Hot air balloons, my Nutribullet and the family wall.

What started out as a way to get my son to eat vegetables has quickly turned into a re-obsession with my Nurtibullet. I've been juicing and protein shaking it up all weekend. I just made a juice with spinach, orange and watermelon. It was soooo good! Liam even had some. Actually, every time he sees me take out the Nutribullet container he comes over to me and asks me if I can share :) I'm excited that I can sneak in his vegetables this way. The rejection of fruit and vegetables was killing me!

Yesterday evening we went to a festival of hot air balloons. These balloons are impressive. I counted that there were 16 balloons all together.

I've never been on a hot air balloon ride, but I think I'm going to add it to my bucket list. These balloons are just so impressive. Especially at night:

On another note, remember I was working on a family wall in my hallway? Today I finished putting up the frames and soon I will have the pictures actually in the frames.

Talking about projects, I've also been working on a project that I've wanted to do for a while but I never really got around to doing it. I will probably post about it this week since it's a very small, but a super cute, project.

That's what I did this weekend?

Did you do anything special this weekend???

Being on a Diet is Hard!

So it's not a diet, but it's hard! The reason the eating portion of Body For Life (BFL) is so hard is that you have to balance your carbs and protein. I'm finding (or I already knew) that natural sources of protein aren't enough to keep my ratio in balance. Thus, the diet is hard and I'm finding that I'm going to have to average 2 protein shakes a day.

Does this mean that I'm going to fail at this? Ummmm, no! You should know me better by now. When I say that I'm going to do something, I flippin' do it! This just means that I'm going to have to get creative and actually PLAN and COOK all my meals AND guzzle protein shakes like nobody's business.

I truly suck though! Read on...you'll see why...

On the workout front, I've already failed. Well, not failed, I just haven't started the workout. Last night we took Liam to see Monster's University (finally).

I didn't get done with putting him to bed and my chores until 10! At that point I thought, "I'll double up the workout tomorrow." So yeah, that is what I'm doing tonight. I have the upper body workout to complete along with 20 minutes of crazy, balls-to-the-wall cardio.

I'm fine with that! I should still finish around the 1-1.5 hour workout mark. Not too bad and considering it's not my legs that I'm working out tonight, I think it's totally doable. Would I do my legs and cardio on the same night?

Yeah right!

Mango Vinaigrette and Breaded Cod

Remember how I said I was going to make salmon for dinner yesterday?

Ummmm, yeah. I lied.

I had forgotten that I didn't buy the salmon steaks at Costco. It was a last minute decision and I opted for the cod fillets instead. Since I have a crap memory, I was left looking at the cod fillets thinking, "What the hell?" Hahaha! To give you a visual: Imagine me standing in the middle of my kitchen with the freezer door open, cod fillets in hand and the dumbest "uh-duh" look on my face...Ha!

Yeah, that was me yesterday afternoon.

Well, I'm not one to get my panties in a twist so I worked with what I had. Thus, I present to you a recipe for not only breaded cod but also for mango vinaigrette. Get ready to have your taste buds blasted with an amazing mix of YUM!

The cod is real simple to make too!

Ingredients:

6 Cod Fillets (or however many you need)
1 C. Italian Bread Crumbs
Olive Oil

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400o.

Line a casserole dish (I use Pyrex) with aluminum foil. Coat the aluminum foil with olive oil. You don't want to go crazy with the olive oil. All you need is enough so the cod doesn't stick. Put the casserole dish aside.

Lay out a sheet of parchment/wax paper on your counter top. Pour your breadcrumbs onto your paper. Pour a tiny bit of olive oil into a ramekin (or a cup will work) and begin by dipping a brush into the oil and brushing it on both sides of your cod.

Take your oily cod and coat both sides of with the bread crumbs. Place the cod into you aluminum lined casserole dish. Repeat this step for all your fillets.

Put into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until your cod reaches an internal temperature of 145o.

Mango Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1 C. Ripe mango, cut into medium pieces

¼ C. Rice wine vinegar

2 Tbls. Olive oil

2 Tbls. Freshly squeezed orange juice

½ Tsp. Cayenne pepper 

½ Tsp. Salt

½ Tsp. Sugar

4 Tbls. Water (if it gets too thick)

Directions:

Place all ingredients into your Magic Bullet [or a blender if you don't have a Magic Bullet (poor you!)] minus the water. Blend until smooth. If the consistency is too thick add water and blend that baby one more time.

____

I took the mango vinaigrette and mixed it into a bowl of mixed greens (lettuce) and served it as a side. I also took the mango vinaigrette and put some on my cod. It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!

Later Gators!

Happy 1st Day of Summer!!!

Happy Friday everyone!!! Even better than that...Happy First day of Summer!!! 

Our summer is starting to fill up with concerts, baseball games, camping trips and attempting to catch all of

those epic summer movies. 

Tomorrow, the boys have plans to hit up a skate park (my husband and sons skateboard) and I'm getting my hair done...finally. We are starting off the summer right over here at the FHAF household!

I also have plans to go see Monsters University with my little monster :) Liam has been begging me to see it ever since they started running the trailers on the television. Every time the trailer comes on, Liam is screaming, "Mom, mom, mom, check out this!" :) 

On the food and fitness front I know that I want to run tonight, circuit train tomorrow and probably do some aerobics on Sunday. I also want to make some whole wheat banana and walnut pancakes on Sunday morning. I bought the flour last week and I've been itching to make something with it.

Those are my uneventful weekend plans. I'm actually looking forward to this weekend because we have nothing planned. Last weekend was super hectic and I'm ready to just have some down time.