Halloween Candy and Veggie Recipes

Well I have managed to avoid Halloween Candy yesterday and today.  I think the hard part is next week . . . especially when Elizabeth is in school and Al is down for a nap  - and those two bags of candy staring me in the face.  About the only thing I can do is ignore it and make sure the kids eat it - fast!  How are you all planning on avoiding it?  Sheer will power and gritted teeth?

I have been meaning to post since the vegetable challenge week.  Rebecca asked for recipes.  My recipes are not exact but my kids eat them so that is good.

Veggie Soup
My mom made this all the time it is a great way to use a lot of veggies.

Start with broth.  I use beef or chicken bullion added to water.
Then add whatever you have.  The following is a list of what I sometimes put in.
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Peas
Carrots
Celery
lentils
black beans
white beans
kidney beans
pinto beans
corn
onions
really anything you have.  It is also nice if you have leftover chicken or beef and throw that in - makes my husband happier when I do!

Ok, I am going to have to post the other two or three recipes I have later tonight or tomorrow. AJ just woke up - he is working on two more teeth.  Wish me luck tonight :).

"Recapture Real Beauty" Idea

A little "food for thought" - Check this out for a refreshing thought about Beauty... (from BYU)

The purpose of the BYU 10-Day challenge is to offer one exercise each day that will encourage participants to address the way they view themselves and help them develop a greater love and appreciation for who they are as divine beings. The exercises presented in the challenge are designed to shift our focus away from the messages of the world and into a place from within; a place where we are completely conscious of what true beauty is. As we continue to practice and develop these types of exercises that focus on discovering beauty from within, we can feel at peace with ourselves and appreciate the blessed gift that our bodies are.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure... We ask ourselves: ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.” -Nelson Mandela

The "full calendar" document on the website is really encouraging. It has some wonderful thoughts, scriptures and ideas about our habits, self-talk and recapturing beauty. Maybe we explore this idea more in early December after the fitness challenge?
http://recapturingbeauty.byu.edu/challenge/

an answer to an unsaid prayer

Having just moved to New York with lots and lots of debt (of the student loan and consumer variety) I have been struggling to manage on a budget, but somehow, I'm doing it for the first time in my life. And by "doing it" I mean living paycheck to paycheck as I pay off my debt. So, the settling into my new life has been slow.

One of the things that I was really having a hard time with was not having a gym membership. After belonging to 24 Hour Fitness forever, I was only paying $52 a year (yes, A YEAR) when I moved from Provo to New York. So, you can imagine how disheartening it was to realize that a gym membership was likely out of my financial reach. And while I do like exercising outside, my work hours, daylight hours, and the weather often make that difficult. Not to mention the fact that I started going to a gym when I was 16 and there is something I seriously love about being surrounded by other people who are also working out. (I realize that not everyone feels this way.)

Which brings me to my small miracle, which I will call a tender mercy. While interning in New York last  summer (2009), I got a corporate summer membership to NYSC. It was a manageable price for the 3 months I was out here. I considered getting another corporate membership, but at twice the monthly cost of my summer membership, I just couldn't do it. Well, today I got a phone call from a random number. The person left me a voicemail telling me that I had been selected for a special membership rate. No registrations fees. No contract. Just one low (for New York) monthly price for all hours access to all NYSCs.

And the budget was rearranged (cable is going to have to wait) and the gym membership was purchased and the angels did rejoice!

"Post Free Day" Pep-Talk

My third "free day" has come and gone. Its like saying farewell to a dear friend... you don't want them to go, but trust you'll see them again, hopefully soon, once again to enjoy their company. (Adieu, sweet desserts, sigh.) So, I'm giving myself another pep-talk to gear up for the week ahead. To try and stay motivated for the challenge of eating right, avoiding the "less-desirable" things, drinking the water, reading scriptures and exercising everyday! Yay, we can do it!!

I think of the reasons I'm doing this fitness challenge. Health. Balance. Improving my habits to do the things I know I ought to do anyway - but haven't had the willpower lately to do solo. So, I put my money down to say to myself: "I'm committed to this!" Like a 5K, this motivates me to a bigger goal that includes more than myself. The social support is super helpful right now. This Challenge is an opportunity to exercise spiritually and physically, grow stronger, to build my character and my life.

Some days its hard (the longing for a sweet treat, the minimal desire to workout). Yet these habit-changes are not going to get any easier later in life...so I want to instill more solid healthy habits now. I want to sustain many of these important foundational things for a lifetime.

Everyone's doing this Challenge for various reasons, so please share your "pep-talks" for what keeps you going. I think it's great to post ideas, thoughts, and uplifting group-talk as we approach the middle of the challenge 4-week mark. Thanks for the support, your wonderful thoughts and tips and sharing your motivation! It's truly great to help one another in this lifestyle-improvement "adventure."

Let's just say that being on vacation all week long didn't bode well for me this past week...AT ALL. I headed to D.C. with every intention of staying on track and it just didn't happen. It's a little depressing how much I reverted back to my old habits this past week but it has made me that much more motivated to keep up the healthy habits that this challenge is forcing me to do. I realized that right now, while implementing these changes such as not eating after 8pm, I need to do a LOT of planning. It completely threw me off being out of my environment, having dinners that STARTED at 8pm, and trying to eat the way I needed to in someone else's kitchen. My little controlled environment here in NYC definitely helps me.

I'm so impressed with all of you who had perfect scores once again this week...you are very inspiring to me. I'm proud of ALL of us, no matter what our scores are, because atleast we're earning some points from week to week, whether it's 43, 30, or my very dismal 16. There. I told you all (not that you wouldn't have seen it any way).

Keep up the great work!!!

Drink Your Veggies

Maybe if I ate all my spinach, I would be as cute as my niece, Lu. This is Lulu with a spinach smoothie moustache--and Lu belongs to my sister, Jamie Calder, who is a superstar in this fitness challenge, btw.

I was going to write this post earlier too, but the week got away from me. Like Morgan, one of my secrets for getting my veggies in is blending them in my smoothie for breakfast. The great thing about spinach is that the taste is so light that you can blend it with almost anything and you can't taste it much. I have a bunch of combos, but my go-to is a banana, frozen berries, almond milk, and a handful of spinach. This has been a life-saver this week since by breakfast I had already knocked out at least one veggie serving.

Another veg smoothie that I like is this one that uses carrots and orange juice. This Times writer has tons of great smoothie ideas, some with veggies some not: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/health/nutrition/07recipehealth.html?ref=nutrition

I started experimenting with veggie smoothies when I discovered the wonders of spinach a while ago, and came up with some decent combos:

cantaloupe + spinach+kefir/yogurt+mint

And some more hardcore "swamp juice" options:

apple + cucumber+spinach +lemon +ginger
pear + cucumber+spinach+celery

This is so late in the week it's not so helpful now, but if you want try to include some more veggies in your diet going forward this is a good way to do it. Work up to the swamp juice, though. I admit I have given myself a tummy ache before!

ps. Morgan, I'm excited to try your green drink. Would love to hear any other smoothie combos; I'm always looking for more!

Getting veggies in...

Ok, so I meant to do this post earlier in the week as well, but it just never happened. Better late than never. For the weekly challenge this week, I decided to try some new recipes to get my vegetables in a little more creatively. The first one I tried was a potato, squash and goat cheese gratin. Now I have never been a fan of squash. Seriously, do. not. like. it!! But I love potatoes and goat cheese, so I thought I would try it again for the sake of the challenge. Plus the picture of it looks so lovely and colorful, and I wanted to make it. So make it I did, and let me tell you, I am still not a fan of squash. Sick sick sick. But, my husband loved it and had it for lunch the next day. I still ate it (choked it down is more like it) so I could get my veggies in, but it was not enjoyable. However, I know most people love squash, so I thought I would share it. I hope you enjoy it.

The second recipe I tried was a vegetable beef soup, which I found in my Better Homes and Gardens cook book (and just happened to find the same one online). First of all, it was in the crockpot, which I love, and secondly, it was so easy and fast, and finally, it was actually quite tasty. So tasty that I probably got 6 servings of vegetables just from eating this soup, seeing as how I had 3 bowls of it! This soup was so easy and delicious that I will probably add it to my regular meal rotation, not that I have one, per se, but you know what I mean.

The other thing that I have done this week to get my veggies in is make the green drink. This concoction sounds disgusting, but it is surprisingly not that bad. I used to make it for breakfast until I got pregnant and couldn't stomach it. But now I am bringing it back, and it is such a good way to get lots of greens into your diet and feel super healthy. Take spinach, cucumber, sprouts, avocado, grapefruit, lemon, almond milk, and a couple of ice cubes and blend away. You can put in whatever amounts you want, but I find that 1 or 2 cups of spinach, 1/2 a cucumber, 1/2 cup of sprouts, half an avocado, a whole grapefruit and lemon and about 3/4-1 C almond milk is about right. I also sweeten it with stevia. I know, it sounds gross, but try it, you will be surprised. Or maybe not. You might hate it. :)