Healthy Helper

Well, I'm a week into the diet and down nine pounds - woo hoo!! Now, I know that most of this is water weight, but still, it helps to crank up the motivation.

Before I started dieting, I didn't really track calories or carbs/fats/proteins. I figures, if I didn't eat that much, or that often I was doing ok. Boy was I wrong. Some of the things I consumed, had a whole days worth of calories in the one meal - so not a good thing, but then again, I had no idea.

My healthy post this week is about a gadget, and who doesn't love a gadget? For those of you with an IPhone or an IPod, this is for you. It's a high tech food journal!!

It's called Tap&Track and I'm addicted. You can put in all your personal information, weight, height, how much weight you want to lose, how many calories/fats/carbs/proteins you want to consume in a day. Then you enter the food you eat in a day, there's a searchable database and it has a list 0f over 400 restaurants with their food info and you can customize it to add other foods.

It also has a daily exercise log, where you can enter what exercise you've done that day and it even considered ironing an exercise!

Anyway, after you input something, it tells you how many calories you have left for the day, etc. etc. A much prettier and detailed (with pictures) review is here

IMO, it's anything that helps and keeps me accountable and I'm learning a lot about smart food choices., not to mention it's kind of fun to keep track of it all in a high tech way. :)

Just when you thought...

I had fallen off the face of the earth....I'm back. ::crickets:: Did I lose all my readers?

A lot has changed since my last post. I have a new address, a new job, a new dog and a new attitude.

One of my friends who is a personal trainer and one hot momma (Hi Kat!) posted a healthy challenge on her blog. For those of us that have blogs to post something healthy at least once a week.

I decided at the beginning of March that I was going on a diet. Even though I had already lost 178 lbs in September (tee hee) I decided that it was time for me to be happy with me and to rediscover the person I was before I gained the 178lbs 7 years ago.

My diet is not a crazy one, and it's doctor approved. And I'm not going to use this blog to tell you what I eat every bit of the day, nor complain about things. I am going to post recipies for my Lean and Green Meal that I eat for dinner, consisting of 8 oz of a lean protien, 2 cups of veggies, and a healthy fat.

Yeah, I know, it's not the most exciting, but I'm committed for 30 days, and so shall my blog.

Healthy reading.

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This one is for Coco's favorite bunnies' mommy, Bunday Mondays make her smile!
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Howdy!

Coco says hi!
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How well do you know your spouse?

I too have seen this on various blogs of my JKnottie friends and Julie's post inspired me to try it out.

How well do you know your husband/wife?

1. They are watching TV….. What are they watching?

The Encore western channel. He's a sucker for old westerns.

2. You’re out to eat.what kind of dressing do they get on their salad?
None, he doesn't do dressings or any condiments for that matter (strange, I know)

3.What’s one food this person doesn’t like?
Any kinds of beans (unless they are red jelly beans!)

4. You go out for a drink. He/she orders…

Alcoholic: Bud-Light Non: Sierra Mist

5 Where did he/she go to high school?
Eastridge High

6.What size shoe do they wear?
10 1/2

7. If this person were to collect anything, it would be?
Hunting stuff

8.What is their favorite type of car?
1969 Chevy Nova SS

9. This person could eat __________ everyday?
Steak and Potatoes

10.Favorite cereal?
Fruity Pebbles

11. This person wouldn’t be caught dead wearing…

Definately a tie

12.Favorite sports team?
Dallas Cowboys

13.Who will he/she vote for?
At this point, I'm not sure

14.What is their sign?
Cancer

15.What is something you do that he wishes you didn’t do?
Nag

16.How many states has this person lived in?
Two

17.What is his heritage?

Russian, Irish, Cherokee Indian

18. You bake them a cake for their birthday….What kind do they want?
Brownies

19.Did he/she play sports in high school?
Wrestling and football

20. This person could spend hours….
Sitting in a tree stand waiting for the monster buck

I called him and asked him if I got them write and woo hoo!! I was on the money.

SNOW!

It's way to early for this in my opinion and this was after most of it melted today. But it inspired me to make homemade potato soup. Pics in next post, I'm still cooking!
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Coco has major ambition!
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Good morning.
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Labor day

Here's hoping everyone had a good Labor day. Mine was a massive lazy day, which was nice because I never have one. I'll leave you with this photo to show you how my day was spent, according to Coco.
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Thought I'd post the latest garden update. We picked the onions this evening to start the drying process. I think we ended up with about 82 of them, mostly yellow, but some red and some white.
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As the few of you who actually read my blog (hi mom!) you know that I'm a major slacker. So I thought I'd post a picture of what I've been doing in my non-blogging time.
My husband and I raised a massive garden this year, almost a 1/4 of an acre, and here are some fruits of our labor. Notice the crooked carrots? My dog loves to eat them.
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Want to know how I spent my Saturday? Put it this way, I don't want to see another cucumber for a while! :) I ended up canning 35 quarts and 5 pints of dill pickles. Anyone want some?
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I am trying out my first mobile blog plus a picture so I thought I'd post a picture of my favorite subject Coco. Enjoy!
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Test

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And I'm Back!

I know it's been a while since my last post (okay 6 months, but who's counting)but I am back in business.
Yes, I had converted to Wordpress, but since my blogging time at work has been seriously limited, back to Blogger I am.
Why do you ask? Well, I have no internet access at home(way too expensive)and I have discovered a wonderful device called a Blackberry aka Crackberry (yes, it's that addicting)
So here I am in the comfort of my home, dog snoozing on my lap, watching tv and reading a book called Stupid and Contagious and most importantly, updating my blog! Gotta love the multitasking.
So, be prepared, more frequent, random updates are coming your way!

I Too Have Moved

NFT...

http://kmeadows.wordpress.com/

I've been Tagged!

Woo Hoo - I've been tagged by Nikki! I've been so out of the loop this past month, that if I hadn't been slacking today and been blog browsing, I would have never seen this. Thanks for giving me a reason to update Nikki :P

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Great, now I get to show my age. I was almost 25, living in Miami, Florida, working at the Federal Prison and definately having no idea that I'd be where I am right now.

What were you doing 1 year ago? I was starting the planning stages for the wedding.

Five snacks you enjoy:

1. Peach Cobbler (Warmed with sugar and milk on top)
2. Corn Nuts (The Plain ones) (Eww- I know, but my BIL got me started and they're adddicting)3. Edamame
4. Chesapeake Bay Chips
5. Tootsie Pops (I'm with you on this one Nikki!)

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to: (Only 5?? This is one of my specialties and I have to limit it to 5??? hmmm......)

1. OPP - Naughty By Nature (one of the 1st Rap song I learned all the words to while in college)
2. Hold My Hand - Hootie and the Blowfish (They played at all of our college bars before they hit it big)
3. The Globe - Big Audio Dynamite
4. Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot (I'm really showing my age with that one :) )
5. Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. Pay off all my debt
2. Buy a House
3. Give my parents money
4. Travel
5. Not worry

Five bad habits:

1. Procrastinating (At least I'm not alone in this one)
2. I sweat the small things.
3. Biting my nails
4. I over analyze things.
5. I drive and talk on my cell phone :)

Five things you like doing:

1. Hanging out with the husband
2. Curling up with a good book
3. Indulging in reality TV
4. Playing with Coco Nuts
5. Relaxing


Five things you would never wear again:

1. Banana Clips
2. Major matchy matchy clothes (In High school I would wear a red turtleneck with a black sweater, red and black leggins, a pair of red scrunchy socks and blacks scrunchy socks and either red or black tennis shoes - Wayyyyy scary)
3. Big Hair
4. Jams (If you know what these were - I salute you!)
5. Purple Peter pans boots

Five favorite toys:

1. DVR
2. Cell Phone
3. Digital Camera
4. Does Coco Count?
5. Computer

My family meatball recipe

Ingredients:
(14 oz) bottle of ketchup

1 cup water
1 cup sugar

1 can whole cranberry sauce

1 (16 oz) can sauerkraut, drained

1 bag frozen meatballs (5-6 lbs)

Directions:
Mix ketchup, water, sugar, cranberries and kraut in saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes. Put meatballs in crockpot and cover with sauce. Cook on Low for 5 hours (roughly just check to make sure meatballs are cooked through)

Cream Cheese Buttons

These are the cookies that I made for the BGEX. It's a little different from your normal cake mix cookies. They are my stepdad's favortie and one of mine, too. Super easy to make.

Ingredients

1 (8oz) cream cheese

1/4 cup of margarine (or butter)

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg yolk

1 box of yellow or devil's food cake mix

Directions

Cream the margarine and cream cheese. Add vanilla and egg yolk. Add cake mix 1/3 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll into balls or drop by teaspoon on ungreased pan. Bake for 7-10 minutes at 375 degrees.

(The original recipe calls for 7 minutes baking time - depending on your pan and your oven it will vary. Just check to see that the bottoms are a nice semi-golden brown color or used the tried and true of sticking a toothpick in the center.)

(*Note - it's easier to mix these by hand or with a hand mixer. I made mine with my big mixer and had a hard time keeping it off the beaters and in the bowl.)

First ever blog

As a new wife and thanks to a great group of friends who are also newly married and cooking, I have decided to jump on the bandwagon and start a cooking blog. My Nana is always my inspiration for cookingand hopefully I can share some of her recipies with you. although getting a recipie may be hard, since she's a pinch of this and a dash of this chef :)