New fun - New goals

 I love the outdoors.  I love being active.  I love our kids.

 So, we are getting out and active together!  The big boys have their own bikes.  Some rides though, Kace, our 5 year old, rides on the trail-a-bike.  Our little man, who will be 1 year old this month, rides up front in the Yepp Mini.  It is the best thing ever!!

 Some rides I just take the baby.  He loves his rides!  Our first times out we only went a few miles.  Sunday, we did 5 in the morning and then 10 in the evening.  Today, we went 12 all in one outing!  He did have to stop and nurse after 52 minutes but I didn't have a problem with that.

Our new goal is to go 75 miles a week total between riding, walking, and biking.  I think we will be able to do it most weeks.  We are already at 30.5 and it is only Tuesday afternoon!

Awesomebars!

In my search for the perfect bar snack for myself and the boys, I tried many recipes that didn't turn out like we wanted.  It is hard to find the exact recipe you are searching for.  So, I made my own!  I kind of mashed together many different recipes I had tried; taking out what I didn't want and adding in what we like.  The result?  The perfect bar, assuming you don't overbake like I did the first batch!

Awesomebars

1 cup honey (preferably raw)

1 cup peanut butter (I used homemade)

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 mashed medium bananas

1-2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup wheat germ (I used raw)

1/2 cup milled flax

2 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups Kashi 7 Grain Puffs

2 cups Kashi 7 Grain Nuggets

2 cups Heritage Heirloom Whole Grains

1 cup dark chocolate chips (or dried fruit or chopped nuts or unsweetened coconut or all of these!)

In a very large bowl, mix the top five ingredients.  Stir in wheat germ and flax until smooth.  Pour in last 4 ingredients and mix until everything is covered.  Fold in chocolate chips, etc.  Press into a large pan with sides.  I used a 15" x 10" edged cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake until edges start turning a golden brown.  These are quite chewy.  Bake longer if you want a drier bar.  Cut into desired size, let cool, and store in an air tight container or freeze.  Enjoy!

Oh, I made 46 thick, square bars out of mine.  Each is approximatly 123 calories.

What is the point of eating that?

For the last 7 years, I have always fed our children as healthy as I possibly could.  They were, or currently are, breastfed beyong the normal recommendation.  They don't eat candy, cookies, ice cream, or processed junk.  However, I still ate it.  I had been eating it as long as I could remember and didn't see any point in changing.  I just knew that I wanted my kids to have a healthier lifestlye.  Who cared if I was filling up on empty calories?

Double Chocolate Zucchini Brownie

layered with a

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie

So about 2 months ago, I decided I wanted to lose the last of this baby weight from our 8 month old.  (Yes, I haven't blogged on here in that long!)  So with the help of MyFitnessPal, Pinterest, and a dear friend on the other side of the world, I started a new chapter.  It wasn't easy to cut 1,000 calories from my daily intake but we did it.  I picked up low calorie snacks to keep around and started looking for low calorie recipes.  I dropped almost 10 lbs in that first month.  However, it just didn't seem right.

Baby Spinach, Orange juice, Skim milk, Banana,

Frozen Tropical Fruit Smoothie

I got to looking at the ingredients on "low calorie" and "healthy" snacks & foods.  What on earth are half those things?!  Besides aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, and MSG (which we usually avoid anyway), there were things I had no idea what were.  What good is weightloss if your body isn't healhier because of it?  I decided that there was no point in eating something if it wasn't going to make my body stronger in the longrun.  No more empty calories here!  Well, at least not as many.  Dark chocolate chips are just too delicious and make recipes amazing.

Banana Peanut Butter Honey Ice Cream

Now I am making most of our snacks & meals from scratch.  Sure they may not be the lowest calorie, unless you only eat a small amount, but boy are they delicious and much healthier than their packaged friends.  I've even stopped buying our sons their packaged, healthy, organic snacks and have been attempting to make them from scratch.  Some attempts are more successful than others but at least I am giving it a shot.  Once the last of their packaged snacks are gone, they are stuck with what I fix!

 Failed Cereal Bars turned into Cereal Granola

All the foods pictured I made today.  They are all modified versions of other recipes.  Even "healthy" recipes often times have a lot of added oils or refined sugars.  I'm constantly looking for better versions of foods & recipes I'm already using.  It is a daunting task, but so worth it.  Finally, I am eating healthy with my kids and I love it.

Garden Loom

Today, I built a garden loom. I was going to build one of out boards & whatnot. Then I realized how much that would cost. So instead, I played with sticks like my boys always do. All I spent was 2.75 on a roll of twine and 1.5 hours later, I have a fabulous garden loom.

Addicted to Granola

Since I'm not eating ice cream as much these days, I've been making lots of granola. Not just plain, boring granola, but super awesome stuff! I eat it with some Stonyfield Farm Low Fat French Vanilla yogurt. It is so sweet and delicious. Here is what I toss in my granola after melting the peanut butter & honey together:

Old Fashioned Oats
Ground Flax Seed
Wheat Germ
Freeze Dried Cranberries
Raisins
Ground Mixed Nuts

The last batch also included some diced dried apples that my Grandma gave me. She has apple trees in her yard that we used to climb as kids.

I have even been eating it for breakfast but I might have to back off because I'm going through a batch a week! However, I might have to make more soon just so that I can take pictures. Who doesn't want to see beautiful granola?!

Fresh Veggies and Lunch at the Lake

Wednesday, I picked some nice sweet peppers and sweet corn. This is just the first few ears. I didn't end up with near as much corn as I would have liked. We ended up with about 6 that were good. Live & Learn. Then we went to Lake Crawford for lunch and some swimming. Our go-to lunch for these outings is peanut butter & jelly. This time I brought along some Just Tomatoes fruit. I *love* the pineapple!

My Garden Today

Organic Sweet Corn

Can't pull the organic carrots.

Various sweet peppers and a tumbling tomato

The Strawberry Pool

Bales to keep dogs and boys out

Straw bale sweet pepper
Metal tub in the background has potatoes