Today is a big day!

Today I get my haircut!! Which for me is huge!! I have had long hair for about 10 years and its been in a ponytail for 10 years!! But today I will take a great friend and get it chopped! Suzanne is a great friend and a pillar of strength for me. So it just seemed right to have her come with me.

I will be posting pics of my new hair and also of my 'old' hair. This is just one step in my transformation!!!!

Eek!! Here I go..........



and as promised...here are the pics!! I love it and its a good start to the new me!

old hair

new hair!!!!

Its a huge change and I love it!!!!! xoxoxo

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars....with Spinach!!!

These were super fast to make! I had them in the oven in about 5 minutes! They are super yummy and full of spinach! This is another great recipe from Deceptively Delicious!!

........

2 cups old fashioned oats
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup margarine
1 cup low sugar blueberry jam
1/2 spinach puree

Mix oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and vanilla together in a bowl. Then cut in the margarine until it resembles coarse meal. Margarine bits will still be visible and no not over mix! Set aside half of the mixture and press the rest in an 8X8 pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Place pan in oven heated to 375 for about 10 minutes until lightly brown. Then mix blueberry jam and spinach together and spread over top of partially baked oat mixture. Then sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture on top of the blueberry/spinach layer. Place back in the oven for about 20 minutes until slightly brown. Set the pan on a wire rack and let cool, then cut into 12 squares.

*I made some modifications to this! I didn't use cooking spray, since I don't like putting things like that in my kids bodies. I put a little margarine on a paper towel and greased my pan. I also think an 8X8 pan is too small. My bars are quite thick, next time i will use a 9X9 pan. i also didn't use low sugar jam...since I wasn't paying much attention at the grocery store!

These have no spinach taste in them at all! Cant wait for the kids to have one after supper!!

Until next time....

Love yourself  and your family.

Pam

20 days....

It has now been 20 days since I started this journey. I have missed about 4 days of exercise..which is good considering my previous record! I have started to notice little changes in my body and mind. I'm much happier when I'm exercising and focusing some time on myself. The changes I see in my body are small but baby steps is the way to go! I see changes in my bootie (*happy dance) and in my waist and some toning going on in my arms.

Now, for the other aspects of my change........
The cooking is going great, fresh bread, healthy changes for my family. The swearing...ha ha..not even close! The growing of my business...that hasn't been happening either. I need to get a good schedule going so I can actually make some headway!

Last year I did a book challenge where I challenged myself to read 25 books, this year I up'd that to 50. So far I am at 4/50...not bad since we are not even out of January!

So there you have it folks...a little update 20 days in! At 30 days I get weighed and measured again....time to lay off the cookies eh?

Until next time,

Love yourself and your family!

Pam  xoxo

Spinach in chicken nuggets? Yes, I think so!!!

Hey everyone!!

So I have fallen off the wagon a little this week with some crappy eating and missing 2 workouts. But I'm back on the wagon and here is a new recipe I tried tonight. This is from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook again! These nuggets were super yummy and had a whole cup of spinach puree in them! Although next time i may cook them in the oven or on my skillet, but I did as the recipe wanted which was fry in a little bit of oil.

So here we go..............

1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flax seed meal
1 tbsp Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 cup spinach puree
1 egg
1 lb chicken breasts

Take chicken out and pound it with a meat mallet until flat and thin, cut into chunks. Take all dry ingredients and mix together in a shallow pan. Take the egg and spinach and mix together in another shallow pan. Put small amount of oil into frying pan and heat on medium heat. Dip chicken in wet mixture first, then roll in dry until well covered. Fry in pan for about 4 minutes and flip, frying on the other side for about 4 minutes. Check largest piece to see if its done. Let sit for about 5 minutes to cool down some and serve!



These were so easy! And they were very good! I have lots leftover which I am going to freeze and take out when we need a quick meal!!

So there you go folks! A great way to fool your kids (and husband) into eating veggies!!! Since I'm back on the wagon my measurements will be in about 2 weeks...eek! Scary!

For now,

Love yourself and your family!

Pam!

Recipes!

So here are the recipes that I made yesterday. I have gotten alot of requests for them, so here they are!

Burgers:

1lb of ground turkey or beef
1/2lb white button mushrooms finely chopped
1 cup breadcrumbs (any kind will do)
1/4 cup grated zucchini
1tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2tbsp ketchup
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Mix everything together in bowl, mixture will be moist. Form into burgers and cook until no longer pink!

I made 13 burgers with this recipe and froze 8 of them! I served this with sweet potato fries!

Chocolate Chip and Chickpea Cookies:

Heat oven to 350

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup margarine
2 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla
1 can (15oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cups chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3/4 cup raisins (optional)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Beat sugar and margarine until smooth, beat in eggs and vanilla. Then add the chickpeas and chocolate chips, mix with spoon first and then beat. Lastly add the flour, oats, baking soda and salt and mix on low until a thick dough forms.
Drop dough by the teaspoon full onto greased cookie sheet, press with fork and cook until golden brown and just set. Do not over cook!

Once cooked and cooled put them in a container where they will soften up and be super yummy!!! Makes about 2 dozen cookies!

Changes

Hey peeps!

I have been making slow changes and so far so good!! Right now I'm down 6lbs (as of 2 days ago!) and that really made me feel great!! Today I actually saw a difference in my clothes! Which is huge for me!!!

Today I was looking in my Deceptively Delicious cookbook and made 2 recipes! The first is Chocolate Chip and Chickpea Cookies and I also made Mushroom and Zucchini burgers with Sweet Potato Fries!

Let me just say that our supper and dessert were delicious!! I'm still full from it! Wow, I haven't had sweet potato fries before but they were super yummy!! And I don't feel bloated from eating starches.

I will post the recipes tomorrow I think. I will also post pictures of my finished work! But for right now I'm going to go sit with my family and get the little monsters ready for bed!!

Until next time,

Love yourself and your family,
Pam!

Honesty

So today I will be totally honest about the reasons that I need/want to lose weight. I said before that I have 103lbs to lose....which brings me down to 175. Yeah do the math on that one.

I weighed myself on Jan 2nd and was shocked to see how much I weighed. It really was a low point in my life. I had a realization that if I dont do something about it, I will most likely die young leaving my kids without a mother. And THAT is the #1 reason why I WILL...not try to lose this weight. My kids mean way too much to me to just continue to get bigger and leave them early. I want to see my kids go to school, university, married and have babies! And hopefully I will see my great grandchildren before I kick the bucket!

Food has become a comfort to me and it needs to stop. Yes, food may not judge me.....but its hurting me much more than words ever could. High BP or heart disease or whatever......its not going to take me down!


So this is my honesty! The reason I will lose this weight is all about those adorable children that I love so much. They will grow up with healthy parents and with good self esteem. Will the weight come off easy? Heck no! Will it come off in a month? No way! Will it be worth it in the end? Absolutley!!!!

So thats it for now! Until next time..........

Love yourself and your family!

Pam

First Post!



Our last picture before Rene's 7.5 month deployment




Well the title says it all! This is my first post and I feel the need to explain what this blog is about.

Basically its about me! The journey I have decided that will ultimately change my life. I will post just little things about me, my family, my business and my weight loss journey.

I have set myself to lose (in hopefully a year) 103lbs. This is a huge undertaking for someone like me who lives a busy life as a military wife and mother of 2. I have also promised myself that I will become a better person. Stop the cursing (cause I have a trucker mouth!), start taking time for myself...since we all know that a happy wife is a happy life. I also want to be a better mother...you know that one we all grew up with or who lived next door. The mother who always had time for her kids, always had a spotless house and ALWAYS had fresh baked bread and yummy suppers on the table!

Then probably the last part of my transformation is to grow my little business! I make hair bows for little girls (and sometimes the older ones too!) and need to start putting hours into it so I can make it the business I know it can be!

So there you go folks! My first post! Basically my journey is about improving myself, my family and my business!

Bye for now!

Love yourself and your family,

Pam