Proud Sister

     Tuesday is here and almost done now, seems like the week is flying by! Not always a bad thing especially when it seems to be going smoother than last week for me. Not so much for my husband who seems to be down and out today with either the flu or something along thost lines. Either way, not pretty at our household. I am keeping my distance.
    Tonight that distance involves Dad and I  heading over to St. Louis for an award ceremony for my brother Ben. He is a St. Louis Police Officer. Yes, I didn't only marry a police officer, my brother is one as well. They are everywhere! Anyway, he is being recognized tonight in regards to a scary incident he was involved in last fall. Even though Jeremy and I tease him about getting this award, I am very proud of him. I have always been kind of a mother hen and rather protective of my baby brother. Which is now funny that he is about 6 inches taller than me and much broader. But, I always have been that way with him.  It is funny for me to watch him all dressed up in uniform and doing his job as a St. Louis police officer. Guess I should be used to it by now, he's done it for almost two years, but I am not. Either way, as scary as it is for him to be a police officer in St. Louis City, I can't express really how proud I am of him. He won't ever let me get to gushy so I figured I could put some of it on here, because I doubt he reads it regularly. So, needless to say I may get a little emotional tonight, damn that big sister gene!!
     On other fronts, I realized last night I am kind of slacking in my personal cooking challenge. I have done some baking of new healthy desserts lately. I made some awesome cookie dough balls from the website ChocolateCoveredKatie.com. I recommend them if you are craving something sweet and  healthy! But, I haven't been COOKING much. I am trying to remedy that by buying a new cookbook off Amazon (I'm Jen and I am addicted to Amazon) and hopefully trying some new recipes out of that book. The cookbook I purchased is The Hungry Girl Cookbook. I get her daily emails so I decided to give her book a try! Will keep everyone posted on progress.
     I am still kind of struggling with the body image stuff as another pair of jeans didn't fit how I wanted this morning. But I have been emailing with my nutritionist and she keeps repeating to me that STRESS plays a big roll in this process and the more I stress the worse off I will be. Which I do realize but I am a worrier, a fusser, I stress. But for some reason her teling me pointe blank (for the 100th time) that the stress hormones can interfere with weight and such, it FINALLY hit me. Kind of another AHA moment so to speak. So I am really, really going to try to make an effort to CHILLAX about this. For goodness sake I have "Breathe" tattooed on my wrist, I put it there for a reason when I started this journey.It is supposed to be a daily reminderalthough I haven't been using it much lately. Time to stop ignoring it and get back to business.
     Well, it's off to Ben's ceremony in a short while. Taking the kleenex and the camera with me! Have a great Tuesdsay everyone.

I can cook!

     Or, well, I can make a mean pot of chicken tortilla soup in the crockpot! I tried a new recipe I found on what else, Pintrest ,for chicken tortilla soup and it turned out pretty darn good! Jeremy even agreed. I was quite pleased. I have always wanted to try this soup but never branched out, glad I did! Delicious and we have a TON leftover, thank goodness soup freezes well!
     Today was a pretty low key Saturday, just some lunch and shopping around town with Mom. I like those kind of Saturdays! The pups even got to go to grandma and grandpa's and visit with grandpa while Mom nd I  shopped. Although, I am pretty sure all they did was nap.
     Another exciting weekend night of vegging on the couch watching movies. Looking forward to trying out hot yoga in the morning! Wish me luck!

Another Step In the Right Direction

     Halfway through the week! Hooray! And I have taken another step forward in progress in getting rid of this disordered eating and the thoughts that go with it. Today, I had lunch out at a restaurant as opposed to eating in as I usually do. Now, to some this is no big deal, in fact they do it every day. But, for me, while I have been struggling with it has been a challenge.
     For some bizarre reason, I developed the thoughts that I couldn't have too MUCH for lunch. That if I DID eat out at a restaurant, I needed to stick with what I knew and what was safe. I had to check out the menu and nutrition facts before I went to be prepared. And when I did eat out at a restaurant for lunch I would restrict some at dinner. Clearly, this is not a normal way of approaching a simple lunch out.
     Today, I ate at a bar and grill. I did stick with something safe, a chef salad. But not because I felt I had too, but because I had tried it before and it was good. I had it and ate every bit and it was delicious. After, I did have to talk myself out of some negative thoughts, which I did quickly. Then, tonight dinner rolled around. When that time came, I didn't restrict. This is a pretty significant step forward. I had a good, balanced (and delicious) dinner of quinoa with chicken breast and veggies sprinkled with a few almonds recommended by my nutritionist (picture below!). It was delicious and I enjoyed it with a little bit of good Italian bread. I enjoyed every bite and didn't have any negative thoughts. Actually, I even had a snack of some of my healthified banana bread a bit later. All without negativity. A step in the right direction. Hooray.
     So, I am ready to veg out on the couch and enjoy the rest of the evening. Proud of myself for my steps forward. Keeps me motivated.

Delicious Dinner!

   

Everything Happens for a Reason

     I have long believed in the saying "everything happens for a reason", and this week I am trying (hard) to keep that belief and instill some of it in Jeremy.With his new and unexpected job changes our household has been a little down in the dumps. Jer is disappointed to be leaving the people he has worked well with for so long. I am bummed for him, and bummed I don't get to see some of my friends as often. The whole thing just came out of the blue, and change is hard, this I know, so all I can do is support Jeremy through his changes as he is helping me through mine.
     On a happier note, the banana bread that was cooking last night as I wrote my blog turned out pretty darn good (picture below!). Could have used a little more banana but I used all I had. It was mighty tasty though for having no white sugar and no eggs! Jeremy even tried and liked it. He likes his "naner" bread a little gooey , and this wasn't gooey at all, but he still enjoyed a big piece (with peanut butter) tonight. Another success with a new recipe which inspires me to keep trekking along in my personal cooking challenge. I think tomorrow night I am going to attempt a broccoli-mushroom casserole...dun dun dun.
     So now it's off to bed to rest my muscles from my good , but tough,  workout tonight with Susie. Also, to rest my mind from fretting about my bummed out husband. But, things will work out just the way they are supposed to, this I do have faith in. I have to keep believing the Big Man has a plan for all of us and that "everything happens for a reason."





MMM! So good warm outta the oven!!

     

Just Another Monday

     Today was another Monday, not a bad one, just a Monday. I had all intentions of trying a new recipe for dinner tonight, but on my way home I just felt pooped out and reconsidered. But, I forged through the laziness and tried not one, but two new recipes again tonight! I am proud of myself for branching out with this cooking thing again!
    Dinner was a peanut noodle recipe from my nutritionist Although Jeremy will argue he cooked most of it (he did cook the chicken, and helped watch the noodles) I did my share too. It turned out really good! Whole wheat noodles in a peanut sauce, chicken breast, mixed veggies and crushed peanuts on top. Here's what it looked like before I devoured the deliciousness:




YUM!



     After this tasty dinner I decided to try a recipe for a healthified vegan banana bread. It is in the oven as we speak and smells delicious. I will report tomorrow on how it actually tastes. But from what the batter tasted like, it should be good.

     So, turns out I really like trying these new recipes and food. I know none of it is anything wild, but trying these things are a far step from where I once was. I was once so scared of food I didn't "know" or couldn't calculate. Now, I realize it's about being healthy, fueling my body but still enjoying what I am eating. It's funny how it all comes together more and more as I go along. I figured it would  all start making sense but feels good to be making progress. I still have a ways to go, I can't say I don't still struggle at times and have to fight the negative thoughts. But it is getting a lot better, slowly.

     Well, the banana bread is near done and ready to be taken out of the oven so I better get to taste testing so I have something to blog about tomorrow!

New Recipe Attempt #1- Oatmeal Cookies

  On Friday night, I attempted my first new recipe of  my personal cooking challenge of 2012. I started off with something on the easy side and really it was baking rather than cooking a meal, but hey it was a NEW recipe. I made a recipe for Oatmeal-Raisin Breakfast cookies I found on Pintrest. I altered the recipe a bit, as it said I could, because I didn't have raisins. So where the recipe called for raisins I added a few tablespoons of chocolate chips. I figured replacing raisins with chocolate wasn't going to be BAD! So here are the pictures of the process and the recipe at the very end: 

The batter was tasty which was a good sign that the cookies would be as well

Right out of the oven

Cooling and smelled SOOO good

Final product!

        The recipe didn't make very many cookies, but they were delicious! I enjoyed  2 1/2 (the other 1/2 was shared with my dogs who were begging in their cute ways)  of these cookies with some almond milk. I am took the rest for my mom to test and she agreed they were delicious and wanted the recipe which I have pyt below! So, recipe numero uno was a success! Hooray! As I was making this recipe I planned out the other recipes to try in the coming week, so hopefully they are all as successful and tasty. We will find out!

Oatmeal-Raisin Breakfast Cookies
1/2 cup rolled oats
scant 1/2 cup applesauce or mashed over-ripe banana- I used the applesauce
1/4 cup nut butter- I used natural peanut butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp. raisins (or other dried fruit, or chocolate chips)
pinch of salt
1 packet of stevia or 1 tbsp sugar- I used the sugar. If you want really sweet cookies you can use 1/4 cup sugar.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the applesauce (or mashed banana) with the nut butter, then add all other ingredients and mix until well combined. Shape into cookies (kind of sticky) and bake for around 14 minutes. Cool on wire rack. You also can pulverize the raisins(chocolate chips, dried fruit) and the oats before combining them in the applesauce (or banana) and nut butter mix. My recipe made about 9 small-medium size (odd shaped) cookies! Enjoy!!

Fabulous Friday and a New Challenge!

     FRIDAY again! Hooray! Short but busy week here at the office and I am glad the weekend is here. I had a great workout last night (again) with my trainer Susie.Turns out I am getting stronger bit by bit! I was pretty happy with myself and improvements! YAY! Went home last night to veg on the couch and read some more of my "Operation Beautiful" book. The quote that rang true to me last night was that in our journey to self- acceptance and self-love the healthy tipping point is an aha moment when an individual finally realizes there is no quick fix solution to health.We begin to pursue our healthy ideal. It's a journey with no final destination. It is about healthy living for life. (p.100). I just read this quote over and over and realized that THAT IS IT. I am there. I realize this won't all be quick and easy, but that also it is not about instant gratification, I am setting myself up for a happy, healthy life. Very inspirational. It also sparked another idea in me, another experiment of sorts.....      Most people who know me know I am not the cook of the household. That is Jeremy's job and he loves it. I do bake and I am really pretty good at that (my brownies are quite tasty!). But, I have never been very interested in cooking so to speak. Yes, I have collected a number of cookbooks in an attempt to try it out. I read recipes in magazines and online, and my parents even gave me a cookbook similar to "Cooking for Dummies", but I just never DID it.  One thing that  held me back from attempting to try these recipes were thoughts I had about calories, portions, forbidden foods, and so forth. I was scared of food, which also made me scared of cooking. Also, being the perfectionist I am I was scared of screwing a recipe up, but mostly I was just scared to try the new foods.
     Well, because of my choice to change and because I have been reading some great blogs about health, cooking, and healthy eating I have decided that my days of just baking and leaving the real cooking to someone else are over. Yup folks, I am going to branch out and cook, Jen is going to improve her culinary skills! My plan is to try some of the recipes I have found on blogs and organized into a cookbook of my own (did I mention I am a rather organized girl). My goal is to try ONE new recipe a week. Now, most of these recipes are healthy, sometimes vegetarian meals, which doesn't bother me one bit. But, the husband may not like some (or most) of them, so family and friends be warned you may be forced to taste test as well.
     So, here is another challenge to myself that I am excited about. Excited to try the new tasty meals and to learn a new skill. Who knows, maybe I will even really ENJOY and LIKE cooking! I have a feeling I may. But even if I don't, I will learn something and that's what is important. I will share my adventures in cooking on here, the successes and failures, just as I am with my journey to overcome disordered eating. So, here is to new challenges on this Fabulous Friday! Cheers to the weekend everyone!