Shoutin’ from the Rooftop

We are home from one of the best vacations ever. We visisted paradise.

This is a view of Trunk Bay on St Johns. This beach is part of a national park and it is amazing. I am not sure I have ever been to a place as beautiful as this. Crazy thing is this picture does not do the real thing justice. I wasn’t brave enough to take my camera to the beach. I have heard that white sand can do some major damage.

I will be honest, I was very nervous going on this cruise. We had never been before and all everyone would talk about is the food. Food this. Food that.  I will agree that the food was great but it was possible to have control and not go crazy.

I was determined to be as active as possible during the cruise to help counteract all that food. I had done my research and knew there was a nice gym on board AND they offered cycling classes. So I was determined I was going to cycling at sea. Not long after we were on board, I hurried down to the gym and signed up for the first day of cycling. I got the last spot for the day. (That was close)

I got to class and discovered I forgot my water. Ugh. So I raced to find a bottle of water. The class was ok. I was really disappointed. I guess I am spoiled by the great teachers I have at my YMCA. We didn’t do anything special. The class really didn’t push me. Plus I had to pay $12 for the 45 minute class and we ONLY cycled for 32 minutes! HUH? Are you kidding. Do I get a refund for the 13 minutes the instructor talked?

It was also bothersome that my bike was faced “backwards” and I was close to the windows. So it looked like I was cycling backwards the entire class. My tummy didn’t care for that sensation. Needless to say, I didn’t go back for another class. I attempted to go to the gym and get an elliptical. There was always a crazy long line of people waiting. Chris ran every day on the treadmill but one. He said that it was a crazy feeling. So I guess I am not too disappointed.

I was anxious to step on the scale after we got home. I was aware of what I was eating. I tried to be reasonable. I indulged some.

This was a molten lava chocolate cake. Oh my. It was like warm rich dark chocolate brownie batter. It was amazing and I had it several nights for dinner.

I said all this to say that you can go on vacation. You can indulge some. As long as you move more. You are aware of what you are eating and you aren’t mindless in your eating. It can be done. I am happy to say that I only gained 0.8 pounds. I am beyond happy with that.

Tags: cycling, mindless

One our my hopes from joining our CSA was that my girls would learn to like and maybe even love new veggies. This is Megan trying out peas. She does kind of look like she is in pain but she is enjoying it. I promise.

Sydney is so proud of our harvest. You would think that we actually had something to do with the growing of our vegetables. It is always fun each week to see how excited they get when we go to pick up our harvest. They are so interested in what we are going to get each week.

I cannot say enough good things about our experience so far with our CSA. The fact that my girls are trying more vegetables and enjoying them cannot be beat.

Tags: CSA

For those of you that live in the Muncie/ECI area, you know that last weekend, Muncie hosted an Ironman race.  My good friend, Molly, was in charge of all the volunteers. So you know what that means if you friend is in charge of volunteers? You become a volunteer and so does the rest of your family.

Molly was also in charge of recruiting families to host pro athletes.  There are pros that actually prefer staying in peoples homes instead of hotels. After I convinced Chris that it would be a great opportunity for him to talk to a pro, we said yes to Molly’s plea. I thought it would be a great opportunity for Chris since he is training for his first full marathon not to mention that he is running “The Goofy”.

I was excited to volunteer at the race but my expectations were totally blown out of the water.  Our group was assigned to bike aid station #3.  We were baptised with fire since no one in our group had volunteered at an event like this before.  The time flew by. We had an awesome time. We had great helpers. We had to take our girls with us since Chris & I both worked along with my Mom and her husband. The girls were awesome helpers.

We manned the first water table at our station. The girls would keep us each supplied with water so we could hand them off to athletes.

Chris is waiting for a hand-off. He is ready

There is a cyclist coming. I can feel it.

Almost there………

Will the cyclist hang on to it? It wasn’t uncommon for the transfer not to go smoothly. They were going at a fast rate of speed. We had to brace ourselves for the contact.

Success!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will admit that I was super nervous about our home stay with the pro. I was trusting my friend, Molly.  It couldn’t have gone better. Our pro, Nick, was a super sweet guy who spoke so sweetly of his wife and baby girl who is due in October. It was awesome to see a pro we knew on the course, cheering him on, and having the opportunity to hand off water to him. Talk about pressure. I had to make sure “our” pro was able to hang on to his water that I passed off to him.

Our girls especially thought it was cool to meet a pro and have him stay with us.

I would highly recommend hosting a pro if you ever have the opportunity to experience this gift. Chris even enjoyed it so much that he offered that our pro could stay with us next year.

I never would have thought I would justify having ice cream for lunch. Only ice cream. Nothing else. Just ice cream and water.

This is our thermostat inside at our house. Think our AC is out? Yep. One of the hottest days of the year so far and we had to have our AC unit replaced. It was miserable. Praying that it is fixed today.

A little history for you to fully understand the story.

I don’t feel like an adult. I feel like I have never grown up and am still somewhere between childhood and adulthood. I still do not feel like I am old enough to be a mom or a homeowner. Just telling you like it is.

I have been the same height since I was 10 years old. Sad. My Dad used to tell me that great things came in small packages. I know he was trying to make me feel better but it really didn’t sink in. Do you know how frustrating and embarrassing it is not to be able to reach the top things on shelves at the grocery? I am the person that is climbing up on the bottom shelf so I can reach the item on the top shelf. Just imagine when I was pregnant and had this huge belly sticking out. :::sigh::::

Since I never experienced that growth spurt and have been the same height since Miss Adderman’s fourth grade class, I really don’t feel like an adult……..until recently.

Growing up, my Mom had two pieces of kitchen equipment that were vital in her cooking and baking. A KitchenAid stand mixer and a Cuisinart food processor. I have many vivid memories of my Mom using these two items.

After Chris & I got married, we had so many duplicate wedding gifts that we were able to return all the duplicates and use that money to purchase a KitchenAid stand mixer. The mixer is still going strong 13 years later.

But that one elusive item has been a Cuisinart food processor. I have made it known to Chris on mutiplie occassions that I would like a food processor. I even ramped up my hints after we joined our CSA. I knew with all the vegetables, I would need a food processor. Yes. NEED.

Fast forward to Saturday evening. I was cuddling on the couch with the girls watching TV when a Cuisinart food processor flashed on the TV. The commercial happened so quickly that I am amazed that I even caught it. I made Sydney rewind the commercial. Thank goodness for TiVo. Macy’s was having a two-day sale and the Cuisinart 7- cup food processor was on sale for $69.99. Yes please and thank you.

 As soon as I got home and had that baby washed up, I whipped up a batch of homemade coleslaw with cabbage from our CSA. Super yummy! The family gobbled it up.

After I washed it a second time, I knew right away that I just had to make salsa from a blog I have been reading every day.  I just know this gal and I would be awesome friends. She loves peonies. I love peonies. She has the sweetest children that I just want to hug. And she loves salsa. Flower Patch Farmgirl rocks and the fact that we live in the same state makes me even more positive that we just need to meet.

I used the salsa recipe but adapted it just a tiny little bit

My Version of Salsa

1 large can whole tomatoes, drained

1 can Rotel

juice from one lime

1/3 c. chopped onion

1 jalapeno, seeded

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1/8 tsp cumin

3/4 cup loosely packed cilantro

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

Mix all in a food processor until desired consistency. Shannan was right, The salsa is much better the next day. We loved it!

Now that I own a food processor I feel like I am almost an adult.

Tags: CSA, salsa

Quit chasing someone else’s dream or worrying about what other people are doing. YOU do YOU and run your own race!- Charlene Johnson

I saw this quote on Charlene Johnson’s facebook status this afternoon. See good things do come from facebook. lol.

I love this quote.  It is a good reminder for me. I am still learning to be comfortable in my own skin running the race of life as my own race.

Tags: quote

As I have mentioned before, I have been consistantly going to my strength and balance class at the YMCA since January. Originally I had a friend that roped me in to the class. I knew that I had to add some strength work in to my fitness routine and balance was a no-brainer. I have absolutely no balance. My lack of balance is why my girls are enrolled in dance class. Hopefully balance can be taught at an early age. ha.

The woman that teaches this class is amazing. My dream is to be as fit as she is. That dream is way off in the distance but it is out there floating around. She is hard on us (which I do secretly love even though I might give her dirty looks). She is one of the other reasons that I keep going to this class. She knows my name. She knows approximatelty where I live. YIKES. She is a friend of my mom’s. AND SHE COULD TAKE ME.

I have made this class a priority. I knew that it would be too easy not to go because the class is so stinkin’ hard. I mean HARD. Hard as in my friend and I groan almost the entire class. Before every class, we ask each other why we keep coming. Then we look at each other and say “results and the teacher”. 

Probably no one else can see the small biceps that I have “created”. I know that absolutely no one can see the definition I am seeing on my abs. Believe me, I will NOT be showing you that. There are other areas that are starting to finally cooperation and conform to the torture.

Recently I have caught myself flexing my biceps and checking them out. Ha. Funny seeing a 30-something mom flexing her muscles. So if you see me flexing my muscles in a moment of insanity, just look away and act like you didn’t just see that.

Tags: exercise

We have really been enjoying being a part of the CSA Farm that we joined earlier in the year. Every Wednesday the girls and I enjoy going to pick up our share of the harvest. It is always an adventure to see what we are going to get. I have been proud of the girls and their willingness to try new vegetables. It has been an interesting process trying  new vegetables and figuring out ways to prepare those veggies that I am unfamiliar with.

Prime example: Garlic Scapes

To be honest, I had never ever heard of garlic scapes before I picked up our harvest a few weeks ago.They were so nice and pretty. Such a brilliant shade of green.  I did a google search and still wasn’t too sure what I was dealing with. But since we only received four scapes that week, I wasn’t too concerned that they went unused. Shhhh don’t tell Chris, those first few scapes went in the garage after a few days. I was stumped.

So last week when I got TWO POUNDS of garlic scapes I knew I had to figure out something to do with those babies. Back to google I went.

Garlic scapes are the “flower stalks” of hardneck garlic plants, although they do not produce flowers. These stalks start to appear a month or so after the first leaves. They are usually cut off of the plant, since leaving them on only diverts the plants strength away from forming a plump bulb. If left on, they eventually form small bulbils that can be planted to grow more garlic, but it takes 2–3 years for them to form large bulbs. Many gardeners simply toss their scapes in the compost, but garlic scapes are both edible and delicious, as are the bulbils.

Thank you Google. So after more research, I decided I wasn’t going to these garlic scapes get the best of me. So I took one and cut it up in to one inch pieces. Then I used a teaspoon of sunflower oil in a skillet and heated it. Then I sauteed them until they were soft and caramelized.  Tasty. So I decided to get brave and fix more for dinner.  After they were tender, I sprinkled them with some fresh Asaigo cheese. They reminded Chris & me of either a roasted green bean or asparagus. I put about four on each of the girls’ plate. They loved them. Score one for the home team.

Sydney even proceeded to say “Mom, I love garlic scapes so much that I want to eat them tomorrow.” 

Garlic scapes, I am glad to have found you. I have been told that many farmers’ markets have garlic scapes. I think they would also be very tasty thrown in to some green beans while they are cooked.

Anyone tried garlic scapes?

Tags: vegetables