Quick bento

I've decided to work out two nights a week and on Saturdays. At first, I thought it would cause more stress in an already-cramped schedule. Actually, though, the exercise gives me more energy to do things after I get home. Tonight, I felt like coming home, putting dishes away, and packing Nate a lunch (I have been neglecting him a little in the past week). It looked pretty cute in the box, so I thought I'd post. Unfortunately, I was working without any natural light and on a counter rather than my white deep freeze, so the lighting wasn't great. I had to mess with the brightness/contrast, so the colors look a little eerie. The lunch contains: garlic butter crescent rolls with ham and swiss cheese, broccoflower, butterscotch pudding cup. I wonder if it's enough. I learned today that he has been supplementing some of my lunches with food from a convenience store, so I need to work on beefing them up a bit--perhaps literally.

Goodbye, obesity!

Today, I learned that I am overweight--and there was much rejoicing! You normally wouldn't think being overweight was something to celebrate, but that's only if you were not, until recently, considered "obese." I don't know how much stock to put in the BMI, but I find that its numbers are fairly reasonable for me. This brings my total weight loss to 14.8 pounds--what the hey, let's call it 15!

I also worked out at to the Y for the first time tonight. I have to admit, I am a little unsure about what to do in a gym. I do know that after three babies in just over 3 years, my abs sure need some work, so I tried a torso rotation machine. The other machine I wanted to try was occupied by some chick on a cell phone. Seriously? What kind of workout are you getting if you can breathe enough to carry on a conversation? I finished up by walking a mile on the treadmill at 3.5-4 miles per hour. It wasn't much, but at least I was moving. That's more than I can say for most days. I'll work more on the strength training when I have time to really check out the machines.

Catching up

"Catching up" refers to more than blogging. I have also fallen behind in a lot of other things over the past week or two. I haven't lost any weight in the last 2 weeks, nor have I achieved much in the way of organization. I was able to wear my naughty librarian dress on our Valentine's date. It was still a little snug through the tummy, but I threw a jacket over top, and it looked just fine.

On our date, we bought 2 giant storage armoires for our middle room, which, once we dig it out from under our moving mess, will become our "multipurpose" room. It will be our playroom, office, and eventually, our "school" room. I allude to this in my profile blurb, but I'm going to come out and say it: we are planning to homeschool. Until recently, it has seemed like something that was years in the future. What really got me started thinking about it is that Levi has started reading! Since he was 6 months old, we have been using Starfall.com as entertainment. Yeah, I have heard all of the arguments about young kids and screen time, but it's better than a lot of the junk that's on TV. So in the process of entertaining him, we also gave him a pretty solid foundation in phonics. This has resulted in a kid who is obsessed with letters, much like others might be obsessed with Barney or Dora the Explorer. Give him a set of alphabet blocks and he will arrange them for hours on end, making "words." He has spelled several correctly, and gotten all of the correct letters for others, although they were out of order. The other day he actually read a whole sentence: "Zac has a pan." As a mom who loves reading and writing, I couldn't be more thrilled! I'm not going to push any formal instruction yet, but I am starting portfolios for both boys to highlight their learning milestones. If the next fifteen years are this exciting, I can't wait to get started!

A Hearty Lunch, or How Not to do Bento

Nate and I made a deal not to get each other anything for Valentine's day, although he reneged, and has already given me a teddy bear that looks like a little devil--something I totally didn't need, but it was a nice gesture, and definitely reminds me of him. Also, it came with yummy chocolates. What could be better? Before that, I had decided to do something cute with his lunch, since I'd be packing it anyway. You can see that it came out sort of cute when it was fresh. It includes: spaghetti with marinara and heart-shaped meatballs; apple and carrot hearts; layered gelatin heart with Valentine candy corn. I packed it all yesterday evening and sent it to work with Nate this morning.

Long story short, he ended up coming home for lunch and brought said lunch with him. He admitted that he wasn't a big fan of the marinara because it was "too sweet." It also looked a little icky because the candy corn had absored water from the Jell-o and become a hot pink mess. He only ate about half of the spaghetti, and being the hungry girl that I am, I took his leftovers (yeah, yeah, no wonder I didn't lose any weight last week). I didn't get very far because the spaghetti was hot pink in places and tasted like strawberry. Apparently part of the Jell-o had melted and gotten into the spaghetti compartment. Yuck. So my "gift" was a bit of a flop, and I learned that, if you're going to pack Jell-o in a bento, pack it alone and cover the compartment.

Weight Loss FAIL!

Well, week five sucked for me. Actually, I gained a little less than a pound. It's not much, but a little discouraging after losing three pounds a week for the last month. I wasn't surprised by the gain.The good news is, my goal was only 2 pounds per week, so I'm still on track. Also, the gain means I get an extra 6 calories a day!

Mommy Tools Monday: Kids' Greeting Cards

Now that I'm trying to commit to daily blogging, I thought it would fun to have theme days. So on Mondays, I'll be talking about what I call "mommy tools." These could be any sort of product or process that make my life easier, and that other mommies may find useful.

This week, I want to share a great online resource that I found. For me, it's unnatural to demand that my kids say "thank you!" Still, I want them to learn gratitude, so I like to get them involved in the process of sending out thank-you notes. Thanks to these fun coloring cards from Fisher Price, I can print out appropriate greetings and have the kids help by coloring them. The site also has holiday cards for some holidays (including Valentines, if you still need those), birthdays, get well, and "just because." Staples sells the perfect size envelopes (they were 9.99 for 100 locally), which makes the entire package less than 25 cents! That's cheaper than the dollar store, and much more meaningful. Here, you can see one that they colored for my Dad's birthday last week. I'm 90% certain that those spiraly-things are supposed to be helicopters.

My working definition of "bento"

I'm going to try to post some of the bento lunches I pack for my hubby. Keep in mind that he is a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, so you won't see many of the foods traditionally associated with bento. When I say "bento," this is what I mean: The lunch is packed in a divided box that allows me to control portion size and pack a variety of items. I will attempt to pack a balanced meal within the constraints of his limited palate. I will try to make it somewhat presentable, but not so cute that a 30-year-old man would be embarrassed to take it to work (I may make an exception for special days :)). I realize that I'm playing fast and loose with the definition, but I am sick of using quotation marks, so I'm going to call it plain ole bento from now on. The one I made for today is a prime example:

Here we have leftover "gyros," which are pretty much small hamburgers seasoned with Greek-inspired spices and tucked into wheat pita pockets. He doesn't go for lettuce, tomato, onion, or tsatsiki, so I tucked a small piece of cheese into each pocket. Also included are a plain spinach salad and pumpkin mini muffins.

Recipe: Savory Pita Chips

So I missed a day of NaBloPoMo, which means I don't qualify this month. I'll try it again next month. After that, I didn't try too hard to keep up. To make up for it, I'm posting something extra special today. I came up with this idea while trying to answer the age-old question, "What do I do with a truckload of leftover tsatsiki?" I'm referring to that yummy cucumber sauce served with gyros. I made some for lunch the other day and still had well over a cup left. I also had three pitas left. I used one to pack leftover gyros for Nate's lunch and the other two to make these, which were pretty tasty by my family's standards.


Savory Pita Chips

• 2 pitas (I used wheat)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut each pita into pieces, about 1.5 inches square. Pull apart pieces if necessary (so that each chip has a "right" and a "wrong side"). Pour olive oil on to a cookie sheet with raised edges. Add chips and toss to coat. (I did it this way to save dishes, but if you don't have a pan with edges, you could toss them in a bowl and use a flat cookie sheet.) Lightly sprinkle with cumin, oregano, and salt. I guessed on the quantities of the spices--basically, follow your instincts and add just enough spice to give the chips some color. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with tsatsiki (I used a recipe similar to this one, except with no mint), hummus, or your favorite dip. Also, you could sub melted butter for olive oil and season with cinnamon sugar. How great would those be great with fruit salsa or ice cream?

Enjoy in moderation. :)

Christmas in February

So Biggest Loser was a tie again this week. This is making it really easy to stay within the NaBloPoMo theme, but doesn't make for much interesting blogging. Since I've been writing about healthy eating, I'll show off my new toys instead!

Santa visited my house today, driving a brown truck and wearing a matching outfit. Technically I bought this stuff myself, but that doesn't make it any less exciting to be visited by the UPS guy! I got new lunch serving supplies for the whole family. Nate got new lunchboxes, in which I am going to start packing him bento lunches (or at least my version). They are Lock & Locks, which means they're totally airtight and microwaveable. They also have removable dividers so he can remove the parts that aren't microwaveable when he heats it. I packed his first "bento" about an hour and a half ago. In it are: ramen noodles (no seasoning packet) topped with taco meat and shredded, smoked cheddar; orange cauliflower; half of an apple; dark chocolate Raisinettes; and a strawberry bar. It's not the healthiest meal ever made, but it's a start.

I wanted to do something similar for the boys, but didn't see a need for a box since we eat at home. I found some divided trays that will work perfectly. I was surprised at how big they are, but it's nice that they will be able to use them for a while. Naomi wasn't left out of the fun, either. I found some great 2 ounce containers that I will use to freeze and serve home-made baby food. She also got this adorable divided food container that looks like a mini bento box. This will be great for taking food to Grandma & Grandpa's. It even has its own spoon! At the left, you can see a picture of the motherlode!

I'd better sign out for the night so I can get a blog in under today's time stamp. Good night, all!

One month of weight loss

When I signed up for the biggest loser contest a month ago, I set a goal of 2 pounds of weight loss per week. I lost 3.1 pounds this week, which adds up to 12.2 pounds (or almost 6%) overall! The thing about losing weight is, each week I am rewarded with another reduction in my calorie allowance. By the last few weeks, I'll be restricted on under 1300 calories! The good news is, once I'm in maintenance mode, it's back up to 2200. I may actually have trouble eating that many. That's a good problem to have.

What's different about this past month as opposed to other diets I've been on is that it's actually been a month. I think previously I may have stuck with a plan for 2 weeks or so. Supposedly, it takes about 21 days to form a habit. By now, I am starting to automatically think before I eat something. In fact, one day last week I forgot to log any foods at all at The Daily Plate, and I came in right around the target when I entered my foods later. Good eating habits are starting to become a habit. It also doesn't hurt having the motivation of not looking like a dang fool on weigh-in day. :)

I will learn my ranking on Wednesday after everyone has weighed in. There was no one biggest loser last week: it was a tie between about five of us.

NaBloPoMo

I was lurking around some homeschool forums and heard about National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo. Essentially, it is an event where bloggers commit to posting one blog per day for an entire month. Oddly enough, I found it minutes before February 1, so I jumped on board. That's right. During the month of February, you will be putting up with my jabber every single day! NaBloPoMo gives an optional theme for each month--something bloggers can use to challenge themselves and open up new trains of thought. This months theme is "ties," so I am going to try to work that in somewhere each day.

What's really sad is that I haven't actually slept since my last post (technically, yesterday). I am suffering from insomnia, partially brought on by the fact that iTunes refuses to authorize my computer to play music I have purchased. Sure, it says "this computer is already authorized," but when I hit "play," it's a whole other story. I don't even particularly care about these songs. My favorites were downloaded for free. I just feel entitled to use a product I paid for. So for a good while, I've been farting around with iTunes, doing everything suggested on Apple's website and it still doesn't work. I started this post as I was waiting for a confirmation e-mail from Apple tech support, and it just showed up in my inbox. I am also starting to feel sleepy. Coincidence? I think there may be some ties between the two. :)