Recent health kick

I'm trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies into my life, and less gluten.  I read that I should be having a green, leafy vegetable every day, plus 2 more servings of vegetables, plus 1-3 servings of fruit...yikes!  I eat fruits and veggies, but definitely do not get that many servings in a day.  So, in addition to eating a banana every morning, I've pulled out the ol' juicer and am trying to use that to help me out.

Juicing recipes are actually really delicious...much better than if I just started throwing stuff together.  I'm also going to try just blending everything up in my Vitamix blender at some point instead of just juicing, but for right now I'm enjoying just the straight juice without all the texture.

I've been getting my recipes from here.  A couple of my staples:

Sun Kissed Juice - this one is full of color - literally BEET red!  Be careful cutting up those beets because that juice stains your hands and cutting board and everything!  The recipe calls for swiss chard, but I've also used kale or collards or spinach.  Just any green leafy vegetable is good.

Mean Green - I can't seem to find the original recipe, but this it the "smoothie" version.  I actually use this recipe, minus the banana and milk, for the juice version.  Don't let the green scare you - it tastes really good!

I also make carrot apple ginger a lot.  On my "to try" list currently is oh sweet broccoli and sunburst.

So in addition to juicing, I've also been trying some gluten-free recipes.  I've made cauliflower pizza crust before, so I decided to just do a smaller version of those to make "rolls" to go with a meal:

They were pretty good!  Just some cauliflower grated up, mixed with an egg and some mozzarella, and some oregano and salt - then baked until browned.  It was good to have something to hold with my hand and feel like I was eating bread!

I also made these almond flour frosted sugar cookies that turned out great!  I tried just half the recipe the first time around, but I'll definitely make the whole recipe next time.  I made the almond flour myself - literally just threw sliced almonds into the food processor for 15 seconds.  Mix with raw honey, coconut oil, almond extract, and a pinch of sea salt, and bake - and bam, cookies!  The icing is the same ingredients minus the almond flour.  Seriously, very delicious...felt like eating a regular cookie and very satisfying and sweet.

I can't wait to try more recipes from detoxinista.com - lots of gluten-free recipes and great healthier substitutes for traditional meals!

That's all I got...I'll post again if I try anything else bizarre :)

Nashville 2012

In case you all missed it on google+, I posted a link to some pictures from our trip to Nashville in November under "Picture Gallery" on the top right.  I planned this trip as an anniversary present to Ben...we just didn't take it until November.  Another great trip on the books!

Robin Hood

Ben loves his new bow.  We went to the park for him to shoot it on a warm January day.

Look closely at this next one - I got the picture right as he released the arrow!

Cupid!

 

Christmas

With Ben's siblings and some of my cousins living out of town, our Christmas usually extends over a week or two as different people come in town and we celebrate at different times.  I love it that way because I love Christmas, and the longer it lasts, the better!!  So just a warning...that also means a long blog post :)

Christmas with my side of the family really began on the day before Christmas Eve (or "Christmas Adam" as my family likes to call it).  My parents had Mom's sisters and families over for dinner and a gift exchange.  I didn't get any pictures except this - my present from my cousin Jason:

He figured out this pattern himself and cross-stitched it himself too!!  In case you don't recognize it, it's from only one of the greatest original Nintendo games - Lolo.  How awesome is that?!

Christmas Eve we celebrated with my immediate family.  Mom made these cute little nameplates for each person at the table, and we each got an ornament too.  (see prior post - my parents make everything special!!)

My ornament was the best!

Again, there's always something up my parents' sleeves - to our surprise, they had bought a pinball machine! We were obsessed and pretty much played it all night.  They surprised us with one when we were kids, but that one is long gone.  This made us reminiscent of that...and even as adults we loved it and were super-competitive trying to get the top score!

Presents, presents, presents!  

Wes stole the show with his original paintings for everyone.  They are all so unique!

Mom and Dad - with Mom and Dad!

All the paintings and the artist

Here's the banjo painting he did for us hanging up at home.  LOVE IT!

One gift from Jenn was this apron that she sewed herself - how cute!!

We had our traditional scavenger hunt and ended up in my parents' closet looking in my dad's hats to find the final gift - Brian Regan tickets!!  Woohoo!

Ben and I celebrated on Christmas morning.  Santa did good!  He brought me a jewelry armoire that I hadn't even asked for, but he knew I wanted!

I had to give Ben his present a week early because he almost bought one himself - a bow.  And arrows.  He was stoked! (another post to follow with pics)

My cousin Alison and family came in town a few days after Christmas.  We had fun celebrating with their kiddos - it's always more fun with kids!

Alison and Brayden

 Nana watching on - she loves her great grandkids!

 Katelyn

A couple days before New Year's, we celebrated with Ben's parents and his brother's family who came in town.

Opening presents:

 I love how London is licking Deena's phone case, hahaha

 Presents!

I can almost reach it...

 Carl likes to elaborately wrap all his presents - how adorable is this one (and Reagan too :))!

 Carl and Carl with their Lincoln books

Having a good time

 London With Kids - book from Ellie - Reagan looks ready to go!

 Neena is the greatest!

 "You know, with this much wine, we should probably open a bottle right now!"

Fancy outfit from CH and Neena and fancy gloves from Ellie

 London climbing up these awesome hand-painted stairs by Deena!

 We got to spend some time with Ben's Aunt Sharon on another night too.  

Can you see why I love Christmas so much?  

Dad's 60th Birthday

Dad's 60th birthday was in November.  Jenn and Scott had the family over for an awesome dinner, followed by presents for Dad.  Now it's been a Christmas tradition for us to do a scavenger hunt at the end of opening presents for our final "big" present.  Dad writes all the clues and we search all over the house until we finally find the last one.  We decided that for Dad's 60th birthday, we'd make him do a little scavenger hunt for his big present too!

After searching high and low, he found his final gift - a family vacation to Hilton Head!  Our whole lives, my parents both have always put so much effort into making everything special - birthdays, vacations, cookouts - doesn't matter what, they always do it up right.  So we wanted to get Dad something really special for his 60th.  Hilton Head is one of his favorite vacation spots, so we're all going in the spring and staying in a big house - can't wait!  

We got some good family pics.  Enjoy!

October - Tricks and Treats

We went to see Brian Regan in Lexington...we were supposed to go with Ben's parents but Carl was sick so we had to change plans the day of.  Luckily my parents could go at the last minute.  Brian Regan is my favorite comedian...if you haven't seen him, youtube him - he's HILARIOUS!  And clean.  It's hard to even re-tell his jokes because most of it is just the way he tells them, his body language and facial expressions.  We were so close that we got to see all of that up close and personal :)

October is also Halloween and the beginning of all the seasonal decorating madness in my house.  Surprisingly, I didn't get very much Halloween stuff out this year, but I'm sure there will be a Christmas explosion soon enough.  But back to Halloween...my sister had a craft night at her house, where I put Dollar Store thumb tacks into spray-painted Dollar Store foam pumpkins to make these (ignore the candle stands they are sitting on for the pic!):

A friend of ours made this adorable thing:

I wanted to take her home instead of mine!!  So cute.  Maybe next year...

At work, we had our usual chili cook-off and dessert contest.  And as usual, I entered both.  AND as usual, I didn't win.  I got second one time in dessert and third one time in chili, but the last 2 years the white chili makers have been winning out.  Maybe I need to convert!  My dessert this year was mummy cookies, but I didn't even get a picture :(  I did get pictures of the pumpkin-decorating contest that I somehow ended up in charge of and bought all the supplies for (again, Dollar Store - only $19!).  Each team of 5 had 8 minutes to decorate their pumpkin.  I must say, these were so creative, I was impressed with how they turned out!!  Here are a few of my favorites:

 The first one there, the pumpkin massacre, was the winner!