RECIPE: Ham and Swiss Bubble Up Casserole

I've been kind of obsessed with the "bubble up" casserole variations that are floating around food blogs. Basically, the only constant ingredient is biscuit dough--all the other ingredients are varied to make all sorts of different casseroles. Anyway, I had a bag of shredded swiss cheese in my fridge that I needed to use up before it went bad, and so I decided to make my own variation of a bubble up casserole... Ham & Swiss!  It turned out to be absolutely delicious (probably my favorite bubble up I've made so far).

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Ham & Swiss Bubble Up Casserole

2 small (8 oz) cans of buttermilk biscuits (the kind that are 3 biscuits per serving)
8 oz. diced ham
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 cups milk (I used whole fat milk)
6 oz. shredded swiss cheese
2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese

Cut each biscuit in half, and then in half again (so you get four pieces from each biscuit) and put them in a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Toss the ham into the dish as well. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the flour and stir until smooth. Add the Italian seasoning, and very gradually stir in the milk. Stir constantly while you add the milk, so that it stays smooth and you keep the roux from being clumpy. Once all the milk has been added, heat until it just comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the cheeses. Stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth.

Pour the cheese sauce into the casserole dish, and stir to combine the biscuits, ham, and cheese sauce. (It will look like there is way too much sauce, but the biscuits will "bubble up" while baking.) Bake uncovered for about 20-30 minutes (take it out when the biscuits just start to brown on the edges of the dish).

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Global Running Day

Apparently, yesterday was "Global Running Day". I have no idea what that means, except that people were posting about running all over social media--I loved it! ;)

Bart Yasso, from Runner's World magazine, posted about making yesterday the "World's Biggest RUNch"--meaning, everybody running at lunchtime, globally. I did run at lunch time, but my reasons were more for procrastination than the camaraderie of a group virtual run, haha. I didn't have anything going on yesterday until the afternoon, so I really enjoyed a quiet morning.

Finally, at around 11:30, I headed out for a "RUNch". I did a running workout I haven't done in a very long time--if ever? I think maybe I've done it once or twice. Anyway, I'm talking about a Fartlek run. Fartlek means "speed play", and a Fartlek run is basically where you vary your speed during the run without rhyme or reason.

You might sprint to the mailbox, then jog to the corner, then run moderately until you see a blue car, etc. Very spontaneous and unstructured.

I don't know why I don't do this more often! It can be as easy or as hard of a workout as you want, and it's a great workout for runners who are just starting speed work. Instead of having them do 8 x 400 meters at 5K race pace or something, you just tell them to vary the speed whenever they feel like it, including hard and easy running.

During my 10K training, I did a LOT of very slow running, with a sprinkling of very fast running--but nothing in between. I almost forgot what a 8:30-9:30 pace felt like! I did several hard short-interval sessions at a 6:00-7:00/mile pace, a few 10K race pace sessions at 7:55/mi, and about 10,000 very slow sessions at 10:30-12:00/mi (10,000 might be a small exaggeration, but that's what it felt like). Yesterday, I decided to just try out different speeds and see how they felt.

First, I started with a true tempo pace, which is 8:10-ish per mile. It felt hard after the first quarter mile, probably because I haven't been doing much speed work lately. After about a half mile, I thought, I wonder if I can finish this mile under 8:00--so I picked up the pace to 7:45 ish for the duration of that mile (which felt much harder than I remember!) and clocked 7:56 for the first mile. I was happy to see that I still had a sub-8:00 mile in me!

I walked for a few seconds, then alternated jogging and moderate running for the whole second mile. At about mile 2.25, I decided to run at a pace that felt like what I USED to call "easy", even though it was actually moderate. Remember how I wrote about the importance of the easy run? (If you haven't read that post, go read it now--it's one of the most important posts I've ever written.) I used to call a 9:30 pace "easy", until I started heart rate training, and I realized my actual easy pace was 11:30--big difference!

Anyway, I started running at the effort level that felt like what I used to call "easy", and it ended up being about a 9:15 pace. My heart rate was at 162 bpm, but I think it would have been lower if I hadn't run that first mile so hard. Also, it was like 80 degrees outside because I waited until midday to run! I picked up speed for the last quarter mile to about a 7:40 pace, and finished the run at mile three.

It was actually really nice to go for a run without a real purpose and just run how I felt! I had turned off my heart rate alert, otherwise it would have been beeping the entire time, and I just ran at whatever pace I was feeling in the moment. A pretty fun way to run for Global Running Day.

For dinner last night, I made one of my favorites--Cabbage with Sausage. It's ridiculously easy, with only a few ingredients, but cabbage is my very favorite vegetable. Even when I was a kid, I would get really excited when my mom would make cabbage casserole.

I made Cabbage with Sausage one day when we were running very low on groceries. I had a smoked turkey sausage and a head of cabbage in the fridge, so I just heated up some butter in a large pan, cooked the sausage for a minute and then added the cabbage, salt, and pepper and cooked until it was soft. So few ingredients, super fast to make, but it tastes so good! I wish it was prettier to photograph, but judging by the ingredients, it looks just how you would expect. Like cabbage and sausage.

My kids really liked it, too, thankfully. They never used to be picky eaters when they were little, but as they get older, they're getting harder to please.

Tonight is going to be crazy busy, so I'm not sure what we'll do for dinner. Noah has a track meet from 3:30-5:15, Eli is performing a concert at school at 5:30, and both the boys have baseball practice at 6:30. I'll probably have to pack something to eat in the car between track and the concert. Today is the last day of track, so things will be much less chaotic from now on! :)

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Week 42 Weigh-in

I'm glad today starts a new week of maintenance! This past week has been a bit of a struggle for me.

I was excited about doing the no-grocery-shopping challenge, but I wasn't thinking about what it would do for my eating habits. Over the past 10 months, I'd gotten used to eating whatever I wanted, which helped me to feel satisfied with smaller portions. Since we're not grocery shopping for a month, my options are limited to what we have at home (plus fresh produce).

I still eat things that sound good to me, but if given the option of ANYTHING that I want, I would probably make different choices. Anyway, due to not feeling entirely satisfied, I've been eating more of other stuff to make up for it, and my "moving average weight" is creeping upward.

At 129, I'm still under goal, but not by much! Just before I went to Portland in March, I was at 124, so a five pound gain isn't just "water weight". I'm not panicking, but I do want to be more careful not to continue to gain. I'm going to try and get extra creative with meals. I tend to feel more satisfied with my food when I'm excited to eat it, and one way of doing that is to try new recipes. So, rather than one new recipe a week, I'll try to come up with several (using the ingredients we have at home).

My toughest time of day is in the afternoon--after lunch, but before my kids get home from school. By then, I've usually done what needs to be done around the house and written a blog post or responded to blog emails. It's not a lot of "free" time--maybe an hour--but it's significant enough that I want to eat when I'm not hungry.

The kids' last week of school is next week, so things will change. I'll have them at home, and that will keep me super busy all day long. I started writing a list of things we can do this summer that don't involve food (which basically just turned into a list of parks that we can take Joey to run around, haha).

Speaking of keeping busy with the kids, I spent about five hours on Memorial Day putting together a K'Nex set for Eli. He got it for Christmas from a relative a few years ago, but we never opened it until Monday. The box said it was for ages 9+, but looking at the instructions, I couldn't believe there was a single 9-year old on the planet that could understand them.

I poured a glass of wine and got to work (wine makes the instructions easier to understand!) ;) Eli helped by sorting out all the pieces and handing them to me to put together. Finally, several hours later, we finished! It's a roller coaster that's battery operated, so it continues moving on a loop.

Chandler is totally captivated by watching it. He gets as close as he can without the car bumping into him, and just stares it down for as long as we let it run.

Noah really wanted to cook out on the grill for Memorial Day, which was tricky with the food we had to work with (no grocery shopping). We had turkey burgers in the freezer, but no buns; so, I ended up making homemade hamburger buns! I'd never made them before, and it was actually much easier than I thought.

I used this recipe, making a couple of changes per the suggestion of a reviewer (using 3 Tbsp. of sugar and 3 Tbsp. of oil). They turned out to be really good! I made them bigger than suggested (8 buns instead of 12) because the reviews said they were tiny; but they actually turned out to be too big. Next time, I think 10 buns would yield the perfect size. (I just realized I totally forgot to take a photo.)

Yesterday was a super busy afternoon/evening, because Noah had track practice and then each of the boys had baseball practice. Since I knew things would be chaotic, I threw the stuff for French Onion Meatballs in the Crock Pot. Eli adores French Onion Meatballs--he even ate leftovers for breakfast this morning! The recipe makes 11 servings, so it's good for having leftovers.

Making those made me want to make homemade French Onion Soup, so I think I'll do that soon (the only thing I'd have to buy is the onions). I'll even make homemade croutons for it. That's one of the things I actually really like about doing the no-grocery-shopping challenge--it forces me to make a lot of things from scratch. Ordinarily, I would just buy croutons or hamburger buns, but homemade stuff tastes so much better!

I don't know what exactly has come over me lately, but I have been in all-out spring cleaning mode. I've cleaned and organized our closets, pantry, drawers and cupboards. I even find myself thinking, "What can I organize today?" Haha! I'm not complaining--I think this is the most organized my house has ever been--but I'm running out of projects. It's nice having so much energy, though!

Despite this week being tough as far as food goes, I feel good going into a fresh new week of maintenance. I had a really good day today. My main focus will be sticking with my meal schedule, and trying new recipes to get as much satisfaction out of my meals as possible. Monday marked day 300 of being binge-free! Just 63 more days to go until it will be my longest streak ever :)

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Sunset run with Jerry

Yesterday morning, I had been hoping to go for a sunrise run, but with Jerry's work schedule, it didn't work out (I don't want to leave the kids home alone). So, I just decided to call it a rest day and I showered and got ready for the day.

Even after my seven-day challenge of doing my hair and make-up every day was completed, I'm still doing it! The only two days I skipped were when I was painting and working on my bedroom--otherwise, I've gotten dressed in decent clothes, done my hair, and my make-up daily. I talked to my therapist about it, and she loved the idea. It's kind of amazing how much better my mood is when I take that extra 20 minutes or so (15 minutes for hair, 5 minutes for make-up) to get ready, even when I don't have plans that day.

Me, now, as I am sitting comfortably on my bed typing this post ;)

Anyway, I really didn't do much at all yesterday, which was nice, because I'd been so busy lately. I spent a long time working on yesterday's blog post about my favorite health apps. I had leftover rice in the fridge from when I made Beans and Rice, so I decided to make fried rice for dinner. I found a recipe for Pineapple Fried Rice on Pinterest, and that sounded intriguing.

It was really simple to throw together! I used coconut oil instead of olive oil (coconut and pineapple go together so well that it was an obvious substitution); I also used a bag of frozen mixed vegetables (peas, corn, carrots, and green beans) instead of the mix of fresh and frozen called for in the recipe. The veggies had been in the freezer for a while, so I wanted to use them before they were freezer burned.

(By the way, several people have mentioned to me that they don't understand how I could go without fresh produce for a month--but like I said in my post about the challenge, there are three exceptions to our "no grocery shopping" challenge: eggs, milk, and fresh produce. Since my goal is to use up what we have first, I don't mind using frozen veggies. But we ARE allowed to buy produce!)

The recipe was SO simple and SO delicious! I will certainly be making it again in the future. My kids were at my parents' house last night, so it was just Jerry and I for dinner (I don't think the kids would have liked the recipe). Jerry loved it, too.

I never would have thought to use ham in fried rice, but it was great. I even ate leftovers for breakfast this morning.

I was really bored yesterday evening, so I suggested taking Joey for a walk. Jerry and I walked Joey, and then we decided to do a sunset run (starting before sunset, which was at 9:00, and finishing after sunset). We brought Joey back to the house, and headed out a little after 8:00 for a five-miler. It was still 81 degrees, even that late! We'd just had a thunderstorm a few hours earlier, so it was really humid as well.

Jerry is training by heart rate, and his easy pace is in the mid-11:00's when keeping his heart rate under 145 bpm, so we ran at the guidance of his heart rate. It felt extra easy for me, which made for a more enjoyable run ;) There is something about going for an easy run together that makes us have some pretty good conversations! When we sit at home, a lot of times, it doesn't feel like we have much to talk about; but as soon as we start running, we get chatty.

As we were approaching our neighborhood at around mile 4.5, Jerry asked if I wanted to race. I laughed and said no way, but then I thought it might be fun. I haven't raced a friend like that since I was a kid! I actually got nervous--my heart rate, which had been in the low 130's the whole run, shot up to 148 as soon as I agreed to the race. Haha!

After we turned onto our neighborhood street, I counted down and then said Go! and we shot off. The street is about a quarter mile long, and we were neck and neck the whole way. I kept expecting to see him blow past me any second. We stopped at the street just before ours, so the whole race was only 0.15 miles. I won by about two steps ;) I was pretty impressed with Jerry for keeping up with me! Our pace for that little segment was about 6:05.

When we got home, we were both drenched in sweat because of the humidity. My heart rate was really low (131 average for the duration of the 5-mile run), but I looked liked I was running in a sauna. We sat on the porch for a while drinking ice water to cool off, then took this "Jerry face" photo:

Interestingly, it was taken at 9:15 or so, after sunset, but it still looks pretty light outside. I need seven more sunrise runs, and eight more sunset runs to earn my badges on Smashrun. After I earn these badges, I may try for one called the "Two by 33 by 10K"--you have to run 10K every other day within a period of 33 days. My runs lately have been short (about 3-5 miles) so it would be a lot of running! But I'll keep the pace easy, and I think it'll be a fun badge to earn.

Hope you all had a nice long weekend!

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My Favorite Health Apps

People are always asking me what apps I use for this or that when it comes to running, weight loss or maintenance, and habit tracking. I decided to put them all in one place on this post!

These are the apps that I use daily, or almost daily...

(I have an iPhone, so I'm not sure of the availability of these apps on other devices.)

Fat Secret (Free)
This is the app that I use for calorie counting. I used to be a fan of My Fitness Pal, but once they integrated ads in the middle of my food log (causing it to lag as it reloaded after each addition), I decided to look for a new app. I tried Fat Secret, and I LOVE it--I even like it much better than I did My Fitness Pal. I have mine set up so that the only thing I see is calories, which is the only thing that I focus on, and I love how clean looking it is. It has a bar code scanner, a weight log, a recipe builder, and other features that are important to me.

Garmin Connect (Free)
This is one of a few different apps I use to log my runs. My Garmin watch uses Blutooth to upload my runs to Garmin Connect as soon as I finish running. On the app, you can easily view the stats that your watch logs--your pace, distance, splits, heart rate, etc. You can also add "Connections" ("friends") on Garmin Connect, so you can view their activities as well, and leave comments on them. Seeing my friends' runs always motivates me to get out and run myself! You can also keep track of the mileage on your shoes--since I rotate four different pairs of shoes, this feature is really important to me.  (This app is great for anyone with a Garmin Forerunner or activity tracker)

McRun ($4.99)
This is a mobile version of the McMillan Running Calculator. I mainly use this when I write running plans for my family and friends, but it's fun for myself as well. I can plug in a recent race time, and it will tell me what my training paces should be, as well as what I could expect to run a race of a different distance.

Using my current 10K race, it predicts
my times for other race distances.

Using my current 10K race, it gives me
suggestions for my pace on other workouts.

Footpath ($0.99; $4.99 for Elite)
Footpath is an app that allows you to plan running, hiking, or biking routes. You simply use your finger to draw a rough outline of your route, and the app "snaps" the line to the path or roads (you could also disable that feature if you're "off-roading" it). This app is super useful for when I want to run a new route. I also like it when I travel, because I can map out a route where I am. You can also switch to satellite view, so you can see what the surroundings are like. This is the 5K route I like to run at the State Park:

ConnectStats ($1.99)
This app gives me all the info that the Garmin Connect app does, but also includes a LOT more detail. It uploads automatically from Garmin Connect. I like using this app for detailed running data.  If you're a numbers person, or you like looking at graphs, this is perfect for you.

Overview of the runs (I like that it
includes heart rate on the overview)

You can click on each of those graph icons
to see a lot more detail about each particular stat.

Running Pace (Free)
This app is nice for when I'm setting my running goals. For example, I wanted to run 49:22 (or better) for my 10K race in April, so I plugged in the distance and time goal, and it calculated the pace I would need to run. It also calculates your mile (or kilometer) splits--so, in that example, I would know that I should hit mile three in 23:50, mile five in 39:43, etc. A simple, but helpful calculator!

Happy Scale (Free; Deluxe edition $4.99)
I wrote in detail about this app recently, which you can read about here. This is a great app for keeping a weight log!

Momentum (Free; Premium option $4.99)
This is the app that I use to track my binge-free days and some other goals that I set. It's very simple--if you do what you're supposed to, you just tap the box and it's marked as completed. It keeps track of your streak. You can choose how many days per week or month you want to do the task, too.

Period Tracker Lite (Free; Deluxe version $1.99)
I thought I'd throw this period tracker app in here as well. While this has a lot of features, the only one I use is to track the days of my period. It's nice to be able to look ahead and see if I'll be on my period during vacation or something important. You can also track PMS symptoms, ovulation, and other things if you wish to.

At a glance, you can see the countdown
until "dooms day". 

The little pink triangles are period days; and
the gray ones are projected period days.

Relax Melodies (Free; Premium version $9.99)
This is totally random, but I use this app every single night and I love it. Jerry and I have always slept with a fan running in the room, simply because we needed the white noise to fall asleep. When I found this app, I decided to try it, and we have since stopped using a fan. This is just a compilation of dozens of sound effects--you can play just one at a time (wind, for example), or combine several (wind, crickets, and campfire). You can have it stay on all night, or shut off after a specified period of time. This has really helped me to fall asleep at night.

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And now, please tell ME--what are some health apps that you love and use on a regular basis?

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Sunrise run

I completely forgot that Noah had a track meet yesterday, so our evening was kind of rushed. We always eat dinner early (4:00 pm) and Noah's meet was from 3:30-5:30--which kind of throws off our routine. By the time his meet was over, we were STARVING.

Noah's been doing really great with track this year! He'll never be the fastest on the team, because he just doesn't want to commit to the type of training that would take, but he's certainly improved a lot since last year. Yesterday, he did the 70-meter dash and came in second place. I'm not sure where he placed in the long jump, but he is one of the best out of probably 25-30 kids that do it.

He also participated in a 400-meter relay (four kids run 100 meters each, passing a baton, around the track). He was the "anchor" on his team, meaning he was the one to run the final 100-meters of the race. I was super nervous for him, because that's a lot of pressure!

His team was in the lead, and then the baton was passed to him. He kept first place until the last 10 meters or so, when someone pulled in front of him. But he gave it his all, and he did so great!

Judging by the shorts he chose to wear, you would have no idea that his mom is a running coach ;) (He has running shorts, I swear!)

On the way home, I was trying to think of what I could make for dinner that would be super fast. I ended up making homemade macaroni and cheese. It didn't use up many ingredients from the pantry, for the no-grocery-shopping challenge, but all I could think of was eating at that point. (I was too hungry to stop and take a picture.)

Our challenge has been pretty tough for me the past few days because I don't have my daily "treat"--typically, I buy what I'm going to have each day, so that I don't have a stockpile of junk food in the house. Since I'm not buying groceries, I don't have any treats to look forward to each night! I will probably end up making a batch of cookies or something this weekend. I'll just have to be very careful not to eat more than one or two each evening. Yesterday, I ended up eating three single serving bags of Skinny Pop popcorn (300 calories total) but I still just didn't feel satisfied. I need my dessert! (As I typed this, rice pudding popped into my head--maybe I'll make that. I haven't had that in forever!)

This morning, I went out for a sunrise run. There is a badge on Smashrun that you earn for doing 10 runs during sunrise (the run has to start before sunrise and end after sunrise). Sunrise was at 5:59 this morning. I woke up at around 5:40, and decided I didn't want to get up and out the door, so I closed my eyes to go back to sleep. About five minutes later, I was still awake, so I made a split-second decision to go run.

I leapt out of bed, threw on my clothes and Garmin, gulped down a cup of water, and headed out the door. I ended up starting the run at 5:53, so it was just in time. Instead of doing an out-and-back, I decided to run back home on the marsh trail. It's only half a mile of trail, unfortunately, but it sounded good for an early morning run. And I wasn't disappointed!

The trail has gotten very narrow with all the grass and weeds growing in. (You can see it toward the right side of the picture.) It was humid this morning!

When I got home, I saw that I had spiderwebs all over my legs--one of the downsides to running the marsh trail first thing in the morning, I guess. But that was nothing compared to what was waiting for me on the porch!

I've been seeing this spider every night on our door, and I'm always careful to avoid it. This morning, he certainly caught himself a big breakfast in his web. Spiders gross me out.

I now have 3 runs out of the 10 needed for for the Sunriser badge on Smashrun. It's kind of fun to work on earning the different badges! It gives me something to think about that's not related to pace or distance--just the time of day. (There are badges that focus on pace and distance, but there are a ton that aren't.)

I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but I decided not to do the Michigan Ragnar this fall after all. Captaining a team is a TON of work, and I'm just not up for it right now. Maybe I'll do it next year. Several readers asked about joining my team, which is why I wanted to make sure I posted here that I'm no longer planning to do it. If anyone else is forming a team, however, and you need another runner, I may be up for that! I just don't want to do the planning ;)

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! Don't forget about the reason behind Memorial Day. Every Memorial Day, I am so thankful that I get to see my younger brother on a regular basis; it breaks my heart that some families of veterans aren't so lucky.

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The bedroom is done!

So far, so good on our no-grocery-shopping challenge--of course, it's only been two days. I forgot to mention that the challenge also includes dining out, so we can't do that, either. Eli asked yesterday if we could get milkshakes from Sonic (we've only gotten them once or twice before, but they were insanely good, and he remembers that). I told him that if we make it through the whole no-grocery-shopping challenge (through June 30th), we can reward ourselves with a milkshake from Sonic. Big incentive!

Last night, I made Beans & Rice for dinner. I used to make this a lot when I was losing weight in 2009-2010. It's a super filling, hearty meal for very few calories, and it tastes great! We had some corn muffin mix in the pantry, and that actually sounded really good to have with the Beans & Rice, so I made a batch of those as well. As far as putting a dent in our pantry food, this meal used up the muffin mix, two cans of beans, some rice, and a can of tomatoes. From the freezer, the rest of a bag of frozen corn. (I love using up the last of something!)

I cooked extra rice, so I'll probably use it to make vegetable fried rice (or maybe with some shrimp). We LOVE rice, so you'll probably be seeing it a lot this month (well, until we run out...).

Last night, I made a batch of the English muffins I mentioned yesterday. I followed the recipe exactly as written, and they turned out SO good. I had one for breakfast today with butter and homemade strawberry jam.

The kids loved the English muffins as well, so I'll probably be making several batches of these (the batch yielded 7 muffins yesterday, because I used larger rings). 

Yesterday was my fourth day in a row of not going for a run. Monday was a rest day, but Tuesday and Wednesday, I was working on my bedroom all day, so I didn't run. Last night, I have no idea what possessed me to choose to run in 85 degree weather, but at around 5:00 pm I went for a run. It was really hot, but for some reason, it didn't bother me that much! 

I kind of like running in the evenings; during the summer, I may be doing that more often. Smashrun has a badge you can earn for doing 10 runs after sunset (you have to start the run before sunset, and end the run after sunset), so maybe I'll work on earning that badge. Today, sunset is at 8:59 pm--that just seems so late to go run! But it might be kind of fun.

Thanks for all the suggestions about what I should do with my bedroom windows! I really did like the contrast of the dark blinds, so I went a discount store to see what sort of curtains they had. I ended up finding some light green ones and a dark curtain rod. Once I put them up, I absolutely loved it! I tried getting a good picture, but the pictures turn out so dark that it's hard to see. Here is the best I could do:

(Yes, that is a lava lamp--I got it in 7th grade, and I refuse to give it up!)

My duvet is green (actually, the duvet is the first thing I bought, and I started changing the rest of the room to go with the duvet, haha) so the curtains go with the duvet really well. The whole room has such a bright, cozy feeling to it. Before, I never liked spending time in my room, but now I absolutely love it! (Estelle hasn't moved from my bed in three days except to eat and use the litter box).

The whole room ended up costing about $250 to make over--not bad at all!
Primer for furniture- $10
Primer for walls and doors- $16
Paint for furniture and trim- $30
Paint for walls- $30
Duvet- $12
Pillow cases/throw pillow- $8
Ceiling fan- $75
Wall clock- $15
Drawer pulls for dresser/night stands- $55

I got the duvet at the thrift store; the pillow cases, throw pillow, curtains and curtain rods at a discount store; the primer and paint for the furniture and walls, the ceiling fan (which was the most expensive part of the room), and the drawer pulls from Lowe's. I wish I had done it sooner--it's changed my mood for the better. Phoebs loves it, too ;)

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A June food challenge

In May 2013, Jerry and I realized we were spending way too much money on groceries. Luckily, we have a pretty big pantry, but we were being kind of wasteful with our food, and we only actually used about half the items in the pantry on a regular basis.

At the time, we had a pantry full of food, and decided to see if we could go an entire month without buying any groceries (milk, eggs, and fresh produce were the only things we were "allowed" to buy). It was actually a really fun challenge! We had to get really creative toward the end of the month (by "we", I mean "I", since I was doing the cooking) and made some interesting meals, but we completed the challenge.

(Oooh, I had forgotten about the homemade English muffins I made until I linked to that post above. They were delicious! I think I'll make some of those soon.)

Anyway, we are back in the same predicament--too much food in the pantry, yet we're still grocery shopping. So, we're going to do the challenge again, starting yesterday! I didn't do "one last shopping trip" at the grocery store, stocking up on our favorites, either. What we have is what we'll be using until the end of June.

This morning, I got up pretty early, so I decided to look through the kitchen and start listing some meals I could make right now without buying a single thing. I was surprised at just how many things we could make!

Baked oatmeal
Meatballs with mashed potatoes
Shrimp fried rice
Black bean enchiladas
Beans and rice
Black bean soup
Navy bean and ham soup
Turkey burgers
Parmesan-crusted tilapia
Fish sandwiches
Chipped beef on toast
French onion meatballs
Grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Tuna noodle casserole
Cheese grits with an egg
Cereal with milk
Roasted tomato and garlic soup with barley
Egg scramble
Breakfast burritos
Risotto
Fettuccine alfredo
Homemade pizza
Spanish rice with sausage
Lentil chili
Baked ziti
Gnocchi with vodka sauce
French toast
Pancakes

...that was just what I came up with in a matter of about 10 minutes. Last night, I made Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal for dinner, because I had some bananas that I needed to use before they went bad--it was delicious! (I've also tried her Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal, and I loved that one as well)

Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal drizzled with peanut butter

I might make some banana muffins for breakfast, too. When deciding what to make during this type of challenge, I try to make things that include the perishables first, so we don't waste anything. Toward the end of the month, I can use up the frozen and canned things.

My favorite part about doing a challenge like this is making things that are out of our typical meal rotation. There are foods I love that I always forget about making until I don't really have a choice (like grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches).

I wish I could remember the recipe that I used to make bread during the last challenge (I didn't even buy loaves of bread last time--I made bread from scratch every couple of days!). The bread that I made was really good for sandwiches. I'll have to dig around my blog and see if I linked to it somewhere. (ETA: I found a picture of it that I posted, but I didn't link to the recipe... if any of you know of a good white sandwich bread recipe that looks similar to the picture below, please share!)

When I told Jerry about doing this challenge again, he was really excited--until I reminded him of the fact that we didn't even buy alcohol last time ;) We currently have three bottles of wine and a few beers, so we're going to have to save those for special days.

Looking through my blog to find that bread recipe made me realize that I used to post about food pretty frequently! It's kind of fun to browse through and remember the different things I used to eat, or recipes I tried. Like I said, I had forgotten about the English muffins, and they were so good! Kind of a lot of work for an English muffin, but the recipe makes 10, so they last a while.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to our challenge!

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Week 41 Weigh-in

I had a post about 90% ready to post yesterday, but I literally didn't have a single free minute once the kids left for school. I spent 14 HOURS prepping, priming, and painting my bedroom. I wanted to paint the trim white, and I'd never painted trim before, so I wasn't sure how that would go. Also, our walls were pretty dark (and sponge painted) so I wanted to make sure to get them covered well.

The first couple of hours or so, I spent my time taking the doors off the walls (closet, bathroom, and bedroom); taking the TV off the wall; removing the light and socket covers; moving the furniture to the center of the room and covering it, filling in holes in the walls from screws; sanding and washing the walls. Then, I did a coat of primer, which took FOREVER. I had to carefully prime the trim around the windows, doorways, along the floor, and at the ceiling. By the time I was done with a coat of primer, eight hours had passed!

I had been thinking that I would need two coats of primer and two coats of paint to cover the previous dark color (with a light yellow). Once I finished that first coat of primer, I wanted to just quit the whole project and go back to how it was before, haha. My back was killing me, and my muscles were just aching. Not to mention that I was ravenously hungry (how is it that painting takes so much energy?).

After a quick Google search, I decided to chance it with just one coat of primer. I figured if worse came to worst, I could just use a third coat of paint. Painting the trim white was even more tedious than priming, because I had to be careful not to get the white paint anywhere other than on the trim (when priming, I just covered the walls and trim together). Finally, when the trim was done with one coat of primer and one coat of paint, I decided to do the walls and hopefully be good with just one coat.

The second I brushed on some of the yellow paint, I thought, "Oh, crap, this looks like Easter!" I wasn't imagining an Easter-yellow--more of a sunny yellow. Jerry got home shortly after that (the twelfth hour at that point) and he really loved the color. I really didn't want to change the color, because I was just ready to finish the whole thing, so I continued with the Easter-yellow. The more we painted (Jerry did the rolling while I painted around the trim), the more the color grew on me. I really like it!

I don't have any real "before" photos, but looking back through my pictures on my computer, I found this one that will at least give you an idea of what it looked like before:

And now, partially done (still working on the window treatments, and some pictures for the walls):

Estelle's favorite place is on my bed

I'm trying to figure out what to do with the windows. Before painting, I was thinking we'd have to get white blinds, but I discovered that I actually kind of like the contrast of the dark brown ones (they look black in the picture). I hung one curtain rod this morning, but I'm not sure what my plan is yet as far as window treatments, so I'm going to figure that out before I hang the other rod. Suggestions? Should I switch out the blinds for white?

We finished painting at 10:00 pm (I had started at 8:00 in the morning). Once we moved the furniture back, and hung the blinds back up, I was completely exhausted. I didn't cook dinner, so Jerry had picked up a pizza on the way home. I scarfed down three pieces--it was like I couldn't even eat them fast enough. It's so odd! Even after running 10 miles, I don't feel that ravenous. Painting is exhausting.

When I woke up this morning, every muscle in my body was groaning. Painting the bedroom was a better strength workout than any other I've ever done. And today is going to be just as challenging--I have to hang the doors back up (and possibly paint them, I haven't decided yet); hang curtains; hang the TV; hang a ceiling fan; and hang a mirror. The final part of our bedroom project will be new carpet, but that will probably have to wait until next year, because it'll be expensive.

Anyway, that's what has been taking up my time this week! I did my weigh-in this morning, and I really like using the average moving weight. Today's average moving weight was 128.6. If I had gone by my actual weight this morning for my official weigh-in, I wouldn't have been very happy--I had pizza last night, and put on two pounds overnight from the sodium! (There are two foods that always make my weight jump by 2-4 pounds overnight--pizza and buffalo wings.)

Not putting on my typical 10 pounds of "spring" weight (I always tend to gain weight through the spring and summer) has been pretty challenging so far. Yesterday, it was 90 degrees outside! As I was working on my bedroom, I was thinking about how good a few Summer Shandies would taste, but I'm going to try and limit the alcohol to just social situations this summer, so I don't wind up with lots of extra calories on a day-to-day basis. Alcohol and ice cream are two things that tend to get me in trouble with my weight every summer.

Jerry and I are starting a food challenge today, which I'll write about tomorrow. I had the whole post about it almost done yesterday, but like I said, I just got too busy to finish. It's kind of a fun challenge that we've done before, and I'm looking forward to it!

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A visit to the Lego store

Yesterday, Jerry and I decided to surprise the kids by taking them to the Lego store. Eli has been really into building things with Legos lately, and he's been working to earn as much money as possible for Lego sets (he cuts the grass at my parents' house, and they pay him for it). The Lego store is pretty far away, at Somerset Collection (a "fancy" mall), so we let the kids withdraw $100 each from their savings accounts and then we made the hour-long drive to the store.

We stopped and had self-serve frozen yogurt on the way there, too. We hadn't done that in nearly a year, and the kids were totally thrilled. Yesterday was my high-calorie day--and thank goodness for that, because I can't seem to just get a tiny portion of fro-yo with fruit toppings or something when I go to places like that, haha. This place even had mini buckeyes for toppings! It was delicious.

I had never been to Somerset before, and I was kind of stunned at how nice (and huge) it was. We had no idea where the Lego store was inside the mall, so we just parked and hoped we'd be able to find it. Luckily, we found it right away, and we were pretty close to it. Eli's eyes were like saucers and his jaw dropped when he saw all the Lego sets. He said, "The frozen yogurt and Lego store makes this the best day of my life!" Hahaha.

I wish Legos weren't so damn expensive, though. There was a really awesome Ghostbusters Firehouse set that even *I* wanted to buy. I love puzzles, which I've mentioned on the blog several times, but I also happen to love putting other things together, including Legos. I don't really like using my imagination, though--I just like to follow along in an instruction booklet and piece it together. Getting a 4,600-piece Lego set sounds like so much fun to me! But I can't even imagine spending $350 on it. 

Eli has a really tough time making decisions on anything, but asking him to choose a Lego set was like asking him to cut off his hand--he just couldn't do it! But eventually, the boys picked out what they wanted, and they couldn't wait to get home to start putting them together. I love seeing them get excited to do something creative. 

The kids spent the night at my parents' house last night (bringing their new Legos with them) and Jerry and I went out for drinks with Renee and her husband, Dave. We just walked to the local bar, and it was super nice outside! We sat outside and chatted for a long time. Renee and I are going to be coaching cross country again this year, so we wanted to go over some plans for that. I had so much fun coaching last year, I'm really looking forward to doing it again. It was a nice evening, and I think Dave and Renee may be coming with Jerry and me to Cadillac for the race next month! I hope so. Going with another couple will will make for a very fun weekend :)

I was SO tired this morning, and the last thing I wanted to do was a run. Technically, it was my long run, but it was only five miles, so it wasn't that bad. I headed out first thing after I woke up, because otherwise, I could see myself procrastinating all day. The birds are starting to get territorial now, and my heart rate kept shooting up for a few seconds when I thought a bird was going to come at me. No dive bombs today, though!

It got up to 80 degrees today--just four more weeks until it's "officially" summer. This year is flying by way too fast!

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