Summer Snackin’…

June 12, 2015June 12, 2015 Nina Chapman1 Comment

FYI: The title to this post is supposed to be sung to the following song…

Because it’s summer and lets face it… snacking is the same as loving, healthy or not.

Since school has let out I have relished in my freedom via making all of the home-made concoctions I didn’t have time to make during the school year. But once I actually made some of these things I realized that it didn’t really take any time at all and I hope to continue the trend throughout the school year. Because there is something just so satisfying about making home-made products that are healthier, cleaner and not to mention… cheaper.

(Take that you unseen corporate force… damn the man!)

Ahem…

Take for instance this easy home-made hummus…

(My husband is a die-hard Cardinals fan as you can see by the cutting board my sister made him. Therefore, it was only appropriate to serve this hummus with red bell peppers. GO CARDS!)

I had put off making hummus for a long time because I didn’t want to have to buy a ten dollar jar of tahini for something I wasn’t so sure would turn out. Then I stumbled upon a tahini free recipe (link above) and I fell in love. Ingredients include canned chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, olive oil and salt.

That’s it. So Good!

I served this when we had an impromptu deck party with some of my fellow teachers and once again when I rode my bike over to my friend’s house for an Outlander watching marathon… (You know, that one time I got called a goddess. No big deal.)

Being the super host that she is my friend KJ was already prepared with snacks, so we had a feast that night. She even made a strawberry lemonade cocktail that went down like kool-aide. (Needless to say, the bike ride home was a bit interesting. But I digress…)

In preparation for our festivities I had also managed to sneak over some of my home-made jalapeno yogurt ranch made from herbs in my garden. (Yay me!)

I wasn’t able to bring much because Brent (the guy who can’t eat anything without a condiment) didn’t want to share. We actually served it with Avocado chicken burgers for dinner one night and it was seriously the yummiest meal. Ever. Brent has taken it a step further and has put it on everything… including eggs.

(Don’t make fun of my scratched up plates.)

Things kind of turned for the worst nutrition wise the next night we went to one of Brent’s beloved baseball games. We managed to mow through nachos, beer, popcorn and even the saltiest pretzel known to man. But I didn’t let myself feel too bad, because well… when in Rome.

I did however feel a little hung over the next morning when I woke at five to meet my friend Andrea for one of our morning walks. I don’t know what made be feel worse… the salt or the beer. (Or maybe even the fact that I had partaken in drinking shenanigans two nights in a row. But who’s counting?)

By the end of the walk I felt so much better, even if I did get rained on and my hands were swollen.

When I got home I tried to sneak in through the back door so that I wouldn’t wake anyone up. On my way in, I passed the strawberry patch and noticed that a lot of my strawberries were already over due for picking, even though Penelope goes through the patch nearly every night.

When all was said and done I had more strawberries than I knew what to do with so I decided to make jam.

I don’t know what possessed me. It’s not like I had ever made jam before. But I had remembered stumbling upon a strawberry jam recipe that included chia seeds during the winter months when strawberries were super expensive to buy. I dug through my Pinterest account, passed all of the pins that I had never put to use, and finally found it…

Strawberry Chia Jam

It turned out awesome! The smell of the simmering strawberries wafted up to Bridget’s room and woke her up from her slumber. She thought it smelled like cotton candy. Then later Brent came home from his walk with the dog and thought I had been toasting marshmallows over the stove again. (What can I say? It happens…)

Later that day, Brent had plans to watch the Cardinals game again, this time with some of his firefighter buddies, and Bridget had an important rendezvous at the pool. That left Penelope and I alone for lunch. I felt like it was only appropriate that we eat Peanut Butter and Jam sandwiches…

… and s’mores

Because now that you mention it, toasted marshmallows do smell pretty tasty.

It’s a work in progress, a little yin for the yang. As long as we keep moving this summer there’s nothing wrong with a little summer snackin’. Amiright?

(Don’t answer that…)

Everything Is Better With Sprinkles

May 21, 2014May 21, 2014 Nina Chapman2 Comments

Weird things have been happening around here and I’ve been too distracted to write about it until now… I feel like we have a lot of catching up to do.

The weekend started with the discovery that I had lost my wedding ring. Brent and I had gone to the gym to workout and since we were lifting heavy I took my wedding ring off and placed it in the tray located on Penelope’s stroller. Normally I tie it to my shoelaces but I was in a hurry on this day. I didn’t think about it until later, long after the stroller had been folded up in the gym parking lot leaving my ring to sit all alone on the asphalt as we drove away. I went back to search for it and it was gone… nowhere to be found. Brent and I will have been married for ten years this August and I was pretty upset about it. I still can’t think about it without getting teary eyed.

The rest of the weekend went by smoothly. I had a dinner date with a friend on Friday and spent some much needed girlfriend time. On Saturday we just hung out and played outside while Brent watered the lawn. Then we went on a few bike rides to compare how green our grass was compared to our neighbor’s. I’m not sure when comparing lawn color became such a fun thing to do. Brent and I have obviously hit some sort of maturity milestone together that I’m not particularly proud of. As we peddled along Bridget made sure we knew just how dorky we were. On Sunday Brent went to work and the girls and I made our weekly trip to the farmer’s market/book store where we sipped on fresh lemonade and browsed for great summer reads to add to our list.

The time flew and before we knew it, it was time to come home and put Penelope down for a nap. This provided Bridget and I the perfect opportunity to do what we do… snuggle and read in the lilac breeze.

By the time Monday had rolled around I woke up obsessed with the idea of getting my garden planted for the summer…

Luckily Penelope is just as obsessed with the garden as I am.

However, she did get a bit emotional when I tried to rebury the worms that I had dug up because she thought I was smothering them. She was also convinced that they were hungry and needed a little cereal. Every time I take her inside she cries because she would rather play with the ladybugs that we bought and had scattered throughout the garden.

“Hi lady bug, ah cute. Eew, eew gross… it tickle you!”

Luckily she has failed to notice that a few of the lady bugs that we had released didn’t quite make it and lay motionless in the dirt.

That night when I was adding my finishing touches to the garden Bridget came home from a friend’s house complaining about her wrist hurting. (She had fallen off of her friend’s scooter.) She refused to move her whole arm and I accused her of being dramatic. “If you hurt your wrist you should be able to move your arm.” I looked it over and saw a weird bump on her elbow so I gave her pain medicine and a bag of ice to sleep with that night.

I felt bad when I took her to the doctor the next day…

The doctors at urgent care were convinced that she had broken her elbow and were concerned about the lack of feeling she had in her finger tips. We were sent to Children’s Hospital to get a cast and a more solid prognosis. We got a little slap happy after spending so many hours in waiting rooms and ended up giggling more than is probably socially acceptable during our wait.

After waiting forever we were happy to discover that her elbow wasn’t broken after all and instead of having to wear a cast for 6 weeks like we originally thought she will only have to wear one for two weeks. They think she has a contusion on her ulnar nerve and it’s causing pain all throughout her arm, including her wrist. I don’t get it either… I’m pretty sure she’s wearing a massive cast due to a really bad bruise.

It was all fun and games until she realized that she won’t be able to move her arm for two weeks. She was bummed to find out that she couldn’t get the waterproof cast since it’s all the way up her arm. This means I have to bathe her… and dress her… and cut up her food in fork friendly pieces. All of that stuff isn’t so bad. Mainly the worst part is the fact that it’s the end of the school year and she has to miss out on all of the fun end of year activities. A lot of them are centered around swimming and dangling from play structures.

When she came home from school today she was teary eyed and upset about it all because was missing her Girl Scout troup’s end of year party. Therefore, I felt like it was the perfect time to bust out the banana ice cream recipe that I’ve been hearing about for an after school snack.

It is comprised of… a banana.

Basically you just take a frozen banana and blend the crap out of it until it looks like ice cream. Then you have to top it off with your favorite toppings. We chose chocolate syrup and sprinkles because everything is better with sprinkles.

It didn’t take the pain away but it put a smile on her face for a bit and that’s all that I was looking for.

Six Week Challenge Week one Weigh-in

May 16, 2014May 16, 2014 Nina Chapman7 Comments

It’s weigh-in day… an official one.

This is the first week of the Summer Shape Up Six Week Challenge and I started off weighing 188.2. Today I stepped on the scale and weighed in at 185.4. That’s a total of 2.8 pounds so far.

I haven’t done this in quite some time. I’ve sporadically told you how much I weigh but I haven’t had official weigh-ins since before I did my student teaching. (In fact, my weigh-ins and measurements page needs a serious makeover.)

I’m feeling pretty good about the progress. It turns out I deadlifted my body weight the other day when I was lifting with Brent. The most I’ve deadlifted was 215 but that was when I was lifting weights every week, so I felt pretty good about that number considering I haven’t lifted anything for the past 4 months. My goal is to keep losing weight on my body and adding weight on the bar. I’m actually surprised at how fast your body can change. I’ve noticed this phenomenon during the holidays when the sudden change isn’t a good one. But I’ve never acknowledged how fast positive changes can happen too. I guess I’ve always just been too impatient to notice.

In just the past two weeks I’ve already begun the journey to building my strength back up again. I can tell a difference in the way I walk even. Running has gone from a struggling feet dragging plod to a confident smooth stride. I even did sprints with my husband yesterday and I wasn’t too far behind him in time. In fact, it felt really good to push myself and run as fast as I could. It reminded me of my old soccer days.

I’ve gotten exercise in one form or fashion every day this week. The weather is still a bit cool but that hasn’t stopped me from going on daily bike rides with the girls. Bridget and I, both write fiction stories and we have chats about our characters and where our stories are going while we ride our bikes. We’ve made a pact to have one story completed by the end of the summer each. Before we know it we’ll have ridden around the neighborhood for an hour chatting it up and peddling along. Penelope just rides along randomly shouting… “Bird!”… “Kitty cat!”… “That way!”.

We also have the neighborhood gardeners mapped out. I’ve been stalking their yards to see when they are planting their pumpkins and tomatoes. I had serious garden envy last year when I had planted everything by seed and had to wait for my plants to mature while they were already plucking fresh produce from their vines. That won’t happen this year. I’m just chomping at the bit to plant the rest of my warm weather plants.

I feel like I’m in a really good place right now. A lot of the time when I’ve made a conscious decision to lose weight I’ll tend to start to obsess over the things I shouldn’t be eating. With summer coming around the corner and the prospect of an amazing vegetable garden I’m just super excited about all of the fresh veggies I get to eat and all of the fun I get to have outside.

I can’t even tell you how excited I am for the beginning of Summer!

How did your first week go? Did you feel good about it or did you have to fight off some mental blocks? I always find the beginning stages the worst part. I tend to fight the whole process justifying why I shouldn’t have to make changes in my habits. But once I just give in to the process things just tend to fall into place and it no longer feels like a challenge… it’s just my new way of doing things.

Suzy with the Nipples

May 28, 2013 Nina Chapman5 Comments

I don’t know about you guys but I was kind of feeling a little gross after indulging in Memorial Day festivities. I didn’t eat a whole bunch of crap but I did eat some and after eating really clean it didn’t settle in too well. So first thing this morning Sir Scout and I went on a run to get things moving in the right direction again.

I had planned on waking up at five but Penelope is teething so I was super tired after walking into her room a million times throughout the night. I finally drug myself out of bed around six. I still had time to get back and eat breakfast before taking Bridget to school. She’s only got 3 and a half days left! Yay Summer!

I actually had other motivations at play when I took Scout on a run this morning. I want him to be too tired to dig in my garden. I just planted the rest of my seeds and I’m already scared enough that they won’t actually work without him digging in there.

You know that saying “You reap what you sow”… Well, let’s hope so. Otherwise I will have a garden of dirt.

In other news I have a new backyard problem. Her name is Suzy with the Nipples. She’s a hungry gal that Suzy. I’m guessing she’s either pregnant or has babies because she has got some crazy nipples… and a lot of them.

This isn’t an actual picture of Suzy.

Have you ever Googled “Squirrel nipples”? Well, I just did and I have to admit it’s not my finest moment.

I don’t know what I’m going to do about Suzy and her nipples but I just can’t be mean to her. In fact, I kind of feel like we are kindred spirits. It wasn’t that long ago that I had crazy nipples and I was super hungry too… hence, the weight loss blog.

What?! Breastfeeding makes you hungry!

Speaking of hungry I am super excited about the meal I have planned for dinner tonight! I can’t wait to share it with you…

Siracha, honey, Lime Chicken Skewers

I don’t know if I’ll actually skewer the meat I may just marinade the breasts whole… depends on how much time I have.

As a side we are going to have…

Asian Slaw with Ginger Peanut Dressing

This recipe calls for edamame but my husband is deathly afraid of soy products (he’s afraid of getting man boobs) so we’ll skip that ingredient. We’ll also use broccoli slaw instead of the regular slaw because he prefers it.

Bridget and I recently found popsicle molds at the store so I think I might whip up some yummy Berries and Peach Popsicles while she is away at school for a special treat.

I’ve really been in a recipe rut until now and I’m so excited at the prospect of making some yummy food.

Have you guys tried anything good recently? If so please share, I could use all of the help I can get!

The Worm Whisperer

May 20, 2013May 20, 2013 Nina Chapman2 Comments

So, we’ve made it pretty clear that I am the crappiest gardener there ever was. But I still haven’t let that little fact get in the way of my gardening plans for the summer.

I spent the majority of my weekend enjoying the little things that make me so happy… like playing in dirt.

I always feel so bad when I come across a worm that I accidentally cut in half. As I was planting my daisies I found one hanging onto the bottom of the roots. So I greeted him by saying, “Oh hey there little buddy! You just found yourself a new home.”

That’s when my neighbor cleared her throat to let me know that she was standing at my gate to chat. (I’m just glad she didn’t walk in on me cussing out her wiener dogs.)

When I turned my head to talk Penelope took advantage of the time to taste our garden goodies. The only problem is that we don’t really have any garden goodies yet. I’m just hoping she didn’t get a chance to eat any of our little friends.

(She got quite ticked off when I didn’t let her finish her snack.)

All of my other attempts at keeping her safely preoccupied didn’t last very long either…

But they were sure cute!

Despite the frequent melt downs I managed to plant my cottage garden at the side of the house.

I was inspired to get a move on when my daylilies made their appearance at the top right of my garden. The gladiolus are following closely behind in the back right. They’ll be joined by…

Daisies

Delphiniums

and my personal favorite…

Irises

As I was planting I looked over to see that somebody was watching me.

This little guy was SO cute! But my strawberries are never going to make it with this fuzzy little guy around. So I’ve already bought some liquid fence on amazon. Let’s hope it works because I don’t want to have to get all gangsta on a bunny.

My strawberries will thank me later and so will my tummy.

I’ve also planted my pumpkin seeds…

Scout decided that those mounds looked like great fun! It would be like a treasure hunt. So he dug through looking to see what he might find. Needless to say, the only thing he found was trouble.

I’m planning on planting a few more vegetables this week but I’ll wait to plant my heirloom tomatoes until I’m sure it will be warm enough. Until then they’ll have to look out the window waiting for their chance to play with the big kids…

In other news I did my first crossfit workout since the back injury and it was all good! I think I’ll be okay to pick up where I left off. I’ve got to do something bad ass to counteract my granny tendencies of throwing out my back and taking pictures of flowers… It’s all about balance, you know.

How was your weekend? Did you get a farmer’s tan like I did?

Nina in the Now

Tag: clean eating

Summer Snackin’…

Everything Is Better With Sprinkles

Six Week Challenge Week one Weigh-in

Suzy with the Nipples

The Worm Whisperer

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