Thursday, September 13, 2012

New things in my life!

WOW; such cool opportunities have come into my life recently!!!!

I saw a Craigslist ad for 'Pure Barre' Instructors and decided to interview for the position--and was blessed to be chosen! Our training is next month with the opening of the new Pure Barre rapidly approaching! I can NOT wait to be teaching this amazing work out and making new friends!!!! The woman I will be working for is incredibly sweet, active, a mom, and now business owner--how inspiring!!!!

I also auditioned and am now a part of the new professional dance team for the new professional basketball team!!! HOW AMAZING! I can't wait to perform again! Some of these girls are just so talented--I can't wait to make new friends and have fun with them all!

I am the Community Service chair for the area Pannellenic Group!!! I am UBER excited about this! I have our first meeting next week--I am hoping we get great ideas together! My main goals are a tea/silent auction to benefit a local women's charity or organization; and a military wives breakfast tea!!!!

Some people ask me how I plan to balance all of this with my sewing...WELL I hope to teach in the mornings and Nicholas will go to child care of some sort--I am currently pre school shopping..I love my sewing but it's not possible to whip things out as I usually do with him these days; especially since he no longer takes naps!!!

I also keep a schedule; for instance--if I have a lot to do the next day I make an hourly schedule...some people may think that's nutty but it keeps me on my toes and helps me make deadlines and not forget my responsibilities!!

Today I bought Nicholas a t ball bat, whiffle balls, a glove and cones--for bases. I can't wait to play in the back yard tomorrow!!!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Poland what?

My husband realized a while back that our beautiful son has developed chest muscles on only one side...I kept saying 'what are you talking about'--but it definitely is not the same from right to left.

We took our son to the doctor today. He seemed to know immediately what was wrong when Lee described it--and I, like a total idiot was making tons of useless suggestions (double jointed?--really Mary?) trying to make it absolutely nothing.

Nicholas has 'Poland Syndrome'--he literally was born without a left pectoral muscle! It's just something that'll be physically/cosmetically noticeable or bothersome--nothing long term or harmful...but how strange! The doctor said he's only seen it one other time since practicing; and it was a colleague in med school.

I remember a friend during the summers having a sunken chest where his sternum should have been--doctor said this is similar type of thing. He will be able to develop nice chest muscles on the right--but not the left--it will be visibly noticeable but won't affect him much else. He doesn't have the other usual symptoms of the syndrome--webbed fingers, being the main one.

The pediatrician said we could have an implant put in one day if he wanted it...So now instead of saving for my boob job, we will be preparing for Nick's--haha!

How crazy!

Lasagna Style Rotini

I made a DELICIOUS dinner the other night...like my husband got seconds...WHOA!

1 package whole wheat Rotini noodles
1 small container cottage cheese
1 jar spaghetti sauce of choice
1 package sweet Italian sausage
1 large back mozzarella cheese

Brown the meat and cook the noodles til each are done.

Drain meat and add to sauce

Grease 9X13 casserole dish; layer noodles, then half sauce (with meat), then ALL the cottage cheese, then a layer of mozzarella. Then layer again with all the ingredients (except you've used all the cottage cheese)

Bake until bubbly and melted on top--20ish minutes

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Chicken n Biscuits in Cast Iron

So I actually made TWO meals out of one for this...Talk about easy and proud of myself!

The first day I made homemade chicken soup--I just use a package of split breasts, fill pot with water til they are covered and boil with the bone until done and let simmer an extra half hour WITH BONE IN--for good flavor (learned that from my mother in law). I take that out, skim the fat off the broth, and cut the chicken to bite sized chunks--then add back to pot. I add chopped celery, carrots, and onion and gently boil until those are tender but not mushy (celery can get disgusting!)

I then add salt, pepper, and half and half or milk and a carton of chicken broth to make it a bit creamier than regular broth, and add more liquid to make it go further and be more like 'soup' than liquidy veggies :)

I make the egg noodles in a SEPARATE pot; this way I eat my soup carb free and serve it over noodles for my son and husband...and when I save it for left overs I make fresh noodles--if I save it with noodles in the pot they get soggy and are not so good.

To store left overs took the left over soup and put the rest of the veggies and meat (about 2 cups) and 2 cups of the broth in one tupper ware, and saved the rest of the liquid in a separate container--to save as a cream soup for future use.

ON day TWO I took the soup with the veggies and meat and poured it in my cast iron skillet. I gently boiled it constantly stirring it to heat it through out--you could also add peas, corn or potatoes here! I added a smidge of minced garlic, too. Turn down to simmer

In another bowl I mixed about 2 cups of heart smart bisquick, 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup butter spread and 1 cup shredded colby jack/cheddar cheese. I mixed until thick--I have made biscuits like this so much I dont really measure, I just add wet ingredients til thick enough! I dropped the biscuit mix by spoonfuls on the veggie/chicken mixture in pot until all of it was covered with dough.

Lastly, put on the skillet lid and put in oven on 350 for about 20 minutes/until dough is done! The biscuit dough mixture will thicken the broth and make it creamy!

DELICIOUS; I had to throw the last third out because I had already eaten most of it and didn't need to eat any more carbs!!! It was SO good!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

AMAZING Stuffed Tomatoes

I have always LOVED the idea of stuffed peppers...but when I make them I never finish the whole pepper...I can't make myself eat the whole pepper, even though I love the taste! I saw a pasta stuffed tomato recipe and thought...there has to be a way to stuff a tomato without carbs!

WELL these were DELICIOUS! My husband just asked I not use 'hot' sausage next time, but I liked the spiciness! They were delicious and the tomatoes became wonderfully soft and they were juicy and so flavorful!!!

4 to 6 large slicing tomatoes
1 lb ground sausage, hot or milk
1 cooked chicken breast (I used one left over I had already cooked; it had been marinated in Italian dressing); chopped into VERY small pieces
1/4 cup mayo
1 egg
1 GENEROUS cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 tbsp minced garlic

Pam/Cooking Spray
Shredded Parm for tops
Parsley Flakes for tops

cut the tops off tomatoes and scoop out the insides; i thought this would be difficult but i got less ripened, tougher tomatoes and that proved helpful...if you kind of move the knife in a circle to loosen the inside fruit you can then gently use a spoon and scoop it all out

mix all other ingredients for the insides in a large bowl; make sure they are thoroughly mixed well! Don't want a big bite of garlic, or basil, etc., and you want the flavors to cook together in each.

Place tomatoes in greased/cooking sprayed casserole dish. Stuff each one gently with mixture; I made 4 overflowing tomatoes but you could easily make 6 full ones.

Press parm cheese onto tops and sprinkle with parsley flakes.

Spray with Pam/Cooking oil--will make them tender and cook well.

Cook on 350 about 35 minutes until cooked throughout; I cut one open to make sure sausage was done!


If you want to speed up the process, cook your ground sausage first and then you just have to bake until tomatoes soften :)

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

I actually found this in an old 1983 Southern Living cookbook and made a couple substitutions to make them sugar free and added the fruit! The first ones I made I used similar ingredients but they didn't rise well--and I love fluffy muffins! This recipe actually calls for honey rather than stevia/splenda so if you like honey or do not like artificial sweeteners, try that OR Agave negtar! YUM!

2 cups wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 milk
1/4 oil (I use sunflower)
1/4 cup Stevia/Splenda
1 cup blueberries

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then stir in wet to the dry mixture.

Add blueberries last, gently--don't crush them. Grease your muffin tin--I use a healthy omega spray or PAM.

Their recipe calls to bake for 20 minutes at 400, I always bake at 350 until done...My oven gets hot and I'm a cursed baker--I always burn it or it's raw if I am not solely baking, which in my ever multitasking life never happens!