A New Discovery

I've heard for a while that you can substitute cauliflower for potatoes--mashed, that is. I've just never tried it until now. And let me tell you--it's wonderful! I love recipes that are high in taste and nutrition and low in calories!

Start with a head of cauliflower

Chop it up into pretty good sized pieces--not too small

Put in water and bring to a boil. You will boil it until it's pretty tender, but not too mushy. (About 20 minutes)

In the meantime, take pictures of your sweet little babies who are already in their pajamas...

...And who are helping scrub the floor :). Sorry. Just couldn't resist adding pictures of my sweeties!

When the cauliflower is tender, drain it and add whatever you would to potatoes and mash it the same way. To save on fat and calories, I added about a heaping TB of "I can't believe it's not butter", salt, pepper and garlic powder. You won't need to add milk as cauliflower is a lot more watery than potatoes.

And there you have it! That creamy, buttery side dish that you crave without the extra carbs, fat and calories! It's not as thick and starchy as potatoes, but it kicks that craving for sure. I've had it twice so far this week. Once with chicken, once with fish. YUM!

ENJOY!

**UPDATED*** Link at the bottom of this post is now working :)


I just wanted to share a wonderful website with all of you! I actually used it 2 years ago when I was trying to lose the weight from Brookie, but didn't use it faithfully and it took me almost a year to lose all the weight.
This time I got on again, have been very faithful with it since the new year, and only have 4.5 pounds to go to get to pre-Joey weight! I'm very excited about that, because I don't lose weight easily from breastfeeding like some people. I have to work at every ounce.
I'll quickly sum up the site in case you want to check it out for yourself.

• It's FREE! This is the best part!
• You put in your gender, weight and height and how much you want to lose. Based on that, SparkPeople gives you how many calories a day you can eat and how much you should burn.
• You track every bite of food. This helps you be successful! They have a huge database of foods, so chances are, anything you eat is in there. That way you know the calories and all nutritional information of what you eat.
• You track exercise minutes and how many cups of water you drink
• You can have a blog page, write on message boards for support or connect with buddies in your area (All Optional)

Yes, it takes time to track everything every day. But if you really want to get serious about losing weight, it's worth it.

Plus, if you know you have to record it, you won't eat seven and a half cookies in between lunch and dinner.

True story.

So, go to http://sparkpeople.com/ and check it out today! Believe me--it's worth it!

Our Christmas Vacation

I haven't been very good at posting lately! But I really wanted to document our 3 wonderful weeks of Christmas vacation with pictures! I took about 800 while we were there :) so I won't bore with you all....just a few highlights! Enjoy!

The next few snow pictures were actually taken after the New Year. I hadn't been out in the snow in a long time and it was so much fun!

Brookie wasn't too thrilled :)

Pretty Cola in a drift

Christmas Eve--with my best friends! What a dream!

My sweet babies on Christmas Eve. They both wore matching shirts that say, "All Mommy wants for Christmas is a Silent Night" :)

Look at the camera Jo Jo!

For some reason this wouldn't rotate--srroy--but my sister and brother-in-law and their first Christmas!

Deb and Me on Christmas day

We ended Christmas day by singing together--what a great moment!

Pat with his new hat on Christmas

Matching socks :)

Some of the great grandkids

NEW YEARS EVE!!!!! FOOD!!!!!!!!!

With some of the sisters

We created our own New Years Fireworks..... ;)

Hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into our holidays! :)

ONE STEP!

Ah, the New Year. A time of reflection and thankfulness, and those good ol' resolutions. We all make them every year.Read my Bible through. Memorize a verse a day of scripture. Learn how to sew. Learn a new instrument. Lose 10 pounds. Pray every day. Not eat sugar. Exercise every day. Whatever your "New Years Resolutions" are, we all have the best of intentions when January first rolls around. It's easy to make a weight loss goal when you feel fat and bloated on New Years Eve after a week of parties, eating and laying around. It's simple to decide to read your Bible through when you haven't been reading it like you should. Memorizing a verse of scripture a day--piece of cake!
And now, here we are. 10 days into January. I'm sure some have grown discouraged already and you are back into the same old rut you were in before. You skipped a day of reading so you skip for a week because how can you possibly catch up now? You chow down on ice cream one night and the binging continues into the next 3 days because you already cheated, whats the use?
Here is something that God has been teaching me. It's one step at a time. It's one verse, one chapter. It's one pound, and if you can't make it to that, it's a half a pound. (Gosh, that's 2 sticks of butter!) It's a walk at the end of the day if you didn't have the time to work out earlier, or a few sit ups and push ups if it's too cold outside. Anything to make you better, physically and spiritually.
I'm the type of person that if I don't get a full 45 minute workout in every day, I feel like I didn't work out at all. My heart could be pumping for 20, 30 minutes, but for me it's not enough. I have to realize that something is better than nothing. Moving for 10 minutes, even, is better than moving at all.
I'm also the type of person that if I don't read my allotted daily Bible reading amount I feel like I failed. Like I didn't spend enough time with God and that it didn't really matter. Of course, this area is more important to do more in, but I need to realize that I'm not a failure if I don't do exactly what I feel like I should for one day. I need to pick up, go on, and start again the next day. Take it one step at a time. Start with the little things and you'll be less likely to fail.

So, keep up with those resolutions! If you have already quit, start again! There is always a new day and right now there is a new minute, a new hour. Take a small step right now to do more for yourself--Body, Soul and Spirit.