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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Cookies


Hey friends! We made it through another Monday! So far, I'm sticking to my weekly plan! I got my yoga done last night, too. I had to do it in two different parts because of a hungry baby, but I got it done! It's been too long since I've done it. I'm so glad I got it in. Tonight is supposed to be a 3 mile family walk. Hopefully, TC isn't late getting home (of course, since I wrote this he will be!) and the humidity is low like it was last night.

I'm a huge fan of Subway. I think anyone that is trying to eat better and maybe lose some weight is. It's a great place to go to get a lighter meal that still tastes good and doesn't deprive you. I think the hardest part about going to Subway is resisting their cookies. I mean, you do so well making all of the right choices, then when you get up to the register to pay, there, right in front of you is a case of delicious looking cookies. Now, normally, it's not very hard for me to resist these cookies. It was a completely different story though when I saw that they had a new flavor a couple of years back. White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Are you kidding me? I love all those flavors. So I decided to try one...WOW! They were delicious. Definitely not good for my waistline! The only good thing was that not all the stores carried them. So I was safe as long as I chose my Subway wisely. When we were getting ready to go on one of our cruises, I contacted Subway to see if I could buy some of this dough so that I could bake the cookies at home to take with us, but they said no. My mission was to find a recipe for these delicious cookies. Well, more than two years later, I FINALLY found a recipe. These taste just like the Subway cookies. I'm telling you, you definitely want to make these cookies...then freeze them so you don't eat them all at once!

Here's the recipe:

WHITE CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE COOKIES
adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff
Servings: 24 large cookies or 36 small cookies
Points+: 4 or 6 Pts+ depending on size


4 ounces light cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 Tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 (7 ounce) boxes Jiffy raspberry muffin mix
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, shortening and brown sugar until just combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each. Fold in muffin mix and flour until combined. Stir in white chocolate chips and chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Roll dough into 1" balls (I used a small cookie scoop) and place on baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or just until the edges are golden brown.


I hope you're all having a great week and are sticking to your Weekly Food & Fitness Plans! I'm hoping to have another WIAW post for you tomorrow if I can remember to take pictures of all of my food!

So long for today...
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Monday, September 9, 2013

Weekend Recap

Ah, Monday...we meet again. This past weekend went way too fast. I guess that just means that we had a lot of fun, right?

We went camping at one of the local state parks. We've been there before and really enjoy it, except for the mosquitoes.

Here is a rundown on our weekend.


After work Friday, we threw in the last minutes things in the camper and headed off. Once we got checked in, we made dinner, including TC's favorite: jalapeno poppers.


Saturday, TC's cousin and his wife came and met us so we could float down the Edisto River. We did this last year, too and decided that we might try to make it an annual event. The weather was absolutely perfect! We made it down the river in record time of 2 hours. Usually, it takes about 3.5 or 4 hours, but the water was up pretty high and was flowing fast. I also helped us along a couple of times, too.


After the float, we had a cookout and then just relaxed for the rest of the evening. We even made a fire so that Addison could roast marshmallows. She doesn't eat them after they're toasted, but she loves roasting them on the fire, so TC made the fire for her.


Sunday, we had a lazy morning at the campground before packing up and heading home. Once we got home, we unpacked everything and tried to get everything ready for the week. I also got a 3 mile run in while Camden was napping. We have a couple of things going on next weekend, too. Maybe one weekend we will get to relax :-)



I hope you all have a great week. If you haven't checked out my weekly plan, go take a look here and link up with your plan. It gives you so much more motivation and accountability!

So long for today...
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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Weekly Food & Fitness Plan - Week 2

Southern Living Yankee

Wow! Are we really at the end of another weekend and gearing up for another week? Who can we talk to about having longer weekends? Even just one more day would help so much. Well, since it's Sunday, that means it's time for another Weekly Food & Fitness Plan. We had some people join us last week, which was fantastic! But I know we can do better! Add yours and tell a friend! Let's make this huge.

So I guess I need to re-cap on last week. First of all, I had completely forgotten that we were going camping when I wrote out my plan, so some of my meals had to be changed for the weekend. We also had a monkey wrench thrown into things when Camden ended up with the Croup. Luckily, Addison never had it, because let me tell you. It sucks. It sucks not only for the baby, but also for the parents, because there is very little you can do to help. We lived with the cool mist humidfier in the bedroom for a couple of days, but it can only do so much for him. Poor guy had a horrible cough. Thank goodness he is just about over it now! Well, needless to say, I didn't get all of my workouts in like I had hoped. I'm still trying to get into the work week routine, too. I think I just about have it down, but a couple more weeks and I'm pretty sure that I will DEFINITELY have it down! I did get a few workouts in, but not like I had planned. But that's ok. A little bit of exercise is better than none, right? So let's take a look at what I have planned for this week:

Dinner Plan:
• Sunday - Grilled Turkey Brats w/ homemade fries & veggies
• Monday - Grilled Honey Lime Chicken w/brown rice & broccoli
• Tuesday - Taco Ziti w/ black beans
• Wednesday - Cheese Ravioli w/ sauteed zucchini
• Thursday - Chicken Helper w/ lima beans
• Friday - Steaks & Bakes w/ green beans
• Saturday - Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu w/ couscous & sauteed zucchini


Workout Plan:
• Sunday - 3 mile run
• Monday - Yoga Meltdown - Level 1
• Tuesday - 3 mile walk
• Wednesday - Ripped in 30 - Level 2
• Thursday - Rest
• Friday - 3 mile run
• Saturday - 3 mile run

I'm debating on being a little more realistic and putting another Rest day in there somewhere, but we'll see how this week goes. Fingers crossed that I don't need to.

I hope you all have a great week! Don't forget to linkup with your plan and also give some love to some of the other blogs that have already linked up.







So long for today...
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Friday, September 6, 2013

Pantry Purge

Happy Friday everyone!! We've just about made it to the weekend!!!Anyone have something fun planned for the weekend? I told you the other day that we are going camping this weekend. Hopefully, everyone will stay healthy long enough for us to enjoy the weekend. Fingers crossed for some nice weather! There is always a chance of rain during the Summer in South Carolina, so you can't really can't count too much on the forecast. So we'll just have to wait and see!

I don't know about you, but I love to grocery shop! I know, that may sound weird. I may not enjoy not the difficult part of trying to keep the kids calm while I go through my list and make sure that I've gotten everything on it, but I love browsing through the aisles and looking for new and fun products to try. One of my favorites is different pasta shapes or new varieties of cereals. Seriously, at one point, we had 7 boxes of cereal open. Addison might have a bowl here or there, but other than that, I am the only one that eats cereal in the house.

Well, one of the downfalls of buying the new products to try is that sometimes, they get forgotten about. Well, lately, the sometimes have turned into most of the time and it has led to a pantry that is very un-organized and very cluttered. The same goes for the freezer! We even have a small deep freeze in the garage that is chocked full of food, plus another refrigerator/freezer in the garage. I can't take it anymore. I also hate to throw food away. It not only crosses my mind that there are other people in the world that would kill to have that food, but it's pretty much throwing money in the garbage. I don't know about you, but I'm definitely not a fan of that.

In an effort to clean out the pantry and freezer, I am going to cook our dinners using products that we already have on hand. When we go to the grocery store the next couple of weeks, I will only be buying fresh produce, bread and maybe some lunchmeat if we need it. I'm tired of having avalanches occur regularly when I open the pantry. This will help not only to purge the pantry and fridge, but it will definitely help out on the wallet, too! What a great bonus! I'm looking forward to checking back with you in a couple of weeks to let you know how de-cluttered the pantry and freezer have become. I will try to take some pictures of some of the meals that I make, too. Wish me luck!

So long for today...
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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

WIAW on Maternity Leave

Happy Hump day everyone! Hope the week is going quickly for you. Only a couple more days and we will have made it to another weekend! Hooray for weekends!!



I thought I would do another WIAW post for you and and give you a look at what I typically ate while I was on maternity leave. Some days, I would change things up a bit, but this was a pretty normal day for me:

Breakfast:


2 scrambled eggs (4 pts+) with 2 pieces of Whitewheat toast (3 pts+)and some strawberries (0 pts+)

Lunch:


Chicken Salad wrap (5 pts+) with 15 cracker chips (1 pt+) and some cantaloupe (0 pts+)

Snack: 


Kids Clif bar (3 pts+) and some cherries

Dinner:


Pork Tenderloin (5 pts+) with some whole wheat couscous (4 pts+) and Parmesan Roasted Green Beans (2 pts+)

Dessert: 


Coconut milk ice cream (3 pts+) with homemade caramel sauce (2 pts+)

Snack:


I would also usually have a bowl of cereal and milk (4 pts+) before going to bed.

I am nursing, so I get a boatload of points right now. Not looking forward to when I have to give up some of those points!!

I hope you're all having a great week! Starting to plan what I need to pack for our camping trip this weekend. Fingers crossed for some nice weather!

So long for today!!



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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Grilled Pizza

Was anyone else spoiled by the long weekend? I really didn’t want to come back to work today. My body got pretty used to that 4 day weekend! Anyone else? It definitely helps that this will be another short week since we had Monday off from work. We have another fun weekend coming up…we’re going camping. TC has been camping deprived since I was pregnant and then after having Camden, so he is the most excited about it. I will take lots of pics and let you all know how Camden enjoyed his first camping trip.

Have you ever grilled pizza? Yes, pizza...on the grill. I had grilled many things over the years, but pizza was not one of them.


That was until a friend of mine asked me about it. I had been seeing people talking about it, but never thought that it was something that I really wanted to try. Well, when Tracy asked me about it, I decided that maybe I should look into it a little bit more. After doing a Pinterest search, I decided that I definitely wanted to try it. It took me a few months, but I finally tried it a few weeks ago. It’s such a great idea. It gives the pizza a unique, smoky flavor that you can’t get from the oven. Even though clean-up was a lot easier, I think I will stick with the traditional oven method.


If you’re a huge pizza fan, I highly recommend trying this method though. It might be that little something extra that your pizza has been missing!

To make it, I just mixed up a batch of pizza dough…recipe coming someday soon to the blog. After it was ready, I rolled it out and laid it on a cookie sheet that had been sprayed with cooking spray. I also brushed both sides with olive oil. Then I took it out and transferred it onto my grill that I had preheated to about 400 degrees. I grilled one side for about 4 minutes, then I flipped it over and grilled for another 4 minutes. I then took it off the grill and added my toppings. I put it back on the grill and I baked it until the cheesy was nice and melted. I took it off the grill, let it cool for a couple of minutes and then cut into pieces. Easy as pie…pizza pie that is! Haha!!


I’m curious to know what you all think of this. If you try it, please come back and leave a comment to let me know what you thought!

So long for today…


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Monday, September 2, 2013

Weekend Recap

Hey guys! I hope you all had a great weekend. Our's was so much fun! We stayed with my parents the whole weekend at their house, which is on the lake. My parents have hardly had their boat in the water this year and we wanted to change that. We went up Thursday evening and came back home after dinner Monday. 

My mom and I went shopping on Friday. The Carter's outlet was having a sale and we also hit up a few other stores. I'm very happy about some new heels that I bought. Have you seen the adorable Sperry's that they have out? So cute!


Saturday morning, we went out on the lake and met up with TC's family for a bit before pulling the girls in the tube. That evening, we went down to my sister's house for dinner.


Sunday morning, after being greeted by a gator in the cove - 


we were back out on the lake for some more tubing. This time, it was me and Addison. After running a couple of errands, we went back out on the water and met TC's family again. We decided Camden with us for his first boat ride. He did great, but didn't care for the life jacket too much. But I can't blame him there. We came back in and grilled some burgers for a late dinner.


Monday, after my morning run, my sister and her family came up and we headed back out on the water again.
 

After the girls played on the beach for a bit, we pulled the kids in the tube then I skied for a little while. Followed (very briefly) by my sister. After a little bit of swimming, we came back in so the girls could nap. I stayed with the little ones while everyone else went out on the water.


After we had an early dinner, My sister and her family went home. TC and my dad took the boat out of the water and cleaned it up while I packed everything up, then we headed back home to reset everything for this week. It was such an awesome weekend!

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe weekend and have a great week. Any big plans?

So long for today.
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