St. Patrick's Day Food and Craft Ideas

 In honor of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, I have rounded up some of my favorite ideas to celebrate.  These are all pins that I have pinned on Pinterest!  If you haven't heard of Pinterest or haven't joined yet, you really should.  Although, I will warn you that it will magically suck away time from your day that you could otherwise use to clean your house, exercise, etc!  Don't say I didn't warn you!  If you would like an invite let me know.  You know you wanna.....

Anyways, back on topic.  I am married into an Irish family.  Even have a nice Irish last name, McNamara (pronounced MacNamara) that no one can pronounce correctly.  My hubby and I have even toyed with the idea of getting shamrock tattoos, but we haven't (yet)! 

We won't be doing anything too crazy for St. Patrick's Day this year.  Going to some friends house tonight to hang out and play cards.  I'm sure there will be some beer involved, but not by me.  Beer is nasty.  Do you have any grand plans for St. Patty's Day this year?

Okay, I am rambling.....  So below are a few of my favorite ideas I have found on Pinterest.  I have done a few, but most I haven't.  Let me know if you try one out!

HERE is my link for my Pinterest St. Patrick's Day Board if you would like to see more.

Don't forget to wear your green tomorrow! ;)

I make these for almost every holiday.  Just change the color of the M & M's!  I like to use peanut ones.  Yum!

Thinking about painting my nails today.  I'm sure mine won't be this cute, but I'm going to try!

Yum, anytime you do something with an Oreo, it's going to be good.

Shamrock Pancakes.  Made these last year.  These aren't mine, but they did turn out good.  The kids loved them.

Gotta love this!  Might do this tonight before I go to bed!  Emily will love it!

Cute craft idea for the kiddos.

Super cute and easy to do. 

Love sugar cookies.  Shamrocks and gold coins. 

Haven't done this, but really need to.  Super cute.

Favorite Food Blogs

Photo courtesy of Kevin and Amanda

I have had a few friends ask me where I find recipes of good home cooked meals that are not overly complicated and call for wacky ingredients!  I thought I would post a few of them here with links so you could check them out! Your welcome!  ;)

The photo above is from Kevin and Amanda and is my absolute favorite recipe ever!  I make it at least 3 times a month.  It is called Colorful Chicken Alfredo and is to die for (seriously)!  I think it is way better than Olive Garden.  I love throwing in tons of red, yellow and green peppers in, more than the recipe calls for.  So good! You MUST make this very soon, you won't regret it, unless you don't like Alfredo, then well, that's just crazy.  ;)

Emily Bites  This is a great Weight Watchers recipe site.

Get Off Your Butt and Bake Great recipes and tons of great look desserts.

Kevin and Amanda  Great recipes and beautiful photos of food, travel, etc.  

Life as a Lofthouse  Easy, but tasty recipes for busy weeknights!

Plain Chicken  Lots of great recipes for chicken, plus other stuff as well.

Six Sister's Stuff   Great site for recipes and crafts.

Skinny Taste  Another great low calorie, low fat site.

The Pioneer Woman  I'm sure you have heard of her and if you haven't your missing out!  Not only great recipes, but great posts about life, family, etc!  She even has her own show now on the Food Network! 


There are lots more that I use but these are my favorites right now.  I will do a post soon of some of my all time favorite meals to cook for my family that are from scratch, taste great and are rather easy. 

Got my WOG in today!

Today was a little warmer than the past couple days here in Michigan and by that I mean it was in the 30's, the sun was a shining and the wind wasn't blowing!  I had a busy morning, but told myself when I got home that I really needed to take advantage of the natural Vitamin D and head outside for awhile.  I prefer being outdoors, especially when I want to get some exercise in.

I love the dirt road I live on.  It's so nice to walk on.  Low traffic and you almost always see wildlife.  I love country living!  Can't wait till Spring so everything comes alive.  It's so dreary out right now.

It started out a little chilly.  I was dressed in yoga Capri pants, a tank top and a sweatshirt.  I had to pull my hands up inside my sleeves for the first half mile or so, but once I got moving I warmed right up!  

 Gotta wear shades....... 

Not sure exactly how far and how quickly I was moving because I am having phone issues right now and my phone shut off (yes, it does that randomly throughout the day and it's super fun, insert sarcasm) about half way through and I lost my Map My Run Data!  :( 

So I can't call myself strictly a walker or strictly a jogger since I do both right now.  It feels natural to jog after I have walked a bit and warmed up, but I can't run much more than a half mile at a time right now.  So today while I was out walking and jogging I decided that I would just say WOG instead of walk/jog! Yes, I talk (sing along to my music) while I wog, doesn't everybody?  Maybe it will catch on and everyone will start saying it, but probably not.  I'm a dork!

I was proud of myself today because there is this pretty big hill that I usually walk up but I was already jogging and I told myself I was going to jog up it today and I did!  It burned and hurt, but felt really good!  

So all in all I had a great day.  Got some exercise in and ate really well.  Although, I will tell you that I had to stare at the evil temptation of cake tonight!  I am Emily's Daisy Scout leader and we had a meeting tonight.  It was one of the girl's birthdays today and she brought cake and cupcakes.  I love me some cake ( and doughnuts and brownies), like seriously have a hard time turning it down.  I did great at the meeting but somehow ended up bringing the leftover cake home, thanks to my beautiful daughter Emily.  I served her a piece tonight and it smelled so good.  I ended up taking one bite and that was all I had. It took a ton of willpower to not devour the entire cake! I had some fruit and am feeling pretty good!  Now, if my hubby doesn't eat the rest or have a piece, I will be throwing the rest in the trash.  I can't be trusted with it tomorrow.  I won't try to eat it if it has been in the trash.  ;)

Doesn't it look sooooo good??

 Let's see how the weekend goes, it's usually my hardest with eating.  Just taking it one meal at a time, one day at a time....

It's Been a YEAR Since......

A year ago today I quit drinking Diet Coke cold turkey!!  Happy 1 year anniversary to me!  Honestly, I can't believe I actually did it and have continued with it.  I haven't had even one sip! None, zilch, zero!  :)

You see, I had a serious Diet Coke addiction, like HUGE!  I would on some days drink 5 cans or more a day!  Yikes, that is a lot of aspartame and caffeine.  I felt like poo drinking so much soda daily.  I would have highs and lows and felt sluggish. I would freak out if I woke up and there was none in the house! 

I decided that if I was going to work on getting healthy I really needed to quit the Diet Coke.  I know that on Weight Watchers you can have diet soda for no points and that's great if your not an ADDICT like myself.  I have read that diet soda actually can hinder weight loss, not to mention all the fake junk that is in it that my body doesn't really need.

I decided instead of trying to quit drinking it slowly, I would just quit when I ran out and not buy any more.  That's what I did and it worked out great for me.  I did struggle with the caffeine headaches the first week, but that went away and guess what?  I actually felt less tired throughout the day, crazy huh?  

So, I am now a caffeine free girl, minus what I might get in chocolate here and there.  I drink only water and carry my water bottle EVERYWHERE with me! I really don't miss it, but don't feel like I am in the place to just have one once in awhile, I'm afraid that I will fall right back into a bad pattern.  I sound like a recovering alcoholic! 

 It makes me so happy to not be spending so much money on soda and not to be putting all the junk in my body that it doesn't need!

Pizza Quesadillas

 So tonight my hubby is out of town for work (boo) and so it is just Emily and myself. The other kiddos are at their other homes this week.  I hate when he is gone, besides being lonely, I always feel like I pig out and eat horribly when he is gone. I don't really feel like cooking a nice meal for just Em and I.  So I told myself this morning when I got up I wasn't going to let him being gone for a few days ruin my eating somewhat healthy. I won't stuff my face, I won't stuff my face, I won't stuff my face!!!!

OK, so I guess Pizza Quesadillas are not really healthy, but I am a pizza fanatic and really just wanted to sit down and eat a whole frozen pizza!  Don't tempt me, because I can finish one, I have done it before and it's not pretty!  Yikes!  Anyways, I was searching my Pinterest recipe board and found a link for Pizza Quesadillas!  Looked pretty quick and easy and something I could whip up and not have a ton of leftovers tempting me every time I open the fridge.

HERE is the original recipe that I based my own recipe off of tonight. Her recipe called for making more but I just ended up making three Quesadillas and put the leftover sauce, mushrooms, cheese and pepperoni in the fridge for another time I get a hankering for pizza! Believe me, it will be sooner than later.

Below is my version of the Pizza Quesadilla recipe that can be found HERE.


INGREDIENTS:
Pizza Sauce
Flour Tortillas (need 2 for each Quesadilla)
Mushrooms
Turkey Pepperoni
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Cooking Spray

Put a light layer of pizza sauce on each Tortilla. Next up is shredded Mozzarella cheese and your toppings of choice.  Tonight I went with mushrooms and turkey pepperoni because that's what I had, but you could add anything that sounds good.  Put another layer of cheese on top and place in a heated skillet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Place another tortilla, sauce side down, onto your loaded tortilla and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until it is lightly browned and the cheese is melted.  Remove from pan and enjoy!

I kept this somewhat healthy by using turkey pepperoni, using cooking spray instead of butter and not piling on the cheese (even though I totally wanted too)!  Way less fat and calories than a regular old piece of pizza!

Excuse the not so great photos, I used my phone to take them! ;)

I thought they were pretty tasty and will be making them again!  I like to make pizzas on tortillas and put them in the oven as well.  I call them Craker Pizzas.  A lot less calories without all the crust. 

MOTIVATIONAL words for getting HEALTHY

I have found that having a little saying of motivational words on my fridge or mirror helps me on those days when all I want to do is shove food in my face (I like to eat when I am bored) mindlessly or when I need to get my butt off the couch (which is a lot of the time) and get moving!

I have tons of these pinned over on Pinterest!  Go and check them out, maybe print out a few and put them places that will help on those days your struggling with making the right for you choices.

Here are a few of my favs!!!

Weekly Weigh In

Stepped on the scales this morning and I was very happy to see about a 4 pound loss for the week!  Yippee, go me!  I had a really great week.  Saturday my eating wasn't as good, but I got back on track and didn't let a few bad choices stop me!

I got 5 days out of 7 of exercise in.  4 days of walking/jogging and a great body sculpting class!

I am so looking forward to the weather slowly getting nicer out so I can be outside more.  It makes such a huge difference in my mood and energy level!

I'm going to do this, one day at a time!  

Like the picture above says " I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday!"  :)