was, but I really liked it. It was a good way to get a workout in, and it was hilarious to race Rox.

So I think this is my last 'big' workout post, except for a post later this week about the fantastic new workout pants and sports bra I got over the weekend with Veronica. {Unless it's helpful to some of you!} So thanks to those of you that have been supportive of my goals!

8 Weeks to a Better Me: Eating Healthy

This weeks goal for the 8 Weeks to a Better Me challenge is to eat healthier.

When I read that, I thought, 'Hmm...I already eat pretty healthy!' and figured I'd just skip this week. I got up to start dinner, which was chicken stir fry. As I was putting the rice into the rice cooker, it hit me: there are many many little things that I could change, such as what type of rice I eat!

When I went gluten free, Vince and I ate a LOT of white rice. We couldn't really afford healthier rice like brown rice, but I really didn't know how to cook anything else! So we ate a lot of rice dishes. When we moved into our new house we had some awesome neighbors and they ate a lot of really good food. One thing they introduced us to was wild rice. For a while we ate that a lot, but again, it just got too expensive! 

Now we are in a position where we can 'splurge' on things like food. So this leads me into some of my goals. Well, I should say our goals because Vince wants to do them with me! He's training for a bike race in a month and is always happier to eat healthy. So here's our goals:

{1} Substitue either brown rice or wild rice from here on out. We will never use white rice in a dish again! {except when we make sushi...} I would also like to try at least 2 new rice dishes that I've never made before.

{2} Drink only tea, water or fruit/veggie smoothies. Vince will also still drink some beer, but I won't have anything except mainly tea and water. I drink massive amounts of water already, but over the past couple months I've also gotten in the habit of drinking a can of soda a day. I've been having that instead of my usual candy bar, but it's a habit I need to kick. It makes me feel better when I do a workout after work anyways! The main thing Vince is going to cut of though is coffee. For a long time he drank black tea, but over the past couple months he started drinking coffee again. He said he loves black tea though and will be just as happy with that and I will be happy drinking my daily strawberry smoothie.

{3} Eat anything for breakfast in the morning. I am in such a horrible habit of waking up 15 minutes before I need to leave for work, which means I don't eat anything for breakfast. I've heard it's the most important meal of the day, so this is what I would really like my morning to look like:

-wake up at 7 am.

-take my time getting ready for work {shower, hair, etc}

-start breakfast at 7:30am. 

-eat breakfast slowly {preferably outside} while reading blogs or a book.

-leave for work at 7:50am.

What I plan on eating for breakfast is simple things like yogurt with gluten free granola, bananas, toast, smoothie, and other small stuff like that. I'm not used to eating in the morning and tend to feel a little sick after eating, so I want to start off slow and simple!

So there you have it, three awesome goals for better eating. I hope I can stick to them just as well as I stuck to last weeks goals!

I think I'm going to start off my healthy week with a couscous {edit: QUINOA! Not couscous. Duh, it's not GF!} and spinach meal. I just bought a behemoth sized bag of spinach for my smoothies because it was so cheap, but I don't know if it will be good for very long! I'm thinking of this recipe, this recipe, or this recipe.
{Oh, and while searching for recipes I came across my new favorite blog titled "Domesticated Hippie Shit: Just Another Hippie Poser in the Suburbs". I love it! If only they didn't stop blogging in 2007. Their recipe sounds good as well!}

Any good recipes that you recommend?

Do you have any healthy eating goals?

Salutary Sunday

I posted earlier about some goals I had for this week as part of the 8 Weeks to a Better Me, and I ROCKED them. I am so proud of myself!

I was very good about keeping the dishes done. I didn't have every dish washed every night, but the ones that were leftover were just a few and I did them the next morning. YES, I did dishes in the morning. Unheard of!

So that was my top goal and I hope I stick to it over the next few weeks so that I can make a habit of it. I can't believe what a relief it is to walk into my kitchen and have everything cleaned. It's SO much less time consuming to make dinner when you don't have to wash all the dishes you need! It also makes me realize that I really want a dishwasher.

Another goal that I was super excited about was exercising! I'm going to write a separate post for that so I can explain in detail what my workout was, how long it took, etc. All I will tell you now is that 

I'M AWESOME. 

I also made some super cute earrings! 

{I swear they look cuter in real life...}

I originally made some for the Flogging Molly concert, but the glue I used didn't work, so when I took them off that night the beads popped off! Definitely not what I wanted. Here's the few very short steps on how to make them, and have them stick:

{1} Gather 'ingredients' - earring posts, any kind of SLOW DRYING super glue, seed beads, and Elmer's glue.

 {2} Apply super glue to the post using a paintbrush. It most likely won't go on smoothly, but that's ok. That's why it's important to have a slow drying super glue, so that it doesn't dry all clumpy.

{3} Dip the earring post with glue on it into a pile of seed beads so the beads are picked up by the glue.

{4} Apply a small amount of Elmer's glue to the top of the beads that are now on the earrings and spread the glue around using a paintbrush. If you use plain white Elmer's glue, it's fine because it will dry clear.

{5} Allow to dry!

See, super simple! And they look really cute on your ears.

I also made some chocolate cupcakes.

On Friday night I went to a friends graduation party and there were delicious looking chocolate cupcakes, and I HAD to have some. So I came home and made some! Luckily, we were having a work meeting and a goodbye party for a friend/employee the next day, and there are a couple gluten free people at work so I brought in the cupcakes for us. Along with the blue and pink cupcakes, I made blue ones with gold sprinkles for NAU's colors.

So aside from those earrings and cupcakes, I haven't made a thing! {Which means that I am sorry, Sara, that I still haven't made the tutorial for those curtains!} I really did just want to focus on my cleaning and exercise goals, and I'm really glad I did. It's nice to not have to worry about anything else.

Did you do anything awesome this week or make anything?

Happiness.

Today is one of those days that I feel like shouting, "I am the happiest person in the world, I love my man, and everything is perfect!" I hate when people put something like that our their Facebook update though, because a lot of the times it means their life is crumbling...or about to. Seriously! It seems more like a 'front' than anything, but I could be wrong. {And I know in some case I am wrong! Oh...and sorry if you do that, I still love you. Don't be offended. :D  }

But today is a good day. I got off work at 4 and came home to a tired Vince and Roxi because they had gone on a long bike ride. I did a bit of cleaning, started dinner with Vince, and then decided I wanted to workout.

I did the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred video, which of course kicked my ass, and then guess what I did? As if the video wasn't enough, I RAN. IN THE FREEZING COLD. It is super cold outside today, considering it was snowing on and off all day. I never ever run in the cold because it hurts my lungs so gosh darn much, but I was already warmed up from the video and just felt like going going going. 

I ran about a mile and guess what guys, I didn't have to stop once! I got into 'the zone' and forgot that I was even running and then BAM, I was close to home. It's never really happened that way so I'm kind of a lot excited about it because I'm having a breakthrough in working out!

It's such a great feeling to not die after a workout like I used to. I never really liked working out, but now that I can actually SEE and FEEL a difference, I love it! I've pretty consistently done the video every 2 or 3 days for the past week and a half and now it's getting a little easier. I'm not quite ready jump up to level 2 yet, but I can feel I'm close! And now, because of my 8 Weeks to a Better Me Goals, I'm going to get to level two really quickly.

If you live in Flag and hate working out but want to workout, let me know and we can workout together! All it takes is a little motivation and then eventually you will like it. And don't worry, I'm not one of those people that will make you feel like crap because I'm 'so awesome'. I pretty much still suck at athletic things and am in NO way 'in shape', but I'm getting better! 

I never in a million years thought I would remotely like working out {Hello. I got a C in pretty much every PE class because I would get an F in the athletic part but get an A in the health/test part. My friend Annie and I frequently just sat together or took naps on the pole vaulting mats while everyone else played flag football because we 'forgot' and wore flipflops...} but I can honestly say it's growing on me. 

Ok, that's enough about working out. Two posts in two days aboutt it? Ew. What am I turning into?

On another good note, I'm getting the shading done on my tattoo on Thursday! So next time you see this little guy, it will be one step closer to being finished by the wonderful Tanin.

8 Weeks to a Better Me!

I've mentioned Danielle quite a few times before, and once again, she has some awesome stuff going on over at her blog. Hew new thing is '8 Weeks to a Better Me' and I love it! 

Over the weekend before I saw her new post, I was thinking of some general goals I want to do for the next couple weeks and the ONLY thing I cared about was having the dishes done every night before I go to bed. That is the one house chore that I HATE doing and they always seem to pile up, therefor leading me to spend a couple hours of my weekend washing dishes. It's stupid. So that was going to be my one and only goal for the next couple weeks of my life...until I saw Danielle's post!

So now I will add three more goals to my list, because they are different then chores. This week the goals are for exercising. I've posted before about working out and how much I love the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout. It's so hard but at the end I feel wonderful! I started working out to it again over the past couple weeks and I want to continue it still, just more frequently. I also need to switch it up a bit though, so here's my goals:

{1} Do the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred or another workout video 3 times a week.

{2} Ride my bike to the gym and do anything there, whether it's lifting weights, running, swimming, etc.

{3} Walk or run with Roxanne 5 days a week. 

The last one will be the toughest one, because Roxi is such a difficult dog! She goes on 12 mile bike rides with Vince no problem, so when she runs, she really runs and needs to be off the leash.  I am way too slow for her. Since we live on the edge of the forest it's not that big of a deal, but I always get stressed out when she's off the leash. Hardly anyone drives on the back roads, but you never know when someone will speed up behind us and run her over! I've never had a problem with it before though and I really need to get over it. It's just difficult.

I really feel like all these goals are achievable though. I don't want to tell Vince about my goals because he'll push me, but I know that's EXACTLY why I need to tell him! 

I think making myself a little work-out calendar would be good as well. I won't 'tell' myself what to do on each day though, just because I may want to do something else that day, it's would just be helpful to keep track of what I'm actually doing! 

So, are any of you going to make some goals for yourself? Link your blog or let me know in the comments if you do. Everyone should just to stay healthy and young!