Skip The Gym & Eat Your Fishies

Hi all.. how's everyone doing so far this weekend? Not much going on here.. thanks for all the birthday wishes! I was trying to keep the fact that it was my birthday a little hush hush.. but shoot you guys figured me out! LOL! I "know" too many people in real life I guess!

Well, what's going on in your next of the woods?? Mine is pretty clear :)

So I told you the other day that I got a $50 gift card to Amazon.com right? Well, one of the things I bought was an Exhale: Core Fusion Arms and Abs DVD. Strong is the new Skinny right?? Holy moley- I couldn't believe how hard this one was! I loved it! It came with a bright green resistance band to do some of the exercises. If you already have one, you can use yours.


The DVD is set up with 5 ten minute sections each one harder than the last. I was planning on only doing the first 20 minutes and instead I kept going! I'm pretty sure that my abs have never had a workout like this before.. and my arms have been aching ever since I finished the moves.. Holey Moley!

Strong is the new Skinny people.. seriously! I can already tell that if I can keep working on this DVD, I will for sure be getting alot stronger- without even using heavy weights or doing crazy gym workouts. All I used was that dang resistance band and a mat!

So what was on my menu this weekend? Fish. Fish fish fish. Can you tell that I love fish? I suppose I should start calling myself a pescatarian (a veggie lover who eats fish too) but I hate labels, so I'll just call myself a fish lover!

Fish Night #1

Salmon.. bought from Target in a bag... topped with olive oil, garlic powder, a pinch of salt & pepper and cracked red pepper. Yummy! Served with sweet potato fries!
Fish Night #2

More salmon, from the same bag of frozen fish.. expect to see alot of this ok?? This time topped with BBQ sauce, served with fresh green beans steamed and sprinkled with a little garlic salt. See? It's not too hard to get healthy eats in a pinch. Both meals literally took 16 minutes from start to finish! (including cooking time)
I totally understand that I am not one of the most creative bloggers out there. There are other bloggers who just absolutely kill it in the kitchen, and every day I really really want to be like them! But I'm not, I'm a lazy cook, limited in my food choices due to my food sensitivities. However- I still enjoy my food.. and now you know how easy it is to make healthy food choices and not just curl up with a bowl of cereal (of which I am VERY guilty!!!!)

Well, I hope you all are having a great weekend!! Let me know how you are doing please!!!!

Snackity Snack

Hi all, I am back! I'm hoping that I can post a little more this week! We have a couple of people out on vacation this week, and that always stirs up some trouble.. but I'll just roll with the punches :)

This post will be short and sweet as I can manage because I need to get some cleaning done that I didn't do yesterday! Sunday is usually my cleaning day but I took a long nap in the afternoon. On Saturday I spent wayyyy too much time out in the sun and my chest is BRIGHT red. Like Red Sox red. That hasn't happened in forever! I feel bad for myself, but then again, I should know better! Idiot! But I have a tan on my legs, I feel that the ever elusive leg tan makes up for the pain of the chest!!!

So the weekend..... no big plans, but the Peanut and I had a good time! We had plans early in the morning for her with a play date and I dropped her off and then spent the two hours catching up with a friend of mine. Oh adult time is sooooo treasured these days!

Then we hit up Whole Foods and I bought this... YUMMMMMMM in store made Peanut Butter. I have a serious problem with peanut butter.. It's like my life force. But that's ok, protein is protein!


I put a blob in my oatmeal....holy wow! It looks like it's a small blob, but it's really not- all hidden under there!
Saturday afternoon we went to the petting zoo, taking a bag of carrots with us to feed the animals. And here's what we fed ourselves with..

Pretty decent snackage no?? I love plantain chips for sure!!! They are so freakin' awesome!
When we were at the petting zoo, we were attacked by savage goats. Look at these guys, practically beating the fence down trying to get to our carrots! SAVAGES!!

We saw some pretty interesting animals (well, they haven't changed much since we were there last.. but still.. lol) I pet the horse and the horse and I had a "moment" It was cute... Haha..
So like I said, I spent half of Sunday sleeping. I needed it!

Today- I made some shrimp. Can you tell I love seafood?? I made this with garlic, pepper, and wheat free tamari- simple and easy. Looks good right??


In terms of workouts, I'm still going strong and would you believe I'm already seeing a difference in my muscles?? I can't either, I'll have to post some pictures up at some point! Too bad I didn't do before and after shots! Ha!

Well, it's almost bedtime for me.. a few more minutes of Facebook stalking and then it's a wrap! Have an awesome Tuesday!
Oh and congrats to Anthony, son of my girl Katie.. it was his first day of school today- ummm Peanut doesn't start for another 3 weeks! Wow!

Friday Night

Happy Friday everyone! Oh goodness, I can't believe how fast the week flew by- seriously! I woke up today and realized it was almost the weekend and I got sooo excited! Not like I have HUGE plans, but I just get excited when I remember that I don't have to go into work. :)

Thanks for the congrats on the award! Ameena, you would not really want to come and see me at work! We don't sell anything that anyone would want, except every single manufacturing plant in the US. We sell parts that run plants, and I just spoke to someone today who told me that our parts help run the MBTA in Boston! So the next time my Boston readers get on the T you can think of me! Please don't curse me if something bad happens though!

So anyway, moving onto more important things in life.. My Strong is the New Skinny campaign.. I have been working my butt off all week long for it and with ANOTHER award I got at work (yesssssssss.. I've been feeling so special all week long!) a $50 gift card to Amazon.com, I got 3 new workout DVDs. Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred and two Core Fusion DVDs. I can't wait to try them and focus on getting STRONGER.

That way I can whoop y'alls butts someday! Hopefully next week things will calm down a little bit at work so I can post more often!

OK- my food! Just two meals I had, not ALL of them.


This was so awesome. I loved it.. too good. The salmon cake was a little bit on the spicy side and the pilaf was a bit chewy.. but- overall a big YUM from me!

And this is what my mom made for dinner tonight. MY GOYA RICE. And MY SHRIMP. Glad to be giving food to my moms! Ha!


Other than that.. the weekend will be spent sunning, sleeping, and (window) shopping. My favorite things to do! I'll probably finish reading a couple of books!
What are YOU doing this weekend??

Strong Is The New Skinny

Good evening fine people! How are you all? I'm doing ok.. for a Monday! I wish I could say I had the Monday blues, but I didn't feel too bad.. went to work, got some good news this morning, and was on cloud 9 all day! It was great! Usually work doesn't equal good news, so it was fine by me!
I just wanted to go over some food stuffs that I got over the weekend when Peanut and I went to Whole Foods! I love Whole Foods.. I've heard it likened to a religious experience.. and I almost agree with that!


Look they even have a cow across the way from Whole Foods where you can get fresh milk!

Nah, I'm just playing- that's the JP Licks cow. JP Licks is possible the best local ice cream place in the Boston area. Peanut and I got some ice cream ;) The only dairy I just can't possibly resist!


At Whole Foods I picked up a delectable new yogurt- I tried this with a little sprinkle of granola. OMG.. It's not dairy free but it is lactose free- which is really what messes up my stomach. This was seriously soooooo good! I was mad that I didn't buy more of them after I ate this! And look at the nutrional facts! So good!



For dinner yesterday while I was bored at home.. meatless meatballs with gluten- free pasta, pasta sauce, "cheese" in the form of Rice Mozerella sprinkle cheese & nutritional yeast.. simple and delish!


So I've been seeing around blog world that "strong is the new skinny". Ladies.. we need to embrace this!! Seriously! Look at this video below:

This is a little kid trained by gymnast Damien Walters- check out my FB page for a video of Damien Walters. Email me, if you need my info for FB :)
Could we do that if we are running on empty? Struggling to be as skinny as can be? I mean, I don't think I could do any of that ANYWAY.. But that's not the point. The point is.. we need to fuel ourselves ladies!!! Don't be afraid to work your butt off and then eat a full meal! I know I have a hard time with this sometimes.. but I'm gonna be changing my tune up. I need to get stronger, not skinnier. I want a six pack, not rib bones poking out everywhere!..

I hope you can join me in my new mission!

So hey, my work news? I won an award for my excellent customer service :) The sales guy who gave me the big bottle of tequila nominated me for it. I was so happy and proud of myself. I'm the first one on my team to get one so far with our new employee regognition.. It goes on my yearly review, plus the award is worth $25. The more I get, the more money I get. Yay! All my hard work is finally starting to pay off a little bit!
Well, hope your Monday went well! I hope to be catching up on blogs tomorrow, work was just too busy today.. Goodnight!!!!

They Call Me Psycho

Holaaaaa... I'm back for some more fun! Yesterday I spent the day aching and paining. I've been feeling a bit better, I know nothing is broken and nothing is sprained- just badly bruised. I think my pride is my hurt than anything! But I'm glad I survived! I seriously can't wait until I'm feeling 100% and I can tape that yoga sequence for you guys!! I worked out yesterday and today (yep, I'm crazy) but I seriously can't go a day without workin' it!

Thanks for the belated birthday wishes for Peanut! She did have a blast! She's definitely a superstar!! She had so much fun at her party.. Biz I love how fast you type and that was a GREAT idea for a birthday party! I told my mom about it, and she said she went to one once when she was 15 - and had a FACE MASK on. Ha!

So I did find a picture of those sweet and sour meatballs I made for her party!

Recipe as follows- (makes about 40 full size meatballs plus sauce)

2 bags of pre-made meatballs (I used turkey)
2 cans of tomato sauce
2 cans pineapple chunks plus juice
vineagar to taste
tamari to taste (or soy sauce)
S & P to taste
1/2 cup of brown sugar

heat sauce and simmer for a few minutes, then add frozen meatballs and simmer for an additional 25 minutes..

YUM!
I also found the elusive Chocolate Chip Cookie dough Larabars at Whole Foods!!!!!! YUMMMMMMMMMM!!! They are SO GOOD! I also tried the Peanut Butter Choco Chip Dough too- just as yummy!

Today I receieved this email from a customer:
"Sorry I didn't mean to isolate you I just feel safer addressing a person
verses an ip address . Plus you have been professional, prompt, gracious
and dependable to work with, so I figured we would try to claim you as *****'s rep."

I guess my years of drama class have finally started to pay off! HAHAHA!

I'll be back sooooooooonnnnnn! It's almost my bedtime! I have decided to cut out caffeine and I can't stay up past 9:30 anymore.. too sleepy!

For The Very First Time

Hey guys! Am I coming back to no one?? Comment if you read, just so I know everyone is alive and well. I am! Well, barely hanging on by a thread anyway..

This week is my week before you know what, so I've been extra groggy and grumpy. The two G's are never a good thing! So I stayed away from the computer so I wouldn't sound like a whiny annoying sap. All things my dad called me this week... but that's not the point! The point is... it was the Peanut's birthday last weekend! I took a few days off from work to help her celebrate.. and we did, by throwing a party and having a fun day in the city!

Pics are as follows!
It was hot in the big ole city and we melted pretty much the whole day. We drank a lot of water and had a fun time navigating the subway and streets of Boston. Sorry for the lack of pics of me and her.. try to keep somethings sacred. (In other words, all my pics are of me; I look hot and sweaty.... I'm sending those to Charlie.. lol)


But we went to the Children's Museum and walked the Freedom Trail. We are history buffs and learning dorks for sure!

Later on in the week was her PAR-TAY! If you weren't invited you must not be cool- cuz all the cool kids were there! Actually, it was a small party, but we played in the pool, ate, danced, and ate to our little hearts desire. It was a good party- plus she got lots of presents... what can beat that??

For food we had typical Luau food- fruit, pigs in a blanket and sweet and sour meatballs. Here is a picture of the fruit, the only thing I managed to snag a pic of before it was devoured. YUM!

But here is a dish I made at some point last week in a brief moment where I remembered I had a blog.Shrimp and green bean stirfry. This was totally simple to make dears- saute fresh green beans in a little olive oil, onion, pepper, and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Add wheat free tamari sauce (or soy sauce...) and gluten free teriyaki sauce (to taste).. then add shrimp (I use cooked shrimp, tail removed). Shake it around in the pan a few times, then cover and let it simmer and steam. After about 5 minutes, uncover and EAT.

It was easy, a little spicy, and totally worth the 10 minutes it took to make it.

So, tonight, for the very first time, I was injured while practicing yoga. Yep. And not in a glorious way, where I was practicing pigeon pose and I dislocated my hip.

Look back in my yoga post... the one where I was standing on my head with my legs spread open wide like a stripper? I was in the kitchen (mistake) when I shifted my head about 1/2 centimeter to the right (mistake) and I tried to tuck and roll when I fell (mistake) but instead I crashed into the table. OUCH. Not even an ouch. There's probably no word to describe the pain I felt. I thought I cracked my neck, back, legs, arms, everything. I think I stayed on the floor for a good ten minutes before I moved, just to make sure I was still alive. The cat came over to check it out as I was splayed out under the table. I swear, she must have thought I was dead. I think she tried to start to eat me.
So far, the backs of my legs are bruised and my elbows are puffy and hard to straighten and turning suspiciously blue. I have a 1600 dollar deductible for insurance- so in case anyone asks.. unless you are sending me the cash, I will settle for bathing in ice for the next couple of days. It hurts to type, and is getting worse now. Ice bath here I come!

The Unedible & Edible

I have no idea if I spelled that word correctly or not..Ha! I sometimes think of myself as a pretty decent writer, but there are some words in the English language I CAN'T PRONOUNCE. OR SPELL for the LIFE of me!
Some examples: Preliminary. Specific. Receiving. Niche. Yeaaaaaaaaa... anyone else feel like English is like a second language??

Well nothing too much as been up lately for us.. we have just been hanging out! I did get a pretty decent tan laying outside by the pool! It was nice! I know, I shouldn't be in the sun, but something about the lawn just calls to me..

Tonight I spent some time on the yoga mat and in the kitchen! Shocking, I know! But I have been practicing my hard yoga poses which are getting REALLY easy with all the Pilates I've been doing, so it's pretty cool! Here's what I made in the kitchen-

Mexican Casserole! It was a mix I bought a while back - and I've been wanting to try it, now here's my chance! It was pretty cool! I'll let the pics do the talking!




As you can see it was pretty simple to make! And it was a little bit on the spicy side which I loved! I packed up the rest of it for leftovers for the week too. Yay! No more wondering what to eat for lunch or dinner : )

I also made something that WASN'T tasty at all! I wanted to whip up Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter cookies. What I ended up with was lumps of clumpy sticky burnt balls of crap. Look!


These ended up in the trash. So sad! I won't share what I did with the recipe, just so you guys don't end up trying to make them :(

Well- I also did my hard yoga right? Yea! Here are a couple of the poses I did- I know you all want to see pictures of me in my sweatpants on my yoga mat... even better that I am in the TV room. Which is completely ghetto! Haha! You'll even see that hanging on the wall is my little sister throughout the years. My mom did that for all of our high school graduations- and even though she graduated 5 years ago... it's STILL hanging on the wall. Go figure!



Interesting no??? Not too shabby I think! I have to admit, I do really like my shoulders in that last picture! I LIKE my shoulders! They look pretty strong!

Well, I'm off to bed now! I'm wiped!

What do you like about yourself?? And what words do you not know how to spell/ pronounce??

Shocking, I Know

Happy Weekend! It was a hot day today over here in NE. I still haven't made it to the beach yet. I'm very upset about that one, I need to tan! I really shouldn't - I'm trying to stay out of the sun, but.. I can't help but love the sun!!!

Well Friday was uneventful. And I mean that. My Pilates workout that I penciled in, I got in at the end of the day. And that's ok by me! As long as it gets done at some point, it's all good! I did eat my weight in fruit salsa and pita chips that my mom made. I really love this!! My mom has outdone herself! Simple! Sweet! Delicious!

My mom made Jambalaya with shrimp and chicken as well for dinner and I helped myself to a nice plate of it. This was easy as well. GOYA (be still my beating heart..) RICE and shredded chicken and cut up shrimp. See? It's easy to cook ladies, even if you have no clue what to do!

My dessert was something that has been sitting in my freezer for a while now-


This was so yummy! A nice little dessert for the end of a hot night!
Saturday was a big day for us, me and Peanut had a lot to do! I started the day by doing a Hip Hop Abs Total Body Burn.. it burned my body, gave me a nice boost!
My breakfast to power up for the day.. yummy waffles with Raspberry preserves and Dark Chocolate Dreams PB. YUM!

Lunch was.... a salad, shocking, I know!

I tried a new dressing, Annie's Raspberry Vinaigrette- it was pretty darn good. I liked it! But... I hate to break it to you, but I ONLY had a salad because for my "real lunch" I was having one of these:

This is a caramel frappacino from Starbucks made with soy milk for an extra 50 cents. I LOVE these things, but I practically have to pawn my belongings to pay for one. But, it was my treat and was worth the trade off for "real food" for a change. And hey, it's the weekend!!
And here, my dears was my dinner! Barbecue chicken and apples sprinkled with brown sugar. I had two pieces of chicken.. it was so good! The skin was crispy and juicy at the same time and the flavor was awesome!

Well tomorrow, there is not much planned. Church, pool, pool, sun, pool, sun. I expect to get crispy and juicy like my chicken. You know, burnt and wet. From the pool!! God guys, what kind of a person do you think I am?! Anyway- have a fabulous rest of the weekend dears, I'll be blog reading soon, tomorrow night, tonight, I NEED to get my laundry done! I'm such a rockstar!!!

When I Grow Up..

I wanna repair panel boards for manufacturing plants through out the United States.

Huh? Did I just say that?? What am I talking about?? Well, today I was speaking with the leader of the repair department in my company- and we were discussing how he was retiring in a few years. We figured that his position needed a replacement and it should be me! Ha! We'll see what happens, I still have to discuss with my boss how a move to another state might affect my team here. They can't survive without me, and I might not make it to the age of 50 here. So I'll be thinking about it hard.. it's an interesting proposition, would be a lot more moolah. And you all know I need that!

So to answer a couple of questions I got. And to comment on a couple of comments. Sophia- go to a matinee! We went at 2:20 and the movie only cost $8.00 for each of us, plus we went to a gas station near the theatre and spent four dollars on candy :)
But hey, you just got back from a 6 week adventure in Asia, so, that beats the movies any day! Haha!
Biz- nutritional yeast TASTES like a powdered version of nuts and cheese. No seriously, it's a wacky way to describe it but it really does. It's not bad and it has a ton of vitamins in it- some I am seriously lacking in, so I try to sprinkle it on a few things a week to get that in there. Why did I put it on my salad though??? After choking it down, I asked myself the same thing!! *shudder*

Well today's eats and actions weren't too bad! I got up early and did yoga, that was nice and stretchy! It felt really good to do that! I'm definitely doing it tomorrow morning too.
My eats for the day mirrored the usual all the way up until lunch time.

Salad! WHAT NOW??? You guys must be thinking I'm sick! No, I just don't want my salad mix to go to waste.

I topped it with some of the above dressing. Lauren suggested that I needed some decent dressing. I must be the only person out there who doesn't really love salad dressing, hence the reason it's hard to eat salad. Too much vinegar, too much garlic, too creamy. I'm not picky about most food, but I am picky about salad dressing! This wasn't too bad, I liked it, but not loved it. So I'll be on the hunt for some decent dressing this weekend for sure!

I had some rice on the side for some extra carbonation. It was leftover from my lunch on Sunday. I love leftovers!
For my dinner though?? I tried something totally different, and I LOVED IT. Seriously!
This is an Organic Bistro frozen meal. It was new and looked really interesting in the grocery store - so I picked one up to try. This meal is gluten-free and contains no milk ingredients in it, so I felt safe knowning it would end up bothering my stomach later.
I heated this baby up and went to town. The rice had a nice light flavor to it, with mangoes and a little spice. The green beans were a bit bland, but I think it's really hard to make frozen green beans taste delish. The crab cake? OMFG.. This was SO GOOD! The flavor had a bite to it, some parts of it were really spicy- but there were hunks of real crab meat in there. It was totally unexpected, it tasted homemade. For real. The whole meal did. I was blown away.


I had a meeting at church tonight so I had to eat it quick and go there! The meeting went well and I came home and chatted with my lil baby and my other big baby. Now I'm up here, trying to get tired enough to fall asleep. I worked out at 8:30- not a wise idea on my part. I am still working on my dance for a video for you all. It was WAY too hot last week to work on it! So I'm putting everything I can into it now..
But I'm off to brush my teeth and try to fall asleep! Good night all!

Despicable Me

Happy Sunday! This weekend has been another whirlwind one... and I can't believe it's Sunday already!
Well, I'm hoping that this week goes by slow. Peanut and Maria's birthday is coming up faster than I can handle... I can't believe how old they are getting!

So in short. I finally made something to eat that required more than heating and serving...

This is my favorite easy dish to make, shrimp- simply spray a non-stick skillet with olive oil spray- and cook up the shrimp! Serve on top of GOYA RICE! I love Goya rice with a passion.. and I believe you should too.. haha.
That was Saturday's lunch- Peanut and I went on a little adventure on Saturday too. It rained like crazy for about an hour and caused chaos everywhere! Route One in Mass was flooded from one end to the other- and Peanut and I were DRIVING in it. Not fun! But, we made the best of it.. It still took almost 2 hours to go 10 miles, but who's keeping track???
Today is Sunday. DUH. We had church, then went and scooped up Maria for the afternoon. We were going to the movies! Yayyy! We came home and I had a salad. Please no one fall out of their chairs, I did have a salad! It was green. With lettuce. And other kinds of greens. I literally eat salads once every six months.. I sprinkled nutrional yeast on it.
This was better looking than tasting! But I ate anyway..

We saw Despicable Me at the movies- please if you have a sense of humor go see this movie!!!! It was sooooo funny! We loved it!

Well, right now we are watching the season premiere of Hannah Montana.. thank goodness this is the last season! I'm kinda tired of Hannah Montana! I think my dislike for HM & Miley is getting stronger and stronger. I don't understand the desire to show how "grown-up" you are by acting like a skank. Oh well, I'll save that for another time!
Good night y'all!!!!