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Archive for August 2012

Happy Friday!

By Melissa · Comments (0) ·: August 31st, 2012

Happy Friday and Labor Day Weekend! What are your plans for the weekend? Our weekend is jam-packed, to the say least! My husband and I have a double-date with some friends tonight. We are going to dinner and then seeing “Crazy For You,” at Sacramento’s Music Circus. I haven’t seen a musical in a while, so I’m pretty excited! I absolutely LOVE musicals, especially since I used to be in them when I was in high school and college. Tomorrow, we are doing some wine tasting with my in-laws and family friends in Clarksburg and then going to dinner. On Sunday, we are heading to a Labor Day BBQ in the afternoon and then we are celebrating our good friend’s birthday at our house that night. It should be fun!

Today, my mom came up to visit and play with Keenan, while I went to CrossFit. Since I had to get out the door fairly quickly this morning to make the 9:00 a.m. class, Keenan and I ate a quick breakfast of toasted pancakes with peanut butter and honey on top (I also topped mine with half of a banana) and a side of strawberries. It was just what I needed before my workout!

Keenan enjoying his breakfast this morning!

My breakfast this morning.

Today’s WOD was with a partner and it consisted of:

- 200 meter farmer carry

- 60 deadlifts (women weight: 145 lb)

- 200 meter farmer carry

- 60 hang cleans (women weight: 95 lb)

- 200 meter farmer carry

- 60 push presses (women weight: 65 lb)

- 200 meter farmer carry

- 10 rope climbs

It was a good workout for the end of the week. My partner was awesome! He carried me for every farmer carry, but we split up the lifts equally and at the end, I did 7 of the 10 rope climbs, since he was so tired from carrying me! We finished in 26 minutes and 2 seconds, under the 30 minute time cap doing the prescribed weights.

Since I am not able to go to the gym on Monday, due to the holiday and only one class time, I’m planning to go again tomorrow. In fact, we are going to bring my mother-in-law, since she is staying with us to babysit Keenan tonight. I’m curious to see how she likes it!

After I worked out this morning, I headed to Ross to search (once again) for a cup for Keenan and a basket. I absolutely LOVE it when I find bargains! I found a cup for less than $3.00 (though it’s a little bigger than I wanted), a basket for $2.00 (which is slightly too big, so I have to return it) and a cute Puma jogging/sweatsuit for Keenan for $14.00! That is what I call a good shopping trip (though, I still need to find a basket)! Where do you like to shop? Are you a bargain hunter?

Look who has his own water cup!

When I got home, Keenan was so thrilled to have his own water cup that he kept asking, “Mommy, water in it!” I quickly washed it so he could start using it. He tried the jogging/sweatsuit on and he looked so cute! It fit him perfectly with a little room to grow. Since he doesn’t have many fall/winter things that fit, I thought the little sporty jogging/sweatsuit was a good start!

Sporting his new jogging/sweatsuit!

For lunch, I made Keenan a turkey and cheese sandwich with a side of avocado and peaches. I made my mom and I turkey sandwiches with lettuce, tomato and avocado spread with mustard on sandwich thins, along with baby carrots and peaches from my parent’s orchard. In addition to my sandwich, I had an iced coffee (much needed after a hard workout), since I didn’t have time to make my usual latte this morning.

Well, it is time to do some things around the house before getting ready for tonight. Have a great weekend!

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Silliness and the Love of “Baba!”

By Melissa · Comments (0) ·: August 31st, 2012

Showing his love for his “Baba!”

Today was once again all about being silly and goofy at our house. Keenan literally wrestled his “Baba” on the couch for 10 minutes straight this morning! He kept saying, “Ummm, I love you Baba” as he hugged and laid on him. Keenan loves “Baba” so much that he practically goes everywhere with us, not to mention “Lambie” (or his new additions: Elmo and Polar Bear). But, “Baba” and “Lambie” still reign at the top, amongst all of Keenan’s critters! Poor “Baba,” he has travelled to two countries and back, not to mention Alaska, Oregon and Hawaii while still staying intact. Every time he goes through the wash, I swear he comes out looking a little less stuffed!

Wrestling with “Baba” round one!

More wrestling and showing his love for “Baba!”

Anyhow, more about today: As soon as Keenan got out of his crib, he demanded to have peanut butter for breakfast. So, I made him a frozen whole grain waffle with peanut butter and blueberry honey with a side of strawberries. I ate a waffle topped with a scoop of Fage 0% Greek yogurt, honey, strawberries and banana. It was the first time I had yogurt on a waffle and it was delicious! I will definitely do it again!

My lovely breakfast…a good change from my usual!

After breakfast, we headed outside to feed Slinky. Since we were outside, I decided to do a bit of pruning/dead-heading flowers, while Keenan played in his sandbox. After being outside for awhile, we headed to a play date (rather, a book club meeting) for my MOMs Club. On our way home, we stopped by Marshalls and picked up Keenan’s sunglasses! They called me last night telling me that they had found them. Keenan and I were both happy to have his sunglasses back! I still feel bad about the whole thing.

Busy playing while I pruned!

For lunch, I made Keenan a turkey and cheese sandwich with a side of carrots, nectarine and a glass of milk. I made myself an egg white sandwich (microwaving a 1/2 cup of egg whites with a little Parmesan cheese and spices mixed in a small bowl for 1 minute and 30 seconds) with lettuce, tomato and mustard. I used to be on an egg white kick, but for some reason, I just forgot about it, until I saw the container in our fridge today. The sandwich was exactly what I was craving!

Keenan’s lunch.

My lunch.

Speaking of lunch, I just read an interesting article on BabyCenter about popular characters helping kids eat healthy foods. The article talked about how popular kid’s characters are used frequently to sell junk food, but recent research has shown that the same characters can be used to promote eating healthy foods. As soon as I read this, I thought, well…duh! After seeing Keenan be so infatuated with Elmo and wanting to do what he does, of course kids would be influenced to eat healthier food, if their favorite characters were eating it! The article goes on to say that the method can be used in schools to help promote healthier eating. In one study, researchers had children pick between cookies and apples. A group of kids were offered plain (non-branded) apples and cookies, while another group was offered plain cookies or Elmo apples that had stickers of some of the Sesame Street characters. The Elmo apples were chosen more frequently than the cookies. Although, this seems to be a no-brainer for me, I think this is very powerful. Hopefully schools, government organizations and even some parents will use this effective strategy. How do you feel about using popular kid’s characters to influence children to eat healthier foods?

After Keenan’s nap, we went to CrossFit and did a good, but not so gruelling workout. It was a nice change, compared to the past few days! Today’s skill included hanging snatches and the WOD was 3 rounds for time of 10 snatches (women weight: 95 lb) and 15 facing the bar-facing burpees. Since I can’t seem to snatch anything above 85 lbs (another weakness I have to work on!), I stuck with 75 lbs for the workout. I finished my 3 rounds in 9 minutes and 21 seconds, not too bad.

For dinner, we had roasted brussel sprouts with a simple pasta sauté of whole wheat spaghetti noodles, cherry tomatoes, onions, fresh basil from our garden and feta cheese. It was very satisfying! This was Keenan’s first time eating brussel sprouts and he did pretty well. At first he didn’t want to eat them, but after I sprinkled a little balsamic vinegar on top, he liked them!

Dinner tonight!

Keenan’s plate!

Well, it’s time for bed, since I’m heading to CrossFit in the morning, instead of in the afternoon. My husband and I have a double date with some friends tomorrow night. We are going to dinner at Kupros Bistro and seeing “Crazy For You” at Sacramento’s Music Circus, while my in-law’s babysit! Night, night!

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You will always be in our hearts, Chris!

By Melissa · Comments (10) ·: August 29th, 2012

Today is a special day: it is my oldest brother Chris’s birthday and the “estimated” due date of when Keenan was supposed to be born two years ago (he decided to arrive nine days early!). My brother would have been 40 years old today. We lost him fourteen years ago in a freak accident on my family’s farm. Even though he was 10 years older than me, he was a wonderful big brother, always looking out for me. When my other brother would pick on me when we were kids, Chris would always come to my rescue! In addition, he always looked out for me at school, making sure I was okay. He babysat me when I was little, drove me to school (even walking me to class) and picked me up. He was really the best brother a little girl could ever have! To keep his name and memory alive, we named Keenan’s middle name after him: Keenan Christopher. Keenan will always have a special guardian angel looking after him, his Uncle Chris. Happy Birthday, Chris! We love you and miss you!

After we had breakfast this morning (our “usual”), we went to swim class at the Y and then ran a couple of errands, including a trip to Marshalls. I am looking for a small basket for some of Keenan’s kitchen accessories ( “cook cook” stuff, as he calls it!) and a small water cup like mine below. Keenan loves to drink out of water my cup, especially in the morning, so I thought he would enjoy his own cup like mine. But, we didn’t have such luck, we didn’t find a basket or a cup. However, I did find some great deals on workout clothes! I love that you can find quality workout clothing for such a bargain!

While we were shopping, I put Keenan’s sunglasses next to him (in our shopping cart cover) and somehow he misplaced them. I must have been looking at some clothes while he dropped them somewhere. Needless to say, we looked all over the store, but couldn’t find his sunglasses. I was a little frustrated, so I said “Gosh,” and Keenan started saying, “Gosh Damn it” over and over (thanks to hearing it from my lovely husband when he was fixing something a while ago). I immediately told him we don’t say that word and redirected him, but once we got home, he said it again, thinking it was funny. I told him no, we don’t say that word again, but he said it once more. I put Keenan in a time out for a few minutes and he was quite upset. I felt bad (and still do) for punishing him, when I should have paid more attention to where he put the sunglasses, making sure he didn’t lose them. If we hadn’t lost the sunglasses, Keenan probably wouldn’t have said those words Ugh…I hate the Mommy guilt! Do you ever feel guilty, even though part of you feels you did the right thing when it comes to disciplining your children?

For lunch, we ate the rest of the turkey meatloaf. Keenan had meatloaf, roasted sweet potatoes and leftover yogurt that he didn’t finish from his breakfast this morning. I made a salad and added the meatloaf for protein; it hit the spot!

Enjoying his lunch!

My lunch!

Once Keenan wakes up we will be off to CrossFit for my favorite day: Gymnastics! I’m always curious about what the WODS will be on Wednesdays. For dinner tonight, we are having grilled country style pork ribs, leftover spaghetti squash tomato bake (from last night) and sauteed chard with an onion and sun dried tomatoes! I just finished prepping the chard and marinating the pork, to save time for tonight.

Letting the chard dry (after I washed it) before chopping it.

Before I forget, here is the recipe for my kettle corn that I made for Keenan’s party favors. I received a couple of inquiries for the recipe, and I completely forgot to post it yesterday.

Kettle Corn:

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup large popcorn (Pop Secret Jumbo Size Popcorn) *You can use any kind/size of popcorn, I just like using the large kind.

- 1/4 cup oil

- 2 Tbsp sugar

- salt (to taste)

Directions:

1. Pour oil and sugar into a large pot and heat on the stove (medium to high heat).

2. Pour popcorn kernels into pot and place lid on top.

3. As soon as you hear the oil and sugar sizzling, and the first kernel to pot, start shaking pan.

4. Continue shaking the pan until the last kernel is popped (or popping to slows down).

5. Pour popcorn into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and mix. Enjoy!

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Cleaning Day and Pre and Post-Workout Snacks

By Melissa · Comments (2) ·: August 29th, 2012

My Little Cleaning Helper!

Today was cleaning day at our household…definitely not one of my favorite things to do, but something that has to be done. Who really loves to clean, anyways? The day was a lot better and definitely more fun with my handy little “Cleaning Helper!” Lately, it seems Keenan is fascinated with helping, whether it be unloading the dishwasher, setting the table or cleaning (especially vacuuming), so I’m enjoying every moment of it! I am keeping my fingers crossed that this continues!

After breakfast (having our “usual,” of course), Keenan and I worked on some “Thank You” notes for the gifts he received for his birthday. Later on, we headed upstairs to start cleaning. I gave Keenan his own rag, so he could help me dust/oil the wood, which he loved! When it was time to clean the bathrooms, he even helped me scrub the bathtub and clean his potty! Do your children like to help with certain chores? At what age does the “helping” phase stop?

Using his new crayons to make “Thank You” notes!

For some reason, Keenan was really thirsty and hungry all day, today. He drank a ton of water and inhaled all of his meals, so I’m not sure what caused it…growth spurt? For lunch, I made him a turkey and cheese sandwich with some leftover roasted sweet potatoes and a glass of milk. He polished everything off in 5 minutes (including his milk)! For my lunch, I made my “typical,” a turkey sandwich with lettuce and tomato on a sandwich thin with baby carrots and a small peach. I ate it quickly, so I could prep dinner and finish cleaning before going to the gym.

I have received a couple of questions in regards to my pre and post-workout snacks, so I thought I would address them here. To be honest, I forget to talk about them, especially since I always seem to be in a hurry to eat them. Anyhow, I try to eat a snack an hour before I workout that consists of a little carbs and a little protein. My pre-workout snacks are usually one of the following: a half of a banana with 2 teaspoons of peanut butter or almond butter, 1/4 cup of homemade trail mix (roasted unsalted almonds with dried cherries, dried pineapple and banana chips) or a small handful of dark chocolate covered roasted almonds. I mostly eat the banana and peanut butter, because it seems to sit the best on my stomach and provide the most energy for me during my workouts. After I workout, we usually eat dinner within an hour, so I don’t typically have a snack. However, I do drink a lot of water to replenish the fluids I lost. If we are not eating dinner within an hour, such as when we have our “at home date nights,” I will have a small snack that consists of carbs and protein (more carbs than protein). My post-workout snacks mainly consist of one of the following: chocolate milk (non-fat milk mixed with unsweetened cocoa powder and xylitol) or a piece of cheese and a couple of whole wheat crackers. People have asked me what is the best thing that they should eat to fuel their workouts and recover from them, and I always say it really comes down to the type and intensity of your exercise, in addition to how your body handles certain food. A good rule of thumb for both snacks (pre and post-workout) is they should include a little bit of carbs and protein. The carbs can be whole grain bread, crackers, oatmeal, fruit and chocolate. The protein can be meat, eggs, dairy, nuts, nut butters, soy, etc. Or, you can combine the two in a quick shake or smoothie (protein powder mixed with chocolate and milk or protein powder with berries and yogurt) or drink chocolate milk. Either way, as long as you are consuming carbs and protein, you will be doing your body a favor, which should help you perform better and recover for the next workout.

Today’s workout was a good one, but definitely grueling! For the skill, we did fast/explosive back squats using a moderate weight, doing at least 10 sets of 2. The WOD was 3 rounds (time capped at 15 minutes) that consisted of 50 double unders, 40 thrusters (women weight: 55 lbs) and 30 kettlebell swings (women weight” 35 lbs). I did 2 rounds and 32 double unders, not bad, considering yesterday’s WOD. I was also happy because today was the first time that I was able to do 30 double unders in a row!! I’ve been practicing my double unders for months, so it finally paid off! Also, after yesterday’s performance, I decided that I’m going to get to the gym at least 15 minutes early to warm-up with double unders, do medicine ball cleans, followed by power cleans (to work on my “early arm bend”) and consecutive kipping or butterfly pullups. I don’t always have additional time during the week to go the gym on a 6th day, such as Saturday, to work on my weaknesses. I figure 15 minutes, 5 days a week of practice is better than nothing! So, we’ll see how it goes. I came in early today and my cleans were pretty good, no early arm bend, whoohoo!

For dinner tonight, we ate leftover turkey meatloaf, spaghetti squash tomato bake (a new recipe, thanks to the idea from A Healthy Happy Home that she got from Green Lite Bites) and a salad. The spaghetti squash was a hit! It will definitely be one of our “regular” side dishes. I tweaked the recipe a little, using mozzarella cheese instead of the Mexican blend it calls for, changing the spices to be more Italian flavored and sprinkling Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs on top.

Sorry, the quality of the image isn’t good. I took this with my phone because my camera wasn’t handy. It was certainly delicious, though!

Well, after a long day of cleaning, I’m ready for bed. Night!

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Keenan’s 2nd Birthday Party Recap

By Melissa · Comments (6) ·: August 28th, 2012

Happy Monday! Was it me, or did the weekend go by way too fast? We had a great weekend: Celebrating Keenan’s birthday on Saturday with our family and friends, and on Sunday we had a reunion for our Bradley Method birth class. It was definitely a party weekend! Needless to say, we are all still recovering from the festivities (lack of sleep and too much good food!).

Keenan’s birthday party went very well. Keenan had a blast playing with all of his friends and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The party started at 3:30 p.m., and everyone pretty much left around 8:30 p.m. or so. Keenan had so much fun playing at his party, he immediately fell asleep as soon as I put him to bed around 9:00 p.m. He was exhausted, but just as I thought, he was up bright and early at 6:30 a.m. the next day, since he doesn’t sleep well at my parents’ house. I’m not sure why he doesn’t sleep well at my parents’ house…either there are too many different sounds or he is too excited to be there. Since he was so exhausted, I put him to bed a little early last night, at 7:00 p.m., and he woke up at 8:00 a.m. this morning!

More on Keenan’s party: I made it pretty simple with red table cloths (going with the Elmo theme), flowers for centerpieces, a birthday banner (from his 1st birthday), Elmo balloons and Elmo plates and napkins. It was a perfect day, too, not too hot or too windy.

Once everyone arrived, we snacked on my husband’s infamous guacamole and chips (one of Keenan’s favorite foods) and swam. Keenan had fun swimming with his puddle jumper! After some swimming, the kids played with the water table, took rides in the wagon (courtesy of Nonna!) and played on the swing set. The kids were constantly busy playing, it was so fun to watch!

Before dinner, the kids swam a little more, making them all pretty hungry! For dinner, we had grilled chicken, Artichoke Torta, grilled peach spinach salad, fresh blueberries and strawberries, along with some freshly baked ciabatta. It was all very yummy! The kids dined at the little table, while the adults sat at the big table. The kids did a great job of cleaning their plates and once they were finished, they were off to play again!

A little while later, I brought out Keenan’s Elmo cake (Pig-out Carrot Cake), and we all sang Happy Birthday. It was funny, Keenan was afraid of his birthday candles and kept turning his head away (not wanting to look at them). Since he was a little unsure about blowing out his candles, his friends gladly helped him! Since we have talked about the danger of fire, I think Keenan was a little too scared. I hope we didn’t permanently scare him away from blowing out his birthday candles in the future! In addition to cake, my husband made peanut butter chocolate swirl ice cream, so all of the kids had ice cream cones in addition to the cake (LOTS of sugar). Keenan ate Elmo’s eye balls and his ice cream cone first, so he was too full to finish the rest of his piece of cake. Luckily, we have plenty leftover for him to have little pieces for some dessert this week!

As you can see, I decorated Keenan’s cake with m&ms (red and orange), chocolate chips for the mouth and peanut butter cups for the eyes. I definitely learned my lesson; I will not use m&ms again because they immediately started to bleed as soon as I placed them on the cake! Once I put the cake back into the fridge after I finished decorating it, the frosting and m&ms stopped melting, so it wasn’t too bad. But, I was still a little bummed that the cake didn’t turn out exactly as I had hoped. At least the cake tasted good! The cream cheese frosting was perfectly tart and sweet, while the cake was super moist! Below is the recipe:

Pig-Out Carrot Cake:

Ingredients:

- 4 eggs

- 2 cups sugar

- 3 cups flour

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 1 tsp nutmeg

- 2 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 1/2 cup canola or grape seed oil

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple (reserve 1/4 cup of juice for frosting)

- 3 cups grated carrots

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs and set aside.

2. Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

3. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and pour in oil, vanilla and beaten eggs. Mix.

4. Add crushed pineapple, carrots, raisins and walnuts.

5. Pour into greased 9X13 pan (or prepared cake pans) and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

- 1 cube butter

- 1 8 oz. package cream cheese

- 2 cups sifted powdered sugar (add by taste, instead of all at once)

- 1/4 cup pineapple juice

Directions:

1. Beat together until well mixed.

2. Spread frosting over cooled cake.

After cake and ice cream cones, the kids played a little more before everyone headed home. For party favors, I gave each family a small bag of kettle corn that I made. All, in all, Keenan’s party was a lot of fun! Everything went smoothly; my husband and I were still able to relax, enjoy everyone’s company, watch Keenan have fun, while getting all of the food ready. It was great day.

Since it was so late after everyone left the party, Keenan opened his birthday gifts on Sunday morning, after we got home from church. He definitely knew how to open his gifts! One exciting gift he got was from Nonna and Avo: a tricycle! The nice thing about this tricycle is it has a removable handle, so we can push him now (since he doesn’t know how to peddle) and once he learns to peddle, you can take it off.

Today, Keenan helped my husband put his new trike together and then we went for his first ride! He was SUPER excited to take it for a ride!

Once Keenan woke up (sleeping for 2 1/2 hours), we headed to CrossFit for a much needed workout, after eating lots of sugar and rich food this weekend. My body sure needed it, but it definitely was not my best WOD. The WOD was a 7 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible), doing power cleans (women weight: 115 lbs) and 12 over the box jumps. I started with the prescribed weight of 115 lbs, but once I was on my 4th rep, it took me 5 attempts to get another one, so I decided to go down in weight to 105 lbs (not something I’m happy about). Since I changed the weight, I lost a lot of time, thus I was only to complete 3 rounds and 5 reps. A weakness of mine is “early arm bend” which makes it hard to increase my strength, if I don’t have proper technique. The “early arm bend” is something I have been working on for months, so it is something I need to continue working on…bring on more medicine ball cleans!

For dinner tonight, we had my turkey meatloaf in the crock pot (Mexican style with: cumin, oregano and salsa), roasted sweet potatoes and a salad. I didn’t have enough oats, so I added some flax seed and bread crumbs, thinking it wouldn’t effect the consistency. As soon I scooped the meatloaf out of the crock pot, it fell a part, thus not holding up as it usually is. But, it still tasted good! Since we were so hungry, we inhaled our food before I could take a picture, sorry! What did you make for dinner tonight?