Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Stressful but Yummy

What a stressful day. Let's just say that I am typing this while drinking a glass of wine. Between having all kids home from school and babysitting a friend's 4 year old,  am ready to tear my hair out. The kids all seemed to spend every waking moment fighting with eachother. Then, I was caught having to take care of my sister-in-law as she has many health problems that culminated in vomit all over my floor.

So anyway,  still did pretty good for myself when it came to my meals. No breakfast again today, only coffee (lots of coffee). For lunch I made cheese quesadillas with homemade salsa verde. Small flour tortillas with white crumbling queso heated and folded together in a pan (no oil) and dipped in the best salsa in the WORLD!


For dinner I gave my fennel/radish salad from last night another try. I threw it in a hot pan with a little olive oil, salt and a small dash of balsamic vinager. It worked! I ate that sucka up! I also reheated the leftover potato soup from last night. Having it sit and settle for a day made it even tastier.



Time for a snack. I cut whole wheat tortillas into triangles, dipped them in a mixture of oil, fajita seasoning and tomatos that I pureed and baked them into chips. Ate them up with roasted pepper salsa! I needed to add more salt to the chips and I burned my last batch into tiny triangles of char but other then that, my snack was a success! I am so full!


I also talked with a friend of mine who is vegan and she gave me some great links for recipies and information to check out. I am off to do that now and giddy with excitement. Here are the links she told me I should see: Vegetarian Times, Fat Free Vegan KitchenChocolate Covered Katie,  21-Day Vegan Kickstart and Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death (Thanks Rhonda! <3 )

That's it for tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Fennel Fiasco

Today was very adventurous if I say so myself. I had my usual coffee for breakfast as my eyes just don't open until I have finished a pot of my favorite Gevalia Mocha coffee with Irish Cream creamer (yum!). I am the master of breakfast making but I don't make it for myself very often. I will say, the best breakfast in the world is my egg white omelet with spinach, jalapenos, cheese (usually anything white) and fresh homemade green salsa. I am salivating just thinking about it!

So anyways, on to lunch. I decided to throw whatever I had in my fridge into a salad. Vegetarianism for beginners is salad. Easy enough. I used kale, fresh spinach, parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers and red onions with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a dash of salt and pepper. VERY YUMMY! (I had never even heard of kale before this experiment of mine but I’m loving it). My salad was surprisingly filling! I had an apple I was planning to eat as my dessert but I didn't have any room for it all afternoon. This was a pleasant surprise.



By dinner time, my husband was home and asking what these weird foods were that I had in the house. When I first told him my plans to be a vegetarian for a month, his reaction was "Well, just as long as I can still eat my chicken and whatever else". No biggie. We have always had very opposite tastes and I have had to cook different meals for each of us since we were first married. I like very intense flavors. I like the spicy, the sweet, the sour and he likes the savory soul food. He could live off fish, chicken and peanut butter when I could eat anything if it had salsa on it.

So back to dinner. That afternoon I bought radishes and fennel. I have never had fennel in my life and I had no idea what to do with it. I have downloaded an app for my tablet called "Healthy Meals" and looked up fennel recipes. It seemed like you can put fennel in anything but I hit the jackpot when found a simple salad of just radishes, fennel, lemon juice and salt and pepper. I had all the ingredients so I gave it a try. The fennel smelled amazingly fresh and I was looking forward to trying this. Boy was I was disappointed with the taste. I had no idea that fennel tastes like black licorice. BLEH! Seriously, just like black licorice and I H-A-T-E black licorice. Oh well. Live and learn. I will be looking up more recipes for fennel as I still have a bulb left. Maybe if I find a decent way to cook it, then the flavor won’t be so strong.



For dinner I also made my husband some lemon chicken with herbs. I don't mind making him meals with meat in it. Eating meat or not eating it is a personal choice.

I made a potato soup for myself. I had a mix already that was pretty simple made by Cugino's. I have had their french onion soup before which is pretty great so I thought this was a safe bet. I added some radishes, kale, green onion (only had a little left so I threw it in there) and red onion. By then, the soup was tasty but boring so I added salt, pepper and a little chili powder. YUM! My only downfall was I needed to cut the kale up smaller as it was a pain to chew it. The radishes were a perfect addition.


So, all together, I had potato soup and the fennel salad for myself. My 7 year old daughter wolfed down 2 bowls of the soup. My husband ate half of his chicken and a bowl of soup. My 3 year old son ate 3 bites of the chicken, licked the soup and said it was good but he didn't want it (pickiest eater in the world). My 5 year old slept through it all as he is sick with a cough and ear ache.

Day 2 of vegetarianism is going good. My tummy is happy and full. I feel great and am so excited about what I can come up with next!

Monday, October 29, 2012

And so we begin

Greetings friends.

My name is Julia. I am a wife and stay-at-home mom while I am attending college at nights. I am the typical mom. I cart my three kids around to their play dates, gymnastics and so forth. I live for them and try to squeeze in a little bit of me time when I can. Of course, my "me time” is usually taken up by studying for the next exam or endless homework.

I am 30 years old. I eat like the average American (although, for the record, I am Canadian but I am an American resident as I married an American). I like fast food as I am always on the run. I try to eat right and instill good habits in my children but let's face it, a hamburger is so much cheaper than a salad when eating on the go.... and a lot easier to eat while racing all over town.

I tell myself and my husband that I want to eat healthier and get in shape. I was a gym bunny before and after my first 2 children but by the third, the membership fees were too much and I didn't have the time. Now I have a sexy muffin top and wider hips and a saggy butt. My husband still says I am attractive but I just don’t feel right. I don't have the energy to keep up with my life and find myself sitting my youngest in front of the TV while his siblings are at school so I can catch a quick nap. Something needs to change.

I figured that nothing would truly get me to eat better unless I make a plan. I needed a set goal to achieve and a method to measure my progress. I have seen so many articles and pictures of what is done to the animals that are bred just to be fattened and killed in such inhumane ways and it makes me sick. I decided that enough was enough and I didn’t want to support this disgusting business of killing animals and along the way, I could find better health. In comes my idea of being a 30 day vegetarian!

I plan to only last 30 days and if I can keep it up after that then all the better. For now, I am still eating eggs and cheese with the hopes to find ways to cut that out next but I need baby steps.

So welcome to my journey and I hope we all enjoy the ride and maybe even learn something new.

Peace out !