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A Renaissance Woman

2/29/12

#WordlessWednesday - National Pancake Day




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2/27/12

Pardon The Dust - I'm Remodeling

My blog is going to go through a major overhaul. You might not notice very much as a reader but as an owner it's going to be a complete makeover. It's time. In September 2012 this will have been my fifth year of blogging. When I hit publish today this will be post number 2,541. That's nearly 7 years of posts in less than 5 years. Apparently I have had a lot to write about. Special thanks to Matthew Johnson for tweaking my header. He and I go all the way back to Happy Panda days.

I may end up deleting a lot of posts. It's going to take some time to read what I have posted in order to make it better organized but stay tuned. I've got some really fun ideas coming your way. Thank you for all the support!

I started out here in 5/2007-
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and then here 9/2007

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and here
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In August of 2009 I moved over here to A Renaissance Woman and lost a lot of contacts and followers. It happens some times when you make name changes to your blog.

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It's a great shot of me hiding behind my kids. Now, I'm over hiding since I've been working out and eating better. Nearly three years later I have a very different look.
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Here I go on another adventure! I'm going to be hitting the big 4-0 this year. It's hard not to look back on the last 40 years and think ok this is what I have with my life so far, now what do I want to do with the rest of it? Sounds like an invitation for a bucket list don't you think? I'm focusing on career at the moment. I'm very happy with my skill set. Now I just need to get more clients to pay me for what I already enjoy doing, social media. Wish me luck. I'm going in!

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#Mamavation Monday - It's Official

Mamavation


It's official. This is my third year as a supportive member of the members of Mamavation. It's been helpful to have the encouragement and support. Everything is crazy right now. Too much to do and too little time to get it all done. This week I'm short and sweet. Good luck ladies maybe I'll have more to say next week. I'm just still trying to recover.

Still working on: Operation: Humpty Dumpty

Eating out:
888 Bistro

My Work Outs this past week-
2/20 Monday - Crossfit Super modified work out
2/21 Tuesday - Injured
2/22 Wednesday - Crossfit Super modified work out
2/23 Thursday - Injured
2/24 Friday -Crossfit Super modified work out
2/25 Saturday - Injured
2/26 Sunday -Injured


Scale Reading - 1 pound loss. I can't complain since I'm still battling the 160's! I'll take it.

Stress Level -HIGH - Over the inability to go out and play.

The UP side-The doctor has been treating me with acupuncture. It's working! What? What? Super happy.

I'm changing up my video series this year. I'm going to try and provide you with exercises that will help your body while you are working out with your regularly scheduled work outs.
Injury prevention is important!
Be a good role model.







Need for fitness support? Join the "Sistahood". More great resources: The Y, Crossfit Training, Vitamins for your age group, RealAge.com

  • The long term goal 37 pounds by the end of the year.
  • The short term goal lose 3 lbs. per month. 
    • January 172 - 160 = 12 pound loss
    • February 165 - 161 = 4 pound loss
    • March
    • April
    • May
    • June
    • July
    • August
    • September
    • October
    • November
    • December



 

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2/23/12

Freebie Friday - Link Up #contests and prizes every Friday

Are you hosting a #contest? Great! Post it here on Freebie Friday. What better time to search and enter contests than on the weekend? Sign in so that others can find your giveaway. I will be hosting Freebie Friday each week from now on so be sure to drop back by. Now go grab your tasty beverage, sit back and relax and contest hop with me! Don't forget to check out these hosted contest links too.
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2/21/12

#WordlessWednesday - Mommy Inc.

It's true, I've upgraded. Now I can run our household more efficiently, yeah that's it. lol








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2/20/12

#Mamavation Monday - Worth The Wait!

Mamavation
My Mamavation posts normally come late in the day lately. I'm super busy just living life and being a "Super Mom" trying to get everyone to and from where they're suppose to be. Add to the day laundry, cooking, errands and oh yes get a work out in if I can! My schedule has been bombarded with treatments from the doctor and it just can't be helped right now. It's tough because I think of all the challenges at Crossfit and Mamavation that I'm missing. Also the races that I haven't or won't be able to do either. It's a bit depressing. Until you are "on the bench" it's hard to know how that feels. I'm on  Day 82 and still counting the days until I can actually even begin to run again, lift weights or hit a Taebo class. 
Have I mentioned that my trainer can still make me cry for my Mommy working around this injury? He can and he does. In the meantime I'm becoming a recipe hunter as you might have noticed from my previous posts. My energy is now in the kitchen with a mission to find recipes I like and put the healthiest spin possible on them. That is the goal.

Even though I have been in the gym my trainer hasn't caught me on camera since November of last year. Today he caught me doing ring rows. You pull yourself up and then you descend slowly with a 4 second count. It's all upper body and the strength it takes is ridiculous. If nothing else I'm working on the gun show! Pow, Pow.

There was some positive feed back about this photo so I wanted to hunt down one from a year ago around the same time and this is what I found....
This photo was taken February 17, 2011
Below is the one taken today! February 20, 2012
See a difference?
Maybe I'll try and dig up some photos from even earlier if I can. They are rare! I don't normally get caught in a photo with the exception of my trainer being the sneaky camera guy. 
I'm not going to lie though, I don't hate it! Without him it would be very hard to see our progress. The cool thing is he can see it even when we don't but the camera, it doesn't lie. It shows the real you at that very moment. I have a few race photos and that would be interesting to compare those as well. My challenge for you...dig up your photos and see how you compare to yourself. Are you amazed?

Still working on: Operation: Humpty Dumpty

Eating out:
888 Bistro

My Work Outs this past week-
2/13 Monday - Injured
2/14 Tuesday - Crossfit Super modified work out
2/15 Wednesday - Injured
2/16 Thursday - Crossfit Super modified work out
2/17 Friday - Injured
2/18 Saturday - Injured
2/19 Sunday -Injured


Scale Reading - 2 pound loss. I can't complain since I'm battling the 160's! I'll take it.

Stress Level -HIGH - Husband is out of town again. Ugh!

The UP side-The doctor says maybe only 3-5 more treatments of traction. I'm soooooo close! I'm switching up my gym routine from two days to three! Get up that ladder girl.

I'm changing up my video series this year. I'm going to try and provide you with exercises that will help your body while you are working out with your regularly scheduled work outs.
Injury prevention is important!
Be a good role model.








Need for fitness support? Join the "Sistahood". More great resources: The Y, Crossfit Training, Vitamins for your age group, RealAge.com

  • The long term goal 37 pounds by the end of the year.
  • The short term goal lose 3 lbs. per month. 
    • January 172 - 160 = 12 pound loss
    • February 165 -
    • March
    • April
    • May
    • June
    • July
    • August
    • September
    • October
    • November
    • December




 

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2/19/12

5 Fingers of Thanks

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I need to come up with something for the week. I'm having an off day. I was in my bed looking at my book shelf and you can clearly see all the topics that I like. I can't remember the last time I finished a book. One of the books is a study guide for the GRE. I'm baffled that I took it and passed and went on to earn a Masters degree and here I sit not doing anything near what I thought I would be. Some days it's hard to wrap my brain around but these are all my choices. 

1.) Thankful that I'm finally getting able to get more of a warm up and work out in. I'm not at full capacity but I really want to be.
2.) Thankful my husband has landed safely again for his 2nd trip this month.
3.) Thankful to have discovered that my little girl ordered something from my phone and I caught it in time to cancel it. She sure has that random touch!
4.) Thankful for my church family.
5.) Thankful to have some new goals in spite of my injury.
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2/18/12

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes - It's What's For Breakfast

This morning I have helpers! Look they set up our ingredients for a photo op. How cool are they? The Pioneer Woman is going to serve us up something good that we have never tried before. I don't have any healthy options for this recipe. I only cook pancakes or waffles on Saturday mornings so it's a real treat for my peeps.
This is how children learn to love cooking and boy do we do math and reading.
I'm super excited because I'm one of those people that have been eating pancakes the same way their entire lives! I'm open to trying new things.
Hey! "No sleeping on the job sister!"
Whoa! These were soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo yummy. I'm happy we got to take them for a test drive. Now I'm not a fan of the blueberries but my family loved it. I really did like the lemon flavoring though. Check out this calorie count....

Ingredients

  • 1-½ cup Cake Flour (800 calories)
  • 1 Tablespoon (additional) Cake Flour (I never figured out where this one went?)
  • ¼ teaspoons Salt
  • 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Baking Powder
  • 3 Tablespoons Sugar (Organic Pure Cane Sugar 135 calories)
  • 1-½ cup Evaporated Milk (more If Needed) (300 calories)
  • 1 whole Lemon (more If Needed) (17 calories)
  • 1 whole Large Egg (70 calories)
  • 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla
  • 2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted (64 calories)
  • Zest From 1 Lemon
  • 1 cup Heaping Blueberries (107 calories)
  • Extra Butter
  • Maple Or Pancake Syrup
800
135
300
17
70
64
107
1493
124.4167

I made 12 pancakes out of this recipe! Before we slather on the butter and maple syrup it's 124 calories. I'm pretty sure I will be making this again but I might try fresh blueberries rather than frozen. This is just one of those recipes that you break out right before a busy day so you can burn it right off. It's worth it! YUM.

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2/17/12

Rather Good Chili - It's Fantastic!

 All that energy I have inside that wants to work out but my body can't.....yeah I'm using it in the kitchen. Pinterest is my new BFF and I'm not sure if I will ever buy another cook book again. What am I doing? Well first I was just trying recipes out and trying to figure out how close I can stay to the Paleo/Whole30/Eating Clean method of eating. It's not easy! The challenge is over but I'm a lot more aware of what I'm cooking, buying and eating. I'm constantly looking at the ingredients and the calorie count. What I'm doing is finding the recipe and following along and then I'm going to figure out how to put a healthier spin on it. That's the goal any way.

This is Rather Good Chili and it's the best I have ever tasted hands down. Hats off to Jennifer Rather at EzraPoundCake.com.

  • 1 1/2 lbs. ground chuck (leanest ground beef possible 900 calories)
  • 1/2 lb. ground sausage (Jimmy Dean's breakfast sausage 640 calories)
  • 2 medium onions, chopped (I opted for 1 large onion)
  • 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced (I like garlic, 4)
  • 1/3 cup chili powder
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (72 calories)
  • 1 tablespoon oregano
  • 1 tablespoon sugar (45 calories pure cane organic sugar)
  • 1  teaspoon salt
  • 2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes (Hunts 420 calories)
  • 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed (GOYA® Black Beans 360 calories)
  • 1 to 2 cups water
    I did end up using the water and of course I wanted mine to look just like the photo so I did top it with cheese, sour cream and dry chives! Whoa....my family and I are in love.

    Now for the healthier spin on this awesome chili! 

    • 1 1/2 lbs. ground chuck (leanest ground beef possible 900 calories)
    • 1/2 lb. ground sausage (Light pork sausage 640 calories)
    • 2 medium onions, chopped (I opted for 1 large onion)
    • 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced (I like garlic, 4)
    • 1/3 cup chili powder
    • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (72 calories)
    • 1 tablespoon oregano
    • 1 tablespoon sugar (45 calories pure cane organic sugar)
    • 1  teaspoon salt
    • 6 medium tomatoes (156 calories)
    • 1 (16-ounce) bag of black beans (omit beans and it's Paleo)
    • 4 cups water
    It's a LOT more work to make it this way! You have to rinse and boil the beans so they can sit for an hour while you prepare the meat and slice up all those tomatoes. I ended up using all the water to allow for more juice. I threw it all in the crock pot this morning and we had it for lunch.
    There are a lot more beans in this recipe and you can see the color difference between using canned tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. The beans are not nearly as soft but nobody was complaining. It was just something that I noticed. Also, omitting the flour made it more like a soup, boo! If you omit the toppings it becomes Paleo, also without beans.

    I did the calorie count for both recipes! Check this out.....

    Each recipe made 14 cups and that's a lot of chili. The left side is the first recipe and the right side is my tweaks to make it healthier.


    beef 900 900

    sausage 640 360

    flour 72 0

    sugar 45 0

    tomatos 245 156

    beans 360 140

    Calories 2262 1556

    Divide 14 161.5714 111.1429

    Toppings 140 130


    302 241 with toppings

    The 140 on the left is 1 tbs of sour cream and 1/4 cup of grated mild cheddar cheese.
    The 130 on the right is the same except I went with Light sour cream this time.

    Even if you throw on the toppings that is one hearty meal people. There doesn't seem to be a huge calorie difference but hey you are going to feed your family for a few days on this meal. Think dinner and lunches. What a fun find and I'm happy to add it to my menu.

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    Stove Top Pork Chops


    "A simple yet delicious recipe for a classic favorite! Makes 6 chops". At least this is what the original recipe says which can be found on Free Recipes.org. This photo on Pinterest looks so yummy! Now to take it for a test drive.

    Ingredients:
    • 2 teaspoons salt
    • 1 teaspoon sage (marjoram)
    • 1 teaspoon black pepper
    • 8 6 pork chops (bone in) (boneless)
    • 2 tablespoons butter olive oil
    • 1 cup water
    • 2 beef bouillon cubes
    I didn't have any sage handy so I had to do some research to find a substitute. Lucky for me I found this handy dandy herb substitute chart. Marjoram is what I had on hand so that's obviously what I used instead. I'm not using butter to cook with, again with the Paleo/Whole30/Eating Clean method.
    After the 45 minutes was over it looked like I was basically boiling my pork chops. I cranked up the heat with the lid off to thicken up the gravy! 
     WOW!!!
    These were so tender and yummy. I certainly want to add this to our menu however, the beef bouillon cubes need to be tweaked. My container of Tones has a list of ingredients of things I can't pronounce! I'm sure there is a healthier option I just have to do a little more research. My photo doesn't look anything like their photo, could it be the difference of NOT using butter? I don't know but it was fun taking this recipe for a spin.



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    2/16/12

    Freebie Friday - Link Up #contests and prizes every Friday

    Are you hosting a #contest? Great! Post it here on Freebie Friday. What better time to search and enter contests than on the weekend? Sign in so that others can find your giveaway. I will be hosting Freebie Friday each week from now on so be sure to drop back by. Now go grab your tasty beverage, sit back and relax and contest hop with me! Don't forget to check out these hosted contest links too.
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    Potato Cakes

     The Loaded Mashed Potato Cakes was found on Just Putzing Around The Kitchen.com.

    Ingredients:
    -
     Instant mashed potatoes
    - 2/3 cup Colby Jack cheese, Mild Cheddar cheese grated
    - 1-1/2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
    - 1 large egg
    - 2 tbsp chives, chopped (I used dried)

    I missed the cover with a lid part. 

    They still turned out ok. My family didn't really care for these. They were very dry and then when I read over the recipe again for this post, I realized I completely missed step 5! DOH!!!!

    (5) Serve warm, with sour cream and bacon bits.
    I quickly went to grab the left overs to warm them up and try it with the sour cream and bacon bits! That's the part that was missing.
    They are MUCH better when you use the proper toppings. I'm not sure that I will make these often just because I'm trying to stick with the Paleo/Whole 30/Clean Eating methods but I get sucked into Pinterest recipes. Can you blame me?



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    2/15/12

    #WordlessWednesday - Beauty & The Beast?






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    2/14/12

    Crockpot Barbeque

    The original recipe can be found on AllRecipes.com - Slow Cooker Barbeque

    Ingredients:
    1 (3 pound) boneless chuck roast
    1 tsp garlic powder
    1 tsp onion powder (minced onions)
    Salt and pepper to taste
    1 (18 ounce) bottle of Kraft original

    Directions:
    1.      Place roast into slow cooker. Sprinkle with garlic powder and onion powder, and season with salt and pepper. Pour barbeque sauce over meat. Cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.
    1.      Remove meat from slow cooker, shred, and return to slow cooker.

    I actually sliced and shredded it while it was still in the cooker and let it cook for 1 more hour. My son wanted this to put over baked potatoes. Which we did but there was so much left over that we made sandwiches too!
    Although this is a super easy recipe the calorie count in the barbeque sauce is 1,350 calories. I would like to find a way to cut those calories down. My family really enjoyed it but I'm not ready to eat this without putting a more "Paleo" twist on it. I found this recipe here but it's pretty detailed! I'm not sure if I'm ready to make homemade ketchup and mustard. I'll find something it's just going to take a little more time to research. This meal is going to last you for a few days.

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    2/13/12

    #Mamavation Monday - That's Not Paleo!

    Mamavation
    I swear Paleo was so much easier than having to navigate back into everything. There is no challenge, no support group and my family is over "Paleo." However, for all purposes it was pretty darn easy to follow. Now I'm constantly thinking about what I'm eating and how it's going to effect me. It's stressing me out to be honest with you. Once a month we do go out with friends and I could care less about what I eat or drink or counting calories. I just want to relax with my friends and have good conversation and hang out. It's really nice! The rest of my days are spent meal planning or hunting recipes. Some of the recipes I have been trying are fun and tasty but they aren't necessarily "healthy" either. I'm having to navigate my way back into healthy mode. So please! keep posting your recipes on Fridays because I did find a few I want to try. 
     
    A friend of mine asked me what I was taking away after the Paleo challenge. Obviously I'm still cooking, I'm trying like heck to stay away from the processed foods but I don't have any fears about trying recipes. I know Paleo worked for my body but it was hard to keep up. I've seen what salt and processed food has done to my body. I'm also finding out how my body responds to different breads. I'm still caffeine free for the most part. I had one small cup of coffee at church but that was it, back to my water I went. 
     
    Oh I'm up to 5 hours of sleep now! I'm really a fan of my Fitbit Ultra.  

    I still haven't made a full recovery and I'm over here on the side lines just gritting my teeth. I did get to walk a 5K on Saturday morning even though it was freezing. Meanwhile my friends are getting to run and do obstacle course races (my favorite!). I'm not sure if I will be able to do one again or not. It stinks to be doing so little. This Texas weather is NOT helping at all, cold and raining one day, cold and windy the next!


    Still working on: Operation: Humpty Dumpty

    Eating out:
    888 Bistro

    My Work Outs this past week-
    2/6 Monday - Injured
    2/7 Tuesday - Crossfit Super modified work out
    2/8 Wednesday - Injured
    2/9 Thursday - Crossfit Super modified work out
    2/10 Friday - Injured
    2/11 Saturday - Walked a 5K
    2/12 Sunday -Injured


    Scale Reading -1 pound loss. I'm not happy about it but it all goes back to eating.

    Stress Level -HIGH - Husband is out of town again this week and he will come back and leave again next week.

    The UP side- I have the support of some really awesome people. Thank you.

    I'm changing up my video series this year. I'm going to try and provide you with exercises that will help your body while you are working out with your regularly scheduled work outs.
    Stretching is important!
    Be a good role model.







    Need for fitness support? Join the "Sistahood". More great resources: The Y, Crossfit Training, Vitamins for your age group, RealAge.com

    • The long term goal 37 pounds by the end of the year.
    • The short term goal lose 3 lbs. per month. 
      • January 172 - 160 = 12 pound loss
      • February 165 -
      • March
      • April
      • May
      • June
      • July
      • August
      • September
      • October
      • November
      • December
     

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    2/12/12

    5 Fingers of Thanks

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    1.) Thankful for another awesome Parent's Night Out. Why was I the only female playing air hockey?
    2.) Thankful for all the new yummy recipes that I'm finding on Pinterest.
    3.) Thankful that I got to get out Saturday morning to walk a 5K Fun Run. 
    4.) Thankful that Valentine's Day is almost over. So much preparation for all these parties!
    5.) Thankful that even though my body isn't 100% I'm still on my way back.

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    Yummies for The Kiddos

    Amazing how much of these ingredients are already back in the house! My husband couldn't wait to restore the balance of the cheese in our home. These are Pepperoni Pizza Puffs. Click on the hyperlink for the original recipe but I'm going to list what I used because there are modifications.

    • 3/4 cup flour
    • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
    • pinch of salt
    • a few shakes of red pepper flakes 
    • 3/4 cup 2% milk
    • 1 egg, lightly beaten
    • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
    • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
    • 1/2 cup pepperoni
    • 1/2 cup homemade sauce (1 can tomato sauce & 1 small can of tomato paste, season to taste with garlic salt and Italian seasoning)
     It's easy enough that the little people can help out too!
     We didn't have cubed pepperoni so I just cut the slices into quarters. They worked fine.
     We used the mini muffin pan so there were 24 of these little puffs. The kids LOVED these. 
    Very simple to make and what a cool after school snack.

     He says it's 3 thumbs up but obviously he is lacking a third thumb so he's using his head! lol


    Next up! Cinnamon muffins.
     I always opt to use apple sauce instead of the oil. I believe that is the only alteration I made to this recipe.
    He was having so much fun dipping the muffins in the butter and cinnamon for the topping.
    We tried dipping it all over and I don't recommend it. I would just stick to dipping the tops and calling it good. It's really enough sugar and it can get really messy. But hey if your into sticky then just go for it!
    Finally we made some Valentine's Day treats! A spin on the pretzels. We did not use the candies in the recipe but opted for the white chocolate.

     We had an assembly line.
    The kids had a GREAT time making these. They loved to eat them and share with their friends. What an easy idea. There you have it! Three easy peasy recipes to add to your menu.

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