Zucchini Lasagna

Not much to talk about exercise wise or food wise. Did good until Sat. morning. Then it went downhill from there.

I ate mostly leftovers on Friday and then made some gluten free pancakes for breakfast on Saturday. Mixed pecans in the batter then I put some frozen strawberries in a saucepan with a little water and mashed them. That was my syrup for my pancake. It was good.

Won't tell you what I ate for lunch. It was definitely not good for me.

I did come to the conclusion that bad food just makes me feel horrible. I can't breathe, can't sleep, just feel bloated. I definitely don't want to feel like that again.
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The weather has been crazy lately. Rain every other day or so. I supposed that's good news for our pond since it's finally full.

The only complaint I have with rain is the grass that grows twice as fast and all the water and mud puddles.

The other thing that comes out with this weather are toads. Lots and lots of toads. Toads that are coming out of hibernation to play in this spring like weather.

Boys and toads go well together. The boys enjoy playing with these nasty animals. UB more so than AB. I have to check UB's pant pockets when he comes inside. He likes to carry them with him.

Last week, he was walking into the house with a yellow tool box. Trying to discreetly make it to his room. I was in the kitchen with my back to him but my eyes on the back of my head saw him.
"What do you have there?" I asked
"Nothing mom." He innocently says
"Open that up and let me see."
He slowly lifts the lid to the toolbox and what do I see? Ants. Red fire ants. He was wanting to put this tool box in his room and the ants were going to be his pets. I tell him to take that back outside and put those ants back where he found them.

I look at him and realize he's holding something else. A mesh bag that is tied to his belt loop. Inside this mesh bag was a toad holding on for dear life. That was another pet he was wanting to put in his room somewhere.

Hubster comes home and makes UB put the ants back where they belonged. I go outside to see what is happening and see 3 toads inside that mesh bag. Tied to the handlebars of the bike.

If I were those toads, I'd find a different place to live when they were set free.
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Zucchini Lasagna
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 8oz cans of no sodium tomato sauce
1 lb extra lean ground turkey
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Italian herb seasoning(optional)
1 egg
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
1 tsp whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup skim, fat free mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
3 zucchini sliced into 1/4 inch think pieces

Preheat oven to 350.

Saute onion and garlic over medium heat until tender. Add turkey and brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add tomato sauce. Season with Italian herb seasonings. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, slightly beat the egg. Stir in cottage cheese, flour and 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese.

Pour 1/2 of meat-tomato mixture into a 1 1/2 quart roasting pan. Top with zucchini slices and cottage cheese mixture. Then cover with remaining meat-tomato mixture and zucchini.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and bake 10 minutes longer.

A nature walk does the body good

The boys and I went for a little nature walk in the misty fog yesterday morning. I've got to say, that's the extent of my exercise for yesterday.

We were walking down the road from Hubster's office and were looking for birds. We came across this pretty bird. Have no clue what it is. The bird book doesn't tell me.
And we saw lots of Cardinals. It was fun to watch them play with each other. They just don't like to be approached. This is as good a shot as I could get.

While walking down this road, an audio tech van drove by us. He waved and continued down the road to the office. A couple of minutes later, it showed back up and stopped next to us. I started to freak out because I'm thinking, "I'm alone with two little boys, in the middle of nowhere with no one to hear me if I scream." Previous episodes of CSI came to mind.

He asked if a person lived down this way. Only the guy Hubster works with and his family live down that dead end road. I didn't know the name he mentioned and he wouldn't leave. I soon see another vehicle approaching and realize it's the man that works with Hubster, R, and his wife R. (I'll just call them R& R).

Anyway, I tell the van man to ask them. They stopped next to us and R tells him no one by that name lives down the road. Van man left and R&R stayed to talk to us for a while. They ask the boys to be on the lookout for wild pigs, bobcats and skunks. They proceed to leave to the office and we walk a little further.

The boys were spooked by this time and with the van incident and R&R telling them about the wildlife out there, we head back to the office.

It was a nice little walk and an adventurous one as well.

Yesterday for breakfast, because of eating that small portion of salad on Wed night at church, then going for a run later that evening, I was starving.

I had 2 egg whites, 2 slices of turkey bacon and a whole grain English muffin. It sure filled me up.

For lunch, I made some chicken tostadas. I had lots of leftovers in the fridge and needed to get rid of them.

Tostadas consisted of low fat refried beans, grilled chicken, low fat cheese, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos and we can't forget the avocado.

I wanted something sweet but didn't want to eat junk and wasn't in the mood for an apple, so I had me a bowl of non-fat plain yogurt topped with flax seed and Ezekiel cereal with almonds, and fresh blueberries. Topped with a splash of agave nectar. This was really satisfying. And so filling that I wasn't even hungry for dinner.

UB had a baseball game and when we came back home, Hubster wanted another chicken tostada. I munched on a couple of pieces of baked chicken while making his tostada. Then I made me some air popped popcorn.

While at the baseball field, there were some people sitting next to us that were chain smoking. I'm so happy to receive second hand smoke, I really like it. I don't understand why some people aren't considerate to smoke elsewhere. People can smoke all they want, just not around me. I'm sorry if I offend anyone on this topic, but If I wanted to inhale cigarette smoke, I'd smoke myself.

Just had to get that of my chest.

It's Friday and have to go do tests with the boys and then clean the neglected house.

Food for me?

For exercise today, I did some pilates. Good grief, those exercises hurt. Makes you use your core. My core? I don't have a core, I think the fat is hiding it behind the door.
One day soon I'm going to find that core.

I decided that if I posted what I ate then I am more liable to eat better. Sure don't want y'all to see the unhealthy chicken fried steaks I eat. Loaded with gravy and huge steak fries on the side.

For breakfast, I had my usual bowl of oatmeal. I used to not be a big fan of oats but it's actually yummy now. I think I'm going to start adding some almond butter to it as well. The Almond milk makes it a little sweet. I like it not sweet. You could add Splenda or Agave Nectar too.
1/4 c oats
1/2 c almond milk
3 TBL flaxseed
blueberries
walnuts


For lunch, I had a tuna pita. I like these things. I reeeeeaaaaallly like these things. I put tuna in mine, along with lettuce, tomato and I couldn't forget the avacado. Avacado is a must on everything. In my opinion. The pita is an Ezekial whole grain sprouted pita. Very delicious. I think it would have been better with some baby spinach, but I forgot to buy some at the store.

See this scrumptulous food? Makes you hungry huh?

I did have watermelon for dessert and then carrot juice for a drink. Freshly juiced carrots.

For snack, I had this Nut bar. I think it's one of my favorite kinds right now. It's not sweet, but it's got enough sweetness to satisfy that sweet tooth.

Dinner was a salad. That nut bar filled me up but I knew that I had to eat something. I made me a salad with leaf lettuce, boiled egg white, tomato, cucumber and then some shredded chicken. I forgot my flaxseed but oh well.

I normally eat salads without dressing but last night I wanted some spunk. I juiced one lemon and added some cayenne pepper. Poured it over my salad and presto, tasty salad.

So that's what I had all day yesterday.

The boys played out in the rain and brought some mud into the house. While I was cleaning it up, UB and the 3 yr old neighbor boy came inside to hand me some fresh picked wild flowers.

Sweet boys.

Until tomorrow.

The chicken that tried to escape

I went to the store -alone- last Saturday. I've said before, how I enjoy going to the store ALONE because that means I don't have to break up fights. I just go and walk through every single aisle at the store. And I do it because, well just because I want to OK?

Even if I don't have to get anything from that aisle, I like to walk the aisle. Sounds like I'm getting married on aisle 3 or something. Anyway, I saw things that were new and then I saw things that were just strange. Like artichoke hearts. Have you ever really looked at the jar? They look gross. But I do enjoy a hot spinach artichoke dip with some crusty, but soft bread. Yum!

After walking the aisles for over an hour and not really buying much, I decided to hurry up a little. I almost buggy bumped some people, and then almost dropped a sidekick in my hastiness, but all was well. Until some man said "Excuse me, but I think you dropped something" he pointed down on the floor. Wouldn't you know, that family pack of chicken breast was trying to make a flying escape. I pick it up and say "thank you" because stuff falls out of my basket every time I go shopping. Only it's usually the boys that do stuff like that and never when I'm alone. Can you believe that chicken was trying to escape from me?

So I hurry up and finish shopping, check out and start heading out the door. I'm practically running because it's past noon and I knew the natives would be hungry. I'm rushing to my car when I run over what I believe is a speed bump. But then I remember that this store doesn't have speed bumps. And I didn't have any kids that I ran over, so I look down and what do you think I see?

THE CHICKEN. Trying to get away again. Only this time I ran over it with the shopping cart, so it really is dead again. It's a good thing that it was double bagged. It wasn't dirty and it wasn't wasted.

I need to remember to tell the other chickens at the store that their brothers didn't get away and neither will they. I'm gonna eat them in chicken tostadas, grilled chicken, southwest chicken sandwiches, chicken quisada (chicken with gravy mexican style) and other chickeny ways. ~evil laugh~