Archives for May 2012

Five things Friday

May 18, 2012 by 4 Comments

Time for something new to shake things up!  So Five Things Friday it is!  I’ve been feeling very grateful and blessed lately so I thought I would do five things that I’m thankful for!

 

1.  This fella!  Our four year wedding anniversary is coming up and we’ve been together for a total of 8 yrs!  And we haven’t killed each other yet!!  Winking smile 

 

 

2, These two crazy girls!  I can’t imagine my life without my dogs- it would be so very empty!  These girls mean the world to me and I love them so much!!

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3. New opportunities.  We recently had the opportunity to move.  So we’re moving to Dallas!  I don’t loooove Dallas and am a little sad to be leaving country life but this move will give us so many opportunities for the future!  I’ll be so much closer to school plus those two girls above will get a nice backyard to play in, which we don’t have now!

 

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4.  This blog!!!  I’ve made so many new friends through blogging even though some of them live across the country from me!  I’ve always loved to cook but I never knew that I also loved to write my own recipes until I started blogging.  It’s one of my absolute favorite things to do… in fact as soon as I finish typing this I’m headed to the kitchen to test out a new muffin recipe I’ve been dreaming up!

 

 

5.  A new career path!  I volunteer for a program called Cooking Matters.  The last course I volunteered as a course assistant and had such a blast.  There’s a new course starting next week and I’m going to be the nutrition instructor this time.  What’s so crazy about this is that the course is in Cleburne where I taught as a music teacher for 4 years and eventually decided that teaching wasn’t the career for me.  It’s going to be a little strange going back there to teach, but it’s a completely different content and something I’m much more passionate about!  Time to dust off my teaching skills and put them to use again!

Share Our Strength: No Kid Hungry

(source)

 

Now it’s your turn!  What are you thankful for today???

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Filed Under: Five Things Friday, healthy living Tagged With: ,

Skinny VS. Healthy… let’s talk about it!

May 17, 2012 by 6 Comments

Hey guys! 

First of all official grades are in for the semester- I ended up with A’s in Anatomy and Physiology Lecture, Biochemistry (did I already mention that I made a 100 on the final for that class?) and Literature in Nutrition.  Those A’s are fantastic and I’m very proud of them but I’m most happy about the B that I got this semester in A&P lab. 

Even though I looooove making A’s (I’m a straight up nerd!) I’m really really happy for this B!  Between a TA and a lab coordinator both on a major power trip and no one EVER knowing what was going on in that lab (seriously it was horrible!) and no one in the class ever making above an 84 on a practical I’m very okay with that B.  I honestly thought it was going to be a C and that ugly little letter is absolutely NOT allowed to be on my transcript!!  So I’m surprisingly okay with this B.  But next semester look out… I’ll be back to straight A’s!!!

 

Anyway on to the topic at hand!

 

Skinny vs. healthy…

This is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately since the weather started warming up and people started declaring it to be “bikini season”.  Seriously don’t you hate those two words?!  I’m hoping that I don’t just end up going off on a rant about this but start a conversation about it.  Let’s talk about this!

 

The number of times I hear the words “get your body bikini ready” in one day is astounding!

Look at what I found through just a quick Google search…

Bikini Body workout from Self Magazine  It even comes with pictures guys!  Apparently this is what we should look like…


(source)

 

Here’s another…

Bikini body in only 4 weeks?!  And another picture…

 Bikini Body Opener
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Also can we talk about this new book by The Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper?  It’s called The Skinny Rules.  Seriously that’s what it’s called.  Here are just a few of the more ridiculous “rules” I noticed while flipping through this at a store…

  • Go to bed hungry (what the what?!?!)
  • No carbs after lunch (it really says that- I can’t make this stuff up!  No distinguishing between complex carbs and refined carbohydrates and why one is better for you than the other.  Wow. Just wow.)
  • No potatoes (Apparently potatoes and all carbohydrates are evil)
    Oh and he also claims that he has new and emerging science to back all this up but never cites a single thing to actually back up these insane claims.  Just another “diet” book by a celebrity trainer who is absolutely NOT qualified to give out nutritional advice.  Shame on you Bob Harper.
      There are so many examples out there of why we should be “skinny”.  But why do we need to be skinny?  Why can’t we just strive to be healthy?  What’s the difference?
      I have to quote Allison, a friend from school on this one (even though this has been on my mind a lot lately she inspired me to actually write this post)…  She posted about this on Facebook recently.  She was referring to this article.

      I was thinking just the other day how tired I am of seeing this stuff, and all the other “get bikini ready” stuff on every news segment, TV show, commercial and website.  This cycle will never end until women everywhere stop promoting it themselves and decide to be healthy not skinny”

      I totally agree!

      This also came up in the conversation…

      Being overweight is not healthy, being underweight is not healthy. Healthy is putting nutritious food into your body (the right amount) and getting strong through exercise.  The point is that it should not be about the "perfect" bikini body or about appearances, instead we should be promoting TV segments and magazine articles that focus on living strong and healthy for life, not for bikini season.

      Preach it sister!!

      Don’t get me wrong I don’t think there’s anything wrong with rocking a bikini if you feel comfortable and confident in one!  I don’t happen to (and probably never will) so I think that maybe I resent the fact that all these advertisements are only showing the super skinny people in their bikinis and making women feel like they aren’t healthy unless they look this way.

      Does anyone else have thoughts on this?  Seriously this would be great to have a conversation about- just leave a comment below!

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      Filed Under: healthy living Tagged With: ,

      Chewy Triple Chocolate Cookies

      May 14, 2012 by 8 Comments

      Is there really anything better than a warm cookie?  Maybe one with THREE kinds of chocolate!  That’s right… it’s a triple threat!

      These delicious little cookies taste like a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie had a love child.  That’s no joke friends… I never joke about cookies!

       

      Chewy Triple Chocolate Cookies

      by Sarah Collins Chapman

      Prep Time: 10 min

      Cook Time: 10 min

      Keywords: bake dessert vegan vegetarian chocolate cookie

       

       

      Ingredients (2 1/2 dozen)
      (Print this recipe!)

      • 1 T ground flaxseed
      • 1/4 cup water
      • 1/3 cup butter (I used Earth Balance)
      • 1/2 cup brown sugar
      • 1/2 cup organic sugar
      • 1 t vanilla
      • 1 cup all purpose flour
      • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
      • 1/2 t baking soda
      • 1/2 t salt
      • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
      • 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (if you’re looking for dairy free they can be hard to find in the store but they’re easy to find and order on the internet)

      Instructions

      Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

      In a small bowl combine ground flax seeds and water. Set aside for 2-3 minutes

      In a large bowl cream together butter and sugars (I used a hand mixer). Add flax mixture and vanilla and mix well.

      In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

      In small batches, add the dry ingredients into the wet mixing well with each addition.

      Fold in chocolate chips by hand.

      Drop by the tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Press down a little on each ball of cookie dough to flatten it so that each cookie will spread evenly while baking,

      Bake 10 minutes.

      Let cookies cool 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

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      I felt like cookie monster when I was making these.

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      Mmmmm… COOKIE!!!

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      Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

      Blog Makeover!!!

      May 11, 2012 by 8 Comments

      First of all HI!!!  I’ve been MIA for WEEKS because of school- they really pile the work on the last month of the semester.  Then finals… oy!  That has pretty much left my brain fried and I’ve not even known weather I was coming or going for weeks now!

      But finals have been taken and I’m waiting for grades to see if my hard work paid off for the semester!  I only know two grades for certain so far- an A in my Literature in Nutrition class and an A in Biochemistry (I made a 100 on the final y’all! Whaaaatttt??) Everything else is up in the air a bit and one I’m borderline in so I’m praying they show kindness and curve it up- I’m like 1 point away, c’mon!)

      So anyway over the last few weeks I’ve been working with Emily White Designs (formerly known as The Blog Fairy) on a new design for my blog!  And I absolutely ADORE what she came up with for me!

      I told her I loved retro-y housewife and I gave her the colors I wanted and she really delivered! (seriously I adore 50’s stuff- In my head I’m totally a housewife in the 50’s).  I love the cute gal up at the top juggling the veggies and the pinks, greens, and blues!  I just love it all!!!!  I’m going to do a little more personalizing my widgets (how cool is it that she gave me widgets at the bottom?!) over the next few weeks but other than that how cool is my new blog???

      So thank you thank you thank you Emily!!  I just adore it!

      Also Emily is fantastic to work with guys!  If you are wanting a blog redesign (or even if you just want something small done- she does a la carte stuff too!) take a look at her site- you will not regret working with her.  She had so much patience with me especially since I was going through finals at the time of my redesign and my communication skills weren’t that great.  And also I had no idea what I wanted when we started- she really just took my ideas and made them into something I love!

      YAY for new blog designs and YAY for being back to blogging!  I have so many recipes coming at you over the next few months!

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      Filed Under: Blog Stuff, school Tagged With: , , , ,