Monthly Archives: January 2011

Hi there! How’s you Monday treating you? I’m not sure what my answer to that one would be. I woke up in the middle of night to go to the bathroom and had a crick in my neck from sleeping the wrong way. Unfortunately this is more than a crick it’s a pretty bad pain in the neck, shooting down my shoulder and back. It makes it very hard to turn my head side to side and up and down. Not cool! I had grand plans of going to the Y for a cardio/weight workout but instead I’m laying low at home.

Last weekend at our Packer Party I made Pizza bread and it was a big hit. We had some of the ingredients left over so I decided to make it again during the week to serve with some chili. You can get the full recipe here.

Here are the ingredients I used. 1/2 packaged of turkey pepperoni chopped.

Two TBSP of fresh parsley chopped.

1/2 C of shredded mozzarella cheese.

One garlic clove pressed.

And 1 Tbsp. of flour.

Mix it all up in a small bowl.

Next comes the fun part. For the bread I used two tubes of Pillsbury French bread. Did anyone else use to get scared of the loud “POP” these made when you opened them? These were pretty lame, I actually had to whack them on the counter to get them to open.

Lay the bread out on a floured surface with the seam side up. Make a cut down the seam of reach roll of dough to open it up. Be careful not to cut all the way through.

Next roll the dough down the center to flatten it out.

Place the pepperoni mixture down the center of each roll of dough.

Next roll up the sides and pinch to close shut.

Place the rolls of dough on a baking sheet or in my case a pizza stone, in an X formation. Then twist the ends together.

Next take one egg white mixed with Italian seasoning to give the dough a little egg wash.

The final step before baking is to cut a small slit in the top of each twist to expose some of the filling.

Then all you do is bake for 30 minutes at 375 for golden, flakey, delicious pizza bread!

Beautiful!

Didn’t last long in our house! I must say, “kudos” to all those bloggers out there who frequently document their cooking and baking skills. It is not easy and I don’t do it often. When I was done my camera was covered in flour! But it was fun and totally worth it! Hope you enjoyed it!

Have a great start to you week!

Well, hello there! Long time no blog, I know! Sorry for the brief hiatus. I’ve been trying to post more frequently, at least once a day, most of the time, but since the University is back in session my work gets a little busier. The problem with not posting every day is it is hard to keep you and me caught up. I thought about things I wanted to post about each day but just never got around to it.

On Thursday night I went out for “girls night” with “the girls”
We decided to do an “old school” night out. We planned to meet up at the Recovery Room, a bar located near to the college where most of us went (where I also go to grad school) that has rock’n Karaoke on Thursday nights. If you remember it’s also where Brian and I met! Only a few of us were able to make it but we had an AWESOME time. It was just like old times. The whole bar was singing along, people were dancing, it was the best! My brother actually showed up later with his fiancé.It was a such a good time that we stayed until Karaoke ended at 1:00am! That’s pretty late for me to stay out!

Needless to say I was a little tired on Friday! I managed to make it through a busy day of work, cook dinner for Brian, and watch a movie before crashing into bed for an early night.

Yesterday was pretty much a rock star of a day. I felt like I go so much accomplished! I taught 2 classes at the Y, got four loads of laundry washed, dried, and put away, and cleaned the house top to bottom. Later in the evening Brian and I went to see some friends of ours kids play hockey. The little kids were so cute skating (and falling) on the ice! We also went out to dinner with them at a local Mexican restaurant after the tournament, sorry no pictures.

The reason I worked so hard on house chores yesterday was today I had to work…ALL DAY. Yep, that’s right, pretty much put in a 8 hour day. It wasn’t hard work, more about being social and hospitable but that can get exhausting. So, now I’m chilling on the couch snuggling with Izzy!

I promise a more interesting post tomorrow with a step by step demo of how I made pizza bread complete with pictures! Have a good night!

Hey there! I feel like I’ve been thinking about this post all day but now that I’m actually sitting down to write it I’m not sure I have three things to tell you! Oh well here it goes!

1. There will be no more Triple Threat Thursdays. I tried to set up another round of Zumba classes at a dance studio in La Crescent. We were going to do 10 weeks for $55. The owner of the studio said she needed at least 4 people to sign up in order to be able to pay me and I think for her to make some money too. Only 1 person signed up! I even offered a free class so people could try it out and a ton of people showed up! I’m kind of bummed because I turned down two other “for sure” offers to teach on Thursday nights, one that paid $25 a class, because I had already committed to the dance studio. On the other hand, it is nice to be done, and clean by 1:30pm on a Thursday. I still might have a chance to teach on Thursday I’m just waiting to hear back form someone. I just really want to teach Zumba at least once a week as it helps me be a better instructor. Right now at the Y I’m on a rotation with three other gals so that’s only once every three weeks, plus once a month on Saturdays.

2. This morning I woke up feeling kind of “blah” My head felt foggy and my stomach hurt. I didn’t feel like I slept well, I kept having crazy stressful dreams! I’m not sure if this was caused by what I ate last night or not. Brian and I had grilled cheeses on fancy bread and they were so delicious I had 1 and 1/2! I’m not use to eating all that cheese! After a green smoothie and a walk outside with Izzy I felt much better and taught and awesome group strength class!

3. Right now the 28 and it’s suppose to get up to 32 tomorrow! Sure feels nice! I sure am glad I don’t live on the east coast! Yesterday I was dreaming of spring so I’ll leave you with a few images from last spring!

I really miss riding my bike outdoors!

Have a good day!

Good evening! Hope you had a lovely day! We’re having a heat wave here in Wisconsin it got to the mid-20’s today! Suppose hit 30 later this week!

So, after our Packer party on Sunday we had a ton of leftovers. With just two people to finish all of them we had to get creative. Brian and I usually plan our meals once a week, on Sundays. We look at both of our schedules and think about meals we haven’t had in awhile as well as assess what we have in the cupboards and the fridge. We do a big shopping trip two times a month for staples and I hit up the Food Co-Op once a week for fresh produce. Brian is responsible for getting what ever meat we need for the week out of the freezer. I would say our cooking is about 75/25. He cooks about 75% of the time and I do the rest. Sometimes we collaborate and who ever cooks the most doesn’t have to do the dishes. This week we had to get creative with our meal planning. Brian took the left over dips to work yesterday and today. I snacked on the raw veggies yesterday and made a giant salad out of what was left for lunch today.

I needed a little more than salad for lunch seeing as I was teaching Zumba tonight. I used some of our leftover cheeses slices to make something I haven’t had in long long time.

Grilled cheese! This is actually going to be our dinner for tomorrow night but it just sounded so good with salad and it was!

But tonight’s dinner was by far the most creative and delicious creation using our leftovers.

Brian browned some ground venison and added some taco seasoning, we used the leftover chips (baked for me, regular for Brian), lettuce and tomatoes from the taco dip to make walking tacos!

My plate (sorry for the night time lighting).

Brian’s plate.

It was delicious! Perfect after a high energy Zumba class! I also went to my first Pilates class in a long time. The Zumba class I teach on Tuesday night got moved from 4:30pm to 5pm. Since I get done with work at 4pm I figured it doesn’t pay to go home for 45 minutes so I decided  to hit up the new Pilates express class they offer before Zumba. It was only 30 minutes but let me tell you it was intense! I’m definitely going to try and get to more Pilates classes.

Now, I’m chilling on the couch with a glass of wine getting ready to watch the State of the Union. Not going to lie, I have NEVER watched the State of the Union BUT I figure it’s time I grow up a little. Also, I’m taking a Grad school course that focuses a lot on politics and I figure I better get tuned in to some of current events.

Hope your week is going well and you’re all ready for Wednesday!

Hi there! What’s new with you on this fine Monday? Things over here are pretty normal for a Monday I’ve just switched a few of my regular Monday “to do’s” from morning to afternoon. It’s been a nice change of pace!

Since most of my laundry and cleaning chores were done this weekend because of the big game I had very little house work to do. I did wash up some dishes and launder our sheets. When I tried to redress the bed look who I found lazing the day away.

I hated to kick her out but it had to be done!

I worked on some Zumba moves for some new songs I’ll be teaching tomorrow night and also did some homework for my online class. Then it was off to Weight Watchers I went.

Today’s meeting topic was one which made me feel like I was wasting my money. The topic was exercise. Now, as you can tell from this blog I have no problem getting activity into my life. I LOVE to exercise, but it’s controlling my food in take and losing the mind set of, “Oh I exercise so much I can eat what ever I want.” The leader had us do a little activity where she told us how long we exercised and at what intensity and we had to figure out home many PointsPlus we earned. She gave one scenario where the time was 90 minutes and the intensity was high.  Other meeting members were like, “Who would exercise at a high intensity for 90 minutes???” I wanted to say, “ Uhhhh….I would if I was going out for a 9 mile training run.”  But I just kept my mouth shut, smiled, listened, collected my little gold star ( for losing 5lbs according to the Weight Watcher scale), and headed off to the Y to exercise…for 90 minutes! In the past when I was a Weight Watcher member I made it known that I was a fitness instructor, and did triathlons and half marathons. This time around I just kind of want to keep it quiet. I guess I don’t want people to wonder why I there if I seem to have such a good handle on the exercise thing. It’s about so much more than that. Also, I always felt like when I talked about all my crazy exercise adventures the other members and leader though I was CRAZY! So, I’ll just keep quiet for now.

As I mentioned after the meeting I went to the Y to workout. I brought along some Back on Track Wheat Berry Salad to eat during the meeting and was all fueled up and ready to go. I did Week 1 of the Winter Shape Up series Gina is doing on her blog. She posted Week 2 today but I wanted to do Week 1 one last time. I probably won’t get to try Week 2 until next week as I teach group strength twice the rest of this week. I really loved week 1 and am looking forward to future workouts. I wanted to workout after I weighed in because in case you didn’t know, your muscles can retain water after exercise and I didn’t want that to show up on the scale. I figured I had the time in the afternoon so why not. It was nice to do an afternoon workout for once, even though the Y was surprisingly busy between 1pm and 2:30pm.

Not much planned for the rest of the night. Brian and I are going to do our bi-monthly grocery shopping trip, we are going to try and incorporate all left overs from our party into our weekly meal plan. Then I might work on some more homework or plan out more for classes.

Hope the week has started well for you!

Hi there! Whew! Even though I didn’t leave my house all day and pretty much sat on my butt all day for some reason I’m exhausted!

Last night was pretty low-key. I ended up going to church, finishing the laundry, Brian cooked me dinner, and we found a cute movie on Netflix to watch.

Today was all about the Packer Game. Brian’s good friend Joe was in town from Iowa with his daughters. Brian invited them and another friend over to watch the NFC championship game at our place. We don’t have people over very often, mainly because we are always so busy and our house if pretty small. I got to sleep in again and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before doing a quick clean up of the house. Then it was time for the food! You saw from my post yesterday that I was busy chopping up veggies for a veggie tray. Here’s most of our spread.

We had red and green peppers, carrots, yellow tomatoes with dill dip and hummus, chips with taco dip, cheese and venison sausage with crackers, venison sausage in bar-b-q sauce, and crab dip with crackers. But the star of the show was my pizza bread!

I used an old recipe I had collected from a Pampered Chef party YEARS ago. I remember making this for events back in my early 20’s when I had little or no experience in the kitchen. It seemed so difficult back then but today it was pretty easy! It was a huge hit with the crowd and the only appetizer that got totally demolished.

Brian and Izzy got all decked out in their Packer wear!

I may have even been sporting my only Pack item, a sweatshirt from when they won the NFC championship in 1996.

Our house was pretty packed with all the Packer fans. I’m not a huge football fan but it was fun to be a part of the excitement. Joe’s youngest daughter isn’t really into football either so she and I hung out quite a bit. For the pre-game and first quarter she played with my hair, for the second quarter we played solitaire and a game I didn’t even know I had on my laptop called Plants vs. Zombies.

                                                                                                                   (Source)

During half-time and the third quarter we baked some cookies. Faith was such a hoot in the kitchen! I let her lick the frosting spreader when we were all done.

For the final quarter Faith played with Izzy, colored, and looked at a Barbie book I had. I had a pretty fun time hanging out with Faith today. It was good to have someone to laugh with when the rest of the crowd went CRAZY when the Packers made a touchdown!

Even though I was snacking all afternoon I don’t really feel satisfied yet don’t really feel hungry….annoying! I think I need some fruit in my life!

Have a good night an great Monday!

P.S. Joe started a blog about brewing your own beer check it out here!

Hey there! How’s the weekend going? Mine has been just perfect! To make up for my lack luster posting this past week I have a very full and colorful one for you today just chocked full of lovely pictures!

Brian and I slept in this morning which means we didn’t set any alarms and just let our bodies wake us up, which, because during the week we get up SO early, was about 7:30am, which I think feels pretty nice. Despite getting a lot of sleep I still felt groggy and I knew that I needed some fuel and fitness to get me going. I went for the one thing I know gets me going and feeling healthy in the morning, a Green Monster, even though it is still cold out! After leisurely eating breakfast and drinking some green tea I got ready to go work out. I downloaded a new book onto my MP3 player, and packed an after workout snack since I knew I’d be heading to the Co-op after.

Half a banana (I didn’t use for my smoothie) and a handful of almonds. The perfect combo of healthy carbs, protein, and fats! Usually when I have a free weekend I end up teaching fitness classes at the Y but for the winter/spring schedule I decided to only teach once a month and possibly sub when needed. I had a lot of offers to sub today but passed. It was nice to be able to do my own thing. I did Gina’s Week 1 Winter Shape Up including a 20 minute HIIT. I know I thought this workout was hard the other day but I wanted to challenge myself and I knew it would be a good workout. The circuit portion once again kicked my butt and I wasn’t sure how the HIIT would go but knowing it was only 20 minutes made me want to continue to challenge myself. It was a really good workout! I was dripping with sweat, felt like I worked every major muscle group, but didn’t feel drained.

I headed over to the Co-Op to buy some fruits and vegetables for the week as well as some for tomorrow’s Packer party. I decided to treat myself and got a Chi tea at the Co-Op to sip while I shopped. It was the BEST Chi tea I have ever had and it kept me full until I finished preparing my lunch. Look at all the colorful veggies I came home with. Then it was time to get chopping!

My plan was to prep some veggies for tomorrow’s party as well as make Angela’s Back on Track Wheat Berry Salad which contained many of the same veggies. First up the tomatoes!

Then the red and green peppers (only used the red pepper for the salad the rest are for tomorrow).

Then an English cucumber (for salad only).

Scallions for flava!

And parsley!

So colorful all together!

I had already cooked the wheat berries last night (they were hiding under the veggies). All I had to do was rinse the garbanzo beans, whisk up the dressing, and mix it all together. Here’s the final product!

This was so delicious! You must make this today! It’s fresh, light, flavorful, AND healthy! It probably only took me about 15 minutes to chop and throw it all together. Just looking at that picture makes me want to have some more!

Besides making a new recipe and getting in a good workout I’ve been getting some laundry done and hanging out on the couch with Izzy. She’s super pumped about the Packer game…can’t you tell?

Not sure what’s planned for the evening. Brian is out ice fishing (CRAZY!) so he promised fresh fish for dinner. His friend Joe is in town with his daughters so we might meet up with them.

Hope what ever you are doing it makes you healthy and happy!

Well good evening! So, it’s 9:30pm and I just realized that I haven’t blogged and worse yet I don’t have anything terribly exciting to say or any pictures I took today! So, here’s what went down today!

First of all it is unbelievably cold! I kind of have to laugh when I read other blogs from people who live in Texas and North Carolina and they say it is soooooo cold! Those folks don’t know cold! The low today was –18 and the high only got to 3! CRAZY COLD! And if you can believe it I’ve lived through colder!

I stated out my day with an amazing yoga class at 6:30am. I decided that since I teach three classes on Thursdays now that I’m not training for a half marathon I don’t NEED to run on Friday mornings. A nice easy yoga session is just what my body needs! After yoga I had a delicious and warm breakfast of oats and a very hot cup of tea. Then I headed to work, I wimped out and drove the very short distance. Have I mentioned that we have a new administrative assistant at work? She’s great! And she loves tea and brought with her and electric tea kettle. As soon as I got  through the door she told me there was hot water ready so another cup of tea was had. I was very productive at work today so time just flew!

Yesterday, a man I know from church, and a class I took a long time ago was in my Group Strength class. After class he approached me and told me he had two bikes he was looking to give away. He thought I might know some students who needed a bike. Then he said, “Come to think of it, one would be a perfect commuter bike for you if you would like it!” I was super surprised and happy about the offer. The bike I use as a commuter bike I’ve had since I was 10! It’s actually too small for me but it works. Last summer Brian got a pretty nice bike and we wanted to go on longer rides but I’d be too fast on my road bike and too uncomfortable on my commuter bike. So, after work I stopped by his house and got a new bike! It is REALLY nice! I’ll have to take a picture of it, it was just too cold today! I was so flattered by this generous gift! Now, I just need it to warm up so I can ride!

Other than that not much has been going on. Brian and I did some shopping for a Packer party we’re having this weekend. We ate dinner and have been hanging out on the couch watching a movie. Oh yes and I painted my nails!

So that’s what new! Just so you are not bored to death here’s a random picture on my SD card for your enjoyment!

Sun rise at the Disney Half marathon! Still missing those palm trees and the lack of snow!

Have a good night!

1. Today I have already taught two kick ass fitness classes at the Y. I used the moves that Gina offered in her Winter Shape Up routine as well as the cardio blasts in my Group Strength class this morning, and let me tell you! It was hard! My class loved it and I am already feeling it! After that workout I didn’t know how much energy I’d have left to teach cycling but my new workout and “pump you up” music really energized me. The whole class was dripping in sweat! Now, I just have to summon the rest of my energy to teach Zumba tonight! I see a gentle yoga for me tomorrow.

2. Oddly,  I have been craving and drinking a lot of these bad boys lately.

This is a mega Green Monster with skim milk, spinach, Amazing Grass, a banana, and frozen pineapple. Why, might you ask is this odd? Because today the temperature in Wisconsin is a low of  -20 (yes that’s a negative) and high of 10! Tomorrow the high is predicted to be 0 to 5 above! Not sure why I’m craving something cold but I’ve also been craving ice cream! Crazy! Green Monsters just make me feel good!

3. From now until I have to get ready for Zumba I’m going to put my feet up and watch one of my new favorite shows “Off the Map.” Looking forward to the return of “Parks and Rec.” and “The Office” tonight.

Hope you’re having a good day!

Hey there! Just popping in for a quick hello! I know yesterday I said that this week I had very few evening commitments, because of this we are getting some stuff done around the house. Tonight from the time I got home,
(4pm) I cooked dinner, prepped dinner for tomorrow night, packed a lunch for tomorrow and read my favorite blogs. Brian put air the tires of my car, emptied out and dismantled our old entertainment center, washed the dishes, and we worked together to put our TV and other components in the new entertainment center. Right now he’s reassembling the old entertainment center in the basement and I’m blogging. I should probably we working on some homework. I started and online course this week for my masters degree and have just come realize how attentive I’ll need to be to make sure I keep up on it. There are reading assignments and forums we need to respond to online every week. Not to mention a few big papers. Yikes!

I can’t believe I didn’t write about my first run after the half marathon. I ran on the treadmill at the Y on Sunday. I managed to do 4 miles in a little under 40 minutes. It seemed to fly buy since I was almost finished listening a really goo book (The Help) on my MP3 player. I went to a great yoga class afterwards and didn’t feel any pain in my leg or back. Today I ran on the treadmill again and did about 10 minutes of stretching after. This time I covered 4.5 miles. I ran .40 at 6.0 miles an hour, then .20 miles at 6.5miles an hour, then .20 miles at 7 miles ad hour. I repeated this five times and then finished with .50 miles at 6.0 miles an hour. Again the time just flew by! I felt really good running but my leg did hurt a little bit today. Sigh! This is the first time it has hurt since before the half marathon! I kind of thought I was over this. Oh well! It’s nice not having to worry about training for something. I don’t want to lose all the fitness I gained while training but I also don’t want to permanently injure myself. Since I was feeling good my plan was to keep doing some shorter maintenance runs and maybe a longer run here and there But now since I’m feeling some pain I might take a break. I still have to get in to see a doctor to really have my injuries checked out.

Other than that not much new. Tomorrow my dad is coming to over to help us hook up our new GIANT television he gave us when he got his 3D TV, hence the new entertainment center. Hope your week is going well!