eden and a new recipe

We go to Eden a few times a year.  Every time we have a blast.  If you dot know where it is it is up Ogden canyon by Pineview Reservoir.  It is absolutely beautiful.  In the winter we sled, ski, hot tub, and veg at the house.  The summer entails lot's of lake time and boating along with lot's of golf for the boys.    The house is on the golf course.....lucky boys.  We are just minutes from three ski resorts and the kids did so good skiing this year.

Sledding down the golf course.  I love sledding.  So much fun.

Her face kills me in this one.

This little guy loves pop pop (popcorn) so much he begs for it every morning at breakfast and all day long.  I usually air pop for him but this weekend it was all microwave popcorn for him.  He gets so excited when I make it for him.

I got to take two of my nieces up that otherwise wouldn't have been able to come.  I am so glad I got to take them.  They are such sweethearts and play with the kids so good.

This is us reading stories, doing hair, ya know.....girl stuff.

Somebody wanted to hit the slopes bad.  Sorry dude....next year for sure.  Lucy and Olive did so good though and Lucy wants to go everyday now.  She is a natural.

Saturday I did a nine mile run with my sister.  Wasn't planning on going that far but ti always happens.  It was a hard run.  Lot's of snow and hills.  My sister probably disagrees and thinks it was easy.  Sheesh.

My favorite part of the trip was the escape me and my sisters made.  The guys and kids all got home from skiing on Saturday and we said "see ya later."  We headed up to the resort for some night skiing and let the men do dinner and bedtime.  It was so fun and I laughed so much.  Good times.  We sat in the lodge and drank hot chocolate and ate some yummy food after.  I'm so lucky to have such good sisters.

Ok......now for a recipe you have to make.  I got his recipe from my sister Christy and I believe she got it our of some raw cookbook.  It is so good.  You don't have to bake these.  They take like ten minutes to bake.  They are pretty good for you and have the best flavor.  Make them!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies

2 C oatmeal

1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 c. chopped up dried cranberries

1/2 c. slightly chopped up choco chips (I just used the mini choco chips)

1/2 c. melted coconut oil

1/2 c. agave ( i actually used a little less than 1/2 cup, maybe like 1/3 c. )

2 tsp vanilla

dash of salt

*can also add some unsweetened coconut

Mix everything together until moistened. Press into mini cupcake tin. It should make exactly 24 minis. Press hard to make sure they are all stuck together. Put in freezer for like 15 min. Then with a warm knife pop them out of the tin and store in a ziplock in the fridge or freezer. They take like 10 min. to make. So awesome. 

I know my pan is messy but whatevs.

Where have I been?

I've been staying up late and working.  I've been tired.  Blogging has taken a backseat for the moment.  Don't I look lovely tired in this pic?

We are trying to put together all the new designs, name all the new designs, get rid of some designs, and do the whole spring/summer catalog for Jamberry.  It is crazy.  It messes with your head trying to sort out all those designs.

Thankfully I have a fun team (aka my sisters, sister in law, who are the best) to work with.  And Jennifer of course.  We have some good times staying up late.  Thank goodness for caffeine and sugar!

I did fit in a Valentines Day dinner somewhere in the blur of the last three weeks.  I think in a week or so we should be all set to print!  Hooray!

We have also been out of town and will be going again this weekend.  My workouts have been not the same but I am still getting them in for the most part.  On a brighter note....

*Hubs bought me a spin bike!!!  So when I don't get to bed till the early morning and don't wake up for the gym I can still spin.  So exciting!

Hopefully blogging will be more regular after next week.  No promises though.  :)

Zion

Three days, no kids, beautiful weather, hot husband, lots of chocolate, lots of time spent in bed, = the best weekend ever.  Ever.  That's all.

A workout and a recipe...

I went to bed around midnight but still got my arse up at five fifteen to get to the gym.  I am one tired chick today.  I did a Jillian workout and repeated each section twice.

Scorpion push-ups-20
DB fly's on ball with a crunch-10
Leg extensions-20/12/6 increasing weight set of reps
Jump squats till failure
Repeat

Decline DB press-15
Cable flys's-15
Squat thrusts-20
Side lunges-20
Repeat

Close grip push-ups till failure
Plank ups-10 each arm
Jump squats-15
One leg squats-10 each leg
Jumping jacks- one minute
repeat

Overhead shoulder press-15
Woodchoppers-15 each side
Static lunge with lateral shoulder raise-10 each leg
Reverse crunches-20
Hanging abs-30
Repeat

Do each segment with no rest.  Take a little rest at the end of each segment.  Then I did about 25 minutes of spin for a little extra cardio.

I mentioned how I made some weird spaghetti casserole thing the other night.  Here is the recipe I did.

Mix together:
1 1/2 cups lowfat cottage cheese
1/2 cup parmesan
1/2 cup chopped asparagus
1 cup chopped spinach
1/2 pepper chopped
1/2 a bunch of broccoli chopped
2 carrots grated or chopped
A little garlic, garlic salt, and italian seasoning

Put some marinara sauce in the bottom of a pan.

Add noodles.  I used brown rice spaghetti noodles here but next time I will use brown rice lasagna noodles.

Layer veggies and cheese and couple times.  I also did a two layers of lowfat mozzarella for the kids and hubs side of the pan.

Bake for about an hour.  I know the pictures suck but this was delicious.

My family devoured it.

Going out to dinner with the girls tonight.  It is much needed.  :)

I've been sick....again

Will it ever end?  Sunday night came and I got another migraine.  What is up with these headaches?  Needless to say I didn't get to sleep till after one and then it was not a solid sleep.  So the gym Monday morning was out of the question.  Then Monday afternoon I started to feel sick with stomach issues.  I was up again most of Monday night with the most horrible stomach pains.  I have never had stomach pains like these.  It hurt to roll over, it hurt to lay on my tummy, it hurt to lay on my back.  I got up a couple times and it hurt so much to walk.  It was awful.  And really strange.  Sooooooo, Tuesday morning came and I was trying not to vomit and get these pains to subside.  Joey stayed home from work till one and then went in.  I survived the afternoon and felt a little better before bed.  When I woke up this morning it was a little better. I debated going to the gym since I was up at five fifteen but I thought I better wait and see.  Whew!  This is long.  I didn't make it this morning but was feeling better by noon so I made up a quick interval workout.  Here it was I did:

Set you interval timer for thirty rounds, 50 seconds on, 10 rest.  Do as many reps as you can in the 50 seconds.  Do all 10 exercises 3 times.

push ups
squats
overhead press
bicep curls
half burpee jump into squat hold
overhead tricep press
squat with glute raise, switch legs every time
sumo squats
10 v-ups, 10 sit ups, repeat till timer buzzes
jump rope

It felt good.  Even though it wasn't that long of a workout it eased me back in after being sick.  Hopefully tomorrow I can hit it hard.  I will be up late tonight in another meeting but hopefully not too late.

Breakfast was plain greek yogurt with blueberries, sprinkled with raw oats.

Lunch was veggie spaghetti....should have been lasagna but I didn't have the right noodles.  So I used brown rice spaghetti.  I will post the recipe soon.  It's really yummy.

Then I got my above workout on.  My timer is all set and ready to go.

I swear I was dripping wet.  The picture doesn't quite show it.  It was down my back, neck and head.  I know....awesome.  :)  Try this workout.  If you go hard and keep correct form you will be sweating.

Afternoon snack was eggs and trail mix.

I never buy the Costco bag of trail mix because nuts and chocolate are about the best thing ever created and I have no self control around it (that's what she said....am I right?).  Anyway, I think I lived on the stuff yesterday being sick.  So I am banning it once more.  Can't buy it.  My nephew begged me too when we were at Costco over the weekend.  So he got his way.

Dinner was salmon with sweet potato fries, and roasted asparagus.

For the salmon I put a little olive oil, garlic, and sage in bowl.  Then I spread in on the salmon, sprinkle with garlic salt and dill.  Soooo easy.

Wrap it all up and cook 10 to 15 minutes.

Dessert was half a piece of homemade bread with honey.

I think I'll leave you with a couple pics from the weekend.  I have fun friends.  I really do.

I worked out Sunday morning and this little guy had to have my Ipod. I let him have it while I did gpp's leg shredder and then I stole it to go out for a run.  Church at one is fabulous.  And this winter is crazy.  Sunday was sooooo nice out.

Hopefully I'm not up too late tonight so I can make it to the gym in the morn!

It's the freakin weekend

I am soooooo excited for the weekend to be here.  Not so excited that my Saturday is jammed packed full.  I dislike Saturday's like that.  I got to bed late last night because I had another meeting with my sissies but even on five hours of sleep I still made it to spin.  I have sucked at working out this week though so its the least I could have done.  Workout of the day:

Spin

Gpp:

-Complete 6 rounds of each triplet.  Each triplet is done individually. 

12 back squats 45/65
12 biceps curls 45/65
12 OH BB press (strict) 45/65
30 sec rest

Then,

12 straight leg deads 45/65
12 skull crushers 45/65
12 v-ups (slowly 3-0-3-0)
30 sec rest

Then I did supersets of:


Weighted sumo squats-15
Push-ups-10
*repeat four times

Reverse Lunges on ball-15 each leg  (Sorry the video is sideways?)
Hamstring roll in on ball-15
*repeat three times

Breakfast looks appetizing eh?  I REALLY need a new camera.  And for some reason I was craving that darn carrot.  I do not know why.  This was 3 egg whites+1 whole egg with salsa.

My kiddos enjoying their hot cocoa that they have been begging for since Wednesday.  I finally caved.

One of my favorite snacks is this.....2 plain brown rice cakes, 1 tbs almond butter, and 1/3 banana.  Yum!

Afternoon snack was air popped popcorn with a little olive oil and sea salt and a protein shake.  I thought I would leave you with a nice picture of myself right out of the shower.  Non styled hair sans make-up and all.  :)  This could be blackmail people.  Be nice.

Have a happy healthy weekend!  We will be having a crazy one over here.

PS.....just realized I didn't really eat lunch today.  Oh well....I'm going out tonight so I will make up for all the calories.  No worries!

I dont know what my deal is.....

But I am on a sugar binge.  It all started last night when I was working on our new Spring/Summer catalog with my sisters.  Thanks Keri for all the treats!  Given I don't eat crazy amounts but too much for me to feel good about it.  It has got to stop people.  How....I don't know.  :)

Workout today.....I made it to spin a little late so I only got about a half hour in.  However, it was one sweaty half hour.  I felt good about that.  Next up was this gpp workout:

Every minute on the minute for 20 minutes preform:
10 thrusters

Yowzers.....my shoulders were feeling it.  But I wanted to work them a little more so I did a couple more things one of which was running the rack.

Running the rack:
Overhead DB press.....repeat three times

Threw in some abs to end and called it a day.

My eating today was sooooo off track.  I hardly ate any veggies and I could tell in the way I feel.  I ate to much crap and too many carbs.  B-fast was peanut butter banana oatmeal.  Delicious, even if I did have to break halfway through to clean up poopy jammies.  Barf.

For lunch I had a quarter of my kiddos sandwiches.  Turkey and cheese......

Along with half a sweet potaote with chocolate on top.  Then I ate Hershey's kisses and animal crackers.  Awesome!

One day I will be able to go a full day without eating these pancakes.  I had the cinnamon protein pancakes for a snack.  These fill me up.

Salad with chicken on top for dinner with a sweet potato and one little fingerling.  I never eat ranch but today I was craving it so I gave my body what it needed.  Haha...ya right.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a better day.  I need to lay off the chocolate and animal crackers.  :)  It's not even the weekend.  Sheesh!