It's the little things

Thursday night is typically my late night at the gym.  I go with a friend from work.  Typically, 3 days a week, there are 5 of us that go.  Thursday night, it's usually just me and Nellie.  We do 3 classes - weight lifting (also known as Power), core and belly dance.

Yeah, no comments on me doing belly dance.  At least until I lose about 50 more lbs, but it's a HECK of a workout.  I wake up at night after belly dance with my hip flexors screaming at me and have to sleep on my stomach the rest of the night to stretch them out.

Anyway.

I always ask the kids to do little things around the house....keep the dining room table cleaned off (it's a catch-all spot), sweep/swiffer the floors, clean kitchen, load/unload dishwasher, etc.  And I always tell them just because you are 21 and 19 doesnt' mean you don't have to do chores anymore....you still live here.

Rarely do I ask them to cook.  But this week, I bit the bullet and asked the boy....

My son has been talking about this chicken salad that his room mate at college makes since he got home.  I asked him on Tuesday if I went and got the stuff on Thursday if he could go ahead and make it.  He said he would....the recipe that his room mate sent him was very vague because Kevin doesn't measure anything when he makes it - he does it all to taste.  So, after my dr appointment (the dr office is about 2 miles from my house) I run to Food Lion and get the following:

1 Rotisserie chicken (used whole thing)
1 bottle of Texas Pete (used 1/4 bottle)
1 bottle of coarse ground Grey Poupon (used 1/2 jar)
1 bottle of Worchestershire (maybe 1/8 bottle?)
Celery (2 stalks)
Black Grapes (1/2 c grapes)
Sliced Cashews (dunno because he crushed them...I added some to the top)
I had the light mayo at home (dunno, because jar was already open)

This was the final product:

It was really, really good!  Mikey wasn't real happy with it because he said it didn't have as much bite to it as Kevin's did, but I told him we could tweak it next time. 

I love no-cook dinners - and there wasn't any cooking done to make this, just assembly.

And it was nice to not have to buy dinner on a night when I had to stay late at the gym......with all 4 of us home once again, it gets rather pricey.

The only downside to this whole thing?  I had to clean up the kitchen.  While I have the common sense to clean as I go when I am cooking dinner, this doesn't register with my college Physics major.  **Sigh**

The little things.......

Oh!

Then I rambled on and on to my hubby about this overnight oatmeal that I was going to make.  I'd been waiting all week til I got to the store to get the stuff to make it, and now I have it and I made it and it's the best.oatmeal.ever.

Well, at least to me.....

1/3c Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats
1/3c unsweetened almond milk
1/3c plain Greek yogurt
1 banana
1tbsp Peanut Butter and Company Mighty Maple Peanut Butter
1tbsp tiny dark chocolate morsels

Comes out to 10 Weight Watchers P+ or about 447 calories.

I haven't  been real thrilled with my overnight oatmeals this week, but this one was a huge hit.  I will definitely be making this one again...and again....and again...

Breakfast Boredom

Ok, so I have totally gotten bored with my breakfasts.

I did protien shakes for a while.  They are my go-to.  I usually have a banana a few hours after the shake.

Then I did flavored oatmeal.

I thought I was doing good with overnight oatmeal, but DANG!!!  I plugged the stats for it into myfitnesspal.com and it's over 600 calories!!  That's like 1/2 my total for the day.  WW Points + wise, it's not bad, but the calorie count is rediculous.

Sometimes I boil eggs. 

But I never skip breakfast.  I am always starving by the time I get up and going in the morning.  Depending on what we ate the night before.

Last night, I was rather indulgent.  I had a 6 inch turkey sub with mustard and a small greek salad.  Any time I eat a major amount of carbs, I am starving the next morning.

Not that a 6 inch sub roll is a massive amount, but it's more than I am used to.

I'm in a rut food-wise I think.

I have a dr appointment today.  I had my annual bloodwork done on Tuesday.  I think my blood pressure is dropping too low.  I'm on bp medication, but was off of it for a long time - due to my being slack and letting my prescription run out and just not wanting to deal with it.

When I first started my weight loss journey, my bp was in stroke zone.  154/110.  With medication, it took it down to around 132/86.  When I had my bloodwork done, they went ahead and checked it - I hadn't taken it in 5 days because I can't go out in the sun when I take it.  It was 124/90.  Diastolic number is still high, but I think it's dropping low.  I have dizzy spells, and times where my vision gets blurred.  I'm going to talk to Dr Hamrick about it today.  All my other numbers are perfect....just my blood pressure likes to be stupid.

Mikey is making a chicken salad that his room mate used to make while they were in school this past year.  I'm so excited about it!  I LOVE chicken salad - especially when it's made with rotisserie chicken.  Think I'm going to get some dinner rolls and have a side salad with it.  I have saltines at home, so don't need to pick those up.  Food Lion didn't have any black grapes, so had to get red grapes, so hope those are ok.

Wordless Wednesday - A Trip to Remember Part 3

http://s1185.photobucket.com/albums/z356/ncwingnut71/Facebook/Hatteras%20and%20Ocracoke%205252012/

http://s1185.photobucket.com/albums/z356/ncwingnut71/Facebook/Hatteras%20Part%202%20%20%2052412/

http://s1185.photobucket.com/albums/z356/ncwingnut71/Facebook/Hatteras%20Vacation%20May%202012/

A Trip to Remember Part 2 - Libby's View

** This is a copy of a post I sent over to A Brindle in Belgium.....She posts pictures of our dogs for the Boxer Mailing List..... more to be continued of mine and Michael's point of view tomorrow :) **

We took Libby on our trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina this past week.  She LOVED it!  Especially the water and hunting for fiddler crabs.

We stayed on Hatteras Island.  Hatteras is one of the main tourist attractions of the Outer Banks, next to where the Wright Brothers first made their flight in Kitty Hawk.

The Outer Banks is very undeveloped in many places.  The Cape Hatteras National Seashore is incredible.  We didn’t see maybe 50-60 people on the beach at any given time.  Most had their dogs with them, which the outer banks are the only NC beaches that allow dogs year round  Many of the hotels and rental houses are dog friendly.

Here, Libby is looking for her Boston Terrier friend she had made earlier.

Libby and I checking out the waves.  She loved the water, but when the waves would go back out, she would jump straight up in the air because of the sand pulling against her paws, lol.  She would go out about chest deep and also try to “eat” the foam from the water.

Attacking the foam and waves

Not only were there fiddlers, but there were also horseshoe crabs, too.  They didn’t wanna play as much as the fiddlers.

Every morning, we would go out at sunrise and Libby discovered the joys of chasing and digging for fiddler crabs.  Once she figured out that the were holes where they went, she would dig to China.

And she was always so pleased with herself :p

We visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  It’s the tallest brick lighthouse in the nation.

Come on mom or me and dad are gonna get all the crabs!

A Trip to Remember Part 1

Where to start? 

I'm not really sure.....this past week at the Outer Banks was just....amazing.

It was just me and Michael and Libby.

Did I miss the kids?  Sure.  But they have their own lives now.  Yes, it's still tough with Megan because she's still trying to figure it out, but Mikey is working this summer and wanting to hang with his friends.

We've been married just about 22 years.  This was the first REAL vacation we took by ourselves. 

And we had a GREAT time.

The place we stayed at was awesome.  We rented a suite at the Cape Pines Motel.  It was very nice....living/dining room, full kitchen, king bed and decent bathroom.  Daily maid service.  Very, very clean and they were pet friendly.  They had a small back yard where we could let Libby off leash to run and chase her ball.  Have you ever seen the movie Hudson Hawk?  You know the little foo foo dog named Bunny?  Well, all that runs through my head when we play ball with her is "Bunny, ball ball" lol.

Lots of early morning walks on the beach.

Lots of evening walks on the beach.

One climb up 257 steps of the Hatteras Lighthouse.

And some other sight seeing.

And I didn't hate the way I looked in a bathing suit!!! Still not completely satisfied, but getting there.  I can't wait to go back next year.

The food.....omg, what can I say about the food??

The first night we were there, we ate at Rusty's Surf and Turf.  It was REALLY excellent.  Every restraunt just about has a fresh fish of the day....whatever they pick up from the fish market that morning.

I had the mahi-mahi kabobs with pigeon peas, mango salsa, brown rice and veggies.  Michael had the fresh fried flounder, fries and slaw.  For dessert, we had turtle cheesecake.

Thursday night, we ate at the Sandbar Bar and Grille.  I had the grilled Wahoo and Michael had the prime rib, which was the size of a small roast.  I got a picture of the calamari appetizer, but was so hungry that I didn't get pics of dinner.

The view from the Sanbar was amazing.....looking out over the sound....

Perfect calamari!

The first night we were there, we fell asleep rediculously early.  We're talking 8pm.  It was a long drive down there and we had drinks with dinner and we were just wooped.

So, needless to say, we got up rediculously early the next morning.....4am :p.

But we did get some phenomenal sunrise pictures.....

I'm uploading all the pics to Photobucket and will link them in more posts tomorrow.....I just wanted to share that we are back and I will be back to posting (not that I have any followers...save 2...lol)