How To Make Yogurt Pops

While passing the time by obsessing over Twitter, I found a website called Chobani Kitchen. It has all sorts of recipes and videos using Chobani yogurt as an ingredient. I really wanted some dessert-y ideas since I seem to be constantly craving something sweet. And although people say I'm eating for two I still want to be sure to not overdo it as that is so easy to do! So, instead of having a pint of ice cream, I've opted for the these pops.

I used two separate recipes: vanilla or chocolate pops and berry pops. For the vanilla pops, I used 1% milk and vanilla greek yogurt. I must say that these were kind of bland. I think I'll add some honey to them the next time. Since I really don't like chocolate syrup, I opted to whisk in creamy peanut butter and chocolate chips. This mixture really satisfies the sweet tooth! Finally, the berry pops suggested using plain greek yogurt, but I didn't have any so I used the vanilla. Alex was also kind enough to pick up some unsweetened, frozen raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries for my puree. I guestimated how much to puree and mixed in the berries with the yogurt and some honey. Now, I haven't tried this mixture yet, but I did take the remaining puree and mix it with some vanilla greek yogurt and honey. And wow! This was super tasty and will replace the pre-mixed yogurts I've been buying.

These pops take about 6 hours to freeze and are a tasty, healthy, late-night treat!

 peanut butter choc chip, vanilla, mixed berry

Happy Pops!
--Am

How To Hate Maternity Pants

I tried the rubberband trick. I tried just wearing the pants too tight for my own good. I tried wearing my fat pants. But I've now gotten to the point where I must wear maternity pants in order to be any kind of comfortable. And boy do I hate them!

They have this band that comes up to my boobs and the actual pant part is so low-cut that I am forced to wear long shirts. The longer shirts in turn, cut off my legs and make me look short and frumpy. The part that covers my stomach irritates the crap out of my skin, so all I do is itch it all day long. Seriously, I just stand and itch my growing belly. I can't win with these pants! Am I the only one with these problems? Answer: Most likely cause I'm weird!

Fortunately, I have found one pair of work maternity pants that are lower rise (thank you Motherhood Maternity) and one pair that has a flexible waist (Meijer) thanks to my Mom. Both of these are very attractive and hit at my hips or just below. Love them! Now if only I could find some jeans that are like that as well. Hmmmm.

Here are some of my belly pics:

4 weeks--when we found out!! i was skinny!

12 weeks

16 weeks (and yes that is a turtleneck)

20 weeks (i need to slow it down a bit)

Happy Pants Hunting and Belly Growing!

--Am

How To Hike in Brown County

After being cooped up in the house all last weekend, I couldn't spend another full day in the house. So on Saturday Al and I headed down to Brown County for some time out of the house! The leaves are so beautiful this time of year that I would go just to see them. But, I knew I couldn't get Alex to drive an hour fifteen to see changing leaves. Therefore, I threw in the idea of hiking.

Once there, we swerved and curved and peaked and valleyed until we reached the Brown County State Park. We drove through a good portion of the park until we reached the nature center. I was lured there with the promise of turtles, birds, and other wildlife. I expected the wildlife to be live, but most of it was stuffed. Besides a little area to watch birds and a snake, everything else was a decade or two old and not alive. We were there for 5 minutes before heading for the trail.

The trail started off downhill and wound around and around. We reached a huge staircase that we would eventually have to climb back up, but I was determined to get to the lake at the bottom. We continued to the bottom, where a serene lake waited. We stopped for a break before making the lap around the lake.

through the trees

the lake

whoa belly!

We lapped the lake and rested a bit before heading uphill. I knew that we'd eventually have to trek those stairs, so we paced ourselves. Uphill and pregnant is not fun...trust me! Here are the stairs from the bottom (left) and midway up (right):

Boy was it rough! However, not much longer and we were finished. Both of us were tired from the hike and ready to get home. We took a different home, which happened to take us right by the Edinburgh outlet mall. After a short bit of time at the Adidas (Alex) and Motherhood Maternity (Amber) stores, we hopped back on the interstate. With a short stop at a Whiteland apple orchard (I would not recommend), we were home by 6. All in all we had a nice day together and got some exercise in! If you do have a chance, get to Brown County before the leaves are all gone!

Happy Hiking!
--Am

How to Make an Afternoon Snack

Today I had chunky peanut butter and graham crackers for breakfast. Whenever I have peanut butter, I tend to overeat. Something about it is just so tasty that I keep putting it in my mouth well after my stomach has told my brain to cut it out. Due to my 9:30 breakfast and massive consumption of peanut butter, I wasn't hungry again until 2 or so.

I checked the fridge for some leftovers, nothing. Checked the pantry for a quick dinner, nothing. What we did have was cherry tomatoes and two day old french bread that needed eating and an overabundance of basil from our basil plants. (Side note: Al isn't a fan of basil, so I don't cook with it much. I usually shred it and pair it with some parmesan covered popcorn.) Ah-ha! I could make caprese salad on toast. Here's what I did:

1. Sliced the french bread
2. Shredded basil leaves (we have green basil and amethyst basil)
3. Diced the cherry tomatoes
4. Mixed the basil leaves and tomatoes with some balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and garlic salt
5. Buttered the bread and put it in the oven for a couple minutes at 255 degrees
6. Removed bread from oven and sprinkled with garlic salt
7. Added basil/tomato mixture to tops of bread
8. Baked for two more minutes
9. Topped with swiss cheese (all out of mozzarella!)
10. Baked for two more minutes
11. Remove from oven and eat!

I think I will call these caprese toasts. I was surprised at how fast I could whip up such a tasty treat! If only Al would have helped me eat the eight caprese toasts I made :) Maybe I'll have these as my next appetizer. Would you like that?

Happy Toasting!
--Am

How To Take Your Lunch To Work

As usual, I was running late this morning. I was going to workout, but decided to postpone it and sleep in. I can always workout tomorrow, right? I eventually got up an hour and fifteen minutes after the original alarm went off. Went through my usual getting ready routine and made it downstairs by 8:22. I need to leave by 8:35 to get to work on time. Sounds like plenty of time. Well, I still had to take the dogs out and pack my lunch. I started with the dogs. Daisie and Dodgy were good, but Diego was poop-hunting (courtesy of the neighborhood rabbit). It was hard to keep him focused on the task of taking a poo. I was outside with him until 8:33. Pain in my neck! So, I have two minutes to grab breakfast, brew some coffee, and make my lunch.

I recently attended a class that gave guidelines on how to eat better and prepare your body for the "future." In preparation for this, we had stocked up on fresh fruits and veggies. With that, I knew I wanted to have a fancy salad! Oh the wonderful, colorful ingredients that are to be included. We have green peppers, tomatoes, mini cucumbers, avocados, spring lettuce mix, chick peas, and sunflower seeds. As you can see, many of those items need chopped and diced. That would take forever! With time on my mind, I grabbed one pepper, six tomatoes (the size of cherry tomatoes, but not cherry tomatoes), one cucumber, an avocado, the boxed lettuce, a can of chick peas, and the full can of dry roasted sunflower seeds. I throw in a knife, baggie, cutting board, empty tuperware, and bowl. Let's not forget some dressing! I make my own using olive oil, red wine vinegar, and greek seasoning, then throw it in the bag. Since I had prepared to make my lunch at the office, I thought I could spare a few minutes to cut up some fruit (which I didn't even eat). Honey dew was sliced and combined with raspberries and blueberries. It will make for a good snack. And so will the flax seed crackers, nutella (for my almonds already at the office), greek yogurt, which made their way into the bag o' food. Yep, I took the whole pantry and fridge to work today!

With my decaf and banana in hand, I put the dogs in their cages and headed towards work. By now it's 8:49 and I'm definitely going to be late. Oh, it was worth a try. After I snacked most of the morning, I was finally ready to eat at 12:27. I trekked downstairs and started dicing. Mind you, I didn't want to bring a fancy knife with me, so I grabbed a steak knife. Not the best idea I've ever had, but it did the trick. :) All the extras went into the tuperware (pepper, tomatoes, cucumber) and baggie (half the avocado). The remaining chick peas will be mixed up tomorrow with the leftovers (sans the lettuce), and it will be tasty! Everything was thrown in the bowl and sprinkled with chick peas and sunflower seeds. Once back upstairs, I'm ready to eat my fabulous salad. Doesn't it look delish?

thank you to Allison Ackmann for the picture!

I poured on the dressing and devoured it! There's nothing like fresh produce, and I'm a true believer that avocado makes anything taste better. Delicious! Good thing I did all the chopping today, so tomorrow it will be easy.

Happy Salad Making!

--Am

How To Time Travel

Every time I visit my parents, I head up to my old room and peruse the clothes, schoolbooks, childhood toys, and other random items. We visited them on Sunday and like always, I trekked up to my room. I found some string that I once I used to make friendship bracelets (remember those?), but could now find a more creative project for it. On this particular trip I decided to open up the boxes stored up high. The first one I opened contained old baby blankets. Not sure if they could be reused for an future babies, but decided I could take them home. The next box was filled with old guard sweatshirts. I wasn't in the mood for guard reminiscing, so I put these back on the shelf. The third box I opened was brimming with old, dirty, precious stuffed animals. As a child, I had somewhat of an obsession with stuffed animals. I loved them! I had to get all of them out and reconnect with each of them. As I'm starting to get to know them all over again, Al rounds the corner and asks, "What in the hell are you doing?" I explain the animals and start to give him their backstories, but he doesn't care. All he can say is, "You know that a pediatrician would never let you give those to little kids, right?" Of course (although it does break my heart a little), but it was still fun going down memory lane! 

On my way out of the closet, I grab my favorite pair of jeans from high school (I just could never part with them) and my mom's hot pants outfit. A little history behind the hot pants. When my mom was 15, she travelled overseas (France and maybe some other places). My grandmother picked her up at the airport to find her wearing this outfit. Boy, was she in trouble! Back to me, I used to wear the top to the hot pants outfit in high school, but could never fit into the bottoms. I decided to try it on with my new found body. Hot pants still don't fit and the shirt is not very flattering. It was worth a try! Being a little discouraged, I decided to go for the jeans and see if they fit. So, I tried them on they are perfect. Not tight or loose, but just perfect. They are soft to the touch and oh so comfy! I have missed these jeans. They are terribly frayed at the bottom and have holes in the wrong places, but are still wonderful. I wouldn't dare try to wear them at work, but they are perfect for weekends and lounging around. In fact, I'm wearing them right now!  

the jeans

al made me stick my butt out :(

at least diego looks cute

the hot pants

Another great treasure from high school is my class ring. I've been wearing it on and off in place of my wedding ring, while the wedding ring was getting fixed. That took longer than expected as the stone cracked and the ring was out for an additional week! However, it was nice to wear the chunky class ring for a bit. It's somewhat masculine, and I think I actually like how it looks on me now better than it did back in the day! 

class of 2000

amber!

Happy reminiscing! 

--Am

How To Get a New-to-You Treadmill

On Sunday, I woke up and was excited to get in my workout. It can sometimes be a hard thing to talk myself into, but that day it was easy. Why? Because I am on the final episode for season 2 of Angel. I was excited to see how the crew got back to the real world. So, I was getting into my stride about five minutes in and the treadmill speeds up. It's going so fast, I have to jump off or else meet my fate thrown into the closet. Once off, my first thought is that maybe I somehow slid the bar up to make it go faster. I check the bar, and it's at the normal spot. Then I think I better hurry up and turn it off before it wakes up Alex. He's not always the happiest when woken up early! Quickly, I pull out the red key and the machine starts to slow down, but not stop. It sputters for a little bit before stopping completely. I put the key back in and try to change the pace, but it sputters on and off. I think back to the day before when I remember a burning smell while running. I didn't think anything of it because I'm an idiot. It would have had to have been on fire for me to notice something was wrong. What's that they say about hindsight? That will come into play later on. Here are some photos of the 12 year old Proform Treadmill I took from my parent's house when I bought our house:

my old Proform (this was not the original location)

the very high-tech control panel

Since I've started this exercise routine, I immediately got freaked out that I would stop exercising and gain all my weight back. As soon as Alex got up, I had him helping me find treadmills on Craigslist. And by 4pm, we found a NordicTrack for $250 in Anderson. It seemed like a pretty good deal. Speed and incline are controlled electronically (the Proform was all manual) and it has built in fans. Plus, it's wide enough that Al says he might try it out. When we get to Anderson, we barely get it in the car. Al's seat was pushed up so far he looked like he was driving a clown car. It was quite funny! 

We're home with a little bit of daylight to spare. I pick up pizza for dinner, scarf it down, and get ready to unload the new machine. Our neighbor was going to help, but we couldn't get ahold of him, so I decided to help. Al is at the back pulling the machine out and I'm in the back of the car lifting it up over the wheel wells. LIfting, lifting, lifting, pushing, pushing, pushing, and it finally got over the wells. And as soon as it was over, it came down hard. I should have taken my rings offs (hindsight) because my huge rock got stuck and pinned my left ring finger under the machine. I pulled it out, took the ring, and started shaking my hand to ease the pain. That's when I looked at my ring and noticed it was completely bent. And a little later, the stone fell out.

 my poor ring

Needless to say, we stopped with the process and waited for our neighbor to come over. Pete and Al were able to get the new treadmill out of the car and upstairs, while I iced my finger and chatted with Abby and Izzy. Abby and Pete took the old treadmill off our hands (it went back to normal after it had cooled down). I warned them to shut it off if there were any kind funky smells coming from it! Here's the new treadmill:

as if you were running on it

the backside?

In the end, we got a pretty good deal for a barely used treadmill (although I do hate giving up my old one). My ring is covered under full warranty, and will be ready for pick-up later this week. My finger is bruised and a little sore, but nothing too bad. Now tomorrow, I will finally get to watch the last episode of Angel Season 2. 

Always look for the positive!

--Am 

How To Fit Into Your Wedding Dress

Most women have a goal to lose weight before their wedding. Some will even go the length to buy a dress that's a size or two smaller for motivation to slim down. I am not most women. Of course I didn't want to look like a boat on my wedding day, but I wasn't so unhappy with how I looked that it would motivate me enough to change my ways. Besides that, I picked a dress that was slimming and that made me look and feel amazing!

I would say that the dress fit just right. However, some of the pictures and my poses give the impression of back fat. Oh well! I still got married, and it was still the most rockin' wedding I've been to. And I must say that I was happy with everything (even the back fat)! Here's what I looked like then (October 16, 2009).

getting ready--easy to see the fit of the dress

check out that back fat!

After a year of being married and switching jobs, I decided it was time to get my body in shape. If Alex I were to even start thinking about kids, I wanted to be in good shape. How was I going to do this? I've never been very good at that kind of stuff. I usually only get motivated when I have someone pushing me to do it. I signed up for Weight Watchers Online, hoping that paying the $17 monthly charge would be enough of a motivation. It was a start! It taught me to change my eating habits. The plan is very structured, which, being an accountant, was what made it easy and fun for me. It was like a game to see if I could come in at the right points value. And being a saver, I saved all my extra points for the weekend just in case we went out or wanted some wine with dinner. There were some weeks when I didn't even use them. 

After a couple months, I had lost 10 pounds all by changing my diet. Awesome! However, I had hit a plateau. Oh crap, that meant it was time I started working out. How could I ever motivate myself for that? Well, I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yes, the tv series from the late 90's). It has fabulous fight scenes and made me want to kick butt. It was a treat for me to watch Buffy if I worked out. (I've since completed Buffy and have moved to Angel). After a couple months of that, I hit my goal weight of 120. I've been in maintaining mode since December and have managed to stay slim. I don't strictly follow WW (and have stopped paying for it), but I use the general idea and run at least three times a week. I couldn't be happier with my image! 

Here's me trying on my wedding dress being 20 plus pounds lighter (March 4, 2011).

look at all that excess dress!

yes, that's two wine bottles in there to keep my dress held up

the weight loss has taken its toll on the girls

Happy weight loss!

--Am