June 26, 2014

Bubble wrap

What a day! The past few days have actually been pretty busy, and I'm looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow. This morning, I set two alarms to make sure I was up for when my brother came over to run with me. After what happened last time, I didn't want to take any chances. I still didn't sleep well, and was looking at the clock all night.

I got up at 6:00 and dressed for our run. I sat outside until Nathan got here at around 6:15, and then we headed out for an easy three-miler. I know of about six different three-mile routes from my house, but I chose one that I figured we'd encounter the least amount of problems (cars, dogs, etc). Turned out to be a good choice!

The weather was nice this morning--not too hot, and the humidity wasn't bad either. It was nice for summer running.


The only bad part about the run was that there were fish flies all over the ground. In some spots, it sounded like we were running on bubble wrap, because the flies make a popping sound when you step on them. So gross!

Nathan just registered for the Detroit Free Press FULL Marathon. I was so shocked! But I think it's great for him. The race is in October, and he's on the third week of training. I'm registered for the international half, so of course I'm going to stay after and cheer him on. Nathan works a pretty wacky schedule, so I'm going to try and come up with a running plan for him.

Anyway, we finished our run at a faster pace than I would have run if I had been by myself, but it felt good ;) After I showered, I got the kids ready for football camp, and drove them there. We had plans to meet up with my friend Andrea and her kids at a park at noon (picnic and play time), and the kids' camp was until 11:30. So I went home to make our lunches.

I ended up making Quinoa Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing. I forgot just how good that is! It's such a strange combo of ingredients--quinoa, cabbage, cucumber, honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, and pepper flakes. I threw that in the fridge to cool off, and then went back to the football field to watch the boys play a scrimmage game for about a half hour, before going home to pick up our lunches and sunscreen, and all that good stuff for the park. Whew! Went back to pick up the kids, and then drove to the park.

The park was one that I'd never been to before, and it was really nice! It was tucked away in the middle of nowhere, really. They had picnic tables and a play area, as well as some baseball fields (which were locked, much to Eli's disappointment).


Andrea and her kids showed up, and we ate lunch and the kids played. With my kids' ages being 9 and 10, I am surprised they played for as long as they did. We stayed for about 2 1/2 hours! Afterward, I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home, because Noah left his water bottle at the game yesterday, and needed a new one.

I am back to craving McDonald's vanilla cones all the time. I went through a phase last year where I couldn't get enough! They are only 170 calories (5 PointsPlus), so they are a much better choice than a flurry or something from the local ice cream shop. Anyway, this afternoon, Jerry and I took the kids to get a cone. Yum!

I've been in such a rut with meal ideas lately, and it's driving me crazy. I'm so tired of the same 20 or so dinners, but cooking new recipes means calculating all the nutrition info, which takes forever. It's so easy to go through my recipe book (where I've printed all my favorites with the nutrition info already calculated and attached). I really need to take some time to sit down and input a bunch of new recipes, at least for a week's worth.

Well, Jerry is off work, so we're going to watch Super Troopers tonight. I've never seen that movie, and Jerry and Nathan have convinced me that I need to. ;)

18 comments:

  1. I have the same problem with our meal rotations. I came across this website, SkinnyTaste.com, and she does all the meals' nutrition information and points calculations for each recipe. Our favorite is the Honey Sesame Chicken, http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/02/crock-pot-sesame-honey-chicken.html. SO Good

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    1. I second this! SkinnyTaste is fantastic and I've made a number of her recipes with great success. Even my picky husband likes them! Some of our faves are Asian Glazed Drumsticks and Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and pretty much any of her latin-inspired dishes.

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    2. We love her Salsa Verde Chicken Tostadas. I like to make extra chicken for leftovers with rice or beans (or more tostadas!)

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    3. I had never heard of skinnytaste.com thanks for the information.

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  2. Katie, do you use MyFitnessPal at all? They have this great feature where you just paste in the URL of a recipe and it calculates all of the calories and stuff for you.. which I'm sure you can easily calculate into Plus Points :)

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousJune 27, 2014

      I was also going to suggest this!! The recipe calorie calculator on MyFitnessPal is AMAZING. It can't translate every recipe out there, and you have to double check pretty carefully to be sure there weren't errors (such as whether the ingredients were in the raw or cooked state, which would change the weight) but really, it's been a lifesaver.

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  3. AnonymousJune 26, 2014

    So it's not really "cooking" but when I get in a rut with dinner and tracking points, we like Stouffer's frozen family size dinners. The meat lasagna and chicken enchiladas are decent points for dinner.

    Karen

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  4. Move that gigantic cotton candy! How's the view from sugar heaven. I used to watch that movie nightly in college!!

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  5. AnonymousJune 27, 2014

    WW has a couple off cookbooks out. I found them at my local library about 6 months ago and have abused the heck out of them all of the pp are calculated for you.

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  6. All right meow, what did you think of the movie?

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  7. I see people have already suggested skinnytaste. I love her recipes! Our favourites are the healthy baked chicken nuggets, the skinny broccoli Mac and cheese and the Santa Fe chicken in the crockpot. All the WW points are included!

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  8. Ugh - Katie I'm with you on the McD's cones. But I'm craving the dipped cone. I've had *one* and they've been available here since Memorial Day weekend. I'm holding strong. . but at the same time I'm not losing weight, so I think "why not have a cone?" :( they are just so dang addictive and I crave them - true and real cravings!

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  9. I love these blogs for Weight Watcher meals: Greenlitebites, Skinnytaste and Weight Watcher Girl does really awesome Youtube videos, her blog is called theprettyyouproject, her videos showing a day of eating are amazing how much she can eat and stay within 26 points! She has lost 160 pounds now I think, and has so much passion to help others, kinda like another girl named Katie!! :)

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  10. slenderkitchen.com is another blog where she posts recipes complete with nutrition info and points plus.

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  11. Totally understand the annoyance of calculating the nutrition info. I actually do it all long hand on paper, but then I save the papers and use them for short cuts later on. Especially good for dessert-type recipes, where they use a lot of flour, sugar, etc., and I can just flip to another page and get it quickly. I have decided not to cook something because it would be too much hassle to do the calculations. :)

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  12. AnonymousJune 27, 2014

    I follow the 2 blogs mentioned and another that I get good ideas from - Emily Bites. She includes points and even has them organized where you can search for a recipe in a certain point number category. My favorite...butternut squash soup - my son loves her pizza logs.

    Ellen Renee

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  13. Discovered your blog and LOVE it! Thank you for the great inspiration. I am running my first half marathon tomorrow (I walked one years ago but this is the first time I'm actually running so I'm counting this as my first) and really appreciate your tips.

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  14. AnonymousJune 28, 2014

    Super Troopers IS a great movie! And I treated myself to an ice cream tonight too, but mine was a 1/2 cup (okay, 3/4 cup!) of soft serve from DQ. Yum! LOVE your blog! I just started my own. Check it out sometime: http://bfattofit.wordpress.com/

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