Day 107...Twas A Good Day

Today was all about studying and taking my stage 9 ABC test. This is the last test that I need to take for my Animal Behavior College before I get to start my externship where I am out in the field doing hands on training with a mentor trainer. I am looking forward to that aspect of my schooling.

Coffee, lunch and breakfast was made. This morning, Mackenzie wanted an egg sandwich and some coffee. I got that set up for her and sent her on her way. Mikey grabbed a protein drink and off to school he went. I came home and made myself some breakfast. It was very tasty this morning. I toasted 2 GF slices of bread and made 2 eggs to place on top. I smashed up some avocado and smooshed that on the bread too. In addition, I scooped some cottage cheese and added some cucumber to the side. It was yummy and filling.

After breakfast, I went about my business of studying/cramming and preparing for the test that I needed to take by the end of the day. It isn't officially due until tomorrow night, but I like to get it done prior to the due date, in case I need more time, for some reason.

I did some laundry, took a little nap and ate some grapes. I left to pick up Mikey and got a call from Mackenzie. She was starving and begged for a Juice It Up. I picked up Mikey (with Spencer seat belted into the back seat) and we went to Juice It Up and Togos (Mikey stayed in the car with Spencer with the car running with A/C). Mikey wanted a sandwich, so I went in and got one for Mackenzie and her sports med BFF, Jessie too. 3 smoothies and 3 sandwiches and I was back on the road to drop off 2 sandwiches and 1 smoothie off to Mackenzie. I got to enjoy a smoothie. We came home and I was back to studying.

Dinner had to be made, so I put some thin chicken breasts on a cookie sheet with italian dressing seasoning spread on the breasts. Baked for 28 mins at 350. Put some rice in the rice cooker and made a nice salad with all of the veggies that I chopped up last night. It was all very easy dinner and covered all of the components of a meal and it was pretty.

On the side, I grabbed a Sparkling ICE black raspberry water and added some red wine to it. It was good, but I really only had a couple of sips. I will put the cap back on and enjoy it tomorrow.

That's all for today! I am exhausted from studying and since I submitted my test, I am off to bed!

Until tomorrow,
Angela

Day 106...Back To The Grind

I have to say that taking the weekends off makes it very easy for me to stick with this blog. I'm going to only have cheat days on those days too, so that I am able to stay on track with good eating during the week. 

Today started out like every other weekday does, smoothies, lunch and kids out the door to school. I had my pumpkin spice coffee because you know, it is fall after all. It makes me happy. The weather has been reasonable lately, so that's nice. 

Kids to school, a little bit of catching up on a couple of shows while the laundry was doing its thing and enjoying the morning.  Once I got hungry, I warmed up some refried beans with sour cream and dipped tortilla chips in it. That was my brunch. 

I happen to call my PT office to see if I had an appointment and I did, so I got myself ready and headed out the door. It was a good day at PT because my baby girl works there on Mondays. That is always an added bonus. I love watching her interact with everyone. Makes a mom proud, that's for sure. 

Mikey waited for me after school and we were back home. I dropped him off and headed out to the grocery store. I just got the basics for making lunches along with my standard veggies that needed chopping. 

Dinner was turkey "cupcake" meatloaf and mashed potatoes. This was a winner with Mikey when I made it last time. I love the Italian seasoned turkey meat it is very flavorful. I grounded up some GF pretzels and added an egg, salt, pepper and onion salt, smooshed it up and put into the cupcake tins. 30 mins at 350. I chopped up the potatoes, put them in water to boil and we were ready to roll. Once they were done, I beat them with butter, milk, salt, pepper and onion salt and I was done. 

While I was making dinner and chopping my veggies, I had a hard cider drink. I had another one while watching the Chiefs destroy the Patriots. 

That is all for today!  I just have to say that I am very thankful for everyone that reads this blog. I ran into my friend, Bridgett, today and she was telling me how she is always impressed with the pictures of the food that I make. It was so kind of her to say. I needed that today too. It really helped motivate me some more. Thank you, Bridgett! 

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 102...I Love My Pressure Cooker!

Since I took a long nap yesterday, I didn't get to sleep until around 1:30am. Duh! At least I was able to catch up on my shows. I'm all caught up now, except for Utopia. I have to catch up on that one, but tonight is Thursday Night Football and my Giants are playing, so it will have to wait.

Before I went to bed last night, my throat was killing me. Ugh! I don't want to get sick. Today, I got the kids out the door, grabbed a cup of coffee and came back to go to sleep. I was zonked. I also made the mistake of going to Jimmy Dean's in Castaic to get a breakfast burrito. Not gluten-free or all that healthy, but my sick self was craving comfort food and unfortunately, bad food still comforts me. 

It was a minimum day for VHS today, so I got myself ready to pick Mikey up.  Normally he stays longer and goes out to lunch with his friends, but today, he wanted to come home instead. He was hungry and thirsty, and had some drive-thru requests. Since I was still in a comfort food mind set, I obliged. We went to Starbucks for Mikey to get a pumpkin spice latte frap (he's so basic) #PSL.  I got a passion fruit iced tea, unsweetened.  

For food, he wanted Jimmy Dean's and unfortunately, the lady that served me in the morning was still serving when I arrived with Mikey. Oh my! Yes, it is me again,  Piggy girl! 

Mikey and I both ordered their turkey club sandwiches with fries and ranch dressing. That was around 12:30pm today. 

For dinner, I made carnitas in the pressure cooker. It was very easy. I poured some chicken broth into the bottom of the pressure cooker pot, added a trivet, put in the pork, salt, pepper, italian season herbs and an orange (I saw a recipe that used an orange, so I thought I would try it too). It cooked for 1 hour in the pressure cooker and then I put it in the iron skillet to crisp up any fat that was still hanging on. I may have over cooked it in the skillet, but that is something I can work on. I made a pot of refried beans by opening a can and adding fat free milk and some taco seasoned cheese. When I prepared the plates, I heated up some corn tortillas, put some beans, carnitas, cilantro, red onions and a dollop of sour cream on each plate (x3). I have to say that the tortillas were a bit too dry, but other than that the food was good. 

Carnitas tacos aka my street tacos

That's all for today. I will be going to bed early tonight in hopes that I can get myself right before Friday Night Lights in Santa Monica with Rachel, watching the VHS team along with my girl on the sidelines with Sports Med. 

Until Monday,

Angela

Days 100 & 101

Day 100...Happy Birthday to my baby girl!
Yesterday was a busy day getting things for my girl to make her birthday the best it could be. She left for school and was off for her last birthday while living at home for a while. I can't believe it! Next year, at this time, she will be in college. Wow!

Brian worked from home and I have to say that is really hard. I never realize how loud I am until he is home and I am supposed to be quiet. Making coffee and even walking around with my pups following behind are all things that are loud when someone is on the phone. Humph!

I made myself some eggs with GF toast and cottage cheese for breakfast along with my pumpkin spice coffee. Yum! After that was all done and cleaned up, I got myself ready and started my errand running for the day. I went to In & Out and brought Mackenzie lunch, as per her request and then went over to Edible Arrangements to get 24 of their pineapple pops that were cut into cupcakes, stars and daises and dipped in chocolate. This has been a tradition over the years of edible arrangements and water bottles, have been the snack of choice to share with classmates instead of cupcakes. I'm just glad she has sports med to share it with in high school.

For dinner, we went to Yamato in Valencia or as my kids call it, "The Fish Place!" Of course, there is so much food that they give you. The dinner came with fried rice, miso soup, ginger salad and for the teppan food, I ordered steak, shrimp & lobster. It was very tasty and filling. I also had a sapparo beer and a couple bites of green tea ice cream and chocolate lava cake. OMG! So good!

Fried Rice Heart

That was all for that day!

Day 101...Very Sleepy Today
As I am thinking about and looking at my notes about what I ate today, I can tell you exactly why I was so sleepy. Aside from my sore throat, I didn't eat much. Maybe they both go hand in hand, but regardless the lack of food that I had today didn't help with my energy.

Coffee, lunch and smoothies made and I was back in bed until I had to get ready for PT. I have been in a tremendous amount of pain lately in my shoulder and feet (planter fasciitis), that I was dreading going to PT, but then again, I know it helps.  I grabbed a banana and ran out the door.

I did my PT routine and was there for good 2 hours. After I was all done, I went to Wal-Mart and walked around there for a while. My thought was to make carnitas street tacos tonight for dinner.

I was starving at WalMart, so I grabbed a tin of nuts and shopped and snacked on them.

Once I was done and checked out, I went to Blimpies to get Mikey a sandwich for after school. He is normally starving. I got him a large sandwich and bought myself an iced tea and bag of popcorn. You know, the type that tastes like movie popcorn? Yummy.

I waited for Mikey where I pick him up after school for about an hour, during which time I was reading my ABC book for my Stage 9 exam on October 1st.  I made a bad choice and ordered medium onion rings from Carl's Jr. with ranch dressing while I was ordering a powerade for Mikey.  Once Mikey got in the car, we went straight home and I brought in all of my groceries and fell asleep on the couch. I slept for 2 1/2 hours! I couldn't believe it. Mikey fell asleep in his room too and was asleep for 3 hours. We were sleepy souls!

For dinner, Mikey had the left over food from Yamato and half of his Blimpies sandwich. Brian had the other half of the sandwich and I had popcorn.

That is all for today. I am tired again and am ready to go to bed. I am currently watching Red Band Society and it is really good. Check it out!

Until tomorrow...maybe,
Angela

Day 99...Blog Free Weekend

Ok, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't miss you over the weekend. I did! I missed you. I didn't miss telling you about all of the bad things that I ate, but I missed you nonetheless.

The weekend was about football, football, football. It's football season, so that's all I do. Friday night, I watch Valencia High School play, in addition to watching my girl help the boys on the side lines with Sports Med. Saturday, I watch USC (they didn't play this weekend) and Sunday it is all about my fantasy team and football pool. I was 2-0, but this weekend killed me. My team sucked it up and all of my benched players kicked butt. Isn't that how it goes? 

I've learned that Monday morning lunches are a bit harder to make than Tuesday. The difference is that it is slim pickin's in the food department, so Mackenzie gets what I can scrounge up. Today was veggies, fruits, protein bar, GF peanut butter/Jelly sandwich. I was running around today, so I wasn't able to do a big shopping spree, but I did get some foods for lunch tomorrow. I may not even need it though, it is my baby girl's 17th birthday, so I will be bringing her lunch along with Edible Arrangements that she will share with Sports Med. 

Coffee today was pumpkin spice coffee with almond milk and some sweetener. I realized that it wasn't stevia sweetener and that made me sad. But, the coffee tasted so good. I love the feeling that pumpkin coffee brings to me. (#basic) Reminds me of when I used to push the kids on their swings outside while the leaves blew in the breeze and I could actually smell that fall was on its way. Today is the last day of summer and I am afraid that we will wake up tomorrow without any changes in our weather. I used to say that summer was my favorite season, but for a while now, it has been fall. 

For lunch, I met my friend, Lisa, at Telly's and we went to hell with ourselves. She has been sad because her son left for college and I've had the health of a friend on my mind, so we both drowned our sorrows in burgers and fries/onion rings with ranch. But, we didn't stop there, nope, for dessert, (because you know dessert is a must with lunch Ha!). She had a chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and I had pumpkin cheesecake.  It was heavenly. You will see that I like to overdo it with the pumpkin in the fall. 

After we finished our visit, I made my way over to my friend's house to give her some love. My goal is to keep her supplied with bone soup to help nourish her while she battles her illness. Today, I grabbed the "soup" container that we are exchanging and will refill it tomorrow. I am excited to make this soup for her. I bought a pressure cooker to help me make these soups even quicker so that her supply never diminishes. This soup helps me to feel like I am doing something for her. I am thankful that she is allowing me to do it.  

Tonight, I cooked a whole chicken in the pressure cooker (25 mins) and then roasted it in the oven to brown the skin. I am boning the chicken and will be making another batch of bone soup with the chicken bones and additional fresh veggies to help season the broth. 

Dinner was chicken with roasted potatoes, onions & carrots. I added a little bit of sour cream to my veggies. It was tasty. That is all for today. Thank you for reading! Love the people in your life and think about ways that you can make their lives more enriched because you were there for them.

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 94 & 95...Thursday Night Beatdown (aka TNF)

Day 94

Last night I totally passed out and forgot to write my blog. Once I went upstairs and got my jammies on, I knew it was doomed. I contemplated not writing anything about the day, but here it goes...

I woke up, yada yada yada, expect for the fact that Mackenzie skipped her first class and drove Mikey to school for 2nd period. It was a nice morning break, expect Tommy wasn't too pleased. She loves her car rides. I was supposed to meet my friend, Tina, at LA Fitness to take a yoga class, but my belly was bugging me, so I skipped it. I have yet to step foot into the gym. I want to go, but my plantar fasciitis is so bad that I feel I may make it worse for myself. Just doing groceries kills my feet for the day. I will continue PT and hope that I can take baby steps for the gym.

After the kids were off, I made myself a cup of coffee and 2 eggs over GF brown rice toast with butter and cottage cheese. It was really good and filling and it made me happy.

Breakfast of yesterday and today!

Aside from dehydrated mangos, that was all I had for the day. For dinner, I was smart enough to have planned ahead and purchased a Chinese chicken salad kit from smart & final. They used to or still do sell it at CostCo, but now that they sell it at Smart & Final, I am super happy. All you do is add romaine lettuce or wherever lettuce you want to add. It is cool and refreshing for the hot days that we have had upon us.

Chinese Chicken Salad kit. YUMMY!

2 hard ciders later and I was out for the night!

Day 95

You know those people in your life that you say, "Hello" to when you see them, but don't know very much about them? I have a friend like that in Tammie. The difference is that we are becoming better friends, because we seem to have a great deal in common and think that we can be supportive of each other. I like that! My blog has helped this friendship too. She has been reading it, so we would talk about it when we ran into each other. Those conversations went deeper and we are now becoming friends. I am very thankful for this friendship. We all have so many challenges in our lives and we feel like we are alone at times. You never know who will walk into your life and see  you where you are at and be able to help you through it with support and friendship. 

Today, Tammie and I went to have lunch at Sushi One in Valencia. I really like this sushi place. Today we tried different rolls and shared it all. Great food and wonderful conversation makes for a perfect lunch. A little something special that the restaurant does is give you a scoop of ice cream with the check. You know how some places give you oranges? This place gives you ice cream. Uh, yum!!!

Scoop of ice cream. It was so little and perfect.

For breakfast, I had my coffee and my egg/GF toast with cottage cheese. I didn't eat anything after lunch. For dinner, I ate the chicken crockpot dish that I threw together earlier in the day. It wasn't very good. The carrots and the potatoes didn't cook all the way. At least the chicken was cooked. A bit of a disappointment, really. I added some butter and sour cream and choked it down. 

That's all for my consumption today. One thing that I feel is important is that you tell your friends that they matter to you, always. If it comes to your mind, say it. You never know what they are going through in their private lives. Validating their importance to you may just be the dose of love they need to keep their days happy. It seems that the people that are the most helpful to others are the ones that won't ask for help for themselves. For those of you that are my friends, reading this blog, please know that I treasure you! 

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 93...DMV Day

If you are my friend on Facebook, you know that I had to go to the DMV today. Instead of going to my local DMV, Newhall, I drove to Simi Valley. I made an appointment and flew in and out of there in 20 mins. Done! I love that place and it was totally worth the drive.

Coffee and morning routine was in full effect today. Lunch and smoothie for Mackenzie and a smoothie for Mikey. Kids were off to school and I needed to get ready for my day and had to beautify myself for my DMV picture.

My driver license picture when I was pregnant with Mikey, 15 years ago. 

Once I was ready to leave for the day, I grabbed some dehydrated mangos and some freeze dried apples with some iced tea and headed out for my trip to Simi Valley. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but I rarely leave the bubble of SCV during the week. 

After my appointment, I found myself with so many stores that I could go to. I decided to go to Ross in Simi Valley.  Would be nice to see what is at the other Ross' stores. I frequent the local stores in SCV. I was able to find some work out clothes in Simi Valley. Yay!

Once I got back into SCV, I went to El Pollo Loco and got an Ultimate Double Chicken Salad, one for me and one for Mikey. I love their cilantro dressing. I know it isn't the best dressing, but it is SOOOOOO good. I love it and their avocado salsa. Their chips and guacamole are good, I ordered those too.  I sat down and ate my salad with enough time to get myself back in the car to pick up Mikey. 

After pick up, I took Mikey to SuperCuts (aka Super Sucks...ala Mikey). He needed his curly thick  locks cut. It looked like he had small animals under his chair, he has so much hair. But, now he is even more handsome now that he is no longer shaggy. 

Dinner tonight was a bit of a struggle. I had no interest in cooking. It has been so hot and I didn't plan dinner in a way that would prevent me from sweating while cooking. But, I figured it out. I baked some pork chops in a BBQ rub, made a salad and microwaved some baked potatoes. The pork chops were thin, so they didn't cook long and it was at 350, so it wasn't hot for too long. The potatoes and salad weren't an issue. 

For me, I didn't eat the pork chops. I just had a plate of salad with a baked potato. I added ranch to my salad and butter and cheese to my potato.  

My dinner of salad and baked potatoes

That's all I've had today. Uh, except for my 2 Angry Orchard Crisp Apple hard ciders. I really enjoy the hard ciders. I love apple flavored drinks. When I was a kid, I loved a drink called Aspen. It tasted just like this sans the alcohol. I hope you had a great day! Stay out of the heat and try to keep cool.

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 92...It's HOT!

I'm sure you are able to tell that I took the weekend off with my lack of posts and break in my days. I think that will be the standard now. Friday-Sunday will be blog free. Seriously, with it being football season, how many times do you want to read that I ate bar food and drank beer or hard cider?

OK, so today is Monday and I started doing my thing. Coffee, lunch, smoothies, you know the drill. The only thing that has changed is that Mikey is now drinking his morning smoothies. We got LA Fitness memberships and he as gone almost every day since we got them. He is going with our family friend, Chris, and it is a total beat-down. Thankfully, Mikey listens to Chris and has experienced a workout session without protein prior to it and it was very hard for him. Sometimes they have to learn on their own. Now, when he knows he will be working out after school, he has his morning shakeology. Yay! Whatever works!

Today was about running around and doing errands for the kids in addition to grocery shopping. Trader Joe's was the store of choice today. I was missing my dehydrated mangos. I haven't been able to find them anywhere else with just mangos as the ingredient.

After I got all of my groceries, I rushed home to empty them only to get back in the car to rush over to Juice It Up and Togos for Mikey. Getting in and out of the car, I was reminded about how hot it was today. It was miserable. It is not a hot that we don't know, I think we are all just over it. Totally over it! We didn't get a winter, we skipped spring and now we are at the end of summer without a break. I really hope fall gives us some love.

During the course of the day, I ate some of the chocolate probiotic nuts, dehydrated mangos and a half of a Juice It Up smoothie. After I picked Mikey up from school, I dropped him off and headed to PT. It was very hard to go to PT so late in the day. Normally, if I don't start at 11am, I start at 2pm. 4:30pm was a bit rough, but it was worth it because Mackenzie was working today, so I got to see her.

After my beating was done at PT <smirk>, I came home and started dinner. Tonight, I sautéed some onions, mushrooms and garlic in butter and then added some langostino to it while it simmered down.  In a separate pot, I boiled and cooked some corn pasta. Once it was all cooked, I mixed the langostino   and pasta together and added some cheese. It was very good. 

Langostino and Pasta

While I was cooking dinner, I had a bottle of hard cider and finished another one while watching Monday Night Football. That is all for today! Not a whole lot to report. I hope you had a great weekend and were able to creep your way through Monday.

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Days 87 & 88...I'm A Saboteur!

Slacker here! I missed blogging last night. To be honest, I just didn't want to. I was tired and didn't want to do it. Maybe it was because I wasn't very good? Probably!

Coffee started the day and then I went to PT. My plantar fasciitis has been really bothering me and it is too early to get another cortisone shot in my foot. I know my weight isn't helping this issue, but it isn't necessarily causing it either. I just wish I was more consistent with the stretching of my calves to help with the pain. I mentioned I'm a slacker, right? Oh yes, first words of the day. Let's not forget.

After PT, I ran some errands. While I was out I went to Walgreens to pee (TMI?) and got myself a couple of snacks. Not horribly bad, I bought some skinny popcorn and some probiotic chocolate nuts mix. Both were gluten free.

When I went to pick up Mikey, I stopped at Carl's Jr, for my iced tea and was weak. I was so weak I ordered some fried zucchinis. Isn't that horrible? I shouldn't have held strong, but I was in the mindset to sabotage myself, I think.

I did a great deal of taxi driving yesterday so when Brian said he was going to meet our friend, Chris, for a drink, I jumped on board. We all met at Wolf Creek. I had 2 beers, a chunk of bread with their olive spread and a turkey/avocado melt with fries and ranch. Not good, not good at all. I have to say that the melt was yucky. The turkey was dry. Don't worry though, I don't waste food. I am part of the clean plate club, hence my girth.

Day 88
Today was a better day. Well, a little bit of a better day. It was a minimum day at Valencia High School and Mackenzie wanted to meet for lunch. She rarely gets free time during the week with sports med especially on game days (Freshman football), so I was thrilled.

The morning started with coffee, yada, yada, yada.

We met at Sushi One and ordered many rolls and ate all of it. We were both starving. After we were done, we walked over to menchie's yogurt, but it wasn't open yet. That will be so good once it opens. Did you know it was opening by LA Fitness? Now you know!

For dinner, I realized that I hadn't cut up all of my veggies and melon fruits from when I went to the grocery store, so I had to get chopping and cooking or else they would go bad. Because I needed to cook some veggies, I roasted portabello mushrooms with zucchini and eggplant. Then, I roasted some spaghetti squash. I made a salad that was one of those salad kits from smart & final. It was chicken with BBQ ranch dressing, cheese and tortilla chips.

Roasted veggies

BBQ Ranch Chicken salad

Roasted Spaghetti Squash

That is all for today. I am stuffed from the roasted veggies. I had two bowls of that and some salad. I added some cheese to melt on top of the veggies, so it was really yummy. 

I hope you had a great day. Tomorrow is Friday Night Lights and Valencia is traveling to Chaminade which is by my old stomping grounds in West Hills. Rachel and I will be there supporting the football players as well as VHS Sports Med while they help all of the players. Those players sure are lucky!

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 86...Last Minute Creativity

Today was the day that I got to see my friend, Tina. I've missed her and I am always so happy to spend time catching up and giggling. She is such a great friend to me.  I got the kids off to school and drank a cup of coffee knowing that I was meeting Tina for breakfast. 

After getting ready for the day, I got myself over to Telly's to enjoy breakfast with my friend.  I was tempted to eat poorly, but I didn't. I ordered their California omelet with potatoes o'brein and sourdough toast. I ended up not eating the toast.  Yay! I was good. The potatoes were made with peppers and onions. I enjoyed them. 

Once we were done visiting, we parted ways and I went to Castaic Nails to get my nails done. :) Since I pulled my acrylics off last night, I really needed to get them back on. This time I asked them to paint them with gel polish. It came out very cute. I really like Castaic Nails. They are family owned and are always so kind to me. I like to give back to them, so I do their website and have been working on a new price list poster to be framed for their salon. 

Nails in VHS colors

After my nails were done, I went to the Dollar Tree and dilly dallied there. I love that store, especially when I don't have a ton of money to spend and I want to "shop." Once I was done there, I went to LA Fitness and signed my registration paperwork. I am glad that is all done. Smart & Final is next door, so that was a must. :)

I grabbed some iced tea from Carl's Jr. and picked up Mikey from school. Once, we got home, I started studying for my Stage 8 ABC test. While I was reading, I had some corn chips and tomatillo/avocado salsa. I took the test and started dinner. 

I have been wanting to make my enchilada casserole, but Mikey has been trying to steer me away from that dish. He doesn't like soggy tortillas. I decided to make the same type of dish, but with rice instead of tortillas. I bought shredded chicken from the deli at the store on Sunday and some enchilada green sauce. I made a pot of rice and put the cooked rice on the bottom of my baking dish and started layering with green sauce, shredded chicken, black beans and fiesta cheese. Once all of the ingredients were added, I put it in the oven at 350 for 30 mins. 

Enchilada casserole with rice. It looks like a chocolate chip cookie cake to me.

I knew that the dish needed some spunking up, so I added sour cream, tomatoes, avocado and hot sauce.

Final product with yummy garnishes. 

That's all for today! Not a ton of food, but I am stuffed. The rice was a huge filler, I think. I hope you had a great day. Days like today I am extremely thankful for good friends. I am blessed with so many friends that mean a great deal to me. Thank you to all of you that have touched my life. 

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 85...Chores

I have to say that I didn't eat much today. Well, not until dinner. I had some coffee and then started my chores. I did lots of laundry and cleaned the bathroom.  Two things that I really don't care to do, but am so happy once they are done.

It was such a boring, boring day. I got the kids off to school and had some coffee before the chores began.  Once all was said and done, I ate a banana and then it was time to take my Tommy girl to the vet to help her with her arthritis. I am so thankful for Dr. Rochetto and Cinema Veterinary Centre. They are always so kind to me and my furry babies.

I forgot to take a picture of my dinner, so here is my lunch. :)

After Tommy was all done, we were off to get some dinner since Mikey was stalking me about getting him something to eat. It was about 4:30pm and that boy was starving since he doesn't eat at school. I stopped at Burrito Factory in Saugus. I ordered their Mexican pizza with carnitas. I also ordered chips and guacamole, but none of us ate them. I know I was stuffed like a sausage by the time I was done with my Mexican pizza. BTW, Mexican pizza is like nachos, not really pizza. It is chips on the bottom instead of pizza crust.

That is all that I ate today. Not much to report. I also drank iced tea. Did I mention that it was a boring day? Tomorrow, I am having breakfast with my friend, Tina, so I am very excited about that. I will try to eat good at Telly's. :) Oh, also, I renewed my LA Fitness membership and am happy to get back into the swing of things by going there again.

I hope you all had a great day!

Until tomorrow,
Angela

Day 84...FOOTBALL

I woke up this morning and got on the scale. Enough said. That was all I needed to see to know that my cheat meals/days have got to stop. I'm disgusted.  I drank some coffee. I got myself showered and ready for the day and found myself at the grocery store. I was determined to buy a large supply of fruits and veggies.

I ran into my friend, Kim F., while I was there and it was great to see her. She said she felt like she was witnessing the beginning of my blog with me shopping in the produce section.  It was funny. It still amazes me that people read my blog, my babble. Thank you!

While I was there filling up my cart, bought a 12 pack of Angry Orchard Hard Cider. It is naturally gluten free. I thought it was worth buying since it is GF. I had a couple of those and some Fritos and guacamole when I was unloading groceries.

It is gluten free and it makes me happy! 

As I was unloading groceries and watching football, I saw that I really did a good job on the fruits and veggies at the store. I had a stock pile of good stuff. I had to take a picture because it looked so colorful.

Crisp and clean, no caffeine

Once everything was unloaded (I will chop it all tomorrow), I sat down and continued to watch some football. The 2 hard ciders got to me, so I took a nap. Brian and Mikey were wondering what to do about dinner and I was willing to make an enchilada casserole (before I fell asleep or when I woke up), but that was not what the boys were desiring, so Brian went to get some food for them. Yes, even with a house full of yummy food, he had to get fast food.  He came back with Taco Bell. I had no desire to eat that, so I made myself a yummy GF sandwich when I woke up from my little nap. My sandwich had turkey, cheddar,  mayo, mustard, cucumber, avocado, tomato and chia seeds. It was perfect. 

Doesn't this look better than Taco Bell?

Now, for the rest of the night, I am folding laundry, drinking water and watching football. I hope you had a great Sunday! Mine was a bit boring! At least my eating wasn't horrible. Baby steps!

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Days 81, 82, 83...Friday Night Lights Are Back

Such a crazy couple of days. I am realizing that with the kids back in school that it is harder for me to write my blog every night. That shouldn't be the case, since they aren't here, but by the time the evening comes around, I am zonked. Early mornings, equal a tired Angela.

Let me recap the last few days. I will forewarn you, it wasn't great!

Day 81...Errands
Coffee in the morning while I was getting the kids set up for school. I also had a shakeology to calm my starving stomach. It really helped. I had the dogs groomed by my favorite mobile dog groomers, Canine Kisses. Tommy is now super pretty and shaved and she doesn't stink. Yahoo! She spends a great deal of time in the pool, so she tends to stink since she doesn't dry all the way very often. It's great that she doesn't stink right now. Spencer got a nice bath and vacuum. They said they had about 12 lbs of his fur in their trash. Of course, they were kidding, but he looked homeless before and looks handsome and skinnier now, so it worked.

GF sandwiches

Lunch was 2 GF sandwiches with turkey, cheddar, cucumbers, olive oil mayo, mustard and avocado. Don't they look good? Mikey had a minimum day, but went out to eat with his friends. He had an orthodontist appoint but we had a little bit after I picked him up, so we went to Dick's Sporting Goods to get him some running shoes that he will use to train and workout. I am excited that he is committed to working out. Since we started our change in diet in the house, he is now down 30 lbs. He is taller and slimmer, and I know he feels great.

We went to the orthodontist and are going to be speeding up the process to get his braces off. It is going to be a sore couple of months for him, but soon, it will be totally worth it. I am thankful for Dr. Mulcahey, she is awesome!

For dinner, I made chicken with chopped up zucchini/onion on the bottom of the pan. I added bacon grease to help sauté them as they cook under the chicken. I added italian dressing seasoning to the chicken as well. Cooked for 35 mins at 350. While the chicken and veggies were cooking, started some rice in the rice cooker. After the chicken was cooked, I took them out and put the veggies back in for another 20 mins at 450 to really cook up the veggies. 

Chicken, veggies and rice

Day 82...Go VHS Football

My day started with coffee and iced tea. I had to go to an early PT session, so I needed something cold to drink while I was there. Of course, water wasn't my choice because I still needed caffeine. :) After PT, I was lucky enough to meet and spend time with my friends, Kim & Lisa for an early lunch at Eggs n Things in Valencia. 

After lunch, I headed out to find some treasures for my friend Ada and her son Matt. It was Matt's birthday and Ada is such a kind soul that made me a "sports med" football jersey to match the VHS "football fan" jerseys. I wanted to give her a thank you gift. I found a Brighton bracelet that was perfect. Once all was purchased, I got myself home for another shower for the day in order to get ready to go out for happy hour and then the VHS football game with my friend, Rachel. 

Rachel and I headed off to Las Rocas in Castaic for happy hour. It was yummy and was even better because it is so close to home. I had 2 beers and we split their shredded beef nachos and a chicken quesadilla (Rachel didn't eat any of the quesadilla, so it was all me...I'm a piglet). During the course of the night, we had some more margaritas. It was a fun night and Valencia beat Palmdale, 44-21. It was an exciting game and birthday boy, Mathew Pham, scored a touchdown. What an exciting game!

Some of the moms of Friday Night Lights! Go VHS!

Day 83...Fight On, USC!

Being that I was up very late last night and it was Saturday, I slept in. It was nice. I woke up in time to get myself ready and headed off to Big Wangs with my honey to see the USC vs. Stanford game. Big Wangs is a great place to go because an USC Alumni chapter meets there as well, so needless to say, it was very much all about USC.

805 & the USC game at Big Wangs

Brian and I sat at the bar and had 805 (beer). I had 2 of them for the entire time that we were there. I switched to iced tea during the game. I didn't need any more, especially since I was ordering bar food. Yes, I was. I ordered their tater tot nachos. They were so good, but so not good for me. Brian and I shared it and it was spicy. Brian then ordered some chicken wings. We shared those too. Later, I ordered a wangzookie, just like a pazookie from BJ's, but it was at Big Wangs. If you aren't familiar, it is a cookie baked in an iron skillet with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I ate this by myself. Brian didn't want any. He doesn't like to mix beer and sweets, but I was over the beer and was craving something sweet. Not some of my better choices today, but that was all I ate today aside from the 4 GF chocolate chip cookies I just ate while writing this blog. 

Once USC beat Stanford 13-10, we came home and I took a nap. It was a great, lazy day. Once I woke up, I started cleaning downstairs. The kitchen needed help and so did Keith's tank. Now all is good, it is 10pm, and I am going to veg out some more and hit the hay soon. Tomorrow, Mackenzie and I will be going to Renee Bowen to select her senior portraits from her senior model photo shoot that she took back in June. Then, of course, it is SUNDAY FUNDAY with the NFL. Let the games begin. Go Giants!

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 80...Happy Anniversary To My Honey!

I cannot believe that it has been 19 years since I said, "I do" to the love of my life. I am a very lucky girl! Brian has been the best husband and father that I could have ever asked for. He is a keeper, forever and ever!

Our engagement picture, look how young we were! 

The start of the day was a little rough because I was tired. Well, yes, I am always tired, but this morning was worse.  I was up all night with my Bucky while I tried to be consistent and by keeping him crated for the night. He is not a sweet boy when he is sleepy and he tends to growl at Spencer, so this is our best solution. He likes his crate, normally, but at night, he wants to be with his mama! Baby steps and consistency will overcome. Anyway, I was up sitting by his crate since my presence made him happier, without whining, until he fell asleep. I am hopeful that he will fall asleep faster tonight. Wish me luck!

I got Mackenzie's lunch and smoothie together and made a smoothie for myself. I did not make coffee since I was hoping to go back to sleep once the kids were off to school. After everyone was gone, I did just that. I went back to sleep to catch up on some zzzz's. It was nice and boy did I zonk out.

After I slept a bit, I got myself ready and had some coffee. For lunch, I made myself some GF turkey sandwiches with mild cheddar cheese and cucumbers. That was all I ate until I met Brian at Sushi One in Valencia for our anniversary dinner.

Mikey had a minimum day but wanted to go out to lunch with his friends, so I didn't pick him up until 2pm. I am thankful for his good friends. It is so hard for me to let go and allow him to do things that are different from anything Mackenzie ever wanted to do, but I have to. He has to grow and until he does something to prove me different, I have to trust him. Today, he walked all the way from VHS to Fab Dogs. That is a bit of a walk, but he was happy. He even ran into an old neighbor of ours that he hasn't seen since he was about 2 years old. Brad remembered Mikey and said, "Hi" to him. It was great because it was a way to tell Mikey that I have eyes everywhere! The timing couldn't have been better.

I ran a couple of errands with Mikey and then dropped him off at home so that I could go to PT. It has been about 2 weeks since I've been there and boy did I need it. I have been in a tremendous amount of pain and even though it hurts when I am there, I know that it will eventually get better. Today was a special treat because Mackenzie was working when I was there too. It was fun for me to see her do her thang.

After PT, I met my honey at Sushi One in Valencia. We had never been there before, but we were glad we went. It was very tasty and was not horribly expensive either. Service was good and fast. I will be back. We had some appetizers and 2 rolls each. Not the healthiest, but hey, it is my anniversary! What will I say tomorrow about my bad eating? Wait and see...or I will just eat good. Time will tell.

Of course my honey wouldn't let me get him anything for our anniversary. He never wants anything, just a card. However, he did get me a sweet gift. It was a ring that I really liked. He thinks he got off easy, I was very thankful.

Isn't it pretty? I love it!

Did you ever see that news segment about the woman that plastic surgery on her hands because she didn't like the way her engagement ring looked on her finger? Wow. I don't think my fingers are amazing, they are chubby and wrinkly, but I like my ring, so who cares! 

That is all for today! I hope you all had a great day! Did you try any new recipes? Have you started doing something for the health of you and your family? Please share with me. I want to hear it!

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 79...I'm Back!

Today was a good day back on the bandwagon. Mikey and I decided that we were going to have a shakeology shake each day. He hasn't been eating a ton of food lately, especially during the week, so I thought that the shakeology shake would be a great way to get some extra vitamins into him.

I got myself out of bed after the 3 day weekend and poured myself some coffee to drink while I was making Mackenzie's lunch and breakfast. It was slim pickins for lunch for her, but I was able to scrounge together enough to fill up her very large lunch bag and make her a shakeology. I finished my coffee and had a shakeology chocolate shake. It was pretty good. I ordered a sample of some other flavors.

Laundry and some slow moving and I was finally ready to go to the store. Today, I decided to go to Wal-Mart because I needed to get some cleaning supplies and toilet paper. TMI? Lucky for me, I ran into Tammie and was able to talk to a very sweet woman that made my day. Love you, Tammie! You and I are more alike than I ever thought possible.

After a nice, in the middle of the store, visit with Tammie, I got back to filling my cart. Lots and lots of fruits and veggies as well as dairy and nuts. They have many GF options at Wal-Mart. I know I've said that before, but it needs repeating. I am always very happy to see all of their choices. They have choices in their little "Gluten Free" area, but it is also spread throughout the store. Makes me happy.

After all was purchased at Wal-Mart, I was off to pick up Mikey from school. Once we got home and I got everything unloaded and the fridge cleaned out, it was time to start dinner. I browned up some beef and added GF taco seasoning. I didn't have any corn tortillas, so I made a cabbage salad from the BBQ ranch mix that I bought from Wal-Mart. I served the taco meat on top of the cabbage with black beans and some shredded cheese. Mikey seemed to like it and I did too.

Once dinner was done, I was got myself situated to chop up all of the veggies. I chopped carrots, red/orange/yellow bell peppers, green/sweet/red onions, many cucumbers, cilantro & mushrooms.  All in separate containers and now all are ready to be consumed and cooked. I find that my food is much more flavorful when I have so many veggies to choose from to add to my dinner concoctions. Have you tried doing this yet? Try it! You will like the benefits so much that you will do it every week like I do.

Veggies were chopped up, dinner was made, now it was time for me to read my ABC Stage 7 book. I finished reading it and took my test for the week. Another test next Wednesday for Stage 8. I am getting close to being hands on with my dog training curriculum. I can't wait to have Spencer join me at the classes. I will also be going to Best Friends Rescue to help them while fulfilling my volunteer hours.

In addition to dinner today, I had 2 GF Udi's chocolate chip cookies, some tortilla chips and salsa and some shredded turkey and mild cheddar cheese wrapped together for a little snack.

Studying with my Udi's GF Chocolate Chip Cookies, YUM!

That's all for today! It was nice to take a little break from my blog during Labor Day weekend, but now I am back and excited to get close to being 80 days writing this blog. It is coming quick.  Even though I have had some GF slip ups and some bad eating at times, I am still diet coke FREE! That makes me proud!

Until tomorrow,

Angela