Bring on the snow :)

Hey all, how was your Thanksgiving and potentially deadly black Friday experience?  I valued my life so I did not venture out into the land of the crazy shopping people until much later on Friday afternoon when I finally made it to Jeff(erson) City.  I was mucho excited that my sister had the weekend off so we decided to have a girls weekend !!  P.S.  much like myself my sister never has time off.

Start to the weekend?  4 hours of shopping AS SOON AS I reached Jeff City.  We also meandered through Hyvee (my sis is a pharmacy tech there) and while she was getting her prescription for her ear filled I decided to peruse the wonderful (especially compared to what I'm used to) Health Food section.   They had all kinds of things that Kroger and Walmart don't have.  I thought I was in heaven.  AND they can even special order things for you!  Needless to say I spent about a half an hour looking at the 5 aisles of new stuff and made my way home with some gluten free pancake mix, some new coconut milk to try, and some fresh and I mean fresh almond butter.  I will totally have to take a picture this weekend when we go back for Cookie making extravaganza!  This was the coolest contraption I've ever seen.  You could make your own fresh PB and almond butter ON THE SPOT!!!  I'm stoked.  It's gunna happen on the grocery shopping trip on Saturday hehehe.

It was so awesome to spend time with my sister and my niece who's name has been WooWoo since she was born (it's really Whitney .)  We always have a total blast because we are both completely not right in the noggin.  For dinner we went to Olive Garden and I had stuffed chicken Marsala.  Never had it before but it rocked!  Gunna have to find a way to Paleo it up!

what's left :)

Saturday, Manda wasn't feeling too hot because of her ear so we only did minimal shopping and went home to start on some X-mas decorating.  Way fun.  I introduced them to the wonder that is Kazaa radio and downloading.  We revisited one of my sisters favorite Christmas songs when we were kids called Dominic the Donkey.  Which then led to us acting a fool and being complete dorks which my niece thought was great fun.  The night ended with a couple hours of playing old school Mario Bro's on the Wii and then playing another Mario game which led to more laughing hysterically when my Bro-in-law made his Yoshi eat me and spit me out at the bad guy...(me)"Did you really just eat me?" (Bro) " Um yup ..I'm pretty sure I just did"  Get you damn heads out of the gutter it's a game! lol.  Ok ok, so alcohol might have been involved which is probably why we thought it was so funny but hey I drink once in a blue moon.  Gotta have fun sometimes!

Oh yeah we totally rocked some home made Chinese food Saturday night too!! Recipes to come later in the week.  I make some mean sweet and sour chicken and Crab Rangoon!

Sunday before I left I managed to finish sewing the pillow covers for my sisters bedroom that she's redoing and Woo and I made the most awesome ginger bread house E.V.E.R.

One side of the roof was tie died then we made a flower garden with Oreo icing and had icicles and snow and grass and all kinds of cool crap.  I took some more closeups which I will add later but my camera is at home...DOH!

More adventures to come this weekend I'm sure as I will be making lots of Christmas cookies with both the Peanut Monster and Woo on Saturday!!!

Time to get to work on some computers and can't wait to get to ResFit tonight to workout.  I feel like because I didn't get to workout Thursday of last weekend because of that whole Turkey Day thing that I need a good butt whoopin.  Don't get me wrong took Youkey and Dixie (my sisters Boston Terriers) for walks but it's not the same man.

Have a great Tuesday all!

Almost a bad start

This morning almost started on a really badddddd note.  I love tea.  I drink tea everyday.  My favorite at the moment is Rooibos with honey, cinnamon, and coconut creamer.  Mucho tasty!  This morning I took my cup over to the Kuerig to get the super hot water that kinda helps just a smidge when making tea.  I noticed the other tech's coffee cup under the spout so I moved it and replaced it with my cup.  I waited for it to say "ready to brew" and pressed the monster sized button.  I walk over to the other side of the shop to grab the phone and then walk back over to grab my tea.  I think to myself " Wow it sure does smell like coffee over here, you boys drink way too much of this stuff!."  Grab my cup off of the spout and wonder why it's so dark.  I open up the part where you put your K-cup in and low and behold...

Tell me what you find wrong with this picture?  Me who is not a coffee drinker for the most part would have had a very rude awakening! hahaha.  BUT a second cup of tea was made to save the morning! :)

Tonight I get to go work out with Lauren (rock on cuz I need it).  I'm hoping we get to box because I so need to take out some frustrations at the moment.

Last nights workout went as followed:
3 minutes jogging to warm up
30 pushups
30 eagle sit ups (with 20 lb plate weight)
30 upright rows
30 walking lunges
25 pushups
60 second plank
25 squats with kettle bell
25 squats without kettle bell
3 minute walk to cool down

Last nights dinner was a super nice change of pace.  Normally I eat fish like it's going out of style (I think I might actually be growing gills!) but last night we made Crunchy chicken, spinach, corn, homemade applesauce, and a salad.  Granted I didn't eat the corn but the munchkin most certainly did.  Yeah for kiddos eating veggies!  And just so she would eat the chicken (it was not in chicken nugget form)  we named it Dooey Chicken (one of her nick names is DooBug or Dooey) and she then snarfed it up all because it was named after her.

To make Dooey Chicken
grab however many chicken breasts you would like to cook, "bread" them in a mixture of Corn Flake Crumbs (they are gluten free!!!) and Tony's Creole spice to taste.  Cook just under completely done and then pop them under a broiled for a few minutes on each side to finish the cooking while getting super crunchy!

Honey mustard dipping sauce
1/2 cup spicy brown mustard
1/4 regular mustard
1/4 cup raw honey
= best dipping sauce ever!


This past weekend the muchkin and I also got to FINALLY use our xmas present from last year and go get our Mommy/Dooey pictures done.  I was totally stoke because I got to put in my extensions for the first time in a long time.  I miss long hair, but now I can once again enjoy the best of both worlds!

Not the best picture in the world shirt wise...I didn't realize until just now how much of a puffalump that shirt makes me look!  Maybe no more for you lol.  But I was totally digging having long hair for the night.  What do you guys think?

Went to visit Pop in the hospital yesterday and he's doing much better.  He's probably going to get to come home tomorrow :)

Have a great second Monday of the week everyone!!!

Thankful for life

Sorry guys but you are about to get the infamous "I'm thankful for everything because somebody close almost died" kinda thing.  This is also why I haven't posted in a bit.  My Pop had a heart attack.  He's doing much better now, well considering the circumstances.  They are moving him to a step down room today and out of the ICU.  He's of course gotten the lecture about no more 2-3 packs a day of cigarettes (disgusting I know!!!) and no more eating all possible food at 11 at night right before you go to bed.  No more eating fried, Dad-style food.  He now gets to eat like me :)  On the plus side though, Mom's on board with the whole shabang and since I've been eating this way for a while they have someone to ask and to help.  Also someone to have for accountability, because Pop has in no uncertain terms been informed by my lovely self that if he so much as looks at fried chicken or a cigarette my cowboy boot was going to go so far up.....well I'm sure you could get the rest hehehe.  He's not exactly used to me saying stuff like that to him so I think he may have actually taken me seriously.

I've never been more thankful for doctors to have the ability to fix my Pop in less than 30 minutes from getting him to the hospital.  He had a 95 % blockage so he would have been a goner had he argued with my Mom and not gone to the hospital even another 20 minutes later.  Thankful that Pop wasn't being his normal stubborn self (it's a family trait,  maybe not one of our best at certain times lol).  Thankful that we get more time with him.  Thankful that he is FINALLY going to stop smoking.

Though I didn't get to exercise a lot this weekend because of taking care of the old man (although all the running I've done it could be construed as exercise lol)  I'm catching up and doing a little extra this week.  I will lay out a plan in the next post or two and of course I'll have to post the gratuitous Thanksgiving meal post :)  This will be the first year I get to do dinner all on my own and I'm STOKED that I get to do a healthier dinner because of Pop's new eating!!!!  He's going to get Thanksgiving Jenny Style :)  Of course recipes will be there as well!

Love you all!

OH Monday, why are you here?

In typical Monday fashion, the world has ended for all of our clients this morning.  We took one heck of a power hit this morning and it took out one of our routers, therefore servers including web mail and websites that we host were having issues.  People never seem to grasp this concept.  We had it back up and running in 5 minutes but within that 5 minutes we had 20 clients call in and ask what was going on with their mail!  Yeah for Mondays lol.

I also had a SERIOUS miscalculation in temperatures so I decided it would be a grand idea to wear this very cute short sleeved very heavy sweater and a black tank under it.  I got to the shop and made it roughly 20 minutes before I told Boss man " Dude, I'm going shopping!  Will return in about 15-20 minutes but unless you want a melted cranky pile of Jenny upon your return you will let me go :)"  He said I don't care as per usual so Monday morning also started with an emergency shopping trip.

On the up side though I've found a remedy for my dill dip withdrawals!  I may not have mentioned it on here but I am obsessed with Dill dip,  that might actually be putting it mildly.  Don't ask me why but it tastes fantastic on a lot of stuff.

I decided to get adventurous last night and instead of making traditional styled (but paleo friendly)  Deviled Eggs, I instead made DevDilled Eggs!!!

8 Eggs hard boiled and sliced in half.
Plop the yolks into a mixing bowl (doesn't need to be very big unless your multiplying the recipe)
add roughly 3/4 cup mayo (I had made homemade mayo for this)
Then throw in:
 1 Tbsp Dill Weed
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp celery salt
1 tsp garlic powder
a palm full of parsley flakes

mix together and make sure to completely mush the egg yolks to smithereens!
plop a generous helping back in the halved egg :)

OMG this is the yummiest replacement to potatoes with dill dip ever.  These are my snack for today,  I might have forgotten the end result picture but I'm pretty sure you all know basically what a deviled egg looks like.

I also attempted some apple muffins made with almond meal and they are definitely NOT my favorite.  I think next time I will try coconut flour instead.

Weekend workouts were definitely not high on my agenda after Saturdays craft fair that we had a booth at.  It was a mad house as per usual but a fun mad house.  I always enjoy meeting at least one of our "next door neighbors"  and we thought we were going to have the other neighbor be the usual crabby one that we seem to attract due to Friday nights setup goings on.  We were however pleasantly surprised come Saturday morning that both neighbors ROCKED :)  Everybody did well selling wise and the proceeds from our booth rentals go to the FHN Band Boosters All Nighter for the Seniors so, being a former Band Nerd...I'm all about it!

Oh yeah,  and an extra bonus...I got a new couch!  Makes me happy :)  It's big, it's comfy, and totally right for sitting criss cross applesauce (In the words of Peanut) and writing my blog while surfing the Internet ;)

Workout tonight is a must.  Just not real sure on what I should do.  Couch unfortunately is not involved in this workout...Damn lol.

Anybody else having will power issues today?  What's your motivation to kick yourself and get going?

Love ya!  Have a good Monday

I'm a cavewoman!

Ok, so maybe I'm not running around with a wooden club in my hand with my hair all disheveled trying to kill the next woolly mammoth.  I am however going to be venturing into the eating style of the Paleo Diet.  After chit chatting with my trainer Lauren and the dietitians there we decided it might be the best thing to try.  I have no objections to being on a restrictive diet, although with no soda allowed my part time tech in the shop might disagree!

Hey look...it's cave woman Jenny working on prehistoric computers!

From what I have read so far it seems perfectly logical to eat this way and the reasoning behind it, the general rule of thumb behind this way of life is that our bodies are being forced to process things which they were never meant to tolerate.  Most of this seems perfectly logical to me.  I know some of the people that I follow on other blogs are vegetarian/vegan and are going to disagree with me on this matter, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions.  This plan, I believe, may be a good answer to quite a few other ailments that I have.  We'll give it a go and find out right?

A lot of the recipes you will see are going to be Paleo friendly so far as I can see.  Just because they are Paleo friendly doesn't mean they won't be good.  Why would I want to eat shitty food?  Just need to do a smidge bit extra grocery shopping this week for the 5 things I didn't already have in my kitchen.

Any thoughts on the Paleo diet?  Have any of you heard of it or abided by it?  Let me know!

This Guy explains the situation fairly well with a little humor on the side if you're wondering what all the jazz is about.

Have a great day!

Who Flung what?

In our house we are Mexican fare-a-holics.  Needless to say it's because 3 out of 5 people are Celiac or Gluten Intolerant.  Mexican food = corn, corn, and more corn!  Yeah for gluten free friendly! So in true Mexican dinner tradition I have prepared what we lovingly dubbed as "Who Flung Poo."

 Yeah...we are not entirely there in the noggin when we've all come home from work.  You know how that goes.  When I get tired I get extremely silly and giggly and my mouth expels quite a few oddities.  This would be one of them because you FLING everything into a skillet and dinner is done quick, fast, and in a hurry!

Who Flung Poo:

Saute in a skillet, or an electric skillet like I use in my little kitchen, one whole large onion in a mix of olive oil and butter

Next add garlic to your specifications.  I love the stuff, it's the Mediterranean background coming out in me :)
I used this stuff.  They are a local company and I actually happen to take care of their computers in the shop. They are great people and this stuff is awesome in so many ways! I tend to add about 2 tablespoons

Next add in some rotisserie chicken (from local grocery store, saves cooking time and still healthy), and diced tomatoes with chili's.

After allowing that to marry for about 5-7 minutes then add frozen corn (ours was blanched and frozen out of our mondo garden), 1 can of rinsed black beans, and about 2 cups of chopped mushrooms.

Looks like a fiesta in a pot!

I also tend to add 2 cups of mixed long grain and wild rice and some extra chili powder because I like to bring on the heat!  No salt and pepper is needed unless you want it.  The flavors all do so well together that not a lot of extra is really necessary.

Top with a little Wholly Guacamole! and some fat free sour cream or Greek Yogurt (plain of course) and a smidge bit of Colby Jack shredded cheese (part skim please) roughly 1/2 palmful and you've got a quick and easy, all kinds of yummy dinner that both adults AND kiddos like.

You can serve it with chips.  I mix the bowl up and it makes kind of a creamy dip. I've also added it just plain with no SC, Guac, or cheese and plopped it over a bed of spinach or iceberg lettuce.  To summarize: It's tasty just about anyway you eat it.
On another note.

Can't wait to get my butt whooped by Lauren tonight she also has some new diet info for me so looks like the food intake is going to change around again.  Does anyone else have this issue?  My body will do awesome for between 1-2 months and then plateau like crazy and essentially have to start over again with something revised.  I can gain weight incredibly to easily, however it never wants to leave. 

Dear Fat,

You have very much overstayed you welcome.  It's time to hit the road Jack.  And don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more. 

Sincerely,
Jenny (pissed off host to you)

Happy 4th B-Day Peanut!

Hey all!  My little one just keeps growing.  I'm not really sure how I get that to stop, pretty sure I can't actually do that but it would be stellar if I could :)  Yesterday was her birthday and we went to Papa Hey Jer's and Grandma Chrisses for a special dinner and of course cake and ice cream with a side of presents.

If anyone could have seen her face when she found out Papa Hey Jer (Pop's name is Jerry, it's a long story how they got these name...on another post lol) got her an OREO CAKE WITH OREO ICE CREAM for her birthday.  The child loves oreo ice cream.  And yes to appease your brains I limit her intake of this sinful substance very much.

Her response:  "Oh thank you thank you thank you Papa, you're the bestest Papa in the big world and you get a gold star!"

Yes that really happened.   Maybe I might need to tone the sarcasm down a notch around the munchkin? Naaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

Zack, my mom's Golden was trying to help as usual!

He was such a very good Papa too and made her Mac n' Cheese that was organic/whole grain with a bechemel sauce with colby jack and cheddar like I would have done and home made chicken nuggets.
  Being the bad blogger that I am with no brain inside my head I failed to get pictures of this part :(  I'm grabbing his recipe from him because it looked delicious!  God Bless him though, he still can't get it through his head that I have to eat gluten free or I get sick so unfortunately no taste testing for the Mama lol.





So some eats from Friday included a new love from STL Bread Co. (known to other states as Panera Bread Co.)  Chopped BBQ Salad and Tuna Sandwich-minus the bread of course.

no I wasn't in motion...in the drive through

absolutely delicious...everyone should try it!

Workouts were non-existant on Saturday (bad Jenny bad Jenny) due to extreme laundry and finger painting!
Sunday I was good though and did:
 20 minutes on the treadmill
20 pushups
20 eagle situps with weight
20 second plank regular
20 seconds on right side plank
20 second on left side plank
20 rows with the stretchy band thing, yes I've forgotten what it's called SURPRISE lol
3 minutes cool down on treadmill


Found a new yummy Greek yogurt flavor too.  If you seem to be in a cherry mood like I was this morning check this puppy out!

in the words of Rachel Ray ...Yum-O!

alright...times up...gotta get back to work now.  Have a great day everyone!  I'm sorry for the jumping all over the place today.  It's a Monday with trying to go caffeine-less and brain not functioning this morning.


Also with it getting chilly outside again, chili is in order!  Deer chili to be exact.  Recipes to come.

I hate jumpy things!

Last night, much to my dismay, Lauren made me do what have been dubbed as "Jumpy things".  I've come to find out (actually finally remembered what the heck they are REALLY called) that they are box jumps.  Oh, the humanity.  Not only did we have to do a version of jumpy things....I had to do them with my other dreaded arch enemy, the Up/Down! 

Most would not ultimately dread these great excercises however when one has absolutely no balance (insert acting like a ping pong ball in the morning running into things saying OW!) and majorly above normal sized bodaydas (I'm sure you can guess what I'm talking about) these two are NOT your friend.  I did however still ROCK THEM!!! 

yup that's right, I did it lol

Last nights workout consisted of the following:

5 minutes warmup on the treadmill
30 second wall squat
30 second wall squat with 25 lb medicine ball in tow
20 standing lunges on each leg
15 up/down-jumpy thing combo (yes it sucks royally!)
2 minutes on treadmill at highest incline with 25 lb medicine ball
20 messed up eagle situps lol (i don't know what they are actually called so we revert to the Jenny  dictionary)
20 dips
15 MORE up/down-jumpy thing combo
20 pushups (girly style of course, don't have the strength built up and enough weight off to do full throttle)
20 curl then overhead press with 50 lbs.
2 minute cool down on eliptical


Despite my fantastic workout last night I'm still majorly P.O.'ed at myself!  No weight lost this week, actually quite the opposite....2 lbs gained.  I realize that this will happen from time to time however the over-reactive chicky side of me wants to take something out because I'm mad. 

This mornings breakfast I decided to change it up a little and make something a little different than the blah oatmeal with PB and deli meat (odd combo I know but hey, it was working right?)
This morning is Quinoa made with 1/2 water 1/2 pressed apple juice with almonds and cranberries and a side of turkey bacon burnt to a flippin crisp!  I love burnt turkey bacon...I however love burnt stuff in general.  I was the oddball kid that didn't eat the cookie dough I waited for the first batch to come out of the oven because my mom always forgot to set the timer and I ate the burnt chocolate chip cookies.  Don't ask. LOL.

I think for lunch I'm going to have to hit up the local hot/salad bar down the street from the shop.  They always have rotisserie chicken and turkey and spinach salad with an assortment of toppings.  I wish that they would start having some more organic stuff but I live in Missouri.  They haven't quite gotten over the eggs, bacon, and sausage is a typical breakfast thing yet!

Off to a hopefully fantastic Friday!!!  Hope you guys have one too!

Halloween!! :)

Ok so in the workout world Lauren now has me (upon my own prompting) doing mini-Lauren workouts at home instead of the boring cardio over and over and over again.

Workout A:

40,30,20,10

Squats
Push-Ups
Trampoline Jumps (Double the number)
Curls on Swiss Ball - Use your kettle bell or the first two sets, they will be
single arm, then on the last two sets use your ten pound dumb bells at the same
time.
Sit-Ups on the ball

If it doesn't take you 30 minutes, repeat for time.

Workout B

2 rds of 25

Resistance band chest press
Up down/jumping jack - find something to use for assistance for the up down
Curls with dumb bells
Plank on Swiss Ball - Try for 30 seconds
Lunge/press/extension
Leg curls with Swiss ball
Up down/jumping jack -

Workout C

15 Reps

Squat/Row - resistance band
Curls into press - resistance band
Trampoline Jumps for 2:00 minutes
Single leg Squats with your 10 lb dumb bell
Push Ups
Regular Plank with toe taps

Repeat for time

Workout D

19/1

Dumb bell Squats
Chest Press - resistance Bands
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Sits ups on Swiss ball

Above are your 19.

Up down/Jumping Jacks

This is your one rep. :)
These are my options to choose from :)!!! I'm kinda stoked

On other topics, of course in true totally cute Peanut fashion, she was the cutest fairy I've ever seen!


I painted all the kids faces

 We also went on a major exploration in our backyard a few days prior just for fun :)  We have about 6 acres and a large garden

the garden

We went through and HAD to check out every last flower, tree, leaf, berry, etc. that she could possibly find.  One thing I have to say for the kiddo is she LOVES LOVES LOVES being outdoors and I'm not going to do a damn thing to change that!

I was having fun with my camera

OK so my question to you guys...any good recipes come to mind???
I'm getting tired of plain fish (never thought I'd ever say that!).  I can also have chicken and turkey.  I feel like I might actually be sprouting some gills and fins over here!  I'll research some recipes that I can have and post back on what I find.

On to my crazy life again.....here we go :)