Happy Birthday, Jeff!!! (And a Recipe for Cinnamon Apples)

I have to kick this post off with a shout out to my baby sister, Melissa (in case you aren't following me on Facebook...which begs the question: why aren't you following me on Facebook?!?). She just finished her first round of a P90X/Insanity hybrid. She was tiny to begin with, but she lost EIGHT pounds and went down a dress size!!! Be looking for a guest post from her soon about her experience.

Today was my beloved's birthday. I won't tell you how old he is. All you need to know is he's older than me.

Anyway, around here birthdays tend to mean lots of good food. I started off the day by making him his favorite Shakeology: chocolate with peanut butter. I had to have a tiny sip myself. So good!!!

After he left for work, baby girl and I got started on his cupcakes. The man loves yellow cake with chocolate icing. But not too much icing. I honestly didn't realize there was such a thing as "too much icing," but I try to take that into consideration when I'm making something for him. Baby girl was anxious to assist me!

The finished product.

Next, I started a London Broil for dinner. Then is was time to tackle his all time favorite: Susan's Apples. Don't let the name confuse you. Apples may be a key component of this recipe, but that's where the good nutrition ends.

First, you take about 3 lbs. of washed apples and removed the peel. That's right; start by taking away the part of the apple that packs all the fiber and nutrients. We wouldn't want to compromise the integrity of the dish.

Then we cut the apples into thin slices and place them in a greased casserole dish.

Time for some sugar and cinnamon. Cinnamon is actually not bad for you. We'll just pretend that sugar isn't so bad either.

Now comes the best part: the crust. Combine melted butter, brown sugar and flour until it's the consistency of soft clay. Then pat it all over the top of the apples. I like to flatten a little of the mixture out at a time then place it on the apples.

Bake at 300 degrees for about an hour. You want your crust to brown a little.

Give the apples a few minutes to cool before serving so the juices won't run all over your plate. When we added mashed potatoes and fried okra, it was pretty much Jeff's dream meal.

Hey, birthdays are special, right? Might as well live it up one day out of the year!

After dinner we headed to a soccer game then came home for cupcakes.

Happy Birthday, Jeff!!!

Susan's Apples

• 2.5 - 3 lbs. apples, washed and peeled
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• cinnamon to taste
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar

Grease small casserole dish. Fill dish completely with thinly sliced apples. (They will shrink when they cook.) Sprinkle white sugar and cinnamon on top of apples. Mix butter, flour and brown sugar. The mixture should be the consistency of soft clay. If it's too runny, add more sugar or flour. You need to be able to manipulate it with your hands. Pat the mixture on top of apples. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour.

Question of the Day:

How do you celebrate birthdays?

Sleepover Madness

Last night we hosted a sleepover to celebrate daughter #2's birthday (again). I was seriously so exhausted going into the party (after my poor night's sleep on Thursday) that I didn't know how I was going to make it.

The birthday girl loves the movie Brave, so she wanted a Brave cake for her birthday. But she doesn't really like cake; we settled on a cookie cake instead. Here's what momma came up with.

Once all the little guests arrived, the only things I could hear were shrieks of excitement and every Disney channel song ever made in the last 2 years. Then we had dance contests, and lots of them. Second grade choreography is a thing to behold.

The children feasted on nachos, chicken nuggets, and cheese puffs for dinner. Oh, and we had fruit. Followed by cookie cake and ice cream. It was the picture of health, really.

Jeff had to take the boy to a baseball game while the party was going on. Have I mentioned that baseball is a high maintenance sport? Because it is. So I was on my own with 8 girlies for about 2 hours. Jeff did snap this cute photo of the boy at his game though.

Two of the girls had to leave at 10:00 p.m., so I hung until then. But once the girls had settled down for a movie I went to bed. Jeff stayed up with them until the movie was over (what a guy!). 

I had planned to get up and workout before the girls woke up this morning. I figured when you go to bed at midnight, you sleep until at least 8:00. Right? Wrong. I could hear them waking up while I was tiptoeing around putting on my workout clothes at 6:50. I decided then and there that my workout was going to have to wait. So I worked on breakfast instead.

What kind of breakfast do you serve to follow up a nutritious dinner like the one we provided? Monster  Cookie Pancakes, of course! I won't give the entire recipe away, but I mean how can you go wrong with this?

And here's the finished product. Yes, that is chocolate syrup instead of maple syrup.

After all the guests were gone, I managed to squeeze in a workout. I did Insanity Max Cardio Conditioning and Cardio Abs. It was brutal.

Later this afternoon, I found this.

And then a few minutes later someone else had joined the fun.

The boy probably would have been asleep here too except he was too busy killing a pinata at his cousin's birthday party. Apparently we need to start throwing candy at him instead of balls when he's playing baseball, because he made quick work of the pinata and then came home with this.

So it will be early baths and bedtimes all around here tonight. Once the children are all in bed, I'm pretty sure the hubby is super pumped to watch this with me. 

My man is amazing!

Question of the Day:

Team Edward or Jacob?

The Time I Almost Ate Poop....

This morning's workout was rough! I did P90X's Back & Biceps, and I don't know if it was my poor eating from yesterday or the fact that I hadn't done this particular workout in a couple of months, but I was struggling!!! When I was finished, I attempted to put my earrings back in. I seriously could not raise my arms to my ears to put them on. I will be feeling it tomorrow!

After my workout, I decided to get caught up on some of my favorite blogs. I was reading this post about binge eating, and it really got me thinking. My sister and I have talked before about how depriving yourself of food can make things that you don't normally eat seem very appetizing.

For example, I don't like the little white powdered donuts that come in a bag at the grocery store. But when I'm counting my calories, and there is half of one left on my kid's plate I suddenly *need* that donut!

Or what about yellow and orange Starbursts? Does anyone actually like those flavors??? Even my kids reject them, but if I find one while rummaging through the "rejected candy" basket in our pantry, I will totally eat it! Why?!?!

I've been so desperate for chocolate that I once nearly ate a piece of poop that had fallen out of my child's diaper unbeknownst to me. I was certain it was a chocolate chip that had inadvertently fallen to the floor when I was baking earlier in the day. Luckily, something told me to take a whiff before I put it in my mouth.

My point is, we need to stop telling ourselves that we cannot eat certain foods. Eliminating your favorite foods from your diet altogether is a sure recipe for a binging disaster! Food is meant to be enjoyed! Eat your favorites on occasion, and don't feel guilty about it! It's probably better to eat that cookie now than to eat a 1-pound bag of peanut butter M&Ms later in your sugar-deprived delirium.

But I digress...

Following my blog reading and subsequent deep thoughts, I went to visit daughter #2 at school to eat lunch with her and bring a cookie cake to celebrate her birthday, which was yesterday (and was the origin of my poor eating reference in paragraph 1).

After lunch, it was time for another Easter egg hunt. This one was at the boy's preschool.

Then it was the usual afternoon rituals: snacks, homework, and dinner preparation. We had spaghetti tonight. Have you tried this new Hidden Veggies spaghetti?

I think it tastes great! The kids don't seem to have noticed any difference between this and their normal noodles. There is ONE serving of vegetables in every TWO servings of pasta. My kids probably eat less than one serving, so they're not even getting half a serving of veggies from the pasta, but at least it's something. Plus, it's a new product and the coupons are plentiful right now.

Question of the day:

Do you ever binge eat?