Protein Pancakes

I spent a good while trying to find a protein pancake recipe that I could actually eat and that would taste good. I found a million and a half different versions on Pinterest (where else) and didn't find one that looked particularly good. They either called for yogurt (that I can't have right now) or a ton of ingredients. So I made a variation and came up with this. 

1 cup liquid egg whites

1 cup oats

1 cup cottage cheese

3 scoops protein powder

Mix everything in a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. 

Spray pan with non-stick spray. 

Place small amount (maybe 1/4 cup) on pan and cook on both sides until done. 

I top mine with Walden Farms pancake syrup or strawberry sauce. Amazing and so good. I eat 3 for my 2nd meal. Don't ask me about macros or nutrition info per pancake because I don't know. I just know they taste good and keep me full until my next meal. 

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My Lost addiction

I know I'm a little late to the game (about 9 years late to be exact) but I LOVE Lost. My mom was re-watching it on Netflix a little while ago, and I got hooked. I can't figure out why I never watched it when it was actually on tv. 

We don't have wifi at home, so there's no way I could watch it on my Nook, so I had to buy all the seasons....which are no longer sold in stores apparently. Thank God for Amazon!!!! I got a crazy deal on all the seasons. The hard part? Trying to watch it when the kids are awake. They're terrible when I'm trying to watch anything....suddenly the noise level skyrockets and they both feel the need to ask me 8349201 questions. Clayton would ask if I was going to watch the "bad robot" show whenever he would see the DVD remote in my hand. 

I got through it in a decent amount of time, all things considered. In fact, it was all I could think about when I was at work, at the gym or in the car. I don't think there was any storyline that I didn't like, but really wanted Kate and Jack to be together forever. I wish their final goodbye on the island had been more than a quick kiss and "I love you". They were my favorite couple, and I might have to admit that I've fallen in love with Matthew Fox. *swoon*

Locke (not smoke monster Locke) was my second (third?) favorite character. There's just something about him that I found likeable. 

I'm definitely going to watch it again because I know there are a million things that I missed the first time. After reading a lot of different articles online about the show, I can't wait to go back and see if I can catch certain things, and understand it a little better. 

Who wouldn't love a show with a cast that's this good looking?

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My Own Swarovski Phone Case

My friend Katie has always been a Swarovski crystal inspiration to me, and this new project is no different.  We were emailing one day and she had mentioned that she blinged out her own phone case.  Of course, I got jealous and "HAD to have one too". She pointed me in the right direction of where i needed to get my supplies, and I was off!

Amazon is an amazing site.  I got the phone case and flatback crystals on there, and the glue at Michael's.  The toothpicks were in my cupboard.

Here was my shopping list:
144 20mm
144 16mm
144 12mm
144 9mm
E6000 Glue
Toothpicks
Clear phone case

I did the outside border of the case in the 16mm stones, then ran out shortly after I got to this point:

Lame. So I ordered another 144, and also got 75 6mm's to fill in some of the smaller spaces I found.  It's also nice that I have extra just in case I need to replace any.

Here's how I did it: I squirted some glue onto a piece of cardboard and used a toothpick to smear it on the case. My plan was to place at least 5 stones on at a time before having to add more glue...that didn't happen.  My glue dried SUPER quick and I could only get 2 on before I had to add more.  There are special wax tip tools you can buy to help place your stones, but I just used my free fingernails to pick them up.  The amount of glue you use is important too....try not to put on so much that it pushes up the sides of the stones, but enough that it holds them on.  I finished this a month ago (on 4/24) and I've only lost 1 stone that I still haven't glued back on (I'm lazy).

Let's be honest, this project sucked.  It took me around 5 hours to complete, and a very sore back from being bent over my kitchen counter.  I know I could've gotten it done quicker if I hadn't been dealing with small children stealing my stones, running between my legs and pulling on me constantly.  My mom called it theraputic...I called it a pain in the ass.

Do I love my case?  Yes.  I put a lot of time and effort into it!!  Will I ever make another one?  You better believe it.  I want to try one with all small stones, and probably a lighter color.  I love the purple, but it's qretty dark and doesn't sparkle as much as I wish it did. 

Before I took on this endevor, I did price out the ones for sale on Etsy and Amazon.....I would say start to finish, my case cost me about $70 to make, and I was finding them online for $75++.  The super fancy ones run like $350!!  Maybe someday.....

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Mother's Day.

First and foremost, Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there! I tend to think that everyday is Mother's Day, because I'm on mom patrol 365 days a year. Anyway, that's beside the point.

My children are my reason to celebrate. They are my life. My heartbeat. My reason for living. 

The first thing Clayton said to me this morning was "Happy Mother's Day mudder" and gave me a big hug, followed by a request for some juice. Guess the demands never end!!

Today wore on as any other Sunday, except for the part where I had a slight emotional moment. Clayton came up to me to give me a hug and I started crying. I love my children so much, and no matter how many times a day I tell them, I feel it's not enough sometimes. He looked at me and felt concerned that I was crying all over his head, and asked why I was sad. I tried to explain that I was crying happy years, but it's hard for a 3.5 year old to process. 

Clayton and Ashton drive me crazy, make me laugh, cry, shake my head, make the cutest pouty faces and are my little blonde bombshells. I love them to the moon bad back, and every night when I look at their sweet sleeping faces, I'm thankful that I was chosen to be their mom. I may not always do everything right, and I do make mistakes, but my boys are loved, healthy and happy. That's all that matters to me. 

 

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Contest Prep Update

161....that's how many days until my figure show. That may seem like a lot, but I have so much work to do time is flying by. I have a ton of muscle I need to build and fat to lose (which will come later on). I'm just hoping that when I send my coach my progress pictures next weekend he sees an improvement and thinks I can be ready in time. Otherwise I'll have to wait until next year.

Prep diet sucks. All I've supposed to have eaten the last 3 weeks is this:

Meal 1: 1/2c oatmeal w/1 scoop protein powder
Meal 2: 4oz chicken with 4oz sweet potato
Meal 3: 4oz chicken or turkey with 4oz brown rice
Meal 4: 6oz fish with small salad and vinaigrette
Meal 5: 6 egg whites

Do you have any idea how hard it is to eat 5 meals a day? My schedule is so crazy during the week that I've only managed to do 4. Usually it's the egg whited that gets missed. I've discovered that I'm an emotional eater too. If I'm having a bad morning at work, all I want to do is go to the cafeteria and get a big greasy burger or something deep fried. Gah....I've had some cheat meals too. It's all a head game.

The gym is going well....I meet with my personal trainer Daryl every Monday and we set up a game plan for the week. I've been doing his torture plan 3 days a week and getting cardio in 5 days a week. The treadmill has become my best friend. I've been making it a little more tolerable by watching Lost on Netflix during my walking. An episode is roughly 40min, and that's how long I need to be walking. It's a perfect combo! There will come a day when I'll probably need to do the stair mill, but that's not now. My heart rate goes up just thinking about climbing on that thing.

I think that's it for now....next week I'll post my progress pictures....day 1 to current day. Please try not to laugh.

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Shepard's Pie for St. Paddy's Day!!

The boys and I are up at my mom's right now, all in a food coma.  With St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, my mom decided to make Shepard's Pie today since we were up.  My brother, mom and I all had 2 servings.  Ashton had a few bites and Clayton took a look at it and said "It's not my favorite" and walked away.

Here's how she made it:

1lb ground beef
1lb stew meat
1/2 large onion (sliced)
1 package mushrooms (sliced)
garlic
1/2 package frozen mixed veggies
1 1/2c frozen corn
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can milk (use the soup can after it's dumped out)
8-10 potatoes
seasonings
shredded cheddar

Preheat the oven to 350*

Quarter the potatoes and boil until done, them mash.
Brown the meats in a large skillet, drain when done.

In same skillet, cook the onions and mushrooms until softened.  Add garlic and any other seasonings you want.  Mom added seasoning salt.
Add meat, can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 can of milk.  Stir over med heat until hot.

In a saucepan, bring mixed veggies and corn to hot, drain.

Pour meat mixture into 9x13 pan.
Layer the veggies on top.
Spoon mashed potatoes over the top, smooth out to cover the veggies.

Bake  at 350* for 20 min, then sprinkle shredded cheese on top.  Bake for another 10 min.
Broil for an additional 5, or until chesse is browned to your liking.

DONE!!!! 

 



 



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Pin-It frustration

I'm not a HTML-follow-these-impossible-directions-possibly-written-in-Greek-to-rewrite-the-code-a-genius-designed.  I never understand what they mean, and it makes me instantly frustrated and sweaty in the palms.
It also makes me react this way:

Sorry for the profanity, but it's true. 

Anyway, I've always wanted to have one of the fancy "Pin It" buttons on my blog.  It's like some special invite only parties that only certain people are invited it.  Dang it, I want an invite!!!  Not because I think I post awesome things, but sometimes I do have an angels singing in the heavens moment and would like to share it with my fellow Pinterest addicts. 

This is where my awesome mommy friends come in.  I hijacked a thread on Facebook mentioning how I can never figure out how to get the button to work.  My friend Savanna pointed me in the right direction.  After my normal 15 minute frustrated struggle, I GOT IT TO WORK!!!!!  *I hear singing from up above!*

So, now I'm one of the cool kids.  :o) 
Life is complete. 1

Nutter Butter goes to the ER!

In my 3.5 years of being a parent, I've managed to avoid the dreaded trip to the ER.  Granted, I've made a few "same day" trips to the pedi, and 1 trip to Urgent Care, but that's been it.

Until Saturday.

We were at my mom's for our weekly visit, enjoying a peaceful evening of eating sushi, corn dogs, watching Lost and Veggie Tales. 

It was one of those surreal moments where I kinda remember exactly what I was doing, but more perfectly remember the THUD sound and the scream.

I didn't see it happen, I just know Ashton was picking himself up off the floor next to the chest my mom has in her living room.  Apparently Clayton pushed him while they were playing and....oops.  It took me a minute to figure out where he hurt himself, and I was hoping it was just a bump and that was it.  Then I saw the outer corner of his right eye....a nasty split.

My mom managed to get some frozen peas into a bag for me to hold on his eye, and made the decision that I needed to bring him to the ER because it was gaping and so close to his eye.  So I called Brendan, told him what happened and what we were doing, threw Ashton in the car, said a quick good-bye to Clayton and mom and we were out the door.

The thing about ER's....they're not very fast.  We waited at least a hour, if not longer to get called back, then the time with the nurse and doctor took all of 10 minutes.  The doctor decided he didn't need stitches, just a quick super glue job and he'd be good as new.  There's nothing worse that hearing the panicked cries of your 1.5 year old as he's being held down by strangers to get a wound cleaned then glued shut.  The good thing though, as soon as it was over and he had a popsicle in his hand, all was forgotten.

We got home around 11pm, and this is how he looked:

Not  terrible, but not awesome either.  I ended up putting a bandaid over it yesterday because he kept wanting to touch it and pick at the glue while saying "owie eye".  It was starting to turn black and blue around lunchtime.  :o(

Here's how he looked late last night when he was sleeping.  Ignore the sweaty hair...he's a human hot box.

Anyway, he'll live another day and everyone has said that won't be our last trip to the ER.  However, I hope it's the last one for at least another 3.5 years.
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