Friday Favorites!

Good morning!

It's Friday favorites!!

I'm sharing a recipe that is a favorite recipe of my girls. I took the base of the recipe from Giada de Laurentis and made it my own.  They request them often, and it contains ingredients I use and almost always have on hand.  Simple, quick and scrumptious!  I have even served these as a appetizer for adults and they loved them too!

The B's spaghetti nests:

1 pound of angle hair pasta - cooked
2 eggs
2 tbs milk
1/2 cup shredded basil
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese 
mini mozzarella balls or large ball cut up in to little dices (same size as meatballs)
8-12 meatballs quartered dice
2-3 cups marinara sauce
Olive oil for drizzling
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Butter the bottom and sides of cupcake baking pan.


Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and 

cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. 

Drain the pasta and place in a large bowl. 

Add the basil, cheese, oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Toss well until the basil is 

wilted. Set aside to cool.

Beat the Parmesan, milk, salt and egg together in a large bowl until smooth. 

Pour the sauce over the spaghetti mixture until well combined. Twirl 1/2 cupfuls

of the spaghetti mixture around tongs or a large fork and transfer to the 

prepared pans. Make an indentation in the middle of each nest of pasta and

drizzle with olive oil. Bake 15 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before removing the 

sides from the pans. Remove the bottoms of the pans from the nests using a 

thin metal spatula.

Spoon 1/2 cup of the marinara sauce on each of 4 serving plates. 

Place the spaghetti nests on the sauce.

Place the meatballs and mozzarella balls in each nest and serve.

Have a great Friday!

keeping track

is really hard for me!  I have the best intentions of recording it all, but between the kids, laundry, Facebook did I just admit that??? etc, it ends up not getting fully recorded. 

I thought I would document a few things in this post starting with my measurements:

Arms: 13

Waist: 45

Hips: 46

Thighs: 25

When I started this journey back in April, this was what I was starting with:

Arms: 14.5

Waist: 48

Hips: 49

Thighs: 27

Not bad, not as good as I was hoping on my stomach, but the hysterectomy has left me with a bloated feeling and I have to be careful working out my core for another 3-5 weeks.  My awesome trainer, Mac, assures me we will work this hard as soon as I have the okay from my doctor.

Moving on to food,

Here is what a typical day looks like for me:

Breakfast:

Visalus shake with almond milk and 4 pieces of frozen pineapple and a few blueberries:

Shake mix: 90 calories

Almond milk: 60 calories

fruit: 50 calories

that equal about 200 calories for breakfast

Then I have a snack either a Think Thin bar at 190 calories or a Greek Yogurt also at 190 calories. I usually need something like a cup of carrots and a Kirby duke quartered with a sprinkling of sea salt. 

 

Lunch:

Shake mix: 90 calories

Almond milk: 60 calories

Visalus flavor enhancer: 4 calories

Snack: 1/4 Acorn squash 90 

1tbs of organic butter spread 100

1 kirby cuke with sea salt and pepper

Dinner:

Grilled chicken breast or seasoned ground turkey seasoned added to a large (mostly lettuce) salad with a vinegar based dressing.  I try to keep it under 400 calories.

Dessert:

Pinkberry or some other kind of frozen yogurt - no toppings etc.

Water: I am up to drinking 100 ounces a day.  

And there you have it.  My somewhat clean eating under 1500 calories a day eating plan.  

My Body by Vi 90 Day Challenge

I have got to get my ass in gear, not feeling well is not an excuse!

I'm up six whole pounds. budumpbum............

I am not giving up and I am re-committing to the 90 day Body by Vi Challenge.  I'm going to lose 45 pounds in the next 90 days.  I KNOW I can do this. I will be taking my measurements tonight and perhaps hang myself afterwards with the measuring tape....I am kind of curious to see how much they have changed since April 10th.

Also, I'm participating in the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred with Holly from
 

Holly is one of my favorite bloggers and she is so funny!  I love me a girl who tells it like it is.......And her hubby Chris aka Hubby Jack's Blog Attack is one funny dude. Let's not forget he is a great blog designer to boot!

The first workout was harder than I thought it was going to be.  I felt every muscle, and I love that.  I was a sweaty mess after:

Feel free to have a cocktail after that sight, I just may have one too :(

So I was kind of feeling like the worst mother ever guilty after venting about my little B yesterday...That is part of motherhood...ups and downs...Here is an "up" picture the night of her 4th birthday.

I love this girl like crazy and I can suck on that face all day long....when she's being her sweet self!

Stay tuned tomorrow for measurements and then some :)

Christine

WHAT WOULD YOU DO

Yeah, I kind of dropped it like it was hot. Oh wait no, that is a hot flash.

I woke up with the cold from hell last Sunday and when that started to subside, I started getting these constant pains in my stomach.  I am going to see the doctor tomorrow.  Funny when it started hurting and everyone was telling me to see my doctor, I was like "which one?"  my OB/GYN, my family doctor, my gastroenterologist????  shoot me.....

Last week was little B's birthday.  She turned four.

She is GORGEOUS, like cutest kid ever gorgeous, but This cutie is Hell on wheels, and cries ALL.THE.TIME.

I've been desperate for some relief and not just for me but for her.  It is CONSTANT.  She has been evaluated, she's been tested - everything comes back fine and normal.....which is everything you want to hear.  But it's nto, because I would like to know why she has been having these uncontrollable outbursts throughout the day since we brought her home from the hospital.

AT ONE, AT TWO, AT THREE AND NOW.  If she doesn't get her way, well then watch the eff out.  

Last night after her family party, my MIL, suggested she be brought to a priest and baptized right away.  And she wants us all to drink some crazy old Holy water.  I WILL TRY ANYTHING!!!  Seriously, if someone said run naked through the streets, I would not hesitate.  It's that bad..............

I know giving in is only going to hurt her, but her screaming and crying at the top of her lungs is on my last nerve.

So after talking with my awesome SIL and bff, I have decided to bring her to the family doctor with taped "episodes" of little B's behavior.  I went to a health/supplement store today and got some lemon balm and kids fish oil gummies.  They are both supposed to help.  We shall see.

I know this is not a fun witty post, but I said I wanted this to be a real blog, and right now, this is real and have been solely focused on this issue with little B.

So if you have any suggestions at all for her or me, please leave them.

xoxo
Christine