My Mary Poppins Trunk

There is no good reason that I am writing. No big plan to renew past resolves at eating better, no big plan to start exercising again. But, it has been awhile and here I am; lamenting my issues. I was thinking about my trunk, ya know, the one my pants strain to cover. I was thinking it was a bit like Mary Poppins' carpet bag.  She just kept pulling tons of crap out of it. How did she get a lamp in that sucker!?  That is how my trunk is.  I can just keep stuffing it with more and more crap and somehow, it all fits. And I am oh so good and stuffing more and more in it.

I hate being fat. I hate how I feel. I hate the physical pain I am in and I hate the emotional pain I am in. Yet I still feel SO helpless! I have tried almost everything that I can almost afford (most costly things I tried I really couldn't afford) It was all money down the drain.  I have a food issue and I feel it is just out of control.

Ya know how the phrase "I'll start on Monday" is commonly used by the tragically fat person. Well, I like taking that to the next level. Go big or go home (no pun intended). We just moved to Utah and are living in the basement of a friends house.  We have been here 25 days (except for the days that I was traveling in Oregon and Washington). For the chronically fat person, that kind of upset to the life is no fourm for dieting change.  So, I am bowing out of the intense need to loose weight until I move into my new home and all the stress and craziness I am living thru is over.  I am trying to buy my sisters TreadClimber so I can have something in the house I can just jump on and get the excercise thing done. I will work on the diet when the time comes.

So for now, I'm just here, fat, hurting, and unhappy with it all.

Cranberry Meatballs

The naming of these was not easy.....again, I just had to go with simple and descriptive. These meatballs are a great party/potluck dish. So very easy to make and so very yummy.

 

 

 

Grab yourself these 3 ingrediants:

 

1 Bag of meatballs

1 Jar Chili sauce

1 can Cranberry sauce (no whole berries)

 

 

 

I used the large bag from Costco, but two smaller bags will do. You also don't have to make the whole bag, there will just be more sauce.

 

Defrost the meatballs in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave. When thawed, place them in a pan (I use my electric skillet) and brown them in a bit of olive oil for about 5 min.

 

 

 

In a large pot, empty the can of cranberries and jar of chili sauce. Heat and stir on a medium high heat until the cranberry sauce is pretty much disolved.

 

 

Once the meatballs are browned and the sauce heated thru, mix the meatballs in the sauce making sure to cover all the meatballs.

Thats it!

 

 

I serve these on brown rice if I am going to make them for dinner. I just don't use all the meatballs in the bag in order to have more sauce.

 

I will put these in the crockpot on a low heat to keep them warm if I'm taking them to an event.

 

 

 

 

 

Italian Squash Bake

Lets face it, I'm not going to win any awards for comming up with creative recipe names. I just try to make it short and descriptive.  Like this one; I have some squash, I have some Italian stuff, I baked it.

I actually was going to make a different dish with my squash but was missing a couple of ingrediants so I improvised with this. There are a couple of changes I would do but it turned out pretty good.

 

Here is what you will need:

About 4 pieces of squash

A package of sausage

A 16oz bag of shredded mozerella

A jar of spaghetti sauce

Salt, pepper, seasonings

 

Preheat oven to 350

 

 

All I had was sliced cheese, I would change this to shredded the next time I make it.

 

Cut up the sausage and saute on medium high heat in a little bit of olive oil

 

While the suasage is cooking, cut the squash into bite sized pieces. I also added some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

 

Put the cut up squash on the bottom of a baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with a cooking spray.

 

Then place the cooked sausage over the top. Pour the jar of spaghetti sauce over the top and then cover it all with cheese.  I also found some small pepperoni in my fridge so I sprinkled that on top. But it was just a last min addition.

 

 

I baked it for about 30 min until the cheese was melted and it was bubbling on the sides. 

 

My kids really liked this and they got a great serving of veggies from  this meal!

 

 

 

 

 

Green Chili Chicken Taco's

I love the crockpot. I love easy ways to make dinner. I love chicken. Put the three together and viola! You have endless ways to chow down with the family. Here is one way to make simple Mexican style chicken tacos.

 

Here is what you will need: 1lb of chicken breasts, a can of green enchalada sauce, a small can of green chilis, a jar of green salsa verde.

 

 

Toss your chicken in the crockpot, and throw the rest of the goodness on top.

 

 

Let that cook on med high (about 6 hrs). When it is cooked take a couple of forks and shred the chicken. I also add some salt and garlic powder to taste.

 

 

 

Thats it! Add it to your tortillas, put on some cheese, lettuce, tomato, cilantro or whatever you want and enjoy!

 

 

 

Shake it Up!

Part of my efforts to become healthier is to eat better.  This is uber hard. I have a million and one excuses I like to tell myself on various occasions to avoid eating better, like: I'll just start on Monday, I'll eat this yuckyness now and then eat better for the rest of the day, I can just do some house cleaning to burn off the extra calories etc.... Needless to say all of the excuses never amount to anything.  I don't start Monday, I don't eat better the rest of the day and I for sure don't do extra house work that would come close to burning any calories.

One thing I am getting much better at is making a protein shake.  They are easy and not to shabby in the taste department.  I will usually use almond milk (we can get it at Costco and it is not so expensive) and then some spinach (also a Costco find) I buy the big bag and then fill sandwich bags full of spinach and then freeze them so there is no waste if I can't use the spinach fast enough. This is how I do it:

 

And then I just put the baggies back in the origional bag and put it in the freezer:

 

 



 Then some fruit (frozen or fresh), a scoop of protein powder, and some ice.  I have a super duper blender that does a fabu job of blending it all up.  My kids usually will ask to share my shake with me. 

 

 

The pink stuff in the middle is strawberry banana fish oil from Barleeans. I love the stuff and so do my kids. They are always asking for their fish oil. 

 

So anyway, I am really going to make an effort to continue making better choices of what goes in my mouth.  I know that making small steps forward is always better than making any steps backwards.  I think as soon as I have a good habit down of incorporating my shake on a more daily basis, I can then decide what the next small step will be that I can focus on.  Maybe no white bread, or no eating after 8:00, or even no fast food....ever! We shall just have to see.



Rice and Beans

So this is a good one I got from my mom.  My mom is a WONDERFUL cook. My husband actually wishes she lived with us just so he can enjoy her cooking more.  And because she is such a swell lady. The great thing about this recipe is that it is pretty versitile.  You can switch things up or if you are missing something, its not that big of a deal.  You can taylor it to your likes and it will pretty much turn out good.  It's hard to mess it up. 

Here is what you will need:

2 Cans Black beans (pinto would work as well)

4 cups cooked rice (white or brown)

Shredded cheese

Chicken

Sour Cream

Salsa

Cilantro

Seasonings

I know the ingredients are not really specific on quantity.  This is just because you can do this to taste.  The basics are beans and rice.  From there you get to be the master of your own dish. 

First, brown some chicken in a skillet with some seasoning (taco, salt, pepper, cumin, etc). Meat can be optional here. Oh, this is pre-sliced chicken I got on sale.  You can just do the traditional chicken breast cooked and then chopped up.

 

Next, crack open your beans, rinse them and put them in a pan.  Add some seasoning like onion and garlic. (or don't, you decide)

Here are the toppings I used

And here is the final dish.  I love cilantro so I pile it on.  For the kids I left off the cilantro.

This has the potential to be a really healthy meal.  You can use brown rice or even quinoa. Use a low fat sour cream and sparingly on the cheese and, viola! There you go.

Change Up

I decided to change the name of this blog because I figured that the Juicing theme was only a small part of what I really want to accomplish with this.  I know that this is going to be a lot more than just the way I accomplish my goal, but the why and how much did it hurt.

 I really have always had a small giggle hiding inside when I hear the term "junk in the trunk" it is so descriptive for me.  It can have many double meanings....or triple....quadruple. Anyway, I wanted the title to be more encompassing of what I am experiencing.