Those of you who know me, know I am a committed health freak who NEVER sways.

(Haha, okay take a moment to go change your pants from laughing so hard…)

Anyways, I spotted the film above on Netflix and was admittedly intrigued.

So, I dug my Breville Juicer out from beneath layers of dust and tried Joe’s MEAN GREEN juice…

MEAN GREEN JUICE:

6 Kale Leaves
1 Cucumber
4 Celery Stalks
2 Green Apples
1/2 Lemon
1 piece of ginger

It was… well… GREEN.

Have you tried it?  What did you think?  Are you going to do the 10-30-or-60-day juice cleanse?  Do you have any favorite juice recipes?

Welcome back!

Over the past month or so, my hubby and I have gained a little weight.  Not a lot, but enough to give us that kick in the behinds to do something about our less-than-healthy habits.  A couple of weeks ago, I began doing some strength exercises 3x a week (Okay, I know some of you are thinking BIG DEAL, but for me it is.  I HATE exercising, but have found a routine in this and tomorrow will be the end of 3 weeks and going!)  Today, I will add in cardio if my bum leg allows, but baby steps, right?

Along with the exercising, we also decided to give our food a makeover.  Food makeovers are kind of scary.  They can be even more scary when you’re on a super tight budget and things just don’t fit right (we may have to expand that part of the budget and take off elsewhere.)  But, we agreed to go to the store and get what we needed to see how long these things would last us.

Here’s what we bought*:

• 10 ct Mission whole wheat flour tortillas….  $2.62 (3 packages)
• Healthy Life 100% Whole Grain Bread …..$1.77 (we bought one loaf and had one at home)
• 1 dozen eggs… $1.64 (2)
• GV plain nonfat yogurt 32 oz….$2.00 (2)
• GV 1 gal 1% milk….$3.48 (2)
• GV 1 gal 1% chocolate milk….$3.84
• GV medium cheddar block (1 lb)…$4.44 (3)
• Brummel and Brown Yogurt Spread (instead of butter) (15 oz)…$2.38
• Tyson All-Natural Chicken Breasts (3lb)…$7.98 (2)
• Medium Shrimp (14 oz)….$5.48 (2)
• Great Value turkey bacon (12 oz)…$2.48 (2)
• Sara Lee deli oven roasted turkey breast (6.98/lb)… $7.12
• Deli Roast Beef ($6.18/lb)… $6.12
• Bunch of asparagus ($2.84/lb, 2 bunches)…$4.48
• Marketside sugar snap peas (8 oz)…$2.50
• Dole Leafy Romaine (10 oz)…$2.78
• Granny Smith Apples (1 lb/ $1.37)….$4.08
• Grapefruit …. $.54 ea (2)
• GV frozen whole strawberries (1 lb, no sugar added)…$2.36 ea (3)
• Bananas (1 lb/$.52)….$2.65 (for about 14 bananas)
• GV peach halves in cans (29 oz)…$1.76 (4)
• Smucker’s natural chunky peanut butter (16oz)…$2.34 (2)
• Light Ragu Tomato and Basil (1lb 10oz)….$1.76 (2)
• Rotel-mild (10 oz)…$.98 (2)
• GV dry chickpeas (16 oz)…$1.42
• GV light red kidney beans (16 oz)…$1.16 (2)
• GV black beans (16oz)…$1.12 (2)
• Simply Grapefruit juice (59 fl oz)…$3.00
• Simply Orange juice (59 fl oz)…$3.00
• Quaker 1-minute oats, plain (42 oz)…$3.98 (2)
• Fisher Almonds, unsalted (16 oz)…$8.72
• Ortega 40% less sodium Taco seasoning (1.25 oz)…$.62(2)
• GV whole wheat spaghetti (13.25 oz)…$1.00 (3)
• Swanson Natural Goodness Chicken Broth, 33% less sodium (32 oz)…$2.46
• Hodgson Mill Milled Flax Seed (12 oz)…$2.08
• Whey Protein powder in vanilla and chocolate (2lb)…$14.68 (2)

*These foods correspond to the ABS DIET that we are using as a base for our new “health plan”

The total kind of …no, really scares me.  It was about 4x our weekly budget.  But, I’m trying to take comfort in the fact that we’ve not eaten all of this food yet and we’ve been following the meals very closely (eating 6 meals each for 4 people).  Now, I need to find even cheaper but still just as healthy alternatives for the foods we’re buying (like, mostly cheaper fruits/veggies/deli meats/milk).  We won’t have to buy more protein powder or flax seed for a very long time, so that will cut our next grocery bill down by about $32 dollars.  And…silly me, having never cooked dried beans before forgot that DUH!  THEY SWELL!  So, we have lots of beans.  I mean, LOTS.  Tomorrow is day 7, and I just cleaned out the last of the first jar of all natural peanut butter…so we may need to look at a cheaper (but just as healthy) brand…OR find coupons.  And, of course…bananas have already disappeared!

If any of you know of where I can find these things CHEAPER, please let me know!  (Especially if it’s the same brand, or a healthier brand…)

The snow and general coldness has kept us inside.  Which means, our pantry is looking a little slim.  Actually, that’s not fair, we have lots of food – most of them just happen to be odd-ball things that we USUALLY use up with other ingredients we don’t have.  So, we’ve turned it into a game to try to come up with meals to fix that mostly come out of our pantry/freezer.  (Granted, we’re going to have to restock on cheese, eggs, milk, butter, etc.)

Last night, we had Chicken A La King (made previously and frozen) over biscuits made from a biscuit mix that someone gave to us a while back.

Night before?  Spaghetti.  Only, we didn’t have spaghetti sauce, so we used cream of mushroom soup instead.  You just season your meat with basil, oregano, salt and pepper.  Cook.  Drain.  Add diced tomatoes (rotel would be even better but we didn’t have it).  Then, in a separate pot, cook up your spaghetti.  Grease a casserole dish (13×9) and layer sauce, spaghetti, cheese, sauce, spaghetti cheese.  Mix your cream of mushroom soup with some water (check the back of the can), and pour it over the top.  Parmesan cheese goes on last.  Stick it in the oven til it’s all melted and VOILA.  Pretty good stuff.  We used deer meat instead of beef because it’s what we have.  (Thanks, Terrell!)

Tonight, we’ll be having a cornbread bar.  There’s cornbread and then there’s the “extras” – we have navy beans, chili, cream cheese, ketchup, and hot sauce.  We have more beans if we run out of all of that.

Future menu items:

Tuna patties (using mashed potatoes to hold it all together and dipped in cornmeal and cooked)
Potatoes and eggs
Ham and cheese omelets
Tuna sandwiches (without pickles/relish because we don’t have it)
Ham fried rice (frozen slices of ham cut into chunks, eggs, Worcestershire sauce all fried up with brown rice)
And whatever good treats we can come up with for venison using what we already have.  Ideas, anyone?

We’re studying about Christopher Columbus this month, and I wanted to share with you some of the great links I’ve found so far!  (I’m hoping to share pictures of our other studies and activities in a future post – we’ve been busy!)

• Activities Calendar For Toddlers (November)
• TeePee Cupcakes
• National Geographic Kids Christopher Columbus Video – good for all ages
• Mini Sailboat Directions
• Wampanoag Toss And Catch Game
• Talk Like A Pilgrim
• Banana Gobble Pancakes
• How To Draw A Turkey
• Succotash Recipe
• Thanksgiving Preschool Pack

ENJOY!

Ingredients:

1/4 c butter
2 T olive oil
1 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb fresh asparagus spears, trimmed

Directions:

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Stir in th eolive oil, salt, and pepper.  Cook garlic in butter for a minute, but do not brown.  Add asparagus, and cook for 10 minutes, turning asparagus to ensure even cooking.

I really shouldn’t be surprised since I write half-assed pregnancy updates every week on here, and yet I find myself looking at the calendar jumping up and down. 30 weeks! I’m in the big leagues, now! Here come the days of exciting 4-D ultrasounds and the power to make people sweat at will (Was that just a contraction? Oooooh! Just kidding.) But, then…OHMYFREAKINGHECK! 30 weeks! So much left to do!

I haven’t even started on my list of things that need to be bought or accomplished before Aurora is born. – I haven’t even made the list, yet!

And soon, we’ll be expected to throw a birthday party for Lorelei (who will be 2) or else possibly face neglect charges. I recently received a catalog in the mail from the goofs at some party company – chock full of FIRST birthday products and supplies (sometimes “better late than never” doesn’t really apply, folks), and she’s been faithfully carrying the thing around, pointing and oohing. I’ve asked her what kind of party she’d like, but to no avail. I know she’s capable of forming short phrases (when she wants something), so I can only assume she’s deliberately not telling me because she wants me to GUESS.

Google suggested I go with her interests and do something like pay people to bring a bunch of smelly animals to poop in my yard just for the sake of being a good mommy. Then, google changed its mind and thought it’d be more appropriate if we bought party plates and decor with character’s faces on them. But, since she has no idea who Dora or Elmo really is, I’m wondering if the leftover Santa plates from Christmas will do?

Someone else suggested I just make a theme of my own – you know – be creative and stuff – around what SHE likes.

Well, she gets excited about showers but I’m pretty sure that’d be a mildly inappropriate theme.

And, the kid does love shoes – especially other people’s – so maybe we’ll just invite a bunch of folks over and let her steal their shoes?

Oh. And, babies! She owns no less than twenty baby dolls (seriously.) and is OBSESSED with babies, to put it mildly. Baby shows, baby books, baby pictures, baby dolls, baby this and baby that. I started making notes…

We could have a baby theme! I bet I could rip down a few health department banners and use those as the decor. And ooh – we could invite real live babies. We could sit them in a circle and it’d be like her own version of a petting zoo (Aww wook at da cuuuute babiiiieeesss!)

And, then it hit me. Pure genius that I am, decided that since Aurora would be born shortly after Lorelei turned 2, we could have a combo party. Like, a “Oh my gosh, you’re 2!” party and a “Let me pinch your newborn cheeks” party – combined! Genius! Homemade Cake and homemade ice cream…maybe even cookies. It’d be warmer out and we could bring out the 80 riding toys and outdoor toys we own and just let the kids play outside, which is what she likes to do anyhow. Dude. This would be perfect! She’d be getting, gifts too so we don’t have to worry about jealousy over any “baby” gifts.

I quit scribbling notes for a moment about cake flavors and such and looked up to find her holding one of her baby dolls – and a spatula – bringing the spatula from the baby and to her mouth, then back again, in an odd movement like…

IS SHE EATING THE BABY?

“Hey Steven? Do you think it’d be considered poor “personal taste” by our guests if we throw in a baby shaped cake and pinata?”

“Probably.”

(*PS – No new pregnancy changes. Except you can totally tell I’m pregnant and I finally uploaded a dang picture. Oh, and the headaches this week. And, body aches. I think I’m dying. Someone please hand me a cupcake.)

Once again, no pictures.

I swear, I’ll do better.  Besides, I suck at keeping lasagna noodles all pretty and unbroken.  Luckily, they taste the same.

This recipe is for Spinach Lasagna and my father – the “slap on 80 lbs of beef and we’ll call it a day” guy – even gave it 4 1/2 stars.  It’s missing 1/2 a star because obviously it has no meat.  And, because he likes to complain.  (He helped himself to 3 servings, though.)

Spinach Lasagna

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, finely chopped (which I omitted.  I hate onions.  Like the plague.)
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove of garlic, minced (Use 1 clove if you want it to blend seamlessly into the recipe.  You can use three if you’re going vampire hunting later.)
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 – 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 – 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, including liquid
1 – 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 t. salt
1 t. oregano
1/2 t. basil
1/2 cup red cooking wine
1 egg
1 -10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
8 oz. lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
1 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated

Yields: 6-8 servings.  Or, 4 if people pretend they don’t like it and keep going back for more.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees…

In a large saute pan, heat 1 T of oil.  Saute onion, red pepper flakes, and garlic.

Add mushrooms and saute gently.  Stir in tomato sauce, canned tomatoes with liquid, tomato paste, salt, oregano, basil, and wine.

Simmer about 15 minutes, breaking tomatoes into small pieces as it cooks.

In a medium bowl, mix egg with spinach, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and remaining 1 T oil.

Using a 9×13 baking dish, pour in half of the sauce.  Cover with about half of the noodles, or however much you can fit.  Spread entire spinach mixture over noodles.  Sprinkle with half of mozz cheese and repeat with leftover noodles, sauce, and then cheese.

Shove it (carefully) into the oven and bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

For extra yumminess, pair it with some garlic/cheese/buttered toast.

**Of course, for all of you meat heads, you can most definitely add meat.
***Just don’t mess with the sauce…because it is DIVINE.

[Right here is where there should be a scrumptious photograph of a yummy brownie, but I ate it before my brain even thought about the camera.  Oops.  Will a picture of my thighs suffice, instead?]

I’ve been experimenting with some new recipes lately, although most of them have been “real food” – you know, the main course types.

But, then there were these chocolate chip cookie dough brownies.

If I wouldn’t have already eaten them, I’d take a photograph…but then you’d drool all over your keyboard.  I promise.  They were good.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1box Betty Crocker Original Supreme brownie mix (it comes with chocolate icing, but you can save that for another time)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
3 eggs (2 for the brownie mix, 1 for the cookie mix)
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
chopped pecans (optional – just add these into the batters)

(Basically, you just buy the cookie and brownie mix and prepare each separately according to the directions on the back.)

Heat oven to 350 F and grease bottom of a 13×9 pan.  Prepare brownie mix and spread it evenly.  Next, prepare the chocolate chip cookie dough and then spoon drop it in.  Personally, I dropped mine in so it took on a checkerboard effect, but you could do it any way you please.

Bake 35-40 minutes.

Let cool completely.

Now, if you wanted, you could drizzle it in caramel and chocolate, slop on some ice cream and call it a day.

Or, you could REALLY let it cool completely and then prepare the chocolate ganache and smother your brownie in that.  –Which, I recommend.

Actually, I recommend spooning out some of the warm brownie and adding ice cream WHILE I let the rest cool (are you seeing now why perhaps there are no photographs?)

To make the chocolate ganache:

1 bag (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
6 Tbsp butter at room temp

In a small saucepan, heat the cream and butter – You’ll want it to ALMOST be a boil, but not quite.  Then, pour in your chocolate chips and stir until smooth and melted.

Then, smother your brownies in it and try not to eat the whole pan.  At least, not all of them at once.  Space it out a little.  You know, half the pan now and the other half in the morning.

Of course, you’re *supposed* to let the ganache set – which takes a while – but, it’s tasty either way.  I just have no patience, is all.  OBVIOUSLY.