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Archive for October 2012

Happy Halloween and What I Ate Wednesday!

By Melissa · Comments (3) ·: October 31st, 2012

Happy Halloween! Since it is Wednesday, it is time to link up with Jenn for What I Ate Wednesday!

Instead of just focusing on today’s eats, I thought I would do a roundup of what I ate the past few days, especially, since I haven’t talked much about them.

On Sunday night, I made spaghetti squash tomato bake with turkey, using cheddar cheese, instead of mozzarella (I forgot to include mozzarella on my grocery list for the week). I actually liked the cheddar cheese better, because it was much more flavorful!

Before it was baked.

Just out of the oven!

We have also enjoyed our “usual breakfast” (having it on Monday and this morning).

The usual, but always good!

For lunches the past couple of days, I have been eating my new favorite dish: microwave egg whites in a mug on top of a bed of spinach with tomatoes, avocado and salsa. Keenan has been enjoying “cheesy egg” and turkey and cheese sandwiches.

So good and so satisfying!

Since we had so much leftover spaghetti squash, we have eaten it the past couple of nights for dinner (finally finishing it last night). I just love making big casseroles that last a few days. It makes dinners SO easy!

On the menu for tonight is Chinese long beans with Italian Sausage and mushrooms added. It should be good! I figure a nice veggie loaded one-pot meal will be perfect for tonight, since we will probably snack on some popcorn while watching a movie, while passing out candy.

Speaking of popcorn, I can’t forget to mention that Keenan and I have been snacking on some wonderful salted caramel popcorn from Angie’s Popcorn, that we received a couple of days ago (look for a review and giveaway coming soon!).

SO incredibly good!

Since we are going trick-or-treating tonight, I still have a lot to do, including going to CrossFit to do today’s WOD (I went to the box this morning to do some skill work of strict presses, push presses, handstand pushups and double unders), so I’m going to keep today’s post short. Also, my mom is here, to go trick-or-treating with us and spend the night (which Keenan is SO excited about!), so I better get going!

Questions: What are your plans for tonight? What have you been eating the past few days?

FINAL REMINDER: The Artisana giveaway ends tonight at 8 p.m. PST!! To enter, click here.

Comments (3)

Healthy Halloween Tips

By Melissa · Comments (9) ·: October 31st, 2012

I can’t believe tomorrow is Halloween and then we are into November! The holidays are going to be here before we know it…crazy! I love the holidays and I can’t wait to see everything through Keenan’s eyes this year, but I’m just not quite there, yet. There are so many things going on between now and the holidays, it is hard to think that far ahead! Does anyone else feel that way?

Anyhow, onto today, “Halloween Eve:” We started our day off with toasted leftover paleo pancakes! I think they are actually better toasted! Keenan topped his with pumpkin butter and a little maple syrup. I topped mine with yogurt and strawberries. In the spirit of Fall, I made myself a pumpkin pie latte…so good!

Yum!

We also started our day with a new spin on potty training: an “Elmo” potty chart! Every time Keenan goes number one on the potty, he gets a stamp, and when he goes number two, he gets a sticker to place on his chart. My mom gave Keenan an Elmo Potty Time” coloring book a while back. The book came with a potty chart and stickers, but Keenan wasn’t ready to use it at the time . Yesterday (out of the blue), Keenan mentioned the potty chart, along with the stickers, so I thought it was time to give it a try. Today, he got four stamps! He was pretty excited to get his stamps, so I am hoping the chart with help (fingers crossed!). I’m going to give this a couple of weeks and if it doesn’t work, I think we will try the “pant-less” method. I’ll keep you posted…

Hopefully “Elmo” and his potty chart will work its’ magic!

Since we so busy yesterday (and Keenan has been so tired lately, getting up between 8 and 8:30 a.m!), we stayed home this morning and played. I had some watercolor paints, so I thought it would be fun to show Keenan how to use them and paint some pictures. He didn’t quite grasp the whole concept of dipping your brush into the water first, then the paint and, finally, painting on the paper. He kept wanting to take the paints out of the package and use them as finger paints! Needless to say, we didn’t do any painting. Instead, we played in his sandbox and cuddled with Slinky!

Putting toys on Slinky!

Cuddling!

To get Keenan ready for Halloween and trick-or-treating, I have been talking to him about what to say, but for some reason, it hasn’t sunk in. He knows that carrying his pumpkin bucket equals candy, but saying “trick-or-treat” is another story! He keeps getting “knock knock” jokes confused with saying “trick-or-treat,” because when I asked him earlier today about what to say when he rings the door bell when trick-or-treating, tomorrow, night, he said, “knock knock!” I laughed so hard; it was too funny!

Speaking of Halloween, Keenan seems to be fixated on having candy! After our MOMs Club Halloween party on Friday, he kept asking to have candy. So, tomorrow shall be interesting. I am going to have to cave and let him enjoy at least one piece of candy! This is why I tend to buy healthier things to pass out, such as fruit snacks and rice krispies (though, not the healthiest, but better than candy!).

If you are taking your children trick-or-treating tomorrow, and/or passing out candy at home, and you’re trying to stay good and not over-indulge in too much candy, here are a few healthy Halloween tips:

Instead of buying a huge bag of candy, buy one small bag and a couple of bags of healthier treats, such as rice krispies, fruit roll-ups, fruit snacks or raisins. Mix everything together in a big bowl, so the candy is mixed in with the healthier things. (My husband says to be careful, though, as you’ll be known as “that house” if you don’t have a good ratio of candy to “clean” treats. I think he’s crazy.)
After the last trick-or-treater has gone and you still have a bunch of candy left, don’t save it, as you will be tempted to eat it! Donate it to an office (or bring it to your office, though you will probably still be tempted to eat it!), or throw it away.
If you must have a piece of candy, choose your two favorites. Eat one of your favorites on Halloween and save the other one for the next day, as a treat to look forward to. If you save a handful, you might be more inclined to eat all of it in one sitting. (My husband also told me that he would “stretch out” his candy stash until Christmas. Talk about self-control!)
While you are passing out candy, have some healthy treats to munch on, such as popcorn, homemade kettle corn, nuts, trail mix, no-bake peanut butter chocolate snack balls and fruit. If you have some healthy snacks out, you might be less tempted to indulge in candy.
Last–but not least–if you do slip-up and indulge in one too many pieces of candy tomorrow, don’t beat yourself up. Get back on track the next day!

Speaking of getting back on track, yesterday and today’s WODs were hard, to say the least! Yesterday, we did 100 double unders followed by 3 rounds pf 20 ring dips, 20 kettle bell snatches (35 lbs) and 20 box jumps. The time cap was 15 minutes and I finished 2 rounds and 45 reps (just shy of 10 box jumps to finish). The ring dips were the worst (something I have to work on!). I used the lightest band, red, but they are still difficult!

Today’s WOD was 5 rounds of thrusters (95 lbs) and over-the-bar burpees with a 20 minute time cap. I finished in 16 minutes and 49 seconds, using the prescribed weight. It wasn’t too bad, but we did max deadlifts for the skill beforehand, so my lower back is pretty sore! So, we’ll see how tomorrow goes…

I had to include this! Keenan was wearing a wrap that you put ice or hot packs in for your back. My husband was wearing it on Sunday, so Keenan wanted to give it a try!

Before I wrap-up this post, I have to share this picture of Keenan playing the guitar with my husband on Sunday. Since he was over at his friend’s house while I attend last week’s The Fresh Market Roseville Sneak Peek, Keenan has been fascinated with guitars! My friend’s son had a mini-guitar that Keenan played with most of the evening. Once he got home, he wanted to play with my husband’s guitar. So, on Sunday, my husband and Keenan re-strung and tuned the guitar together, and spent some time playing it. Keen was SO excited! It was too cute!

Making music!

Questions: Are you passing out candy tomorrow night? If so, what do you usually give out? What do you do with the leftover candy?

REMINDER: There is still time to enter the Artisana giveaway!! Contest ends tomorrow, October 31st at 8 p.m. PST! To enter, click here.

Comments (9)

Weekend Recap and Graco SnugRide Click Connect 40

By Melissa · Comments (4) ·: October 29th, 2012

I hope you all had a good weekend! We had a great weekend, pretty low-key, which was nice for a change!

On Saturday, I headed to our box to do two WODs (my first double-day, in preparation for my upcoming competition on Dec. 8th). Our first workout was really heavy skill work of hanging squat cleans (95 lbs), toes-to-bar and thrusters (95 lbs), completing the movements in 24 minutes, every minute, on the minute. The second workout was push presses, over-the-box burpees, kettlebell snatches and one other movement that I can’t remember for the life of me! The second workout was time capped at 12 minutes, doing as many rounds as possible. Needless to say, both workouts were tough!

On Saturday afternoon, we went on a bike ride and got some frozen yogurt (which Keenan loved!). That night, my husband and I made a nice dinner of grilled eggplant, tomatoes and country style boneless pork ribs (sharing a bottle of wine, of course!) after Keenan went to bed. After dinner, we finally got caught-up with all of our favorite TV shows. It was a nice and relaxing evening!

Yesterday, we stayed home and had a wonderful family day. We made grain-free pumpkin pancakes for breakfast and carved pumpkins in the afternoon! I can’t take credit for the pancake recipe; I used Megan’s recipe, except I doubled the recipe (to have leftovers to freeze), added a 1/2 cup of almond flour, 1/2 tsp of baking powder (for more loft) and used 3/4 cup almond butter (since I didn’t have much left). I topped my pancakes with pumpkin butter and a little maple syrup. They were SO good; they tasted like pumpkin pie! Keenan enjoyed his so much that he devoured his pancake in seconds! Sorry, we were all so busy enjoying our pancakes, that I forgot to take a picture.

It was fun carving pumpkins with Keenan for the first time! At first, he wasn’t sure of the slimy pumpkin seeds/flesh and didn’t want to stick his hand in the pumpkin to take them out. After a while, he got the hang of it and enjoyed “scooping” out the seeds and helping to carve!

Not so sure…

Having fun with the seeds!

Our pumpkins!

Now, onto the Graco SnugRide Click Connect 40!

Last Thursday, I was invited to attend a local blogging event, a home party for Graco’s new Snugride Click Connect 40. The event was sponsored by the SITS girls, an online blogging community of more than 40,000 women bloggers. It was a fun event, meeting other local mommy bloggers and some of their little ones, as well as learning about Graco’s new car seat. For attending the event, we all got to take home a car seat, which was quite a nice surprise!

The SnugRide Click Connet 40 allows you to have your child sit rear-facing from birth to two years old (or 40 pounds), which is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It is the only infant car seat on the market that allows you to have your child rear-facing until they are two. The really cool feature about the car seat is that it grows with your child, adjusting to give your growing child/toddler enough room to sit comfortably (no frog legs, which is what happened to Keenan, before transitioning him to front-facing!). Another nice feature is that the car seat comes with different levels of padding, so you can start with the highest level for your newborn and gradually take the padding out, as your child grows. In addition, the car seat features a one “click” connect to easily transition your child from the car seat to the stroller. Last, but not least, the base of the car seat has a built-in seat protector that can be pulled up once your child is bigger, to protect your seat from shoe marks! You can find the new car seat at Babies R Us and it retails for $219.

Graco’s SnugRide Click Connect 40 will come in handy for our next child (whenever that may be!), because instead of transitioning them to the convertible car seat (facing front) shortly after they are one year old, they can be safer, staying in the same seat for another year! If Keenan is still riding in his convertible car seat at the time we have another child, it also saves us from having to buy another car seat!

The Graco SnugRide® Click Connect™ 40 – the first and only newborn to two-year infant car seat that actually grows with your baby from four pounds all the way up to 40 pounds. The car seat is designed for a parent on the go. The infant car seat can be easily removed from the base and used as a carrier when the infant is small, providing portability and convenience so you can easily move your infant in and out of the car without disturbing them.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently made the recommendation to keep all children in rear-facing car seats until the age of 2. Graco set out to make this product so parents can keep infants rear facing longer while still keeping them comfortable.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Graco. The opinions and text are all mine.

Questions: What did you do this weekend? How do you get ready for Halloween? Do you carve pumpkins?

REMINDER: There is still time to enter a chance to win a box of goodies from Artisana!! Giveaway ends October 31st at 8 p.m. PST! To enter, click here.

Comments (4)

Friday Favorites

By Melissa · Comments (19) ·: October 27th, 2012

TGIF! Another week down; where did it go? I can’t believe we are almost into November and even scarier, the holidays! This year has flown by so fast! Has anyone else felt that way?

Anyhow, as I was sitting down to write this, I was thinking about all of the things we have done this week, since it has been so hectic. When things get busy, I often forget to slow down and cherish each and every moment, especially those with Keenan. I often get stuck in the hustle and bustle of life and forget how important it is to live in the present, enjoy every moment (good or bad) without thinking about what needs to be done or what I have to do next. Most importantly, I need to appreciate the little things and not take things for granted. I need to remind myself of being in Alaska and what is truly important in life: Family, health, faith, food and shelter. Everything else is not that important (if at all).

With that being said, I thought it would be good (and fun!) to reflect back and cherish some of my favorite moments and eats from this week, aka “Friday Favorites!” Maybe this will be a new theme for my Friday posts…

Favorite Moments:

Yesterday, when I was getting ready to head to a blogging event (more on that later!), Keenan wanted to wear my hair clips! When I put them in his hair, he kept looking at himself in the mirror and giggling! He kept the hair clips on while he played with his toys for about 20 minutes! It was too funny!
Having fun with my hair clips!

Dancing with Keenan to “Steve and Greg,” on Wednesday, while I was getting lunch ready. I had just changed Keenan’s diaper and he didn’t want to put his pants back on, so he was dancing in his red train sweatshirt, blue socks and his diaper. I was able to record it on video, but unfortunately, I shot it sideways, so it doesn’t make for great viewing, sorry!

Attending my first blogging/media event: The Fresh Market Roseville Sneak Peekon Tuesday evening! It was such a fun event and I met some other local bloggers and awesome vendors!
The wonderful local produce at the The Fresh Market in Roseville!

Getting a PR (personal best) on power cleans at 125 lbs!

Cuddling and reading books with Keenan in his crib!

Having some much needed cuddle time and catching-up with my husband last night!

Today’s Halloween party that my MOMs Club put on was also a favorite moment! Keenan dressed up in his Fireman costume and had a wonderful time collecting candy in his bucket (practicing for Halloween!), decorating (or rather just eating) his cupcake and hanging out with his good friend!
A picture with my Fireman before heading to the Halloween party!

Our little Fireman!

Buddies!

Favorite Eats:

Loaded Pumpkin Protein No Oat Oatmeal
My new favorite lunch or breakfast!

Egg whites in a mug over a bed of spinach, topped with avocado and salsa
So satisfying!

Paleo Pancakes

Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese
We are definitely making this again!

We had a good partner WOD at CrossFit this afternoon: 100 m x 10 relay followed by 300 double unders and then 21-15-9 of sumo deadlifts and over your partner burpees and lastly, a 100 m wheelbarrel carry! Friday workouts are always fun, but SO challenging!

For dinner, we enjoyed chicken burgers with oven-baked sweet potato fries! My husband is off to see Eddie Izzard tonight with a friend, so I’m going to finish up some work and then snuggle on the couch with a movie, glass of wine and some popcorn! Have a good night!

Question: What were some of your favorite moments and eats from this week?

REMINDER: There is still time to enter a chance to win a box of goodies from Artisana!! Giveaway ends October 31st at 8 p.m. PST! To enter, click here.

Comments (19)

Artisana Giveaway!!

By Melissa · Comments (37) ·: October 25th, 2012

Well, it is cleaning day over here, not something I am looking forward to (as usual!). Since my goals today are to get the entire house cleaned, laundry done and dinner prepped, I’m going to keep today’s post short. There is just too much to do! In addition, I’m heading to another blogging event tonight, so I definitely have to get all of my things done. I’m excited about tonight’s blogging event; it is sponsored by the SITS Girls, an online blogging community of more than 40,000 women bloggers. I look forward to meeting other local bloggers and learning more about the SITS community. I’ll fill you in tomorrow with how it went!

Onto today: I tried out a new breakfast of paleo pancakes, inspired by Danielle. I used 2 eggs, 2 egg whites, 2 bananas, 1 Tbsp flaxseed, 1 Tbsp chia seeds, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla, a drop of milk and 1 tsp of baking powder, to make enough for Keenan and I (with some leftover to freeze for later!). They turned out great and were so simple to make (very similar to my No Oat Oatmeal). I’ll definitely be making these again!

Soooo good topped with a dollop of Fage Greek yogurt, honey and berries!

Look who was excited to have pancakes this morning! He ate three whole pancakes!

Now, onto Artisana!

They are a small organic food company based in Oakland and specialize in making raw nut and seed butters, with some super food products, such as acai berry, goji berry and blue green algae. They are committed to sustainable living and support the organic and living foods movement. They focus on purchasing foods as locally as possible, buying directly from organic farmers. All of their products contain lots of vitamins and minerals, non-animal proteins, essential fatty-acids and fiber, as well as being certified kosher.

The goodies that Artisana sent!

Artisana was very kind and sent me a box of their goodies last week to try. They sent some coconut butter, raw walnut, almond, cashew, pecan and macadamia nut butters, along with their cacao bliss (coconut butter mixed with cocoa). I had only tried raw almond butter prior to trying Artisan’s products (which was okay, I prefer roasted), so I was excited to try other raw butters, along with coconut butter. I first tried their raw walnut butter on top of my Pumpkin Almond Flour Muffins and it was really creamy and rich. I was quite surprised at how good it was! The next day, I added a dollop of cashew butter to my No Oat Oatmeal and again, I was pleasantly surprised at how creamy and tasty it was. Since I hadn’t been a fan of raw almond butter in the past, I was surprised at how much I liked Artisana’s butters! Last weekend, we all topped our pancakes with coconut butter and the cacao bliss.! The two together were heavenly! Overall, all of their butters were excellent and I will definitely be adding their coconut and walnut butter to our list of “nut butter staples” that we keep in our cabinet. If you haven’t tried Artisan’s products, I highly recommend trying them. You won’t be disappointed!