Quick update!

It's been quite a while guys! We have been so busy with all the holidays and just getting back into the swing of things after the New Year. Through out November and December we got to spend alot of time with our families and friends which always makes the holidays special!

We had decided to, again, work on our healthy lifestyle, or lack there of, in 2016. We have been fairly successful with our eating habits and not so much with our exercise. It seems that's our pattern. 

How do you get back on track after the holidays? 

For this new year we have similar goals. I am down a total of 7.1 lbs since I started the 21 day fix. Now, I was down 10 lbs but with skipping work outs and cheating a lot over the holidays I gained some back. But I am excited that I have managed to maintain my current weight :)  

So, here we are at the end of February and winter is in full swing. Last week we got about 22 inches of snow at our house. I love snow but I am really starting to get sick of this cold weather :) Its a great excuse to make some delicious soups to enjoy though! I know I said I would do chicken noodle soup next....but I am thinking maybe some chili instead. Final decision TBD! 

Do you have a favorite winter soup or recipe to get you through these cold days? Let me know so I can try it too!

Minestrone Soup...21 Day Fix Style

I have been trying to find new, easy recipes to keep me on the 21 Day Fix path. My husband suggested soups for lunch, now that the weather is getting cold. It's easy for me to make one big batch and pre-pack his lunches for the week, and its quick and convenient for him to heat up on lunch hour at work. 

Last week I made an Italian favorite...Minestrone! It was delicious and felt very hearty and filling. I adapted this recipe from Fit Mom Angela D. It turned out to be a wonderful version of a favorite soup.

Here's what you need:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, minced
2 ribs celery, diced
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced
1-2 zucchini, diced

*veggies are depending on size. I used organic which were much smaller. I used the larger amount to make up for that. 

1 tbsp oregano
2 tsp basil
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatos
1 (15 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans
1/2 to 1 cup whole grain elbow pasta, uncooked(you can use any smaller size pasta. I used ditalini)

*I used 1 cup pasta and I would say that was too much, my husband liked it on the thinker side though

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded (1 blue container)

Here's what you need to do:

1. In a stock pot, heat oil over medium to medium high heat. Saute garlic and onion until translucent. If oil is too hot the garlic will brown so be sure to stir occasionally and watch for over cooking. 

2. Add the carrots and celery. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes. 

3. Add zucchini and all the seasonings. Cook for another 3-5 minutes, stirring often. 

4. Add broth and tomatoes, bring to a boil

5. Reduce heat to a simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes

6. Add beans and pasta. Cook for 10-15 minutes until pasta and veggies are tender.

7. Serve with 1/3 cup parmesan cheese.

Serving size - 2 cups: 1.5 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 Blue

The only thing I would mention is I did feel 2 cups was a very large serving. You can always do just a cup if you want to have soup with dinner or a lighter lunch. If you are short on your Blue container this is great with or with out the cheese. So feel free to omit and save that Blue for something else. I am also going to be testing this with cooked pasta as the pasta obviously absorbs a lot of the soup. I'll let you know how that works out! 

Up next: Chicken noodle soup 21 Day Fixed!

What is your favorite soup for winter? Share in the comments below!

Getting back in the saddle.....after a week in Costa Rica!

Hi everyone! Hope you all enjoyed my last recipe post. Those Buffalo chicken bites are delicious.

Since my last post we have been very busy. On top of the usual fall activities we had a wedding in Costa Rica. It was amazing! We are so grateful we were able to make the trip to celebrate with the bride and groom. Unfortunately, the 21 day fix fell to the wayside while we enjoyed an entire week of food, fun and friends. It was an amazing trip we will never forget!

This past week we started back on the eating plan for the 21 day fix. We did not start the work outs back up yet even though that was originally the plan. I have already started feeling better. I feel more energized and more productive. Next week is Thanksgiving and we have a lot of family coming in from out of town. I am looking forward to all the good food and fun times. It's going to be tough, but I am going to try to make smart choices.

What are you favorite holiday recipes? 

Have you "21 Day Fixed" any of them? 

Are you making any 21 day fix or clean eating recipes for your Thanksgiving dinner? 

What are your tips and tricks to staying on track around the holidays?

Comment below and share your recipes and tips...I'd love to try them!

Below are some pictures from our trip to Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Beautiful view from the hotel

Pool...this pool housed the wedding reception. Guests went in clothes and all!

Private soaking tub on our terrace!

SELFIE...while exploring the 1st day.

We had three wedding crashers!!!! They were happily begging for food and getting plenty of lovin' from several guests.

Me and my hubby after the wedding. He looks so handsome in his tux!

GORGEOUS!

Delicious meal at the Mexican restaurant.

Assortment of foods from an appetizer buffet before lunch. 

Hotel: Dreams Las Marea Costa Rica (all inclusive)

Tux: Men's wearhouse

My dress: Anthropologie

21 Day Fix Buffalo Chicken Bites

Since starting the 21 day fix I haven't been too adventurous with trying recipes. I did however find a recipe for Boneless Buffalo Wings that was amazing here!!!! It's the perfect "cheat" meal and when I say cheat I mean you feel like you are cheating. I have made delicious baked chicken wings before and I was happy to find a great recipe for buffalo bites. These would be great with out the buffalo sauce for anyone who would prefer regular chicken nuggets too! 

BONELESS BUFFALO WINGS (adapted from HealthyFeelsHappy)

Ingredients

• 2 small boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
• poultry seasoning
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg

For the Sauce

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Melt butter and set aside to cool
3. In a small bowl whisk the egg. In a second bowl mix the flour, garlic powder, cayenne and salt.
4. Season chicken pieces with poultry seasoning
5. Dip each chicken piece into the egg to coat and then dredge in the flour mixture. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. I line my baking sheet with parchment paper too.
6. Spray chicken with cooking spray to brown it while it bakes. Place in oven for 10-15 minutes then flip and cook the other side for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. 
7. Stir the melted butter and Frank's red hot together in a bowl. I found you may need to heat the hot sauce a little if its been in the fridge. If its too cold the butter hardens when you mix the two. Mix in the salt and cayenne pepper.
8. Dip each piece of chicken in the sauce and place back on the backing sheet. Return to oven for 1-2 minutes. Not too long or the chicken will be over cooked. 
9. Serve and enjoy! I usually serve with carrots, celery and homemade 21 day fix ranch dressing.

21 Day Fix counts: 1 1/4 red, 1/2 yellow, 1 teaspoon

Makes approximately 4 servings (*depending on the size of the chicken breast)

21 Day Fix - New Round and New Foods

Hi everyone!

Well, we are back at it again this morning. Full on work outs and eating plans. Unfortunately, I have gained back most of my weight since I stopped doing the 21 day fix. Actually, I completely fell of the wagon. We have been having mostly junk food for the past 2 weeks. I have noticed it in my weight and how I feel. To be honest, I have felt like crap most days! Now, my coffee pot broke and I've been doing with out that but I'm going to blame the way I've been feeling on my horrible food choices. 

So here we are, back at square one. The goals are similar as before, as I suspect they will be for a while.

Taylor's Goals for the next 21 days:

• lose 5 lbs and fit into clothing more comfortably
• tone muscle and build up endurance
• feel better physically and be less tired
• be more creative with 21 day fix recipes

Andrew's Goals for the next 21 days:

• reduce body fat and increase muscle
• fit more comfortably into existing wardrobe

I have already planned out the menu for this week and just have a few more things to purchase at the grocery store and we will be all set. On top of all this Halloween is this weekend. I will be making some special treats for that. Some 21 day fix friendly and some not!

On todays menu:

• 2 hard boiled eggs
• carrot sticks and almonds
• Paleo Chili (recipe to come later)
• Vanilla Mocha Shakeology
• 21 Day Fix Chicken Parm with whole wheat pasta

Now, the chicken parm I made I would not say is my favorite. I used a recipe outlining the ingredients in 21 day fix terms and will use this to develop my own recipe. Chicken parm was the first meal I ever cooked unassisted at 10 years old. It's a favorite in my house and this recipe was perfectly fine for plan old chicken parm, but there wasn't any crispiness to it. The panko bread crumbs became soggy as soon as I added the sauce. Once I find a good 21 day fix friendly chicken parm I will let you know!

Date Night Jar Project

So, as you read in my last post, I gave my husband a "Date Night Jar" as a gift for his birthday. He didn't really have anything specific he wanted and we have a big vacation coming up to Costa Rica in less then a month. So, while keeping our budget in mind, I decided to make him something we can use all year long.

Where did I get the idea of a Date Night Jar? Well, Pinterest of course! Specifically on the Life in the Green House blog.

Here's the finished product. I decided to go with tones of aquas, blues and whites so it can sit in our family room and double as decor. Its so cute and I didn't want to just throw it in a cabinet or something :)

First off, let me say, I do not typically consider myself a creative or "artsy" person. I have done some creative projects in the past but I don't normally know where to start. Sometimes I surprise myself and I hope that the more I do the better I become at being creative with our home decor. This is why I love Pinterest. Especially when you find a blog that explains things step by step. There are fewer than one might think that actually explain things step by step. I find a lot of the 21 day fix blogs are like that with their recipes too! Not many give away their recipes. Like its a secret or something.

I LOVE sharing. If we all shared a few of our secrets, whether it be for a craft/home project or a secret cleaning technique, we would help each other out a lot! So here's what I did:

I read on the blog I found this on what I needed and headed to my local Michael's Arts & Crafts. First thing I did was just walk around. I like to look down every aisle and see whats there. I love going to that store because I get so many ideas for decorating! Once I found the paint section I went straight for the spray paint. Man, I didn't realize paint was so expensive. I chose a cheaper option with the Krylon Color Master that was $6.99 a can. I chose my 3 shades of blue and a light off white for my filler color. Each color represents a different kind of date(explained below) Next I grabbed a larger mason jar, large popsicle sticks(yeah yeah I'm sure there is an actual name for them when they weren't used for popsicles)and ribbons for the mouth of the mason jar to make it look pretty.

Once I got home I pulled my list of "dates" out. I had 8 dates for each category. I started with one color first, just incase the paint wasn't right or didn't look the way I wanted. I did this in our garage with the garage door open on piece of large cardboard. Once I decided it would work I did 2 coats of paint per side flipping between every spray. I did this a week before I assembled the jar to make sure everything was completely dry.

Next I used a fine point sharpie to write the "dates" on the popsicle sticks. There are 8 dates in each category and I have 18 white filler sticks. Here are things I chose from reading various blogs on date nights and adding a few things of my own:

Blue sticks are more expensive dates that will require planning

• Dinner at a fancy restaurant
• Restaurant Hop (appetizers at one, dinner at the next, and dessert at the last)
• Wine Tour & Lunch
• RIT Hockey (let's face it we go to these game a lot)
• Bed & Breakfast
• Couples Cooking Class
• Couples Massage
• Try a new restaurant

Light Blue sticks are cheaper dates that don't require much planning

• Dinner at our favorite local Mexican restaurant
• Picnic in the park
• Dinner & a movie (his/hers choice)
• Brunch date
• Coffee & Dessert date
• Boll-a-Roll & Tully's - Andrew and I met on a bowling league at Boll-a-Roll. Neither of us are bowlers so this feels pretty special to me :)
• Drive-in date

Turquoise sticks are stay at home dates(perfect for our long cold winters)

• 1,000 piece puzzle & pizza
• Take-out & Scrabble
• Homemade pizza & a romantic comedy
• Popcorn & movie (his/hers choice)
• Cook a new meal together
• Make a bucket list
• Take-out& board games

Last but not least I found these tags at Michael's. They had a little embellishment on the front and the brown matched the ribbon I had tied around the jar. 

It was the perfect gift. Not only did my husband love it but it gave me a little creative bug. We will both enjoy adding a little fun to any typical date night. 

What are some of your favorite ideas for date night?

Wedding Weekends and Fall Festivities

The past two weekends Andrew and I have had weddings. I'm not sure if its this way for everyone, but I feel like when I have a wedding it takes up a majority of the day. There's getting ready, picking out what I am going to wear, then of course the wedding itself. Don't get me wrong. I love weddings! We had so much fun at the 1st two weddings we had this fall season. We fell behind on some house work/yard work we should have been doing though. We had a good excuse :)

Going to a wedding can be hard when you are trying to follow a healthy diet. You can try to make healthy choices, but when the dinner is a buffet, which both of these were, its hard to stay away from the carbs. The first wedding we went to had both a pasta buffet and a baked potato buffet. The second wedding had a BBQ buffet where, other than a green salad, corn was the vegetable. Needless to say...amazing food...not so amazing for my waist line :) I could, and should, have made better choices. I didn't. 

All dressed up for Laura and Stephen's wedding in the Finger Lakes

Getting back on track this week after so many weeks off, and gaining almost all of my weight back, has been extremely hard to say the least. Not only do I feel like a failure for having gained almost all my weight back from my 1st two rounds of the 21 day fix, I have yet to do a work out. I did however make a delicious 21 day fix friendly chili that we have been having for lunches(I'll be doing a separate post with all my favorite recipes another time)

What are some of your favorite 21 day fix recipes? Please post them here so I can try them!

So....to get back on track this week I need to follow both the diet and exercise plan for the remainder of the week. This will get me motivated to continue getting healthier both inside and out. I will be taking my weigh and measurements tomorrow as its my new "Day 1"

On a lighter note, I purchased a few small fall themed docorations and I made some candle holders too! Also, my husbands birthday was on October 7th. I had been making him a special gift that I saw on this blog. It's a Date Night Jar. He loved it and I thought that this was a great way to help us be more spontaneous and try some new things. I will be posting my entire process tomorrow so stay tuned!!! I don't know where this creative bug came from but I am loving it!

Fall decor: both pictures are from Hobby Lobby, the candle holder is home made(future post on how to make)

More fall decor from Christmas Tree Shop(2012)

General family room decor from Home Goods and the Date Night Jar!