Low Carb, Pumpkin Protein Breakfast Muffins

I made these gorgeous, yummy bites this evening!! Can’t wait to have one with coffee in the A.M.  I did sample one and OMG, they’re pretty freakin’ fabulous.

 

Makes 6 Muffins (I doubled it)

Preheat oven to 350.

½ cup of canned pumpkin

½ cup of unsweetened applesauce

2 scoops of low carb vanilla protein powder
1 cup dry oats

2 eggs

½ tsp cinnamon

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Splenda or sweetener to taste (1 TBS of Splenda for baking worked for my taste)

 Mix all ingredients together.  Add ¼ cup of mixture to a lined muffin pan. (I sprayed the liners with olive oil spray)  I baked about 25 minutes.  Enjoy!!

Hugs, 

A.J.

 

 

Happy Hump Day!!

Happy Wednesday!!, AKA. Happy Hump Day, AKA Wine Wednesday (or as a few of us at work have now named it for future reference) Whiskey Wednesdays!!

So, as I’m still new at this whole blog thing, I’m trying to decide exactly what I want to talk about on a regular basis and how much of my "life-life" I wanna share on here.  As stated in my “About Me” section, I am a very real person, basically, you get what you get with me, so I figure it’s all or nothing around here. Which brings me to what I'm sharing today. (Hey, no yawning, that means keep reading.)

I’ve been one who has constantly struggled with my weight…seriously, like I was the fat kid in 5th grade.  Anybody remember the book?

 
I’ve gone on and off of so many diets/Weight Loss Programs that I can’t even remember them all.  I've been on Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Adipex, Phenteramine, you name it, I've probably tried it. I've even sat through a weight loss surgery seminar!!  I've lost pound after pound only to get sidetracked and gain the weight back and a few more.  Anybody feel me???

Fast forward to last week...I decided that I’m sick of being on diets and I want to just start living/eating healthier.  So far I’ve been fairing very well, much better than I expected actually.  I’ve been doing pretty simple things, like eating more veggies, more fruits, drinking an ass ton more water, while cutting back on the sugars (Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper) and the unhealthy starches.  Honestly, I already feel much better than I did a week ago.  I began this week by being much more organized with food.  I made a week’s worth of Mason jar salads for both P and I.  I also divided up snacks into easy to grab, portion controlled containers to just throw into my on my way out the door.  I was doing great with the “no soda” part of it, but today I had lunch at the golf club with some of my favorite girls from work and did give in to a Pepsi.  It was pretty much worth every last drop.  I’m dragging ass on the working out part, and yes, I know that this will make a huge difference, but I’m taking baby steps.  Right now, I’m just hitting the track a couple days a week with the family and Chibi.  I must say that I’m pretty proud of myself for getting in 2 miles each time we go.  I keep trying to visualize myself running that 2 miles one of these days...and maybe more, who knows.  Anyhoo, I won't say that I'm going to call this a fitness blog, because really it's just a blog about my life.  I probably will discuss my journey to a healthier me, but I'm going to talk about a lot of other randomness too!! 
(Okay, you can cheer now....it's over!!) 

Hugs, 
A.J. 

Monday Ramblings

I'm so happy to be writing my very first Monday post because I totally love Mondays.  Okay, I'm lying, I love writing and posting, but let me say that I despise Mondays. I mean it’s really hard to appreciate Monday when the weekend was so lovely.  Add crazy ass NoVA/D.C. traffic in the mix and it’s game over.  On good days I can make my commute in under 30 minutes…yes I said a good day.  What about a bad day you ask???  Those occur almost daily from Spring Break all the way until after Labor Day.  I’m so freakiin’ serious!!  Seems the earlier I leave to get to work, the worse traffic is.  Last week I had 2 days that it took me until 820A.M to get to work…I left my house at 7 and my schedule is 8A.M to 3P.M…Wtf???  Come back to today, I heard that there was an accident backing up traffic on good ol’ I95 (A.K.A. Highway to Hell) so I thought I’d be smart and take all the winding, curving back-roads to save some time, yea right!!  Apparently every non-driver decided to take my winding, curving back roads this morning too!! Soooo, I roll up to the school at about 10 after :LATE AGAIN., followed by 2 of my fellow co-workers who live down south near me.  Totally wish I had a tele-port machine on days like this, so that I could bypass all the traffic.  I’d use that damn thing every single day.= )  Enough on that nonsense, tis my Monday thur Friday and I'm blessed to have a job.  

Speaking of my job, I love, love, love what I do.  These adorable "littles" that I deal with all day long just make everything better.  I can honestly say I wake up every day looking forward to what's in store for me in the wonderful world of Kindergarten.  You just never know what's going to happen or what's going to be said.  Each day is full of new surprises!! Today's biggest surprise, a nosebleed that turned out to be a red marker covered finger that ended up digging in a nose.  Yep, and as gross as that may sound to some...I love this 'ish!! I truly feel that I am doing what I have been called to do, not a lot of folks can say that.

On that note, I'm going to call it a night.  530A.M. comes way too early.  Never miss a chance to tell them that you love them, I'm going to peek in on my kids and kiss my hubby, as we never know what tomorrow might or might not bring.  Please keep Boston in your thoughts and prayers.  Good Night!!

Hugs,

A.J.

God Bless these runners!!

Runners crossing the finish line only to keep going to Mass General Hospital to donate blood to the victims.  There are good people still out there in the world.

Toby Knapp - Washington DC's Hit Music NOW

What the Hell is this world coming to????

So I'm sitting here thinking of all the randomness that I want to share only to have hubby inform me of the tragedy in Boston.  Just like my title to this post says...what the hell is this world coming to?  So now it's not even safe for athletes to go out and enjoy a carefree day of running without the fear of being bombed?  This is just disgusting!!  Now the news says that an 8 year old child is among the dead...I pray to God that the psychotic mofo who did this suffers a worse fate.  I also pray to God that he places his arms around these innocent victims/families and comfort them in a way that only He can right now.  On a kinder note, NBC Sports News just tweeted that marathon runners were crossing the finish line only to keep running to Mass General Hospital to donate blood to the victims.