An Open Letter To My Mother-In-Law

Nana - Please, I beg you, quit making the delicious homemade trail mix! Thank you.

xoxo - Retta

Seriously, I cannot stop eating this stuff. While making dinner, I had a bowl (x2.5) of the trail mix. It has almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, coconut, dried pineapple and raisins in it. YUMMO.

After prying myself away from the mix, I got busy making chicken parmesan for The Lover and Tofu Parmesan for myself. The tofu piece is HUGE. Verdict: NOM, NOM, NOM!!

To make the Tofu Parmesan, I pressed the firm tofu for 30 - 40 minutes to drain the water out. While tofu is being pressed, preheat oven to 400 degrees. I wasn't certain how to cut it so I just split the piece in two, cutting legnth-wise. Then, dip both sides of tofu in lightly beaten egg. I cheated and used an "oven fry" breading for the outside. Coat tofu in the breading and place on a cookie sheet that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Cook for about 30 minutes (total guess on time). For about 5 minutes, broil the tofu until the top gets nice and brown. I also threw in some mushrooms sprinkled with salt to broil with the tofu. Serve tofu on WW spaghetti and pasta sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan and cheese (all I had was cheddar) and ENJOY. It was wonderful and I can't wait to have the other piece for lunch tomorrow!

For dessert, I had half of an apple sprinkled with cinnamon. With a tablespoon of chocolate chips on the side.

I just realized I skipped my stretches after running today. The hip flexors and calves feel super tight. I better squeeze a sesh of stretching in before doing some chores and giving Baby Boy a bath. I think Big Boy is still on a sugar rush from yesterday. :0)

Retta is starting to feel a tiny bit overwhelmed! Big Boy's party is in two days! Ack!

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Sad news . . . Wonderful Miss Donna and I will no longer be working out together at lunch. Sniff, sniff. Our schedules are conflicting and for the next few months, we'll be on our own but will continue to cheer each other on "long distance." It makes working out so much more fun when you have a motivational partner. She got her hair done today. Doesn't she look faboosh?

About 1100 AM, I was hungry so I had some celery and carrots with 1.5 tablespoon garlic hummus.

Then an hour later, I was hungry AGAIN so I had pretzels.

I got my 5 miler in and it felt wonderful. The pain I felt yesterday did not visit today and I was just trucking. My last mile's pace was 9:41! I was dripping with sweat by the time I was finished. I was also ready to dig into my super late lunch.

My lunch was a black bean and chickpea burger on a sammie thin. I had a sweet potato with a 1/4 cup cottage cheese on the side. The cottage cheese and sweet potato seemed like a funky combination but it was really quite good! I'll have it again for sure. To make the burger, you'll need:

• 1/4 cup chickpeas (canned)
• 1/4 black beans (canned)
• 1 egg white
• cooking spray

Microwave the beans (together) to soften and mash with a fork. Mix in egg white and form into a ball. Gently place in hot pan lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Lower heat to medium and gently smoosh the ball into a patty. After browned, gently flip and brown other side. That's all! Don't forget to rinse the chickpeas and beans!

As Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba says, "Try it! You'll like it!"

Hung Over!

Not me, the boys! They had so much fun last night at Incredible Pizza. We thought Big Boy was going to explode from excitement overload. It was darn cute. First, The Lover picked him up early from school and they went to get ice cream. Then they had to cool their heels until I got off work and we immediately went to Incredible Pizza to meet up with Nana and Papa for the birthday festivities. He barely ate anything and was ready to go play games. We had to tell him to calm down and eat a few times but how do you tell a 4 year old to calm down when there is a sensory overload going on?

Honestly, my eats were so not healthy but it was a lot of fun! I ate almost all of my salad. There was blue cheese dressing on the side to dip my fork in.

I was not impressed by their pizza. That's not good since they are a pizza place. But, the cheese bread was yum. I had two slices of cheese bread a few bites of the other things shown. They were "eh." Even Baby Boy did not like it. The meatless choices were limited.

The dessert pizza was good though! Hmm. . . I am certain I took a pic but can't find it. I had a slice of cherry pizza and a slice of apple. The apple was awesome! When we left, I also got this (times 1.5):

Soft serve is so yummy. My tummy was bursting by the time we got home and we were all zombies. His birthday party is Saturday and we'll be having more pizza and a Transformers cake!

The house needs a serious cleaning session but more than likely I will do a little bit here and there until it's guest worthy. Of course, the boys will probably be little tornadoes behind me undoing all the cleaning :0).

This morning, I really wanted some oatmeal but went with a Green Monster instead because it's so quick and easy. According to a fellow blogger, you're supposed to ground up the flax seeds so I did (in a coffee bean grinder) and it blended up very nicely.

I'm pumping myself up for a 5 miler today. Time to get my booty back on track and work on my fitness! Hope you have a great day!

Do you clean "as you go" or do you prefer to devote a day to intense cleaning?

LOST starts tonight!

I am squealing with excitment that the Lost season premiere is tonight! Unfortunately, it is on the same time as Biggest Loser and our DVR only allows two recordings at once. It will also prevent you from changing the channel. Boo! I will probably not be able to watch it until the weekend though. My boys tend to hog the tube so it's usually Spongebob, Wow Wow Wubbzy and Blue's Clues non-stop.

I got in a 2.5 mile run before lunch. My training schedule called for 5 miles but honestly, after being on a weather-induced hiatus for a week, I was dying. My right instep and calf were screaming at me. Also, there was a wait on the 'mills so I didn't want to be rude and hog the thing for more than 30 minutes. I did run back from the gym to the office and it is about 1/4 mile. Yay for that! Before heading out for my run, I had some Jasmine tea. It's loose leaf tea and smells heavenly. I thought I would be clever and wrap the leaves in a coffee filter. It did work but I had to squeeze the make-shift bag every so often. I felt like I was "milking" it. :0) And it tore.

My lunch was cool and refreshing:

Yumm. Cream cheese (non-fat) and cuke sammie and a sweet pear on the side. It's been ages since I had a pear. I need to take a break from apples and have pears!

Since today is Big Boy's birthday, we are taking him to Incredible Pizza for food and fun. I can't wait to see his face when he sees it. He thinks Chuck E. Cheese is cool but he won't after he steps foot into Incredible Pizza. I bet he doesn't eat because he'll want to explore.

My Big Boy is 4 Today

It's been a great morning so far! I slept in a tad since The Lover would be taking the boys to school. Ahhh. . . even 15 minutes more makes me happy. Baby Boy cried out a few times. Maybe reliving the tubes procedure? We woke Big Boy up by singing "Happy Birthday" to him. Just thinking that 4 short years ago, he was born and changed our lives forever - sniff, sniff! He told us he forgot today was his birthday lol. What a cutie.

Let me just say that I am so glad to be at work and out of the house! The neighborhood roads still have quite a bit of ice but the main roads and highways were clear. I made a Green Monster for breakfast. I finally bought some flax!

Bad news: They get stuck in your teeth. Good news: It has a nice nutty flavor. I made my Green Monster with extra spinach and vanilla almond milk today.

I'm in love with these! Yummers!

Shortie

This will be a shortie post. I'm beat. My eats for the afternoon were not the most nutritious! I had two mint Oreos on the way to visit my sister and my new baby nephew in the hospital. I stuck the package in the freezer to keep me from totally inhaling them and it works! If you eat them straight out of the freezer, you might chip a tooth. :0) While holding that little guy, I totally got baby fever! The fever was burning for about 15 seconds before I realized my dudes fight all the time and I can wait a few more years for baby #3! For now, I have lots of love to spread to my nephews and nieces.

After the hospital visit, I had two handfuls of Nana's homemade trail mix. It contained dried pineapple, pumpkin seeds, cashews, dried coconut, banana chips, raisins and almonds. It's very yummy.

Once we got home, The Lover wasn't hungry so I decided on trying my hand at a fish wrap.

I used my leftovers from Chipotle and added some fish to the wrap. I pressed it in the good ol' George Forman grill. It was very, very good. I was surprised!

For dessert, I had some chocolate chips and a glass of vanilla almond milk.

This is going to sound crazy but I am so ready to go to work tomorrow. Being in the house has us all getting on the other's nerves. Admit it, Lover! I'm also very ready to get in a run. Since I didn't get to do anymore than 5 miles this past week, I'm going to push my training plan back a week. So although last week was supposed to be my taper week, I will just move it to this week. I. Am. So. Ready. For. A. Run!

Do you ever feel glad to go to work?

Turning Out to Be a Great Day!

Afternoon! It's been a long day already and I'm ready for bed tonight! I woke up at 500 AM after a very restless night on the couch. I heard Baby Boy cry out a few times. It was tough not being able to comfort him back to sleep but The Lover had it under control. We hit the road by 600 AM and checked him in for his tube procedure. The actual procedure didn't take long but it was the checking in and prepping part that took the longest.

He was out in recovery by 830 AM and he was very upset with us. Super cranky and just angry. Poor guy. He nursed some, we got him dressed and headed home. He cried most of the way. I nursed him and put him down for a 2 - 3 hour nap. I had to get in on that action as well. I was pooped!

My eating was kind of all over the place. We didn't eat until we got back home and I had two handfuls of baby Goldfish before passing out. When I woke up, I had pumpkin flaxseed granola with milk (times two):

Those little ceramic rice bowls are perfect for cereal. We ran to Target for a few essentials and The Lover was ready for lunch. We hit up Chipotle. I had the vegetarian bowl.

It contained black beans, rice, corn, salsa, cheese and lettuce. Baby Boy and I had a little more than half of the bowl. It was really good but Qdoba is way tastier. I'm glad Baby Boy had his appetite back. That made us very happy.

Some more good news: My Big Sis just had my new nephew! I am so sad I missed his birth. I was in the delivery room when my first nephew was born. We will be visiting shortly and I can't wait to give him some Aunt Retta smooches!