Breakfast Freezer Smoothie

Inspired by my cleaning out the kitchen and garage freezers at my MIL's house I have created a smoothie out of whatever I found lurking in their cold, icy depths.

1 whole frozen banana
1/4 C frozen blueberries
1/4 C frozen strawberry puree (or whole berries)
1/2 C of orange juice
1/4 C of yogurt (I used plain Greek yogurt)
1 TB of hemp seed (you could use flax seed or oat bran here too)

Blend and drink. It was pretty yummy but dod not hit my stomach like a ton of bricks after my workout. Later I had a small hamburger for lunch and I've been doing great on drinking my water.

First workout!

I will write more in depth tonight, but for now dear reader, I went to a popular gym chain today because they were running a 30 Days Free no obligation trial and because they are right next door to my daughter's dance class. So while my little ballerinas are moving and grooving I can be next door doing the same. Win/win.

Tonight I will write about which gym I attended, the sign up procedure, the workout and how I felt afterwards. Right now I am drinking a breakfast smoothie and then I have to run go pick up the baby from preschool!

Later taters!

Announcing... at long last... with much FANFARE

My newest year long project.

This is the year, where I do what it takes, to get healthy.

Which is pretty scary... and here's why.

When I was a kid I was fond of doing all the other things kids do, running around, swimming, climbing trees, hiking, camping, floating inner tube-less down an icy river; however I was never fond of exercise as such. I lived in dread of PE classes taught by our Vietnam Vet ex-Marine "Coach" who screamed at us as we tried to pull up on the bar, or as we panted around the asphalt track, baking AND steaming in the Florida sun. I was great at the Presidential Physical Fitness Flexibility meter, remember the sit and reach? MAN could I sit... and reach! I was like Gumby back then!

I also shunned organized sports. Jocks and nerds in my school... well, never the twain shall meet there, eh? And I was such a nerd, a book reading, Shakespeare quoting, pencil-nibbling nerd. Any time I displayed any type of physical prowess (for instance sinking shot after shot in a game of horse) it all came tumbling down the moment anyone MENTIONED it.

Coach: (calling out over the court) "Hey, that's a pretty great shot! Maybe you should come out for... (air ball) Nevermind."

Content Note: Discussion of disordered eating patterns

And then I wasn't a kid anymore. I was a young woman, trying to make my way in the world and more specifically Los Angeles in the early 2000s. Being a size "something", brunette in a size "nothing" blonde world took a toll on me. I came back to Florida thinner than I had ever been in my life, but maniacally chasing another phantom 30 pounds to lose. It wasn't an eating disorder, per say, but I was exhibiting disordered eating.

I never ate breakfast, would eat a single baked potato with butter from Wendy's, and then go energetically swing dancing 6 nights a week. I was a tiny little stick, but not a very happy one.

And then I met my husband... my sweet, adorable, non-dancing husband. We went out to dinner a lot. My weight went back up, but not in any alarming way, I barely noticed. We had a kid after we'd been married a couple of years. I remember being just a few weeks post-partum and the insurance at my husband's office had changed. A new insurance agent came out to the house and weighed us. I was told I was going to be charged extra premiums because of my weight. I was flabbergasted. I had a less than one month old child! It was the first time I had thought of myself as "fat" in a long time.

I worked out some, ate my usual diet, the weight came off, or at least as much weight as I wanted to. My exercise patterns became increasingly erratic. I would exercise wildly, record everything I ate, weigh myself obsessively. Then I'd get scared, I'd feel the seductive pull of food limiting start to rear up. I'd go too long without eating and get dizzy and nauseated from my hypoglycemia. And then I would stop cold turkey, "Excerise? Me? Oh sweetie, I only run when chased, and not even always then!" Big laughs.

It eventually seemed like I couldn't exercise safely at all. I'd play with the kids, go on a walk and chat with a friend, go swimming on vacation or at a friend's house, but if I started to think of it as "exercise" I would freeze, and that would be the end of that for awhile.

I have two kids now, ages 4 and 9, and I love to watch them move. They are so gloriously unselfconscious about it! They take ballet, tap, gymnastics, baton twirling (not all at the same time!) and they move with such grace! Even dancing to Lady Gaga songs in their bedroom they are so free and easy. I really envy that, I remember, vividly, feeling that way and I don't want them to ever grow out of that experience.

So here's where I am going to do. I need to set a good example for my daughters of being a fully adult woman who makes time for herself to move and move well. I need to make sure that I am exercising and stretching and caring for this body. It is the only one I have after all. I need to be proactive about my health, realizing frailty, injury and disease can happen to anyone and for any reason, but maximizing what I have been given and luxuriating in it while I have it.

Here is what I am NOT going to do, weigh myself. You may have noticed that I have related this entire story about getting healthier and never mentioned a weight that I was or a weight that I want to be. That is intentional, for me and weight loss, let's just say once I start down that road it is an ever changing goal-post. There are always "another 30 pounds" for me to lose. I don't know how I got stuck on that number, but there ya go, its been the same since High School. I don't think the number on the scale has as much to do with my health as the number on the treadmill telling me how long I've run, or the amount of weight I can lift or how smoothly I can dance. I want a whole new metric of fitness because mere weight is not my goal.

I am also not going to restrict my eating IN ANY WAY. I know! GASP! But, but, but doesn't that mean I will pig out on junk food and eat candy bars at breakfast, lunch and dinner? Um no. Because if I did that I'd feel pretty sick and I want to feel the opposite, remember? I want to feel healthy. I mean, eating any ONE food or food group to the exclusion of all others is an inherently unhealthy way to live. Imagine eating only kale 3 times a day. My colon just shuddered, thinking about it, I swear.

So here's how it is going to go. I am going to try a number of different workouts, styles of exercise, apparatus, gyms, trainers and of course RECIPES and let you all know how it goes. I promise to move my body in an intentional and loving way EVERY DAY, for an entire year. We can work out through the holidays together and see how it feels NOT to make a New Year's Resolution to "get in shape". So join me, mock me, cheer me along, I've my yoga* pants on and I am ready to go.

*May not result in actual yoga.

Healthy movement for the day : Deep cleaning and reorganizing 2 freezers, 1 refrigerator and a pantry. Taking a walk behind the kids as they headed to a friend's house on the other side of the neighborhood and back again.

Tonight's healthy* dinner: Grilled cheese on whole wheat bread, side of homemade guacamole, LOTS of water.

*Disclaimer: What is healthy for me, may not be healthy for you. I am merely sharing in order to give fuller insight into my process. Check with your doctor or nutritionist for your specific needs. Offer not valid in Ohio. Void where prohibited. Supplies are limited. Many will enter, few will win. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Please stand clear of the doors.

Chicken Cacciatore Catastrophe

Ever have one of those mornings? You know where you have unexpected company at 5:30 a.m., find out the freezer door has been open all night, your kid lied about having her homework done and you suddenly realize you have two children that need to be in two places at 9 a.m.? No? Just me?

Oh well.

IF you ever find yourself with a plethora of suddenly defrosted chicken breasts though, feel free to use my Catastrophe Cacciatore, it will make the best of a bad situation.

Into the crock pot throw your chicken breasts (let's say you have 4-5 of these) season them with salt and pepper, cover them with a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, some spaghetti sauce or a mixture of both adding up to about 28 ounces (give or take). If you have some rapidly aging raw tomatoes in the fridge, chop them up and add those too, I mean, what the heck right? Also chop some onion, garlic and whatever variety of bell pepper you have on hand and toss that stuff in there. Put it all on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

If you are preparing this recipe on a NON catastrophic day you can take your time and cook your veggies a bit in olive oil to get some color on them, then put the cooked veggies in the crock pot, add some more oil if necessary and brown your chicken as well, not cooking through but getting some color on the breasts so that the resulting cacciatore has a deeper flavor.

You can serve this cacciatore over cooked pasta, polenta or on top of fresh spinach leaves. Top with a bit of the sauce the breasts have cooked in and also a dash of parmesan and a basil leaf or two if you have it.

Cinnamon Rolls

I am supposed to be moving house in a few weeks, but I am doing my level best to ignore that. By doing things like make cinnamon rolls, because yeah, that's helpful. I think what makes it harder is that I will be moving from my own home into someone else's home for a few months while my husband and I try to figure out where it is we want to live for a long time. My family has moved 5 times in the last 5 years, and when our landlord called at Christmas to tell us she wanted to sell the home we rent from her it just seemed like a sign for us to make a major change.

So, we are getting rid of many of our possessions, moving to my husband's home town and in with my in-laws and starting our own business. I KNOW< RIGHT!?!?! Some of you might remember that I was going to start a new project at the new year. My original idea was to do a year about home organization and housekeeping which historically has been a challenge for me. I'd much rather make dinner than do dishes and I'd even more rather read and write than do anything else. My husband and I decided back in January that we couldn't justify buying a house and settling permanently 6 hours away from my grandparents, my parents, his parents and the majority of our friends so we kept the news that we were leaving to ourselves until my husband could put in his one month notice.

Anyway, I will continue to cook, and write and read and raise my kids but I am nervous about the change, even though I know it will be a good change in the long run. I also need to think about a new topic for the blog. I am throwing it open to suggestions? Any ideas? Is living 3 generations in a single home something I could write about every day? How to ease children's transitions when we move? Book reviews? Movie reviews? Television recaps? All of the above? I am throwing it open to you guys. What do you want to hear about?

Also, I have been very busy collecting ideas for my new "someday" home on Pinterest, please feel free to follow me (Suzanne Costner) there! I have found some COOL stuff.

Pastina and Turkey with "Ratatouille"

So I had some yellow squash and zucchini that I needed to use. I took some inspiration from an unlikely source, Disney Pixar's children's film Ratatouille. In the climatic scene Remy the chef rat prepares a colorful mandolin sliced ratatouille topped with a pretty tomato sauce. I lacked the bell pepper and eggplant that makes a REAl ratatouille, but I decided to go ahead and use my mandolin to make thin, even slices of my squashes and also some sweet Vidalia onion. I made my tomato sauce from a can of petite diced tomatoes and the last of my carrot soup mixed together with the immersion blender. I also added a teaspoon of Italian spices to that. In the bottom of an 8 x 11 pan I spooned about a quarter of a cup of my "sauce" and spread it thinly over the bottom. I took the veggie slices and arranged them in long rows of alternating colors, yellow and green. I salt and peppered the veggies and then spooned some more of my "sauce" over the top and grated over all some fresh parmesan cheese. I cooked it in a 350 degree oven, covered with foil, for about 40 minutes, then I removed the cover and turned off the heat and let it stay in there for another 5 minutes. Meanwhile I prepared a quarter of a box of pastina (pasta stars). When they were cooked I strained them with a strainer, since they pasta is so small it would fall through the holes in my colander. I mixed the pastina with turkey from a turkey breast I roasted and spooned my "not for real ratatouille" over top. Yum! The leftover sauce was refrigerated and I am going to use it as pizza sauce for tonight's dinner of whole wheat pizza and eggplant pizza. To make eggplant "pizzas" slice an eggplant into rounds, place it on a cooling rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Heavily salt the rounds on both sides and allow to sit until the eggplant has released most of it's water. Rinse and dry the eggplant rounds, top with sauce, cheese and toppings and broil until cheese is bubbly and eggplant is cooked. A low carb pizza pie! Both pizzas will be served with salad and we will have ice cream for dessert. Have a great Friday!

Quick and Easy Lower Carb Dinners

My husband's reached the point in hie diet where he can start adding in some whole grain carbs so I'm trying to introduce them slowly. I made two dinners in that vein and I'd like to share them with you. Tuesday, I made a veggie-packed tomato sauce with all meat meatballs. Sautee up some chopped bell pepper, half an onion diced, 2 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped and a can of diced tomatoes (with or without Italian seasoning.) I added a half cup of pureed pumpkin I had made over the weekend, plus half a cup of leftover vegetarian spaghetti sauce from the freezer. I added some frozen meatballs to the sauce and let that all simmer while the water boiled for the whole grain pasta. When the pasta was cooked I drained it quickly and served the kids pasta and sauce, hubby got the meatballs and sauce over wilted spinach and I ate mine with pasta, wilted spinach and sauce over all. I also steamed a large bunch of asparagus to serve as a side dish. The next day I still had pasta leftover and asparagus, so I decided to make a "Hamburger Helper" type recipe using them. I chopped up one whole orange bell pepper, half an onion and 2 cloves of garlic and cooked them in olive oil. I added 1 pound of ground turkey meat when the veggies had gotten soft and seasoned the meat with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. I let the meat cook while I whipped up a quick cheese sauce. In a separate pan I made a quick roux and thinned it with milk. I added about 1 cup of shredded cheese (I used a 5 cheese blend) to the pan and stirred and melted it in. I added 1/3 C of my leftover carrot soup to the cheese sauce, just to add some orange color and nutrition. I chopped the asparagus into bite sized pieces and added it to the meat and veggies in the pan. When that was heated through I added the leftover pasta and the cheese sauce overall and stirred it together. Dinner was ready to serve in big bowls, some lovely orange and green veggies, whole wheat pasta, lean protein and calcium all on one dish.