Pantry Challenge Menu

So in order to save money and to clear out my pantry I joined the pantry challenge.
I started cautiously last week and worked on a menu with the hubs for the coming week.

last week the menu was ad hoc but went something like this -

Wed - some cornbread mix I had in the pantry and a can of bush backed beans on Wednesday. 
Thurs- I had some quinoa in my pantry and cooked the rest of that to go with a PF Chang's frozen Broccoli and Chicken from my freezer.
Fri - I cooked up some red lentils ( for next week - these came out delicious) and I made some chili probably for Saturday - from some red and black beans I had in my pantry and some soy protein also from the pantry.

The Coming week Menu is as follows:

Sun ( today) - Pizza - hubs requested this as he gets no junk food in February
Mon- Red Lentil Stew and Quinoa
Tuesday - Chickpea and Couscous Salad
Wed- Sesame and Ginger Veggie Stir Fry and some Quinoa or Couscous
Thurs - Left Overs
Fri - Taco Salads (with chili)
Sat - not sure

We will see how close we are able to stick to the menu but I think we will be ok.  Breakfast will always be some fruit ( we have grapefruit and frozen peaches and cherries) and oatmeal  or a smoothie for now and lunch for the hubs is usually whatever is leftover from the day before and I usually have some Ezekiel 4:9 bread and a salad or something from the cafe at work ( I have credit there that I am trying to use up)  Friday is payday...so I will be able to replenish my fruits and veggies then.  Wish me luck..

Mission: Mummy Tummy - wk 1

Yesterday marked the end of my week on focusing to lose the reminder of this horrid baby weight.
It was marked with a few milestones and some stumbling.

I still have not added back working out.  However, I am happy to announce that when I came home last Thursday night my kettle ball workout had arrived and I fully plan on doing that at least twice in the coming week.  I am still in search of a treadmill, although the hubs uncle has offered me a nordictrack...at this point I am going to take it.  It does after all offer an amazing full body workout if I can get all my limbs coordinated.

I stepped on the scale Wednesday morning I like to weigh in the morning after the biggest loser and it showed I was down 2 lbs from the previous week so just changing my eating has helped. Also I am in a new size pants all be it they are tight they fight but they didn't in December so that's another triumphs.

And now for the set backs, so I went to the grocery store on Wednesday to get some items to couple with the items I was cooking from the pantry challenge and what did I see but the delicious cranberry oatmeal cookies I have just started to love at Safeway.  Of course the little one packs that I like to buy and freeze for the unbearable crave days were not available so I got a 12 count.  CAN WE SAY BIG MISTAKE!!!!
I came home ate two and froze the rest in baggies of two in order to restrain myself...and it's working and it's not because I have eaten another two today...sigh...well at least I am trying.

Next week I am focusing again on eating healthy and adding in 2-3 days of exercise... Still on a mission to find my treadmill...so we shall see...How are your weight loss goals going?

Snow day fun

So due to the yesterday...I ended up taking Friday off to hang with the Bens and to hopefully get the house in some kind of order for the Sabbath...of course the later did not happen.
I spent the morning cooking and going through one thing in the kitchen... The I spent the lunchtime on the phone with a potential new boss but more on that later...in the afternoon Ben suggested I nap with him and I reluctantly (lol) gave in...Before I knew it it was 4pm. 
I did get to work on my closet a little and start preparing meals for next week so I would have things ready to eat and wouldn't get off the mission..

As I was cleaning the master bedroom...I have to go from a walk-in closet to a good size reach-in...which sucks but it was one of the cons of the house that I figured I would work with.  I put Ben in the toy I got off of free cycle...Hubs tried it yesterday and told me my guy had a blast.  He was so right as soon as his feet hit the floor my little guy was bouncing and turning and cooing...it was a joy to see...aww I love moments like that...they make me wish I stayed home full-time. (ignore the mess...as I stated I am going through the closet)

Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My very dear friend came to visit me 2 weeks after having Ben and she was reading this book and was all engrossed in it...so much so anytime Ben and I were not entertaining her she was reading it.  One day we spent the whole day inside, as people with newborns so and she read that book all day.  Wow, I remarked that must be a good book and she stated that it was.

So on vaction as I mentioned before I found the book in the guest house library and started reading it...it was good and addictive.  I didn't get to finish it so I went to the library in my town to borrow it and had to be put on the wait list.  Well, Tuesday after picking up Ben I went to the library to turn in the dvd Weeds, one of my addictions while I was on maternity leave, the TV guide channel would have marathons of the show and hubby and I would stay up late Sunday night and watch it...by that not the point.  Upon my arrival at the checkout counter the librarian ( are they all librarians, I mean there were like 5 people behind the counter.  Do you have to be a librarian to work at a library?  I wonder.) told me my books were in.
Anyway, I finished the book last night.

The book, purely fictional, was about black help in the 1960 in Jackson Mississippi.  It really centers around 3 main characters 2 servents and one affluent white women, who writes a book (called Help) with the help of the 2 servants and their friends about the help in Jackson Mississippi in the 1960, so it's kind of like reading the book which the people in the story are writing.  The characters are entertaining and all have different points of view on the situation they find themselves in.  It give a great insight into the two cultures of that time and the depth of segregation and the pressure on people who didn't agree with it to conform.  I thought the book really flowed, I never felt lost or had to go back and read a character's previous chapter to figure out the current chapter I was in.  And the end is amazing and heartbreaking at the same time.  Interestingly ( for me anyway, it may not be for you)  it was written by a white women.

All in all a great book...I was sad when it ended.

Winter Wonderland

So it snowed here last night and it wasn't a lot of snow but for the Mid-Atlantic it was more than enough.

We woke up to about 6 inches on the ground, which for me as a native New Englander and then going to college in the Midwest is nothing but for the people here it's all a rage.  Apparently, on the way home last night the traffic was bad because of the thunder snowstorm that cars got stuck in the snow and people ended up abandoning their cars.  This of course made it a hard and inconvenient to plow so the roads are not plowed as great as they should be.  However, the highway was all clear, which I found out on my way to work after my lovely 2 hour delay.

The news said there was a sheet of ice so bad on one of the roads yesterday that cars couldn't make it up a hill to get onto the main highway without each others help.  People said they were stuck on the 8 mile stretch for 12 hours because traffic was so bad...can we say Torture!!!!!

Luckily I was home by 2:45pm...I picked up the wee one late because I wanted to run to the grocery store so I could make dinner and then home we went.  The hubs was able to get off of work at 3:30 so he left work early and missed lots of the rush hour traffic home...even my workplace let out early... One of my coworkers who lives way north of the job didn't get home until 3am this morning because of traffic due to the weather...I can see why some people abandoned their cars.

All in all in the wee one's household things were quiet.  I made cornbread (vegan), bush baked beans ( I would have made chili but I am trying to do the Pantry Challenge I know I am a month late).  I figure I would do it anyway, since the month of February we are doing some strict budgeting and seeing how it goes so that I can further explore my stay at home option.  Along with beans, I made some seasoned potatoes (I only had two potatoes left and they needed to be cooked) and I made a salad.  It was delicious my corn beard was good...I forgot to take a picture before we cut it open...we ended up sticking it back in the oven to dry up a little more but it was still very delicious.

Then the hubby went down for a nap and the wee one and  I hung out and had some tummy time then I fed him and hubby put him to bed, which allowed me to finally finish the book The Help, which I mentioned here ( more on  the book later).

Then off to bed I went hoping for a snow day...which I clearly did not get since I am at work today.  However, I got a delay and it was nice to sleep in with the hubby and hang out with Ben.  Turns out though that daycare is closed due to lack of power...so the hubby had to telecommute this morning and I still had to come in.

Jumping Jellybeans!!!

So yesterday...I went to pick up my little guy from daycare...and what do I find him doing...Jumping his little heart out on the jumper/walker toy...

Luckily I picked him up one of those on Friday from a freecycler...so I have one at home but I hadn't set up...(1) I needed to sanitizer it and (2) I didn't think he would like it...but yesterday he was in his glee standing up and pushing off the floor and then holding his feet up as the toy keep bouncing him up and down.

And in other news, last night was my little guys 2nd night in his crib. My mom and sister came into town this weekend to finally help me get the house in some kind of order...it was nice but annoying because I have spent the last 3 weeks avoiding packing away the rest of the stuff because I don't know where I want to put the stuff and because I know I need to throw things out but haven't the heart to do so.
So there they were telling me to purge, and asking where items go...and I was very annoyed but that's so what I needed because I was getting into a lazy funk.
But I digress one of the things they helped me do was wash Ben's linen and make up his crib...
My mom snuck him in there first to put him down for a nap and he woke up screaming and frantic...I told my mom she needs to ease him into the crib. First tell him that's where he will be sleeping...and talk him through it...she rolled her eyes at me. So we put him in his bassinet to sleep that night but in his room. The second night he slept in his crib and would wake up periodically, so I ended up putting him in the bed with me until he was sound asleep and then last night I put him in the crib awake after changing his diaper and kissing him goodnight and he went down no problems...
Turns out it was me who couldn't sleep I must have gotten out of bed 5 times to check on him...
Ahh...he's growing up so fast...

Mission: Mummy Tummy

Ok...so after I had my wee one...I lost 37 lbs in the first 6 weeks...awesome I thought I will have this baby weight off in no time...well I was wrong (faint wimper)

Another 10 weeks later and I have lost maybe 4lbs...I saw pictures of myself on facebook last weekend that my cousin posted from my awesome Christmas vacation and I look like a stuffed human skin...not so pretty...

So I am a mission...I would like to lose 20lbs by the time Ben's baby blessing which is exactly 60 days away.
And then another 50 lbs by year end.  It's reasonable really...But I do need to be careful I have been reading articles lately about losing weight two fast after the first 6 week loss can release toxins in the breast milk.  Also, that some people have trouble losing the last 10 lbs of baby weight until after they finish breastfeeding...I don't know but I am on a mission to try - with in reason I promise.

My strategy is to eat more fruits and veggies...I have started this for the past two weeks - with a few hiccups I have been doing well.

Step 2 part 1 - is to add back my workouts...I had been working out before my awesome vacation but haven't since we moved...so I am going to look to get a treadmill, some kettle balls and then fingers crossed add back yoga...all in moderate increments...we shall see.
Step 2 part 2 - is to read the book how to lose you mummy tummy and incorporate some of those techniques daily... I have the book from the library now if I could only read it.

I will update weekly on my progress...I am tempted to do PX90 but I think I need to work on building some strength before I torture myself to that degree...wish me luck