Beans, Beans, Good for Your Heart

Why, hello there, dahlinks! How have you all been in the (enter large number of months here) since I’ve seen you last? Me? I’ve been doing well, actually. I mean, for a while there, I may have gone just a tad (but really a lot) cuckoo, but now? Now, everything has been going swimmingly and I finally feel like I can sit down and actually type at this here computer without banging keys randomly while sobbing uncontrollably. It’s a marvelous feeling, actually. Not having panic attacks and sobbing, I mean.

One of the main reasons I’m doing so well has to do with why I started this blog in the first place: crochet. You see, about a year ago (has it really been that long??) I started up a new crochet group (because, due to my intense embarrassment, I couldn’t bear going back to that other one again…) and have actually been hosting it in my house each week. (!!!)

I KNOW! Me! Not only socializing but actually hosting people in my hovel! You would think that would indicate a turn for the worse- obviously I’ve gone truly insane… But I assure you, it actually signaled a turn for the better for me, and I’m so thankful for the power of friendship, creativity, and above all, YARN, to actually bring me back from….well, wherever the heck I was.

It’s because of this (still growing) group of ladies that I have finally felt like me again. It’s been a long, long time coming, but, man. It’s really good to be back.

I started hosting at my place so that I would be able to put SweetPea down for her naps while Little Mister played with the other kiddos his age. I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but our morning crochet group gradually turned into a Crochet-and-Lunch group. I think it started because I was hungry (breastfeeding does that to you) and told my guests that I was going to make myself some food, but it was more than enough to share, so PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME! And then it just blossomed from there.

Now, after telling them what I was going to make that day, you’d think they’d have checked their watches, made some excuses, and then bolted for the door.  But they did not. They stayed, they ate, they were amazed, and then they asked for the recipe. I told them, “Oh don’t worry! I’ll post it on my blog for you!”

And then I didn’t blog for an awfully long time.

Well, in honor of my dad’s two year anniversary last month, I knew that I *had* to post this recipe. One, because I’ve promised, and two, because he’d laugh and laugh at all the gas. And then he'd probably say his favorite joke, "You have to let them out- they don't pay no rent!" 

You have been warned.

You see, what I offered to make them (well, actually, I was craving it for myself….I really didn’t take their preferences into consideration- heh!) was a bean salad. I love this bean salad. I love LOVE this bean salad. I crave this bean salad. I made it for My Mister and he was all, “Really? Bean salad? I’m not sure this is going to be one of my favor……HOLY FRIJOLE, BATMAN! MAKE IT AGAIN!”

My kids love this bean salad. They love beans in general. They also love farts, but with their genetics, that was inevitable. And now my friends (and their kids!) love this bean salad, so I hope you will, too.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
 
Beans 

As you can see, they are high in fibre, which is Australian for "fiber."

Canola oil

Apple Cider Vinegar

Salt, pepper, sugar, and garlic.

Celery, carrots, and green onion.

Yes, garlic, too, but with the other ingredients above. He's just trying to be with the cool kids.

And, possibly most importantly of all, BACON. (Aussie bacon is more like Canadian bacon- I actually prefer it to American bacon since it has more meat and less fat.) 

Lower fat bacon = HAPPY BACON!

WHAT YOU DO:

Salad:

Drain the beans and lightly rinse. 

Mmmmm....looks good, right? WAIT! Don't go yet!! It gets better!

Chop the celery and carrots into a medium dice. Thinly slice the green onion- both the white and green. 

Add them to the beans

Cook and roughly chop the bacon and also add to the beans. (If you are either vegetarian, or even vegan, simply omit the bacon. It'll still be good, but you will be missing out. Because BACON!)

Mmmmm....bacon

Salad dressing:

Add the oil, vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper and diced (or super squished) garlic and mix it all.

Pour the dressing over the salad. Mix it all up. 

I only photographed a portion this small so you wouldn't see how much of a pig I am.

Try not to devour it all in one setting.

"Here, mama. I'll show them how much of a pig you are."

*******************************************

Gege's Beans, Beans Good for Your Heart!

For Salad:
5- 14oz/400g cans of beans (I use a mixture of various kinds- chickpeas, kidney beans,  cannellini beans, butter beans, and even a can of 4 mixed beans.) 

2 large carrots, diced
2 ribs of celery, diced
1 large green onion, thinly sliced

5 middle rashers Australian/Canadian bacon (or regular ol' USA bacon), cooked and roughly chopped or crumbled.

For dressing:
1/4C Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4C canola oil
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, diced (or use a garlic press)
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix all salad ingredients together. Mix vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and garlic together. SLowly add oil and mix well. Pour dressing over bean mixture and stir together. 

*Enjoy!

 *Please do enjoy responsibly. There is a lot of fiber in this delicious salad. If your body is not used to a lot of fiber, then I hope you enjoy your....musical interlude....after devouring this meal.

What to Eat When You Don't Want a Heart Attack: Free Recipe

There are so many things about the States that I have missed since living in The Land Down Under- my sister and friends, free refills, the toilet flushing down clockwise*, knowing which side of the road to pull over when I’m being chased by the PoPo - but something I really miss are some of our favorite restaurants. Sure they have McDonalds – they’re Australians, not heathens- but other places like Crisp and Juicy (if you are in the DC area, YOU MUST GO THERE!), Chipotle, Macaroni Grill and, perhaps most of all, Carrabba’s. (Yeah- I eat at all the typical American restaurant chains. I happen to like familiarity and gosh darned tasty food. So sue me.)

WELL. Remember that very loving, smart, Christmas Mayor of Whoville that I married? He not only gives me gifts that he knows I will love and utilize, but he also gives me gifts that he knows he will benefit from, as well. Cute, smart and devious?!? Oh yes, ladies. Be jealous.

I am speaking of course of The Carrabba’s Italian Grill Cookbook.

I KNOW, RIGHT?!? All of your favorite meals from the restaurant conveniently located in your own kitchen so you can cook great Italian meals the way Nana Carrabba did back in the old country, which is, of course, Texas.

My Mister’s favorite meal is the Filet Bryan (pronounced ever so snootily: fee-lay bree-yon. Or at least it’s pronounced that way in our snooty house. Because we are awesome like that.)

The one drawback to being able to cook your favorite recipes is that you get to see just how much butter, fat, and butter they put into it. It’s like you’re eating some steak with your butter. Butter and goat cheese and some more butter, just in case you hadn’t had that heart attack you ordered yet.

Needless to say, this isn’t going in our normal rotation of meals. BUT, since my Mister requested it for his birthday meal, I am willing to oblige him- he’ll get his side order of heart disease and cellulite for Christmas.

To balance out the tremendous amount of fat that went into the meat portion of the meal, I made some Broccoli with Red Pepper Flakes and Toasted Garlic from Cookinglight (this has been a staple in our house for years), and then some roast potatoes of my own devising. It’s based off of a recipe I made when we were first married, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, and recreated for this meal since I couldn’t find the original recipe and I really did not want to make the artery clogging Carrabba’s mashed potatoes that My Mister usually orders with this meal.

So, here you go- my recipe for some tasty taters. I call them Noah’s Ark Potatoes…because the ingredients go in two-by-two. HEE!


Gege's Noah's Ark Potatoes

A little bit of heart attack to go with the healthy stuff.

Whatcha need:

2 lbs potatoes
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 Tbs whole grain mustard
2 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp Italian herbs
salt/pepper to taste

Whatcha do:

Preheat oven to 200 deg C or 390 deg F
Wash potatoes and cut into inch sized pieces. Place in 13"x9" casserole dish.


Mix next 5 ingredients (mustard through herbs) in a small bowl and then cover potatoes with it. Mix well to cover the potatoes.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until they are soft and delectable.

Enjoy your non-artery clogging side dish and pray the good fats in the olive oil are enough to conquer the bad fats of the butter.



---------------------------------------------------------------------------


*AS IF!! I have no idea which way the toilet goes down either here or in the States. I just make my deposit, hit the button and then get the heck out of Dodge. I don’t dilly dally thinking, “Oh wow- now THAT is a masterpiece. Look how cute my digested food looks going around and around…and, oh my- doth mine eyes deceive me? Is dear darling poopsie going around and around in the wrong direction? *girlish giggle* Those silly Australians! What will they think of next?” 

And for those of you thinking, "Why don't you just flush it when you haven't used the bathroom?" the answer is: because I have a life. *snooty giggle*

Beets Me

I may have mentioned once or twice that, by education and until recently also by profession, I am a nutritionist. I've spent many a year studying nutrition and so I know quite a bit about food. However. Apparently there are new things for all of us to learn, so I am now passing on my knowledge to you guys.

First, some background. I am not a picky eater. Never have been really. I remember as a kid, I didn't like onions- I'd even pick out the tiny little ones in a McDonalds hamburger Happy Meal on those rare occasions we were lucky enough to eat out at one of those high-falutin' restaurants. I also didn't like zucchini, unless it was in my aunt's zucchini bread which is basically banana bread with zucchini instead of banana. Moral of the story- sugar makes everything better.

There was just one other food that I knew of that I DID.NOT. like. The culprit: beets.

Beets were one of those tricky foods- they look so gosh darned purdy with their purpley purpleness oozing out in a, "Hey baby....you should taste me because I'm purple and you know you can't resist purple so why don't you take a nice, big juicy bite out of my tasty purpleness. You know you want to. Baby," sort of way. Apparently beets are also quite the sleazeballs of the tuber family.

(An aside: My mother-in-law's first language is not English, so she sometimes still to this day will have very amusing turns of phrases. This past Thanksgiving, she was talking about a really unsavory person she once knew- a real jerk. She said, ever so seriously, "He was a really big squeeze-ball!"  Oh dear me...I don't think I'd laughed so hard in a really long time.)

The only problem with beets is that they kinda sorta really taste like....well, like dirt. Or at least what I assume dirt tastes like because that is not something I'd know from experience. Nope. Surely not.

So, I pretty much have avoided beets, no matter how purpley they were nor how much my coworkers told me they tasted good and were good for me. Yes, I'll grudgingly admit that they are indeed a very healthy food. But still. DIRT.

HOWEVER. At a work conference I attended two years ago, there was a beet and walnut salad available on the buffet and, since my coworker told me that it was a really good salad, and since I was a new employee and wanted to look tough and adventurous, I decided to try that darned salad. If anything, it would test my acting ability- could I get it down without making an, "EWW GROSS!" face? 

Much to my surprise, that darned purpley salad tasted as good as it looked! Well blow me down and call me Popeye! I couldn't believe it! Beets that didn't taste like dirt! They had some sort of vinegar on them, that I knew- whether balsamic or red wine, I don't recall- but ever since then I've been on the hunt for the pretty, non-dirt tasting beets but to my dismay have not been successful.

Until now. I found a recipe on Epicurious for Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges and Beet Greens and it had decent reviews, so I thought, "I am going to try this one more time and if they taste like dirt, well, at least I'll now know what dirt tastes like because I have never tasted dirt before in my life. Ever."

So I made the salad with a few modifications- I didn't have the sweet onion, so I omitted that, and I really just wanted the beets and not the oranges, so I used a little bit of orange juice instead of the orange slices.

OMG. I don't remember dirt beets tasting so good! I really really REALLY enjoyed them. My Mister...not so much. He thought they were good, but they didn't float his boat. HOWEVER. He's not writing this blog so his primitive taste buds don't count. I really liked this salad A LOT. A lot, a lot. I ended up eating most of it last night and then finished it off for lunch today. That's right- I, an avowed beet hater, ate beets TWO DAYS IN A ROW!

And now comes the, "Wow- I did not know that," part. I feel like I should have known this since I am a nutritionist, and I may have learned it many years ago but may have repressed that knowledge along with any memories I may or may not have had about eating dirt. I'm also sure that had I been a beet eater all my life I would have also known this so my ignorance is justified.

Apparently, what goes in purple.....COMES OUT PURPLE. There is no need for alarm. You are not dying. Your intestines are not falling out and you don't have cancer of either the urinary or digestive tracts. There is absolutely no need to call your husband over to take a look and see if he thinks you are dying, as well. NOPE. All completely normal.

And you can take my word for it because I'm a nutritionist. A really really edumacted one. 

Unpredictable...That's What You Are....

Unpredictable...at home or in the car...


I've always thought that one of my strong points is my ability to be spontaneous and just go with the flow. However, now that all I can do is go with the flow, I find myself getting antsy thinking of all the things I should or could be doing.  Thankfully, Little Mister has finally been going longer in between feedings, giving me a little extra time to get things done- including getting back on my treadmill for the first time in....ummm....a really long time. (!!)

You have no idea how happy I am about this! No, I wasn't able to run quite yet, but doing more than just waddling along like a bloated duck sure felt good. I was extremely concerned about the gaining weight part of being pregnant- especially since I wasn't able to be as active as I had planned on being. For a normal weight woman, a healthy weight gain is 25-35 pounds. Of course I thought that, being a nutritionist who was going to exercise throughout her pregnancy, I would be able to get away with gaining no more than 15 pounds which would magically disappear as soon as I gave birth. HA!

I actually was gaining weight appropriately and was on target for gaining around 30 pounds, which even though wasn't my personal ideal, I know was a healthy weight gain.  Well, Little Mister ended up overcooking and I ended up retaining a butt load of water. Seriously- it was insane how bloated I was! I ended up gaining 40 pounds, but I knew that a good portion of it was water, so I wasn't too freaked about it.

However, the part of me that was still freaked out about it was futilely trying to be "healthy" and "professional" with my postpartum weight loss goals and told myself that it'd be ok if it took a few months to lose all the weight. However, with a combination of shedding a ton of retained water, birthing a fairly large baby, and breastfeeding around the clock, 30 pounds melted right off the first two weeks. BOOYAH! "Healthy" and "professional" took a backseat to "totally wickedly awesome" and "cover of People magazine" in a blink of an eye.

Even though I still have 10 pounds to go to reach my pre-pregnancy weight, I actually have almost 20 pounds to go to my regular weight.  Unfortunately, I had gained around 10 pounds in the last year due to my first pregnancy and subsequent loss. However, I figured that if I could lose 30 pounds in 2 weeks, then 20 pounds should take only a week and a half, tops, right?  ("Rational" left the building, as well.)

Well, since I got used to eating ice cream fairly regularly at the end of my pregnancy, and since I'm burning around 500 extra calories a day by breastfeeding (one huge selling point for me), I've been continuing my dessert eating ways and thus have only dropped 1 more pound. ARGH.

Now, I'm still trying to be as rational, healthy, and professional as I can be and not totally freak out. I know that once I'm able to exercise regularly again, that weight will eventually melt off, too. So, the fact that I was able to exercise twice this week really was a very good thing for me. It may have prevented "total freak out"...for reals.

So, even though I'm usually able to just go with the flow and not worry too much about planning things, I am working on a postpartum weight loss plan to help me not go insane. One thing that has to change is my new found sweet tooth. Sorry butter pecan ice cream- yes, our affair was quite amazing, but I'm afraid I need to break up with you. I'll miss you terribly, but distance does indeed make the heart grow fonder (and in this case, the thighs get smaller).

I'll also start slowly incorporating exercise back into my life. (I need to keep reminding myself to take it slow....take it slow, Gege!) I think that, since crunches are not the best exercise for postpartum women, I'll start trying pilates (on DVD) and see how that goes. 

Hopefully Little Mister will cooperate with me and become slightly more predictable. Right now? Not so much, but that's ok. I'll still keep him.

Night, y'all.

Feeding Frenzy

I can’t believe how much happier I am now that my Little Mister is out rather than in. Let’s just say that I was a less-than-chipper-Gege during the last few months of my pregnancy. Even with the current lack of sleep, loads of dirty diapers and clothes, and the first few days of the Breastfeeding Olympics, the change in my attitude- heck, even my outlook on life- has been tremendous. I no longer want to cold clock total strangers for being idiots anymore. (Well….sometimes….)  My legs and feet actually look like legs and feet rather than tree trunks and boat paddles. I’m not sitting all day long at work thinking how much my tail and pubic bones hurt anymore. And, most importantly, I don’t resent My Mister for “doing this to me” nor my baby for refusing to be born.  (Seriously- I begged and pleaded with him to come out only to hear, “Not gonna do it,” in his best Dana Carvey/Bush Senior impression.)

I’m happy to report that I no longer have to contort myself in order to get him latched on.  For the first few days, I had to use a breast shield to assist with latching. While in the hospital, the only way I could get him fed was with the help of the lactation consultant who calmed him down by jiggling him and sticking her fingers in his mouth.  My Little Mister would go from insanely cute sleeping little baby to head spinning psycho child in a flash, screaming at the top of his lungs, “I AM AWAKE! WHY IS THERE NO BOOBIE IN MY MOUTH?!?” 

At home, I was so frustrated since the breast shield made the whole process take longer which made the screaming go on and on.  If only he would CLOSE HIS MOUTH, he would get some food.  My eyes twitched while my arms jiggled him from side to side as I wrapped him around my back in a standing football hold, trying to dance with him futilely trying to get him to calm down, all while biting my tongue so I wouldn’t yell, “THE FOOD IS RIGHT THERE- JUST CLOSE YOUR MOUTH SCREAMING LITTLE BABY! GAH!!!!”

My Mister, who is super supportive of breastfeeding, would finally tell me to just give him a bottle (he could see how frustrated and tired I was and he wanted to help, plus I had pumped milk at the ready) but I was too stubborn absolutely determined to make breastfeeding work.  I prayed that the Lord would let just this one thing go well for me since my whole pregnancy (while a healthy one, which I’m thankful for) and delivery did not go the way I had planned- just PLEASE let this one thing go well for me.  Well, thankfully, after a few days home, I no longer thought we should have kidnapped the lactation consultant to be our indentured servant when we had the chance.  With a little bait and switch with the bottle (I’d let him suck about 5 times on the bottle- just enough to take the edge off- before switching it for the real deal), we were able to conquer breastfeeding.  Whoohoo!!!!

The great thing about this whole ordeal is that I have yet another area of expertise where I am able to practice what I preach. Something I always tell my clients is that, “From the feedback I get from other women, once you get over the first couple weeks or so, you have it made.  While breastfeeding is one of the most natural things to do, it’s not always the easiest thing to do- especially as a first time mom with no experience.”  As I struggled in that first week, I kept reminding myself that this was normal- all I had to do was get past the first couple weeks and we’d be golden.  Now when I counsel my clients, I can tell them, “From my EXPERIENCE…..” and that is a wonderful feeling.

Ok....I've got so many things I need to catch up on blog wise. Hopefully I'll be able to utilize my maternity leave effectively and get some of them out there. Lots of pictures, stories, new projects I've made, and more baby stuff, too. Peace out, homies.

The One Where I Talk About Fiber

Whew! Got to come home "early" today. Had an actual 8 hour work day rather than my normal 9-10 and I really didn't know what to do with myself when I came home. Do I clean out my car and find out what that funky smell is? Should I scoop the cat liter and get rid of that funky smell emanating from the liter box room (AKA the bathroom)? Should I clean out the fridge and find where that funky smell is coming from?  Oh look! There's food in the fridge! It must be time to eat!  What's that funky smell?

So, I cleaned out my car and fridge and rid the vicinity of the funky smell.  Ha! No I didn't! You guys are so gullible. Of course I ate. While wearing nose plugs.

My super healthy and well balanced dinner consisted of Fiber One Carmel Delight or, as I like to call it, Cereal Crack.  It really wakes you up and gets you going in the morning. I LOVE this stuff. It is soooo good!  I honestly think it's because I've not been eating it for breakfast for the past few days that I am now suffering some backup of the intestinal kind. Because there's a backup, new food has a hard time going down which is bringing back my epic belching episodes that I was hoping were finished over a month ago.  I also wonder if my little Geekling is just chilling on my colon thus putting a kink in the hose and making me MIS-ER-ABLE. (I did eat before my Mister got home because 1) he was running late 2) we had leftovers from last night he could eat and 3) I am truly unable to eat a large meal since NOTHING IS COMING OUT. Well, little rabbit turds, but seriously, those do not count.)

Now, as a nutritionist who counsels pregnant women all the time, I know what I'd tell my clients. Increase your fiber intake, increase your fluid intake, and try to move around as much as you can. Well, I really do try to practice what I preach as much as I can. Instead of my Fiber One Cereal Crack, I've been eating Kashi Go Lean Crunch Honey Almond cereal with sliced banana in it. It's high fiber, high protein, and I've needed the potassium from the banana since I've been retaining water a lot lately. (I'm actually pretty sodium sensitive- I eat a little bit of salt and turn into Spongebob Squarepants slightly lumpier older sister: SpongeGege Hugeboobs. Seriously, within 30 minutes of eating a salty meal my pants will feel tight on my waistband and thighs. Not.Comfortable.Captain.)

Nutrition Tidbit: Eating a banana or other potassium rich food will help your body regulate the excess sodium and will help relieve you of the water retention bloat.

I also eat fruit, veggies, high fiber bread for my lunch sandwiches, and drink 80+ oz non-caffeinated fluid per day.  I've even been taking Metamucil pills at night which usually brings sweet relief the next morning. The only thing I've not been able to do is be as active as I would like. I've been getting home, making dinner, eating dinner in front of my TV and then zoning out in front of the internetz for an hour or so, taking a shower and going to bed. Yes, my Mister and I do eat dinner in front of the TV. It's a favorite past time and is going to be a very difficult habit to break once our Geekling is here and we try to instill good family habits and start eating at the dinner table. However, since for the first six months my Geekling's dinner table is going to be Jupiter and Saturn, AKA my boobs, we can continue our nightly routine for the next 9 months or so.

Nutrition Tidbit: there are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber is the one that can help lower cholesterol (e.g. oat bran) where insoluble fiber helps gets things moving through the intestines (e.g. whole wheat).

I used to be able to finish my dinner and then go work out from about 8-10pm. I used to really enjoy doing that and, truth be told, feel really guilty that I'm not doing that now. However, now I'm just so freaking exhausted and am letting the lazies take over. There's only so much you can do during the day and sometimes I choose to blog rather than exercise.  So, it's all y'alls fault that I'm constipated.  I hope you're happy with yourselves.

Ok, ok. So my own bad habits might have a little something to do with it. I do think that my lack of exercise in the evening is part of the reason my tailbone has been killing me lately.  (Btw: I received my coccyx pillow this weekend but it was not the miracle worker I was hoping it was going to be. *sadface*). So, my goal for the rest of the week is to get in at least 30 minutes of walking during the evening. Knowing me, once I get on my treadmill and get a movie going, that 30 minutes will easily become an hour, which would be awesome.  I know I can handle it- we spent 3 hours walking in DC this weekend and, apart from having to walk slower than normal, I did much better than I thought I was going to- yay me!

So, I'm hoping to finish up this blog post early and get my patootie on my treadmill- the Tenth Kingdom awaits. (Nicey Nice!) Hopefully things will get moving in the right direction for me soon, which will help alleviate a lot of issues, including my water retention issue.  And, quite possibly eliminate that funky smell that seems to follow me everywhere I go.

PS: Because Kuddles requested them in the comments. :)

26 weeks- finally have a bump!

Errr....3 bumps....

Pureed, Dried Fruit- Welcome to My World

So I've been pretty consumed with the NatCroMo portion of March, but haven't really touched much on the NatNutMo (National Nutrition Month) part.  These last two weeks have been NatNutMo'd out the wazoo for me so I've pretty much got fiber of the colon cleansing kind on the brain.  As I mentioned last time, (yesterday? the day before? what day is it? where am I? I want my mommy!) I am making fruit leathers for Children's Day at the Mall. I've been making a LOT of these gigantic oversized fruit roll-ups.  Every day. For the past 10 years.

They are actually very good and quite pretty, if I do say so myself.

Mango Strawberry

Strawberry Mango

I'm actually waiting for another batch (of apple sauce/strawberry/mango) to finish up so I can go to bed.  I have one last batch to run tomorrow and then Saturday I'll finally be able to dole them out to all the sticky faced little buggers at the mall.  (I may have gotten a tad cranky in the midst of my fruit roll-up filled days.)

Something I learned: if you have a dehydrator, instead of using the fruit roll sheet that comes with it, cut parchment paper to fit the racks. You'll be able to peel the fruit roll off a lot easier and you don't have to worry about washing another dirty dish.  Win-win.

Another something I learned: that strawberry mango fruit roll looks so pretty before it dries.  However, once it dries, you won't see the pretty mango anymore- just a large red circle. Still tasty, though. But, if you let it dry for too long, instead of strawberry fruit leather you will end up with strawberry fruit paint chips.  This does not happen with either the mango rolls or the apple sauce rolls, though. 

The great thing about these is that they are 100% fruit. No sugar added. Just blend the fruit and pour. So easy to make and they are really very good! I guarantee that, even if you have a super picky kid who won't touch fruit, they will eat these thinking they are those store-bought, sugary, cavity magnets. They'll never know they are instead eating fiber filled, vitamin and mineral carrying, super good for you, cavity magnets. (Just keeping it real- they are sticky....but soooo good!)

Ok- I hope that dehydrator is finally done. I'm really tired and I truly am getting cranky- my Mister just lovingly told me that he missed me, kissed me, and asked me to go to bed. I yelled at him lovingly replied, "OK! JUST LET ME FINISH MY BLOG!" (Yes- for reals.) I'm a terrible wife.

I'm coming, honey! I'll make you some dried fruit! And a lasagna! Mister? COME BACK AND LOVE ME!

Help Me, Ronda...Help, Help Me, Ronda....

Now that I've got that song stuck in your head, today will be the first guest blog post by my friend Ronda.  We've known each other since college- she was even one of my bridesmaids!  We are both Nutritionists and, years after college, even studied together to be ACE certified personal trainers.  She is my "wild and crazy" crocheting buddy I told you about in the fall when I took a trip back home.  Her first blog post is pretty timely- all about keeping those healthy New Year's resolutions.  But, I'll let her tell you herself....  Thanks, Ronda!!

***************************************************************************

Hey Everybody!

It is time to make those New Year resolutions.  How many times have you said, “My resolution will be to eat better, exercise more and lose weight” or some variation of that?  How many times have you failed only to see the scale tipping more the next year?  I am hoping that I can help you throughout the year. 

I am a mother of three and very busy home schooling my two oldest girls and trying to keep my 3 year old son out of trouble.  In my free time I have to keep the house running and unfortunately sometimes meals take a back burner to my life.  I am a RD (Registered Dietitian) as well as a Personal Trainer, so I should have no excuses- eating well and exercising should be my priority, my first love.  In actuality I struggle like everyone else. My resolution is to exercise more and eat better.  Surprise…. 

So many people fail to keep their resolutions and the primary reasons are because they don’t have a plan- no real goal set.  A goal should be something that is obtainable and can be followed.  Just saying, “I will eat better,” doesn’t cut it.  You must say how you will eat better.

For example, I have a meal plan that I will follow.  It looks like this chart below.

Milk
Vegetables
Fruit
Starch
Meat
Fat
Exercise

Each colored square is a serving of food (we’ll go over what exactly a “serving” is later on) and my goal is to mark off each square every time I eat a serving.  This is an obtainable goal and by following this I will lose weight.  Now this meal plan was made specifically for me so not everyone can follow this.  Some people need more calories and some need fewer depending on their size and the amount of exercise they do. 

I also must have a plan for exercising.  I can’t just say, “I will exercise more.”  Remember it has to be obtainable.  Instead I say, “I plan to exercise on the treadmill Monday-Friday at 6am-6:45am.  That will include warm up and cool down.  At 3pm I plan to resistance train.”  I do have a more specific plan for that but I don’t want this to be too daunting.

I have high hopes that this year will be the year that you will meet those New Year resolutions.  I also hope that I can give hope to those struggling.  I, as a dietitian and personal trainer have successes and failures, too.  That is life but we can walk through it together.  Until next time!